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[Stoof]

Norn areas are the best. Kinda glad i went the human route on my main, cause I really wont be bothered at all doing the Norn area twice (once on my alt and then on my main)

Speaking of dungeons, are some of them still bugged? need to get that AC story done before saturday...

Hoelbrak is my poison. I can't be in the city without being distracted by this amazing music.

 

[FormallyMegadrive]

Hawkian The Assassin

That is a badass pic.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Key config wise, i use 12345, Q for heal, ZXC for utilities, and E for elite. It may seem awkward, but I've gotten used to it, can move while I cast, and my hand never moves.

This is my exact setup.

 

[darkwing]

well after that beatdown we did yesterday on IOJ and someone, we are on the top tier round with HOD and ET, as usual, HOD is on a league of its on, we are just fighting it out for second place

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Key config wise, i use 12345, Q for heal, ZXC for utilities, and E for elite. It may seem awkward, but I've gotten used to it, can move while I cast, and my hand never moves.

Sounds good, going to try this. Thanks.

 

[Trey]

HOD is on a league of its on

Beta zero to retail hero.

 

[Sethos]

Let's say you got bored of the game, is it against any EULA of theirs to give away your account?

 

[koji]

I have a Sweetfx question, does it work in fullscreen borderless window mode? I'm partially colorblind so I don't know if it's actually working because my game doesn't look as good as those screenshots. I do however get the same crash error someone else mentioned every time I close GW2

Doesn't work here either.

Installed directX (new windows install, apparently I didn't have d3d9.dll etc.), client also crashes on exit. Not quite sure what's up. Didn't really spend a lot of time fooling around with it to get it to work though.

Hmm I was trying to turn it on with caps lock not with scroll lock, will have to try that tonight. Also, I need to disable ingame AA for this right? It injects SMAA?

 

[etiolate]

I'm enjoying the PvE in GW2 a fair amount, I'm around level 50 now. The environments alone make exploring worthwhile, they're soooo nice looking.

The few times I've ventured into WvW/PvP were enough for me to know I probably won't get into that stuff. WvW was just a mess in my opinion, but then again I play a lot of Dota 2, so when it comes to team based PvP in games it's hard to beat Dota. WvW is one of those things where it sounds fucking awesome on paper, but when you actually play it it's not very fun. At least for me, anyway.

But yeah the PvE is pretty cool and that's all I really cared about with this game anyway. Only thing I'm not digging as much is the personal story. I feel like it encourages solo play, and it just feels like a generic single player RPG to me. I liked GW1's mission hubs where it was easier to go on longer missions with groups of people, since we all shared common objectives. I think the personal story is a step backwards. I really didn't need the whole customization aspect of the main story... I mean it's cool and all, but if I wanted that I'd play mass effect or skyrim or something. When I'm playing an MMO I want it to be multiplayer as much as possible, and while personal stories allow people to go along with you, I don't think it's very common.

And I have to mention I'm loving the lack of a monthly fee just like I did with the first game. It's a godsend now that school is starting to ramp up for me. I can just not play for days that I'm busy on and it's no big deal. It's just nice that there's no pressure and I can enjoy the game at whatever pace I see fit. I could totally have seen myself rushing through content if there was a fee attached. I also have to give props to the gem system. I bought an additional bank tab by converting gold to gems, which is really helpful.

I've actually done most of my story missions while grouped with others, and joined others on their story missions. It's allowed me to see the different branches that exist from choices. It also helps get through some of the more difficult story missions.

 

[Deitus]

Let's say you got bored of the game, is it against any EULA of theirs to give away your account?

That's been against the EULA of every game that ever had an EULA. That being said, what are they going to do about it, ban you?

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Let's say you got bored of the game, is it against any EULA of theirs to give away your account?

You might be able to get a refund while they're still in refund mode.

 

[Noisy Ninj4]

That's been against the EULA of every game that ever had an EULA. That being said, what are they going to do about it, ban you?

How would they know anyway? Unless you announced it, of course. It's not like they would ban someone for logging in from a different location regularly.

