Guild Wars 2

Legendary Pacifist Stance has a nice ring to it…

Kaiden Valor.7163:

virtualtourist.6438:

All it says is that by the next BWE, we’ll be able to test out the spear and some of the legends underwater (the ones that they have time to convert to work underwater). So far, there hasn’t been any indication that, in the final release of HoT, there will be any legends that do not function underwater, just that not all of them will be ready for the next BWE.

It’s worth pointing out that if all our legends work underwater we’d be the first profession to have all skills work under water and out of sell the legends Ventari looks like it’d take the most work to get working under water. That’s why I don’t think we’ll get him, especially since the game has progressively been moving away from underwater content.

I’m waiting to see how it all works with the bug fixed. For me part of the issue was it required a lot of attention/micro management for basically no reward, so now that it should be putting out significantly more healing I’m interested to see if it feels worth using.

Yeah, the healing numbers were not very impressive before, but then again I didn’t try Cleric’s gear in the last BWE for max healing. Was too busy going nuts with a Reaper… :-)

I guess the main difference with the Revenant and all the other professions is that the Revenant cannot choose skills. Once you choose your two Legends, your non-weapon skills are locked in. If all or some of the skills for a particular Legend don’t work underwater, you’re forced to choose other Legends and most likely change your entire build just for underwater combat…and then switch back again for land. In the absence of build templates to save specialisation and trait choices, “this won’t end well”.

Other professions can simply choose skills that work underwater to replace the ones that don’t. The alternate skills might work counter to their normal build on land, but it’s less of a problem than changing Legends. Ofc an ele with a fetish for conjured weapons or a guard who likes spirit weapons are both SoL underwater…

Draeyon.4392:

Probably the easiest way for the Tablet to work underwater is that Ventari’s Will will just move the tablet to your current position when activated. The only skill that would need a rework underwater is the elite and simply for how the fragments work underwater (old engi med kit comes to mind). May also have to increase the range on the utilities to around 350 or so but it would work.

I like it! :-)

That’s the most elegant solution by far, would work nicely on land as well. The tablet will probably need to end its movement slightly past the Rev’s position so that you benefit from it’s effects as well.

It would make a Ventari Rev more predictable if you want to benefit from the tablet since you need to remain in position until after the tablet moves past.

If Ventari’s Will were instant cast, that opens up more options. It could be used near the impact point of Hammer 3, or triggered while in the middle of Sword 3. Since those now have built-in evades, it would mitigate some of the risk of being predictable.

Maybe I’m needlessly optimistic, but based on the details about the spear from the Glint reveal, with the following:

There’s been some discussion since the revenant test weekend event about underwater combat for the profession. For starters, I’ll be going over some of the spear skills for the revenant. By the next time you get to play, some of the legends will be converted to function underwater as well.

All it says is that by the next BWE, we’ll be able to test out the spear and some of the legends underwater (the ones that they have time to convert to work underwater). So far, there hasn’t been any indication that, in the final release of HoT, there will be any legends that do not function underwater, just that not all of them will be ready for the next BWE.

That’s why I thought it would be worth throwing out some ideas now, and lobbying to make the tablet function consistently on land and underwater, since underwater Ventari is unlikely to be ready for the next BWE. Even if this means changing how the tablet currently works on land, having that consistency would be helpful.

From the recent comms about changes based on BWE feedback from both Roy and Robert, I’d say that it’s worth voicing our opinions on how we would like Ventari’s tablet to actually work… :-)

While I thought the concept of moving the tablet around had promise, and the idea of blocking projectiles with the tablet in motion sounded cool, in practice the need to summon and move it (with cast times) makes the whole mechanic feel clunky, so I tended to avoid using it in the last BWE even though I used it heavily during the first Revenant beta.

Maybe it would help if moving the tablet were instant cast, and the tablet moves faster than it currently does, but that wouldn’t help with implementing it underwater. Definitely would like to remove the need to summon the bloody thing, except that reduces one of the trade-offs for using Energy Expulsion.

