Guild Wars 2

after 2k hours since head start I have had one key drop from loot tables. I took it to mean I got that key instead of a precursor. stupid rng.

I have gotten multiple keys from map exploration rewards, however. it does not seem like these meet the same limitation from the personal story rewards.

If they drop even half as often as the chests do, I will be very, very happy.

make sure your ranking has access to the bank storage levels you have created.

sony vegas is a good program, but they call everything else something different from industry norms, just to be different. good keyboard/mouse hot keys that make sense.

avid pinnacle is an easy to use program and has the features you are looking for. export options here are more limited without additional plugins.

adobe premiere of course can do almost anything, but it has a steep learning curve.

avoid anything that claims to be free and easy to use. it wont have half the features you want.

the only time I wish I had a separate key bind set was for the engineer. everyone else is pretty basic when it comes to F skills (save ele, but even then you aren’t hitting those constantly, and they are just attunement swaps.) only on engi do you run the gamut of skill types in your F skills. (GTAoE, Heal, Melee Attacks, Ranged Attacks, etc)

1. Cantha
2. Cantha
3. Cantha.

Charr are awesome, what are you talking about OP.

And the Black Citadel isn’t the death star..

guys.

it’s a giant cat toy. I thought that was obvious from the start. (also the underside reminds me of Cantha and that’s awesome)

there are also golems there which have heavy / medium / and light armor ratings. iirc there are also groups of them for aoe attacks elsewhere.

the only trouble with this is you are in pvp. some skills behave differently, and you are limited in your rune / sigil selection.

for PvE I always test near the 1st fort in Cursed Shore or anywhere in Southsun. There is a good variety of mobs, you are not downscaled at all, and you immediately get a good comparison between builds if you use this place regularly.

if you want to test against more active content, head to the silverwastes.

the gloves might be radiant with that glow, and the jacket covers the bracer section on them.

and of course, wings from the gem store.

yes, a tour guide would be nice. but there are only like, 2 halls. we could just wait for release then watch a youtube of the first guilds to get each hall.

yeah, but more expensive ways…

and no nothing to back that up, it’s just pure speculation.

it would be nice to have some confirmation from a dev on the types of mats we should be stockpiling. if we can purchase them off the trading post this will make the lives of smaller guilds easier, especially if we can plan ahead a bit.

you need 12 for the langmar estate puzzle for one room.
you need at least 6 for the snowden puzzle icicle room.

I don’t think you are required to do missions to unlock content from what I read. it seems like missions will award favor and commendations, but nothing directly related to guild hall materials. most of that comes from your aetherium mine, right?

farming what tho? I wish we had a heads up on what exactly we’re going to be able to use to upgrade and guild craft. I know we can spend our existing influence on daily limits to convert to new currencies, but what about coin? What are these new mats we will need, and what currencies will we need to get them? Our guild has stockpiled donations of gold in preparation for the upcoming guild halls, and if we can’t spend it at all there are going to be some irritated members.

I hope this is as exciting as the Scarlet invasions were.

djsarcher.9263:

This will likely become a higher priority once raids are released, as people might want/need to use different builds for different bosses.

according to what I read, you will likely be in combat for the duration of the raid, making build swapping impossible. they mentioned that weapon swapping can change your role in a raid very easily. I worry that we won’t be able to even swap out utility skills during this challenging content.

Build Templates would be a great thing to implement, but each mode of the game needs to behave differently.
PvE: swap build anytime you are out of combat. (should also apply to raids)
WvW: swap build anytime you are in your home safe area.
PvP: swap build in the lobby only, not during matches (ranked or unranked). Treat hot-join server just like PvE.

This would allow you to change builds when appropriate for the content. We can swap utilities skills fairly easily, so we should have a way to swap out traits just as easily. Certain builds benefit from other armor and weapon stat combos, so this should be a part of it too.

The only drawback I see, in PvE and WvW, is inventory space. For each new build template you have that uses a different set of armor/trinkets, etc you need to carry around the full set with you. Maybe making build templates access the bank would work.

dom.2748:

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

dom.2748:

No thanks, I dont need to be bombarded with guild information every time I log on. If I am interested in the guild information pop open your guild tab.

It’s not like you get bombed.

Regular Guild invitation messages that pops up on the map chat, People calling events, people asking for help and random discussions on the chat is what will bombard your chat.

This message will pop up once everytime when you log in with a character and maby also when the Message of the day is updated. Is that Bombarded?

