Guild Wars 2

Softspoken.2410:

shadow.6174:

Ok, even though this thread is kind of dead I wanted to bring it back as I still use this build. I’m not so into experimenting with builds so I wanted some help on this. By chance have anyone already tried to update this build to the new system (core specializations and stuff)? Or does anyone have some suggestion about how to make it with the new system?

I’ve been trying to figure out if a good Boon Storm build still exists. Or at least, a build that can spray out a pile of boons to all nearby allies. I’m not sure if it’s actually good, but it does feel pretty rad so far. I’m considering making a thread for it, but until then, here’s my current traits. Bolded are the ones that are core to the idea of the build.

Specializations
Chaos – Master of Manipulation, Chaotic Dampening, Bountiful Disillusionment
Inspiration – Medic’s Feedback, Restorative Illusions, Illusionary Inspiration

Illusions – Persistence of Memory, Shattered Strength, Malicious Sorcery / Master of Fragmentation
or Domination – Rending Shatter, Blurred Inscriptions, Mental Anguish

Utilities
Signet of Illusions, Signet of Inspiration, Mimic / Blink (Mimic if you want extra, Blink if you want safety)

Right now I’m using staff / scepter. The major rule is that you have to hold your phantasms in reserve to control when Illusionary Inspiration goes off the first time you boonstorm. After that, burn all your shatters (Lead with Distortion), Signet of Illusions, at least Mind Wrack + Cry of Frustration (Diversion and Distortion can be important to save), then summon a phantasm (slightly more regen) and use Signet of Inspiration.

I’m not sure yet if Mimic is better used on Signet of Inspiration or on Signet of Illusions. Mostly I think it depends on if allies are giving you valuable boons as well.

It ends up spreading a lot of fury, vigor, regen, and something like 15 stacks of might with over 15s of duration. There’s a lot of room for improvement, but it’s where I’m starting.

I see. Thanks for sharing it, it’s already something to start. I’ll play with it a bit and see how it goes.

I’m not much into PvP or WvW but I gotta say I loved a thing for PvE. Finally my slow mesmer can have some more reliable swiftness xD Signet of… (crap I forget the name) + Temporal Curtain, gotta love that swiftness. :P

Ok, even though this thread is kind of dead I wanted to bring it back as I still use this build. I’m not so into experimenting with builds so I wanted some help on this. By chance have anyone already tried to update this build to the new system (core specializations and stuff)? Or does anyone have some suggestion about how to make it with the new system?

Old and very known issue :S

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Inventory-Window-changing-size-alone/

BobbyStein.2315:

Shun.4678:

Is there anything wrong with the personal story?
i just got the game yesterday and just started playing earlier with a human engineer but after finishing “Defending Shaemoor” theres no more quest for me.

From what I can see in your screenshot, it looks like you need to hit level 10 before you can access the next story “block.”

From the wiki:

“Each character’s personal story is divided into eight chapters, with each chapter unlocking every 10 levels.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personal_story

Yay, “user friendly” NPE strikes again :P
But that’s another subject. Glad to see Personal Story restored. Now I can finally take my main to face that dragon :P

Scorpius.4532:

I can’t see how the fix is such an amazing undertaking to be delayed this long. They aren’t giving us any other way of getting our skins/titles unlocked.

Maybe we should flood the system with tickets /shrug

As already mentioned in other threads and maybe here, the fix was already done. The issue which caused the mess was already fixed. However, HoM is still disabled because they are working on a way to clean the mess by taking any undeserved points from those who got them due the issue. This is what’s taking long because, as a dev stated once, they are working on a tool to help doing that, they hadn’t such tool yet.

Sandbenders.5027:

So, it seems to be fixed, for me at least, for now. Thanks to whoever fixed it. Been 3 days without having to adjust.

That may not mean it was fixed. This issue has been intermittent, for a few it can go days without any issue and then it suddenly comes back. But let’s hope it was fixed somehow (although I believe it wasn’t).

MiniEquine.6014:

shadow.6174:

ok wait…

For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2® game prior to January 23, 2015 and who upgrade their account by prepurchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account.

So those who would wait to buy it after the launch won’t get a character slot??

This is more than reasonable now though. Essentially, you get the expansion for $40 now, because you also get a character slot. Consider this a bonus to pre-purchasing. It also says “before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns’ launch”, meaning right up until the day before it launches, when we know all the information about the expansion, if you pre-purchase it, you get the extra slot.