Apologies for late response, I’m in Australia…:-P

I’m one of those wierdos that actually likes underwater combat, so I’m hoping that ANet doesn’t abandon it entirely.

I just wish that they would follow some consistent rules, like changing all ground targeted skills to center on the player when underwater (like necro wells). Some Guardian consecrations remain ground targeted underwater which means you have to fight near the seabed to target them properly.

The tablet would work if it had a leash distance, but I suspect it would be annoying to coordinate with allies if it uses the same code as Ranger pets (the slightest shift in your position can cause the pet move quite far). Using the code for the old Spirits Unbound would work.

I like having the effect centered on the Rev because it would then work like Glint’s Facets and affect allies around you when you use a Ventari skill (or provide regen if traited). If you go full support with Glint/Ventari, your positioning in both stances remains consistent (stay near the allies you want to support).

Hopefully, they make the tablet less annoying to use on land and make it work underwater as well…:-)

I’m curious to know how Ventari’s tablet will function underwater.

Seems unlikely to use the current mechanic of straight line movement based on ground targeting, so I thought of some possibilities:

1) Move to current enemy target. (Not a great option IMO)
2) Always stay close to the Revenant, like Ranger pets on passive.
3) Share the Revenant’s location, with all tablet effects centered on the Revenant.

I like the concept of moving the tablet around on land, but the actual reality of summoning and moving it is more annoying than entertaining.

It would be nice if the tablet auto-summons when switching to Ventari (like others have asked for previously). It would also be nice if the way the tablet is used is consistent on both land and underwater.

Or maybe Ventari will always suck underwater because centaurs don’t swim… ;-)

How about something like this:
1. Each Legend has a single weapon linked to it (e.g. Jalis+Hammer, Mallyx+Mace, Ventari+Staff) .
2. Each weapon has a melee mode and a ranged mode.
3. Each weapon has a default mode (e.g. Hammer defaults to ranged control, Mace defaults to ranged condi, Staff defaults to ranged support).
4. When channeling the appropriate Legend, the weapon changes mode (e.g. Jalis+Hammer becomes melee control, Mallyx+Mace becomes melee condi, Ventari+Staff becomes melee support).
5. Some weapons (e.g. OH Axe) might not be linked to a Legend, so they have the same set of skills all the time.

Rev can still only equip one weapon set at a time, but the weapon skills change from melee/ranged with Legend swap (assuming you channel the appropriate Legend).

Might be easier to implement overall, and does not require a new set of 5 skills for every single weapon+legend combination.

Being able to use the hammer for melee control (seriously needs some Taunt options), or the mace as a scepter replacement might be interesting.

Heh, sorry mate, just checking. Kia Ora!

You might want to send the diagnostics log to ANet customer support since there seems to be a very specific issue here.

Might also be worth checking with Spark as well.

Can’t think of anything else for you to try at the moment…

Don’t open the ports on your router! That’s “pants down” configuration. >.<

Let us know how you go with the DNS change, and whether it makes any difference.

Are your friends using the same ISP? Which country(ies) are we talking about?

Cool, probably should have mentioned that other game servers/sites don’t give you the same problem in the first post :-)

Something you might want to do is change DNS servers to the Google public servers as an experiment (unless you are already using them). If you are currently using your ISPs DNS servers, this is worth a try but still unlikely to be the problem.

It’s also still unlikely to be a problem on ANet’s end because no one else is having the same problem…

I tend to only experience lag when there are several other players around, but it’s not consistently bad.

What you’re describing sounds more like something’s gone wrong on your end of the connection.

When this started happening, were there any changes to your modem/router? Did you switch ISPs or plans? Did you install any firewall or IP filtering software (e.g. PeerBlock) at the time?

Seeing as you reinstalled the OS, I’m assuming you probably didn’t install any other software in which case that last question won’t apply.

What DNS servers are you using?