 

[Boss Doggie]

So like, are the tengu meant to be the "Japanese" race?

 

[Ken]

Let's say you got bored of the game, is it against any EULA of theirs to give away your account?

Can I have your gold.

 

[Lafiel]

Let's say you got bored of the game, is it against any EULA of theirs to give away your account?

I know a couple of people who did this. And nothing happened to them afterwards. Just as long as you don't admit it in public chat or something.

 

[docbon]

Why jump shot is the greatest skill in the universe:

I call this piece "Beyond Map Borders"

 

[speedpop]

Hoelbrak is my poison. I can't be in the city without being distracted by this amazing music.

Aye. If I could spend all my time running around in the Brak, I would.

So like, are the tengu meant to be the "Japanese" race?

Yeah. It'd be cool if they did include the Tengu as the new race in the next expansion and then added another warrior type class ala samurai. Basically more of a glass cannon Warrior.

 

[thetrin]

They need to add Kodan and Tengu. I'm all about zen polar bears.

This is my exact setup.

Config buddy! High five!

 

[Ketch]

So I'm trying to get into PVP on my warrior (lvl 9) and I just can't tell if I'm doing any good... WvWvW is just sooo.. confusing. I haven't tried spvp, but I'm wondering if I'll like it better... how long does it take to get pvp stuff? I don't seem to be seeing anything besides xp (which I guess is actually rank in WvW?) going up.

 

[thetrin]

So I'm trying to get into PVP on my warrior (lvl 9) and I just can't tell if I'm doing any good... WvWvW is just sooo.. confusing. I haven't tried spvp, but I'm wondering if I'll like it better... how long does it take to get pvp stuff? I don't seem to be seeing anything besides xp (which I guess is actually rank in WvW?) going up.

Gear for pvp you mean? You start with it.

 

[Mims]

Hate asking again, but does anyone know the question above?

Also for the fellow newbie Mesmer GAF here are 2 instructional videos I found off the official forums which I found very useful. They are long.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eZ0NNd7b60&feature=youtu.be

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-B3mkM7dqM&feature=youtu.be

Was actually going to give up mesmer though only lvl 12 but watching these videos gave me hope and really helped out alot. Thanks for posting those.

 

[Kintaro]

I hit level 40. I'm down for CM runs in the future. Will need story run of course.

I think I'm done with trying to craft. I'll sell everything and just horde money to buy what I need.

 

[thetrin]

Just played some awesome WvW in Stormbluff Borderlands.

We were getting stomped by Henge in large numbers, but in smaller groups, we were doing some serious ass kicking. I really wish there were more Stormbluff players on right now, though.

 

[Arken2121]

Alright guys, i'm proud to put out on of the rarest feats I've accomplished. This isn't to brag but i'm very proud.

 

[V_Arnold]

Had to put out my review sooner or later. (Hungarian language, sorry folks )

Thing is, even after 70+ hours, I am still just scratching the surface, planning on writing about the PVP later on in a totally different piece. What I disliked was the story mode's bad writing and the archaic PVE dungeon design that might discourage some - not all - players.

One is likely not going to change, the other can easily do. 9/10!

 

[2San]

Alright guys, i'm proud to put out on of the rarest feats I've accomplished. This isn't to brag but i'm very proud.

So this pretty much means 0 deaths and total map control. So I'm guessing the points they got individually is from getting caps, but you guys got them off before it ticked? Pretty amazing feat. Even if the opposing is really bad, this is pretty impressive.

 

[Arken2121]

So this pretty much means 0 deaths and total map control. So I'm guessing the points they got is from getting caps, but you guys got them off before it ticked? Pretty amazing feat. Even if the opposing is really bad, this is a pretty impressive.

Yep, we had a few downs but got we worked so well that no one died(lots of stealth rezzing). We pretty much rushed their side and made sure that they didn't take anything. Our intention wasn't a shutout, it just ended that way.

 

[thetrin]

Had to put out my review sooner or later. (Hungarian language, sorry folks )

Thing is, even after 70+ hours, I am still just scratching the surface, planning on writing about the PVP later on in a totally different piece. What I disliked was the story mode's bad writing and the archaic PVE dungeon design that might discourage some - not all - players.