Ah yes. In fact, I see a character slot as an incentive to pre-purchase it and it would make all sense if it’s only valid for pre-purchase. At least it’s better now and this is how it should have been before all. Before, veteran players intending to buy the basic version had kind of none incentive to pre-purchase, but 1 character slot is already something to get people interested.

However, for me I still would need to wait it to go on sale or something. Exchange rates at my place sux at the moment and I would pay way higher than what I paid for the core game, but this issue is nothing they could do anyway.

Anyhow, yes now it’s a more reasonable offer and could get me more interested into thinking about purchasing it or not. And $50 still feels high but gotta way and see if the content will really worth it.

Tachenon.5270:

Verily, it is written, none but the most faithful may enter the Kingdom of HoT with a free character slot.

Hehe :P

ok wait…

For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2® game prior to January 23, 2015 and who upgrade their account by prepurchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account.

So those who would wait to buy it after the launch won’t get a character slot??

I know some ppl don’t like this but just to chill off a bit, what about a poll? :P

http://strawpoll.me/4710074

(yeah it was made before the recent news)
Edit: to anyone seeing this, that poll was intended to get your opinion in case nothing would be changed. Please don’t vote based on how the latest news feel on you but how you felt before.

Yay, they are listening guys! :P

Photonman.6241:

How about some vanity item or a title or something. Really, just giving us nothing is a slap in the face.

Anyone buying it will get a title at least, either newcomers or not. It can bee seen in a yellow area below that slide in the in-game purchase window. But the question would be: does it worth? Who knows…

matrix seishin.5312:

Flatley.1620:

I’m still of the mind that there should be an expac only option.

There is. If you have the game you get expac only. That’s the option.

Not actually. If comparing the deal for both newcomers or not, it’s like you are buying core game + plus expansion, but if you already owns it it’s like if the core game is “trashed out” for you.

matrix seishin.5312:

I can’t get distracted with new patch content if I don’t play. And I urge everyone to stop playing. Just to see what happens.

Maybe it’s just bad timing, but I have already seen a few well frequented areas less populated on past days.

Gotta love when mods merge threads and the discussion gets confused and how it grows exponentially :P

I have a friend I have been trying to drag to GW2 for a while and I had mentioned to them about a expansion coming when it was first announced. Recently I went to tell them that a pre-purchase was announced. When I simply mentioned that core game was costing around $40 weeks ago and expansion is going to cost $50, and that new players are going to get the core game for free plus the expansion, while current players are going to get only the expansion for that price, their immediate reaction was like “Wth? That sux for vets”. And I even hadn’t gone into details yet like no character slot included for that price and that not much had been revealed about it so far.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I can understand that some players are big fans of the game, and have full confidence in Anet as a company. What I do not get, is that some players proudly announce how they’ve forked over $50 or more for a product that isn’t finished, has an unknown release date, and unknown contents (although what we know of the contents does not justify its price tag).

What you are basically saying is “Money has very little value to me”. And while I understand that some players know they will get the expansion eventually anyway, I don’t think that supporting this business practice is a good thing. You are basically part of the problem by supporting this pre-purchase nonsense, which is bad for us as consumers.

Agreed.

Jinath.1298:

Please get this resolved now. It’s been months.
It absolutely does not help Anet to promote a game expansion if they won’t even solve the Hall of Monuments issues. Plus, I am much less likely to even buy the expansion if the HOM problem is simply swept under the rug and forgotten.
Just saying.

Yup as said on post above. Also, check https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Instant-God-Walking-Amongst-Mere-Mortals/ for a better follow up on this issue as well other links posted in this thread.

Oh guys, since it was brought up in this thread a while back that some third party “stores” are selling it too I wanted to bring this to attention in case anyone hasn’t seen this yet:

Chris Cleary.8017:

Hey all,

Heart of Thorns is currently only available offically to purchase through our purchase site and in-game through the gem store. There have been a number of 3rd Party websites/services offereing Heart of Thorns for sale, and many of them are currently not officially authorized to do so.

These sites are most likely getting their keys through fraudulent practices, which means there is a VERY high chance that if you purchase from these websites that the key will be disabled shortly after. This will result in your account being closed for fraud, and Customer Service will require that you purchase HoT though legitimate means before you can access your account again.

For your account’s sake, please be careful when purchasing your HoT key through a non officially authorized 3rd party.

