Guild Wars 2

Ravishing · Dec 3, 2013

Just logged back into GW2 for the first time in over a year. They added & changed a lot but it is so hard to want to play still! I queued up for Eternal Battlegrounds and went over to the Kessex Hills Nightmare tower while waiting. Started fighting through the tower and it didn't seem like anything exciting at all. Battlegrounds pops and I go there. WvW seemed like the same ole' shit. PvP combat for MMOs is just shitty. GW2 does it better than most but it's still just meh.

I do like how the achievements and unlocks are done now, it helps you figure out what to do and gives you some carrots to chase. I guess WvW has rankings now which also helps provide focus. It took me a bit to reacquaint myself with the game. It feels clunkier than in the past with all of the new systems in place. I suppose the clunkiness goes away once I play it for a bit. I am not sure if I want to log in again, though. The major problem is it takes so much time to accomplish anything in the game (MMOs in general suffer this problem). It took me 30 minutes just setting up all my stuff. I could have played a LoL game or several Hearthstone games or went to bed earlier instead

Stave · Dec 3, 2013

Miele_sl said:
Thieves don't stealth forever like in WoW: they have an utility (Shadwo refuge) they can blast or leap into into smoke fields, or use dagger #5, they are all short duration stealths. Sword pistol uses no stealth at all, but it's very good for levelling.
Warrior is strong, but boring, stick to the thief imo and use a shortbow as swap weapon, it's amazing.

Buy at least green weapons, buy sigils for them (sigil of bloodlust, sigil of fire for example are quite good for levelling).

Levelling: when you start doing shit wow-style, you will get bored of gw2 right away, consider it like a trip in an area where you just go exploring, kill everything that moves, do dynamic events. Karma gear and relative vendors are fairly useless, you can pretty much ignore most of them and get gear on the trading post, green if you have spare silvers, blue if you don't. Buy power/precision trinkets and power/vitality armor (or toughness, but for thief I'd go vitality). Use your signet as your heal if you play Sword/Pistol, learn to interrupt opponents with sword #3, or just drop pistol #5 every few seconds to be unkillable even by 3 or 4 opponents.

Don't play the game on rail, you can always go back and finish zones later, you are downlevelled to the area specific level range. Look out for jumping puzzles, kill champions if you can, even if with a thief is not easy at all (don't do those fucking boring champ trains, just don't or you'll uninstall the game in 10 minutes flat).
In a few levels, when you have more points to spend, try out a dagger/dagger condition spec and use death blossom and caltrops: it's a ton of fun and will teach you a few things about timing.

GW2 is a game of timing. Learn to master sword/dagger for example and you overcome very strong opponents. Learn to use dodge and relate effects (in your traits), try out different weapon setups, like S/D, P/D or D/P or even P/P for shit and giggles.

Armor: medium armor sucks for a bunch of levels, mostly trench coats, but later on it has some good ones. Newbie armor in general is fairly lackluster, except light one maybe.

It's a great game, play it for what it is.

Thanks for the info. I will have to try short bow, and check fire and bloodlust sigils and see what those are. I have been buying all my green gear that I can. Fortunately I have been able to save up about 5 gold by selling like everything I find on the AH so money hasn't been an issue. I've been using the healing sigil the one that has active and passive where I lifesteal when I hit things. Not sure if this is the best one to use or not. I have been running around exploring every zone I have been in so far. That is kind of fun, but eventually has began to feel kind of pointless as well. One thing I am unsure on, apparently I am retarded and cannot grasp this trait system. Granted I haven't taken really any time to read about it. But I bought the level 10 skill manual, and have trait points but have not spent any. I do not understand what to use them in or how much to use, what's good what's not, etc. I should probably read up on this as hopefully it would help me kill shit faster or stay alive longer.