Yes it is, Every time I switch a character another window to close. Every time I log in another window to close. If you want to see your guilds message of the day press G, it isn’t that hard. I don’t understand how pressing one key to look at MOTD without removing choice of not looking at it 50 times a day from other players is hard.

how about not another window to close. instead the short, twitter sized message of the day appears in your chat log at the top, just as a system message would appear. nothing to close, nothing in the way, and it’s already using an existing interface.

in the original guild wars, it only appeared the first time you logged on from starting the program. if you went to the log in screen to swap toons, you would not see the message again. if you closed the program entirely and then logged on, you would see the message.

it should be different from guild info (teamspeak, server info, weekly/daily events on a schedule) it should be, literally, a message of the day. “Join us in Caledon Forest for a JP Race at reset!” Something like that, would make guild management so easy.

I’m not sure if this is just me, but I have noticed the price is lower on the slower days of the week. Tuesday morning compared to Friday night, for example.

If you can get the trilogy.

getting nightfall is a must because you will get heroes, which you can outfit with armor and skills just like your toon, and this makes content 100 times easier than with the staple henchies the game provides.

also: cantha is beautiful and you should experience it.

If you aren’t a fan of how the starter zones work, you will be disappointed in the rest of the maps until you get to level 70-80 zones. All of them work with the same mechanics: renown hearts, exploration, and material gathering. In the higher level zones the dynamic events are larger and chain together in map-wide events. These zones don’t even have the renown hearts, so they feel much more like a battlefield and less like a farmer’s market.

It sounds like you would find WvW more engaging, and perhaps dungeons as well. Dungeons start to unlock at level 30 and every 10 levels or so after that. (explorable/repeatable) versions of each dungeon 5 levels after, 10 levels apart as well.

In WvW you will have a large map feel without any little quests, and it is a good place to get into some exciting combat. Pay attention to map chat to find the action, or it can be a very boring place.

If PvP is your thing, just jump right into it. There is no reason to waste time exploring boring zones. You start off max level with nearly everything unlocked, and the rewards there are excellent.

For me the game doesn’t really start to open up until you hit the 50s or so, and once you are 80 you can do anything anywhere in PvE. When you get bored with the tougher content, start doing Fractals and challenging yourself with higher and higher difficulties.

The way this game works, the popular phrase is “end game starts after the tutorial” and most of the PvE experience will feel this way. The real end game content so far, is playing dress up and getting elusive or hard to get skins for armor and weapons. Raids are coming soon, along with Masteries, but unless you are level 80 and have some experience in the existing harder content you will be lost.

I played exclusively with a controller for the first 2 months after release. I used an Xbox 360 controller and Xpadder for mapping.

Overall it’s pretty easy. This game is almost simple enough in combat to use a controller. Movement was fluid, combat was easy, and depending on your skills you could have a very good experience roaming maps and exploring.

Some points of trouble that caused me to stop doing this:

Ground targeted skills are problematic at best.
Using menus and dialogue interfaces took a lot of extra time.
Finding somewhere to assign the “swim down” button was convoluted.
It was impossible to use chat.
Swapping utilities took extra time.
Jumping Puzzles and other content requiring precision movement were a challenge.

Using a controller you really need like, 3 controllers in one (which you can do using Xpadder) by making the left and right trigger buttons, when held, change the functions of all the other buttons, since you have to cover 10 skill slots, 5 directions of movement, jumping, dodging, and looting. You also need a mode to open menus (same mode that changes camera control to mouse cursor control.)

It’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth. If you just want to farm events in silverwastes or orr and not worry about moving your camera around too much, a controller will work. For anything where you need to react to changes quickly, it will only be a burden.

You likely have to pick your armor stats because you had magic find involved. This stat was removed from armor.

Spend your Hero Points to re-unlock your skills and traits. You can have 3 traitlines active at a time, all the way to grandmaster level. Since you are level 80 you should have enough points to do this, no problem, especially if you were anywhere close to map completion.

Your two crafting disciplines can go up to 500 now with the ascended tier of mats. Doing content in game will give you different mats (bloodstone, empyrials, dragonite) For now all you can craft is ascended weapons and armor. Make sure you have plenty of Obsidian Shards.

I hope you already had your precursor for The Dreamer, as the price has jumped considerably since you last played.

If you don’t have map completion, you no longer need to bother with exploring the WvW maps for this.

Server transfers are no longer free, and guesting is no longer a thing. You only really need these for WvW content, as the rest of the PvE game is on the megaserver system. Transfers are available from the character select screen, and cost a boatload of gems last I checked (2k?)

