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[Squall ASF]

Easiest way to get gift right now is jp. I can get about 150 gifts/ 30 min .... so it will probably take a week if u guys want the shoulder.

Waaat? Thanks! I thought Mikedip was joking when he said the JP. Are there chests littered through out? Any particular strategy to getting that many each run? I still haven't tried it yet but I finished off the Toypoclypse achievements and did the 3 win snowball challenge one as well as the three music playing one so JP is all that's left and the one I'll actually find fun so I'm excited. The main reason I haven't done it yet is I don't know where you enter it from but I'll find it! I need to start the little Winter story mission too. I did manage to get 2 out of the 3 Jormags knocked out though.

I saw the Christmas version of the candy corn man while waiting for Teq to appear and it was pretty funny and neat. I liked how the lights alternated.

 

[appletoasty]

Waaat? Thanks! I thought Mikedip was joking when he said the JP. Are there chests littered through out? Any particular strategy to getting that many each run? I still haven't tried it yet but I finished off the Toypoclypse achievements and did the 3 win snowball challenge one as well as the three music playing one so JP is all that's left and the one I'll actually find fun so I'm excited. The main reason I haven't done it yet is I don't know where you enter it from but I'll find it! I need to start the little Winter story mission too. I did manage to get 2 out of the 3 Jormags knocked out though.

I saw the Christmas version of the candy corn man while waiting for Teq to appear and it was pretty funny and neat. I liked how the lights alternated.

You get 10 boxes at the end of the JP if you make it, but that's it

There's 3 paths that you can take, the middle one seems popular. It's muscle memory for me now, I haven't really tried the other paths

 

[Squall ASF]

You get 10 boxes at the end of the JP if you make it, but that's it

There's 3 paths that you can take, the middle one seems popular. It's muscle memory for me now, I haven't really tried the other paths

Thanks, buddy. I love JPs so hopefully it's a good one and I might actually not mind that grind. Maybe.

 

[Levyne]

.

 

[spiritfox]

Last night I finally completed the first leg of my Path to Ascension. I even made sure I played the minimum each day so I wouldn't hit Sapphire before thee 15 days passed. If I can climb to Ruby before this season ends, it'll mean I can finish my Wings of Glory one season earlier even if I never see past Diamond in my life.

How's everyone else doing?

I'm 1 tier into Sapphire. Reaper's great in PUGs.

You don't get the 2nd threshold achievement at Sapphire. It's only 1/2 for me, so you'll need to get to Ruby for that. I don't think you can get it in one season unless you get to Legendary multiple times.

 

[appletoasty]

I'm 1 tier into Sapphire. Reaper's great in PUGs.

You don't get the 2nd threshold achievement at Sapphire. It's only 1/2 for me, so you'll need to get to Ruby for that. I don't think you can get it in one season unless you get to Legendary multiple times.

Does Sapphire not count as a division threshold then? That's confusing. Where are the lines?

 

[spiritfox]

Does Sapphire not count as a division threshold then? That's confusing. Where are the lines?

It does, but it goes from 0/2 to 1/2. Each new achievement requires new tiers.

 

[Levyne]

.

 

[appletoasty]

OH I see. So you have to cross 1 division threshold for the first set, 2 division thresholds (i.e. pass through Emerald AND Sapphire to get to Ruby) for the second set, probably 3 for the third set, etc. That makes sense. I thought it was just one.

But if you crossed to Sapphire before completing the first set of achievements, you still get credit for one of the two thresholds that you need for the second set, right?

 

[spiritfox]

OH I see. So you have to cross 1 division threshold for the first set, 2 division thresholds (i.e. pass through Emerald AND Sapphire to get to Ruby) for the second set, probably 3 for the third set, etc. That makes sense. I thought it was just one.

But if you crossed to Sapphire before completing the first set of achievements, you still get credit for one of the two thresholds that you need for the second set, right?

The next achievement automatically unlocks without needing the overall one. It's the same for the essence and wings achievements.

Sorry if that sounds confusing. I can't make good english.

 

[Levyne]

.

 

[Proven]

Alright, I was afraid it wouldn't count certain achievements for the next day. But I suppose that it's because it does count that, that you can't double up on the 3-a-day when you get to the next tier.