Tachenon.5270:

There’s also the kitty challenge part which is “no kitty why you jump in front of the screen (quickly remove kitty without harm to kitty or self) that’s a bad kitty”.

Reflex challenge: “refill kitty’s plate of munchies before the next Assault on Fort Monitor”

:-)

Scrap 3 just dropped for me in Caledon Forest, it was either the Spelunker’s Delve or Morgan’s Spiral jumping puzzle chest (didn’t pay attention at the time).

Silmar Alech.4305:

Multiple arguments also work with a dash for sure. I’m using multiple arguments with a dash, and they all work. The post you are quoting has no space between -testVerticalFov and -autologin, and only because of that they don’t work. There must be spaces between the arguments, of course.

Dunno mate, I had multiple args separated by spaces, using the dashes:
-bmp -maploadinfo -autologin

I couldn’t get autologin to work until I changed the dashes to slashes, at which point it worked. I just did a test and reverted to dashes, and autologin stopped working.

For me at least (Win 7), only the slash seems to work with multiple args. The first argument (screen caps as bitmaps) still takes effect with a dash but the rest don’t.

Can’t think of a single reason why this would be the case…

Harper.4173:

The majority of players look for a guide as soon as content is released. That’s why youtube channels and sites that deal with this sort of thing are immensely popular.

Replicating a guide is easy. You might say it isn’t but honestly – all the work of discovering how to do it aside you can just do what the video guy did until you get it. There’s no reason not to.

What you’re saying is creating more reflex gameplay – not more mental challenge in the game. We already have that.
I was simply pointing out why you can’t have puzzles and whatnot as a serious thing.

I think of the mental challenge part of GW2 combat as “what is the sequence of things I need to do to stay alive and beat the encounter”, and the reflex challenge part is “how well can I time the actions (button presses, mouse movements) to perform that sequence of things”. I’m not talking about static puzzles or code cracking here.

You can get the information about what to do from a guide, no arguments there. That diminishes the mental challenge part, but does that mean there’s no point designing content with an element of mental challenge?

The people who enjoy working it out themselves have something to challenge themselves with (and write guides about). Those who prefer to read a guide still face a reflex challenge even though they (theoretically) know what to do.

Aside from that, I’d guess the developers would get pretty bored if they weren’t allowed to design content with some element of mental challenge…

AncientYs.8613:

gtg.7208:

You can execute switches directly from your Guild Wars 2 shortcut:

Right click on your Guild Wars 2 shortcut and select ‘Properties’.

In the ‘Target Area’ field you will see the location of your Guild Wars 2 executable file:
…\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe

Write -autologin after the quote marks with a space in between:
“…\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -autologin

Launches the game automatically, if the client has been set to remember the Account Name and Password.

Enjoy!

Source:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Command_line_arguments

this doesnt work for me… but i also have -testVerticalFov so my target looks like this;

“C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -testVerticalFov-autologin

it does not work… or do i put a space between -testVerticalFov and -autologin?

In addition to the space, try replacing the dash with a slash:
“C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” /testVerticalFov /autologin

I found that multiple arguments only work if you use a slash.

Saylu.8271:

The content already exist, adding more content just shift the ratio. The ratio of easy content vs hard content just favor the former. People keep mistaking “moderately challenging” content for difficult content which they aren’t. Moderately challenging content are more in the middle ground. I can understand why people are arguing for more “moderately challenging” content which actually make sense. For the sake of political correctness, I would think people who argue for actual difficult content is but a small vocal minority.

Agreed 100%.

I’d classify more difficult content as “make one or two mistakes and you’re done” (e.g. Liadri), and moderately difficult content as “make a few mistakes in a row and you’re done”.

The first type requires repeating the content enough times (varies for different people) that you no longer make any mistakes. The second allows you some breathing room to correct your mistakes without having to restart. Some moderately difficult content can be pushed over the edge by adding a tight time limit.

Easy content can only be failed if you go AFK, and sometimes not even then.