A couple of other points:
check your “wallet” (icon in the lower left of your inventory.) Many drops and currencies have been consolidated here. If you are missing stacks of things you used to have, check here first.
Condition damage has been changed as well, as you no longer have to compete with others for stacks. All of your damage will now be applied.
There are new fractals and several new maps for you to explore (dry top, silverwastes, etc) These are great places to farm for gold / mats to help you on your legendary quest.
There are tons of new achievements, check them out.

because you cant use a hammer to draw out cloth, but you can with metal.

therefore, you need less metal to make armor.

#blacksmithfacts

the tough thing about LoW is you need to trait correctly to make it better. shelter is good on its own. it really depends on where you are, too.

pvp = shelter
wvw = shelter
pve, dungeons = LoW
pve, roaming = shelter
pve, events (lots of mobs) = LoW

I really like this idea for spirit weapons. They behave like pets when active and signets when stowed, and the balance for keeping them going or recharging them faster is nice with the virtues.

How about activation time? Would they work like meditations and be usable during / between other skills? Could you activate and sheathe all 3 at once if you had a full load out? I could see some situations where having them stowed would be more beneficial, especially traited with virtues and renewed focus.

confirmed by colin: dungeons will be introduced in fractals and raids.

fixed that for you.

so we likely won’t get a new dungeon icon on the world map somewhere. so what?

there are two schools of thought for high end necromancy in PvE:

Condition Damage and Life Stealing.

You can combine them for a more balanced build, but focusing on one or the other will show their individual strengths. Keep your power and prec high in either case.

stats to avoid:
Vitality (necromancers have a ton of health, and a second health bar)
Toughness (see: vitality)(also: minions mitigate this a lot)
Boon Duration (you don’t have enough of these to benefit from this)

stats to boost:
Condition Damage (make use of staff and scepter)
Power / Prec (trait into life stealing)
Ferocity (useful in life stealing burst builds if you have high prec)

In short, necromancers are excellent for glass cannon stats due to their huge health pools and built-in control and damage mitigation. go with Sinisters, Berzerkers, or Assassins, or Rampagers stats.

Rangers are amazing. Most of the forum discussion revolves around meta zerk hype and nearly unattainable optimal scenarios. 3 of the top 5 players I know main a ranger, and are often the last ones standing. Seriously, they can do anything.

Pistol thieves are so broken. It will be fun to level with one until the first time you fight more than one mob at once.

Engineer will have you juggling your keyboard, but it is very worth it.

just bring two of everything =P

The way around all of this is to offer anything for free. Rely on the good graces of people to be charitable and thankful by giving you a tip afterwards, of whatever they feel is appropriate. Don’t beg for money.

Yeah it’s fine to ask for a fee for an accomplishment (if you are good at something never do it for free), but it creates such a grey area in the rules it leads to problems like this.

If you don’t set a price and just ask for tips people will surprise you. someone may give you nothing (your good deed for the day) and someone may dump 50g on you (their good deed). No one can complain if everyone is responsible for their own actions.

so the evil centaur you have been trying to track down that has kidnapped the queen, messed up the manor and enslaved or killed all the staff deserves a “fair and honorable fight with arbitrary rules” when you finally track him down to deliver justice?

…please. gang up on him, kick him in the shins (all four) and lay the beatdown. NPC enemy brutality is ok (stacking). this is a FANTASY VIDEO GAME.

If you are really that sick of stacking, go join your local bushido.

I’m almost at 12.5 achievements so the next chest to give gems is a ways off.

it looks like the best way is to save up gold and convert for something cheap, like a black lion key.

thanks for the suggestions everyone.

so, yeah, this didn’t work.

1 gem isn’t enough to get the minimum amount of gold (something like 9 gems). the custom trade option wont give me the few silver that this gem is worth.

dual pistols are great for taking out single targets now. early in the game P/P will shine while roaming in the open world.

the higher level you reach, and the more enemies you face, the less effective P/P will become. Sword / Pistol has a great cleave effect, good blind, and great evade built in to the skills. this will become much more useful as you level.

New to the game?
Returning for Heart of Thorns and found an empty roster?

The Gothic Embrace is seeking new players and vets alike. We are a social guild that takes part in PvE / Dungeon clears, PvP, and WvW. Weekly guild missions and alliance activities, and all the upgrades.

If you are looking for a dark, quiet corner full of geeks and goths, look no further. We offer training and assistance from learning the game to top level fractals and speed clears.

