Guild Wars 2

I levelled a guardian the weekend just past. I started the character on Friday night and it was level 80 on Sunday morning. I did it by getting two crafts up to level 80 (artificer and chef) to get 20 levels. Id highly recommend artificer as one of your crafts as its extremely cheap, it cost me less than 80 silver although I had a lot of the materials it seems to be the cheapest. The other 60 I got by equipping a sceptre and going into crown pavilion and spamming skill 1 with a zerg farming mobs. Use the food from your chef, use any boosters you have, get the NPC buffs and look out for any guild/xp banners. At present I believe farming mobs in crown pavilion is probably the fastest way to do it. I guess you could just get level 400 on all crafts, which would be quicker but also more expensive than just crown pav farming.

Just a suggestion. Rather than searching for a new server, search for a guild. I left a while back as someone who mostly ran solo on my thief or followed a zerg with other classes. Then I ended up joining Nocturnal guild on BG. It was the best move I’ve made. There is nothing better than running with a guild of 25-30 players who are decent people. So many things, like the ones you mentioned, bothered me about WvW. Now it doesn’t. Zerging and skill lag happen on every server. Even the bottom tier, I know from experience. This full map 80 man BL and 120man EB zerging is a mockery of a good game in a 30 man guild. Try it for yourself. Join an organized guild and if they are decent I would bet you won’t regret it.

Yes.

As someone with 9 level 80s, yes I want account bound. But Anet doesn’t want this. They use time sinks to compensate for their lack of development.

I imagine a lot of SEA guilds would leave. As an Oceanic I’d be tempted to join, but the language barrier would be an issue. I’ve always disliked “nightcapping” to a moderate degree. But I understand why SEA and Oceanics play NA because we generally get a better connection to NA than EU. What I have never liked is how large EU guilds move to NA so they can PvDoor. They have access to their own servers. That said, it’s pretty obvious why they do it. Most of the large active EU guilds I’ve played against that are on NA servers are pretty terrible at the game and it seems as though they moved across to NA to PvDoor and barely win fights against significantly smaller numbers or run away to either find an undefended door or bring more numbers and come back.

Vash.9183:

sostronk.8167:

scootshoot.6583:

For those that have played T1 matchups for greater > 1 month are are partaking in the SEA coverage discussions, just answer these simple questions…

Has SOR SEA ever ticked 350 – 400 ppt for hours on end? Nope

Has JQ SEA ever ticked 350 – 400 ppt for hours on end? Yep

Has BG SEA ever ticked 350-400 ppt for hours on end? Yep

Thus ends all future discussions of SEA coverage…carry on

The answer is yes on all 3 counts. My main playtime is oceanic which overlaps with sea, but I regularly play through sea timezone. As someone who has played for all 3 servers, Ive seen all 3 tick for over 400ppt for hours on end (the whole timezone). The full week I played for SOR we were ticking high 400s. But there is one major difference I have found with SOR’s sea coverage from that of JQ’s and BG’s and that is that the SOR population on this timezone is fickle. The big difference is essentially that JQ has WAHA and FOO and BG has MERC which does a lot of overtime and number of ~25-30 SEA guilds. Essentially I would argue that SOR has more players during this timezone but less organization, structure and consistency.

25-30 SEA guilds? What?

I mean guilds that run 25-30 players on a full rollout, not as in 25-30 guilds lol.

I didn’t start playing the game until about 6 weeks after launch. Will we still get a bday present when our characters are 1 year old? Or only if you started at launch?

scootshoot.6583:

For those that have played T1 matchups for greater > 1 month are are partaking in the SEA coverage discussions, just answer these simple questions…

Has SOR SEA ever ticked 350 – 400 ppt for hours on end? Nope

Has JQ SEA ever ticked 350 – 400 ppt for hours on end? Yep

Has BG SEA ever ticked 350-400 ppt for hours on end? Yep

Thus ends all future discussions of SEA coverage…carry on

The answer is yes on all 3 counts. My main playtime is oceanic which overlaps with sea, but I regularly play through sea timezone. As someone who has played for all 3 servers, Ive seen all 3 tick for over 400ppt for hours on end (the whole timezone). The full week I played for SOR we were ticking high 400s. But there is one major difference I have found with SOR’s sea coverage from that of JQ’s and BG’s and that is that the SOR population on this timezone is fickle. The big difference is essentially that JQ has WAHA and FOO and BG has MERC which does a lot of overtime and number of ~25-30 SEA guilds. Essentially I would argue that SOR has more players during this timezone but less organization, structure and consistency.

