Guild Wars 2

Another ‘cursor loser’ here

I think that it often happens when things get very busy on-screen. Makes things particularly difficult in games where it’s a really good idea to know where the cursor is, e.g. Magicka, Torchlight. I don’t find that it affects GW2 too badly though; I still lose the cursor but I don’t rely on it all that much (I find the camera’s behaviour to be far more problematic in this game).

I tried it for about 20 minutes, but just couldn’t see my tiny Asura amidst all the Norns, Charr, Humans etc. (especially after the first ‘checkpoint’ where everybody groups together). Not saying that I could have definitely done it solo, but I think that I’d have stood a better chance.

Thanks for the quick reply :-)

I think that the in-game warning message could perhaps be made a little clearer. Regarding the subject at hand, suffice to say my money is quite safe ;-)

I logged into the game this evening to find a mail message from somebody who was trying to sell gold. I used the report feature of the mail system, but was confronted with a warning message which said that I might be banned for abusing the report system and that ‘chat logs would be checked’ for the purpose of checking my report.

This makes me somewhat nervous as it wasn’t clear whether or not the mail message would be reported along with the person’s name, and there would be no chat log to check as it wasn’t a chat message, it was a mail message.

As there was a ‘selling gold’ category in the report dialog’s combo box, I felt that sending the report was the correct thing to do, so I did so. I’d like some clarification as to whether the mail message is sent along with the person’s name, i.e. is mail checked along with chat messages? For now, I’ve kept the mail in case I need it to validate the report. I did not reply to the sender.

I was quite surprised as to the amount the person was charging, it was $44 for 100 gold!

I had some fun in the Mad King’s instance on Sunday evening and decided to put together a Halloween comic based on the event.

I’ve uploaded it as a .pdf file here:

https://www.box.com/s/zqs9b5h8ibttfii2awdb

The file is about 8.9 MB in size. It’ll render directly in a browser, or you can download it if you like.

Hope you enjoy it, Happy Halloween everyone! :-)

Comments on your first post:

I’ve never played a game where the crafting system wasn’t complete rubbish. GW2 is no different; I do it to get an XP boost, make useful food or bags, but I’m not that interested in playing ‘Cottage Industries Simulator v2.0’. At least I haven’t spent a billion gold in order to train some fool up so he can make me a lampshade or something (yup, looking at you, “Master Blacksmith” in Diablo III).

I don’t understand magic find items in this game either and don’t bother with it, seems more like an ARPG thing to me. I don’t see GW2 as a heavily loot-based game.

Nobody is forcing you to join more than one guild. I have found a very friendly guild and I’ll stick with it, it’s simply my choice not to join another.

Comments on your second post (combat):

Some trait lines need rethinking and reworking, I agree. The system has sufficient depth for me personally, IMO infinitely more than a ‘typical’ MMO which is right-click, watch animation sequence. One could make the argument that combat in many FPS’s lacks depth – place cursor on target’s head and left-click. Yes that’s a superficial argument which ignores a lot of what gives depth to FPS combat, but the point is so is saying that there’s no depth to GW2’s combat system. I found this comment of yours particularly illuminating and relevant to this matter: “it’s necessary to constantly move in combat”. Thanks heavens for that I’d say. I find it hard to understand why somebody would want to play a game where it is more appropriate to not move when in combat, but different people have different tastes.

I don’t like the downed system much myself. I often just let myself die already.

I have no comments on your last post as I haven’t reached the end game and do not have much dungeon experience. However, I agree that higher level monsters and bosses need to be more interesting than ‘big bullet sponges’, as a general rule regardless of genre of game.

I am very close to loving this game though, despite its flaws of which there are many. It’s still very young and I’m willing to give ANet a bunch of time to slowly improve upon and add to the game. I really like the core mechanics and the world but they’re not for everybody; I would guess they’re not for you.