One is likely not going to change, the other can easily do. 9/10!

When you say story mode, are you talking about the personal story, or the dungeon story?

 

[V_Arnold]

When you say story mode, are you talking about the personal story, or the dungeon story?

Personal story, definitely.

 

[thetrin]

Personal story, definitely.

which personal stories did you play? I thought the asura personal stories were really engaging.

 

[L0st Id3ntity]

Skimmed through the last few pages, mostly gameplay technical discussion. In which pages can I find some in-depth gaf impressions?

 

[darkwing]

lol HOD just slammed us in WvW, we are holding to 2nd place though, but +695 for HOD is just nuts

 

[thetrin]

lol HOD just slammed us in WvW, we are holding to 2nd place though, but +695 for HOD is just nuts

The amount of people they have out there is insane. When we started taking over unprotected nodes, we were able to defend ourselves pretty well in even groups, but the minute we started getting the upper hand, their cavalry showed up and stomped us.

 

[etiolate]

The amount of people they have out there is insane. When we started taking over unprotected nodes, we were able to defend ourselves pretty well in even groups, but the minute we started getting the upper hand, their cavalry showed up and stomped us.

Yup. We did well in a small militia v militia fight at one of the supply depots, turning back a SYN group. They always come back with more though.

 

[V_Arnold]

which personal stories did you play? I thought the asura personal stories were really engaging.

Asura is the one (alongside charr) that I did not get. Character slots are limited, maybe when I delete my second necro, maaybe But even then, I just do not see myself playing as Asura, so my perception of that will be skewed forever.

 

[thetrin]

Asura is the one (alongside charr) that I did not get. Character slots are limited, maybe when I delete my second necro, maaybe But even then, I just do not see myself playing as Asura, so my perception of that will be skewed forever.

Well, I can understand that. Once you play Asura, you realize every other race is full of idiots, and there's no point trying to help them succeed at anything.

Yup. We did well in a small militia v militia fight at one of the supply depots, turning back a SYN group. They always come back with more though.

It was really sad, too, because we were still holding our own when it was 2 to 1, but right when we won the point and killed all the Henge in the area, a huge group of 30 guys showed up and just destroyed us and took it back.

At least the hard fought fight before that was a success. Two guardians running around is fucking devastating.

 

[darkwing]

The amount of people they have out there is insane. When we started taking over unprotected nodes, we were able to defend ourselves pretty well in even groups, but the minute we started getting the upper hand, their cavalry showed up and stomped us.

Yup. We did well in a small militia v militia fight at one of the supply depots, turning back a SYN group. They always come back with more though.

yup, this is what I noticed, it looks like they have a server wide TS3 server or something lol

 

[Teknopathetic]

"The amount of people they have out there is insane"


Unless your server has literally zero queue time, you have the exact same amount of people in WvW as any of the other 2 servers.

 

[thetrin]

"The amount of people they have out there is insane"


Unless your server has literally zero queue time, you have the exact same amount of people in WvW as any of the other 2 servers.

We had zero queue time. I literally clicked the button and joined. And then 3 other gaffers did the same and got in instantly.

We were outnumbered, plain and simple.

 

[Wallach]

"The amount of people they have out there is insane"


Unless your server has literally zero queue time, you have the exact same amount of people in WvW as any of the other 2 servers.

SBI doesn't generally have queues at this hour, no.

 

[darkwing]

yup, I was able to queue in instantly too, there is a downtime to SBI, HOD always has people in WvW lol

 

[Teknopathetic]

"SBI doesn't generally have queues at this hour, no."

The only zone that has queues at this moment for HoD is EB.

 

[darkwing]

lol just saw the Outnumbered buff again, pretty useless buff imo, unless it does something directly

 

[TheYanger]

The problem most people are having when they come across this game is the wrong mentality of thinking for MMOs in general.

"What can do I at max level?"
"What gear can I get to replace my gear?"
"Why can't I dodge all the time?"