To clarify:
The only way to officially Pre-Purchase right now is through the official GW2 website, or in-game. This does not cover Pre-Ordering, which may exist on a number of reputable resellers. Pre-Purchase and Pre-Order are different.

https://www.guildwars2.com/retailers/
Here you can find a list of authorized retailers

(Btw, just re-passing the message, not going to buy it any time soon :P)

Kuulpb.5412:

Yes, It should be Rege-narration, so he describes everything you do in morgan freeman’s voice. :P
or Possibly even Reggae-narration, and it’s Snoop Dogg/Snoop Lion narrating it xD

ROFL

What happens is the filter “ignores” white spaces between words as they can be used as workaround to bypass the filter, it also happens with some punctuation. If you take off the white space and replace 3rd character for one with similar sound, you will clear see why the filter masked it. :P

Smallclaw.1650:

You aren’t paying more because the prepurchase tiers include the core game. The core game is included as a Free Bonus. I repeat: FREE BONUS. As was officially stated above, since many of you either failed to read it or failed to comprehend it.

Whether the tiers include the base game or not will not alter the prices.

That’s the thing. New players are going to get expansion for $50 and the core game “for free”. Veteran players had to pay for the core game and are going to pay the exact same value for the expansion. New players are getting core game as bonus, veterans aren’t getting any bonus if getting the basic version.

Quiznos.4296:

Forum ate my percent signs….

Percent signs are used as special code I believe. Try to turn off textile or check help to see how to use that sign.

mrstealth.6701:

shadow.6174:

ReiCH.6273:

Ooh, Colin commented on another thread a few minutes ago, so here’s to hoping he’ll drop over here and make an official statement on things…

fingers crossed

says in Skritt voice: “Where? Where? Wheeere?”

lol ok right. Could you post a link or something to that comment? I got curious here.

Here

It’s also one of the most recent posts in the Dev Tracker on the main forum page

Huh, I checked the Dev Tracker so soon I saw that post, I must have missed the name then. Thanks for the link.

ReiCH.6273:

Ooh, Colin commented on another thread a few minutes ago, so here’s to hoping he’ll drop over here and make an official statement on things...

*fingers crossed*

*says in Skritt voice*: "Where? Where? Wheeere?"

lol ok right. Could you post a link or something to that comment? I got curious here.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

That’s like selling a new roof for a car, for the price of a new car, but with a free car included (unless you already have a car, but its still the same price), and you don’t get the wheels. See how this comes across Anet?

Loved the comparison! <3
+10 to it xD

KPOBb.8476:

Rococo.8347:

2.The Ultimate package is NOT an upgrade which leads me to believe that Vet’s will lose the link to their active account they have spent years building up, yet this is the package with the most perceived value for money for Vet’s.

Fortunately this is incorrect. One will not be able to upgrade to the Ultimate package from a Standard or Deluxe Package of HoT. It’s like currently being able to ug-pgrade (Gemstore) from the Core Standard to the Digital Deluxe add-on items. The Ultimate edition is a HoT bundle that is added only to existing GW2 Core Accounts without HoT attached.

Any source on this? From what I read on the official email it leads me to understand that Ultimate comes as a full package. If it’s going to be “added only to existing GW2 Core Accounts without HoT attached” so why it would include the core game? It doesn’t make sense.

And if you note what http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_US/html/pbPage.heartofthorns says, Ultimate includes what Standard version has and Standard version shows as including the core game.

KPOBb.8476:

shadow.6174:

Oh hey, I apologize if it was already brought up but since this thread became huge… I have just noticed a thing and I wanted to bring it to attention to anyone pondering about the Ultimate version. This appeared in their official email about the pre-purchase:

The Ultimate edition of the game includes all of the above in addition to 4,000 gems. The Ultimate edition will not be available as an upgrade and must be purchased as a full game package.

(highlight is mine) In other words, purchasing the Ultimate you are going to get a brand new account with the core game plus expansion and its shinnies.

This is incorrect. Lets look at GW2 Core. You are able to upgrade from the standard to the Digital Deluxe (they have that currently in the Gemstore). This is what that means. One will not be able to upgrade from a Standard or Digital Deluxe to an Ultimate Edition. The Ultimate Deluxe edition will be added as an HoT expansion to existing accounts separately on its own.

Huh, I may have misread but it’s how I read it… “must be purchased as a full game package”

Yup, there have been several threads on the subject, but I believe that one is the most active one and got a few official responses.

Oh hey, I apologize if it was already brought up but since this thread became huge… I have just noticed a thing and I wanted to bring it to attention to anyone pondering about the Ultimate version. This appeared in their official email about the pre-purchase:

The Ultimate edition of the game includes all of the above in addition to 4,000 gems. The Ultimate edition will not be available as an upgrade and must be purchased as a full game package.