So my plan was to only go up one division (Amber->Emerald), unlock the next tier of achievements, then do two divisions (Emerald->Sapphire->Ruby) before the end of this season. Now I don't have to worry as much.

I still rather do ~3 games per day and not much more. The longer you take to go up a division, the more likely the average player base will get that division, and then even if the matchmaker tries to get you a 50% win rate the majority of players it can match you up against should be weaker than you.

Either that, or there's a significant amount of MMR decay every single day. I need to find some reason why half of my wins the past couple of days have given me 2 pips...

 

[Taffer]

Is the base game still worth playing?

If you haven't played it, sure. If you'd played it and got bored before HoT, probably not, it's much the same. Everyone got a trait overhaul and there's a new map in WvW but nothing that you absolutely-must-see-holy-shit-this-changes-everything. The trait changes were good (for me at least), if you still had things you wanted to check out in the base game I'd say give it another go even if just to see how you like your tweaked characters.

 

[Elfstruck]

Waaat? Thanks! I thought Mikedip was joking when he said the JP. Are there chests littered through out? Any particular strategy to getting that many each run? I still haven't tried it yet but I finished off the Toypoclypse achievements and did the 3 win snowball challenge one as well as the three music playing one so JP is all that's left and the one I'll actually find fun so I'm excited. The main reason I haven't done it yet is I don't know where you enter it from but I'll find it! I need to start the little Winter story mission too. I did manage to get 2 out of the 3 Jormags knocked out though.

I saw the Christmas version of the candy corn man while waiting for Teq to appear and it was pretty funny and neat. I liked how the lights alternated.

I prefer the left path, which I think is the easiest. The first half of the jp is easy, you can remember it after a couple of runs. For the second half, you have to jump across the present boxes, you have to be fast for this because they will disappear after 3-4s. The last one is straight forward, avoid the rolling snowballs. Oh and don't ever run behind big characters, like charr because they literally block the whole view.

 

[LiQuid!]

So I read that they got rid of town/casual clothes in a patch a year ago and converted the old system into the new wardrobe system, but is there no way to get the old set of default clothes anymore? All the outfits I see available in the gem store are super gaudy armor sets.

 

[appletoasty]

So I read that they got rid of town/casual clothes in a patch a year ago and converted the old system into the new wardrobe system, but is there no way to get the old set of default clothes anymore? All the outfits I see available in the gem store are super gaudy armor sets.

Some town clothing was turned into skins, the rest turned into tonics.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Town_clothing
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tonic#Clothing_Tonics

Some of the town clothes skins are no longer obtainable.

 

[LiQuid!]

Some town clothing was turned into skins, the rest turned into tonics.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Town_clothing
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tonic#Clothing_Tonics

Some of the town clothes skins are no longer obtainable.

It seems like the vast majority of that stuff isn't available anymore... Wouldn't it be in their best interest to keep it all available?

 

[Retro]

There's a long list of things it would be to their advantage to keep available that they've abandoned in favor of the Next Big Content Platform they'll abandon shortly thereafter.

 

[Squall ASF]

I prefer the left path, which I think is the easiest. The first half of the jp is easy, you can remember it after a couple of runs. For the second half, you have to jump across the present boxes, you have to be fast for this because they will disappear after 3-4s. The last one is straight forward, avoid the rolling snowballs. Oh and don't ever run behind big characters, like charr because they literally block the whole view.

Sounds pretty easy, excellent. I'll try all the paths to experience them and then see how I feel about milking this for presents. Wonder why some people (not in here) complained how hard this JP is. I guess the other paths much be far more difficult. When does Wintersday end?


So my one fear in playing this game happened to someone in the SW OT. Some miserable person posted a major spoiler in LFG as their request. I think I'm going to have to turn off both map and "say" chat plus avoid LFG until I see it and that sucks. I enjoy map chat normally.

 

[Kos Luftar]

Anyone else got that survey from ANET asking about what features we would like and not like in the future?

 

[Hedge]

Anyone else got that survey from ANET asking about what features we would like and not like in the future?

Is it a selection, or do you input what you like?
If selection, what are the options, please?

 

[Kos Luftar]

Is it a selection, or do you input what you like?
If selection, what are the options, please?

