Honest answer
Welp, I'm downloading it now. i'll see how it goes. Maybe get back in EuroGAF.
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Guild Wars 2 |OT2| Funding An MMO Entirely On Quaggan Backpacks
- Thread starter Teknopathetic
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Honest answer
Welp, I'm downloading it now. i'll see how it goes. Maybe get back in EuroGAF.
There's plenty to warrant a visit back. Out of curiosity, what are you looking for in terms of endgame?
You may want to check out:
1. Orr, which has been heartily revamped
2. Fractals, a new variety of content added
3. The new achievements/laurels system
4. Ascended gear, a new tier of gear (just back pieces, rings and amulets so far) with slots for infusions, a new upgrade type. Much easier to get than legendaries but requiring more effort than exotics.
5. Some of the tweaked/retouched dungeon paths
6. Southsun Cove, a new 80 zone that's largely empty but very pretty with a couple new enemy types and two cool JPs. Nice way to kill an hour.
7. The beginnings of an ongoing world story arc, Flame & Frost, in Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau
In terms of "aliveness," sufficie it to say that the dev team is very happy indeed. They seem to be particularly committed to significant monthly patches, too.
edit: Join [GAF], EuroGAF has been folded back into the main guild almost entirely (completely?)
Sorry about your old PC. You really gotta try fractals if you haven't played since Halloween..
As long as you're repping the guild (you can join GAFGuild regardless of what server you're on) and actually earning the influence on SBI, it should work like that. Although this is untested. Regardless, partying with guildies increases their influence gain so it's not like there would be any downside, ever.
Squall ASF
Member
Is it true that the server opponents swap for WvW every month? Did they change today? It's bound to be much easier to clear the zone without that massive conglomerate server Sanctum of Rall running around.
No problemo but I might not be on until a lot later (9PM EST or so). Another officer might be able to take care of him beforehand if you can post an account or character name.
Nothing is month-based, and it's not that the opponents swap every cycle. The way it works is:
Currently, matches are 1 week long, resetting on Friday (tonight, at 7PM EST). Depending on your server's ongoing performance, your matchup for the next week may involve your server staying in the same tier against the same two opponents, staying in the same tier against one or two replacement opponents, or changing tier to move either up or down. When calculating the next matchup, your server's long-term performance is taken into account so you can't just instantly jump multiple tiers in either direction based on one match.
However, after this reset tonight, a full tally reset for every server is going to occur because of all the recent volatility and server switching (the servers that are currently ranked are not the same as they were when they obtained those rankings). So the next few weeks are likely to be chaotic as servers try to establish a new hierarchy
Long story short, it's unlikely we'll be facing SoR again for a very long time and we should be moving down a tier tongiht. What happens after that is pretty up in the air.
They change every week, around 7:30 EST on fridays. Well they change based on rankings. If there hasn't been much movement in a tier, then you'll face the same opponents again.
However, they are completely resetting the score tonight and starting over with the rankings.
It's going to be very interesting.
Makes sense...character name is Limestall. Account name is shoolz.4681. Thanks!
Squall ASF
Member
Good, that server is ridiculous. Would be too awesome if the two replacements were barren and I could just run through the lands haha yeah right. Trying to organize a few of my friends and hope a pack of 4 or 5 of us is enough to manage the poi's and such.
Yah I've read a lot about the fractals and am looking forward to trying them out. Do you get auto-levelled to 80 in them? I had just started a new Guardian Alt that is only lvl 12 I believe so I'm thinking I should lvl him up a bit more before getting into the Fractals.
I was hoping we'd go to 9 rather than 10 just cause "Maguuma Invader" and "Dragonbrand Invader" look cool.
Anyway it should be theoretically easier to get POIs in WvW as they're less-dedicated opponents, but there's also the matter of the reset which means everyone is going to likely be trying to get out in front of the pack early .
Yep you do, similar to WvW. Unfortunately it's very poor XP (the tradeoff for being a good source of a ton of other stuff).
Chiming in a little "late" but.. GAF guild or not, when you guest to Stormbluff Isle you'll gain influence for whatever home server you chose.
e.g. Picked Borlis Pass and joined GAF guild. Hit guest to Stormbluff Isle and did dungeons and events with friends gaining influence. The influence gain here would be for the GAF guild in Borlis Pass, which would be the reason for the Remote Operator rank we now have.