Instead, the questions should be asked:

"How many things can I do at max level today?"
"How can I acquire the looks of that gear and mix and match stats to make the gear I want?"
"When is the best time to dodge?"

etc.

TheYanger and his own opinions are very wow-centric, so if you read his posts he will come across as wrong as well. This kind of thinking doesn't fit this game, and if you continue to try to fit GW2 into WoW's mold, you will get more and more frustrated with the game, as many people here have seen to have done.

The draw to the game is the ability to do whatever you want when you reach Level 80. Technically, you can do more and more as you level up, including returning to older zones.

All the gear at a specific TIER of gear;

LVL 80 RARE
LVL 80 EXOTIC
LVL 80 LEGENDARY

has the exact same stats. A LVL 80 Rare Shaman's Norn Greatsword will have the same stats as a LVL 80 Rare Carrion Verdant Greatsword. The stat distributions, however, will be different. This is where transmutation stones come in. These stones are gotten for doing dailies, completing zones, and even can be bought off the gem store for cheap.

Thus it becomes acquiring the gear with the stats you want, then acquiring the gear with the looks you want. Some people interchange the two.

I personally believe that acquiring stats first makes the acquiring of looks faster (better stats meaning easier runs through dungeon explorables).

Secondly, to address the issue of Ascalonian Catacombs: The dungeon isn't hard - it's the first dungeon people cut their teeth on, and it's a doozy. The real reason why it's hard is because of several factors:

- People probably not sure how the game works yet
- People wearing sub 30 gear (making them have shit for health, damage, etc)
- People not dodging as much
- People not using the environment to their advantage

etc, etc. Most of the "problems" the dungeon has is based off of player error.

The game rewards you for smart thinking. If you can avoid enemies? Avoid 'em. If you can lure enemies to a much safer vantage point? Do it. If you can bring outside influences into the zone? Smart on you. These "inelegant" designs people think about the dungeon is because they're used to the idea that a fight has to go a certain "way". If there are multiple ways to a solution, does that mean that the problem was wrong in the first place? No, you were just smart enough to think outside the box. That is the biggest mantra the game teaches you.

And please, don't listen to TheYanger. The game is not based off of RNG. It's based off of you paying attention to your surroundings, not trying to facetank enemies thinking you won't get hit back, and hit hard.

Half of the reason people get "twoshot" or "oneshot" is because they unerringly stand right in front of enemies, or in the path of shots.

The fights I did with Hawkian the past two days have been amazing. Never before in dungeons have I ever felt like a crazy amazing adventurer, dodgerolling away from attacks, swapping weapons to drop a might buff and a heal with staff, then swapping back when the timer is up and leap attacking back into the fray, strafing around the enemy as much as possible.

You really just have to know what you're doing.

Whoa whoa whoa, calm down fanboy holy shit. First things first, I'm not a 'wow' perspective, I'm an MMO player, a gamer, and a rather skilled and hardcore one at that. I've been playing MMOs for nearly 15 years at this point. I've played ALL SORTS of them. This isn't about comparing it to wow, this is about flat out game design principles.

Dungeons are not 'lol it's not hard you're not paying attention'...Give me a break. Missiles home in, like every other wow-like MMO, so your choices are to blind mobs, roll, put up some kind of ranged attack blocking ability, get an aegis, or take the damage and heal it. Given the density of mob attacks flying at you in dungeons, THAT DOES NOT REALLY CUT IT for most classes. If you could say, hey player A you're gonna take the first 5 hits then player B, then player C, that would actually work. When it's just random who gets blasted with no rhyme or reason, it's just cheap.

There are decent boss fights in this game, that have actual mechanics besides just telling the players "Hey fuck you"...They're almost universally the easy ones, because the mechanics of the skill and class system don't allow much more. If you can't avoid an attack, it has to be weak, if you can avoid it, it's going to be easy if you're not a bad gamer. AC is the most blatantly 'broken' first dungeon experience I've had in any mmo to date. The worst part is that it's not even buggy, it's just flat out bad in ways that aren't fun.