Selections but it was like something like 50 questions or more with lots of options and I did it awhile ago and forgot choices.

I felt some were asking if I'd like new content to come as living world only or do I still want expansions.

 

[Retro]

We’ve noticed that you’ve had a few questions about Wintersday, and specifically about the Wintersday Presence Collection. We’d like to share the following info with you:

• Wintersday is scheduled to end on January 12, 2016.
• We will be leaving the Festive Imbiber achievement active throughout the year.
• We will not be able to change the text that indicates it’s a Wintersday-only achievement, but you will be able to continue to imbide (in moderation, please – think of the dolyak children!) to gain that achievement.

(source)

I felt some were asking if I'd like new content to come as living world only or do I still want expansions.

No more expansions, please. The content drought was not worth the wait.

 

[Kos Luftar]

No more expansions, please. The content drought was not worth the wait.

Agreed. I just don't know if they can sustain quality purely on gem store.

 

[leng jai]

Am I the only one really enjoying Retor's posting style lately?

 

[Ashodin]

I also agree the content drought was exceedingly terrible during the wait. The lead up to the expansion was kinda hype, but I'd have wanted more filler (read: living world) content added while the expansion details came closer to launch.

The beta testing of the new professions was the ace part however, and really lead to them fine tuning them into a really good place for launch.

 

[Kos Luftar]

Am I the only one really enjoying Retor's posting style lately?

You are never the only one, when you ask that questione.

 

[Retro]

Agreed. I just don't know if they can sustain quality purely on gem store.

True; with the core game available for free now they can't even count on the $10 people were throwing at them during sales. There's stuff they could add to the gem store though; people have been asking for an "Aura" slot for all of these new shoulder / infusion effects, and since that affects the base game (unlike glider skins) and allows players more control over their looks (unlike outfits) that seems like a no-brainer. We know Guild Hall decorations aren't off the table too (much to my distaste).

I'd rather they try their hardest to give us stuff we want in the gem store (which I've always been willing to buy if I like what they're offering) than make us sit with our thumbs up our asses for nine fucking months with jack shit to do. That's Blizzard's strategy, and it only works because they're getting money from subs while they waste everyone's time.

The beta testing of the new professions was the ace part however, and really lead to them fine tuning them into a really good place for launch.

I'd be fine if they dropped new Elite Specs into only specific game modes for testing before pushing them out game-wide, i.e. week where you have them in PVP, a week where you have them in WvW, etc. Give people plenty of time to test them, in each specific game mode, and it encourages people to try the new spec in game modes they maybe haven't played before. When the balance seems right, push 'em out as a Feature Pack / Living Story update.

I've never enjoyed the expansion model and the Living Story shits all over it. That's ArenaNet's trump card over other MMOs; they were able to iterate and push out content faster than anyone else. Throw the whole company behind it instead of just small teams and see what happens.

 

[Squall ASF]

Wintersday Update.

Thanks for that. I expected that that achievement would be all year long and my plan was to do the Wintersday story and get that item you feed empyreal fragments to for presents every day and I'd eventually get enough. Just need to get that and knock out the other Wintersday only stuff which I've nearly completed.


As for expansions, we all know there's going to be one for every elder dragon. 5 more to go! ;P

 

[LiQuid!]

There's a long list of things it would be to their advantage to keep available that they've abandoned in favor of the Next Big Content Platform they'll abandon shortly thereafter.

I don't get it, personally. I'm kind of enamored with the game and irritated that I didn't try it out years ago (or hell even a year ago when I actually bought it). I'd love to dump a fortune on the cash shop but the stuff in there is so unappealing to me. I look back and see a lot of the stuff that's currently unavailable and I want *that* stuff. Why can't I pay them for that stuff?

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I think it's time for me to make my Revernant. I've been waiting to give the class a shot. Now that the expansion rush is over, I can make one without everyone being one.

This is still- one of the most confusing and weirdly complex classes I've ever played. I still don't feel I "get it"- as in the synergy. Particularly with herald. Wanting that Shiro, Herald and Ventari mix. Gonna be interesting to see if it can work!