(highlight is mine) In other words, purchasing the Ultimate you are going to get a brand new account with the core game plus expansion and its shinnies.

Dead.5829:

If you want a better deal, buy the Ultimate edition for 50$ more that comes with some free stuff, a character slot, and… 50$ worth of gems.

Just wanted to point out a thing: if you have to pay more just to have some more “free” stuff, then they aren’t really “free” as you are paying an additional in order to have them. Does it make sense? Unless the “additional” is for something else, like gems, but even so… :P

Niyati.4215:

shadow.6174:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

REALLY? So it means the expansion is even more expensive than what the core game was? WTH? I paid $40 for the core game around 1 and half year ago… No way to get a pre-purchase from me… gotta wait until it’s released and on some sale (if any) oh well… How nice Anet… >.>

What you got is called a sale price. It was $59.99 when it launched.

Yes, I got it on a sale (30%off I think) because it’s only what my currency conversion allows me. Btw, due my currency conversion nowdays what I would pay for this “expansion” is more than 3x more what I paid for the core game 2 years ago… >.<

Just to add. Yes I see it’s a good price for new players and sounds fair in that case. But for us, veteran players, it sounds very disappointing and looks like what we paid for the core game was just trashed. Really VERY VERY VERY disappointed. -_-

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

REALLY? So it means the expansion is even more expensive than what the core game was? WTH? I paid $40 for the core game around 1 and half year ago… No way to get a pre-purchase from me… gotta wait until it’s released and on some sale (if any) oh well… How nice Anet… >.>

More in this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Instant-God-Walking-Amongst-Mere-Mortals

And here is some update about that poll I put out months ago.

(Note: before anyone says, it cannot be said to be biased because links to it has been in my signature since the time I made them and they have appeared even in non-related threads around here)

Locking out features based on player level:
Of 162 total votes…

• 126 (78%) thinks it’s terrible.
• 18 (11%) thinks it’s poor or bad.
• 12 (7%) is indifferent.
• 5 (3%) thinks it’s excellent.
• 1 (1%) thinks it’s good.

Changes to Personal Story: (luckily being fixed but even so…)
Of 161 total votes…

• 102 (63%) thinks it’s terrible.
• 32 (20%) thinks it’s poor or bad.
• 12 (7%) thinks it’s good.
• 11 (7%) is indifferent.
• 4 (2%) thinks it’s excellent.

And at least some good news, Content Guide has been well received. Votes were reasonable and both extremes got few votes.

New Content Direction system (Objective Compass):
Of 128 total votes…

• 47 (37%) thinks it’s good.
• 29 (23%) is indifferent.
• 24 (19%) thinks it’s poor or bad.
• 21 (16%) thinks it’s terrible.
• 7 (5%) thinks it’s excellent.

Found it. It was the last dev response to this thread:

Lauren Kamieniecki.6245:

I bring this bug specifically up with our producer for gameplay programming every month or so when this topic heats up again, and it’s been explained as a rather large rewrite that’s needed to fix it. They want to fix it too (and they find it just as annoying), but it unfortunately is the kind of fix has to be scheduled out and planned for. Think of this as similar to the fix we have coming for personal story. It’s a lot of work, and they want it done right.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Stratos.9375:

Just a reminer that this haven’t been fixed. Annoying just closing inventory and opening it again to see it smaller in size, I don’t know what is causing it but it’s clearly a bug, and it’s not even being looked into.

I’m not sure why you think they aren’t looking into it. It’s difficult to nail down because it can’t be replicated on demand, which is one of the things they need to do to validate any potential fix.

I remember seeing a dev response (maybe even in this thread) where they said they have tried to repro it but without success. They have been looking into it indeed but none seems to know for sure what’s really causing this.

Geekfox.4267:

The auto-focus with mouse hover in BLTC should’ve NEVER been implemented in the first place. The way it behaves now is very obnoxious. I want it disabled.

Completely agreed, unneeded “feature”. Not to mention that it accepts inputs lower than the allowed value (like 0), it’s annoying when you just want to set it to the lowest possible value, originally this new TP wouldn’t allow you to put a value lower than the minimum. But that’s another subject though.

Dante.1763:

shadow.6174:

There is another skin that would be nice to be put back as some reward. I recently sw one that it’s currently unobtainable and I was wanting to get it. I can’t recall its name now but I believe it’s something tribal-like. I’ll update this with its name if I find it.