I doubt the majority of people want to have to beat Liadri as part of the Living Story (maybe as an April Fools’ joke?), but if LS S2 is any indication then there’s certainly more moderately difficult content on its way. This is a good thing…:-)

Harper.4173:

virtualtourist.6438:

To answer the OP’s fourth question:

I would like to see more content that involves greater elements of mental challenge, in smaller-scale encounters (not zerg-fests).

Mental challenge can include:

• Build preparation (choice of gear, skills, traits, food).
• Maintaining awareness of enemy positions and actions, and formulating responses to the evolving situation.
• Observing patterns in enemy behaviour and preparing for them.
• Making best use of the surrounding terrain (includes jumping puzzles).
• Resisting the urge to scream at the computer when your toon dies (maybe not this one).

It’s not possible to entirely remove the element of physical (reflex) challenge, unless it’s a puzzle similar to the one at the end of Tears of Itlaocol. I’d rather play a single-player puzzle game or turn-based RPG (X-Com, Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2) for that sort of thing.

I liked the LS Season 2 encounters. They tended to build upon earlier encounters and gradually introduced more things to keep track of during the fights. I know these were not everyone’s cup of tea, but since they are designed as Level 80 content it’s not unfair to expect a certain level of familiarity with your profession skills and knowing how to use them in different situations.

Main problem is that it takes time to design, create and test such encounters…and relatively little time for people to play through and eventually master them. Without the artificial time gating shenanigans used by other MMORPGs, this leads to a perceived lack of longevity.

Mental challenges aren’t worth the development time.

One player/one group just has to beat it and upload a guide/video of it and that’s it. Done. Everyone can do it provided they try and copy what the first group has done.

This sort of thing worked back in the day – when there weren’t as many written guilds and content creators invested in creating videos/guides for almost every game.

Every game – from CoD to BF4, Starcraft 2 and GW2 now have youtubers that deal with that game – promote the best strategies and builds and teach you how to master it without you having to strain your mind at all.

I’ll use the Foefire cleansing in Barradin’s Vault as an example:
Anyone who’s rolled a Charr would be familiar with the big bad statue and ghostly mobs, but in addition to different attacks used by the statue, you now have Spectral Flames that remind me of a less extreme version of Liadri’s Visions of Mortality plus Ascalonian Menders that have to be taken out before they heal the statue.

Each element of the fight is like a separate subroutine that does a few specific things (move to statue and heal, move to player and go boom). Taken individually, they’re not much of a problem. Combine them together and suddenly the player is faced with threats from multiple directions and having to prioritise each threat.

This is a more modular approach to creating an encounter, and probably easier since each component can be developed and tested in isolation to make sure it does what its supposed to. Combining them can be done incrementally and involves tweaking the timing and impact of each element until you get the balance you were aiming for.

You could load all the subroutines onto a single boss, but then the boss tends to only perform one attack/subroutine at a time and provides a single consistent target. Seems like how most of the dungeon bosses work.

Sure, you still have guides being posted on how to beat the content almost as soon as it’s released but not everyone looks for a guide immediately if they want to work out how to succeed on their own.

More importantly, a guide only provides an idea of how someone else did it. Actually replicating that success is a different matter…just look at how many failed to beat Liadri even with all the guides out there.

When there are multiple things to focus on and deal with, and making several mistakes in a row equals game over, watching a guide isn’t going to guarantee success, it just helps with preparation. There’s still an element of mental challenge involved during the fight, especially if each time the fight is run the timing of each element is randomised slightly.

To answer the OP’s fourth question:

I would like to see more content that involves greater elements of mental challenge, in smaller-scale encounters (not zerg-fests).

Mental challenge can include:

• Build preparation (choice of gear, skills, traits, food).
• Maintaining awareness of enemy positions and actions, and formulating responses to the evolving situation.
• Observing patterns in enemy behaviour and preparing for them.
• Making best use of the surrounding terrain (includes jumping puzzles).
• Resisting the urge to scream at the computer when your toon dies (maybe not this one).