 

[Forerunner]

Last night I finally completed the first leg of my Path to Ascension. I even made sure I played the minimum each day so I wouldn't hit Sapphire before thee 15 days passed. If I can climb to Ruby before this season ends, it'll mean I can finish my Wings of Glory one season earlier even if I never see past Diamond in my life.

How's everyone else doing?

I'm debating if I really want to try for Legendary or not. Diamond requires 35 wins to get there, so it's a serious time commitment, fortunately we still have over a month until the season ends. However, I'd like to do Wintersday stuff and play my huge backlog of games I have. At this point I think I'm just going to play, if I make it to Legendary then great! If not, oh well not too worried about it. I should be able to finish the back piece next season anyways.

 

[shysaursoft]

Am I the only one really enjoying Retor's posting style lately?

You are never the only one, when you ask that questione.

Look at these berks. What a bunch of jokers.

 

[MikeDip]

man the jp is incredible money. Like almost triple of silverwastes. Amazing.

 

[Retro]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug in which UI preferences were sometimes being reset upon exiting the client.
• Fixed a remaining issue with the Ogre Lane Defender achievement.

Finally.

I don't get it, personally. I'm kind of enamored with the game and irritated that I didn't try it out years ago (or hell even a year ago when I actually bought it). I'd love to dump a fortune on the cash shop but the stuff in there is so unappealing to me. I look back and see a lot of the stuff that's currently unavailable and I want *that* stuff. Why can't I pay them for that stuff?

ArenaNet's blind spot seems to be follow-through. They're very good at creating cool new things but terrible at adding to them or keeping them relevant.

• At launch they talked about how they could regularly update the game with new Dynamic events so the old zones could always have something new. To my knowledge, they haven't added any thing like that since they slipped in the ultra-rare Modus Sceleris and Skritt Burglar DEs in October 2012, three years ago.
  
• Dungeons have the ability to expand by adding new paths to them, but we haven't had a new path in over two years (Aetherpath of Twilight Arbor, Oct. '13). They were also going to revamp all of the dungeons, but they only ever did Ascalon Catacombs (which was amazing) and then stopped. They have never added an entirely new dungeon, and they're pretty much abandoned content at this point (despite being much more accessible and easier to manage than 10-player raids).
  
• Fractals were originally pushed as 'sets of randomized mini-dungeons', but they haven't added any new ones in two years (Nov '13, and they were just old Living Story dungeons chopped up) and after HoT they're not even randomized anymore.
  
• Guild Missions are an absolute blast, and unlike raids everyone can participate and nobody has to sit out; no new missions since May '13, again over two years.
  
• At launch they talked about adding new Activities (mini-games), but they haven't added any since July '13. There are places like the Shooting Range in Divinity's Reach that have said they're "Coming soon" since launch.
  
• They added a Deathmatch PVP mode in April '14 with one map, and haven't added any since; more than a year. Likewise, Conquest PVP hasn't had a new map since July '13, over two years.
  
• WvW finally got a new map for HoT, the first time the maps have been changed since launch. We also haven't had a WvW tournament in more than a year (Oct '14).
  
• The Living Story used to add new content every two weeks, non-stop. Then it was every two weeks only during the active season (usually a few months at a time with a few months break in between). Now there seems to be nothing; we had Halloween, then a month-long gap with only raids (the niche-iest of niche content), now Wintersday.

I can only hope they come up with something new to replace raids, because getting 10 people organized and in Poopsock Mode is largely untenable for anyone with adult responsibilities and they draw development time, money and personnel away from parts of the game that aren't for a tiny percentage of the population. They'll probably add one or two new masteries before they move on to something new too, and I doubt we'll see Gliding outside of the HoT zones either.

Edit: To clarify: this was not a post I enjoyed writing and it made me monumentally sad to look at the wiki to check the dates on some of these things and see just how long it's been for some of them.

 

[appletoasty]

• They added a Deathmatch PVP mode in April '14 with one map, and haven't added any since; more than a year. Likewise, Conquest PVP hasn't had a new map since July '13, over two years.

You can't even play that mode anymore unless you're in custom arena. It was never a ranked map and it's been completely removed as a possible map from unranked.

It was fun every once in a while and I miss it

 

[Retro]

You can't even play that mode anymore unless you're in custom arena. It was never a ranked map and it's been completely removed as a possible map from unranked.