Complistic
Member
So what weapon sets and trait distribution does everyone like for leveling a mesmer? I gave up on my last mesmer, but people insisted they get so much better after you get them to like level 20 or so.
So I'm going to try again and just wanted some thoughts.
So I'm going to try again and just wanted some thoughts.
Squall ASF
Member
I was hoping we'd go to 9 rather than 10 just cause "Maguuma Invader" and "Dragonbrand Invader" look cool.
Anyway it should be theoretically easier to get POIs in WvW as they're less-dedicated opponents, but there's also the matter of the reset which means everyone is going to likely be trying to get out in front of the pack early .
Yep you do, similar to WvW. Unfortunately it's very poor XP (the tradeoff for being a good source of a ton of other stuff).
I'm actually on Tarnished Coast, do you think it will be rough clearing the zone with Blackgate and Fort Aspenwood running around? I don't know anything about what servers are more competitive and a pain. I just know that Sanctum of Rall dominated this week.
Carrion seems to be the "traditional" distribution for stats, and it's at least a decent schema to follow until you decide on something else.
Mesmer has lots of fun, viable weapon combiantions. Staff is sort of the objective "go-to" weapon. It's good at everything. But there's lots to try, just see what you like!
I will say this: level 20? Eeeeeeehhhh. If anything you'll still feel far weaker than you think you should in that range. In experience the class really game alive between 35-40 when you can start seriously tackling dungeons and throwing down Time Warp.
The payoff is very satisfying, though. Mesmers are seriously awesome. I went from lamenting the god-awful healing skill options (they are really quite bad) in the early game to using the most typically worthless one a majority of the time simply for its low cooldown. Plenty of other ways to stay alive than healing.
You're gonna be in a realllly odd scenario. Blackgate was always less competent than SBI in WvW (I started to subconsciously see "Blackgate" as "Easy Kills") but Tarnished Coast is the RP server and I have no idea how seriously they're taking the reset.
Squall ASF
Member
So basically you are saying the opposition is weak but it really comes down to how dominate my server is in claiming land? I don't know why I didn't consider my server claiming more land making it easier on me. All I was thinking about is how many of the other server population would participate in WvW. The more barren, the easier it'd be for me to invade their territory for POI's. Hard to say for me as I just swung over to this server with my friends recently from Sorrow's Furnace due to a lack in population. I think my buddies chose TC because it's supposed to have a high PVE population and it seems to be true in what I've experienced so far which is great. I was fearing that GW2 was dying but I guess it was just the server I was on before. So the only experience I have for WvW with this server is when I jumped in this week which was actually against you guys (though I didn't see any gaffers running around) and the Sanctum of Rall group. Sanctum curb stomped both of us but I want to say TC was well ahead of SBI too. So maybe we are decent, middle of the pack? I noticed a lot of map chatter trying to organize things when I was running around so that's encouraging.
I was hoping we'd go to 9 rather than 10 just cause "Maguuma Invader" and "Dragonbrand Invader" look cool.
As expected, people flooded Kaineng and it jumped a fairly incredible 4 places, effectively making up all the progress SBI lost. I'm really not worried though, the middle tiers are likely to be determined by skill and tactics rather than numbers and coverage.
I think now that we've dropped (as most people wanted) our WvW numbers will stabilize or even grow and hopefully we'll see SBI out in force. The opposition isn't a pack of zealous try-hard assholes and won't be out for blood 24/7. At least, I hope.
I got the general impression in Lion's Arch Map chat that SBI was basically giving up on WvW until they dropped lower, which is why our numbers were so low. That and Sanctum of Rall has a huge population and a lot of great players. We actually were leaning towards them pretty strongly when the Guild Officers were debating which server to go to. Ironically, we didn't go to SBI because of any perceived WvW strength; we just lucked out that SBI ended up being pretty kick ass for those first few months.
Squall ASF
Member
I really want to play with you guys but I have 3 co-workers/friends that play actively that I have to play with. I was hoping to get them to go to the server you guys are on but their research seemed to lead them to TC for PVE population. If they ever quit playing, I'll definitely swing over to the GAF server and take up the banner. In the meantime <3 you guys and thanks for always being so responsive and helpful answering questions.
In other news, finished the first phase of the new Flame and Frost Living Quest. I wonder when the next phase will roll out? Now we play the waiting game. Also, helped a buddy clear Cursed Shore last night, hadn't been there in months and holy freakin moley did that patch truly change that zone. SO much easier to get around haha Nice that nothing was bugged either. I remember the SP in the maze and the one in the crashed ship were glitched when I cleared the zone with my character.