Overall though I think the best way to describe my problem is that I am looking for a carrot but just cannot find one. Everything just seems kind of mediocre, nothing to really draw me in. It's a nice world and whatnot and I really want to be drawn into it but I just cannot find any cool goals to set for myself that feel worth chasing. Not even cool armor sets or anything, lol. I'm sure I will keep playing here and there because it is no sub, and maybe something at some point will draw me in more.

kaid · Dec 3, 2013

an accordion_sl said:
By changing skills for PvP and pve, you're balancing 2x as many abilities. That's horrible and incredibly complicated for new players. MMO's are already annoying in the first hour when you're being introduced to all the new systems, the last thing they need is more complexity.

The downside if you dont do it is pretty much then the entire game has to be balanced around PVP which plays nothing like the entire rest of the game. Stuff that is OP when going against a player with 20k or less hp is not OP when dealing with dragons and dungeon bosses that have 100 times that much HP. Unless you make all your mobs equal to players abilities/health pools you simply cannot get a good balance between pvp usage of skills and pve usage many games have tried it and it never works well.

Ravishing · Dec 3, 2013

Stave_sl said:
Overall though I think the best way to describe my problem is that I am looking for a carrot but just cannot find one.

That's the main issue with the game. The main goals are achievements, rankings, and skins.
There is no keyed dungeon to work toward or tough raid bosses to conquer. (There are some tough dungeons or bosses here & there but nothing progressive, it's all standalone)

There are definitely carrots though, you need to decide what appeals to you. The Achievements tab is a good place to start or Rank up in PvP or WvW or Fractals dungeons. One big goal was to acquire a legendary weapon, which takes tons of time & money.

The goals were less obvious a year ago. WvW didn't have rankings and the achievements were less. The daily was static rather than dynamic as it is now. I was working toward my legendary but kinda got burnt out before I finished.

cabbitcabbit · Dec 3, 2013

This game is really at it's best in short bursts. I log on nowadays when one of the living world events intrigues me and to do the monthly achievement. There's really no punishment for not logging on every day.

Miele · Dec 4, 2013

@Stave

Build Editor :: Guild Wars 2 Skills

It's a level 80 build, but it gives you an idea of what to get while levelling, you'll unlock Master traits at 40 and grandmaster at 60.
This is a farming, levelling build, with a lot of perks, it's not a minmax speedrun damage build, that's glass cannon dagger/dagger and you'll die when the wind blows sideways if you're not very very good at it. You can move points around, but the essence is that. It swaps well to a pistol/something build, by changing a few traits here and there.

Utilities are for running around faster, to vanish from sight and save your bum and to get +precision and cleanse conditions when needed. Thieves guild for burst/temp tanks.

Stave · Dec 5, 2013

Miele_sl said:
@Stave

Build Editor :: Guild Wars 2 Skills

It's a level 80 build, but it gives you an idea of what to get while levelling, you'll unlock Master traits at 40 and grandmaster at 60.
This is a farming, levelling build, with a lot of perks, it's not a minmax speedrun damage build, that's glass cannon dagger/dagger and you'll die when the wind blows sideways if you're not very very good at it. You can move points around, but the essence is that. It swaps well to a pistol/something build, by changing a few traits here and there.

Utilities are for running around faster, to vanish from sight and save your bum and to get +precision and cleanse conditions when needed. Thieves guild for burst/temp tanks.

Thanks Miele, I will give that a try. Also looking through those traits gave me a better grasp on how to work them and what is good and whatnot. I am assuming you can respec them hopefully?

Arch · Dec 5, 2013

Stave_sl said:
Thanks Miele, I will give that a try. Also looking through those traits gave me a better grasp on how to work them and what is good and whatnot. I am assuming you can respec them hopefully?

Last time I played yes, and I believe it's a flat fee of a few silver not sure if that changed.

Miele · Dec 5, 2013

Stave_sl said:
Thanks Miele, I will give that a try. Also looking through those traits gave me a better grasp on how to work them and what is good and whatnot. I am assuming you can respec them hopefully?

Yes you can, go to your class trainer and ask him/her, do NOT buy the book, that is a one time only unlock of the adept/master/grandmaster traits.
At level 80 it costs 3s and some coppers. Respec is cheap, gear much less so, but by the time you're 80, you'll figure out a lot more stuff.