It’s not possible to entirely remove the element of physical (reflex) challenge, unless it’s a puzzle similar to the one at the end of Tears of Itlaocol. I’d rather play a single-player puzzle game or turn-based RPG (X-Com, Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2) for that sort of thing.

I liked the LS Season 2 encounters. They tended to build upon earlier encounters and gradually introduced more things to keep track of during the fights. I know these were not everyone’s cup of tea, but since they are designed as Level 80 content it’s not unfair to expect a certain level of familiarity with your profession skills and knowing how to use them in different situations.

Main problem is that it takes time to design, create and test such encounters…and relatively little time for people to play through and eventually master them. Without the artificial time gating shenanigans used by other MMORPGs, this leads to a perceived lack of longevity.

Make use of Blocks to build a sense of when to time your dodges. The timing is easier than trying to time a dodge, especially if you suffer from lag/latency.

Blocks are more useful than Blinds, esp against Champs where Blind only works 10% of the time due to the Unshakable effect, and against Dredge who are immune to Blind.

Guardians have plenty of access to Blocks (as well as Blinds) so they’re a good profession to use when first learning the GW2 combat mechanics.

Rognik.2579:

Decrypter.1785:

Rym.1469:

Fun fact, bring a Ranger.

Even if you get downed, pet will rezz you anyway

Not so fun fact having to play thru it all again on ranger to unlock chieves ,

There are plenty of people who are level 80 and rangers who you could invite into the instance, too. Plus, the other classes aren’t totally helpless in this instance.

What I think would be a good tip is that you don’t need to dodge that huge attack that hits everywhere. Time it right, and I believe you can jump to avoid getting hit.

There’s an achievement related to avoiding the stomps:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_World_Summit#Achievements

Jumping and dodging both work, so you are better off jumping and saving endurance for other attacks.

“Restored the ability to double-click to move items from inventory to account vault while in bank mode at any bank or crafting station.”

Huzzah! Thank you, ANet

Unfortunately, this is intended behaviour:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2014-09-15

I find it annoying as well.

It’s worth noting that whatever solution ANet comes up with will have to take into account the various stages of progress that each character is currently at with the Personal Story. Not exactly going to be a quick fix since they have to make sure that nothing else gets broken during the change.

Taimi should invent Tyria’s first ever Bowel Disruptor gun (http://www.comicvine.com/bowel-disruptor/4055-56018/) and test fire it on Phlunt using the “unspeakable gut horror” setting.

Start outside of GW2. Pick an object in the living room or dining room and get him to walk around the object while looking at it (kind of like circle strafing). Then get him in game and see if he can translate the RL equivalent into the game. Pick a tree to focus on, try to keep the tree centred while strafing around it.

No idea if this will work… :-)

rincewind.9528:

I need to check the food on the TP. Thanks for the advice.

I got ranged weapon, bought a bow in the TP, an exotic valkyrie bow without any sigil.
I guess that I need to put sigils on it. Any recomendation?

If you have high crit chance and high condi damage (condi damage is recommended), Sigil of Earth (more bleeds). For the second sigil, you could add Sigil of Air, but it’s more expensive.

If you have trouble with condi cleanse, Sigil of Purity. Triggers on hit, so you don’t need a high crit chance. Other on hit sigils are worth a look if you have a low crit chance.

There are other options (like Sigil of Energy), if you have coin to burn.

Break the fight down into individual challenges:

1. Cosmic Rifts that pull and knock you down.
2. Shadowfall AoE that downs you instantly.
3. Visions of Mortality that kill you instantly.
4. Survive Liadri’s attacks.
5. Pick up Orbs of Blazing Light to throw at Liadri.
6. Deal enough damage to Liadri to defeat her before the timer runs out.

Focus on improving your technique with each challenge, but the exact methods you use will depend on profession and build. Combine all the techniques to deal with the entire fight. Helps if you spread out your attempts and spend some time analysing which parts you need to improve.