I’ve never thought of the weapon slots in terms of main/secondary myself, just two identical slots that you switch between. I’ve been GS + Rifle from very early on, ever since I thought “Wait, I can use a … rifle?! :-D” It’s my favourite Warrior weapon, mainly because in using it there’s no chance of spinning around in a beautiful animation sequence hurting nothing but the air. The rifle skills all sound different, that’s sufficient differentiation for me (in fact, the sound bugged out the other day making all the rifle attacks almost silent and I found that unplayable). If I were to give a different weapon a try, it’d be the GS that’s replaced (probably with the hammer).

Never mind, now that you have stopped playing Guild Wars 2, you will have plenty of opportunity to level up in English instead. I wish you every success in your new endeavour.

My opinion as a relatively low-level PvE-er:

I don’t rely that heavily on auto-attack, I use all weapon skills across the board and switch them up. If anything, I’d like to see more variety in the 7-9 skills to compliment the weapon skills to provide variety and scope for more depth and thought; it’s all Sigils and Banners. So…more things like the bolas.

Right off the top of my head:
o A boomerang; striking multiple foes at range, causing daze/stun/knockdown/variety
o A spear which could be thrown striking multiple targets in a line causing bleeding
o Atlatl – long range powerful single target, crippling or critical hit
o Hand Culverin – BOOM! :-D AOE?
o Caltrops – dropped in a line (‘wall’), causing slowness (reduced movement speed), perhaps even ‘sprinkled’ over an area

My word. Informal griefing opportunities abound… ;-)

Some guild members and myself met up with a bunch of 30+ randoms in Gendarran Fields last night, mining Haunted Doors like crazy. It was a chaotic blast! I think one of the members ended up with > 1,000 candy corns :o)

Gave me a good laugh too when a bunch of them popped out of a Haunted Door :-)

SteepledHat.1345:

Yeah, it’s not like you could check the official wiki for a step by step guide….. Oh wait.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Mad_King

’aight, so it is as I thought, the Ghostly Banquet Table is bugged, plain and simple.

Same here, tried across several different browsers. Please fix this ANet.

Whilst some things are fairly obvious (trick-or-treat doors, candy corn), there are some aspects of the Halloween event which are confusing people because it’s hard to tally the information provided with what happens (or doesn’t happen).

From ANet’s ‘Costume Brawl For All’ posting:

“The Mad King’s costume available in the Gem Store allows you to summon a Ghostly Banquet Table and anyone eating from it joins the brawl as a Pumpkin Food Fighter.”

I would honestly expect that my skill bar and/or appearance would change, with perhaps a pumpkin icon on skill 1, but nothing happens. This seems like a bug to me.

I tried joining in tonight but I guess I just don’t ‘get it’.

For example, ANet’s ‘Costume Brawl For All!’ posting contains this information:

“The Mad King’s costume available in the Gem Store allows you to summon a Ghostly Banquet Table and anyone eating from it joins the brawl as a Pumpkin Food Fighter.”

So I saw quite a few of these tables spawning, went up to them and pressed ‘F’ at the ‘interact’ prompt. I’m then informed that I’m taking part in a costume brawl or food fight, but my skill bar didn’t change and neither did my appearance. Should something happen? I got knocked down a few times but could see no means of actually participating. In the UI area where conditions and boons are displayed, there was a blue icon inorming me that I’d hit four people. Had I? I honestly have no idea. I wasn’t the only person there feeling confused, quite a few other people as well as myself were asking for advice in the chat channel but unfortunately receiving none.

I just don’t know whether I was ‘doing it wrong’ or if this is buggy behaviour. Any advice?

Camera, its behaviour induces the Howling Rages in me at times.

I can understand why ANet made it a chance to get a Halloween item from a chest – if it were guaranteed then those people with a whole bunch of keys would have access to a ludicrous amount of stuff. However, there are far better ways of going about this than just a RNG roll on every single chest.

That was either stupid, greedy or thoughtless on ANet’s part. It shows a lack of foresight and consideration for those who, for sure, would spend quite a lot of real money and not receive a kitten thing in return. You don’t have to be some kind of mathematical genius to run those numbers.