Xenrauk · Dec 5, 2013

Buying the book for the traits unlock at 40 and 60 gives you a free respec, you can respec anytime for like 2-3silver.
Main driving forces of the game, achievements, legendary, ascended gear, wvw ranks, spvp, dungeon runs for tokens for gear, fractuals, living story, killing world bosses for once a day chests, tequalt is the only major raid content that requires 80+ people, not sure how many even bother with that these days anymore, ascended items with a shitty drop rate is the main reward from it.

You can look up dulfy.net for a preview of a lot of the fashion stuff and other useful game information.

Kasted_sl · Feb 5, 2014

New living update today introducing Edge of the Mists. It's a new map for WvW that takes whatever color your team is from a few servers and sets them against the other server colors on one map. It's a really nice looking map. NPC's that control the various points around the map are super beefy, so good luck on trying to solo the champs around there. Some interesting things available to each color side. Blue gets the ability to transform people into mechanized scorpions, basically mobile siege units.

The map resets every 4 hours and the winning color gets supply drops on the main WvW maps, so a little incentive to win the map.

This year of the living story is also winding down with 2 more episodes left to go and it should be interesting. Lots of hints for a siege on Lions Arch and maybe even a new dragon(Wild guess here, but lots of hints).

Zindan · Feb 5, 2014

This latest patch had an unannounced change to Legendary weapon requirements. Before this you needed something called "Gift of Battle" which could be bought from a WvW vendor for 500 Badges of Honor, but now you also need to have rank 30 in WvW to purchase that item. Would have been nice to have a bit of warning on that change. Not really liking how ANet is trying to make people participate in their WvW by placing PvE carrots there (they've begun placing Living Story objectives into WvW now too).

Silence_sl · Feb 5, 2014

Zindan_sl said:
This latest patch had an unannounced change to Legendary weapon requirements. Before this you needed something called "Gift of Battle" which could be bought from a WvW vendor for 500 Badges of Honor, but now you also need to have rank 30 in WvW to purchase that item. Would have been nice to have a bit of warning on that change. Not really liking how ANet is trying to make people participate in their WvW by placing PvE carrots there (they've begun placing Living Story objectives into WvW now too).

That's a dumb move, since WvW is pretty fucking tired and worn out outside of EoM (which will be boring in a week). I was wondering why wvw xp boosters were dropping like mad today...now I know. L30 WvW isn't a huge burden, but it's still a pretty shit move.

I did have a lot of fun in EoM yesterday. There was a straight up bloodbath for like ONE INCH of pixels for an hour on one spot of the map. I also learned that playing my Mesmer is no fun in uncoordinated efforts....so much squishy. My ranger, though, is unmitigated fun in these types of battles. It's like Superman beating up Kindergartners.

Xenrauk · Feb 7, 2014

That map is garbage, I can't image any real wvw player will want to do it after this week unless they enjoy no challenge from the pve pugs in there. It's ebg 2.0 with tighter routes and a karma train more likely to happen after 2 hrs of play, since people tend to leave to join their guilds in other instances or just plain leave to go to another instance. I can see the gankers and griefers having a ball in there though.

Account wxp better be in the next update.

Silence_sl · Feb 8, 2014

Xenrauk_sl said:
Account wxp better be in the next update.

That would be pretty slick.

I just got the Guardian to L80 that I started last week, and I need to grab a set of WvW gear to go along with the PvE shit that I just bought.

Holy crap, just noticed my Guard in full PvE (zerker shit) has almost half the HP as my Ranger does (zerker shit, never felt the need to get WvW gear for the Ranger).

Dmitry · Feb 18, 2014

Galleries | Massively

Incredible images of the destruction of GW2's main city. Every two fucking weeks there is something new to do. Seriously, just amazing. In this patch, Arenanet are destroying the main city of Lion's Arch as a part of the invasion of Scarlet Briar. No game has ever tried something like this... imagine a two week patch cycle where Stormwind or Freeport was destroyed to further the story of the game.