I've now run the first 4 dungeons, and except for Cadaceus manor they've ALL had huge inconsistency issues. The nightmare court one had those packs of dogs that ALL pounce the same target at once and just demolish them. That was a lot of fun. The boss with the spiders and poison that just goes apeshit on everyone, I may have not gotten how you were intended to do that one, but it felt idiotic and unfun either way. The rest was fine. Sorrow's Embrace had the WORST BOSS I'VE EVER FOUGHT in an MMO. That's a tall freaking feat let me tell you. Aside from every boss in the zone having roughly 10 times the health they needed, the second boss having his bullshit Golem that just heals like crazy if you put a condition on him...that's asinine. The rest of the game basically BEGS you to load mobs with conditions in order not to wipe, and then throws one at you that does A) A shitload of damage, B) AE's everyone simultaneously a lot of the time, so you can't spread it out, C) has enough hp that you're fighting it for 10+ minutes, and it's just ONE FOURTH of the actual boss fight? My party had a mesmer, a necro, myself (a guardian) and 2 elementalists. Our DPS options were basically limited to elementalists shooting neutered spells that wouldn't cause dots, a mesmer doing basically nothing, and myself healing him now and then with Justice, because my class literally cannot avoid putting burns on things I hit. Oh, and his awful fireball projectiles? I can block em with wall of reflection, but it bounces back at him and causes a ton of burns that he heals off. The only way to avoid taking massive burning damage is to roll, or reflect it, which then heals him and he fires it too often to roll more than half of the attacks.

What part of this boss is well designed I ask? We learned YEARS ago making bosses where you can't do anything is unfun as hell (Ask plenty of wow classes who fought immune bosses to their damage types). You don't want me to use CC on the boss? Make him immune! I would HAPPILY turn off my conditions if I could, but I can't. We killed it, with the unavoidable conditions, and it only took 30 minutes of pure dpsing! THATS GREAT DESIGN YOU'RE RIGHT WHY DIDN'T I SEE IT BEFORE HOLY SHIT.

Then right after that? A great boss design, which is easy because its' forgiving and works within the GW 'no trinity' paradigm. A boss that ddin't take too long (about 5 minutes, long but not too long). We had a fine time in the zone prior to the crap golem boss, and a fine time after, but that one massive blip basically made everyone swear off doing the dungeon again. That's happened in NEARLY every dungeon I've done, people have said "this is awful" and never wanted to go again. Clearly it's just because they're so well designed that your average player can't see it. My bad.

yup, this is what I noticed, it looks like they have a server wide TS3 server or something lol

Some of the guilds give their TS info out to militia on their maps. It's a great time. Still really hoping ET SBI and JQ start coming back a lot harder soon (Not that the servers are at fault, but WvW needs the excitement)

 

[ComputerMKII]

The problem most people are having when they come across this game is the wrong mentality of thinking for MMOs in general.

"What can do I at max level?"
"What gear can I get to replace my gear?"
"Why can't I dodge all the time?"

Instead, the questions should be asked:

"How many things can I do at max level today?"
"How can I acquire the looks of that gear and mix and match stats to make the gear I want?"
"When is the best time to dodge?"

etc.

TheYanger and his own opinions are very wow-centric, so if you read his posts he will come across as wrong as well. This kind of thinking doesn't fit this game, and if you continue to try to fit GW2 into WoW's mold, you will get more and more frustrated with the game, as many people here have seen to have done.

The draw to the game is the ability to do whatever you want when you reach Level 80. Technically, you can do more and more as you level up, including returning to older zones.

All the gear at a specific TIER of gear;

LVL 80 RARE
LVL 80 EXOTIC
LVL 80 LEGENDARY

has the exact same stats. A LVL 80 Rare Shaman's Norn Greatsword will have the same stats as a LVL 80 Rare Carrion Verdant Greatsword. The stat distributions, however, will be different. This is where transmutation stones come in. These stones are gotten for doing dailies, completing zones, and even can be bought off the gem store for cheap.

Thus it becomes acquiring the gear with the stats you want, then acquiring the gear with the looks you want. Some people interchange the two.

I personally believe that acquiring stats first makes the acquiring of looks faster (better stats meaning easier runs through dungeon explorables).