If sticking with the chest idea, they could have had a guaranteed item (and only 1) in the first ‘n’ chests opened, with diminishing returns thereafter to prevent individuals from a) getting stupid amounts of items and b) spending too much of their own real money. But that takes more coding effort than ‘roll RNG’.

I had doubts about whether or not to buy some keys due to their ‘a chance’ posts. I don’t have any doubts any more. This was supposed to be a fun, happy event. IMO, somebody needs a slap for this.

From what I’ve gathered thus far (still relatively low level myself), the basic idea behind the Necromancer is to stack conditions and then spread them. I’ve tried other approaches but they didn’t work out as well for me, e.g. dagger or axe as a main hand weapon. I currently use staff and scepter, with dagger off hand.

I’ve found Signet of the Locust very useful for its passive movement speed increase. Its active ability leeches health from enemies which is also pretty handy.

Signet of Spite is very powerful (especially in conjunction with Epidemic), but has quite a long cooldown time (90 seconds, although you can spec for 20% Signet cooldown reduction q. early on). As mentioned, Blood is Power is very good and has a much shorter cooldown than SoS.

Thus far I found playing the Necromancer most difficult around the lvl 15-16 mark (actually, I’d probably say that about all my alts). Since opening up slot 9 at lvl 20, things have become quite a lot easier.

I tried running with a bunch of minions earlier on, but that didn’t work out for me at all. ymmv of course. I’ve not yet tried a well-heavy build so cannot comment on that.

My biggest gripe playing Necromancer is that the damage you deal feels somewhat indirect compared to the other classes I’ve tried. The only ‘beefy hits’ that I’m aware of are the dagger #1’s third strike (Necrotic Bite) and Scepter #3 (Feast of Corruption); as long as you’ve stacked a bunch of different conditions on your foe. They have suspiciously similar animations too…

HTH :-)

Some MMOs are based on the principle of the Skinner Box, and some are not.

Personally, I’m really glad to have found one that isn’t. I played WOW for the free month a long, long time ago and it was not my cup of tea at all. I have not played a single MMORPG since then until now.

I think I’ll be playing GW2 for quite some time to come :-)

All the classes that I’ve played thus far have ability delays, with different abilities having different delays. Yes it’d be nice for every spell and ability to be insta-cast, but that’s not how Anet have decided to design and code it.

For example, try using dagger #2 as Necromancer. This is a very close range health leech skill which is cast with an excruciatingly long ‘HADOUKEN!’ animation which is almost always interrupted because the mob you’re casting it on is right in your face.

The class I’ve played which suffers most is the Elementalist, as it’s such a busy class to play, constantly switching attunements whilst kiting about and trying to use abilities with very long cast times. If you happen to time things just a little bit off and move just before the spell is cast, its fails to cast and goes into a short cool-down.

I’ve personally found the Warrior’s cast timings easiest to manage, most are very quick indeed and the slower ones (e.g. Kill Shot, Brutal Shot) aren’t a problem as they’re done at range.

Too cool for armour, ’sup? ;-)

Yeah that makes sense (although economics makes my head spin at the best of times). I hadn’t considered the gold-buying aspect of gems. Cheers :-)

@ Prophet, that’s all well and good in-theory, but jute scraps are going for 22 copper a pop on the TP currently. That equates to well over 100 silver to get to lvl 25 by refining jute scraps. My low level character just doesn’t have anything like that kind of money and if I did I doubt I’d spend 100+ silver on scraps of cloth. I’ve got wood and ore coming out of my ears because you can easily find that everywhere. It’d help if the various crafting disciplines each had a few different items you could refine, maybe with a little more overlap between the different disciplines.

To put the price of a single piece of jute scrap in perspective, I can get the best available weapon for my character for about the same price, sometimes even cheaper. You can’t even do anything with a single piece of scrap, you need two at least.

So the question becomes, “Do you want this awesome sword/rifle/whatever, or this scrap of tattered garment which you can’t do anything with?” That’s a no-brainer IMO.

Same here, sometimes back works, at other times it seems to take me to the bottom of the current page IIRC.