The two patches before have been great... two raid style bosses a month ago and two weeks ago a massive new server v server battle ground that addressed many of the problems of WvW being crowded. (also.. sky islands with destructible bridges... Yes!).

I know this thread does not get a lot of love outside of WvW but I think GW2 is the best deal in gaming. You buy the box (at a reduced price these days) and every two weeks you get something new to check out.

This new update looks fantastic. Poke your noses back in to see the annihilation of a game's main city as a part of the story of the game. Think of it as Blizzard's cataclysm without it taking 3 years to make.

spronk · Feb 18, 2014

man i bought gw2 at pre-order and my highest level is 11

i really need to play cuz that sounds amazing but i can't last more than 15 minutes without alt-f4'ing out of boredom. I got a scroll in the mail that boosts any char to level 20, I should probably try that out. wish they'd boost me to 60 or 80 or whatever max is.

Dmitry · Feb 18, 2014

spronk_sl said:
man i bought gw2 at pre-order and my highest level is 11

i really need to play cuz that sounds amazing but i can't last more than 15 minutes without alt-f4'ing out of boredom. I got a scroll in the mail that boosts any char to level 20, I should probably try that out. wish they'd boost me to 60 or 80 or whatever max is.

Hmnn you could use crafting to level to 80. Get a crafting exp booster and buy a bunch of gems to convert to gold on a patch day (conversion rate is always best on a patch day) and then plow the gold into your crafting levels. It takes about two days for a regular person playing. You'd still want to open up some zones teleport points but that can come with time. Other than that, you could join a good WvW guild and follow their zerg, that's the best exp for actually playing and you get a level 80 character while in WvW.

bixxby · Feb 18, 2014

Dmitry_sl said:
Galleries | Massively

Incredible images of the destruction of GW2's main city. Every two fucking weeks there is something new to do. Seriously, just amazing. In this patch, Arenanet are destroying the main city of Lion's Arch as a part of the invasion of Scarlet Briar. No game has ever tried something like this... imagine a two week patch cycle where Stormwind or Freeport was destroyed to further the story of the game.

The two patches before have been great... two raid style bosses a month ago and two weeks ago a massive new server v server battle ground that addressed many of the problems of WvW being crowded. (also.. sky islands with destructible bridges... Yes!).

I know this thread does not get a lot of love outside of WvW but I think GW2 is the best deal in gaming. You buy the box (at a reduced price these days) and every two weeks you get something new to check out.

This new update looks fantastic. Poke your noses back in to see the annihilation of a game's main city as a part of the story of the game. Think of it as Blizzard's cataclysm without it taking 3 years to make.

Yeah, but there's no reason to play it as an rpg still right? Your character is the same strength wise as it was at release? Fuck that noise, their story telling isn't good enough to warrant that shitabyss of boredom.

Dmitry · Feb 18, 2014

bixxby_sl said:
Yeah, but there's no reason to play it as an rpg still right? Your character is the same strength wise as it was at release? Fuck that noise, their story telling isn't good enough to warrant that shitabyss of boredom.

Hmnn I am a bit of an achiever/leveller and I made my Ascended armor set which is about a 5% bump in power - maybe a bit more depending on whose calculations you use. It's a hell of a grind though. I also made a Legendary but that is only for the hardcore. Those items are not usable in PvP but are usable in WvW. I might be able to tell a difference a bit. They do help in high level fractals.

The storytelling has gotten better this year but yeahh... Weiss and Hickman called, they want their cliches back.

My recommendation is that you play for a couple of days each patch. I find it hard to believe that whatever game you are in is currently more interesting than brand spanking new content is for a couple of days every two weeks. Hell even new stuff I don't personally like (a new PvP map for instance) is great for a couple of days because it's new.

As for "play it as an RPG" um... does anyone still do that in any game outside of Gemstone 4? I have not played a character since maybe the early days of EQ.

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Guild Wars 2

Ravishing

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Stave

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kaid

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Ravishing

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cabbitcabbit

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Miele

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Stave

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