Guild Wars 2 List of Languishites
Martinus.1068 on Piken Square
Pete.5276 on Piken Square
sbr.8170 on Tarnished Coast
Berkut.2709 on Henge
Shade.5421
Katmai.6492
Solmyr.5301
I will most likely be purchasing this...but probably not for a while...not enough time at the moment :)
I've pre-ordered but have no idea how much I'll be able to play.
Btw, I just asked and it was confirmed that you can have a character on a EU server and play with people on a US server. So it's awesome. :D
Also, in case someone doesn't know, the game has no subscription fee.
Pre purchased and will be on maguuma.
I'm in, of course. Didn't know that you could do cross server population (US/EU) partying. I'm on Henge of Denravi if there are any more stress tests, not sure where I'll be once the game is released.
I shall be ordering the game and will probably start playing once the autumn term starts for UK schools. I'm a little bit concerned about the idea of all the dancing around during combat, arthritis and dodgy nerves do not go well with twitchy combat........but we will see :cool:
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on August 13, 2012, 04:40:56 PM
I shall be ordering the game and will probably start playing once the autumn term starts for UK schools. I'm a little bit concerned about the idea of all the dancing around during combat, arthritis and dodgy nerves do not go well with twitchy combat........but we will see :cool:
From my experience, this is helpful but not necessary - I am also used to rather static combat and I survived without dodging or dancing around. Just play a warrior or a guardian who have better armor. :)
In PvE you can survive without moving around too much, although it does help. You'll definitely need to use your dodge skill, but that can be activated either by double tapping in a direction or by binding dodge to another key (I use shift).
In PvP or WvW you have to move around or else you'll be toast. It isn't quite as frantic as an FPS though.
I usually stick to PvE anyway, exploration and immersion are far more important to me than competition, the closer it gets to living a fantasy novel the better as far as I'm concerned. Having said that one naturally wants to turn in a creditable performance and not let the group down.
Sounds like good advice about binding the dodge skill to a prominent key :cool:
Yeah, exploration and PvE is also much more fun for me (and GW2 is very heavy on exploration - for example it has a lot of "special places" you can visit and get a reward just for doing so; and a mob that has not been killed for a while gives more xp the longer it lived, to encourage people going off a beaten path). The problem with "jumping around" was also present in WoW PvP btw (which is one of the reasons I didn't like it too much).
I'm in.
For the Jaron inclined, there are opportunities for trolling in PvE. Despite the game encouraging cooperation at every turn, here are some of the jerk things I've seen attempted or heard about:
1. Dragging mobs onto someone when they are fighting something else. Doesn't work that well, most mobs have a pretty short leash. If the person is paying attention it's unlikely to bother them at all.
2. Giving speed boosts to players just before they attempt jumps in the jumping puzzles. This works very well, overshooting or overcompensating is easy to do.
Quote from: frunk on August 14, 2012, 10:49:39 AM
2. Giving speed boosts to players just before they attempt jumps in the jumping puzzles. This works very well, overshooting or overcompensating is easy to do.
Talk about a dick move. :lmfao:
Sounds interesting. I will probably get it.
Are there any tips on classes to avoid/try as a first toon.
I dunno. I haven't tried all the professions. I've had extensive time with Ranger, some time with Elementalist and Mesmer, a smattering with Thief and Necro. Of those Mesmer and Necro were the toughest for me, Ranger and Thief easiest, and Elementalist took some warming up to but kicked ass once I did.
Of the ones I haven't played I think Engineer will also be tricky, but Warrior and Guardian seem pretty straightforward.
Unlike other MMOs there's no dedicated healer or dps class, so you don't have to worry about getting stuck with a profession that can't solo (or is incredibly boring solo). Personally I'd recommend trying whichever profession most appeals, and if it doesn't work out switch to a different one.
How where they able to break the tank, dps, healer mold in all the other MMOs?
Everyone can heal!
So there are still going to be people that specialize in healing, tanking and dps?
Or can all classes do all things all the time?
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 14, 2012, 01:41:47 PM
How where they able to break the tank, dps, healer mold in all the other MMOs?
Part of it is making a player's self heal more powerful than the heal from other players. There's some professions that can heal better than others (Guardian and Elementalist), but in general a player who plays dedicated healing is probably a net minus on your team since he isn't doing anything to the enemy.
Dedicated tanks are removed by not having aggro control skills and making it virtually impossible for any one player to stand face to face with a heavy assault for an extended length of time. Anybody can "tank" for a limited time, either by dodging or using skills that give effective or actual invulnerability. Those skills don't last long and have relatively lengthy cooldowns.
Dps is still dps, but there isn't a single profession that's markedly superior. They each have their own flavors and methods though.
I am not intrigued. Not at all!
I think they said the usual holy trinity roles are replaced by dps, control and support. All classes can do all three, and the switch between each is done through different weapons being equipped, which can be done mid-fight.
For example, my character (a guardian) is a pure dps when wielding a two-handed hammer, but when he equips a weapon and a shield or a staff, he has skills to grant protection or healing to other players.
Thanks for the explanations.
I just got a lot more interested.
For those that have pre-purchased there's another stress test from 3-7 pm EST tomorrow (Aug 15).
It would appear that I am in.
Quote from: Berkut on August 15, 2012, 05:30:12 PM
It would appear that I am in.
Excellent. An MMO is never complete until one is ignored by Berkut in chat!
I'm definitely intrigued, but won't be playing until mid September at the earliest.
Knowing the track record of you people by time I could play you'll all be bored anyways :P
Quote from: katmai on August 15, 2012, 08:33:51 PM
Knowing the track record of you people by time I could play you'll all be bored anyways :P
Also a necessary ingredient in any MMO I play. Start out with Kamtai gone then play the game with Katmai for about two weeks. Have great time. Wait for Katmai to return from yet another gig. Get bored waiting. Quit playing.
btw, it turns out I used an invalid email address when I set up my account and so my game key is tied to an account name that wont work.
They assure me they will have the ability to allow people to change their account emails before launch. Why they allow people to register with what they consider invalid account emails in the first place is beyond me.
They are transitioning a bunch of old Guild Wars accounts that had invalid emails as well. They said these would be cleaned up before launch, so its probably remnants of that system that let you through.
LOL.
Classes that look interesting (to me):
Ranger (of course)
Mesmer
Engineer
Is there a particular server the US players are going to get on?
Ok, so just to clarify some things about servers, following the recent post by Arena Net (full post here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-world-of-choice-the-regions-of-guild-wars-2/):
1. You can choose any server as your home server. The games come in US and EU versions but this is only for login/support purposes. Afterwards, you can choose any server to play on (i.e. a European player can play on a US server and vice versa).
2. You can only have one home server at a given time. In order to switch a server to play on you need to do a server transfer. This will be free for some time after launch to allow players to move around without being locked in, but later on, when the server population settles, this will be done by paying an amount of "gems" (the game store currency that can be bought with both in-game gold and real world $).
3. You can actively play with people who have other home servers, as long as you have them on your friends list. This is done through the feature of "guesting", where a player can temporarily move to another server while in game and quest or do dungeons with the "local" player. This will be available for all servers, so no EU/US divide either. The only area where "guesting" is not possible is the World vs. World vs. World pvp (i.e. structured pvp between servers). But... the "guesting" feature will not be available at launch but will be implemented shortly after.
I will be starting on the EU server Piken Square because it has been selected as the unofficial European rpg server ( :nerd: ), so I encourage all EU players and those US players who don't mind having a server with less people during their playing hours to play there too (I'm looking at you, Jaron). :)
If for whatever reason you experience lag or do not like the server you can always move out and it will be free during the first few weeks.
And on top of that, once the guesting service is implemented, we will all be able to play together through ad hoc intra-server grouping.
The unofficial US RP server is Tarnished Coast. I had a mild preference not to go on that server, but only if it ended up being extremely crowded.
The more I learn about this game the more I want to play it.
Tough to choose a profession. I have ruled out thief and necromancer and I think I am leaning toward an Engineer, Mesmer, or Ranger.
I was thinking about an elementalist but there was way too much QQ about the class and having lived through the Shaman for so long in WoW, I didnt want to go through that again.
Engineer is probably what I will try first. Now I have to choose a race.
I'm sure it will be some freakishly tall race
They have implemented the ability to change account names. All is well. Even for short people.
Quote from: katmai on August 17, 2012, 07:08:41 PM
I'm sure it will be some freakishly tall race
That would be the Norn.
Character Heights (http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/in-game-character-heights/)
Quote from: frunk on August 17, 2012, 08:12:45 PM
Quote from: katmai on August 17, 2012, 07:08:41 PM
I'm sure it will be some freakishly tall race
That would be the Norn.
Character Heights (http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/in-game-character-heights/)
I know, i was looking at a Norn or Charr if picked up game :P
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 17, 2012, 07:03:55 PM
The more I learn about this game the more I want to play it.
Tough to choose a profession. I have ruled out thief and necromancer and I think I am leaning toward an Engineer, Mesmer, or Ranger.
I was thinking about an elementalist but there was way too much QQ about the class and having lived through the Shaman for so long in WoW, I didnt want to go through that again.
Engineer is probably what I will try first. Now I have to choose a race.
Elementalist seems the most versatile of the four, since they have four different attunements, one for each element, which give them pure dps (fire), control (air and earth) and support (water) abilities.
Remember that if you pre-purchase (not pre-order), you get an early access next Saturday rather than Tuesday after it. Especially important for the Brits, as this gives you the entire long weekend to play. :P
if you people are still raving over it when i come back, will start up a Norn Ranger
Quote from: katmai on August 18, 2012, 01:39:36 AM
if you people are still raving over it when i come back, will start up a Norn Ranger
Problem is you always wait to come back until after everyone is gone.... :P
Quote from: Martinus on August 18, 2012, 01:37:14 AM
Elementalist seems the most versatile of the four, since they have four different attunements, one for each element, which give them pure dps (fire), control (air and earth) and support (water) abilities.
I have been trying to make sense of all the classes. The thing I keep reading is it is a bit of a pain to quickly change between attunements. I am not sure I want to play a class that is so twitchy.
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 18, 2012, 10:35:17 AM
I have been trying to make sense of all the classes. The thing I keep reading is it is a bit of a pain to quickly change between attunements. I am not sure I want to play a class that is so twitchy.
Switching between attunements isn't anymore difficult than switching weapons. Both are one click actions. There's a cooldown if you want to switch back again, but you can switch to a third or fourth attunement after only a short delay.
Quote from: frunk on August 18, 2012, 08:37:36 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 18, 2012, 10:35:17 AM
I have been trying to make sense of all the classes. The thing I keep reading is it is a bit of a pain to quickly change between attunements. I am not sure I want to play a class that is so twitchy.
Switching between attunements isn't anymore difficult than switching weapons. Both are one click actions. There's a cooldown if you want to switch back again, but you can switch to a third or fourth attunement after only a short delay.
That seems pretty easy then. Maybe I will give it a shot after all.
I prefer melee classes (I'm masochistic that way) - so it'll be warrior or guardian. Warrior sounds more interesting, but that banner carrying/planting seems kinda bothersome.
still thinking about it.
Quote from: Syt on August 19, 2012, 01:01:50 AM
I prefer melee classes (I'm masochistic that way) - so it'll be warrior or guardian. Warrior sounds more interesting, but that banner carrying/planting seems kinda bothersome.
I haven't played a warrior but from what I can tell about static area of effect spells for other classes, they are all on low cool down and have a relatively short duration so I suppose it will be just something you press every once in a while like any other buff, especially when fighting a bigger group of more static mobs. There is also an option in the UI settings that automatically places all ground-targetted spells on the mouse pointer, rather than requiring you to click twice.
So, the gem store is up. Finally, a game where you can buy an xp boost with real world money without having to use dodgy services.
The exchange rate for British players is rather poor :hmm:
£1.0625 for 100 gems as opposed to $1.25 for the US players........implying an exchange rate of $1.17 to the £ whereas it is actually $1.57 to the £. I wonder if they will let me pay in $ :D
Does the store let you examine what the item does? For me it is just a name of the item and I wonder if this is because I am checking this on a Mac. Most likely it's still rudimentary before launch.
Uhm, what's the link for the store? I can find it neither on the GW2 page, nor in the launcher.
Never mind, found it through a link on another forum.
No description for me, either, but there's descriptions on the GW wiki.
But what's up with the sunglasses and hats? :huh:
Quote from: Syt on August 19, 2012, 06:31:32 AM
Never mind, found it through a link on another forum.
No description for me, either, but there's descriptions on the GW wiki.
But what's up with the sunglasses and hats? :huh:
The hat is a real item for people who want to look like nerds. Not sure about the sunglasses.
Or do you mean the top hat etc? The game has a second tab for "town clothes" which is what you can wear out of combat in the city. I guess the sunglasses kinda break immersion so don't like it too much but the rest is legit for the kind of era this game portrays.
Another stress test tonight at noon Pacific time (9 p.m. for Euros, 8 p.m. for Brits). If you pre-purchased, make sure to update the client and log in. :D
cool, hopefully I can jump on and get a quick peek at what I want to play when the game goes live.
Quote from: Martinus on August 21, 2012, 12:11:10 AM
Another stress test tonight at noon Pacific time (9 p.m. for Euros, 8 p.m. for Brits). If you pre-purchased, make sure to update the client and log in. :D
Marty, where do you get the info for these?
Quote from: Berkut on August 21, 2012, 08:26:47 AM
Quote from: Martinus on August 21, 2012, 12:11:10 AM
Another stress test tonight at noon Pacific time (9 p.m. for Euros, 8 p.m. for Brits). If you pre-purchased, make sure to update the client and log in. :D
Marty, where do you get the info for these?
Facebook and Twitter. :P
The most reliable (and relatively spam free) is subscribing to the official channel: @GuildWars2
Guild Wars 2 Wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page) also has information on the stess tests, as well as the unofficial Guild Wars 2 forum (http://www.guildwars2forum.com/forums/7-Guild-Wars-2-News-amp-Updates).
Yeah but twitter is probably the best as you just get the message delivered to you whenever they announce it. :)
It was also posted on the official website under the community "news" tab.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/launcher/launcher-test-text/
Stress test extended for another hour (so 2 more hours) but I'm off to bed. Was fun though. Tried an elementalist but definitely enjoy a guardian more.
The people I played with today are a mesmer and an engineer so a guardian was god-send.
Its pretty hectic in the beginning areas. Kind of hard to figure out what I am doing since things are dying so fast.
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 21, 2012, 05:29:22 PM
Its pretty hectic in the beginning areas. Kind of hard to figure out what I am doing since things are dying so fast.
Yeah. I started a new character yesterday and it was much worse, crowd-wise, than the previous stress tests.
The game isn't much fun when it gets too crowded, which is one of the reasons while I'll probably be seeking out a low pop server. In general as the game goes on people spread out and it isn't as bad, the first beta weekend was particularly overcrowded. It's also possible that since it's a stress test they minimized the overflow servers, and once it's released it'll be more manageable.
In general I've seen a lot more things that went wrong during the stress tests than any of the beta weekends.
I logged on during the period of the extension. There were a lot fewer people on then I a got a much better feel for the game. I think I am going to enjoy this quite a lot. The fact that you can have multiple builds available to you with only a weapon swap if very appealing. Also, no more waiting around for a tank/healer to log on.
I havent fully understood the various build options yet or how it all ties together but it looks like it will be a lot fun learning the various options.
A good part of builds isn't accessible until you hit level 5 (1st utility skill), 7 (weapon swapping), 10 (2nd utility skill), 11 (trait points), 15 (first trait bonus), 20 (3rd utility skill and first selectable trait bonus), 30 (elite skill and second selectable trait bonus) and 40 (third selectable trait bonus). The early levels just give you a taste of what's to come.
Edit: The utility skills come at 5, 10 and 20 not 10, 15 20. Sorry about that.
So now down to the serious business of selecting a first profession. I dont want to mess around with pets so I think that rules out the Ranger. The mesmer seems like a class to play after I understand the game mechanics a bit better. The necro isnt appealing to me.
I didnt play much with the thief but it seems like its a class where reaction time and positioning is important - so not really my bag. Probably something to come back to once I get the hang of things.
The Engineer feels like it could be fun but I am not sure I am going to like the mechanics of the class.
I enjoyed playing the warrior, guardian and elementalist. Wierd combination I know.
I am leaning toward having the guardian as my first toon because they seem indestructable. But the versatility of the elementalist and the killing ability of the warrior also appeal.
Decisions decsions.
As for race I am leaning toward Norn, human or plant person.
Now I have no idea, the more I read about the Engineer the more fun it seems to play.
There was a snap stress test this morning for an hour. The game is definitely playable when thete is noone around as it spawns guards to help the player.
Quote from: Martinus on August 23, 2012, 12:59:26 AM
There was a snap stress test this morning for an hour. The game is definitely playable when thete is noone around as it spawns guards to help the player.
:bleeding:
Quote from: szmik on August 23, 2012, 02:48:54 AM
Quote from: Martinus on August 23, 2012, 12:59:26 AM
There was a snap stress test this morning for an hour. The game is definitely playable when thete is noone around as it spawns guards to help the player.
:bleeding:
What?
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 22, 2012, 10:18:56 PM
Now I have no idea, the more I read about the Engineer the more fun it seems to play.
I haven't played an engineer but I heard it is a very fun profession.
The only classes I really played so far are the guardian and the elementalist (I chose them because they are the professions most appealing to me, lore/concept-wise) - I find the guardian's play style much more to my liking since I generally like support classes and I hate being squishy (and unlike WoW, I think you have to actively dodge etc. when playing a squishy class or you get creamed fast). The guardian is not indestructible, however - I have been downed several times when going against 2-3 foes at the same time, depending on my weapon at the time - so it is not a total piece of cake either.
As for a ranger, I don't think it would be that complicated - in fact pet classes are usually recommended for new players. Plus everyone wants to heal your pet so he will probably never die when you are around other people. :P (The way it works, whenever there is a badly injured "ally" near you - be it another player or his or her pet - he gets a special icon over its head and you just need to right-click it to heal it; in addition to keeping the person alive, it also gives you some small amount of xp if you do that - so at least I always end up healing someone who needs it in my vicinity - and very often these are pets :P).
I heard a lot of good stuff said about a warrior gameplay - definitely more dps than a guardian, and thanks to their heavy armour still good survivability.
Quote from: Martinus on August 23, 2012, 12:59:26 AM
There was a snap stress test this morning for an hour. The game is definitely playable when thete is noone around as it spawns guards to help the player.
The guards only spawn around specific events, most of the explorable areas are left as is.
Yes, correct.
Guys, while you wait for the release, here's a very good gathering/crafting guide as things work very differently than in WoW and you will lose a lot if you dont do it from day 1.
http://guildwars.gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_crafting/post_35198.html
That crafting system looks like it could actually be fun.
Apparently another stress test starting nowish.
Well it might still be going on but I am getting an error message that says my firewall is blocking it.
This means you may need to open some ports. There is a guide on the official website.
Quote from: frunk on August 23, 2012, 06:27:24 AM
Quote from: Martinus on August 23, 2012, 12:59:26 AM
There was a snap stress test this morning for an hour. The game is definitely playable when thete is noone around as it spawns guards to help the player.
The guards only spawn around specific events, most of the explorable areas are left as is.
That
Looks like I´ll be joining up on Far Shiverpeaks.
If you have any national preferences or just want to know which servers to avoid this list helps.
http://www.gw2guilds.org/servers/eu
Making a mental note to avoid Blacktide.
Yeah the Polish/Russian thing got me confused. Not really the two nationalities I´d picture creating a good community together.
Quote from: Martinus on August 23, 2012, 10:55:02 PM
This means you may need to open some ports. There is a guide on the official website.
Naw, it has to do with them optimizing there systems. It works again.
Quote from: Cecil on August 24, 2012, 10:18:24 AM
Looks like I´ll be joining up on Far Shiverpeaks.
If you have any national preferences or just want to know which servers to avoid this list helps.
http://www.gw2guilds.org/servers/eu
That list does not tell me how to avoid the US soccer
fans apologists.
I like how the sylvari distinguish the classes by the colour of their skin. Looks like I´ll be playing a black dude. I was thinking of going human but the emo pale look rubbed me the wrong way and the starting area was less interesting.
Quote from: Cecil on August 24, 2012, 12:11:22 PM
I like how the sylvari distinguish the classes by the colour of their skin. Looks like I´ll be playing a black dude. I was thinking of going human but the emo pale look rubbed me the wrong way and the starting area was less interesting.
You can change the colouring (and just about everything else) on all the races to whatever shade you want. I think you are talking about the default colouring if you skip to the end of the character creation system.
And there seems to be a strong consensus that the human City is the best one in the game.
So, servers are online. Is there a Euro-Languish server yet?
EDIT: My old SWTOR guild chose Gunnar's Hold, so I guess I'll go there, even if there's little interest from them, it seems (forums seem pretty much dead).
I created a couple charaters on Tarnished Hold.
Created a Charr Warrior, Sytharras on Gunnar's Hold. The one who wrote the intro video liked his Babylon 5. "The Blood Legion is mother, the Blood Legion is father!" :lol:
Half an hour in and the game just freezes. <_<
And connection failure, so I guess the servers went down.
I´m ok
And I got my ass kicked out.
Quote from: Cecil on August 25, 2012, 02:43:38 AM
And I got my ass kicked out.
Same. Managed to get my guardian to level 7.
I'm on Piken Square. Name Willem Deschain.
Yeah, I've crashed a few times so far. I tried setting details lower, but that didn't help. Last crash when I wanted to activate the vista point in the n00b area.
Also, the text on the menu buttons keeps disappearing for me.
The gameplay seems fun, if a bit chaotic when 20 people fight 10 mobs.
Managed to login back!
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 24, 2012, 12:01:00 PM
That list does not tell me how to avoid the US soccer fans apologists.
Pretty easy. Just don't mention it. Americans aren't going to bring up soccer on our own.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on August 25, 2012, 03:09:26 AM
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 24, 2012, 12:01:00 PM
That list does not tell me how to avoid the US soccer fans apologists.
Pretty easy. Just don't mention it. Americans aren't going to bring up soccer on our own.
There is a small percentage of Americans I want to avoid. ;)
I played for four hours trouble free last night. Only problem I saw was I didn't get my Hall of Monuments doodad. Sucks that the login servers are down now.
I finished exploring the Black Citadel before lunch without any further issues. Trying to log in now, but it seems login servers are overloaded/busy/down? Launcher doesn't initialize.
I'm playing on medium settings, but the game still looks pretty good.
Quote from: Syt on August 25, 2012, 07:54:29 AM
I finished exploring the Black Citadel before lunch without any further issues. Trying to log in now, but it seems login servers are overloaded/busy/down? Launcher doesn't initialize.
I'm playing on medium settings, but the game still looks pretty good.
How good is your vid card?
I'm wondering if this game is playable using the onboard card I got with the system. Just bought the computer a couple months ago, so it should be pretty decent. I hope.
I'm running an nVidia GTX555M in my notebook, 2GB. I can run, say, SWTOR, GTA4, Batman ArkAs, or Civ5 with all bells and whistles.
I have a year and a half old computer and the graphics card wasn't the latest then. I can run it at a full 1920x1080, but there's just enough stutter that I take it down some.
Oh yeah, I run in 1920x1200, too.
I just got in, and its downloading a patch. Crossing fingers.
I can log in now, but the game doesn't load. Also, the launcher gives me critical disk write errors if I leave it on too long, two of them during patch download. Either the hd is faulty (already checked, it's fine), or the game's data is corrupted. Guess it's time for a fresh install.
Game runs fine after re-install. Except that after 90 minutes my computer shut down due to CPU overheating. It may be because I have increased the view distance.
Got my guardian to level 9 and my elementalist to level 10. :cool:
One hint guys - crafting gives ton of xp. Since my mage is more squishy, I found myself a bit stuck at level 9 as I had nowhere to go for new hearts etc. and just grinding in this game gives very little of xp - then I decided to craft a little and discovered three recipes as a tailor - lo and behold, I got about 600 xp per pop and then it gives me 600 xp every time I create one of the items I discovered (a rune of life which is sort of like enchantment in WoW). This is awesome. I got from level 9 to 10 on my elementalist just by crafting.
What is this overheating you have? I´m running on max and my computer is snoring at this. ;)
I think I am going to go with a guardian as my first toon. Not sure about my crafting skills yet.
Things I really like about this game and why it would be very hard to go back to a traditional MMO.
No node stealing
No quest hubs or quest collecting
dynamic everything
I have been thinking about getting this for a while. Outside of a couple 10 day trials of WoW and a few solo month-long trips through LoTRO I haven't done the MMO thing before. I haven't worked much in the last 6 weeks so it likely won't be immediately, but probably soon.
So is there an American server we are looking to get on?
Quote from: Cecil on August 25, 2012, 06:08:16 PM
What is this overheating you have? I´m running on max and my computer is snoring at this. ;)
My notebook is about a year and a half old (see thread http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,4863.0.html ). It seems that it's core 4 that the game is taxing the most. I've switched off all the bells and whistles on Win7 (i.e. Aero etc.), cleaned the laptop as best as I can, have sufficient airflow (laptop is about an inch above solid surface), so I'm rather stumped. Gfx card is having no problems.
Guess it's time to bring the thing to the shop and have it professionally cleaned.
Yeah, tried changing the core affinity for GW2 to the first three cores, but now Core 0 and 1 heat up over 90 degrees. Mind you, SWTOR goes into the high 80s, most other games leave the CPU in the 70s (yeah I know that biggest load on MMOs is the CPU).
Good then I have a watercooled 3960X. :P
Quote from: Berkut on August 25, 2012, 09:20:46 PM
So is there an American server we are looking to get on?
I'm on Henge of Denravi right now. I have a couple of friends here, but nothing tying us to it.
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 25, 2012, 06:15:00 PM
I think I am going to go with a guardian as my first toon. Not sure about my crafting skills yet.
You do not lose the skill level when you abandon a crafting skill and then pick it up again - you just pay a fee (gold, not gems).