10 year history since GW1 with a small to mid sized roster. We are not rep required.

If you are interested please look up Mortis Zu Heltzer in game.

See you in Tyria.

I like free things!

checks outfit preview on charrdian

O_o why do I look like a go-bot?

there is chat in pvp? I had no idea. I always have a tab up that shows only my incoming and outgoing damage numbers.

huh.

it would be nice if a border appeared when you hovered over the heart in question.

some hearts are very misleading in their zone area, and some feature enemies you can kill that exist outside of their zone. these aren’t exactly common, but it would certainly be a good QoL improvement.

it’s difficult to make a comparison on if your experience will improve without something to compare it to. is what you listed what you purchased or your current rig?

either way, if you are getting faster, better components your experience will likely improve. just kind of how it works, generally.

only LA has been revamped. that wiki page has a lot of information, 98% of it is accurate.

it’s kind of silly to discredit all the useful information because you found one thing wrong with it. you asked what karma can be used for, and there’s a comprehensive list.

basically any heart vendor, any purple icon over a merchant, or any temple will take your karma. try looking around in game, I’m sure you can find them.

Charred. Very realistic and goes well with a bunch of the cheaper options. The only expensive dye that is really worth it.

here is a long list of everything you can purchase in the game using Karma.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_karma_merchant_items

enjoy!

it’s mostly for bragging rights, and the potential to sell the path to others. it is just a personal challenge.

nothing. it is just that rare. it looks like, stuff that will make me say kittens.

I chose blacklight for my nightmare court styled Mesmer. I’m happy with this choice.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Yah. Been there since launch and in Guild Wars 1 also.

Wizard’s Tower in Guild Wars 1

wow, your health and energy bars were huge!

it depends on the traits / builds that are with you, but in short:

thief/necro/ele with damage boosts under % enemy health.
anyone using engineer runes (bundle boost damage)
anyone with higher damage stats (zerk, assasins, etc)

necro edges out a bit due to life stealing. there is a little more damage always with this active.

thief edges out in the crowd more due to revealed buff and if they are flanking when using it. also, this is the only (current) class that will directly benefit from using another weapon (their initiative will recharge while using ice bow) (this will also be true for revenant)

mesmers should probably avoid it (no clones, hampers main class mechanic)
warriors are good for using skill 4 only, then going back to their main weapons. (they will do more damage)
guardians should avoid it (main weapons better suited for group support, someone else should do main burst damage)

skill rotation in organized groups:
-use skill 5 first to freeze a target clear of defiant stacks
-use skill 4 second to pile on damage
-use skill 3 up close to trigger multiple hits. very good at clearing trash mobs.
-use skill 2 to wait for skill 4 to recharge.
-use utility skills to fill any gaps. if you use skill 1 more than a few times you are losing dps and wasting charges.

from the wiki:

Mai Trin herself uses several attacks, including a shadow step towards the player who is farthest away from her.

and

Mai Trin will be more likely to target players that are not moving, the players farthest from her, and specially those reviving other players.

it has nothing to do with toughness in any way. the fight is all about positioning.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Captain_Mai_Trin_Boss_Fractal

I’m guessing an F3 defensive stance that gives retaliation, a block, and a counter attack with initiative recharge. maybe stability with a longer cooldown. stance makes all initiative skill costs reduced for a limited time.

new skill type: stances like warriors. healing stance that gives heals triggered on number of attackers, or more healing the longer you are not hit. stance that grants stability, stance that grants quickness and adds vuln and slow to your attacks with an additional initiative cost to them. elite pbaoe knockdown stance that grants stability and torment.

stuff like that would be fitting of a melee staff weapon on thief.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

They’re not going to give people Initiative-spammable knocks on staff.

how would that be any different than the spammable block on spear that thieves already have?

kind of upset I dumped 70g on Charred dye when I did. kind of glad I spend 70g on it while it was cheap. really glad I get to pick another one.

really happy about the level 30 scroll. 2 black lion keys in this farm instead of one.

thank you for the b-day gifts, anet.

p.s., this is kind of how rewards in the game in general should feel like. looking forward to more token systems.

I have never found that Mai Trin and her cannon happy friend target the one with the most toughness….

whenever I find myself against them in a 40 frac in my usual team, everyone is wearing full zerk or assassins and I’m on my guardian, using zealots / clerics. I have a lot of toughness.

Mai Trin teleports to whoever is the furthest away from her, not who has the most toughness. I have no idea how the cannon guy targets..