1. Use a ranged weapon to take them out and/or Stability to ignore the pull. Stun Break if all else fails.
2. Move out of the AoE, dodge or use skills that Evade or give Invulnerability.
3. Keep away and kite them into white whirlpools. Blind/Block them while standing in a whirlpool or Pull them in, to convert them into Orbs of Blazing Light.
4. In addition to the tips already mentioned, high toughness and regen will help. Normally don’t use Healing Sig on my Warrior but it got used in this fight.
5. You only have a limited amount of time to use them before they disappear (even after you pick them up). Had trouble with this one until I worked out that the most reliable method to deal with lag is to STOP MOVING (and don’t auto attack anything) before you pick them up.
6. Condition damage is your friend (same with the other Gauntlet bosses). Liadri will inflict Weakness, but that only reduces direct damage. Use condi cleanse to get rid of the Cripple/Weakness she deals out or use a full set of Centaur runes (-50% cripple duration, increased Swiftness duration and gain Swiftness on using a Heal skill).

Try to keep fast movement constantly active (either 25% speed boost from runes/signets/traits or Swiftness). I used a Warrior with Furious Speed traited and high crit chance (constant Swiftness in Phase 2), and activated Signet of Rage at the start of the fight (39 sec of Swiftness with the duration boost from Centaur runes). Necros can use Warhorn (traited with Banshee’s Wail and Centaur runes) to have perma Swiftness.

Improved endurance regeneration helps. Warriors can use Signet of Stamina. Bowls of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew in the absence of anything else.

Phase 1 is mainly about positioning so increased movement speed and dodging makes it easier while you’re learning the pattern. Hopefully you are following the other tips and sticking with the same arena.

Phase 2 is pretty simple if you circle strafe near the middle of the arena (roughly halfway between the centre and the edge). CTRL+T at the start of the fight helps a lot. Keep up the condi damage and avoid Shadowfall/Visions/Cosmic Rift pulls. She should go down within the time limit. For Warriors, I used off-hand sword to apply Torment and switched to Rifle for Cripple (Rifle 2) and Bleeds (auto attack).

HTH

You might be able to get by with stuffing your face with food:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food

Check the prices on the TP, most are quite affordable. Just remember to actually use the food before the fight…:-)

Some options that others have suggested elsewhere:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Orrian_Truffle_and_Meat_Stew
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mango_Pie

G’day! :-)

I would try Guardian, Warrior or Necromancer as a first character. All three have simple profession mechanics and builds that are more forgiving of mistakes. Warriors and Necros have high base health to act as a buffer. Guardians have low base health, but also have access to several Blinds and Blocks that let you avoid damage entirely. Those effects tend to last a few seconds so latency is less of an issue.

Mesmers are also a viable choice for the same reasons as Turret Engis and Minion Master Necros.

Avoid the “high risk, high reward” professions (Elementalist, Thief) until you’ve had more experience playing the game. They are totally playable even with high latency but can be quite demanding for a new player.

I would avoid Rangers as a first character…only because you can learn some bad habits since it’s a bit too easy to let your pet do the tanking for you at the lower levels. When you get to more difficult fights you can easily find your pet downed and yourself lacking the necessary reflexes to survive.

Like Elathan said, every profession has to learn to dodge…

Ozbrikk.9384:

@Ravenhunt well good for you.
262 attempts now: pulling orb appears next to second portal, game over; go invulnerable text comes up ‘invulnerable’, die anyway; outside a red zone but close to the edge, die anyway; hit pulling orb with Guardian septer 2 see it die, pulls me anyway; pick up orb movement keys stop; side step left and right to avoid her auto attacks, hits me anyway for 2k+ a time.

That sounds like lag…

When I was getting serious lag on day #2 of my attempts, turned out to be problems with my ISP so I quit trying Liadri (later ended up getting dc’ed twice while roaming so stopped playing for the night).