I think it’s pretty clear that Anet is opposed to account bound ranks because they need to integrate as much time gating as possible. I would love for account bound, but I doubt it would happen.

Double teaming for sustained periods of time happen. I was on JQ a few months back when it happened to them between BG and SOR (IIRC). Same is happening to BG atm. Doesn’t really matter. Look at the end of the week. Who is going to win? Its most likely JQ or SOR. Someone has to start playing to win rather than to beat BG. If they don’t, they will regret it next week. The double team against JQ lasted for about 1 and a half weeks. It was pretty demoralising. Being inexperienced and not understanding the ladder system and the level of establishment within servers, I honestly thought that was it for JQ at the time. But look at them now.

I haven’t really been stressed by the adversity we have faced this week at all. I’ve enjoyed my time playing. My guild has had some awesome fights and we are all pumped for the next time we roll together. When strategies aren’t going your way, there is still plenty of things to do to enjoy yourself outside of futile attempts to win.

The whole collapse concept isn’t relevant. BG has a lot of dedicated guilds. You usually only lose some fair whethered pugs to double teams which is no big deal. Id actually argue losing fairwhethered pugs is better for a server in the long run from what I have seen.

Eviscerate maybe? I’m too lazy to check the figures.

Mif.3471:

timidobserver.7925:

So, for those that earned WXP the hard way

Zerging is hard now?

Despite what people think, I’d argue black and blue that running havoc is much more “WXP profitable” than zerging.

Wotah.2975:

sostronk.8167:

If you play for JQ or SOR feel free to go ahead and do it because I had a few golems suicided tonight to JQs zerg. In all seriousness though, it did happen and it was my gold that got burnt and I don’t think its very cool that anyone would troll this way. Decent players build good things, bads burn things down. Such is life.

Sos you were on our server you know we have a guy that does that too.

Yeah I’ve seen it from all 3 servers. Just trying to point out, seems these players feel like they are “getting revenge” on another server. But what they are really doing is griefing players who put time and effort into building up their server. Healthy competition is great, but if someone feels the need to exploit the system and all they are bringing to the game is negativity its probably time for them to leave the game and do something more productive in life.

Nice helpful writeup. Commanding is something Ive often considered doing. Not sure I would.

Question about the basic stack… Why list area stealth? Ive yet to see a use for it in any composition from a static stacked position because of its short duration. Generally Id opt for veil/mas invis and if no Mesmer every other situation I’d opt for static or might. But you didn’t list AoE retaliation, which I’ve found has its place in some situations such as gate stacking.

Gorani.7205:

sostronk.8167:

Im confused about the WXP thing. I have a level 180, 60, and 6 others between level 20 and 50. What happens to these characters levels?

You will get a level 181, 61 … and so on.

As far as I can tell there will be not retroactive rewards for things we have gained so far. It did not happen when they doubled the WXP gain a few months back, the same happens now.

Oh ok lol. If that’s what they are doing why are they bothering to do so. I mean 1 level. Woop de doo.

If you play for JQ or SOR feel free to go ahead and do it because I had a few golems suicided tonight to JQs zerg. In all seriousness though, it did happen and it was my gold that got burnt and I don’t think its very cool that anyone would troll this way. Decent players build good things, bads burn things down. Such is life.

Im confused about the WXP thing. I have a level 180, 60, and 6 others between level 20 and 50. What happens to these characters levels?

I consider myself a hardcore gamer. I play this game a lot. Im quite happy with the difficulty level. My big issue is with the time constraints. I got up to Liadri and tried once. Figured it was going to take me a fair while to fully work out the mechanics. I just don’t have the time with other commitments like PvP and WvW and other guild stuff. If it wasn’t such a short temporary thing I would have no issue with the difficulty.

Removing upgrades and making everything paper would promote zerging and karma trains.