Usually, when you buy something ‘in bulk’, the cost per unit lowers. e.g. buying a pack of four cans of baked beans is more cost efficient than buying single cans (but requires greater initial outlay).

This system works, plain and simple; shops and supermarkets have been using this pricing technique for years for a very good reason.

I’m not complaining about the cost of gems per-se, but where’s the encouragement for me to buy gems in a larger quantity?

I want to support this game and I’m about to buy some gems for the first time. However, as there is no reason for me to buy any more than the lowest number (800), that’s all I’m going to buy.

Apologies if this has been covered before, but in all seriousness I think that Anet needs to re-think this. It doesn’t have to be a huge reduction in unit cost, just something that promotes a degree of encouragement. If I could save 50p or a £1 by buying 1,600 gems I probably would do. So, instead of receiving say £16 from me, ANet will instead receive £8.50.

I’ve found the GW2 wiki and guildhead.com both to to be very useful, written resources. Considering the size of the world and its depth, writing up a comprehensive guide to cover everything would be quite a monumental task. I see the videos on youtube as a very useful supplement to the available written resources. For example, the comprehensive guide to the Mesmer profession by Mr Prometheus is outstanding and provides more depth and clarity (in my opinion) than any written article could do. Those videos contain a ton of well written information which is enhanced by actually being able to see what the guy’s talking about.

Then there’s these forums, if you’re stuck trying to find/figure something out, why not just make a posting here?

Well, the population of the world I joined a couple of weeks ago (Whiteside Ridge) was at ‘medium’, and now it’s at ‘high’. I presume this means the total number of players who have joined that world, not the number playing at any particular time.

I’m really enjoying the game (I’ve played little else since installing it) and am looking forward to next week’s Halloween update :-)

Same here (see my post here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Cannot-run-game-kept-getting-and-internet-connection-error/first#post474791)

I’ve been running latency, speed and streaming tests over the connection and all seems to be fine at my end.

Same issue here, I keep getting dropped connections (I think it says ‘client has lost connection to the game server’). I’ll make a note of the error code if it happens again. I’m on the Whiteside Ridge server.

(Update)

The error code I am (still) seeing is: 7:11:3:189:101

I checked the link above provided by the moderator, but the information provided for a ‘7’ error is not relevant.

(Love the ‘princess’ ones above)

Phlowerz!

I’m trying out Signet of Spite currently, and that has a 90 seconds CD :-/ Granted it is pretty powerful in conjunction with Epidemic and can be knocked down to 72 seconds with the 20% signet CD reduction trait, but that still seems like quite a long time (second only to Signet of Undeath I believe).

Perhaps I was a bit down on my Necromancer in my last post. I’ve now hit lvl 25 and have opened up slot #9 into which I’ve equipped the Signet of the Locust. I’m finding PvE much easier now, happily pulling 3-4 mobs and mopping them up.

Still using Blood Fiend; I think he could do with toughening up a bit or perhaps have some passive self-healing, but I do like having him around.

I’m kinda surprised…I’d have guessed a younger ‘average’ age of player. Hardly the first time I’ve been wrong though.

Anyway, 47 and really enjoying the game.

Game forums do tend to be skewed towards the negative, but by far the most popular thread I can see in this sub-forum is the “Was the game worth $60?” one, which is almost universally positive.

Qelris.6901:

Chaos Armor’s cd decreased by 5s.

That’s the change I couldn’t really understand, considering you can keep up chaos armour pretty much all the time anyway. Was it done just to give it the same CD as chaos storm? Just seems a bit odd/pointless(?)

What on earth is an ‘average MMO player’, and…minority of what, exactly? I’m usually in a minority of one.

As Harry Hill would say, there’s only one way to settle this…FIGHT! :-)

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=GW2+sucks&word2=GW2+is+great

Google trawls more webpages than anything or anybody else, I’d say the internet has spoken.

I think it’s fantastic value for money, and that’s paying the equivalent of ~80 dollars (£50).

I paid the same amount for another (long-awaited) game this year, which I would not say the same thing about.