It was fun every once in a while and I miss it

I'm like 85% sure they added Courtyard just to shut up the people who were asking for Team Deathmatch as a playmode. I don't think TDM really works in MMOs anyways, but they didn't even try.

 

[Proven]

I'm like 85% sure they added Courtyard just to shut up the people who were asking for Team Deathmatch as a playmode. I don't think TDM really works in MMOs anyways, but they didn't even try.

Exactly. They said they'd do more with it if people really wanted it, people didn't really clamor for more of it (although the specifics of the mode they put into matchmaking was also extremely unfriendly for pug groups), and then used that as an excuse to divert more dev time for Stronghold and anything else they had going on behind the scenes. The PvP team was also likely diverted to help out with balancing the elite specs, which feel like more of a profession design thing.

With the exception of Courtyard and the WvW tournament, the last major year for anything seems to have been 2013. 2014 and then 2015 was all Living Story and building content/systems for the expansion. Let's hope 2016 is more like 2013.

 

[Retro]

Let's hope 2016 is more like 2013.

I won't even post what I dream will happen in 2016, because I don't want to get my hopes up just writing it and there's no chance of it coming true. Sorry to be such a downer, folks.

Also, unrelated; folks might want to create a new chat channel that's just guild / party / whispers if you're worried about Star Wars spoilers. You just know some brat is going to be standing in LA screaming them non-stop.

 

[human onion]

I won't even post what I dream will happen in 2016, because I don't want to get my hopes up just writing it and there's no chance of it coming true. Sorry to be such a downer, folks.

Also, unrelated; folks might want to create a new chat channel that's just guild / party / whispers if you're worried about Star Wars spoilers. You just know some brat is going to be standing in LA screaming them non-stop.

Solid Snake Kills Gandalf

 

[Retro]

Solid Snake Kills Gandalf

in the conservatory with the lead pipe, yes, I know.

 

[MikeDip]

in the conservatory with the lead pipe, yes, I know.

Jesus christ, I though we were supposed to use spoiler tags for stuff like this

 

[Retro]

Jesus christ, I though we were supposed to use spoiler tags for stuff like this

I put spoiler tags in, but someone came along after and edited them out. I think the butler did it.

Spoiler

If you guys haven't seen Clue yet, what's wrong with you?

(<--- Not-a-spoiler)

 

[LiQuid!]

I beat the trolls to the punch and went digging for Star Wars spoilers myself earlier today. Worth it. Fuck those jerks thinking they can get one over on me.

 

[Forerunner]

lol at all the particle effects, can't even see my character anymore.

Nightfury effect
Leystone Armor effect
Ghostly Infusion effect
Legendary effect

 

[MikeDip]

I put spoiler tags in, but someone came along after and edited them out. I think the butler did it.

Spoiler

If you guys haven't seen Clue yet, what's wrong with you?

(<--- Not-a-spoiler)

Such a brilliant movie

 

[Nemesis121]

I am locked out of my account forgot to remove winwuth after i got the mini pet, and the HDD winauth was on died, so no secret code, now it's all up to support to help me, when they wake up since it 5am over there..

 

[Nemesis121]

Finally.



. They'll probably add one or two new masteries before they move on to something new too, and I doubt we'll see Gliding outside of the HoT zones either.

.

If they did add Gliding outside of HoT, it would require Tyria gliding mastery, probably 30 mastery points and Tyria MP are fucking ridiculous to get..they just add more grind, end game is grind..

 

[MikeDip]

I finished the wintersday 3 day thing. What the fuck

Spoiler

the hungry man died

 

[Retro]

If they did add Gliding outside of HoT, it would require Tyria gliding mastery, probably 30 mastery points and Tyria MP are fucking ridiculous to get..they just add more grind, end game is grind..

I mean that in the next expansion / region / whatever, they wouldn't use gliding and it would end up just be a neat thing you can only do in 4 zones and no where else ever again.

Probably replaced with something else the idiotic vocal minority has been whining about for ages. They got raids, which made absolutely no sense to shoehorn into a game like GW2, so fuck it, let's throw in mounts. Hell, make 'em fly too, it'll be a good way to go AFK while you're waiting for the meta events to start.