Also, bad samaritan story: I had network issues last night and while lagging out, apparently I was killed by risen spiders while game was frozen in black screen. So I get back in a few minutes later and ask through map chat if anyone could rez me and teased that they would get daily progress for doing so as extra incentive. So a guy whispers for my location and I ping it. The guy then says he just completed daily, sorry, but good luck :| Really? bastard! haha
In other news, finished the first phase of the new Flame and Frost Living Quest. I wonder when the next phase will roll out? Now we play the waiting game. Also, helped a buddy clear Cursed Shore last night, hadn't been there in months and holy freakin moley did that patch truly change that zone. SO much easier to get around haha Nice that nothing was bugged either. I remember the SP in the maze and the one in the crashed ship were glitched when I cleared the zone with my character.
Also, bad samaritan story: I had network issues last night and while lagging out, apparently I was killed by risen spiders while game was frozen in black screen. So I get back in a few minutes later and ask through map chat if anyone could rez me and teased that they would get daily progress for doing so as extra incentive. So a guy whispers for my location and I ping it. The guy then says he just completed daily, sorry, but good luck :| Really? bastard! haha
Complistic
Member
I actually plan on playing it really for the first time because it's not so hardcore anymore. And it wasn't just the opposition that was a pack of assholes, our side was pretty much just as bad. I couldn't stand it.
Sir Garbageman
Member
So what's a solid build for a greatsword / specter + focus (occasionally swapped out for staff)? What type of weapon & armor set should i be shooting for?
Right now I'm going 30/15/0/20/5
Here is my build basically:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR7dlYgKCHHSLEmIFRuA7DCs6R8un9wUoxMC
Edit: I often swap out Judge's Intervention for Retreat.
Right now I'm going 30/15/0/20/5
Here is my build basically:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR7dlYgKCHHSLEmIFRuA7DCs6R8un9wUoxMC
Edit: I often swap out Judge's Intervention for Retreat.
I personally feel like that was what "started it all." If it weren't for SBI gaining all the WvW guilds and followers, we would've been like a happy low-mid population village that was aware of but without a care of the war around us.
I didn't start liking Mesmer really until around 40 or so.
I run GS S/S and 30/20/20 (Domination/Dueling/Inspiration). It's supposed to be a glamour illusion spam based build. Though I think it might be time to do some tweaking.
It's doable for pve and pvp (from what little I've played in pvp).
However I'm positive someone has a better build explanation that you can get ideas from.
From experience I think that a legion sword/sword build would be the strongest for leveling up with because you get to be all "in your face." Greatswords are excellent ranged weapons but aren't as "useful" in my opinion. It's great for output but I digress. The sword 20% cool down trait works for both weapons and you have:
#1: Auto attack
#2: Lots of attacks AND distortion AKA invincibility frames during the attacks
#3: Gap closer/shatter fodder or HP sponge
#4: Block an attack or hit again after activating to do inline interrupt
#5: Swordsman phantasm with decent HP (Better if legion build) and good output (Nice to have illusions have fury trait here)
Legion build is basically to go with all traits to benefit your illusion/phantasm in the HP/damage department so they'll do damage and stay alive longer to do the damage. This is of course provided you don't shatter them at a bad moment.
I suggest legion build for the chance things chase your illusions/phantasms around and not you so you can flat out gear up however you like and wail on them. If they come after you, you have your #2, #4, and dodges. I can't plug in a build right now as I'm at work though but the general idea is HP for phantasms and damage traits if you get them.
#1: Auto attack
#2: Lots of attacks AND distortion AKA invincibility frames during the attacks
#3: Gap closer/shatter fodder or HP sponge
#4: Block an attack or hit again after activating to do inline interrupt
#5: Swordsman phantasm with decent HP (Better if legion build) and good output (Nice to have illusions have fury trait here)
Legion build is basically to go with all traits to benefit your illusion/phantasm in the HP/damage department so they'll do damage and stay alive longer to do the damage. This is of course provided you don't shatter them at a bad moment.
I suggest legion build for the chance things chase your illusions/phantasms around and not you so you can flat out gear up however you like and wail on them. If they come after you, you have your #2, #4, and dodges. I can't plug in a build right now as I'm at work though but the general idea is HP for phantasms and damage traits if you get them.