Don’t be discouraged. I have map completion on two characters. The second one I only needed WvW and a couple of things in PvE. At the time I was playing on Erredon Terrace and got completion whilst I was there. You just have to be persistent. Although one thing I found was it was easier to just play WvW than work towards getting a specific target.

Rawr.5930:

If wvw loot is on par with pve loot, be prepared for truly nothing but pvd circle capping megablobs with little incentive to actually fight.

Be careful what you wish for.

I’d rather have player drops have a chance at being boss chests than having keep lords drop guaranteed chests.

Fair point. For quite a long time I have been an advocate of “better rewards”. But now I see a bad side to it. I’d rather have to grind some PvE to keep my gold up occasionally than have WvW go this way.

Welcome back JQ. It has been refreshing having some new opponents recently. Sorry the same didn’t work out for you guys. Seems like you have come back refreshed none the less! That PPT!

- Static fields are not visible on regular occasions. The white line on the ground will appear, but the static animation does not. This makes it very difficult to distinguish from light field etc.

- The animation when using supply to build with the supply upgrade now flickers like a strobe and it is quite intense and looks unintentional.

Totally agree. I went to Queensdale today to finish some achievements. The so called champions were literally melting in seconds, even the champion bandit who is usually a little tougher. If you did not waypoint and immediately start hitting them they were already dead before you got there. Most of the champions in the game need a buff right now with the numbers I am seeing zerging them. And then we are going to see more numbers zerging them with the unique rewards its going to be near impossible to get a hit on many of them. It will be like the bonus reward chest + guesting days when jormag where you had to join your own servers map over an hour before the event started and the event would be over in 30 seconds.

Looks like the WvW masteries were their big WvW game plan for the rest of the year, slowly introducing a few more as months pass by and not allowing us to respec when they introduce them.

Whilst in combat, the warrior wins the run race. Out of combat, a thief is quicker.

Id like to see a thief solo a fully upgraded camp. Ive seen a few claim its possible, but video or didn’t happen.

TBH from my experiences I have a feeling that the damage calculations are not being done correctly from the server at all times, so its probably best for them its not detailed enough.

To give an example of what I mean, I am noticing that when attempting a skill that is currently not available during a fight I get the error message in the logs, but in cases where I have been downed there is not enough damage to have killed me. Going through the entire log I can find enough damage to kill me, but it seems like it wasn’t all registering, then it is syncing that damage afterwards and instantly removing 10k health for instance. Im fairly certain this is happening and its pretty game breaking.

Brisbane Wildlands has a lot. Also the WvW borderlands around and the approach from spawn to redvale/greenvale/bluevale camp will give you enough to get your daily up – depending on which color your team is for the week. Come to think of it, most of the supply camps in the BL have 10+ ambient creatures.

They tend to nerf power levelling places everytime someone posts them in here. That’s why I won’t list them in here :p But yes, they still exist.

From an organized guild point of view, Guardians are highest on that list. I cannot speak for Arah, as its a dungeon I completed and never returned to. But other dungeons Guardians are the best also. The might stacks they give from their staff is just too good along with all the other buffs. Mesmers are essential in WvW as well, but you don’t need as many. Necros are not essential but you won’t get complaints if you run one. Engineers are pretty bad. Not a lot of organized guilds will run with them.

Also, from your description, you might want to try Elementalist.

Banquetto.9521:

The grind is within you. You have a compulsion to grind, it’s obvious from every word of your post.

There is no MMO in existence or able to exist where you would not feel compelled to grind.

You need to change your approach. ArenaNet can’t change it for you.

Age of Empires Online and Company of Heroes Online were pretty decent games and not once did I feel the need to grind.

Im probably going against the grain right here, but I feel they are hitting like a truck in 1v1s now.

My understanding is most organized guilds are running mesmers with Null field for this (among other things). Necros are also an option with several boon strips, one of which is Well of Corruption.

sostronk.8167:

I placed a legendary on the TP about a week ago. I won’t say which one. Lets say it was one of the cheaper ones on the TP atm. I have doubts its going to sell :/

My legendary sold this morning! I listed Rodgort for 1299 gold approximately 1 hour after the post above and bam, exactly 14 days later I am rich :p I almost pulled it off the TP yesterday as well!