Quote from: Cecil on August 26, 2012, 12:41:16 AM
Good then I have a watercooled 3960X. :P
You're so incredibly awesome, I guess? :mellow:
Anyway, this game is fucking awesome. I made to level 13 on my guardian (guys, discover new stuff with crafting - it gives ton of xp!) and made it to a Heartwood outspot in the Southern Queensdale. First we helped to clear it out of centaurs, then troops arrived and started to secure the perimeter. We then had to defend it against incoming centaur counterattack.
I was the highest level there and with my great sword I really brought death and destruction on centaurs - but then was stricken down by the chieftain. So noob ranger and engineer riskes their lives to come and revive me during the combat. :cool:
They really managed to capture a very rpgish experience with this game. Cities feel like cities, villages like villages, battles like battles - it's not all "put two buildings and pretend" like it was in WoW.
Btw, another awesome thing - you can freely access your bank at crafting stations - no need to run back and forth between the bank and the forge etc. Just remember, when crafting, to put the relevant stuff in your backpack (the crafting stuff is under the collections tab when you are at the crafting station).
And discovery is very fun and easy. For example, I'm a weaponsmith on my guardian, so I know how to make a simple bronze sword (it takes bronze hilt and a bronze blade). So discovery works like this: you put a bronze hilt and a bronze blade in the discovery slots and add a rune (e.g. a rune of vitality) - and voila, you discover a recipe for a sword of vitality. This gives you very good equipment (the stuff I craft is routinely better or on par with the the stuff you get from quests or drops), you get more than 1 skill point and you get a shit ton of xp (I got 1000xp or so per discovery).
Oh and in case you didn't notice - if you go to a newbie area, your level is decreased to the max level for that area, and you get normal (for your actual, not decreased, level) xp and loot from there. So if you want to complete some achievements etc. don't worry if you outgrow the level of the area. Same if you want to help a friend who is a lower level (each of you will be getting different loot).
This morning I went to the cliff area near Shaemoor (where you fight earth elementals and harpies occassionally attack). I was scaled down to level 5 (the gear scales down with you, so you can still equip stuff usable from, say, level 8, it just works like the best gear available at level 5) and harpies dropped for example a hammer usable from level 12. :cool:
This game is seriously a WoW killer. WoW took EQ2 and cut down all the annoying, bad crap in it by reinventing itself. GW2 did the same to WoW.
Quote from: Martinus on August 26, 2012, 01:12:25 AM
This game is seriously a WoW killer.
Says the level 13. :lol:
The way I see it, even if this game had no dungeons, and just world content like this, I would still like it better than WoW.
It's not just that you haven't seen the endgame that makes your conclusion premature. It's that you've barely played the game. It's fresh and new right now, but does it have the hooks to keep you playing six months from now, or six years from now?
Anyway, the "WoW Killer" is not a different game. It's Time.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on August 26, 2012, 02:01:59 AM
It's not just that you haven't seen the endgame that makes your conclusion premature. It's that you've barely played the game. It's fresh and new right now, but does it have the hooks to keep you playing six months from now, or six years from now?
Anyway, the "WoW Killer" is not a different game. It's Time.
Well, I never was a big fan of end-game - I'm more of a completionist/altoholic type of player. And GW2 has no raiding in the sense WoW does, for example.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on August 26, 2012, 02:01:59 AM
It's not just that you haven't seen the endgame that makes your conclusion premature. It's that you've barely played the game. It's fresh and new right now, but does it have the hooks to keep you playing six months from now, or six years from now?
Anyway, the "WoW Killer" is not a different game. It's Time.
They have fixed a lot of what was wrong with MMOs. It makes WoW look very old, not necessarily because of the content but because of the game mechanics. It might not be a WoW killer but it should be.
Oh, and an Engineer with a heavy shotgun is a hoot!
I've got my Ranger up to about 8 or so. It is a lot of fun, and some refreshing mechanical changes. I am curious to see what grouping will be like.
CC, are you really so annoyed at the soccer thing that you don't want to play with American languishites?
Things I really like about the mechanics so far:
- Fast travel which deserves the name. Worst offender IMHO was SWTOR which has you go to your ship, fly to a planet, run through an orbital station, take the shuttle down, run through the ground base to a taxi and then alt-tab during the looong taxi rides. All on game time for which you paid, of course. Fast travel only once per hour, and only on the same planet. Quick travel to faction capital (fleet) only once every 16 hours(!).
- Crafting: meatier than the usual fare, but not overwhelmingly so (think Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, which turned crafting into a multi-round minigame).
- No skill/traits spam. No dozens of skills spread out over three quick bars.
I'm still trying to get the hang of combat with my warrior. So far I like dual axes and greatswords best, skillwise, though axe/mace is also a fun combination. I've started skilling all available weapons and try out combinations to see what works best for me. Underwater combat is pure chaos, but not near as bad as the original quest in the Night Elf starting area where you have to fight hordes of Murloc, under water, in a shipwreck, while struggling not to drown.
I'm having a good time "completing" the maps, i.e. get to all vistas, visit all points of interests, etc. It's something that was sorely missing in SWTOR or STO. AOC had some of it, but not quite as big, I think.
So about the "lottery" chests you find for which you need to buy special keys - anyone tried them out? The descriptions says it's only consumables in them?
You'll occasionally get keys to drop that open them, otherwise you have to buy the keys using gems. There isn't anything in them that's very exciting.
As I figured. :)
Ok so I don't know what I am doing wrong with my elementalist but playing one feels like a completely different game, compared to my guardian. I get creamed constantly and there is one boss in my personal quest (two levels lower than I am) that I died probably 10 times trying to kill.
Apparently, you are supposed to constantly switch attunements, but that sounds like a nightmare at least for the game style I prefer, so probably not going to continue playing him. I also like melee more than ranged, so while my elementalist sounded fun in theory, I don't really enjoy him.
Quote from: Syt on August 26, 2012, 12:14:38 PM
As I figured. :)
Yeah, I opened one chest and there was dye, an orb to revive you once and some other stuff.
I got a key (plus 40 iron ore and two green items I couldn't use but that had nice enhancements I pried off) for finishing the Plains of Ashford map. Contents were ok, I guess: 5 fine transmutation thingies, 5 strength boosters (5% for an hour), three potions that let me transform into a leopard for 15 minutes.
Anyone did the world event in the human starter zone yet? Pretty sweet little boss.
Someone in chat summed it up nicely, these guys identified everything that was wrong in MMOs and fixed it.
Yeah. :)
Ok so I created a mesmer - and totally loving it. With a sword and offhand set up, it's essentially a magical swashbuckler, fighting close range/melee and evading damage through creation of illusions and phantasms. And if you get bored you can always switch to a staff and be a proper mage.
Much easier to play than an elementalist.
I have to say one of the more memorable classes to play in any MMO was the Herald of Xothli. Melee class with two hander, cloth armor only, and some pretty insane burst damage and a short demon form. :lol:
Quote from: Syt on August 27, 2012, 02:12:25 AM
I have to say one of the more memorable classes to play in any MMO was the Herald of Xothli. Melee class with two hander, cloth armor only, and some pretty insane burst damage and a short demon form. :lol:
Sounds cool. What game was that?
As for mesmer, he can use a two-hander too, but strangely enough this makes him a ranged aoe dpser, not a melee fighter. One handed swords are melee (with a pistol or another sword as an offhand, preferably).
Quote from: Martinus on August 27, 2012, 02:47:56 AM
Sounds cool. What game was that?
Age of Conan. Besides the twitchy combat it was pretty much your traditional MMORPG, though.
Problems I've had after the first weekend:
Downtime Saturday morning. Not that big a deal.
Trading House being borked. That sucks. Especially because...
They raised the cost of the items at crafting level 50. Before it took ~5-6 mats for some of the inscriptions, now it takes 8. When you are crafting level 50 you are probably around level 20 as a character, and have already moved past the areas that drop the mats that you need. I can always go back to a lower level area I haven't done yet, which is still fun, but it injects a whiff of grind.
There's an event in Brisbane Wilderness that I had a hell of a lot of fun with in beta. These Asura researchers open a gate and all sorts of different monsters come pouring out. In the beta a couple of us had a great running battle between theses monsters and keeping the researchers alive (mostly as cannon fodder). Now it looks like it is permanently camped by 20-30 people at least. I don't know if it's become a location for bots or what.
I've heard complaints about queues for WvW, but I haven't played that in the release so no opinion.
Overall a pretty smooth launch I'd say, although I hope the trading house gets taken care of soon.
I have played through the human beginning area with a couple toons now and had a different experience both times. Even collecting the hearts was different both times because I did different tasks on each toon to achieve them. I really like these dynamic events. Some were the same but I saw different ones on each toon as well.
I think I am settling down to have the Engineer as my main toon. Very squishy if I am out of cool downs but that adds some skill to play as I cant just face roll and survive. The Guardian lost my interest for that reason.
Have to say that they really need to fix the crafting drops. Try levelling tailoring or leatherworking in the Sylvari starter zone...impossible. In fact outside zones that are rich in humanoid mobs its damn hard to level those two while anything requiring ore/wood/food is a lot easier since that seems to be abundant just about everywhere.
Yeah, my guardian just facerolls everything. He can solo veteran mobs for example.
I'm looking forward to the mesmer game play.
Once I learned the professions I could solo veteran mobs up to two levels above with Ranger, Thief or Elementalist. Never got the hang of Mesmer, felt even squishier than the Elementalist without the awesome AoE potential. Haven't played enough of the others to have an opinion.
Cecil, are you using the salvaging kits.
I picked up a new short bow last night, so I took it out for a spin this morning with my Ranger. The bonus bleeds I got for flanking were awesome, and are tempting me to respec from criticals to conditions.
With each weapon set I find myself adopting a different playstyle. Getting the skills unlocked is entirely separate from learning how they work together. Long bow I want a long range battle always ready to retreat (or switch to a melee weapon). Short bow I'm maneuvering around the target trying to get flanking shots. Greatsword I go flying into groups laying waste to everybody. Sword and dagger/axe is great for taking down a single target while evading around them. I haven't explored main hand axe yet, or warhorn offhand.
Oh, one other problem I forgot about. I had a lot a trouble getting a party together with a friend. Between the overflow servers, getting kicked off the main and the "join x in y" button not working we never managed to be in the same place at the same time.
I think I might be able to get my girlfriend to play this. I've been looking for a game we can play together.
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 27, 2012, 10:58:00 AM
Cecil, are you using the salvaging kits.
Ofc I am. Cloth is just damn rare. Most of the trade spam I see is about people wanting to aquire Jute.
I've had enough jute. I've struggled to scrape together the leather and inscription mats though.
Tried out the necro and wow is that fun. I really like the mechanics of this class.
I'm really liking my mesmer - I guess it depends on the personal playstyle, but he is much more survivable than the elementalist (without being too easy like a guardian), as far as I am concerned - I guess if I had the presence of mind to switch attunements on the elementalist all the time it could be different. :P
How annoying :mad:
My wife just got back from the festival she was at for the past few days, finally I'm free to have a solid session of GW2 and not the illicit half-hour or so when I'm supposed to looking after my kid..........so, naturally, I have my first failure to get logged in :huh:
Meanwhile another bloody circumcision thread is sucking the life out of Languish...........
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on August 28, 2012, 10:13:43 AM
Meanwhile another bloody circumcision thread is sucking the life out of Languish...........
:lol:
Yesterday I received as story quest reward one of those superspecial key to open one of my mystery boxes. It contained the usual stuff, plus another key which I used to open my final box . . . which contained another key. :lol:
Quote from: Syt on August 28, 2012, 11:27:59 AM
Yesterday I received as story quest reward one of those superspecial key to open one of my mystery boxes. It contained the usual stuff, plus another key which I used to open my final box . . . which contained another key. :lol:
I got that in the beta. I opened up a stack of like 5 or 6 that way.
Quote from: Martinus on August 28, 2012, 02:33:03 AM
I'm really liking my mesmer - I guess it depends on the personal playstyle, but he is much more survivable than the elementalist (without being too easy like a guardian), as far as I am concerned - I guess if I had the presence of mind to switch attunements on the elementalist all the time it could be different. :P
I think you are going to find that switching is an important part of the game, whether it be weapon switching or attunment switching. With the necro it is weapon switching and switching in and out of wraith form at the appropriate time.
Yep, I've seen enough of the game to realise that the combat system is a lot deeper than it may look at first :hmm:
Anyway, I am in and have a beer at hand............but is Tyria ready for Cyrus Hermeticus, Asuran mesmer, motto "Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"?
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on August 28, 2012, 12:57:06 PM
Yep, I've seen enough of the game to realise that the combat system is a lot deeper than it may look at first :hmm:
Yeah, at first I approached it like SWTOR or WoW. Now I realize it is a different sort of game.
Now that I understand the game mechanics a bit better I went back to try my ele, which I tried early on, and now it is much easier. Attunement shifting may be a bit OP but I suppose it balances out by being harder to play - definitely not a class for the face roller.
Yeah, I'm getting a hang out of mesmer, now, and it is a really fun class with a lot of tactics going on. For those who have not played a mesmer, his "gist" is that he creates clones and phantasms (copies of the mesmer, some weaker, some stronger) with different spells and abilities. You can have up to 3 of these active at a given time but they can't be all popped up at once - it's all based on cooldowns. They fight with you and are good way of mitigating damage, when the mobs focus on them and not you. Now, they all disappear when the mob you are currently fighting dies. The number of clones you have up determines how strong your very good, low CD self heal is. And on top of that, the key ability of the class is "shatter" which destroys your clones at once but in exchange for some effect, which again is stronger the more clones you had and is either direct damage, "confusion" (it deals damage over time whenever the mob uses an ability), daze or distortion (good damage evasion abaility). So you always have to keep on your toes whether to use shatter or keep the clones for a bit longer etc. and when to discharge them.
And on top of that, as CC said, you have to switch between two weapons (I usually go for a greatsword at first as it is a very good ranged weapon) and then switch to sword + offhand once in close range.
Still, it's easier than an elementalist where you have in practice four (rather than two) weapons to switch, so you have to remember 20 spells rather than 10.
Btw, I got the strategy guide and it has a lot of very useful tips.
I was wondering whether to get the strategy guide :hmm:
Maybe later, I rather enjoy the "bungling incompetent" stage of playing a game :cool:
I really like that the game doesn't take you by the hand much and explain its mechanics a lot. It's pretty rewarding to be able to figure out stuff by yourself.
By the way, it's really cool that you can find some interesting "fluff" stuff when wandering off a beaten path. For example, in Queensdale, where you help the fisherman with the lizards/the miner with elementals and harpies, if you go a bit down the river towards the starting town, there is a little cave (with another exit opening into the town). It has some harmless bats and a bunch of kids pretending to be the Destiny's Blade guild. :D
Also, mobs in remote locations give more xp - the bonus is greater the longer they are alive. For example, also in Queensdale, near the place where you help a moa farmer with bandits in a nearby cave, there is another smaller cave a bit to the North - it also has bats in it which gave me 5 normal xp per pop plus 18 bonus xp since noone bothered them for a long time. There is also a nice passage there leading into the ettin canyon which comes out into the farms near Claypool - but the ettins are level 11 so better come there later (there is a skill point location there too).
Ok, so I've been reading the strategy guide and according to it at least, the "holy trinity is gone" is not exactly true. That is to say, in a dungeon party you are expected to have some character(s) focus on support ("healers"), some on control/damage mitigation ("tanks") and some on damage dealing ("dps").
What differs is that:
- everyone can perform every role, depending on weapon and utility skill choice
- you don't need the same composition for every fight (some encounters do not need "tanks", in others everyone should go "tank" and/or "healer" etc.)
- you can have characters perform hybrid functions (e.g. you can have only one pure dps, two healer/dps and two tank/dps just as one tank, one healer and three dps)
- unless you are really facerolling the dungeon, you are not really expected to go full dps with more than 1-2 characters
So I guess this will be very hard to PUG, as this will require a lot of tactics and discussion.
Also, no matter your level, they are saying that dungeons should not really be attempted by groups in which everyone doesn't have at least one elite skill.
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2012, 05:23:46 AM
Also, no matter your level, they are saying that dungeons should not really be attempted by groups in which everyone doesn't have at least one elite skill.
The dungeons aren't accessible until level 30, when your elite skill unlocks. So I guess they want to emphasize that you should have one when you can have one.
Quote from: frunk on August 29, 2012, 06:12:05 AM
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2012, 05:23:46 AM
Also, no matter your level, they are saying that dungeons should not really be attempted by groups in which everyone doesn't have at least one elite skill.
The dungeons aren't accessible until level 30, when your elite skill unlocks. So I guess they want to emphasize that you should have one when you can have one.
I know but I think it also means that you should save skill points to buy one - they cost 30 points a pop.
Btw, I am wondering what my first non-human alt should be. I'm thinking either a Sylvari ranger or a Norn necromancer.
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2012, 07:40:54 AM
I know but I think it also means that you should save skill points to buy one - they cost 30 points a pop.
The upper level elite skills cost 30, the lower level cost 10. Plus if you got the deluxe digital (collector's) you have the Mistfire Wolf elite.
Speaking of skill points...I've been all careful spending mine, but I am guessing that maybe I don't need to be - is there really a limited amount of them compared to how many skills there are to spend them on, or will I eventually just get them all, hence don't need to stress that much over it?
Quote from: Berkut on August 29, 2012, 11:24:57 AM
Speaking of skill points...I've been all careful spending mine, but I am guessing that maybe I don't need to be - is there really a limited amount of them compared to how many skills there are to spend them on, or will I eventually just get them all, hence don't need to stress that much over it?
Between leveling and skill quests you should end up with enough skill points to get everything. It's a good idea to save at least 10 skill points heading into level 30 so you can buy an elite, but other than that it's better to get a skill you want (particularly the one point ones) than to starve yourself. There are items you can buy spending skill points for when you have already obtained all of the skills you care for.
Wow, this game is deep.
I have been reading on the combos and it seems this is not just "flavour" stuff but an actual important part of mastering your class. For example, this is the summary of what just a mesmer can do on its own (with an access to only 2 types of fields - and there are actually 9 different fields creatable by different professions):
QuoteAs Mesmer, we have 2 types of combo field, Ethereal and Light Field.
Ethereal Fields:
Chaos Storm
Feedback
Null Field
Time Warp
Light Fields:
Temporal Curtain
Veil
And 4 types of Finishers. Blast, Leap, Projectile and Whirl Finishers.
Blast Finishers:
The Prestige
Leap Finishers:
Illusionart Leap
Phantasmal Swordsman
Phase Retreat
Projectile Finishers:
Magic Bullet
Mirror Blade
Phantasmal Duelist
Whirl Finishers:
Phantasmal Warden
Phantasmal Berserker
Combo effects
Field + Finisher = Combo effects.
Ethereal Field + Blast Finishers = Area Chaos Armor (Best Defensive effect ever!!)
Ethereal Field + Leap Finishers = Chaos Armor
Ethereal Field + Projectile Finishers = Confusion
Ethereal Field + Whirl Finishers = Confusing Bolts
Light Field + Blast Finishers = Area Retaliation
Light Field + Leap Finishers = Retaliation
Light Field + Projectile Finishers = Remove Condition
Light Field + Whirl Finishers = Cleansing Bolts
Here's a chart showing effects of various finishers applied to various fields. Btw, they mesh together - so e.g. an Elementalist casts a Geyser spell (a Water-attunement Staff dps AoE spell) and then a Mesmer runs into it and casts the Prestige spell (a Torch spell that creates a ring of burning fire) - presto, every ally in the area is healed!
Field Blast Finisher Leap Finisher Projectile Finisher Whirl Finisher
Dark Area Blindness Blindness Life stealing Leeching Bolts[nb 1]
Ethereal Area Chaos Armor Chaos Armor Confusion Confusing Bolts
Fire Area Might (x3) Fire Armor Burning Burning Bolts
Ice Area Frost Armor Frost Armor Chilled Chilling Bolts
Light Area Retaliation Retaliation Remove Condition Cleansing Bolts[nb 2]
Lightning Area Swiftness Dazing Strike Vulnerability Brutal Bolts[nb 3]
Poison Area Weakness Weakness Poison Poison Bolts
Smoke Area Stealth Stealth Blindness Blinding Bolts
Water Area Healing Healing Regeneration Healing Bolts
Still betting Marti will be bored with game come next thur. :P
Quote from: katmai on August 30, 2012, 04:21:02 AM
Still betting Marti will be bored with game come next thur. :P
I played WoW since its release until July 2012 - that's longer than any of you fucks. So why would I get bored with a game that is better?
I am wondering what build to go for my mesmer, with dungeoning in mind. I'm thinking a control role (so essentially a GW2 equivalent of a tank) could be an interesting thing to try.
Apparently, that's Staff / Scepter/Sword build, with heavy investment into Chaos and Illusions trees.
The game is certianly pretty damn interesting and different.
However, in some ways it seems almost obtusely so. The combat mechanics are certainly different, but also ridiculously complex, and I am not sure in a good way.
Does every class really need 456 different possible combinations of weapons and stances, none of which are at all intuitive? I was playing my Elementalist, and trying to get all the skill combinations unlocked. So I have a two handed staff. That is 5 skills times 4 stances, so twenty skills. Twenty skills that I have to be able to remember which skill goes with which stance, so that I can remember in the middle of a fight what stance I should switch to in order to access a particular skill. Not to mention understanding WHY I would want to use skill X as opposed to skill Y.
Then lets throw in the fact that I can use multiple weapons, so now I am not looking at 20 skills, but 40, or even 60. Do I want to be in Staff/Fire right now, or Staff/Water or Dagger/Fire or Dagger/torch/Earth? And why?
This is a bit silly, not only because it is way too much to expect anyone to remember, but because you know that with that many possible combinations, the reality is that good play will indicate that the majority of them are not optimal anyway, and will probably never be used once you understand what actually works.
There is a lot of depth here, but I suspect a lot of it is just complexity for its own sake.
Quote from: Berkut on August 30, 2012, 08:35:40 AM
The game is certianly pretty damn interesting and different.
However, in some ways it seems almost obtusely so. The combat mechanics are certainly different, but also ridiculously complex, and I am not sure in a good way.
Does every class really need 456 different possible combinations of weapons and stances, none of which are at all intuitive? I was playing my Elementalist, and trying to get all the skill combinations unlocked. So I have a two handed staff. That is 5 skills times 4 stances, so twenty skills. Twenty skills that I have to be able to remember which skill goes with which stance, so that I can remember in the middle of a fight what stance I should switch to in order to access a particular skill. Not to mention understanding WHY I would want to use skill X as opposed to skill Y.
Then lets throw in the fact that I can use multiple weapons, so now I am not looking at 20 skills, but 40, or even 60. Do I want to be in Staff/Fire right now, or Staff/Water or Dagger/Fire or Dagger/torch/Earth? And why?
This is a bit silly, not only because it is way too much to expect anyone to remember, but because you know that with that many possible combinations, the reality is that good play will indicate that the majority of them are not optimal anyway, and will probably never be used once you understand what actually works.
There is a lot of depth here, but I suspect a lot of it is just complexity for its own sake.
For the most part the 5 skills of a weapon set will have some natural synergies, and early on it's best to worry about those rather than figuring out inter-set combinations. Once you get familiar with those combos then you can delve into other possibilities. Trust me, early on you'll see immediate improvement when you learn the skills on one bar right first, rather than trying to do complicated switching.
Here are two of the weapons I have with ranger:
Longbow - long ranged attack, multishot, vulnerability, push away, AoE attack
Greatsword - local area attack, weakness, flying attack, block/sword throw, stun
For attacking a single melee opponent I prefer Longbow, since I can avoid them while peppering with arrows. For a group of melee opponents I prefer Greatsword since I can wade in and beat the hell out of them. I can do some cool things with switching between the two, but unless I'm in a tougher fight it isn't really necessary.
Quote from: Berkut on August 30, 2012, 08:35:40 AM
The game is certianly pretty damn interesting and different.
However, in some ways it seems almost obtusely so. The combat mechanics are certainly different, but also ridiculously complex, and I am not sure in a good way.
Does every class really need 456 different possible combinations of weapons and stances, none of which are at all intuitive? I was playing my Elementalist, and trying to get all the skill combinations unlocked. So I have a two handed staff. That is 5 skills times 4 stances, so twenty skills. Twenty skills that I have to be able to remember which skill goes with which stance, so that I can remember in the middle of a fight what stance I should switch to in order to access a particular skill. Not to mention understanding WHY I would want to use skill X as opposed to skill Y.
Then lets throw in the fact that I can use multiple weapons, so now I am not looking at 20 skills, but 40, or even 60. Do I want to be in Staff/Fire right now, or Staff/Water or Dagger/Fire or Dagger/torch/Earth? And why?
This is a bit silly, not only because it is way too much to expect anyone to remember, but because you know that with that many possible combinations, the reality is that good play will indicate that the majority of them are not optimal anyway, and will probably never be used once you understand what actually works.
There is a lot of depth here, but I suspect a lot of it is just complexity for its own sake.
Well, Elementalist is the most complex class I think (remember that they are the only one with twenty skills per weapon - everyone else is only 5) - that's why I dropped it because I don't think I know the game well enough yet to play it.
The developers say they deliberately created classes with different learning curves in order to accomodate different players and give veterans something to dig into. Elementalists and Thieves are apparently at the top of the curve. Guardians and Warriors are easiest to learn and master.
That being said, here's a cool website I found which offers skill and weapon suggestions for different playstyles for different professions:
http://www.noxxic.com/gw2/
Quote from: Berkut on August 30, 2012, 08:35:40 AM
However, in some ways it seems almost obtusely so. The combat mechanics are certainly different, but also ridiculously complex, and I am not sure in a good way.
Naw, it is pretty easy once you learn the mechanics. Its just that you picked the class with the most steep learning curve. When I went back to my ele after learning the game mechanics on other classes it was a lot more enjoyable.
Also, what Funk said. Stick with the basics for now. You dont have to be able to master switches in the eary areas. If you do it in the early game you will be OP so its not necessary.
You will have already noticed though that when you switch attunements you get a fresh set of cooldowns so even if you just switch it with that in mind and only concentrate on two of the four attunements you will still probably feel OP.
So, what if Raz wants to get in on this action?
Quote from: Razgovory on August 30, 2012, 11:46:24 AM
So, what if Raz wants to get in on this action?
You give NcSoft 60$, they'll throw ~10gb of data your way & BOOM! GW2.
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 30, 2012, 11:43:30 AM
You will have already noticed though that when you switch attunements you get a fresh set of cooldowns so even if you just switch it with that in mind and only concentrate on two of the four attunements you will still probably feel OP.
One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be a consistency to the 2 handed skills at least.
The first few skills seem to have fast cool down, the last 2 long.
So at a very basic level, there seems to be kind of a suggestion that you use your first three skills routinely, use your 4/5 when they come up, then swap to another set, use their 4 and 5, then bounce back, so that you are really cycling between 6 "use over and over skills", and 3 or 4 (assuming one is situational) "long" skills.
But like I said, my suspicion is that in the long run, many of these skills will simply never be used. For a given profession there will be a set of viable builds, and those will encompass some fraction of the total skills. The trick will be figuring them out.
Quote from: Berkut on August 30, 2012, 12:05:29 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 30, 2012, 11:43:30 AM
You will have already noticed though that when you switch attunements you get a fresh set of cooldowns so even if you just switch it with that in mind and only concentrate on two of the four attunements you will still probably feel OP.
One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be a consistency to the 2 handed skills at least.
The first few skills seem to have fast cool down, the last 2 long.
So at a very basic level, there seems to be kind of a suggestion that you use your first three skills routinely, use your 4/5 when they come up, then swap to another set, use their 4 and 5, then bounce back, so that you are really cycling between 6 "use over and over skills", and 3 or 4 (assuming one is situational) "long" skills.
But like I said, my suspicion is that in the long run, many of these skills will simply never be used. For a given profession there will be a set of viable builds, and those will encompass some fraction of the total skills. The trick will be figuring them out.
Naw, you are playing it wrong then. All skills attached to the equiped and switch weapons are used routinely because of the cooldowns. You should rarely if ever hit the 1 button, unless everything else is on a CD. That is effectively your autoattack skill.
Also keep an eye on the red line at the bottom of the skills. Red means no enemy in range. No red = fire away.
To get a better feel for how it all works try a one handed off hand combo and mix and match those.
Quote from: Grey Fox on August 30, 2012, 11:48:54 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on August 30, 2012, 11:46:24 AM
So, what if Raz wants to get in on this action?
You give NcSoft 60$, they'll throw ~10gb of data your way & BOOM! GW2.
I'm on Henge of Denravi, although we're still in the free world switch period. My username is frunkee.3962 for those that want to friend.
Quote from: Martinus on August 30, 2012, 09:02:32 AM
Quote from: Berkut on August 30, 2012, 08:35:40 AM
The game is certianly pretty damn interesting and different.
However, in some ways it seems almost obtusely so. The combat mechanics are certainly different, but also ridiculously complex, and I am not sure in a good way.
Does every class really need 456 different possible combinations of weapons and stances, none of which are at all intuitive? I was playing my Elementalist, and trying to get all the skill combinations unlocked. So I have a two handed staff. That is 5 skills times 4 stances, so twenty skills. Twenty skills that I have to be able to remember which skill goes with which stance, so that I can remember in the middle of a fight what stance I should switch to in order to access a particular skill. Not to mention understanding WHY I would want to use skill X as opposed to skill Y.
Then lets throw in the fact that I can use multiple weapons, so now I am not looking at 20 skills, but 40, or even 60. Do I want to be in Staff/Fire right now, or Staff/Water or Dagger/Fire or Dagger/torch/Earth? And why?
This is a bit silly, not only because it is way too much to expect anyone to remember, but because you know that with that many possible combinations, the reality is that good play will indicate that the majority of them are not optimal anyway, and will probably never be used once you understand what actually works.
There is a lot of depth here, but I suspect a lot of it is just complexity for its own sake.
Well, Elementalist is the most complex class I think (remember that they are the only one with twenty skills per weapon - everyone else is only 5) - that's why I dropped it because I don't think I know the game well enough yet to play it.
The developers say they deliberately created classes with different learning curves in order to accomodate different players and give veterans something to dig into. Elementalists and Thieves are apparently at the top of the curve. Guardians and Warriors are easiest to learn and master.
Indeed, which is why I am now a warrior :D
I've been using a rifle and greatsword and attempting to master my use of them. Since doing that I've become far more effective. I'm theorising that learning one role really well is better than trying to master all the roles at once, so I will only expand from this dps build when I'm ready to learn more.
I think it's excellent that they have actually made some classes easier to play, makes the game more inclusive for people who are old or whatever. I would imagine that a well-played Elementalist is going to be absolutely awesome though, which is a suitable reward for those with the reflexes and other skills that are probably needed to master that class.
Quote from: frunk on August 30, 2012, 12:21:01 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on August 30, 2012, 11:48:54 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on August 30, 2012, 11:46:24 AM
So, what if Raz wants to get in on this action?
You give NcSoft 60$, they'll throw ~10gb of data your way & BOOM! GW2.
I'm on Henge of Denravi, although we're still in the free world switch period. My username is frunkee.3962 for those that want to friend.
Didnt know we could switch servers. I will do that tonight.
It sounds like the game is doing seriously well. Here's an article (http://techland.time.com/2012/08/29/guild-wars-2-producer-wed-turn-off-sales-to-preserve-the-game-experience/) with the company president. It makes it sound like he's concerned that in the short term they could sell too many copies, such that the gameplay experience would be negatively affected. I'm impressed he even cares.
Going by xfire (http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massively_multiplayer_online/), GW2 (http://beta.xfire.com/games/gw2) had four times as many hours logged yesterday than WoW (http://beta.xfire.com/games/wow). Even more telling is the drop in WoW daily logged time from 40-60,000 hours over the past month to 20,000 hours. We'll see if this continues, and obviously MoP is the real test. I wish xfire had longer term stats to compare with other major MMO releases, and of course that their sample size was bigger (not that I would install it).
I bought it. Sucks to be Bioware.
Arenanet has a fairly strict policy on language in general chat. The have a reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/yxx3m/suspensions_for_offensive_names_and_inappropriate/) for people who were suspended/banned and want to find out why.
This is the funniest one so far:
Quote from: NeurologicalDisorderi would LOVE to re-read what 'Neurologic' was banned for. after that suspension's over i'mma drop some money into gems for more bankspace, because i had bank issued at bloody level 8 already :P
Quote from: ArenaNetSupportTeamName: OK Chat: Not ok -- Neurologic: "the worm IS fucking hard if you're a fucking mentalpatient no we fucking dont you can take a keep with 5 people if you're not a fucking dickhead"
Quote from: masterx25I don't even understand what he said.
Quote from: yolo_translatorThe worm that we are fighting is incredibly easy. Clearly you are having issues which may be related to a medical condition you are suffering from. Also it is easy to take over a keep in game if you are friendly to other people and know how to get along.
QuoteHi my name was verybigballsackk, on server darkhaven (human male elementalist)
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I WAS BANNED FOR =D
THANKS ARENANET
Meh, another small patch and now I can't log in. The game hasn't quite settled down yet, especially in peak hours. I'm also spending a lot of time in an overflow server, which is not a problem when learning the ropes but will become one when trying to get into the community.
I'm at Piken square btw, user name is Pete.5276
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 30, 2012, 12:33:39 PM
Quote from: frunk on August 30, 2012, 12:21:01 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on August 30, 2012, 11:48:54 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on August 30, 2012, 11:46:24 AM
So, what if Raz wants to get in on this action?
You give NcSoft 60$, they'll throw ~10gb of data your way & BOOM! GW2.
I'm on Henge of Denravi, although we're still in the free world switch period. My username is frunkee.3962 for those that want to friend.
Didnt know we could switch servers. I will do that tonight.
Why you gotta hurt me like that?
:lol:
We should all pick a server and jump on it.
Sigh. I thought I said that days ago?
So it looks like you only get to be on one server - I was just going to try creating a character on Henge, but it took me to the transfer UI when I tried to open that server.
I am currently on Tarnished Coast. I do think we should all pick a single server and move there.
I am Berkut.2709
Added Berkut and Frunk in-game as friends. Berkut, you are online but not responding to my pm, I issued a party invite to you.....it would be interesting to see if we could team up.
Im gonna add you guys but logging off soon. Btw there is going to be a feature implemented soon where you can play with people on different servers.
That would be brilliant :cool:
I spoke to Berkut in-game and we formed a party but couldn't get to the same place..........though he was "working" :P
It's looking hopeful that it mightn't really matter if we are on different servers.................though we won't be able to form a guild of course.
Added both of you guys. :cool:
Since moving between servers is free for now we may nonetheless decide to move to a single server. It seems Pete and I are on the same server, dunno about other Yuros. The only concern is that US servers may be laggy for us Euros and vice versa but I guess we can always move back if they are. :P
Dammit. I just bought this.
Dammit hasn't anyone told Pete the futility of trying to talk to Berkut in a game yet??!?
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on August 30, 2012, 03:40:36 PM
Berkut, you are online but not responding to my pm,
Ah good, everything is normal.
LOL
Damnit, when he said I was online, I wasn't even logged into the server! I was sitting on the character selection screen!
And it is currently sold out/not available most places....trying local game stop tomorrow to see if they have it :(
Berkut,
I think after playing some time with my mesmer, I am beginning to see a pattern when it comes to weapon choices, so here are my thoughts (btw, this does not apply to an elementalist* who is a completely different beast).
Essentially, if you imagine a chart with "ranged" and "melee" on the X axis and "damage", "control" and "support" on the Y axis, I think pretty much each weapon you have fits one slot.
Ranged and melee are self-explanatory. Damage, control and support are the new holy trinity of GW2 (with damage being essentially dps, control being a bit like tanking, although it is more about crowd control, debuffing the enemy, survivability and kiting than actual damage taking and support being a bit like healing although you heal less and buff more). Now, unless you are grouping exclusively (which you aren't) a rule of the thumb is that you want to go for the damage role.
This makes the choice of weapons much less daunting as suddenly you are left with maybe 1-2 ranged damage weapon and 1-2 melee damage weapons.
And that's the gist of it - if you are the damage role (which we are all until level 30 pretty much), you want to have one set of ranged damage weapon(s) and one set of melee damage weapon(s) equipped.
One handed weapons add the extra benefit of being able to actually go hybrid as e.g. if you find yourself dying a lot you can add e.g. a control (and not damage one) in the off hand.
If you really cannot figure out which weapon is the damage one, a quick rule of thumb is that it is the weapon that gets bonuses from talents in your first (Power) and second (Precision) talent trees.
But be careful with offhands - sometimes an offhand is actually not the same type of weapon as the main hand even if the weapon is the same (for example, for a mesmer, a sword in main hand is a damage melee weapon but a sword in the off hand becomes a melee control/damage mitigation weapon - so a full damage mesmer will go sword/pistol, and a mesmer who wants control will go probably scepter/sword for close-to-medium range control, or scepter/focus for long range control :P).
So that's really it about weapon choices and switching. On my mesmer I have a greatsword (which, counter-intuitively for him, is a ranged damage weapon) and a sword/pistol (close range damage) equipped. If I close into an enemy from a range, I use whittle him down with the greatsword first. If he is a range/kiter type (like an archer) I continue using the greatsword throughout the fight. If he is a melee fighter I hit switch weapon and mow him down with my sword and pistol.
That's weapon choice 101. :P
*An elementalist is different because their attunements are actually related to roles - so fire and air is damage (fire more of direct damage and air more damage+control), water is support and earth control. So this adds an extra layer of complexity as weapons both add the ranged/melee element but also a hybrid element, being related to roles themselves. In essence then an elementalist has 4 active weapon sets rather than two, and all of them slightly different. That is why it is so difficult to master.
I've just been checking up on this playing with people in other worlds, it is not implemented yet but will be implemented at some time in the future :
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-world-of-choice-the-regions-of-guild-wars-2
That is good because it means we can get some transatlantic groups whilst spending most of our time in an area-appropriate world (thinking of ping and busy times here).
Damn, now that I read a bit more about elementalists, I'm tempted to remake one. :blush:
I've been sticking with my mentalist so far.
I think it is because I heard they are supposed to be the hardest class. So it is kind of a challenge to me.
I have now tried every class to at least level 6. The thing about this damn game is that dont make it very easy to choose a class.
Ok so I'm getting a hang out of playing an elementalist. So far two daggers serve me well - I can now solo veteran mobs. And I noticed that while you know how to play (an elementalist can't face-roll without stopping every once in a while to regain health) and know your spells (for example, in Fire attunement with daggers it's importent to apply burn and then finish the mobs off with extra-damage-on-burn abilities), constant attunement switching is not necessary. For example I keep in the Fire attunement 80% of the time (normal mobs die without me needing to switch an attunement). I also noticed you don't really need to "remember" all spells in each attunement - usually it's enough if you remember a couple from each attunement you are not actively using (so e.g. I utilize Fire to full capacity but only use two healing spells from Water, a couple of "get away" spells in Air and area of effect damage spells in Earth).
It seems to me that weapon as such are very easy to pin down for an elementalist. For mainhand:
- a dagger is short range
- a scepter is middle range
- a staff is long range/AoE focus
While for the off hand, a dagger is more firepower and a focus is more defensiveness.
That's really it.
Attunements, on the other hand, play the same role as role-related weapons for other classes. So Fire is damage, Water is support, Earth and Air is control.
You could view attunements as having four switchable weapon sets, rather than two the other classes have but the price for this is that you are limited in not being able to completely customize them unlike other classes.
So if the holy trinity is kaput doesn't matter what I pick come next wed in regards to playing with you dill holes?
Quote from: katmai on September 01, 2012, 03:48:59 AM
So if the holy trinity is kaput doesn't matter what I pick come next wed in regards to playing with you dill holes?
The holy trinity is not exactly kaput but you are correct. The roles are fluid and every profession can perform every role.
I've started trying out a necro. I'm not sure I "get" how this class should be played.
Quote from: Syt on September 01, 2012, 07:37:28 AM
I've started trying out a necro. I'm not sure I "get" how this class should be played.
Sic pet, fear, dot, fear again. :zzz:
Well, probably not.
I've rolled a thief and like her so far a lot better. Though I think I'll mostly stick with my warrior.
Two random, minor things that I love about GW2 and just make this game great.
1. The undead are not all just humans. There are asura undead. There are *gulp* charr undead.
2. When enemy dies while under an effect of a condition, he/she makes an appropriate noise. For example, a burning enemy just screams like crazy, while a shocked enemy arches back with an electric noise and falls down to the ground.
:cool:
I played an elementalist for a bit yesterday. I see this class being good fun. The atunement switching is an interesting feature, and with weapon switching (say ranged staves or scepter to melee daggers) you get a total of 8 combat skill sets.
Quote from: Syt on September 02, 2012, 02:02:34 AM
I played an elementalist for a bit yesterday. I see this class being good fun. The atunement switching is an interesting feature, and with weapon switching (say ranged staves or scepter to melee daggers) you get a total of 8 combat skill sets.
I don't even really switch weapons, at least not so far - twin daggers just serve me in any situation. I can see switching to staff, though when I need to go "tank" or "healer".
Btw, I deleted all my human alts except for the elementalist - probably if I start alts, they will be of different races (thinking a Norn necromancer, and a Charr warrior right now).
I'm having fun with my Charr warrior, though in hindsight I think I like the Nordic Norn setting better. The Charr are militarist felines *cough*Kilrathi*cough* with a dose of steampunk.
Quote from: Syt on September 02, 2012, 03:07:41 AM
I'm having fun with my Charr warrior, though in hindsight I think I like the Nordic Norn setting better. The Charr are militarist felines *cough*Kilrathi*cough* with a dose of steampunk.
My Charr Warrior is my favorite so far.
Quote from: sbr on September 02, 2012, 03:41:20 AM
Quote from: Syt on September 02, 2012, 03:07:41 AM
I'm having fun with my Charr warrior, though in hindsight I think I like the Nordic Norn setting better. The Charr are militarist felines *cough*Kilrathi*cough* with a dose of steampunk.
My Charr Warrior is my favorite so far.
Some of the events are a bloody mess, though, as a melee class. Everyone's nuking targets left and right, making i a bit difficult to spot the handful of targets between other chars, explosions, meteor showers etc. Should be interesting to see how it goes when the population numbers thin a bit.
:D. That was going to be one of my complaints when I wrote a coherent report. Those events really are a grease fire.
Quote from: Syt on September 02, 2012, 04:10:20 AM
Quote from: sbr on September 02, 2012, 03:41:20 AM
Quote from: Syt on September 02, 2012, 03:07:41 AM
I'm having fun with my Charr warrior, though in hindsight I think I like the Nordic Norn setting better. The Charr are militarist felines *cough*Kilrathi*cough* with a dose of steampunk.
My Charr Warrior is my favorite so far.
Some of the events are a bloody mess, though, as a melee class. Everyone's nuking targets left and right, making i a bit difficult to spot the handful of targets between other chars, explosions, meteor showers etc. Should be interesting to see how it goes when the population numbers thin a bit.
I think that will improve a lot as time goes by and the numbers thin and spread out. There will probably be a lot less zerging and a more cerebral approach at events as that takes place :hmm:
Which is kind of cool as the events will probably be harder as we learn our classes. Though there is some sort of scaling going on as well I believe.
Yeah, right now events are a mess. But I noticed aoe melee works pretty well as long as you have mobility. You get credit for each foe you strike and each ally you buff it seems.
As for scaling, yeah most events that are not marked as group seem to be doable with 1-2 people.
Yeah, I'm usually going in with offhand axe or greatsword that can hit many enemies. Also, warhorn and banners are useful in events.
Ok I'm been trying a staff more with my elementalist - it's a completely different game then. :cool:
I really like my Norn warrior, and I guess I'll choose her over my Charr one. The Norn questline is rather funny. Valiant defender against ogres one moment, having to find the war machine you smashed while drunk, the other. And there's some silly stuff in between, like snowball fights, keg brawl (kinda like football PvP with beer kegs), carrying rabbit food past a minefield of rabbit wholes, and trying to catch badly aimed beer kegs. But in between there's plenty of rather tough fighting (I thought the Charr area was much easier).
I didnt think I would but I am really loving my Ranger. I also didnt like the Charr area at first but it is really getting fun now. The individual quest where you go behind the lines to blow up the enemy range weapons was a lot of fun and the world events going on all over the place are my favourites so far.
Population here also seems to be a bit less so that may also be adding to my enjoyment. Just now I took on a world event with only 4 other players. That was a real hoot.
I just got a pet bear and that is making a huge difference.
I'm doing a Charr Engineer and I think the Charr area has the least interesting start but gets fun once you get further into it.
Engineer's are tough to get a handle on, but I think I'm doing ok now. The flamethrower backpack is a hell of a lot of fun.
Shade.5421 playing on a server with my ol' man
So I'm back to my guardian. :blush:
I know guardians are easy mode but I just love the concept and playstyle, plus I like the idea of encountering a group event going badly for the players, charge into the fray and turn the tide of the battle with my support skills. :cool:
I think I will just alternate between my elementalist and my guardian, depending on my mood.
meh, I'm playing my warrior with rifle and greatsword......probably one of the easiest roles; I'm just pleased that the game can accommodate 55-year-olds with dodgy hands :cool:
Europe must have gone back to work today, the server is comparatively quiet. I found a camp that oscillates between the seraph and bandits being in control...........and the bad guys currently hold the camp!!! First time I've seen this. I started trying to get it back to Seraph controlled...........got maybe a third or a quarter there, then got jumped by four bandits and blasted by some a gun turret I'd overlooked; there was also a certain amount of trouble with respawn. Anyway, it looked to me like it would be doable by a disciplined duo or small group; which would also be a lot more fun then 20 guys zerging it.
Unless I get distracted I'll give that camp another try later, maybe if I am more cautious............
There's some rather permanent group events in the north-Eastern corner of the Norn starter area. One has you collecting ice wurm[sic] eggs for a mead hall. If successful, the wurms will attack the lodge, and you have to kill them all before they break down the door. It's a pretty intense fight with literally dozens of wurms attacking - and very rich in loot. There's also grawls trying to summon ice demons, etc., which has a rather fun event chain (though it's easy to die because four or five ice elementals spawn next to where you stand).
There's a skill point near the lodge where you have to go into a cave infested by ice wurms. Haven't managed to solo it (three of them attack you at once and as warrior you're pretty much screwed, despite buffs and aoe damage), and no one seemed to want to go with.
I'm playing at weird times myself during week-days (to combat my insomnia I switched to a different daily rhytm, getting up at 6 a.m. and going to bed at 10 p.m.) so at 6 a.m. in the morning it's also vewy vewy quiet. Fortunately, while guardians are very good group supporters, they can also solo most of the stuff, so it is a good time to do some exploring.
One thing that perhaps has been said many times already but keeps amazing me - I am frequently reminded how beautiful this game is. When you discover a new vista and the camera pans around to show the fortifications of a town, or a multi-level waterfall, or inside of an underwater cave of the sea witch, with captives in cages hanging from the ceiling - this is simply breathtaking.
Some people have criticised the lack of flight paths as depriving the player of nice views on the way - but I think the vistas perform this role so much better, without turning into annoyance when you fly on the same route for the 20th time.
Quote from: Syt on September 03, 2012, 04:32:40 AM
There's some rather permanent group events in the north-Eastern corner of the Norn starter area. One has you collecting ice wurm[sic] eggs for a mead hall. If successful, the wurms will attack the lodge, and you have to kill them all before they break down the door. It's a pretty intense fight with literally dozens of wurms attacking - and very rich in loot. There's also grawls trying to summon ice demons, etc., which has a rather fun event chain (though it's easy to die because four or five ice elementals spawn next to where you stand).
There's a skill point near the lodge where you have to go into a cave infested by ice wurms. Haven't managed to solo it (three of them attack you at once and as warrior you're pretty much screwed, despite buffs and aoe damage), and no one seemed to want to go with.
There are points like this in Queensdale and Kessex Hills too. In Queensdale the bandits attacking the pipe and the cattle farm near Claypool are more or less on a permanent loop. In Kessex Hills the "naga" (forgot how they are called in Guild Wars 2) attacking a town to capture villagers - and then being able to rescue them - is another (although it involves a lot of underwater combat, which is a bit of a pain getting used to without aggroing too many mobs).
So, is anyone regretting this one yet? How is it holding up?
Quote from: Jaron on September 03, 2012, 04:58:25 AM
So, is anyone regretting this one yet? How is it holding up?
Most (all?) Languishistas haven't reached the dungeon content yet, but I think everyone likes World PvE so far.
I am enjoying the game so far, but with no past MMO experience I can't make any comparisons there. It has mostly been a single-player game as I run through some of the starting areas.
So far I have played:
Level 12 Charr Warrior - This was my first character I made. The Warrior is fine, not too difficult but not terribly interesting either. The Charr starting area is fine too. I agree with other that have said it starts off slow but there are some good missions as you get going.
Level 6 Sylvari Necromancer - The Sylvari starting area is terrible, I had to quit playing it. Even though I barely got anywhere with it, the Necromancer was interesting and I will have to try it again somewhere else.
Level 5 Human Engineer - No complaints about the Human area. I like the idea of the Engineer but in the fast moving zerg hordes that were running around all weekend it didn't feel much different that any other ranged class; any time I tried to build a turret 15 people ran by and killed what ever it was going to be aiming at before it was built. I will definitely continue playing this one off and on as I think I will like it once things calm down.
Level 4 Norn Ranger - I haven't gotten far enough through the Norn world to see most of the stuff Syt has mentioned so I am going to have to play at least far enough to see that. The Ranger is very close in concept to the class I played the most of in my short time in LotRO, send in the pet to tank and blast away from range.
Level 4 Charr Elementalist - I went with Charr again since I already knew the story and could skip through cut-scenes and just run with it. The Elementalist is definitely both harder and more interesting than the Warrior, and really every other class I have played so far. I am definitely going to continue to play an Elementalist, but I'm not sure it will be this Charr one.
I definitely want to try a Mesmer and will do that sometime soon probably. The Thief and Guardian aren't that interesting to me at the moment, but I will try them out at some point, just to see.
I am playing on Tarnished Coast and my name is sbr.8170. I would be up for moving to a world with other North Americans.
Can anyone get to every Vista point just by walking or jumping, specifically no special skills involved?
That's been my experience so far. Some map markers can throw you off, because you may have to take some detours or find that the vista is inside a cave/mine.
Quote from: sbr on September 04, 2012, 03:29:22 AM
Can anyone get to every Vista point just by walking or jumping, specifically no special skills involved?
So far (having completed two human starting areas - Queensdale and Kessex Hills) yes. Some are hard, though (e.g. it requires you to jump down from another point for example).
Quote from: Syt on September 04, 2012, 03:36:38 AM
That's been my experience so far. Some map markers can throw you off, because you may have to take some detours or find that the vista is inside a cave/mine.
I can see most of them I just can't figure out how to get up there. I am not good at jumping puzzles or platformers though. :(
EDIT: Thanks Marti :)
Quote from: Syt on September 04, 2012, 03:36:38 AM
That's been my experience so far. Some map markers can throw you off, because you may have to take some detours or find that the vista is inside a cave/mine.
It took me a while to figure out the point of interest in the frog people village cave in Kessex Hills.
I need one Vista, the one in the Ruins of Rin, to get the Black Citadel 100% but it is worse than a Batman Arkham Asylum jumping puzzle. I need the grappling hook and the zip line. :mad:
That one's pretty finicky. You have to look for the beams that run up the building. Also, the "entry" point is a broken wall that you have to jump on first. I only figured it out because I watched others do it.
Quote from: Syt on September 04, 2012, 03:47:19 AM
That one's pretty finicky. You have to look for the beams that run up the building. Also, the "entry" point is a broken wall that you have to jump on first. I only figured it out because I watched others do it.
Yeah I see the beams, and I am pretty sure I found the starting point Ijust can't get more than 1/5 of the way up. I haven't seen anyone esle go up there.
I wonder how long until there is a Youtube video. :hmm:
EDIT: Also the camera is pretty bad for platforming things like this. It isn't great in general, but really bad if you need to make precise jumps.
EDIT2: There is a Youtube walkthrough on that specific spot. brb :lol:
EDIT3: I got it, I was starting from the wrong place.
A bit more on my learning a guardian - it's actually an interesting class. The initial experience makes it look like it is the easy mode, but as you progress, you can actually die easily (fun fact - the guardian, along with the elementalist and the engineer are three "low health" classes, with the lowest health pool of all classes) and you really need to know your abilities well to survive (they are the class with the weakest ranged attack capacity so fighting any harder boss, such as a champion, relies on your skill a lot, as otherwise, you can be virtually one-shot).
Right now I am expertimenting with a block-heavy (unlike WoW, block does not do damage mitigation but virtually negates a single attack - so timing is very important, so you make sure it blocks the super-strong attack and not an auto-attack for example) mace/focus (silly-enough, a guardian's best defensive offhand is not a shield but a focus) build which allows you to self-generate a combo granting mass retaliation to all allies in vicinity. :cool:
Quote from: sbr on September 04, 2012, 03:29:22 AM
Can anyone get to every Vista point just by walking or jumping, specifically no special skills involved?
Almost all of them, yes. There are some where you might have to talk to someone in the area.
Shared bank is awesome.
Shared ridiculously tiny bank is awesomely stupid.
Just bought this. Will see if it`s any good when I return from vacations.
EDIT: one thing though, it is infected with the detestable asian `pay to win`mindset?
G.
Quote from: Berkut on September 04, 2012, 08:10:04 AM
Shared bank is awesome.
Shared ridiculously tiny bank is awesomely stupid.
I thought so, too. But if you deposit your collectibles, it frees up LOTS of space, and usually keeps your char's inventory uncluttered.
Yes, the collectibles thing is very nice.
I really like that everyone can harvest resources for everyone else pretty seamlessly.
But my "main" is not even level 20, and my bank is already full.
There really is very little pay to win in this game. There's pay to get some benefits, but the benefits consist of:
1. Cosmetic Changes
2. Extra character slots
3. Extra communal bank space
4. Increased Experience gain
5. Increased Karma gain
The last two are the closest to p2w, but the progression in the game is fast enough that I'd consider them completely unneeded. In fact the experience gain is probably slightly detrimental since it will cause you to overlevel more content (which isn't nearly as much fun). Not to mention you can acquire the last two items by other means, and all the items are purchaseable using ingame currency (by spending gold for gems). Right now the exchange rate of ~24 silver per gem makes things prohibitively expensive if you wanted to buy the gems ingame, but we'll see where that goes. As an example my level 44 character has around 2 1/2 gold, if I wanted to buy the extra bank space it would cost 144 gold. Gold earning does ramp up pretty fast, so I'm guessing a top level character probably could afford it.
Edit: Of course you can generate gold by paying as well.
Quote from: Berkut on September 04, 2012, 08:32:33 AM
Yes, the collectibles thing is very nice.
I really like that everyone can harvest resources for everyone else pretty seamlessly.
But my "main" is not even level 20, and my bank is already full.
Make sure you get at least 8 space bags/boxes for your character. I can make them for you if you want, I need enough copper or leather scraps. It's easy enough to do it yourself though, by picking up one of the armor crafts (tailor, leatherworker, armorsmith).
I wouldn't bother keeping "blue" items except ones you plan to use shortly, but hold onto "greens" or better.
Quote from: Berkut on September 04, 2012, 08:32:33 AM
Yes, the collectibles thing is very nice.
I really like that everyone can harvest resources for everyone else pretty seamlessly.
But my "main" is not even level 20, and my bank is already full.
Could I ask what fills up your bank space?
Also, every "armor" profession can make 8-slot bags at level 0, which coupled with collectible deposits means I almost never use the actual bank.
Quote from: frunk on September 04, 2012, 08:46:58 AM
Quote from: Berkut on September 04, 2012, 08:32:33 AM
Yes, the collectibles thing is very nice.
I really like that everyone can harvest resources for everyone else pretty seamlessly.
But my "main" is not even level 20, and my bank is already full.
Make sure you get at least 8 space bags/boxes for your character. I can make them for you if you want, I need enough copper or leather scraps. It's easy enough to do it yourself though, by picking up one of the armor crafts (tailor, leatherworker, armorsmith).
I wouldn't bother keeping "blue" items except ones you plan to use shortly, but hold onto "greens" or better.
I salvage every piece of equipment I find and cannot use or that is worse than the one I am currently using - even greens (though I try to use higher level salvage tools, to recover enchantments), and I obviously sell all the junk.
This means that once I clear my bags etc. I may have about 10 items in total in my bank (which are some stuff like the mystic coins, or transmutation stones).
I can't figure out what keeps Berkut's bank full.
About the gems............I'm being offered 100 gems for the 30-odd silver, not 30 silver per gem; that is when I visit the actual trading post, it says 30s per gem bu then offers 100 for that price :hmm:
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 04, 2012, 10:18:56 AM
About the gems............I'm being offered 100 gems for the 30-odd silver, not 30 silver per gem; that is when I visit the actual trading post, it says 30s per gem bu then offers 100 for that price :hmm:
Could be, I haven't looked too closely at it. In which case I may be spending my gold for an extra character slot earlier than I expected.
I'm saving up for my level 30 tome.
For those not playing the game 1 gold is a lot of money in GW2. Whether inflation will set in as time passes will be interesting to see, though I suspect that the gems may operate as an excellent money sink :cool:
Quote from: Martinus on September 04, 2012, 09:05:10 AM
Quote from: frunk on September 04, 2012, 08:46:58 AM
Quote from: Berkut on September 04, 2012, 08:32:33 AM
Yes, the collectibles thing is very nice.
I really like that everyone can harvest resources for everyone else pretty seamlessly.
But my "main" is not even level 20, and my bank is already full.
Make sure you get at least 8 space bags/boxes for your character. I can make them for you if you want, I need enough copper or leather scraps. It's easy enough to do it yourself though, by picking up one of the armor crafts (tailor, leatherworker, armorsmith).
I wouldn't bother keeping "blue" items except ones you plan to use shortly, but hold onto "greens" or better.
I salvage every piece of equipment I find and cannot use or that is worse than the one I am currently using - even greens (though I try to use higher level salvage tools, to recover enchantments), and I obviously sell all the junk.
This means that once I clear my bags etc. I may have about 10 items in total in my bank (which are some stuff like the mystic coins, or transmutation stones).
I can't figure out what keeps Berkut's bank full.
Extra items, food, crafted materials that don't go into collectables.
I will demand a refund from Marti if this game sucks.
oh and by the way
Katmai.6492
Quote from: katmai on September 04, 2012, 08:33:36 PM
I will demand a refund from Marti if this game sucks.
oh and by the way
Katmai.6492
Are you playing one of these fat, snow-dwelling guys or someone unlike you?
I can see how you can easily fill your bank. To avoid it I try not to make any extra crafting mats other then those I can put in the collectables section - like refined ore, planks etc.
Yeah, I only make stuff like dowels on a need basis. Unlike say WoW, you get very little skill increase from making the components even when they are still orange, so the benefits of, say, pre-producing a whole lot of helmet linings with the hope of using them up later are not that large, and they clog up the bank space a lot.
The annoying part is cooking items. There are lots of intermediate components that don't go in collectibles, but are used in a lot of different recipes. And with the way discovery works, you kind of have to keep a bunch of everything on hand to see if it is combinable.
So which server are you all on?
G.
I think most of the Languish NA players are on Henge of Denravi. The unofficial RP server is Tarnished Coast.
Henge is full and the other is high already. *shrug*
G.
OMG the elementalist model is gorgeous! :w00t:
And so much choice to customize!
G.
Quote from: Berkut on September 05, 2012, 11:42:31 AM
The annoying part is cooking items. There are lots of intermediate components that don't go in collectibles, but are used in a lot of different recipes. And with the way discovery works, you kind of have to keep a bunch of everything on hand to see if it is combinable.
If you have discovered everything that is discoverable for a given item it will no longer show up in the discover pane. If only items higher than your level can be discovered with the item it will be in red. I haven't gotten into cooking, so I don't know if that helps or if there are too many possible combinations.
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 11:50:47 AM
Henge is full and the other is high already. *shrug*
G.
I've read that is true for most, if not all, NA servers.
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 05, 2012, 12:00:51 PM
I've read that is true for most, if not all, NA servers.
I know they added a couple of new servers recently, but they probably filled up too.
Quote from: Berkut on September 05, 2012, 11:42:31 AM
The annoying part is cooking items. There are lots of intermediate components that don't go in collectibles, but are used in a lot of different recipes. And with the way discovery works, you kind of have to keep a bunch of everything on hand to see if it is combinable.
Cooking is regarded as the most difficult profession to level - it needs a lot of cash and dedication.
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 11:59:59 AM
OMG the elementalist model is gorgeous! :w00t:
And so much choice to customize!
G.
There is no character model based on a profession - everyone has access to the same customization tools. The models the game offers are just examples for each profession.
My guardian is a twinkish square-jawed dusky blond with a broad chest and long flowing hair. :P
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 11:50:47 AM
Henge is full and the other is high already. *shrug*
G.
Btw, there are no waiting queues like in WoW. Instead, if you log in and your home server is full, you are put into a temporary "overflow" server where you can play normally (with other people who are also there) until your own server becomes available - at which point it prompts you to move to your home server. The only aspect of the game that you cannot participate in while in the overflow server is the World vs. World vs. World PvP.
Plus, as already pointed out there is a feature in the works where people on different servers can play with each other (again, except for WvWvW PvP) and already you can chat with people on different servers.
Quote from: Martinus on September 05, 2012, 12:04:30 PM
My guardian is a twinkish square-jawed dusky blond with a broad chest and long flowing hair. :P
I'm creating one who's as gloriously beautiful as an Eldar! *contended sigh*
Quote from: Martinus on September 05, 2012, 12:06:29 PM
[Btw, there are no waiting queues like in WoW. Instead, if you log in and your home server is full, you are put into a temporary "overflow" server where you can play normally (with other people who are also there) until your own server becomes available - at which point it prompts you to move to your home server. The only aspect of the game that you cannot participate in while in the overflow server is the World vs. World vs. World PvP.
Related to that, there are long queue times (2-3 hours) for WvW on the busy servers. If anybody plans to participate in that it's worth the time to find a low traffic server.
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 12:08:47 PM
Quote from: Martinus on September 05, 2012, 12:04:30 PM
My guardian is a twinkish square-jawed dusky blond with a broad chest and long flowing hair. :P
I'm creating one who's as gloriously beautiful as an Eldar! *contended sigh*
What's your account name? I will add you. :P
Hmmm moving the toon with only arrows is not very intuitive...
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 01:03:46 PM
Hmmm moving the toon with only arrows is not very intuitive...
Use your mouse.
Well other than the cool character creation - this is yet another grind fest. Oh well.
G.
As usual, grallon expects something out of MMO that simply doesn't exist in any genre of video games.
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 01:28:54 PM
Well other than the cool character creation - this is yet another grind fest. Oh well.
G.
Wow, you are definitely doing it wrong. News at 11.....
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 05, 2012, 01:37:40 PM
Quote from: Grallon on September 05, 2012, 01:28:54 PM
Well other than the cool character creation - this is yet another grind fest. Oh well.
G.
Wow, you are definitely doing it wrong. News at 11.....
Yeah, no kidding.
I've played for 80 hours and have yet to do any grinding :hmm:
I have two sets of characters.......a couple of hot female humans who shoot things and a family of arrogant Asuran males into necromancy, elementalism and all that stuff :D
Quote from: Martinus on September 05, 2012, 05:24:16 AM
Quote from: katmai on September 04, 2012, 08:33:36 PM
I will demand a refund from Marti if this game sucks.
oh and by the way
Katmai.6492
Are you playing one of these fat, snow-dwelling guys or someone unlike you?
I don't know, are you playing a moronic cromagnon looking kiddiefucker or someone unlike you?
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 05, 2012, 06:49:50 PM
I've played for 80 hours and have yet to do any grinding :hmm:
I have two sets of characters.......a couple of hot female humans who shoot things and a family of arrogant Asuran males into necromancy, elementalism and all that stuff :D
In order to finish Dreadhaunt Cliffs I'm going to have to do a bit of grinding, but it's my own fault. There were these Dwarven Keys that were dropping, and I thought they were for an event that I had finished. I destroyed like 8 of them. I hadn't gotten to that point though, and now I'm two short of the six that I need.
So, as a warning, when doing Dreadhaunt Cliffs don't get rid of the Dwarven Keys.
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 05, 2012, 06:49:50 PM
I've played for 80 hours and have yet to do any grinding :hmm:
I have two sets of characters.......a couple of hot female humans who shoot things and a family of arrogant Asuran males into necromancy, elementalism and all that stuff :D
Only had chance to start Norn Ranger and play for about 30 mins before lost power to storms last night. Look forward to checking out charr tonight.
Not really sure what you expect Grallon?
Quote from: katmai on September 05, 2012, 07:37:59 PM
Quote from: Martinus on September 05, 2012, 05:24:16 AM
Quote from: katmai on September 04, 2012, 08:33:36 PM
I will demand a refund from Marti if this game sucks.
oh and by the way
Katmai.6492
Are you playing one of these fat, snow-dwelling guys or someone unlike you?
I don't know, are you playing a moronic cromagnon looking kiddiefucker or someone unlike you?
Wow, you mad bro?
Calling someone a moronic kiddiefucker in response to being called fat (which you, btw, are) is a bit of an overkill. :lol:
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 05, 2012, 06:49:50 PM
I've played for 80 hours and have yet to do any grinding :hmm:
I grinded only once in this game - when I wanted to get over skill level 75 in weaponsmithing and needed tons of weak blood or tiny claws. But that took me about 10-15 minutes.
QuoteI have two sets of characters.......a couple of hot female humans who shoot things and a family of arrogant Asuran males into necromancy, elementalism and all that stuff :D
I am actually thinking of deleting my human elementalist and eventually have one character of each race. But yeah, as far as human character(s) are involved, I go for hot guys too. :P
Quote from: frunk on September 05, 2012, 07:59:19 PM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 05, 2012, 06:49:50 PM
I've played for 80 hours and have yet to do any grinding :hmm:
I have two sets of characters.......a couple of hot female humans who shoot things and a family of arrogant Asuran males into necromancy, elementalism and all that stuff :D
In order to finish Dreadhaunt Cliffs I'm going to have to do a bit of grinding, but it's my own fault. There were these Dwarven Keys that were dropping, and I thought they were for an event that I had finished. I got destroyed like 8 of them. I hadn't gotten to that point though, and now I'm two short of the six that I need.
So, as a warning, when doing Dreadhaunt Cliffs don't get rid of the Dwarven Keys.
Wouldn't it be better to go to a lower level area that you haven't explored yet (e.g. another race's starting area)?
Quote from: Martinus on September 06, 2012, 02:58:17 AM
Quote from: katmai on September 05, 2012, 07:37:59 PM
Quote from: Martinus on September 05, 2012, 05:24:16 AM
Quote from: katmai on September 04, 2012, 08:33:36 PM
I will demand a refund from Marti if this game sucks.
oh and by the way
Katmai.6492
Are you playing one of these fat, snow-dwelling guys or someone unlike you?
I don't know, are you playing a moronic cromagnon looking kiddiefucker or someone unlike you?
Wow, you mad bro?
Calling someone a moronic kiddiefucker in response to being called fat (which you, btw, are) is a bit of an overkill. :lol:
Not gonna clutter this thread up anymore, and won't ask you to stop being a putz as that isn't possible either.
Since a lot of people are now in the range to try their first dungeon(s), here's a very informative post summarizing what to expect of the experience:
QuoteIf you're coming from another fantasy MMO, then the concept of dungeons won't be anything new to you. They're still the instanced, group-based PvE zones you know and love. There are differences in how dungeons in Guild Wars 2 are designed, however, and understanding those differences will greatly increase your enjoyment.
First and foremost, without the holy trinity of other games, you don't have dedicated tanks, healers and damage dealers. Instead, everyone needs to be accountable for their own health and well-being. Some professions bring a lot of support and utility to the fight depending on their build, but you can't sit back and put your life in someone else's hands the way you can in other games. Without tanks, everyone needs to contribute to managing aggro, enemy positioning and crowd control. This responsibility won't fall upon a single player (the traditional tank) while everyone else just focuses on their optimal damage rotation. That kind of gameplay is static and stale, and has no place in the next generation of MMOs.
The second major difference is that each dungeon is split into two distinct experiences: Story Mode and Explorable Mode. The main goal in this article will be to explain the differences in those two modes, increase your understanding of their place in the game, and help you enter them with the proper expectations.
STORY MODE
Story Mode is your level-appropriate, story experience. The content is meant to be enjoyed as soon as you are high enough to enter and participate, and the difficulty is scaled to accommodate 5 players of that level. It's designed on the assumption that players will clear it once, and then move on.
You'll unlock your first Story Mode dungeon at level 30 with Ascalonian Catacombs. While this may seem a little late in the game for an introductory dungeon experience relative to other MMOs, there's good reason for it. In Guild Wars 2, even basic dungeon delving is aimed at delivering a real challenge. By level 30, you'll have unlocked all of your utility skill slots, including your first elite skill. A certain level of profession mastery is therefore assumed. You'll also no doubt have experimented with several weapons (or kits, for engineers) available to your profession by that point, and understand the role each plays in your arsenal. You'll need this level of understanding and mastery to be successful.
The list of all dungeons and levels their Story/Explorable Modes are available is as follows:
•Ascalonian Catacombs – Level 30/Level 35
•Caudecus's Manor – Level 40/45
•Twilight Arbor – Level 50/55
•Sorrow's Embrace – Level 60/65
•Citadel of Flame – Level 70/75
•Crucible of Eternity - Level 80
•Honor of the Waves – Level 80
•Arah – Level 80
Story Modes can be conquered as soon as you are high enough level to enter them.
EXPLORABLE MODE
Explorable Modes are different beasts entirely. Explorable Mode dungeons are set after the events of Story Mode took place. You're essentially returning to the same dungeon in order to delve deeper into it and face more difficult and far deadlier evils. Each Explorable Mode offers 3 different paths that scale between easy, medium and hard difficulties, but even the easiest path is far more challenging than Story Mode. The assumption is that players will return here repeatedly to farm collectible armor sets and to experience each path.
The main point to keep in mind, and this is extremely important, is that Explorable Modes are considered part of the endgame content of Guild Wars 2. Since you'll always be scaled down appropriately to the level of the dungeon, and since loot drops scale up to your actual character level, they are just as viable to go back and play through at level 80 – regardless of the level you can first access them.
You unlock your first Explorable Mode at level 35 after you've cleared Ascalonian Catacombs on Story Mode. That said, just because you can enter it at that level doesn't mean you should. It all comes down to what kind of player you are. If you're seeking the ultimate challenge, then by all means, go right in. Beta or not, Explorable Mode Ascalonian Catacombs at the minimum level was tougher than most raids I faced in other MMOs. I can only assume that others will follow the same pattern, and they aren't for the faint of heart or the easily discouraged.
Conversely, there is nothing wrong with treating Explorable Modes like endgame. Giving yourself a few extra levels as a buffer before heading in will help. Sure, you'll still be scaled down to the appropriate level, but a level 40 who is scaled down to 35 is always going to be more powerful than a fresh level 35. This small advantage could be the difference between an enjoyable experience and a frustrating one in the early dungeons.
My advice for most players is to look at the minimum level you can access each Explorable Mode, and add a few levels to it (where possible) before entering. Obviously this won't be possible for the top tier of dungeons, but by then you'll hopefully be familiar enough with the difficulty spike that you'll be prepared for it.
Collecting gear sets from these dungeons is one of the activities ArenaNet expects players to engage in as endgame. They'll scale the difficulty accordingly. Understanding what you're in for up front will help you get the most out of the experience. We'll see you in game soon!
I started playing last night...pretty fun game. I like the quest/event concept...watering some farmer's corn? ha!
I really want to try the WvW thing, but the queue is ridiculously long on the server our guild decided to play on.
Quote from: Martinus on September 06, 2012, 03:02:05 AM
Wouldn't it be better to go to a lower level area that you haven't explored yet (e.g. another race's starting area)?
Dwarven Keys only drop in Dreadhaunt Cliffs, it's an event, soulbound item. As it turned out I only needed one not six. The grinding that I did consisted of wandering around in some areas I hadn't really explored, fighting to get to a treasure chest I had just missed out on before, and killing a giant barracuda. All told not really grindy at all.
Quote from: frunk on September 06, 2012, 09:57:40 AM
Quote from: Martinus on September 06, 2012, 03:02:05 AM
Wouldn't it be better to go to a lower level area that you haven't explored yet (e.g. another race's starting area)?
Dwarven Keys only drop in Dreadhaunt Cliffs, it's an event, soulbound item. As it turned out I only needed one not six. The grinding that I did consisted of wandering around in some areas I hadn't really explored, fighting to get to a treasure chest I had just missed out on before, and killing a giant barracuda. All told not really grindy at all.
Ah ok I thought you just wanted to grind for xp. :)
Quote from: Martinus on September 06, 2012, 10:23:45 AM
Ah ok I thought you just wanted to grind for xp. :)
Yeah, I'd never, ever grind for xp in this game. There's too many fun things to do. I can definitely see grinding for crafting items, although right now I prefer to use the (finally up) trading post.
I created a number of characters, having more fun in the creation process than in the game itself so far. I find moving around choppy and clumsy as hell - as if it had been designed for a console rather than a PC. But perhaps I'm missing something. So far I tried only the Norn (female) and the humans. I have no interest in any of the other manga style races - especially the pokemon thingy. Why is it there's always that type of ludicrous midgets in every game? Kids appeal?
Anyhow I'll try an engineer now - perhaps it'll be more interesting.
G.
Ok I'm impressed - walking the streets of Divinity's reach is breathtaking. And I realized holding both mouse buttons make you move ... :nelson:
G.
Quote from: Grallon on September 06, 2012, 01:40:12 PM
Ok I'm impressed - walking the streets of Divinity's reach is breathtaking. And I realized holding both mouse buttons make you move ... :nelson:
G.
Yes. How did you move in WoW? Click to move?
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 06, 2012, 01:40:52 PM
Quote from: Grallon on September 06, 2012, 01:40:12 PM
Ok I'm impressed - walking the streets of Divinity's reach is breathtaking. And I realized holding both mouse buttons make you move ... :nelson:
G.
Yes. How did you move in WoW? Click to move?
WASD
Quote from: Barrister on September 06, 2012, 01:52:49 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 06, 2012, 01:40:52 PM
Quote from: Grallon on September 06, 2012, 01:40:12 PM
Ok I'm impressed - walking the streets of Divinity's reach is breathtaking. And I realized holding both mouse buttons make you move ... :nelson:
G.
Yes. How did you move in WoW? Click to move?
WASD
That's like the arrows, no? In WoW they were both mapped by default.
Quote from: Grallon on September 06, 2012, 01:40:12 PM
Ok I'm impressed - walking the streets of Divinity's reach is breathtaking. And I realized holding both mouse buttons make you move ... :nelson:
G.
Yeah, thats why I said use a mouse... ;)
So recieved an email this morning asking me if I wanted to authorize a log in attempt from China to my account. :lol:
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 06, 2012, 01:54:29 PM
That's like the arrows, no? In WoW they were both mapped by default.
Same with GW2. It's not like they reinvented anything here.
So, is the game worth getting? It's F2P, right - so is there a ton of little micro-transaction BS?
Quote from: Kleves on September 06, 2012, 03:28:17 PM
So, is the game worth getting? It's F2P, right - so is there a ton of little micro-transaction BS?
You have to buy a copy of the game, so it's really B2P (buy to play). After that there are micro-transactions but you can play perfectly fine without doing any of them. If you do want to buy something you don't have to use cash, you can buy Gems using the in-game currency at the trading post and use the Gems to buy what you want.
The only micro-transaction items I would consider are the character slots or bank space.
I am: tempted. How soloable is the game (which, I realized, may not be the focus of a game called Guild Wars)?
Quote from: Kleves on September 06, 2012, 03:40:45 PM
I am: tempted. How soloable is the game (which, I realized, may not be the focus of a game called Guild Wars)?
I'd guess 90% of the PvE content (not counting dungeons) is soloable, the other 5% should be achievable with random other players dropping by, the last 5% will take a dedicated group. The main PvE storyline/map can be finished with a combination of solo and pickup.
PvP and WvW obviously aren't soloable, although being in an organized group isn't required. I think if you participate in WvW you'll end up in some sort of group or guild just so you can participate in larger organized activities.
Quote from: frunk on September 06, 2012, 04:19:40 PM
PvP and WvW obviously aren't soloable,
No stealth classes?
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on September 06, 2012, 04:36:29 PM
Quote from: frunk on September 06, 2012, 04:19:40 PM
PvP and WvW obviously aren't soloable,
No stealth classes?
Actually there's quite a bit of stealthing that goes on in WvW, just because the world is so big and most of the players tend to zerg up. There are no dedicated stealth classes though.
PvP is generally 5v5 in smallish arenas, so you'll be interacting with your teammates whether you want to or not. WvW chances are you'll frequently run across other players as well. In PvE it isn't too hard to get off the beaten path to avoid people if you want, particularly once you get out of the start areas.
Sorry if i missed it, but curious what others think best professions for ranger, i took huntsmen for creating weapons, and leaning towards leather for armor creation, but wonder if jewel smith or artifice would bring more valuable items.
The obvious choice is huntsman/leather.
However, you quickly find that the limiting factor in crafting are the "special" components that are generally kind of low rate drops, and they are shared across production professions.
In other words, if you take two production professions like Huntsman/Leatherworker, your progress in both will be limited by them both needing the same semi-rare drops.
Which is why it may be better to go with only one production profession, and pair it with one of the two non-production professions that do not use those rare drops - chef and jewelcrafting.
Thanks Berk, was suspecting something along those lines.
Quote from: frunk on September 06, 2012, 04:19:40 PM
I'd guess 90% of the PvE content (not counting dungeons) is soloable, the other 5% should be achievable with random other players dropping by, the last 5% will take a dedicated group. The main PvE storyline/map can be finished with a combination of solo and pickup.
Thanks, frunk, but I have one more question for you. Why do hate my bank account? :sleep:
I can't find this game ANYWHERE. *panic*
Quote from: Jaron on September 06, 2012, 08:55:48 PM
I can't find this game ANYWHERE. *panic*
I told you where to get it cheapskate!
Quote from: Jaron on September 06, 2012, 08:55:48 PM
I can't find this game ANYWHERE. *panic*
:huh:
I don't understand, you are connected to the internet.
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 06, 2012, 09:38:44 PM
Quote from: Jaron on September 06, 2012, 08:55:48 PM
I can't find this game ANYWHERE. *panic*
:huh:
I don't understand, you are connected to the internet.
Most of the digital download places are sold out except for the Deluxe version.
Quote from: katmai on September 06, 2012, 09:41:09 PM
Most of the digital download places are sold out except for the Deluxe version.
I just tried to buy from BestBuy digitally - now the order is being "processed." <_<
Quote from: Kleves on September 06, 2012, 09:56:48 PM
Quote from: katmai on September 06, 2012, 09:41:09 PM
Most of the digital download places are sold out except for the Deluxe version.
I just tried to buy from BestBuy digitally - now the order is being "processed." <_<
I bought it from them, took like 15mins to get the email for order was complete.
The name is: Kleves.3045
Where's everybody playing?
I think they are on Henge (at least Frunk is), not sure though about others.
I am on Henge as well.
Could everyone (re)post their account name and server so this can be added to the OP?
Martinus.1068 - Piken Square
sbr.8170 -- Tarnished Coast
I would be more than willing to move to another server with N Americans if there is one with room.
I don't think I have played more than a few minutes with any of my other characters since I started with my Elementalist, it is a lot of fun. I am level 19 now.
When I am soloing, which is 99% of the time I have been rolling with a sceptre and dagger in the off hand and using the fire attunement. It has a nice combination of mid and short ranged skills and a nice fire/blast combo.
I am still trying to figure out which other slot skils I like. At the moment I am runnign with the Arcane Power (crit bonus) and Arcane Wave (damage). What secondary skills are the other Elementalists running with?
Quote from: katmai on September 06, 2012, 09:41:09 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 06, 2012, 09:38:44 PM
Quote from: Jaron on September 06, 2012, 08:55:48 PM
I can't find this game ANYWHERE. *panic*
:huh:
I don't understand, you are connected to the internet.
Most of the digital download places are sold out except for the Deluxe version.
:huh: Arena Net CEO wasn't kidding eh.
Quote from: sbr on September 07, 2012, 04:27:29 AM
I don't think I have played more than a few minutes with any of my other characters since I started with my Elementalist, it is a lot of fun. I am level 19 now.
When I am soloing, which is 99% of the time I have been rolling with a sceptre and dagger in the off hand and using the fire attunement. It has a nice combination of mid and short ranged skills and a nice fire/blast combo.
I am still trying to figure out which other slot skils I like. At the moment I am runnign with the Arcane Power (crit bonus) and Arcane Wave (damage). What secondary skills are the other Elementalists running with?
Signets and Glyphs are always a good choice when you can't think of anything else - they give passive bonuses when unused so you are not wasting the slot, even if you never click it, and the active ability is usually quite good too.
So, added account names for:
Martinus.1068 on Piken Square
Pete.5276 on Piken Square
sbr.8170 on Tarnished Coast
Berkut.2709 on Tarnished Coast
Shade.5421
Katmai.6492
Other people apparently don't want to play with us. :(
I moved to Henge, actually.
Have any of you guys tried dungeons yet?
Quote from: Martinus on September 07, 2012, 08:21:08 AM
So, added account names for:
Martinus.1068 on Piken Square
Pete.5276 on Piken Square
sbr.8170 on Tarnished Coast
Berkut.2709 on Tarnished Coast
Shade.5421
Katmai.6492
Other people apparently don't want to play with us. :(
I only play a couple of hours on weekedns atm.
Quote from: katmai on September 06, 2012, 10:43:07 PM
Quote from: Kleves on September 06, 2012, 09:56:48 PM
Quote from: katmai on September 06, 2012, 09:41:09 PM
Most of the digital download places are sold out except for the Deluxe version.
I just tried to buy from BestBuy digitally - now the order is being "processed." <_<
I bought it from them, took like 15mins to get the email for order was complete.
After waiting 45mins while my best buy order was being 'processed,' I cancelled the order and caved into buying the deluxe edition off Amazon.
I live 5 minutes from 2 gamestops and a best buy....I truly am a sloth. :hmm:
grallonsphere.9043 on Tarnished Coast
I'm stuck at a place where you need to teach guards to block attacks with a shield... What nonsense! Of course you have to time the NPCs attack *sigh* I fucking hate wasting time like this!
G.
Quote from: Grallon on September 07, 2012, 10:08:34 AM
grallonsphere.9043 on Tarnished Coast
I'm stuck at a place where you need to teach guards to block attacks with a shield... What nonsense! Of course you have to time the NPCs attack *sigh* I fucking hate wasting time like this!
G.
First of all, in this game you are *never* stuck on anything (perhaps except your personal story) - you can always move on to the next challenge.
Second, this was probably the easiest/fastest renown heart I have ever filled - and if you can't do the shield block right (you just need to press it when he does the attack animation - but against you - you need to see if this is against you or someone else - that's all there is to it), there is also a rifle shooting and a sword attack in the same village which fills the heart just as well.
It's really annoying to see you constantly whine because you are inept.
Quote from: Martinus on September 07, 2012, 10:25:12 AM
...
It's really annoying to see you constantly whine because you are inept.
*shrug* I despise fidgety gaming.
G.
You despise everything so this comes as no surprise.
I made the mistake last night of trying the Warrior. It was a mistake before that I was sure my main was going to be a ranger. Now I am sure it is going to be a Warrior... :D
I am Helias with some number I cant remember on Henge.
I am on Darkhaven with some friends.
Quote from: katmai on September 07, 2012, 12:55:07 PM
I am on Darkhaven with some friends.
Screw you.
And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
:D What can I say I started guy on Henge, first two nights not a soul from Languish on, then friends who played with long time in WoW invited me to come over to their server.
What
The
Fuck
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 07, 2012, 12:31:03 PM
I made the mistake last night of trying the Warrior. It was a mistake before that I was sure my main was going to be a ranger. Now I am sure it is going to be a Warrior... :D
I did the exact same thing.
The Warrior is a blast to play.
Quote from: Berkut on September 07, 2012, 01:42:39 PM
What
The
Fuck
What
Can
I
Say
Played enough mmo with you people to know how rarely we actually end up grouping.
Henge was full, so I'm on Tarnished Coast. <_<
Quote from: Kleves on September 07, 2012, 03:49:05 PM
Henge was full, so I'm on Tarnished Coast. <_<
Give me a holler if you want to group up. I have a level 4 Norn hunter I could run around with.
I just got 100% on the Plains of Ashford, Charr starting area. The loot was good for the reward, but I can't use most of it. The weapon and armor are for level 26 and I'm only 20, though my Elementalist can't ever use the axe. :glare: The 18 silver was a nice boost to my bank account though.
I'm on Gunnar's something server, Syt.5something. :unsure:
Yesterday evening I participated in an event chain in Norn territory that culminated in a huge fight against a boss. We were about two dozen people, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the fucker down. I thought I was doing pretty well, switching weapons on my warriorette, laying it on there, using buffs etc., though I got downed about half a dozen times. After the looong fight, the boss finally dies and I get a bronze medal and less than 100 XP. :huh:
And based on the chat messages I actually got of pretty good - some elementalists had less than 50 XP out of it. Not to mention that no one got any loot. Verdict: wasn't worth it, though the fight was pretty epic.
I also realized, that at level 14 I'm still wearing some n00b armor (shoulders, gauntlets, legings) which explains why some fights are a bit on the tough side for me. Since the auction hall is STILL not working, I guess I have to craft some stuff myself. (In other MMOs, I fill "gaps" in my equipment every 5-10 levels at the auction hall.)
Looks like they increased the population limits in the worlds. I have moved to the Henge and it appears there is more room there.
Sbr is as bad as Berkut when noticing whispers
Must be a PAC-12 thing. <_<
Quote from: katmai on September 08, 2012, 01:23:47 AM
Sbr is as bad as Berkut when noticing whispers
Must be a PAC-12 thing. <_<
:D Do they show up in the chat window? I don't pay much attention to that, if it is even open. I will be better about it now.
They do in a default purple. I was just disparaging the Ducks in attempt to say hi.
Quote from: katmai on September 08, 2012, 02:15:08 AM
They do in a default purple. I was just disparaging the Ducks in attempt to say hi.
I will be sure to mention the UW - LSU game Saturday evening or Sunday if you are around.
Just finished my first dungeon run - wow it is tough. And supposedly the story mode is supposed to be easier.
It was nearly 2 hours, mainly bosses. The level of difficulty reminded me of WoW raids, only that you have 5 people.
I like how the "story mode" idea lets them do a lot of cutscenes/lore on the first run and on first run only, as otherwise it would grow tedious, the way some of the stuff in WoW was.
Quote from: Martinus on September 08, 2012, 03:09:13 AM
Just finished my first dungeon run - wow it is tough. And supposedly the story mode is supposed to be easier.
It was nearly 2 hours, mainly bosses. The level of difficulty reminded me of WoW raids, only that you have 5 people.
I like how the "story mode" idea lets them do a lot of cutscenes/lore on the first run and on first run only, as otherwise it would grow tedious, the way some of the stuff in WoW was.
Which dungeon?
Quote from: sbr on September 08, 2012, 03:20:48 AM
Quote from: Martinus on September 08, 2012, 03:09:13 AM
Just finished my first dungeon run - wow it is tough. And supposedly the story mode is supposed to be easier.
It was nearly 2 hours, mainly bosses. The level of difficulty reminded me of WoW raids, only that you have 5 people.
I like how the "story mode" idea lets them do a lot of cutscenes/lore on the first run and on first run only, as otherwise it would grow tedious, the way some of the stuff in WoW was.
Which dungeon?
Ascalon Catacombs.
I didn't have much time to play, but so far this game seems pretty run of the mill and not at all impressive. What's the hook here for you guys?
Run of the mill is the word piglet dear. It's yet another WoW wannabe. However they did improve on WoW - at least on what it was when I left it almost 3 years ago. It seems to me all the 'services' have been streamlined (bank, shared storage between toons of a same account, waypoints an such). I quite like the impromptu events you can join without having to queue forever (I'm talking about the open map events). Mind you I retain my intense dislike for group instances so I'll probably never go there. But the best thing about this game is how they've made it lifelike: it's vast, it's varied, it's heavily populated - at least in the human areas. And Divinity's Reach is simply amazing. Never before have I seen a game where you have the impression of being in another world as much as in this one.
Of course at the end of the day all there is to do is fight - which doesn't have a long replay value in my book. The crafting, like in WoW or LotRO is nothing but an adjunct to the killing. There isn't any other path you can take (as opposed to merchants or explorers in Uncharted Waters for instance). All you do is kill things - which is why I mentioned grinding above. You have daylies, monthlies and so forth. The central quest, depending on your origins chosen at character creation (neat that - but too little of them) is somewhat interesting but once you've done it once I imagine it'll become stale fast.
I can't believe this game has been launched what? 3 weeks ago? And I've seen several lvl 80s already... Some people have no life. :P
Incidentally, how does one emote (dancing, laughing and such)?
Oh and I enjoy the fact you can dye your clothing at will.
G.
:lol:
I can't possibly see what could be funny. ;)
EDIT: I just got 'Pride Dye' from a drop :lol:
G.
Most of the early 80s were crafters. They'd get their guild members to feed them resources and they'd crank out items. It isn't that difficult to do almost all crafting as long as you have a way to get resources.
The non-story game is built around exploring. There's significant rewards for completing the exploration of a map, and the number of hidden or difficult to get to areas is large. I think there's at least two on each map, and some have many more.
Emotes are done with
/dance
/laugh
Here's (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Emote) the current list.
Quote from: Grallon on September 08, 2012, 05:34:39 PM
I can't possibly see what could be funny. ;)
EDIT: I just got 'Pride Dye' from a drop :lol:
G.
You are awfully misinformed. But then you are acting like that with respect to everything, so that's not a surprise.
Leveling Jeweler from 25-50 is rather tiresome. There are only 2 recipes and only a couple of gemstones to use. The discovery doesn't get you very far then you just have to continually make those few items over and over again.
Oddly enough, I rather enjoy the story quests. Your character creation choices influence the quest chain (I had three choices for my character: got drunk and don't remember anything, got drunk and got in a fight or that I had a lifelong rival). I went with the "got drunk, passed out" thing, so I'm now trying to hunt down a war machine I and my Charr drinking buddies "lost" while being blitzed. Then there's the occasional branch in the quests where you can choose how to proceed.
It's certainly not Shakespeare, but the mechanics and the way those quests are scripted are better than what Bioware served in SWTOR.
Quote from: sbr on September 08, 2012, 11:10:33 PM
Leveling Jeweler from 25-50 is rather tiresome. There are only 2 recipes and only a couple of gemstones to use. The discovery doesn't get you very far then you just have to continually make those few items over and over again.
I have about 6 or eight recipes - 4 different gemstones (garnet, amber, turquoise, opal?) and ring/earring recipes for each. But yeah, it's tiringly slow.
Quote from: Syt on September 08, 2012, 11:17:44 PM
Quote from: sbr on September 08, 2012, 11:10:33 PM
Leveling Jeweler from 25-50 is rather tiresome. There are only 2 recipes and only a couple of gemstones to use. The discovery doesn't get you very far then you just have to continually make those few items over and over again.
I have about 6 or eight recipes - 4 different gemstones (garnet, amber, turquoise, opal?) and ring/earring recipes for each. But yeah, it's tiringly slow.
Yep ring and earring is all you can make until level 50. There are 5 gemstones (Garnet, Amber, Pearl, Turquiose, Tiger Eye) that you can use up to 50 so there are 10 total recipes. Once I had discovered all 10 I was only level 37 or something.
Ah, gotcha.
Guys, you can also make filigrees in the 25-50 bracket and discover adorned gems by combining the filigrees with different gems. The adorned gems are used as add-ons (essentially, enchantments) and also later for discovering more powerful jewelry in the 50-75 bracket.
Btw, there is also a sixth gem usable in this bracket - malachite.
Here's a 1-75 guide:
http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/guildwars2-guide-crafting-jeweler-1-75/
Quote from: Martinus on September 09, 2012, 03:29:24 AM
Guys, you can also make filigrees in the 25-50 bracket and discover adorned gems by combining the filigrees with different gems. The adorned gems are used as add-ons (essentially, enchantments) and also later for discovering more powerful jewelry in the 50-75 bracket.
Btw, there is also a sixth gem usable in this bracket - malachite.
Here's a 1-75 guide:
http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/guildwars2-guide-crafting-jeweler-1-75/
I don't have the option to make filigrees in game and the wiki says you have to be level 50 to make them.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Filigree
But thanks, I will look at that guide.
EDIT: The comments in the guide say it is out of date.
Ah ok sorry. :blush:
I had a look at the Asura starting area. Considering their cutesy looks I feared the worst (WoW's gnomes V2.0), but I was pleasantly surprised. They dabble in high tech instead of steampunk (which is covered by the Charr, anyways). And they're arrogant, pompous scientists with a superiority complex which is rather amusing. Also, they get a skill called "Technobabble" which dazes foes. :lol: With their elite skills they can summon golems or an armed power suit.
Quote from: Martinus on September 09, 2012, 03:57:20 AM
Ah ok sorry. :blush:
No worries. I am slowly getting there, this is as close to grinding as I have
had to do so far in the game. Meanwhile I knocked out about 7-8 levels in Artificer by discovering potions. That stack of 10 water I bought was the best investment so far.
You are certainly more useful than Martinus. I've chosen artificer myself but I'm lost - where do I find recipes? I see the Master Artificer in Destiny's Reach has many but they are 300 (what? Lvls?) or above. I'm lvl 14 I think so I make green planks and bronze ingots - must I reach 300 to be able to purchase those recipes?
G.
You can level crafting pretty quick by combining components in the "discovery" tab, thus revealing new recipes. The system is supposedly set up so that you don't have learn all recipes to level to max.
I'm on my phone G. but it involves testing appropriate ingredients in the Discovery panel of the crafting screen. I will post a better description when I get to a better keyboard if someone hasn't already.
You need to look at your stash of collectibles and move all the appropriate ingredients into your character's bags. Then check out the discovery panel and experiment with different combinations. This gives good crafting xp and further recipes, some of these recipes make components which can be combined in turn to get yet more recipes.
My warrior is learning armour and weaponsmithing though, so I can't comment on artificer specifics. Be warned that a lot of ingredients are required, especially if you are levelling two crafts.
Whats the kb command for *long* jumps? There's a place in the city where I cannot reach the vista - a circle of colums, trees... most annoying to spend 15 minutes jumping like a moron. <_<
G.
You need to have a speed buff on for that one. There are many npcs who give it.
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 09, 2012, 12:06:27 PM
You need to look at your stash of collectibles and move all the appropriate ingredients into your character's bags.
Note that for regular crafting you don't have to move them in your bags anymore, and supposedly in the future you won't have to do it for discovery either.
Does anyone have problems with the game crashing when you fast travel to a new area?
I can fast travel via waypoints within an area all day, every time I try and travel to a different area by waypoint the game crashes.
I'm on Henge now. :)
The level 62 personal story quest "Forging the Pact" appears to be bugged. If a certain character dies at any point then the quest won't proceed correctly. The quest is hard enough as it is without stopping the stupid NPC from rushing ahead and getting himself killed.
Quote from: frunk on September 09, 2012, 04:32:57 PM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 09, 2012, 12:06:27 PM
You need to look at your stash of collectibles and move all the appropriate ingredients into your character's bags.
Note that for regular crafting you don't have to move them in your bags anymore, and supposedly in the future you won't have to do it for discovery either.
Glad to hear it :cheers:
I've respecced my Lvl 18 warrior to maximize critical hits. I have a 51% chance for a critical hit, and my weapons have a 10% chance of doing an AoE fireball on critical hit. Fights have subsequently become a fair bit easier (I was previously going for defense and a bit power).
Quote from: Syt on September 10, 2012, 12:31:37 AM
I've respecced my Lvl 18 warrior to maximize critical hits. I have a 51% chance for a critical hit, and my weapons have a 10% chance of doing an AoE fireball on critical hit. Fights have subsequently become a fair bit easier (I was previously going for defense and a bit power).
I have always made my characters pretty balanced. MMO n00b mistake?
Power/Attack - 301/530
Precision/CC - 286/25%
Toughness/Armor - 290/448
Vitality/Health - 217/2,378
Not necessarily, I was mostly just whinging it without plan up till now. It also depends on your play style.
"Let's put a trait point here. Oh, that weapon has higher damage - it has buffs I don't need, but what the hell!"
Normally that's not a problem in the early stages of an MMO. :P
So I made a charr necromancer and a sylvari ranger - having a blast with both. A necromancer is very durable, compared to an elementalist, and the sylvari starting area is simply beautiful.
I will see how it goes, but so far a necromancer seems to me much more fun than an elementalist, mechanics-wise. When it comes to mastering your skills, it seems a bit like an elementalist-lite (since you do have extra skill bars, such as a Death Shroud, and a Lich Form, but you do not shift through them constantly), and the profession concept seems to be heavily oriented towards survival which I like (I am not very good at being a glass cannon).
Likewise, a ranger seems quite survivable.
Quote from: Syt on September 10, 2012, 12:44:45 AM
Not necessarily, I was mostly just whinging it without plan up till now. It also depends on your play style.
"Let's put a trait point here. Oh, that weapon has higher damage - it has buffs I don't need, but what the hell!"
Normally that's not a problem in the early stages of an MMO. :P
When it comes to Trait lines, I think you can't really go wrong with early choices. The passive bonuses given to you for each point (and reaching 5, 15 and 25 points in a trait line) are pretty much always useful, so the choice is not that much between play styles but whether you want to be more dps oriented (the first line is for burst damage, the second is for condition damage, so you could say it's PvE and PvP, as a rule of thumb); harder to kill (third line); have more health/healing (fourth line) and have more flexibility with your unique mechanic (fifth line). Personally, I usually fill up the first and the third lines first, as I think they are the ones most useful for soloing.
The actively selected powers in each trait line (the ones you get at every 10 points) can be switched every time you are out of combat (you do not need to "respec"), and even though some of them give bonuses to individual weapons, there are always ones available that can benefit any weapon choice or play style.
Only once you reach say, level 40, and can go beyond 10 points in a trait line, you may want to respec as the synergies become more visible (for example, if you play a guardian with a "burning build", there are abilities in several trait lines you will want to get for better synergies).
Quote from: Martinus on September 10, 2012, 04:23:29 AM
Only once you reach say, level 40, and can go beyond 10 points in a trait line, you may want to respec as the synergies become more visible (for example, if you play a guardian with a "burning build", there are abilities in several trait lines you will want to get for better synergies).
When you use the book that lets you go beyond 10 points in a line it respecs you for free.
As much as I like the warrior I thought I would try out the thief. The sword/dagger and dagger/dagger skills are a lot of fun. Stealth to target, disorientate, flip around for back stab, stealth all with three buttons.
Warrior and Thief are the two I am going to spend the most time on. havent yet decided which will ultimately be my main.
I really like the change to the crafting interface removing the need to move the collectables into your bags. Makes crafting a lot more enjoyable.
@Marti, the necro is fun early on but starts having problems later. Your minions are going to start dying fast. Your best bet is to go with a sceptre/dagger condition damage build. But that gets a little tedious as you wait for your conditions to take the enemy down. Early on it will seem like a fast killer but I think this class really needs a group to be really enjoyable.
Thanks CC. I kinda started to notice that. Still, necros seem quite durable and I generally like the classes that perhaps take longer to kill but also are themselves longer to kill and have some fun support abilities.
I think this makes a guardian and a necro my choices for now. I am going to pick up the third class to play from the adventurer group - what would you guys recommend for a relatively durable support class? An engineer perhaps?
Incidentally, I'm back to playing humans - but I'm gonna level the necro in the charr area (makes sense since it's filled with ghosts) and the adventurer guy will be leveled in another race's starting area too.
Quote from: katmai on September 07, 2012, 12:55:07 PM
I am on Darkhaven with some friends.
oooo me too!
Fear my lvl 16 mesmer, Basilinna! :Embarrass:
I love how you guys seem to like every class you try a little more then the one before.
Maybe I'll play this afterall.
Yeah, I'm gonna get this if people still enjoy it once I get decent internet again.
I'm at the lvl 22 personal story instance "Brute Force" and it seems bugged - after a couple of waves of undead that's it - nothing happens. Anyone encountered this before? It seems common from what I found online.
G.
More on a necro: it seems to me that necromancer's pets are somewhere in between mesmer's and ranger's, when it comes to durability. I think they are more fire and forget kind of abilities that you need to resummon several times during bigger fights than pets in the same sense a ranger has them.
For example, right now my necromancer has two pets in utility slots and one pet in the healing slot - in bigger fights, I can rotate them so there is alwasy at least one pet up, but there is no hope they are stay alive. They are good at the beginning of a fight with multiple enemies, though, as they tend to occupy foes, so I can whip up my staff and lay down the marks on the ground, and then switch to my direct damage set, ramp up some life force and then unleash death shroud on them.
Edit: Although now that I reached second tier skills and can summon the shadow cloud pet instead of the little bone ones, it tends to stay alive through most of the fights (my second utility pet is the ranged attack scorpion).
I hit 30 on my Charr Elementalist yesterday. I'm still learning to play it, I very rarely change attunements, but with the sceptre/dagger and fire attunement there is rarely a reason to. I am going to start to play with some different weapons, maybe Marti's dagger/dagger I haven't done much with that yet. I assume I will need to get a better handle on other parts of the class than just burning everything I see to a crisp before joining a random group in a dungeon.
As bad as leveling Jeweler from 25-50 was the jump from 50-75 was the exact opposite, it took me about 5 minutes. Those filigrees are amazing, each discovery was ~3000 XP. By the time I discovered the recipe for the 5 gemstones I had I was almost there; a couple of amulet discoveries got me there pretty quick.
I also finished 100% the Norn starting areas (Hoelbrak and Wayfarer Foothills) with my Elementalist. The rewards werent as good as when I finished the Plains of Ashford but the 40 copper ore definitely helped in my Jeweler crafting.
The Gem market is definitely based on price per 100. I bought 1400 gems for extra bank space and an extra character slot, and it came to roughly 3 gold 80 silver. Now the price is higher, and I don't anticipate it coming down much.
My lvl 25 Elementalist has reached the point in his personal story where he must chose to become a member of one of the 3 orders. Which one do you recommend? I hesitate between the scholars and the spies.
G.
Quote from: Grallon on September 11, 2012, 04:16:53 PM
My lvl 25 Elementalist has reached the point in his personal story where he must chose to become a member of one of the 3 orders. Which one do you recommend? I hesitate between the scholars and the spies.
G.
I joined the Vigil, I like fighting though. :blush: I haven't gotten far with with the rest of the story after choosing them.
I chose the scholars after all. Since they maintain they can destroy the Elder Dragons - as opposed to the spies which merely wish to 'put them to sleep'.
Speaking of fighting... I was accompanying a caravan in the swamps and we got attacked by waves of undead - we were perhaps a dozen players. At some point I couldn't see a thing with all the visual effects and flashes and so forth. What's the more efficient way to handle this? I mean the mobs were so fast I couldn't target before they were somewhere else. That's one of the reason I dislike fidgety playing.
G.
Quote from: Grallon on September 11, 2012, 05:16:07 PM
I chose the scholars after all. Since they maintain they can destroy the Elder Dragons - as opposed to the spies which merely wish to 'put them to sleep'.
Speaking of fighting... I was accompanying a caravan in the swamps and we got attacked by waves of undead - we were perhaps a dozen players. At some point I couldn't see a thing with all the visual effects and flashes and so forth. What's the more efficient way to handle this? I mean the mobs were so fast I couldn't target before they were somewhere else. That's one of the reason I dislike fidgety playing.
G.
The best approach in such cases is to use ranged AoE and support. For most casters staves are the way to go.
Also, I think it really makes sense to disable double click ground targetting in the settings - that way, the ground targetted spells get cast where your mouse pointer is located, without you having to click on the ground again - makes firing them off much faster.
I gotta say - I am really loving my necromancer, especially compared to my elementalist. Going through the same storyline (human, raised in the streets, lost sister), some of the personal questline fights that gave me a lot of pain on my elementalist (e.g. the veteran bosses around level 10), where I had to restart from a checkpoint frequently, are a piece of cake to solo with my necro - I just keep summoning my pets as they get murdered by the boss, and keep laying down conditions with scepter/dagger and staff. The death shroud is also a great "oh shit" ability, when you need to buy some time as all your heals/pets are on cooldown and your health is approaching zero.
I also find the utility skill choices much more intuitive - you've got pets for soloing (when you need something to soak some damage for you), signets for damage where aggro is not a concern (e.g. you are in a group event) and wells for support.
Quote from: Martinus on September 12, 2012, 01:34:32 AM
Also, I think it really makes sense to disable double click ground targetting in the settings - that way, the ground targetted spells get cast where your mouse pointer is located, without you having to click on the ground again - makes firing them off much faster.
Yeah, that is the single most important piece of advice to anyone playing professions with range aoe.
I've been having quite a lot of fun with both my ranger and my warrior, and even my elementalist.
The ele is interesing - I am going with a air focus, which is pretty cool. I can handle pretty much anything and take very little damage, if any. Thing is, I have to work at it though - you can't just stand there and blow everything away like you can with fire.
But I am also pretty sure I can take on much harder targets with the air, since I can control them, dodge them, etc.
For example, with a tough target that can kill me with a few hits, my "rotation" is pretty much:
Start of fight:
Windlown Speed and Arcane Power for higher attack rate and guranteed crit for my first 5 attacks.
Start auto-attack on the target
Drop static field on target (ranged) or between me and the target. THat gives me a 2s stun on them, and negates their first attack
Then they come running up to me, wait until they get to me, hit them with Gust to shove them back 400m.
As they come back in, hit them with Lightning Surge, which blinds them, so I know their first attack is going to auto-miss.
So now we've been fighting several seconds, and if I've done this right, they haven't even hit me yet.
I wait for that first miss. Keep blasting, of course. Wait for their next attack animation, and hit my back dodge.
At this point, I might switch over to flame in order to drop a burn on them and use my flame dodge skill.
Back to lightning, hit blind again. Next attack misses.
Wait for next attack animation, hit them with Gust which blows them away, so THAT attack misses.
I can keep this up for quite some time, and if I execute correctly, I pretty much never get touched.
The only problem is that when I am fighting kind of same/lower level targets, I still need to "work" a bit, since I don't kill fast enough to just ignore their damage. Which can be rather tedious when you are NOT fighting something challenging.
I think I am going to start some PvP. I would think an air mage could be pretty annoying.
Quote from: Berkut on September 12, 2012, 02:41:04 PM
I think I am going to start some PvP. I would think an air mage could be pretty annoying.
Yeah, with a lot of the skills I keep thinking that while they are fun in PvE they would be a real blast to try in PvP. I just havent had the time to try it. My normal stretch of play is under 30 min and I havent tried to get in yet.
Anyone playing mesmer besides the enigmatic mr
Grey?
So far I have been trying an engineer, warrior, and mesmer. Any suggestions about what other two classes should I try?
Personally I'd go with Ranger and Elementalist, although I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.
I just started up a mesmer katmai.
Quote from: Kleves on September 12, 2012, 04:20:27 PM
So far I have been trying an engineer, warrior, and mesmer. Any suggestions about what other two classes should I try?
Engineer and ranger have fairly similar mechanics. If you want to try something with different mechanics from what you have already played I suggest rogue (although somewhat similar to warrior) necro which is completely different and ele which has its own unique attunement mechanic.
Thanks Frunk, I have lvl 1 Mesmer, Elementalist and Warrior, my Norn Ranger is only thing played really.
Yeah, a necro is a lot of fun. Right now my trinity is a guardian, a necro and an engineer.
I think from what I played so far, an elementalist and a thief have the most counter-intuitive mechanics, so it makes them rather hard to get into. This is because most other professions operate within the mindset of having a limited number of weapon skills with varying cooldowns, so this makes "rotation" easy to get into - i.e. as a rule of thumb you press whatever is not on cooldown and only when everything is on cooldown, you press auto-attack. You also rarely switch weapons during a single fight (e.g. you have one weapon set for melee single target combat and the other for long range kiting, so you probably only switch when after initiating a fight with a single enemy you get jumped by a patrol).
An elementalist confounds that by having four different weapon sets (one for each attunement) where you are expected to switch during a single fight, sometimes several times.
A thief confounds that by having no cooldowns but a sort of energy bar so it's much harder to come up with a decent rotation.
On reflection, you could say I dislike classes that have too many options to choose from during a fight - I tend to panic in fights so the less choices I have the better. Me playing an elementalist involved pretty much randomly mashing 1-5 and F1-F4 buttons. :P
Consider that as an elementalist you have 1 land two-hand, 2 water two-hands, two main-hands and two off-hands, which gives a total of 100 weapon skills to learn (out of which you can access 20 in a single fight).
A mesmer has 2 land two-hands, 2 water two-hands, two main-hands and four off-hands, which gives only 34 weapon skills to learn (out of which you can access at most 10 in a single fight).
I'm getting the hang of the crafting system - now over 100 in both Artificier and Tailor. But I bought a lot of mats rather than collecting. What's the fastest way to make money? I mean I bought for 100$ worth of gems to expand the bank slots and I converted perhaps 3000 into gold - still only have 2 gold to my name - after the crafting spree. I've noticed the rewards for helping people have increased but it is still only 1.5 - 1.6 silver... you don't get rich that way. I'm guessing by lvl 80 the rewards will be substantial? And of course, like in WoW - the best rewards come from PvP or group instances yes?
In any case here's Soren Thorinsson - currently haunting the Lornar Pass. Just for these breathtaking views the game is worth playing.
G.
Quote from: Grallon on September 13, 2012, 01:27:44 PM
I'm getting the hang of the crafting system - now over 100 in both Artificier and Tailor. But I bought a lot of mats rather than collecting. What's the fastest way to make money? I mean I bought for 100$ worth of gems to expand the bank slots and I converted perhaps 3000 into gold - still only have 2 gold to my name - after the crafting spree. I've noticed the rewards for helping people have increased but it is still only 1.5 - 1.6 silver... you don't get rich that way. I'm guessing by lvl 80 the rewards will be substantial? And of course, like in WoW - the best rewards come from PvP or group instances yes?
In any case here's Soren Thorinsson - currently haunting the Lornar Pass. Just for these breathtaking views the game is worth playing.
G.
PvP rewards are entirely cosmetic and have no bearing on PvE (and in fact aren't transferable). WvW rewards are roughly equivalent (or slightly lower) than PvE for a player of the same unaugmented level.
Oh and the guy himself - gorgeous isn't he? :wub:
G.
Wait a minute - you spent 100 bucks in gems on a game you dont like?
I have been trying for *days* to do the lvl 33 personal story quest 'Blood Sword' and I cannot for the life of me cross that windy bridge: either I get gusted away into the chasm or I lose footing and plunge down on my own... <_< Now Im using my last speed boost to try to make it but today it's been 30-40 times now?
G.
A quick update.........I'm not playing the game atm as I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand :mad:
Needless to say this sort of game is the very worst to play if you have that problem. In any event I'm hoping to see a specialist soon; my preferred solution is an enormous cortisone injection that makes it go away........but surgery may well be required.
meh.
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 13, 2012, 02:44:45 PM
A quick update.........I'm not playing the game atm as I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand :mad:
Needless to say this sort of game is the very worst to play if you have that problem. In any event I'm hoping to see a specialist soon; my preferred solution is an enormous cortisone injection that makes it go away........but surgery may well be required.
meh.
Aww, that sucks. Hope you get better soon.
Just finished my first run through Ascalonian Catacombs. It was hard as shit. I knew it was supposed to be hard and it was way harder than I expected. It's very possible I was the worst player in the group, but at 36 I was also the lowest level. The members of my party, all randoms, were not impressed with the loot and rewards for the effort; I thought it was fun and will be doing the exploration mode runs over the weekend.
Quote from: sbr on September 14, 2012, 12:52:40 AM
Just finished my first run through Ascalonian Catacombs. It was hard as shit. I knew it was supposed to be hard and it was way harder than I expected. It's very possible I was the worst player in the group, but at 36 I was also the lowest level. The members of my party, all randoms, were not impressed with the loot and rewards for the effort; I thought it was fun and will be doing the exploration mode runs over the weekend.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. When I went there on my guardian I was completely unprepared/didn't know the fights so if I go again with him, I would switch my skills every fight, to adjust to the bosses - my necro is also level 27 already so can't wait for going there with him, too. Probably will have a heavy wells build and a lot anti-condition stuff.
As for rewards, yeah, the dungeons are not the best investment for xp and loot "per hour" - but I think that's the idea behind the design - you do not *have* to go there to progress (except for a story). I like it, myself, as the game does not force you into the loot progression grind, familiar from WoW.
Incidentally, here are some interesting thoughts on the end game in GW2 from one of the devs:
QuoteIn the past, we've talked about how in Guild Wars 2 we designed the game to avoid a common problem in many MMOs: grinding through chunks of boring, repetitive content to get to the occasional pockets of fun. With Guild Wars 2, we wanted the entire gameplay experience to be something that players enjoyed, regardless of how much time they could dedicate.
When we looked at the concept of "endgame" for Guild Wars 2, we designed it the same way. We didn't want the endgame to be something you could only experience after a hundred hours of gameplay or after you reached some arbitrary number. We wanted it to be something that players got to experience every step along the way, spread out across the entire world of Tyria, so we've introduced game elements that you'd normally associate with "endgame" at every level and every possible opportunity.
Starting with each player's first introductory adventure, we pit them against large-scale boss encounters—one for each race—just to whet their appetites and give them a taste of the boss battles to come. We wanted to show players that this really is just the beginning. We want the experiences that players will have while progressing through the game to be a journey that they take with their character, something that they will remember and cherish.
(https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Asura-Golem-590x331.jpg)
Sure, once your character reaches max level, we've created new and interesting ways to challenge you as a player, but we didn't want to force you to master an entirely new subset of the game.
Our goal with Guild Wars 2 was to continue to build upon what we've shown you before while finding new and interesting ways to engage you as a player, regardless of your level. Each new experience, new dungeon, and new giant boss is a chance for us to layer on more difficulty, or teach you an interesting aspect about your profession and what you can do when you combine forces with other players. Guild Wars 2 is a game about banding together with friends and complete strangers to accomplish great things in a world ruled by uncertainty and challenge.
For people who love structured and difficult content, we developed the explorable mode for our eight dungeons. A dungeon's explorable mode has at least three different paths that players can choose to conquer—and each path is a five-character delve into tough content that we designed to push the limits of teamwork and communication.
For people who enjoy massive encounters where large numbers of players band together to take down epic monsters, we created our giant bosses, which are scattered throughout the world. These massive dynamic events usually come at the end of one of our meta-event chains, and they reward players with a challenging encounter and a loot chest for their accomplishments. You've already seen a few of these behemoths in our intro story, but later in the game, these giant bosses really come at you with gloves off.
(https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Tequatl-the-Sunless-590x368.jpg)
But the concept of "endgame" isn't restricted to a few specific encounters and monsters; we have multiple paths and a variety of different content for players of all kinds. For people who enjoy crafting, we added legendary weapons that use rare components gathered from multiple game types—they're created using the Mystic Forge. The final reward at the end of this epic crafting path is a visual masterpiece: a weapon with a unique appearance and special effects that are sure to make you stand out in a crowd.
For explorers and completionists, we added the idea of "world completion," which involves completing renown regions, Vistas, skill challenges, waypoints, and points of interest for each of the maps in Tyria. We keep each map interesting thanks to the level adjustment system, which removes the ability for higher-level characters to enter lower-level maps and trivialize the content. You'll still be more powerful in lower-level zones because you have more traits, skills, and gear, but the level adjustment system will insure that the monsters give you a proper fight.
With all the branches in the personal storylines and the sheer number of different stories available to players of each race, Guild Wars 2 has a lot of replayability for those looking to explore Tyria from a different perspective or experience new stories.
As players reach the max level of 80, the dynamic events become larger, the battles more spectacular, the circumstances more dire. Each of the high-level maps in the corrupted land of Orr contain battles on a grand scale against Zhaitan's forces, an epic war with shifting fortunes and frontlines.
(https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Orr-590x331.jpg)
As you can see, we've taken the idea of "endgame" content beyond the traditional model and have infused it in all levels of the game, while adding enough variety to keep players with a wide array of interests engaged.
The launch of Guild Wars 2 is just the start. With the game now out in the hands of the players, we can focus our efforts to adding new types of events, new dungeons, new bosses, new rewards, and new places for players to explore. Together, our journey is just now beginning, and I hope to see you in-game.
And no matter how hard I try I cannot use a staff with my Elementalist; part of it is not being familiar enough with the skill, part of it is muscle memory, but I can't kill anything when I solo with a staff. I do better in a party or a group event but not enough. That and I enjoy the sceptre/dagger combo more.
Quote from: sbr on September 14, 2012, 02:20:48 AM
And no matter how hard I try I cannot use a staff with my Elementalist; part of it is not being familiar enough with the skill, part of it is muscle memory, but I can't kill anything when I solo with a staff. I do better in a party or a group event but not enough. That and I enjoy the sceptre/dagger combo more.
The elementalist is tough. Period. After playing one, a necro feels like a piece of cake. I can solo with pretty much every weapon combo (hell, I'm now playing mainly with dual daggers, even though it is considered an inferior pairing - I just love to stab stuff :P). And I don't even use pets that much any more - usually bring them forth only when I am trying to solo an event or doing my personal quests.
Speaking of which, there is a patch coming today which fixes a lot of stuck bugs in the personal quests, including Brute Force grallon mentioned.
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 13, 2012, 01:47:35 PM
Wait a minute - you spent 100 bucks in gems on a game you dont like?
You assume just because he does so much complaining that he doesn't like the game. Probably a mistake. :lol:
Enjoying Ranger (up to lvl 19). Trying out the greatsword to finish off all non aquatic skills and just feels akward on Ranger after the sword/dagger I have used as melee.
But have to say love Ranger with shortbow and the sword/dagger and just tearing up mobs.
Yeah, shortbow ranger rapid fire is great fun. What pet(s) do you use?
Arctodus mainly. Haven't tamed too many pets as of yet.
Have default Snow Leopard, raven and one other that I fail to recall what it is right now.
My Ranger is up into the higher 20s, and has really started to shine.
I run with longbow/shortbow, and switch between them pretty constantly. I find I can handle mobs a few levels above me, and if I am patient can solo just about anything.
A necro with a staff can also pretty much solo anything - the only problem would be bosses with heavy ranged attacks. I can just run around, drop marks and draw enemies through them. If I need a fast kill, I go dagger/dagger or scepter/dagger.
Quote from: Martinus on September 15, 2012, 03:16:29 AM
A necro with a staff can also pretty much solo anything - the only problem would be bosses with heavy ranged attacks. I can just run around, drop marks and draw enemies through them. If I need a fast kill, I go dagger/dagger or scepter/dagger.
I've seen a number of those 'one-man armies' - how many pets can you have with that built!? Still I like my lvl 50 Elementalist. I got there in just a week - completing zones and my personal story. How do you use the mystic forge? I mean I've assembled sigils with gems but can you do other things?
G.
Btw - is that built OK? I have 20 points in fire - 10 in air and 10 in arcane.
G.
No, that won't work.
Jaron you aren't even past lvl 2 so hush.
Quote from: Grallon on September 15, 2012, 08:33:18 PM
Btw - is that built OK? I have 20 points in fire - 10 in air and 10 in arcane.
G.
I don't think this is enough to say - the way you spread your points is not that telling, really. It's now the question what weapons/skills/attunements you use and what special powers you choose from the trait lines.
What you have with 20 in fire, 10 in air and 10 in arcane is a glass cannon direct damage dps build. So your other selections should reflect that. If you now spent all your time in the water attunement, healing people, it would be a bad build. :P
Bought another character slot and tried the Mesmer. I really liked it. With a staff I can solo anything and when others are around I can auto buff everyone.
It doesnt kill as quickly as my thief, which has amazing one on one killing speed, but the Mesmer is a lot more durable and gives better support.
The Mesmer is only lvl 10 but early experience with it looks promising. I still need to skill up the Greatsword which I will probably use as a solo weapon switch.
Quote from: Martinus on September 17, 2012, 02:56:03 AM
I don't think this is enough to say - the way you spread your points is not that telling, really. It's now the question what weapons/skills/attunements you use and what special powers you choose from the trait lines.
Since then I respeced it to 20 fire - 20 Arcane and the left over in Air.
I am usually attuned to Fire - with the Signet on at all times. I'll open with a fireball salvo, use lava flow when the mob is close, firery retreat and start over. If there's a crowd of mobs or a hard opponent I'll raise an Arcan shield while I cast the metor swarm or this awsome 'elite' spell: Balthazar Hounds which conjure up 2 hellhounds that are fierce. As soon as I point t select an ennemy they will pounce and do massive damage. Sadly they last only 30 second as opposed to 60 secs. you get out of the llarge Fire Elemental.
The options chosen at lvl 10 - 15 and 20 are +10% power I think, and increased chance of burning and one of the Arcane option is to increase the radius of your staff.
I tried using the scepter/focus combo but it always seems less... effective - although some settings like hurricane are interesting.
But overall the staff is more powerful and besides it looks cooler.
G.
I am really liking the Guardian I have been playing. I just hit 23 tonight, and while it was fun up until then I ran into a series of world events in Kessex Hills tonight and while we weren't in a party ran through them with a small ad hoc group and that class really shines in those scenarios. Like Marti said before showing up at a battle that is going south and turning the tide is pretty fun.
Here is my big, bad Guardian:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fp6lKq.jpg&hash=b997ded43c67fece21b5b930cdc6e7b8ce47b9c7)
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FdExYC.jpg&hash=3518753b1038fdeb38ced114578d2b78e0a978fb)
MacOS Beta available now. :showoff:
Quote from: Martinus on September 18, 2012, 08:10:05 AM
MacOS Beta available now. :showoff:
Yet you've been playing for over a month? :huh:
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on September 18, 2012, 08:33:06 AM
Quote from: Martinus on September 18, 2012, 08:10:05 AM
MacOS Beta available now. :showoff:
Yet you've been playing for over a month? :huh:
Boot camp. I'm glad now I can move back to my native OS without having to restart my computer every time I want to play.
My necromancer, Dustyn Crowe, raised in the streets of Divinity's Reach, now a novice of the Durmand Priory.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us%2Fa%2Fimg507%2F7641%2Fgw023z.jpg&hash=fbaa9ff0494aedceb3433fe5f5339ff4057cb5a4)
Patch notes:
"Discovery crafting may now use items directly from a players bank"
:yeah:
Thank heavens. Tedious moving shit back n forth.
Yeah, great addition. I actually discovered three potion recipes on my artificer that I didn't notice earlier thanks to that. :P
Quote from: Martinus on September 18, 2012, 02:39:18 PM
My necromancer, Dustyn Crowe,
Looks like a member of an emo rock band.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on September 19, 2012, 02:32:26 AM
Quote from: Martinus on September 18, 2012, 02:39:18 PM
My necromancer, Dustyn Crowe,
Looks like a member of an emo rock band.
He is a necromancer. What did you expect? :P
Edit: Btw, do you actually have the game or do you just come to this thread to troll? :P
Teach is mighty troll
Quote from: Martinus on September 19, 2012, 03:23:55 AM
Edit: Btw, do you actually have the game or do you just come to this thread to troll? :P
Neither. :goodboy:
Here's a fun little article why GW2 is the best MMORPG for busy adults:
QuoteAccording to a study from the Entertainment Software Association presented at E3 2011, the median video gamer age is 37 and has been gaming for well over a decade. This is a far cry from the image many outside the industry have of a teenager-dominated market. The fact is, as the gaming generation has grown older, we've kept right on gaming. Our lifestyles may have changed; we may have increased responsibilities at work, less free time due to family obligations, and busy social lives outside of gaming, but we still make time for our favorite hobby. The great news for players like us is that ArenaNet may have created the perfect MMO for busy adults!
Let's face it, MMOs aren't exactly known for being a casual-friendly gaming experience. There have been steps taken in that direction in recent years, but the tired old grind is alive and well in subscription based titles. You still need to log on consistently night after night for hours at a time to earn the best raiding or PvP gear. Since those same games are all about gear, and the ever-increasing stats they possess, if you don't sink time into earning the highest tier of available gear, you'll never be able to compete on the same level as players who are. While some free-to-play titles have earned the pejorative term "pay-to-win," many subscription-based titles are essentially "time-to-win." It really isn't your individual skill that determines how successful you are, but rather how much time you dedicate to playing. More time equates to more money, so anything subscription MMOs can do to gate your content and slow down your experience is in their best interest. It keeps you playing and paying, not because they offer the best gaming experiences on the market, but because you have to grind if you don't want to fall behind the gear curve.
Guild Wars 2 breaks away from this sort of design in several ways.
NO RAIDS
While some detractors attempt to use this fact as a criticism of something Guild Wars 2 is lacking, the truth is that it's actually one of the game's strengths.
Let's start by dispelling the myth of raiding as the ultimate in PvE endgame content. I enjoyed raiding in other MMOs for a number of years, but that doesn't change the fact that it's designed to force players to spend their time on repetitive, scripted tasks purely for the sake of advancing to the next tier of repetitive, scripted tasks. Because of their static nature, and because they rely on the holy trinity of dedicated tanks, healers and damage dealers, raid boss encounters are like a puzzle, but it's a puzzle you only need to solve once. Where does the tank stand? How many healers do you need? Can the DPS stay out of fire? Once you solve the puzzle, or have it solved for you by reading a kill strategy step by step, it's really little challenge to repeat it over and over again.
And you WILL need to repeat it over and over again. Subscription MMOs need to keep you coming back to do the same thing week after week, long after the novelty has worn off, and the only way to incentivize the experience is to gate the rate at which everyone acquires gear. That's why gear is randomized when it drops and why not everyone who participated gets a reward. That's why content has weekly lockouts, preventing you from running it over and over again as much as you'd like. Similar to a Las Vegas slot machine, raiding is designed to give you a gambler's high every so often so you'll keep chasing that high night after night. The time you sink into raiding can really start to add up for adults with college courses, full-time jobs and families. Having to put your social life on hold, or to sacrifice time spent on other hobbies or with friends and family just to chase pixels with better stats, shouldn't be considered the ultimate endgame experience.
Thankfully, Guild Wars 2 doesn't have raiding. What it does have are other forms of large-scale, cooperative content that are far more dynamic, and far less monopolizing of your time, than raiding. The best part about all of this content is that you can participate and compete in every bit of it on a level playing field, without the barrier to entry of gear grinds, regardless of how much time you have to play.
WORLD VERSUS WORLD
The World versus World game mode in Guild Wars 2 is an epic two-week long battle for dominance between three servers across four massive and interconnected maps. The rewards from WvW include buffs called Powers of the Mists which provide bonuses to things like health, experience gain and gathering. These bonuses carry over to PvE, so the more effective your server is in WvW combat, the more the entire server benefits. The siege of a large keep is a huge undertaking that can include dozens of players on each side, and the strategic use towering siege equipment.
Regardless of your group size, there is something you can contribute to the war effort. Individuals can take out enemy sentries and supply caravans, robbing their enemies of resources needed to maintain their defenses. Small groups can capture enemy supply camps or reinforce their own. Larger groups can fight in battles over fortifications that would make Peter Jackson want to bust out his camera and start filming. Because your opponents are players and not giant, scripted NPCs, each and every time you enter WvW you'll have a different experience.
The best part about WvW is that you can come and go at will. If you only have 30 minutes to play, you can jump into WvW and have enough time to take a supply camp or defend a tower. Even if you simply run around gathering ore, wood and herbs for your crafting, ambushing enemy players along the way, you're still contributing to the war effort. If you can stay longer, then consider joining a squad under the leadership of an experienced Commander. This will allow you to join forces with your fellow players in larger scale battles for as long as you're able to play. When the time comes to leave, there are no strings attached. Another soldier will rise to take your place in the ranks.
DUNGEONS
There will be eight dungeons in Guild Wars 2 at launch, offering a total of 24 different dungeon experiences once you factor in that each has a single Story Mode and three Explorable Modes. If you've played other MMOs, dungeon are still the instanced, team-based PvE zones you know and love. The main difference with dungeons in Guild Wars 2 being that, without the need of dedicated tanks and healers, it shouldn't take you longer to find a group to run the dungeon than it does to actually finish it. All you need are four other players and a couple of hours dedicated to exploring their depths. Also, because you aren't hindered by those traditional roles, it places far more emphasis on true cooperation and skill rather than one player doing all of the boss management, one player doing all of the healing, and the other three doing all the damage. In Guild Wars 2, each of you will be able to contribute equally. Each new group composition will require its own strategy, making each dungeon run feel far more unique and challenging than in other MMOs.
The best part for the busy adult gamer is that these dungeons will always scale you down to their level, meaning they never become obsolete. The gear they reward you with is comparable with other gear of the same level found elsewhere in the game through crafting or normal PvE play, and will scale with your actual character level. If you want to run Ascalonian Catacombs (a level 30 dungeon) when you're level 80, you can do so and still find a challenge and rewards that are just as meaningful as if you had ran it at level 30. There's no grind here. There's no need to run them repeatedly in order to "gear up," since the only thing unique about the gear is the cosmetic look of weapons and armor coming from each dungeon. Dungeons offer a unique set of challenges and rewards without requiring excessive time commitments.
STRUCTURED PVP
One of my favorite cases for why ArenaNet has created the perfect MMO for adult players is Structured PvP. Other MMOs may have PvP battlegrounds or warzones that you can compete in without being max level, but even that comes down to who has the best gear and who is the highest level. If you have better stats or more abilities at your disposal than your opponent, then you're going to win. In many MMOs, the "real" game doesn't even begin until you're max level. Any PvP done before then won't reward you with the best gear, nor does it offer the same complexity since you won't have your full complement of abilities at your disposal.
These other MMOs also have specialized PvP stats on their gear, like resilience or expertise. These stats are completely arbitrary in nature, and are placed on gear to increase your damage done and reduce the damage done to you in a PvP setting. The only reason stats like this exist is so you can't bring the gear you've acquired elsewhere in the game into a PvP setting and be competitive. This means you have to sit through another gear grind if you want to level the playing field. More time spent getting gear is more time spent on your subscription.
Guild Wars 2 unshackles players from this kind of nonsense. In Guild Wars 2 you can enter the Mists very shortly after character creation. This zone is a PvP lobby where you can access your max level character for organized PvP play. In sPvP, you have full access to all of your weapons, armor, skills and traits. You can participate in Hot Join matches, jumping in and out at your leisure without restrictions, or get together with friends for more organized Tournament play. The great thing about sPvP is that it can be as casual or hardcore of an experience as you want it to be. Spend 15 minutes or spend an entire afternoon, it's up to you. The only determining factors of who wins are communication and skill. Even the most hardcore player will only be rewarded with cosmetic upgrades in gear. His stats will be the same as yours. There's no grind to concern yourself with. If all you want to do is hop in and run some matches, this is a perfectly viable way to enjoy doing so without needing to spend days or weeks leveling first.
NO SUBSCRIPTION
It may sound like I dislike the subscription model a great deal, and it's absolutely true. I consider it a bit of a trap. The payment model of any game greatly influences game design decisions which support that model. Raiding is certainly a byproduct of subscription MMOs, and one which we've already covered.
Flight paths and travel time between zones is another. The first time you hop on a mount and it takes 5-10 minutes to get to your destination, it may seem like a grand way to get a sense of the larger world. The 10th time you do it, it's a convenient way to work in a bathroom break. The 100th time you do it, it's just a frustrating waste of your time. If you want to instantly port from one area to another, you can, but it's normally on a fairly long timer to make sure it isn't too convenient. The goal is to stretch your playing time.
If you sit down to do crafting in another MMO, the time it takes to smelt a single copper bar is exactly the same amount of time it takes to smelt the 500th. If part of your crafting sessions in other MMOs has ever involved turning on a TV show or surfing the web while your progress bar slowly ticked by, then you know what I'm talking about. You aren't even playing the game at that point. It's playing you.
Things like this are just not found in Guild Wars 2. Once you discover a waypoint, you can fast travel between them at will for a small fee. When you sit down to craft, not only will your progress bar tick by exponentially faster for each of the same item you make, but you'll gain experience towards leveling up just from doing it. ArenaNet wants you to spend your time playing their game, and rewards you for doing so at whatever pace and in whatever way you choose.
If you have kids who want to play with you, it's as easy as purchasing another copy of the game. You're not forced into paying another monthly fee for something your child may only pick up and play a handful of times per month.
If you want to play with friends who are new to the game, you can take your existing character and be scaled down in level so you can enjoy the game right beside them at a moment's notice. You don't even have to both be on the same server, thanks to Guild Wars 2′s guesting system.
ArenaNet can provide you with all of this convenience because, unlike a subscription MMO developer, they don't need Guild Wars 2 to be the only game you ever play. Once you've purchased the copy, you're done. It's all about getting your initial investment's worth of entertainment. If you stop playing for a couple of weeks to try out another title, or to take a family vacation, or to handle a business trip, it doesn't matter. Guild Wars 2 will still be waiting for you when you get back without costing you an extra penny. Guild Wars 2 doesn't need to get you to play out of guilt. You'll never have to think to yourself "Well, I'm paying $15 a month for it, so I'd better log in." Just like any other non-subscription game you have loaded on your PC or console game that is sitting on your shelf, the only thing making you play Guild Wars 2 is your own enjoyment. Play it because you want to, and not because you have to.
Guild Wars 2 is an expansive, dynamic game with numerous fun and rewarding ways to experience it. Play as much or as little as you want, whenever you can. You are completely free to explore and experience the game at your own pace, without penalty. It's the perfect MMO, regardless of how busy your life outside of gaming is.
Personally I like the fact that there are no raids - I hardly raided in WoW, and preferred to work on completionist-style achievements (like Loremaster) or to restart the game as another character - something GW2 encourages you to do, by giving you a different personal story (you can have at least 3 characters with a personal story which does not share a single personal quest together - even if they are all of a single race, you can build your characters so the only quest you share is the tutorial).
Ok guys I need an advice.
I now have a guardian and a necromancer (with the Vigil and the Priory, respectively) and looking to start a third character who will be in the Order of Whisperers. I originally thought about making him an engineer but a bit less keen on them now - so the options I am considering are either a thief or a mesmer. Which, do you think, would be more fun to choose and offer a gameplay experience that is more different from a guardian and a necromancer? A thief seems to have a slight edge in this, because it is a medium armor wearing class (as opposed to a mesmer who, like a necromancer, also wears light armour) but beyond that I don't know.
I've started characters of both, and I like both. The thief has tricky initiative management, but the mesmer is about tricky clone management. I think the mesmer might be somewhat similar to necro as it is kind of like a pet class, but I wouldn't say it plays in the same way.
Ended up going with a thief. A mesmer is too much like a necromancer in the end - a lot of their weapons overlap, and the only different part is a sword-wielding swashbuckling mesmer - which I also have as a thief (but a thief also gives a lot of cool stuff that neither a guardian nor a necromancer has, like dual pistols and the like).
The game mechanics of the mesmer and necro are completely different. The Thief is again completely different from both in terms of mechanics.
The one thing the necro and mesmer have in common is they can both provide good support to a group. Theifs are essentially 1v1 combats specialists - they have one blind that can help a group but it is on a fairly long cool down.
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 26, 2012, 05:22:08 PM
The game mechanics of the mesmer and necro are completely different. The Thief is again completely different from both in terms of mechanics.
The one thing the necro and mesmer have in common is they can both provide good support to a group. Theifs are essentially 1v1 combats specialists - they have one blind that can help a group but it is on a fairly long cool down.
Yeah I know that a mesmer and a necro are different - but I felt there is a similarity in playing them, possibly because they use similar weapons (could be because they both start with a scepter) and are both light armor wearing caster classes. A thief is much different since he doesn't wear light armour but medium (so it is a completely different look) and has vastly different weapon choices.
Went to the Mists for the 1st time last night - needless to say I didn't stay long once I realized it was PvP. And I discovered just how bad I am at combat. I can't control the keyboard commands for the life of me; I'm focused on the screen, not the keyboard so oftentime I miss the right key - end up on A or D instead of 1-2-3 and I die. :lol: I forget the double tap too. That's probably why I keep missing those jumps in the jump puzzles. As I said I've never been a fan of twitchy/fidgety gaming.
In any case I'm lvl 76 now - surprisingly easy just by crafting, exploring and doing the heart quests. But the list of things to do is wearing thin - and made even duller by a sudden massive influx of bots crawling all over the place to farm mats or events. Naturally the publisher does nothing. But then again they're Koreans... <_<
So anyone has any suggestions about other games?
G.
I am sorry to hear you had such a horrible experience spending so much time on this game. Now that you have once again expressed how terrible it is I am sure you will report back to us in about 2 weeks to tell us how awful it was to level your second character.
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 27, 2012, 03:42:29 PM
I am sorry to hear you had such a horrible experience spending so much time on this game. Now that you have once again expressed how terrible it is I am sure you will report back to us in about 2 weeks to tell us how awful it was to level your second character.
:lol:
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 27, 2012, 03:42:29 PM
I am sorry to hear you had such a horrible experience spending so much time on this game. Now that you have once again expressed how terrible it is I am sure you will report back to us in about 2 weeks to tell us how awful it was to level your second character.
That's the spirit! And you're such a good audience.
G.
So after playing around with a thief and a mesmer for a bit more, I think I like a mesmer better. Plus the storyline of "I wish I joined the circus" fits him very well. :P
Here he is, with his gay hairdo, trying to look butch:
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 27, 2012, 03:42:29 PM
I am sorry to hear you had such a horrible experience spending so much time on this game. Now that you have once again expressed how terrible it is I am sure you will report back to us in about 2 weeks to tell us how awful it was to level your second character.
It's especially funny seeing how they have already banned several thousands of accounts for boting, and there are several news items on how they see boting as a serious issue and continue to improve the automatic boting detection to ban them faster - which is where grallon comes down to proclaim that "naturally the publisher does nothing" about it.
Grallon makes me homophobic.
One hint on your daily achievement. Make sure to finish it on your highest level character. You get more money that way.
I wish it would let you collect the reward on any of your characters once it is completed, then I wouldn't have to make sure I log in with my ranger before completing.
Quote from: Martinus on September 29, 2012, 04:35:16 AM
Grallon makes me homophobic.
:P You really do bring everything back to your 'condition' don't you?
G.
You know what I really hate about this game? I cant decide which profession to play!
I was having a lot of fun on my Mesmer and decided to go back and play a Guardian again. I had a lot more fun this time round. I think the big difference is I understand the game mechanics a lot better now.
Quote from: crazy canuck on October 01, 2012, 11:12:06 AM
You know what I really hate about this game? I cant decide which profession to play!
I was having a lot of fun on my Mesmer and decided to go back and play a Guardian again. I had a lot more fun this time round. I think the big difference is I understand the game mechanics a lot better now.
I know what you mean. There is a lot to each profession that you only appreciate after a while. It really takes a while to figure out various synergies between combos, two weapon sets (and mid-combat switching), traits (and the secondary abilities you pick from them), and utility skills.
For example, I thought a mesmer is a weak glass cannon profession, until I discovered that in order to really play him right, you need to swap weapons during combat. Now, with a staff and a great sword, I'm pretty much a terror of any battlefield, killing multiple foes with ease.
Quote from: Martinus on October 01, 2012, 11:19:40 AM
For example, I thought a mesmer is a weak glass cannon profession, until I discovered that in order to really play him right, you need to swap weapons during combat. Now, with a staff and a great sword, I'm pretty much a terror of any battlefield, killing multiple foes with ease.
Yeah, I mainly stick with the staff, there is little I cant do with it. But when things get more frantic and I need some extra CDs its easy to swap to the Greatsword for some extra fire power.
I usually find myself running sceptor/sword and staff with the mesmer. I like the limited tanking of the double block from sceptor/sword, and it generates enough clones quickly that I can do ok AoE.
Still I'm early enough in its progression (level 18) that when I get a cool new weapon I'll usually try it out for a couple levels.
I'm on the last ( I think ) instance of the human personal quest - the Source of Orr where you have to kill the Sovereign Eye of Khaitan(?). I couldn't do it on my own so someone came and helped. We succeeded only to have to godsdam instance bug on us after it went down... <_<
G.
Quote from: Grallon on October 02, 2012, 09:00:54 PM
I'm on the last ( I think ) instance of the human personal quest - the Source of Orr where you have to kill the Sovereign Eye of Khaitan(?). I couldn't do it on my own so someone came and helped. We succeeded only to have to godsdam instance bug on us after it went down... <_<
G.
I love how you hate this game yet are already level 80. My highest level character is 42. :D
Quote from: Martinus on October 03, 2012, 03:03:25 AM
I love how you hate this game yet are already level 80. My highest level character is 42. :D
I don't hate the game - merely its limitations - and as of now - its ever increasing buggy instances. Besides I am not levelling other characters at the same time as this one. I created a mesmer and a necromancer - but didn't go beyond lvl 5 with either. And I deleted my original engineer.
On another note I reached tailor lvl 300 and I find the design of the clothes you can make quite varied - and more to my liking than the baroque things you get in dungeons.
G.
Quote from: Martinus on October 03, 2012, 03:03:25 AM
My highest level character is 42. :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt7mtdLha-c
I hit Cotton level with my tailor (Mesmer) and the design is finally nice. :P
The fabric of our lives. :cool:
Well CC you were RIGHT! I rolled a human thief and I'm having a blast again. For the simple reason that I love the thief specific mechanics - particularly the Signet of Shadows which grants you 25% increase in speed at all time. But also the sheer fluidity of the play when going from your set of weapons to your second (in my case 2 pistols as principal and a knife and sword for the 2nd). It's amazing the amount of damage you can do without getting very little yourself - unless you have 3 Orrian risen abominations after you...
Anyhow I hit lvl 25 last night and this time around - I don't spend any of my karma - I vendor every drop below rare (yellow) - (unless I can use it myself) - and I try to limit my travel fees to a minimum. Still money is a bitch to get by in this game! I'm not prepared to farm for hours on end and have no interest in playing the Trade Post. I mean yesterday I sold 100 iron ingots for a measly 40 silver.
So I'll be playing some more it seems. Thank you for you moral support CC - always welcome.
G.
Your welcome :D
I dont have any money problems but that is because I vendor most everything and I only spend money on travel. I havent bothered with the trading post at all.
Even if you don't play the trading post and if you don't care about dyes, definitely sell unidentified dyes on the TP. They've been dropping in price, which is too bad, but you can still get a nice chunk of silver from them.
So I binned my necromancer and now playing a mesmer, an engineer and a guardian. Total blast. They are in their 50s.
I did Ascalon Catacombs Story Mode again last night, this time with my level 63 Guardian. It went much better this time, I understand the game and my profession much better than when I ran it with my mid-30's Elementalist. It didn't hurt that I was 60 levels higher and had a better team, including 2 80's (one Thief and 1 Elementalist).
The rewards seemed to be a bit better too, though that might just be to immediacy. I did make about 50 silver, before I had pawned my unusable loot.
So I (re)started an elementalist. :blush:
Now that I know how this game is played (mobility and combos), it feels like a really cool profession. I'm doing the cookie-cutter (scepter/dagger) build for now as it is allegedly easiest to solo.
I'd like to do a dungeon - anyone here still playing on Tarnished Coast?
-----
Meanwhile my thief has reached lvl 60 and I finally bought the best looking medium armor - the human cultural tier 2 one. He looks fabulous in midnight fire metal chain, midnight gold leather and outremer cloth. :wub:
G.
So the first global event will be released today - Shadow of the Mad King.
Last night I fought and killed my first dragon, Jormag. It was a level 80 Group Meta Event in FrostGorge Sound; it was incredibly hectic as everyone in the zone was there fighting. My game crashed once in the middle but I got back in and helped finish it off.
I was in the same area this afternoon and the event was going again, they had him almost dead. I jumped in when he was at about 5% health and cherrypicked the loot at the end. :blush:
It's not Jormag SBR - it's his lieutenant - or claw - don't know the name. One dragon per expansion. The initial is Zhaitan - Jormag will likely be the last or the one before Primordius.
-----
I got my thief to 76 but Orr is so depressing so I started a human warrior instead. Learning the various wepon routines now. I've made him and armorer.
However yesterday I learned the long delayed expansion of Uncharted Waters is finally out - and with it the East Asian ports (Korea, China and Japan). I sailed to India in preparation fr my discovery of those ports.
G.
Meh, whatever. I fought and killed a dragon.
In general I like the reward system of the game, apart from the fact that veteran and champion opponents should probably give better drops. However...
The biggest problem I have with rewards in the game are those given for killing mobs and participating in events. Right now for a mob kill you just have to tag them and you'll get full credit. In events the system is based strictly on damage done/activity performed. They both fail to give credit for "time spent". Far too often it makes sense to wander into a long term event, do enough to get the (relatively easy) gold reward and then leave. There's little incentive to stick around and see it out (or do more than show up just before the end). If they both gave extra benefits for sticking with a mob/event for a longer period it would make more sense. Say if you were there participating in fighting a champion mob from start to finish you'd get 50% more reward than someone who wandered by and did a single hit.
Agreed frunk, even though I have been known to occasionally abuse the system myself. :blush:
My Guardian hit level 80 today.
I also finally finished the level 70 personal story mission Battle of Fort Trinity. The first two times I tried it I got hit by a bug where the enemies don't spawn and the mission just sits there and does nothing until you quit the game. The third time I got past that and got stuck/clipped into a wall when I closed the Fort gate. After that I took a week off. The fourth time was tonight and I got all the way to the end, and the game crashed when the final cinematic started and of course I had to redo the mission when I restarted the game (of course the game remembered all my armor was broken and I had to pay 10s to fix it).
My fifth try I finally got it.
@ Funk, there is an upside to the current system as I always lend I hand to a passing event when I can. If I didnt it would be harder for those doing it during the time I am passing through without the added assistance.
But I agree that giving an added bonus to people based on time spent is also a good idea.
Havent had time to play for over a week. I am hoping I can get some time this weekend.
Quote from: crazy canuck on October 25, 2012, 05:42:17 PM
@ Funk, there is an upside to the current system as I always lend I hand to a passing event when I can. If I didnt it would be harder for those doing it during the time I am passing through without the added assistance.
But I agree that giving an added bonus to people based on time spent is also a good idea.
Havent had time to play for over a week. I am hoping I can get some time this weekend.
I like the current system and wouldn't take away the current rewards, but those who do put forth a lot of effort should get something extra.
Well, the more mobs you kill/tag, the more drops there will be for you (and special crafting components, and fabric are to me among the most sought after drops), so there is this incentive at least to hang around.
Plus I think quest events are mainly fun and lead often to follow up quests, so I just hang around to see what happens next.
Well after 2 characters leveled to 80 - an elementalist and my beloved assassin - I have a warrior to 25 and a ranger to 12. But I couldn't finish my personal story with the thief since it requires to complete Arah in story mode - the most difficult of all the dungeons. And the 'grindiest' one. On the thief I reached 400 in jewelcrafting and can now craft orichalcum. It cost e perhaps 20 golds? But it's time they release their expansion because I'm getting bored again. Although I still have to complete all zones I'm not really motivated anymore.
G.
Can't say I've played much in a while....but I did get my first 'hack' attempt. Got an email from them asking if I wanted to allow access to a new IP address in China :lol:
Quickly changed my password and added authenticator support to it. If you haven't added authenticator, you probably want to soon. (They are using Google Authenticator).
I had email authenticator on but one day it stopped working - that is it stopped sending me emails to authenticate. I did not accidentally check the remember network thing. So I logged into my account security and deactivated it thinking I just had to recheck the option to kick it back to life. But *no* - there's no options to reactivate it if you can believe it. So I opened a support ticket only to be told that no there are no options to reactivate it once the player has chosen to deactivate the godsdam thing... <_<
No wonder the place is crawling with bot swarms.
How does the Google one works? I don't have a cell or any other type of mobile device.
G.
Ah....I use the iOS app. It would work on an iPod touch too as far as I know (and there is an Android version also). Not sure if there are options that don't include an app...
Well, ArenaNet decided to piss off most of their fanbois. One of the pillars of both GWs is that endgame gear stays endgame gear and is never made obsolete. Neither had any significant gear grind, except for cosmetic improvements. So this week they announced Ascended items (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/), which are a bit better than current top tier (exotics/legendary) and have stated that legendary will be buffed retroactively to always be as good as the best gear. In order to get legendary weapons there's a significant grind in dungeons, which many people (including me) have no interest in doing. Now that legendaries aren't just a cosmetic benefit it effectively means there's a gear grind to get the best.
I don't think it'll have much effect on me since I don't chase the latest and greatest. It does annoy me that they've made several statements in the past that this is a step they'd never take, and now they've taken it. The Thoughts on Ascended Gear (https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Thoughts-on-Ascended-Gear-Merged-threads) thread has ballooned to over 7000 posts in a day and a half, and that's after the rigorous trimming by the forum staff.
About every 20th post in the main thread includes this quote:
Quote"Here's what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can't realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don't make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs." -Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet
At least before the mods go through and remove them.
That is disappointing news. If I wanted to grind I would go back to WoW.
And all it took was less than 3 months... *shakes head*
G.
Quote from: frunk on November 14, 2012, 12:28:48 PM
I don't think it'll have much effect on me since I don't chase the latest and greatest.
It does make for a convenient excuse when somebody beats you in pvp. ;)
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on November 14, 2012, 09:58:07 PM
Quote from: frunk on November 14, 2012, 12:28:48 PM
I don't think it'll have much effect on me since I don't chase the latest and greatest.
It does make for a convenient excuse when somebody beats you in pvp. ;)
If I did sPvP it wouldn't matter since everyone has the same gear. If I did WvW it would, but I don't do that either.
It's too bad, it looks like there's a lot of good improvements and patches involved in the release. To have it overshadowed by a dumb change to introduce gear grind is rather silly.
It seems strange that they are concerned about the "balance" in sPvP being thrown off, but aren't at all worried about WvW or PvE being screwed. Sure you can make new PvE content that is balanced with the Ascended stuff, but now all the old content just got easier or you have to retroactively make it harder for everyone else.
The stated idea of having all content be playable regardless of level doesn't work if you effectively make endgame players gradually more powerful.
Lost Shores is up!
We shall see how it plays out.
Here are the patch notes --> https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-November-15-2012 (https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-November-15-2012)
G.
In the new content there's a jumping puzzle called "Under New Management". Also there's a Subdirector Blingg who tries to intimidate Subdirector Noll, plus a golem called BUY-4373. 4373 is a Windows XP error that frequently occurs when there's a rootkit installed on your machine. Looks like there's some devs (possibly even ANet management) that aren't happy with this change either.
Quote from: frunk on November 18, 2012, 09:20:29 AM
In the new content there's a jumping puzzle called "Under New Management". Also there's a Subdirector Blingg who tries to intimidate Subdirector Noll, plus a golem called BUY-4373. 4373 is a Windows XP error that frequently occurs when there's a rootkit installed on your machine. Looks like there's some devs (possibly even ANet management) that aren't happy with this change either.
I've read this on the GW2 forum - apparently NCSoft was bought out last May by the Korean company Nexon, they declared a loss in July and recently hired some 30 something as a 'monetizing manager' (that would be the Blinng character I guess). And all of a sudden this 180 degrees to vertical progression, gear gating and end game grind - all of which were stated as contrary to their design philosophy by the Devs... Go figure!
G.
Quote•The new rarity, Ascended, was a one-time fix, and ArenaNet says it's their mistake and this tier (that is, a tier in between exotic and legendary) should have been in the game to begin with to fill the time gap between the two levels. There are no plans for the foreseeable future to add another rarity level, although a small amount of vertical progression will occur through infusions. Horizontal progression, such as the new Apothecary gear set and other possible attribute combinations, are in the plans as well.
•Ascended gear will be fleshed out, with weapons and armor coming in the future. The cost to produce this gear, as well as the way it is acquired, is also being revisited, as it's currently seen as too grind-heavy.
•ArenaNet is looking in to better ways to communicate with the community. Much of the anger directed towards Ascended gear was because players thought it was just the beginning of a gear treadmill and not a one-time game fix, and it took a while for that information to disseminate through the community.
•At the same time, they were "acutely aware" of the reaction Ascended gear would cause.
Also, no more restarting characters when you hate their looks after a while. There are now two items on the store, a hairdo kit (which lets you change hair/horns) and total make-over kit which effectively allows you to re-create the character (including changing their gender, name, body build etc. - i.e. all character creation options except for the ones that affect your starting story)
I wish I knew it when I recreated my guaradian due to him being too fat. :P
So they're backtracking? I'm doubtful - unless the requests for refunds/gem sales has dropped significantly this sounds like a PR spin. Not that it matters to me personally since I don't do dungeons but still - the demographics of the game has already begun to change you can notice it in the chat channel.
G.
They aren't backtracking, just trying to clarify what they are intending. The outrage is still going on. Only a few like the change, the rest range from indifference to disgust. I think they shot themselves in the foot with this, not realizing how many people played specifically because it sounded like they wouldn't have this type of progression.
I'm almost positive that ANet was thinking that because the overall stat difference was small, it was time consuming to get and it wouldn't have that much of an effect on the game that the outrage would be less. Instead it's worse, since elitism over it becomes all the more powerful.
Thoughts on the state of the game:
I have 6 characters that are all at level 80 or within spitting distance (missing warrior and necro).
I'm enjoying it still, but the endgame explorable areas are very annoying without other players. Southsun Cove and Orr are designed for larger groups, and although it's fun for a while to creep through and do what you can when soloing, it eventually gets tiring. Frostgorge Sound is the best designed of them for a single player and I tend to see more people running around here than in the other level 80 areas. I think sucking away players with FotM really hurt Orr.
Of the professions I've played to (near) 80, I'd rank them as follows...
Easiest to play:
Guardian
Ranger
Thief
Elementalist
Mesmer
Engineer
Most Fun:
Mesmer
Elementalist
Thief
Engineer
Guardian
Ranger
I'm sorely disappointed by the Ranger. They are caught somewhere between a Guardian and a Thief in weapon skills, but with a pet that generally gets in the way and none of the style or panache of the other two. Mesmer, OTOH, is just pure fun. Somehow they are a pet class without that pesky worrying if the pet lives or dies and a better trickster than the Thief. Elementalist is nearly as cool, and I'm still learning the best times to switch attunements. Thief is a refreshing change as well, with initiative management nicely differentiated from watching cooldowns. Engineer...is tough. The fact that alternate weapons don't take advantage of the stats of your main weapon (only the sigil) makes it tough to switch from your exotic rifle rather than have another turret. Guardian is just too easy for the most part. Fun I guess, but not that engaging.
One of the interesting elements is preferred opponents. Elementalists and Mesmers tend to ramp up in power as the fight goes on, so they would rather fight tougher/higher level enemies. Otherwise the enemy is already dead just when the Ele/Mes is at their strongest. Engineer can take on almost any single melee enemy without difficulty. It's easy to keep them away while slowly wearing them down. The Thief gains the most from playing with others, since they want to attack, dump initiative with high damage skills then run away. If soloing you have to keep aggro or else the mob will start healing (if still alive). The Guardian likes chewing through groups of equal or lesser enemies, rather than waste time fighting tougher foes.
I guess I like easy mode, as I enjoy the Guardian (with a greatsword) the most. Plus I think heavy armors are the best looking.
The Elementalist is too hard/not enough fun for me, I guess.
I may go back to the Mesmer at some point, as I enjoyed that class quite a bit.
Quote from: Martinus on December 21, 2012, 09:36:54 AM
I guess I like easy mode, as I enjoy the Guardian (with a greatsword) the most. Plus I think heavy armors are the best looking.
The Elementalist is too hard/not enough fun for me, I guess.
I may go back to the Mesmer at some point, as I enjoyed that class quite a bit.
I agree the Guardian is a hell of a lot of fun, but there are only a couple of things that give it difficulty.
Rapid attack enemies that suck up your blocks. Generally this is defeated by some well timed dodges.
Widely spaced ranged enemies. A shield helps with this. With some work you can maneuver toward (to melee both) or away from the other ranged enemies.
So tried mesmer again. Having a TON of fun with him. Probably will keep him as my main. I am using the greatsword/staff combo (with Power/Toughness trait build) and so far, for single player content, he is nigh-unbeatable.
New content patch announced for GW2:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-2013/#new-features
Apparently they are going to start changing the world with each patch (not just adding new areas but changing existing ones etc.)
I played the game for the first time in a long time this morning. Decided to start over with a class I hadnt played much in a region I hadnt played much. Necro in the land of the leaf people. It is still a blast to play.
Im working on the map completion achievement and about 66% through, and this game still continues to amaze me. Some vistas are beautiful and some event chains really get cool in the higher level areas.
Plus the character design is so nice graphically - they managed to set a new standard, like WoW back in the day (which, by the way, looks so outdated now), which gives the impression of realism without falling into the usual traps of hyper-realistic graphics.
Have there been any paid expansions yet or is this game still in "vanilla"?
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on February 03, 2013, 01:12:40 AM
Have there been any paid expansions yet or is this game still in "vanilla"?
No paid expansions yet. They have just started their first unpaid "expansion" although it is not comparable to anything I have seen so far in MMORPGs (at least the ones I played) and is more similar to what would happen on private servers with game masters - i.e. there is a first stage of a multi-month massive "event" now unfolding which is supposed to result in some big changes to the continent in the end.
They have added more stuff that can be bought at the store however, but true to their original promise, it is also either utility (things like server transfers and extra character slots) or cosmetic (now you can finally completely change the looks of your existing character).
Guesting has also been added in the last patch, however it is only available within the same region (so if you play on a US server you can't guest on European servers and vice versa).
Still have game installed, still doesn't excite me enough to start it up
Quote from: katmai on February 03, 2013, 12:38:11 PM
Still have game installed, still doesn't excite me enough to start it up
If you have 15 minutes or so to burn its a great way to do it. Unlike some other MMOs where it takes 15 minutes just to get somewhere or with someone to do something fun.
Quote from: crazy canuck on February 04, 2013, 01:34:46 PM
If you have 15 minutes or so to burn its a great way to do it. Unlike some other MMOs where it takes 15 minutes just to get somewhere or with someone to do something fun.
15 minutes, heh. In Everquest you could spend an evening going from one continent to another.
So, started a thief alt (my first female avatar in GW2). Is it me or is pistol offhand ideal for "tanking" veteran mobs?
The last ability (AoE blind "gas") can be spammed to prevent the enemy from landing any damage on me. Sure it takes a while to wear it down, but you are near-invicible.
I haven't played thief much (I have a level 6) but my level 80 guardian throws blindness around like a boss.
I am back to playing the hell out of this game recently. The silly little guild I am in finally got interesting. Been doing a lot of dungeon running. A guildie and I have been having some fun in WvW the last 2 days too.
I've been getting into WvW lately as well, and it is fun. My big problem is the way World Completion is structured.
I don't mind having to do WvW to get World Completion. I do dislike the necessity of repeating each Borderland three times just because they are a different "color". If they were differentiated in any meaningful way it would at least be interesting, but right now you are better off waiting for your world to go up or down in the rankings. At the moment I only need the Green Borderlands and we are Red, so I'm rooting for us to drop to the next lower tier. That means it's best for me not to play WvW to get World Completion. Very annoying.
Agreed. I am 99% done with Green, I just need the furthest south skill point but that has been owned by Red all week. The weekly reset happens about 30 minutes after I get home from work, so I think I am going to run wild for a while Friday afternoon and get as much done as I can then.
I have some random parts of Blue and Red done but not very much. I also have small scattered parts of the Eternal Battlegrounds uncovered. At least my buddy needs them too so we can go together.
Quote from: sbr on March 07, 2013, 09:29:24 AM
Agreed. I am 99% done with Green, I just need the furthest south skill point but that has been owned by Red all week. The weekly reset happens about 30 minutes after I get home from work, so I think I am going to run wild for a while Friday afternoon and get as much done as I can then.
I have some random parts of Blue and Red done but not very much. I also have small scattered parts of the Eternal Battlegrounds uncovered. At least my buddy needs them too so we can go together.
For things like Skill Points it is best to go at off hours like early in the morning or middle of a work day (if you can swing it). For Keeps and Towers try during peak hours especially right after a reset. I did most of the Eternal Battlegrounds in one go on a Friday night when we just about swept everything.
I've started playing again as well.
My Ranger, however, appears to be perma-broken. Consensus seems to be that it is the worst class in the game.
Been playing my ele a lot more, and having a lot of fun since I've been trying to dedicate myself to really understanding how to play the class, rather than just grabbinbg a staff and face rolling the keyboard.
Quote from: Martinus on March 07, 2013, 03:38:33 AM
So, started a thief alt (my first female avatar in GW2). Is it me or is pistol offhand ideal for "tanking" veteran mobs?
The last ability (AoE blind "gas") can be spammed to prevent the enemy from landing any damage on me. Sure it takes a while to wear it down, but you are near-invicible.
It's also great for melee Mobs. Non-Orrian Risen are pretty much toast when you use it. Be wary of Dredge though.
Quote from: Berkut on March 07, 2013, 10:24:19 AM
I've started playing again as well.
My Ranger, however, appears to be perma-broken. Consensus seems to be that it is the worst class in the game.
Been playing my ele a lot more, and having a lot of fun since I've been trying to dedicate myself to really understanding how to play the class, rather than just grabbinbg a staff and face rolling the keyboard.
The Ranger, Engineer and (from what I hear) Necromancer need a reworking or at the least decent sized tweaks. I think the Ranger could be much improved if there were cool tricks they could do with the pet rather than just boost it with stat increases or boons. There are a couple like being able to revive people with the pet, but it needs more than that. Things like switching places with the pet, or gaining the special ability of the pet for the character would be great.
The Engineer just needs the interaction between their stats and their weapons/turrets cleaned up. Right now they lose too much DPS if they switch away from an exotic weapon. Also I don't get why turrets are squishier than my Mesmer's illusions. I can easily generate 5-6 illusions in a few seconds (and do it again quickly), but the up to four Engi's turrets will pop even easier and have 10-40 second cooldowns.
Necro, can't really give an opinion as I haven't played them for an extended period.
Yep, that seems to be the consenus as far as "broken" classes goes: Ranger, Engi and Necro.
I have played Engi for mayba an hour, Necro for a bit longer but I didn't even hit level 5, and a level 38 Ranger that has sat on the shelf for about a month or so, so I am no where near an expert.
I do know that they can compete in almost all of the PvE environments in the game. They may have trouble in higher level Fractals (I haven't gone past 10 yet), or in Arah but I don't know because I have no first hand experience. Last week sometime I ran Honor of the Waves (level 76 dungeon) explorable mode, with my Guardian, a guildie's Mesmer, a PUG Thief, PUG Necro, and PUG Ranger. We went through it without too much trouble, I probably had the most but with all of the other squishies in the party I took more chances than I normally would.
If played well they can contribute to a good party and do most things, the problem is is that there is usually another class (Warrior) can do everything those classes can do but better, and more.
I need to find a good guild.
I am now playing a guardian, an elementalist and a thief and all are a blast.
The Charr Elementalist I started in early September just hit 80 recently, after sitting on the shelf for a long time. I am now trying to get him geared up properly. I think I am going to use almost all Citadel of Flame gear. (http://www.gw2armor.com/charr/male/cof/light/display.php) I don't like the shoulder armor much but the rest is pretty nice. He is also level 400 Jeweler and Articifer so he can craft his own weapons and trinkets.
I also started a Sylvari Thief recently. I grinded out 400 levels of Cooking for a couple of gold and went from level 8 to 20 in about 30 minutes of work (not counting the time waiting for stuff from the TP). He is almost level 30 now, I will level him to ~35 from Personal STory and world exploration, then start running him in dungeons with guildies.
I still use my little blonde Barbie Guardian a lot in dungeon runs and trying to get to 100% world exploration with her; I am at about 80% now but outside of some WvW stuff it is all low level stuff left to do. I finished all 3 Orr regions shortly after turning 80 late last year, and before they changed the zones to reduce the staggering number of Risen you had to avoid. :mad: She is fully stocked in Exotics but I am still working on getting the proper skins for her armor. I need to run Arah at least twice more to get the Breastplate I want, then I just need to find some shoulder armor and a helm that works with her look.
I went on an Unidentified Dye opening spree a while back and within a couple of minutes got both White and Cotton Candy dyes. They were worth a lot of coin but they were too perfect for her. :D
I recently retried the elemental with a d/d set up. For some reason I handnt really tried that before. Now I know why people like elementalists so much.
I prefer the extra standoffishness of Scepter/Dagger, but d/d is quite good as well.
Quote from: frunk on April 03, 2013, 11:39:25 AM
I prefer the extra standoffishness of Scepter/Dagger, but d/d is quite good as well.
That is the setup I used before. I like the d/d because of the greater mobility.
I prefer sceptre/dagger also but mostly due to familiarity and muscle memory. I've tried to get used to d/d as I solo and explore Orr but whenever the going gets tough or I do a dungeon I always end up switching back
I want to like staff too, but can't get into that either.
I had given up on my Ranger, but I recently got myself a Jaguar, and re-specced heavily into the various stuff that gives my pet more damage and survivability.
The Jaguar has a stealth mode, where he can goi stealth for 6 seconds, even in the middle of a fight. When he attacks from stealth, get gets a +100% damage bonus, and with my traists I can give him another 40%, and with a skill can give him a +60% on next attack.
It makes for a rather fun opening attack, when my pet can nail the target from stealth for half their total hit pool. And he is MUCH more survivable as well. Been having some fun with my Ranger again.
I try to play the Ranger every once in a while. After a break it is fun but their options are pretty limited and it starts getting boring. I think you are right about speccing into the pet boosting abilities - that seems to be the way to go.
So updated my GW2 files and I've never played anything beyond lvl 2 other than Ranger, what do you guys suggest for someone coming to game again?
Quote from: katmai on April 04, 2013, 05:30:20 AM
So updated my GW2 files and I've never played anything beyond lvl 2 other than Ranger, what do you guys suggest for someone coming to game again?
easy but fun: Guardian, Thief
challenging but rewarding: Elementalist, Mesmer
challenging and not very rewarding: Engineer
no opinion but heard bad things: Necromancer
no opinion but heard good things: Warrior
Guardian: Excellent at melee, very tough and resilient
Thief: More fragile than Guardian but still good at melee and has excellent ranged AoE
Elementalist: Excellent AoE (fire), movement (air), healing (water) and condition damage (earth) all from the same weapon. It takes a while to manage the switches however.
Mesmer: Excellent assortment of ranged choices, melee will generally be a hit and run affair. Clone management can be tricky.
Engineer: Cool gadgets and turrets and weapons that don't really gel together very well.
Thanks Frunk
For what it's worth, my five slots are currently filled with guardian, thief, elementalist, mesmer and warrior and like all of them.
Engineer, necromancer and ranger are considered broken to various degree.
I'm being tempted to get this game. :unsure: Some of my WoW friends have migrated here recently.
Given the recent changes to the Engineer and despite and the complaining on the forums I decided to take a break from my elementalist - which I am really enjoying. And you know what? The Engineer is a lot of fun with a pistol/postol set up with turrets. Its early going yet and I have only played in PvE but this thing can mow through the mobs quickly.
However, I can see that there is going to be an issue in dungeons and the lack of ability to control what the turrets target. I fear it will be like the Hunters in WoW who were always aggroing things they shouldnt.
Have you tried a Thief? They also have a nice Pistol/Pistol set-up, which offers high damage and good CC with AoE blinds etc.
Quote from: Solmyr on April 07, 2013, 03:06:48 PM
I'm being tempted to get this game. :unsure: Some of my WoW friends have migrated here recently.
I would strongly recommend it. Not even once, since I started playing back in August, have I even considered going back to WoW.
Only when it comes to end game, WoW may theoretically feel superior, as it has a much more structured raiding experience (whereas in GW2, it's more about world raids) and the lack of WoW-like LFG system for dungeons can be a bit of a pain, but for someone like me, who mainly plays solo, this is a wholly superior game.
The good thing is that there is no subscription fee, so you only pay once.
Quote from: Martinus on April 08, 2013, 12:10:00 PM
Have you tried a Thief? They also have a nice Pistol/Pistol set-up, which offers high damage and good CC with AoE blinds etc.
Thief was one of the first characters had. It was great fun. The p/p mechanics of the engineer are quite different. Where the Theif depends on controling type effects the engineer is all about aoe condition damage.
I haven't played WoW since I went through MoP quests once, last fall. Raids don't really interest me, if I played it I would be either solo or with a small group of friends.
Is the tank/healer/dps holy trinity still in, with no way of getting around it?
Also a bit worried about how my system will handle it.
Quote from: Solmyr on April 08, 2013, 12:30:15 PM
Is the tank/healer/dps holy trinity still in, with no way of getting around it?
Completely gone.
You should try it. Loads of fun. It removed all the MMO conventions that most bothered everyone. No question hubs, no stealing of mobs, resources etc. Easy travel. You can move and use skills at the same time etc etc etc. Once you play it you will have a hard/impossible time going back to WoW.
Can't tell as you won't add me as friend you ass
Oh, there's no danger of me going back to WoW (finally uninstalled it last week). Just not sure how much time I have for another MMO (I'm only playing SWTOR to see the stories).
Quote from: Solmyr on April 08, 2013, 01:32:32 PM
Oh, there's no danger of me going back to WoW (finally uninstalled it last week). Just not sure how much time I have for another MMO (I'm only playing SWTOR to see the stories).
Its not a time sink like wow either. Play as little or as often as you want.
Quote from: katmai on April 08, 2013, 01:11:53 PM
Can't tell as you won't add me as friend you ass
Mainly because I cant quite figure out how to do it or how to figure out what my account name is (the number part after the name that is).
:lol:
well if i know your name before the number i can find you silly cc
Yeah, as others said, GW2 is hailed as the MMORPG for casual gamers. You can log on just about any time, and there is bound to be an event going on around. Most events (except the rare - and easily avoidable - group events) can be completed solo - they just scale in strength depending on a number of people pursuing them.
If, like me, you want to stay on top, the mechanics out there is to complete daily/monthly achievements - but unlike WoW, they involve completing 5 out of 10 goals (which change daily for the daily achievements and monthly for the monthly achievements) and are flexible, with things like kill X number of mobs, or kill X different mobs, or gain a level, or complete X events (with rewards/tokens being the same across the board - so you are not forced to grind the particular area every day), and different goals of a single achievement can be completed on different characters (the achievements are account-wide, so say, in order to complete your daily, you can do 3 goals on one character, and 2 other goals on another character, and get the daily reward).
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 08, 2013, 03:38:00 PM
Quote from: katmai on April 08, 2013, 01:11:53 PM
Can't tell as you won't add me as friend you ass
Mainly because I cant quite figure out how to do it or how to figure out what my account name is (the number part after the name that is).
Why don't you join the Languish semi-defunct guild? :P
Okay so since tried out Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer and Thief since coming back, would have to say the Thief has been most fun
Quote from: katmai on April 09, 2013, 04:25:27 AM
Okay so since tried out Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer and Thief since coming back, would have to say the Thief has been most fun
I am willing to agree but my Thief also seems very squishy. At least as an Elementalist, I can switch to Earth or Water and hope to survive - when I'm out of dodges on my Thief and the enemies get upper hand, it's usually respawn time.
Try a warrior as well, by the way - it's a very different play style to a guardian, contrary to what you may expect, especially if you use a rifle.
By the way, what weapons are you using on your Thief?
I use sword/pistol and shortbow usually. Start with shortbow, poison and bomb them, then either kite if they stay spread out or close and finish them with sword/pistol, while keeping them perma-blind. Single target I usually use just sword/pistol. Once I get a decent dagger I'll probably switch to that.
My thief is level 46 and I have been using dagger/dagger and pistol/pistol almost always. U do go short bow occasionally but have almost never used sword.
Since just starting lvling up dagger/dagger and short bow Atm.
Ok. I go shortbow for events with multiple mobs (especially when there are other players, so you need to "tag" mobs fast before they die) and either pistol/pistol or sword/pistol for tougher mobs - so I guess most similar to what frunk is doing.
Got this game. :ph34r: Created a charr thief on Underworld server (European), name Azrahad. The charr are pretty cool.
Any suggestions on which crafting skills I should develop for a thief?
The fine crafting material drops are rare enough that trying to do armor and weapons at the same time is very hard. I would chose leatherworker (armor) or weaponsmith and then jeweler myself.
I created the Vision of the Mists Greatsword in the Mystic Forge yesterday. I had some of the mats in my bank when I started but I dropped about 95 gold on the ectoplasm and orichalcum ore for it.
Is cooking any good?
Quote from: Solmyr on April 12, 2013, 02:35:55 PM
Is cooking any good?
It's not bad but it is somewhat expensive and very inventory intensive.
Another thought on crafting. It is a good way to level your character, and to make level appropriate gear but there is very little money to be made in crafting. You can do it, but the margins are very small. Cooking is especially bad; you can go from 0-400 for about 4 gold which would gain your toon about 10-11 levels. A lot of peopl edo this making the resulting food worthless.
Just about all of crafting is useless as far as being cost efficient for items. It's far cheaper to buy the items from the trading post. Crafting does get you:
Experience. Each crafting discipline gets ~10 levels of experience once maxed.
Max Level Crafting. At max level crafting can make custom exotic items slightly cheaper than it is to find on the markets. Unfortunately now they are releasing Ascended Items which are better than the best craftable items, but unless you are doing WvW or high level Fractals you don't need those.
Achievement. Achievement points are fairly useless, but supposedly they'll be more valuable soon.
Atmosphere. I enjoy crafting. I leveled five characters at once, and with that I could take advantage of all of the crafted items instead of salvaging or selling them.
Quote from: Solmyr on April 12, 2013, 02:00:20 PM
Got this game. :ph34r: Created a charr thief on Underworld server (European), name Azrahad. The charr are pretty cool.
Any suggestions on which crafting skills I should develop for a thief?
Message me in game if you want to party together. Since we are both on European servers we can guest-play together despite being on different servers.
Quote from: sbr on April 12, 2013, 02:08:47 PM
The fine crafting material drops are rare enough that trying to do armor and weapons at the same time is very hard. I would chose leatherworker (armor) or weaponsmith and then jeweler myself.
Yeah this is a good suggestion. Alternatively, go with a weapon-crafting skill (probably Huntsman for a thief as you get a shortbow and pistols from it) and jewelcrafting.
Took leatherworking and jeweler for my thief. I am currently using sword/pistol and shortbow as my weapons btw, what are the advantages of daggers?
My game handle is Solmyr.5301 if you want to update the first post.
Done.
I tried the fractal mist dungeon - lvl 1 - with my lvl 80 thief in full exotics - and got wiped. Well not so much wiped as incapable of completing the objective. First was in a jungle area where I had to gather the fireflies and bring them to a designated location... Man the spawn rate was on steroids! Any of you do the fotm? Should it be done by a group? Or is my thief too squishy?
G.
Yes fractals have to be done in a group. Especially that one
And the thief should be fine. My Ele can run level 10 without agony resistance just fine.
With the sale this weekend on character slots I spent enough gold to make space for a Warrior. Now I have one of each class, 6 at 80, Necro at 70 and Warrior at 12.
My thoughts on the last two:
Necromancer is a lot better then I thought it would be. Yes, minion master isn't an effective build (at least not compared to Mesmer), but the ability of the Staff to set copious amounts of (unblockable with the right trait) marks as traps makes it quite fun. I may not put out as much AOE damage as the Elementalist, but I'm significantly more durable. Of the three light armor professions I still like Mesmer the best, but Necro makes for a nice change.
Warrior...I'm still getting used to. Seems somewhere between a Guardian and an Engineer, although much better than the latter. Pretty simple to play, with the primary decision making being to pick from the copious weapons that you can use. The adrenaline powers are dull. Useful, but doesn't add much flavor.
I leveled a Necro in WvW in the last month. She was level 6 when I started and I hit 80 last week. It is definitely practical to do.
I had enough dungeons tokens lying around from my other toons that I had her set up in exotics immediately after hitting 80. Now I am trying to farm the Twilight Arbor Dungeon for Runes of the Nightmare. I also want the human Tier 3 cultural leg armor/skirt and the Abyss Dye, which should set me back about 50 gold in total. That is a ways off.
I just picked up this game. Anyone still around?
I'm still playing a bit. There's usually just enough interesting things to do in each living story that it's been keeping me around. I just finished leveling one of each to 80.
Message me if you want some help. frunkee.3962
I am on somewhat regularly also though I don't play a lot, but between Guild Missions and Living Story I am on at least one day a week.
This game needs a sale.
I might start playing again when the weather turns shitty. Right now my limited time for games is fully devoted to EUIV
Trial this week.
I've made a thief, I really like the art. This has production values miles & miles above Tera.
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 26, 2013, 09:10:01 PM
Trial this week.
I've made a thief, I really like the art. This has production values miles & miles above Tera.
Yeah, I tried Tera shortly after you posted about it. I played for about an hour but the whole time I kept thinking that I could be using the time to play GW. In a few weeks when the rain really starts to roll in I might revisit the game.
The last couple Living Stories haven't been my cup of tea, but when they do something more interesting I'll probably drift back in again.
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 26, 2013, 10:48:50 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 26, 2013, 09:10:01 PM
Trial this week.
I've made a thief, I really like the art. This has production values miles & miles above Tera.
Yeah, I tried Tera shortly after you posted about it. I played for about an hour but the whole time I kept thinking that I could be using the time to play GW. In a few weeks when the rain really starts to roll in I might revisit the game.
Oh yeah, I played for about 1h too & I am was wondering why I ever considered Tera seriously.
I really like the scout mechanic opening & explaining map areas.
I got a Precursor! :yipi:
I am trying to get all 3 weapon crafting professions to 500, so threw 4 worthless Exotic Tridents into the Mystic Toilet and got the Precursor.
Now I guess I am tryign to build a Legendary. Too bad I never planned on getting one so I have nothing at all saved up.
Im not terribly interested in the Legendary Trident but it sells for 1500g while the Precursor sells for 37g. Cant imagine it takes 1463g to make it.
GW2 is 40% off thru the day.
GW2 will be 50% off, 20$ starting Wednesday for the week.
I just can't help thinking GW2's business model just dried out. There just isn't enough interesting things to do and while the living world is interesting in theory, I at least would like to see bigger, XP-style changes and new content.
What do you mean by interesting things to do? What is it missing?
They created a fantastic open world environment and some interesting different classes. Now they have all but declared that they won't be doing expansions (even though I'd be more than happy to throw more money at them if they did) and most of the new content is this weird hybrid between multi-player and classic single player that doesn't work very well for either one (too easy for coordinated teams, too difficult for pickup groups).
If you want to give it a try, do so. It's tremendously fun and there's no monthly fee. I've burned out on it though, and they aren't releasing anything new that's pulling me back in.
Yep. I loved the game. I probably put close to 2,000 hours into it, but I don't find the Living Story stuff that interesting and I never got into the Structured PvP (but did enjoy WvW) so I ran out of things to do. I wish they would release an expansion pack type addition, but that does not seem to be their plan, which is fine.
I still have it installed, and think about going back every couple of weeks, but every time I do I just run in circles for a few minutes while chatting with friends, then log back out.
I highly recommend the game, but it does have an expiration date. I more than got my moneys worth though so i will never complain.
Expiration date are fine, imo. Only Civ (and wow apparently) should last forever.
So they did announce (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Heart_of_thorns) an expansion. There's some interesting elements, but I'm disappointed they aren't planning to add a new race or new types of weapons. There is a new profession, new maps and existing professions will be able to use previously unavailable weapons. I'm hoping the new maps will not just be level 80 though, I'd like to level a character through new areas.
Well, I wanted to go back for a bit, but it appears my password isn't working. I went through all my usual passwords, but none works.
I wanted to do a reset, but they need both my character name (which I can't recall) and my serial code. I bought the game 04/08/2012 according to PayPal, and while I have the confirmation email from Slitherine for a different game I bought that day, I don't have the GW2 one. So I guess I'm locked out of my account for good.
Ok, I'm in on the expansion. Too bad they didn't make these changes years ago.
Combat Changes: DoTs and Dashes (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/combat-changes-dotsanddashes/)
GW2 base game is going free. The expansion still costs full price.
It went free.
I am back to this game, so if anyone still plays it, drop me a line.
I picked up the two expansions a while back when they had a half price sale, and have been playing a bit each day with my daughter. The mounts from the second expansion are an awesome addition and add a lot to the game. I've only gotten the Raptor and Springer so far, but they both make running around a map tremendous fun.
I also like that they are account bound rather than character, so I just need one character to get the mounts and they are available for everybody.