Secondly, to address the issue of Ascalonian Catacombs: The dungeon isn't hard - it's the first dungeon people cut their teeth on, and it's a doozy. The real reason why it's hard is because of several factors:

- People probably not sure how the game works yet
- People wearing sub 30 gear (making them have shit for health, damage, etc)
- People not dodging as much
- People not using the environment to their advantage

etc, etc. Most of the "problems" the dungeon has is based off of player error.

The game rewards you for smart thinking. If you can avoid enemies? Avoid 'em. If you can lure enemies to a much safer vantage point? Do it. If you can bring outside influences into the zone? Smart on you. These "inelegant" designs people think about the dungeon is because they're used to the idea that a fight has to go a certain "way". If there are multiple ways to a solution, does that mean that the problem was wrong in the first place? No, you were just smart enough to think outside the box. That is the biggest mantra the game teaches you.

And please, don't listen to TheYanger. The game is not based off of RNG. It's based off of you paying attention to your surroundings, not trying to facetank enemies thinking you won't get hit back, and hit hard.

Half of the reason people get "twoshot" or "oneshot" is because they unerringly stand right in front of enemies, or in the path of shots.

The fights I did with Hawkian the past two days have been amazing. Never before in dungeons have I ever felt like a crazy amazing adventurer, dodgerolling away from attacks, swapping weapons to drop a might buff and a heal with staff, then swapping back when the timer is up and leap attacking back into the fray, strafing around the enemy as much as possible.

You really just have to know what you're doing.

I shouldn't have to adapt to the game or play it 'the right way', the game has to be fun and intuitive in the first place. Learning how the game works, is that your idea of fun? Jesus.

 

[Ken]

Any gaffers on Stormbluff want to do a CoF story mode? It's impossible to find a party when everyone is just LFM for Ex. mode.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Does anyone know the reason I cannot change my account name/e-mail? It resets to the previous one.

 

[Lyng]

I shouldn't have to adapt to the game or play it 'the right way', the game has to be fun and intuitive in the first place. Learning how the game works, is that your idea of fun? Jesus.

Honestly that is not what he is saying.

His argument is that the Dungeon might seem hard or unfair because they are not designed around the idea of a holy trinity.
Thusly the wow/everquest players will have a harder time.

Us who are use to action packed boss fights in other RpG's where you dont necessarily have a tank find it easier to adapt.

Getting your behind handed to you again and again is not fun for all.

The Yanger should remember how the Cataclysm heroics where received. Most of us "old" players welcomed the change. However the vast majority of players where not ready to having to learn to play their class and use CC etc in order to beat the content.
They wanted the reward without the risk.

So Blizzard nerfed the heck out of the heroics. Loosing the players that wanted a challenge but pleasing the majority of wow players. Which in all honesty are casual gamers nowadays.

GW2 is a harder game because it forces you to be more active in battles. This goes for dungeons but also for leveling.

This is a design choise. Its not worse then wow nor is it better. That is simply a matter of taste.
The majority of wow players will not like this change.
Gamers who dont enjoy the stale playstyle of WoW or Tor will however most likely enjoy GW2.

 

[zon]

I will finally reach lvl 80 with my thief today! Woo! After that I have no real idea what I should be doing though. I will probably think of something after a while.

 

[Midou]

This is a design choise. Its not worse then wow nor is it better. That is simply a matter of taste.
The majority of wow players will not like this change.
Gamers who dont enjoy the stale playstyle of WoW or Tor will however most likely enjoy GW2.

This is what I say in-game whenever someone brings up the WoW argument. GW2 is more of a streamlined, playable in quick bursts and by busy people sort of MMO. Some of this negatively impacts it in some ways for some people, but it's great for others. I play at least an hour or two a day and with daily achievements I feel far more satisfied than putting in 1-2 hours in most other MMOs.

Now, this is pre-end game, and I know that is where MMOs are supposed to 'begin', but nothing is wrong with having fun up to that point. And I've never been able to enjoy an MMO in the 50th hour as much as the first hour, before GW2.