Edit: ah yeah, here we go: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tribal_armor

That would be formerly PVP exclusive armor and as such we will probably see it introduced in a PVP track or something. They have also said it will be back sometime, when who knows. I want that armor as well, but it is not related to the PS

Makes sense, but if it comes back anyway…

aspirine.6852:

but the icon on the top that displays if there are any online shows nothing?

What icon? If you mean the icon on the top bar it doesn’t show anything to indicate there is anyone online. For all the time I have been playing that icon never indicated anything like that.

Yay you found an easter egg! :P Kidding, but yes the panel is still there but now only accessible through key shortcuts (and the /help command but not sure about this one).

I wish they would bring that panel back.. it was way more useful than the crap NPE >.>

Have you tried to accept the command even so? I mean even leaving it as “ém” and see what happens? Maybe it’s just a visual bug and the functionality remains. I remember seeing a similar bug with that circle that separates each someone’s ability on their nameplate, it would replace the circle for “È” when using Big fonts.

There is another skin that would be nice to be put back as some reward. I recently sw one that it’s currently unobtainable and I was wanting to get it. I can’t recall its name now but I believe it’s something tribal-like. I’ll update this with its name if I find it.

Edit: ah yeah, here we go: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tribal_armor

David Saunders.3258:

Hi folks, here’s some info on the issue.

[sip]

Hopefully this info is interesting to people

Sorry for the inconvenience!

-Dave

Really thanks for the technical explanation. It’s rare to see these things here and some of us can understand that well, even though it can look mysterious and weird talk for others hehe.

I know you meant memory fragmentation but it reminded about a suggestion for those not using SSD drives: disk fragmentation. I have noticed that loading times get somewhat improved after I defragment my files, mainly the big GW2.dat. Usually OS native defragmenter tool won’t defrag that file because it’s huge but in this case there are options and softwares out there which does it and I would recommend people to give it a try, mainly after each big patch.

For those wondering about ping and stuff, I don’t think ping is directly related to long loading times as it’s more directly related to loading info from your system (textures, map info and such). However I believe it can affect it somehow too because it needs to know how many characters it must load too and that info is given by the server, but I believe it would be a minor thing regarding load times issue (I’m used to run it with -maploadinfo param :P).

Celtic Lady.3729:

They could streamline the NPE to be more like the way it was before. There’s just no reason to stretch everything out so long. No new player is so unintelligent that they need to be given skills and such so slowly that it interferes with optimal play.

That, just… that.

HandOfKane.5409:

Vayne.8563:

Nope, cause it’s not a mess. There’s no intention to change the actual NPE itself.

Actually they haven’t said anything either way. The last thing that was said was the very first post of this thread… and then a half-hearted “Hey, we haven’t forgotten about you! Honest! We’ll get to it…. sometime.”

And do we really need to go over the difference between facts and opinions again?

I was just teasing to grab some attention to this. And yeah, please let’s not start all that thing over again. And if no intentions to make any change, why so asking for feedback? Feedback is meant to evaluate if things got the expected results and stuff. If things are set on rock then feedbacks are useless.

Thing is the last staff response on this thread was on page 19, 5 months ago.. so yeah.. I wonder if they are still following this..

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that caused an increase in map load times for some players.

So, Personal Story is going to be restored… Traits and stuff are being reworked… Is this mess of NPE going to be rethought too? :P One can hope…

And to summarize according with what HandOfKane has said: yeah, not complaining due not having info doesn’t mean things are great. People won’t complain that it is bad because they may not know how good it was before, and this doesn’t make anything look better.

Iason Evan.3806:

What happened to options?

Options? That has been denied along with logic long time ago :P Jk

And yeah, DiogoSilva explained it well, same as I also thought of it.

MiniEquine.6014:

They also said in the blog post that you can exchange skill scrolls in for Tomes, so if you have a mountain of these things you can theoretically cash in and rush to 80.

Not actually. Blog states:

• Writs of experience can only be used if you’re under level 80, and they can be traded in to Miyani for a tome of knowledge at a rate of 20 writs per tome.
• Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.

Thing is: what will be used to convert to Tomes are Writs, Scrolls will be converted to Spirit Shards.

Iason Evan.3806:

the main draw for me with this game was having multiple ways to do things. [..] Taking away the ability to play the game how I want is really limiting.

Have you even heard about the NPE? :P jk

Maybe you better posting about it on this sticky thread too: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Stuck-in-the-map-or-seeing-map-art-issues That one is specific about issues like that and I recall seeing some geometry issues around that area btw.