Try the steps on this page to see if you have a bad connection:
https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/27698133-Connectivity

Genius, mate. :-)

Might have to try a variant: “Swedish girl looking for guy at [Crown Pavilion Waypoint]”

@Ozbrikk

What sort of issues do you run into with phase 2? It sounds like you’ve got the positioning and timing sorted since you can comfortably clear phase 1. Phase 2 mainly consists of circle strafing to stay out of Shadowfall and away from Visions of Mortality while dealing as much damage as possible to Liadri.

Things that helped me:

• Full set of Superior Runes of the Centaur (-50% cripple duration in addition to the swiftness boost)
• Pile on condition damage as well as direct damage (I switched to full Rampager’s gear because I kept running out of time)

Don’t forget food boosts, although I forgot to use the food I had in inventory when I beat her so that was a couple fire flank steaks that became leftovers. Some people swear by mango pie.

robertul.3679:

Combat Healer. Why is this even a question?

…because a lot of people have difficulty finding 1000 dead NPCs due to all the other annoying players rezzing them? :-)

The value of a title also depends on how much personal significance it has.

If I get a title after pressing “F” 1000 times to rez random NPCs and PCs outside of combat, it has no real significance for me.

If I get a title after putting in the effort to learn how to overcome a challenge, then it has great personal significance.

Guess which title gets used?

thaooo.5320:

Servers and networks cost next to nothing, so sorry but that’s a moot point.

That statement alone deserves some sort of award… :-)

thaooo.5320:

siralius.9517:

Let me break it down for you guys, simply. Right now, I can log into GW2 but instead I’m going to read a book. Do you understand what I just wrote here? I. am. choosing. to. read. a. book. This is not good… This is not good at all…

o/

I’ve been playing old single player games the last few months, ones that were made by passionate DEVELOPERS not money driven corporate types.

It’s sad how rampant capitalism has taken over the video game industry, they could at least deliver a top notch product in their quest for cash.

The reason I bolded ‘developers’ is because it was recently brought to our attention that a certain WvW lead/“developer” of the last year only has formal education in the German language, nothing about coding or games or public relations or anything that might apply to this industry. And this alone explains the stagnant state of WvW.

Aside from having proven Behellagh’s point, how is it actually relevant that a developer currently working on the game doesn’t have any formal education as a developer?

Where does it say that only a formally trained developer can write good code/create good designs? I’ve met formally trained developers who write poorly structured code and/or struggle with designing efficient solutions, and self-taught developers who create elegant code.

Passion only gets you so far. Companies have employees to pay. Server and network infrastructure ain’t free.

Do the Festival of the Four Winds events until you have enough (400) tokens to buy the Gift of Sprockets.

You can get a decent amount of coin selling watchwork sprockets at the moment, which will help to outfit you with masterwork (green) gear.

Yeah, I got extremely lucky with the NBN lottery – most folks I know have missed out. You might still be able to get FTTN though, as opposed to FTTP.

Yet another reason to kick Abbott out…:-)

@OP: Is your CPU and/or GPU overclocked?

Scoundrel.2139:

Zaxares.5419:

47 tickets, a Metabolic Primer and a Strength/Armor/Rejuvenation/Speed Booster later (plus a custom purchased set of Rabid armor), I have finally Lit Up the Darkness!

Special thanks go to Safari for his build and technique. I almost ragequit a couple of times due to my ping (from Australia, so it’s at least 200 ms) causing the game to think I was closer to the Visions than I really was, or not letting me pick up orbs when I was standing right on top of them. But I finally got it in the end! /dance

Congrats! I know how you feel being from Vic. Battling the connection is half of it. :P
Well done indeed. Now, go put that lil Liadri in the microwave or something. :P

Gratz, mate – I feel your pain…but that just makes victory all the sweeter. :-)

Can’t wait for the NBN to finally activate (box already installed).

Must resist urge…to mutilate the mini…

What with all the crying about Liadri being too hard, thought I’d counteract that by creating this thread.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some uber l33t player who can faceroll Liadri in 1 minute using 10 orbs and 5 gambits. I actually took around 80 attempts spread out over 4 days and lots of messing around with different builds before I finally took her down yesterday… Best. Fight. Evar.