Yeah in all honesty I was asking myself, “why more minigames”. I mean, if it fit with the storyline then sure do it. But it seems like Anet made the mini games and then loosely fit them into the storyline. Its like I went to a carnival and went on the Ferris Wheel and ate cotton candy, which was cool. Now my diet consists of cotton candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner and my life consists of riding a Ferris Wheel.

Thanks Tobbygnome, helps a lot

Hi guys. As I understand it, Chillbains is a poison field and Putrid Mark is a blast finisher. What is the trick to getting the finisher to proc on the field? IE, if I drop Chillbains and it procs for the field, can I then simply drop putrid mark to proc the combo field? Or does it have to be instantaneous, or somewhere inbetween? Or can this blast even proc the field?

It is currently too grindy, but from what I have read recently, it appears that is all about to change.

When you first start playing, there are a few set content that give BLK by default. Once you have been playing for a fair while, like me, your ratio of chests to keys is going to be around 200 chests per key.

deffy.1320:

Contiguous.1345:

Maladon.5760:

Contiguous.1345:

I’m curious as to exactly how often anyone escorting a Yak is called on to protect it from anything it can’t handle itself. It’s not as if you can’t hire a couple of NPC guards.

A properly specced guardian can defend a yak against nearly any single player and sometimes two or more.

What sort of answer is that? I asked how often a yak is seriously attacked, not how big an escort does it need.

All the time is the correct answer this is why it is also important to upgrade supply, i normally double then get caravan guards because yaks get killed from all sorts of foe, it is really annoying, so i will run yaks to help with upgrades normally whilst sieging up towers and doing other upgrades, as you should know yak killing is often part of dailies.

Ive killed as many as 940 yaks in a week running solo. The guards I chose to either completely ignore and just kill the yak OR if I have time I will kill the guards to farm the extra WXP. The way I see it, upgrading to get guard escorts is simply paying to supply your enemy with more WXP.

From what I have seen, Anvil Rock. Why? Because they will be playing ET and FC on a regular basis in the future.

I have a main at level 151 (Bronze invader) as well as seven other characters between 20 and 50. I have not had a single ascended or exotic from a chest. I recall someone saying they got an ascended ring from a ~level 80 chest. That said, chances are it will be a complete waste and not have the right stats you want. Fractals/guild missions/laurels are a better way to get the ascended you want. The fact that I have yet to get an ascended, I don’t count on ever getting one that is useful.

bradderzh.2378:

Devon has already said they will be looking into bringing these wvw achievements inline with others.

He did say that. BUT. If they were going to do it I would presume that there would have been a deadline for doing this at the same time as the new AP rewards system was integrated. I believe there is little chance of this happening now.

Definitely not 100g in inventory. How else would you pay 2.5k gold for a legendary if you cannot hold that much in your intentory? Or even 500g for a precursor for that matter.

1. – They added a few exotics with different stats IE Sentinel’s.
– From what I am reading it seems likely ascended armor will be released this year
– They are about to start the process of removing Magic find from gear and integrating it through different account bound stats.
2. – Laurels are extremely important, particularly if you have a lot of characters you won’t be able to get enough. But if you only have a main and one or two extras you will be able to get enough.
3. – They added levelling in WvW that give you stat buffs and titles.
– Each level you get a reward chest (which is ok but not great)
4. – Guardian is really easy to play effectively in dungeons. Takes time to master though.
5. – Laruels, Guild commendations from guild missions, Fractals for rings.
6. – No changes I can think of.

Tunney.6475:

Yup, I will.
But this “Please, please play PvP. here’s tokens and gear for you!”
is getting extremely tiresome.

T

Don’t delete them. Buy siege. Sell them on the TP.

99.99% of it. Even quite a few of the dungeons, that are designed for 5 player parties. Although it is just more time efficient to do things in larger numbers. Ive spent most of my time in this game solo, everything from PvE, sPvP and WvW. Almost anything in the game is achievable solo, with few exceptions from various categories.

Good roamers do not cap camps.

On the laurels, remember that some of the ascended can be purchased with guild commendations instead of laurels.

Nah, I am playing on ET atm and getting skill lag. Anet needs to work on it. Its obviously worse one higher tiers, but the fact that it is happening on the lowest populated server in NA is a clear sign.