For leveling, I like sword/whatevernotatorchtho and Greatsword or Staff. Staff is better early on, but if you go Power/Crit then Greatsword really starts to tear through mobs.
Trait-wise, I would go Dom + Dueling early on. When you get access to balde training then you have more frequent access to Blurred Frenzy.
Trait-wise, I would go Dom + Dueling early on. When you get access to balde training then you have more frequent access to Blurred Frenzy.
D
Deleted member 10571
Unconfirmed Member
I... I don't believe it. I played for like 4 hours straight and.. had fun again. First a run through the new dailies, with actual people running around in med-level zones and doing events and stuff, followed by a random group Ascalon run (first time with my 34-ish alt ele) which was insanely fun and went really well (only one actual wipe despite only having people who never did this thing at all or with their current character), after that I scrapped my Legendary need for the moment and bought the T3 boots (will be buying more of that set for my MF equip I guess, going for cutesy mecha style now) and last but not least a few minutes in Orr without getting pulled at all. AT ALL.
Alright Arenanet, keep this up and you'll get me back as a regular player, even if my "spend the whole week free time in gw2" days are over (which is a good thing).
Alright Arenanet, keep this up and you'll get me back as a regular player, even if my "spend the whole week free time in gw2" days are over (which is a good thing).
Sorry, my point was that your opposition isn't traditionally thought of as "hardcore," but that all bets are kind of off because of the reset. Tons of new people might be taking it more seriously.
I plan on getting way more into it as well. I have guild events in mind, let us all hope that the dreaded queues don't return though
That's great to hear. A small part of me mourns the loss of the hard-as-balls intro to dungeons in this game, but I know it's better for the community at large to have more competent randoms that don't abandon dungeons after their first try.
You can be part of GAFGuild regardless of who or where you play. You can represent when you're not involved with your friends or whichever guild you're in on Tarnished Coast, as there's almost always 30+ people on (mornings seem to be about 10-15).
Now that guesting is in, if your friends aren't on you can still switch over to SBI for PVE/PVP hijinks (no WvW though) too.
The way servers and guilds work in this game never fails to impress me still. For all the talk of MMOs being hugely social games, GW2 is the first AAA MMO to let you play with anyone you want, any time (with the obvious exception of WvW, of course).
Same here, I'm eager to see how WvW is for 'normal' servers instead of constantly butting heads with the tryhards. As for SBI being assholes, I must not have noticed it in WvW, people could get snarky but I wouldn't so for far as to say they're Assholes. Certainly not as bad as the people flying false flags and spouting racist stuff.
You're not wrong. It's funny, when we were looking at all of the servers, trying to decide which one to roll GAFGuild on, there was next to no indication that SBI would be such a contender in WvW. It really was a surprise to all of us.
You thought you could escape, but they pulled you right back in. Not sure if you've been following the thread, but this Flame and Frost event is supposed to run until April and the next few updates are supposed to be pretty big. Hell, the January update was being called a "Small update" that "set the stage for things to come" and it ended up adding a lot.
Squall ASF
Member
How rapidly can I jump back to TC if I guest in SBI? I was thinking you can't bounce back and forth often but maybe I'm thinking of the restriction on swapping home servers which I want to say is once a week. Also, if I'm wearing GAF colors, but playing on TC, do I get any buffs or other benefits that are activated for the guild despite playing on a different server? Or would I have to always guest over to SBI to get them? This will be moot if I can bounce back and forth quickly because I'd probably only wear GAF when friends aren't on so makes sense to always play with you guys when I'm wearing it.
Thanks for the thorough overview!
The main reason I quit is because no one was playing and doing the events in Orr anymore. So let's hope that has changed at least.
I'm starting again tomorrow, I'll give you a PM for an invite.
Thanks again!
Are you on SBI? (Not that it really matters anymore).
I actaully haven't been back yet myself (too busy checking the other new stuffs) but from what I hear Orr has been changed substantially. I even saw the word "awesome" used in reference to the zones for the first time. :O
From the sound of things it wasn't just ability tweaks and variable alterations; they actually updated models on some of the enemies, added some kind of UI representation to the meta events on the map, and of course a whole bunch of new karma rewards.
Completely unlimited. Bounce back and forth every 5 minutes if you feel like it.