Thanks very much for this, I’ve finally got 100% completion in Metrica Province!

I think that the camera needs some work too.

I’ve died quite a few times due to being in a cramped space and not being able to see anything due to the camera’s behaviour (apart from a close-up of a leaf, or the backs of my character’s eyeballs). If the camera was allowed to clip into foreground objects and those objects were/became transparent, that would help a lot I think. Sounds like it could be technically difficult to achieve though.

Thanks again for the replies folks.

I’m currently levelling up my Necromancer and also a Mesmer.

I find that I have far better control over the battlefield with the Mesmer; she’s died just once thus far due to me being stupid and biting off far more than I could chew, but I was dying all the time when playing the Necromancer to the point where I simply wasn’t enjoying the game. Admittedly, that was mainly because I’m very new to the game and its mechanics.

Since switching back to the Necromancer and re-working her build, I’m doing much better. How all this relates to this thread is that I find using the Blood Fiend gives me a degree of control over the battlefield (at least, until it drops dead), which I find I lose when using a different healing ability. I’ve tried using other minions for this purpose, but they’re just not worth using up skill slots for IMO.

When I first started playing, I actually thought that DS #4 healed you :-D Would that be over powered, or a sensible change? It does nice AOE but I don’t see that the 3% LF steal is of any value. I can’t tell from the wiki if DS skills cost LF or if it’s just the passive loss of LF that’s happening, but I don’t personally see the point of ‘gaining’ LF from DS #4.

As my first character, I love my Necromancer and I’m going to stick with her. Having said that, my Mesmer has better ranged, better CQC, better AOE, better ‘minions’ (read: clones and phantasms), better healing abilities and better control over the battlefield. Oh, and just to rub it in, seemingly better condition management (isn’t that supposed to be the feather in the Necromancer’s cap?)

I dunno, perhaps it’s just because the Necromancer is a harder profession to play and I need to up my game considerably.

Thanks for the replies folks, good food for thought. I haven’t tried Consume Conditions as yet (I didn’t find well of blood particularly useful overall) so I’ll give that a try.

Swadow.6213:

What do you mean which?

Ah, I do apologise, I should have made it clear that I was not referring to representing a specified antecedant, but instead its use related to making a choice. English can be tricky to use in a non-ambiguous manner at times :-)

I’ve been mostly using the Blood Fiend as my #6, but something about this has been bugging me a bit which I finally twigged today: in general I do not receive any healing from it.

I find the Blood Fiend to be the better of the set of possible Necromancer pets/minions (if it should be classed as such), in that it seems to do pretty good damage, it gets ‘stuck in’ and it draws a lot of agro to itself. The mobs definitely seem to prefer to attack it than myself.

So in general when I’m engaging a mob, its attention gets focussed onto the Blood Fiend allowing me to manage the mob at range and I don’t take any damage. Because of this, any hits that the Blood Fiend makes are not providing me with healing as I simply don’t need any. If and when the Blood Fiend gets very low on health (which seems to be a good time to sacrifice it for its main healing ability), I don’t do this as I’m still generally unharmed.

It’s only if it dies that I’m then ‘exposed’ to any mobs and may start taking some damage, but during that time the Blood Fiend is on cool down (i.e. when is healing abilities would actually be of benefit). Hmm.

I like the Blood Fiend and definitely find it to be useful, but it seems, in PvE, that its role becomes that of a minion rather than a ‘healing spell’. Ironically, if I did not use the Blood Fiend, I would for sure be taking all of the mobs’ agro onto myself and actually have need of its healing ability.

Perhaps I’m making too much of all this and in fact it’s just good game design; the other healing spells give you more healing, but you’re more likely to take more damage so things even out overall.

I’d just like to ask what healing spell people choose to use in PvE and their reasons for doing so.

Thanks :-)

Thanks to the nice people at GW2 Support I can finally log onto the forums now :-)

Here’s the only screenshot I currently have of my Necromancer (my first character), taken at lvl 11 (currently at lvl 18). I think she’s rather cute: