Guild Wars 2

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Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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Azrayne_sl said:
I think you're misunderstanding that quote, though it's really vague and ambiguous. Given that the servers seem to drop in population at the expected times of day, I'd imagine it's calculated by the number currently online.
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I don't know that it's true that the pop seems to drop at expected times of day. From my experience when we've xferred we've had big player transfers occur at peak times and there's been very little success at alarm clocking it.
 
Azrayne

Azrayne

Irenicus did nothing wrong
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I don't know, I could be wrong, that was just the impression I had from the various server transfers.

What I do know is that it's been a real pain in the ass trying to get over to JQ. Barely been online the last month or so cause summer holidays/christmas and all, now I'm keen to get stuck back in and I'm staring at the stupid server selection screen
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Ukerric

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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Azrayne_sl said:
Given that the servers seem to drop in population at the expected times of day, I'd imagine it's calculated by the number currently online.
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Yea, same impression here, although my experience with server transfer is mostly during the early weeks, back when our guild finally settled on its correct server. When we made the last switch, it was almost impossible to transfer during peak time, everyone connected in the mornings to try.

It makes sense that the game would track people online rather than accounts. Since you do not have a way to distinguish active players from inactive due to lack of subscription, the only way you can do is to check who is logging in, and who's not. If you just go by account locked on that server, you can have a full server that ends up under used with most of the players on that server having stopped playing. In fact, that is what you will end up having once the server dance ends, since you will not be able to register on any full server, no matter what its real population is.

Rather than the number of people online "right now", I suspect it might track the number of people online "during the last 24h" or "during the last week". You still get population going down and up at prime time, since people who play little will tend to connect at that time, and disconnect later.


Oh, and another reason why it can't be just people whose account is homed there. If that was the case, the servers would constantly hop between Full and High as they'd drop to High when one person transfer off, and back to Full when the next person creates or transfers there. I think it would be very noticeable.
 
Pyksel

Pyksel

Rasterizing . . .
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Another option Ukerric is that Anet would release inactive accounts as contributing toward population cap.
 
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Viktorr

96
1
A server blackout was announced today for 11 am pst. About 10 minutes after the time came, JQ went high pop and some people got transferred over, so there does seem to be some correlation there with active population.
 
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Campa

Trakanon Raider
16
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The only time I recall someone from ANet commenting on it they said it was based on current connections, but I tend to agree with the idea it is over a period of time not an at the moment type of deal.
 
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Draegan_sl

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Anyone play a Thief recently? Leveling one up and I've been doing full Condition Damage with D/D and P/D for bleeds. I'm in the high 30s and looking to see if anyone has any other strats that are better.
 
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Ender4212

Golden Knight of the Realm
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My main is a P/D + SB thief. You looking for leveling strats or build strats? Personally I love the P/D build as I can focus on some toughness/vitality gear and not on crits. If I ever find myself in a 1v1 or even a 1v2 I win. I'm way more durable in our large scale fights compared to the burst builds. It's not for everyone though as the damage is slow and steady which tends to turn people off. I focus on bleed duration(3 extra seconds per bleed). Mostly though, I'm still using the short bow because you can't beat cluster bomb for large fights.
 
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Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
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I'm looking for a build that I can get through leveling PVE as fast as possible. I'm useless in WvW with any build anyway.
 
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Ender4212

Golden Knight of the Realm
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I have 4 level 80's and another that's 62 and by far the quickest way to 80 is crafting. On every character I do cooking, jewelcrafting, and artificer. That alone is 30+ levels. You can do the other professions as well, but they are much more expensive. You can knock out those 30 levels in an hour or so if you know what you're doing. As far as specifics to thief leveling, sorry no help there. When I did it I just experimented with all of the weapon sets and hopped in wvw when alts were allowed.
 
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Gecko_sl

shitlord
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Draegan_sl said:
I'm looking for a build that I can get through leveling PVE as fast as possible. I'm useless in WvW with any build anyway.
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I'd guess 1-50 they are fairly similar.

I've found range is better for me leveling early on. I tended to swap from Shortbow to P/D dropping Caltrops and circle strafing stuff. This was more efficient for me than Black Powder. Higher level is different as I now use a lot more d/d.
 
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Draegan_sl

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Ender4212_sl said:
I have 4 level 80's and another that's 62 and by far the quickest way to 80 is crafting. On every character I do cooking, jewelcrafting, and artificer. That alone is 30+ levels. You can do the other professions as well, but they are much more expensive. You can knock out those 30 levels in an hour or so if you know what you're doing. As far as specifics to thief leveling, sorry no help there. When I did it I just experimented with all of the weapon sets and hopped in wvw when alts were allowed.
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What do they cost?
 
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Ender4212

Golden Knight of the Realm
667
81
For 10 gold you can do cooking/artificer/jewelcrafting. From there they jump to like 8 gold a piece. Check the PRX forum (profession discussion forum) for the getting alts levels fast thread. There are some nice guides there that I've used.
 
Guzrog

Guzrog

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Honestly I just bought some gems to craft my mesmer up a bit and I don't regret it at all. I went to 400 in artificer, tailor, JC, and armorsmithing. If the PVE begins to wear on me I will probably do the other professions as well. You can legally convert gems to gold within the trading post in the blink of an eye. 4000 gems is $50 and I think if you converted it all that would be 20-25+ gold. I doubt it's as cheap as the gold sellers but it was painless and no worries of account issues. When I was done crafting I grabbed a set of rare gear and weapons on the market for maybe 1 gold max. I don't intend to make a habit of it outside of the crafting for levels but like I said, I sure as hell don't regret it.

PVE is a lot more tolerable when you are just running around grabbing SP and participating in events at your leisure while exploring. Being able to skip the hearts if I'm not feeling them makes the 1-50 areas feel like my playground. Between that and WvW I find myself leveling quickly without really looking at my bar now.
 
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Draegan_sl

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I ended up doing that last night. Got my necro up to 72 with cooking and jc. Fucking jc takes forever. Figured I could run the story quests to get the last 8 levels.
 
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