Fun, challenging and forced me to think about what I was doing.

I love Liadri just the way she is so please don’t nerf her… :-)

PS: my secret weapon was that I listened to “Fear not this night” from the GW2 soundtrack before logging in to face the Concealing Dark for the victory. Quite appropriate for Liadri, and doubly appropriate ’cos I used my Sylvari Warrior. YMMV

…for adjusting the unlock requirements for Adept traits to be less insane…

:-)

Hmm, forgot about the loss of stacks on map change, just goes to show how little I use on-kill stacking sigils…:-P

Standing near a Vista on the side of a mountain is usually safe (the ones that are underground, not so much).

Re #1, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to pick a “safe” spot to go AFK for a long period. Safe meaning somewhere with several friendly NPCs that doesn’t have associated dynamic events…or just use a Hall of Monuments Portal Stone for a potty break (utterly brilliant, not my idea, read that somewhere else in the forums).

Agreed with #2. I usually hang back while watching someone else attempt a skill challenge that I’ve already completed and if I see their health dropping too low in relation to the enemy’s health I’ll lend a hand. Sometimes I ask if someone needs help before they start if I know the challenge can be especially nasty (like the Corrupted Spike).

You also gain XP from reviving allies (NPCs and other players), and completing daily/monthly achievements also gives XP. Take part in dynamic events whenever they pop up as well.

Combat tips:
1. Knowledge
Make sure to read the stickied posts at the top of this forum, and in particular check out DreamyAbaddon’s videos about Damage, Control and Support.

Related to this is becoming familiar with weapon and utility skills and choosing the right tools for different encounters (eg. when outnumbered like in some Personal Story missions, bring AoE attacks).

2. Equipment
Make sure your equipment is kept reasonably up to date (at least within 5 levels of your character’s level), and that the stat bonuses are useful for the way you play. When starting out and getting familiar with the combat system, try and buy/craft Vitality boosting equipment (provides more health).

Runes are also useful at an early level. These are upgrades applied to your armour and if you equip a different Vitality boosting rune on each piece of armour you will get between 40-60 Vitality (400-600 Health) depending on whether you have shoulder/helm armour.

You might not have enough cash or crafting materials to get a set of armor or runes, but one thing that you can probably craft right now is a Rune of Life. This is the equivalent of +2 Vitality (20 Health) per rune.

3. Dodge
It’s much better not to get hit in the first place, but you can consider the Vitality boosting equipment to be “training wheels” until you become familiar with survival techniques in Tyria.

Aside from learning to dodge big attacks, you might find the following post useful (shameless self plug :-P):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Damage-avoidance-for-new-players/first

Depending on the profession you play, the weapons you use and the utility skills you have learned, you will probably have access to Blocks, Blinds and/or Evades. Become familiar with the effects and make use of them to avoid taking damage.

These methods work regardless of your level or stats so they are much more effective than loading up on Toughness or Vitality gear in the long run.

Don’t force yourself to stick to any single weapon set, but rather choose the one that works best for you in the current situation.

Personal Story missions tend to involve being (heavily) outnumbered. If you chose the Shield of the Moon option for your Sylvari, for example…

AoE works best for those missions, which generally means using staff.

Example: Water staff lets you drop AoE heals, which can keep friendly NPCs (aka meat shields) alive longer.

Also, try using combos:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_elementalist_combo_skills

Champ loot bags still give out free skill points (scroll of knowledge) fairly frequently.

Whether or not this is a good thing depends on what you think of champ trains…

You no longer need the trait books at all. :-)

The only thing they did was to unlock the Adept, Master and Grandmaster tier major traits…and this now happens automatically for free when you level up enough.

Unless the old trait manuals somehow convert into the new trait guides, I don’t think they have any use after the feature pack.

Still, like I said, I could be wrong about them no longer having any use…someone was buying them on the TP but that could be an old order that was placed prior to the feature pack and never removed.