Unfortunately, you only earn influence for your home server. So you can be in GAF, but influence you earn repping GAF will be deposited into GAF's influence on TC, which someone on your server designated a Remote Operator could activate for you. So unfortunately that's not ideal, but again there's no limiation on the jumping back and forth.
Squall ASF
Member
I just helped a buddy clear Cursed Shores last night and there were a lot of people doing events. Granted, we're probably on different servers than each other but it at least goes to show that the changes have generated renewed interest in the area.
Awesome on the lack of bouncing restrictions! You can have guild influence on other servers from your primary? How does that work, exactly? Is it basically that different server factions don't share a pool of resources? So no shared guild bank, no shared buffs activated, etc?
Since I played at NA insomniac hours, I ended up playing with the Koreans a lot. They were fun and I'll miss them. I know WM went Kaineng, but I don't know if The Last Pride followed them. I'd run into both in pvp, wvwvw, and pve.
But I do look forward to some less angry WvWvW matchups. I didn't really like SoR as they didn't seem to know when to back off. I know when we were dominating a server, commanders would warn to not push it too hard or people will quit and then we'd have nobody to fight.
Otherwise, I'm looking to switch up my Engineer. I tried a Turret build in AC Ghost Eater. Didn't like it too much. The problem is that the turrets die so easily and mobs seem to love to target them.
But I do look forward to some less angry WvWvW matchups. I didn't really like SoR as they didn't seem to know when to back off. I know when we were dominating a server, commanders would warn to not push it too hard or people will quit and then we'd have nobody to fight.
Otherwise, I'm looking to switch up my Engineer. I tried a Turret build in AC Ghost Eater. Didn't like it too much. The problem is that the turrets die so easily and mobs seem to love to target them.
When you want to swap back to TC if you're a guest, ESC > Character Selection > World Selection > "Stop Guesting" > Close "World Selection" > Login with character.
Swapping to SBI would be: Get into Character Selection again > World Selection > Click on server of choice > Click "Guest" > Close "World Selection" > Login with character.
I don't recall buffs but I do believe you get the one of the server you're on so if you're guesting on SBI, you'll get SBI's buffs, but if you play on TC, you'll get whatever is up on TC. Influence is always gained for your home world and not the world you're guesting on as far as I can tell. If someone can prove me wrong, please do so but I'm personally not sure how to proceed with it with the way the game logs this stuff (and that I'm kind of lazy and don't care). You can bounce back and forth between your home world and two guesting servers as much as you want, but you're locked in for a day for guest servers I think it said?
Dynamic Leveling Adjustment
I haven't tried guesting, but from the sound of things it's instantaneous. You just click "World Selection" at the character select screen, pick the server you want to guest on, and click "Guest". More here: https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9278/~/guesting
Influence earned stays on your home server, but we have an in-game rank for people to spend any influence they earn if they're not on SBI. I do not believe the buffs carry over either.
But basically you can wear the GAF tag and utilize the chat, and guest over for events, dungeon runs and the like.
I haven't tried guesting, but from the sound of things it's instantaneous. You just click "World Selection" at the character select screen, pick the server you want to guest on, and click "Guest". More here: https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9278/~/guesting
Influence earned stays on your home server, but we have an in-game rank for people to spend any influence they earn if they're not on SBI. I do not believe the buffs carry over either.
But basically you can wear the GAF tag and utilize the chat, and guest over for events, dungeon runs and the like.
Noisy Ninj4
Member
This is pretty much it. Any guild buffs you get come from your home server and stay with you while guesting.
Guesting to a different server is as quick as choosing the world and entering into a character. To unguest, you go back to the character load screen.
Squall ASF
Member
I think this is what I was trying to remember. I wanted to know if this is true so if I was guesting for a dungeon run or something and then finished, and some friends got on so I wanted to switch back to the home server to play with them, I wouldn't be able to. If true, of course.
You can switch between home and guest server freely. The lock is only for if your home is A and you guest on B and C but want to also guest on D on the same day. You can't guest on D until the B and C lock is over.
Got T3 armor.
Also bought T1 and T2.
T3 is Power/Prec/Crit with Ranger Runes
T2 is Power/Prec/Tough with Dolyak Runes
T1 is MF set.
My god, I just gotta say that this pic is bad ass!
Grats!
Squall ASF
Member
Retro, your perspective on WvW and those that take it seriously is rude and ignorant.
You misreport the full reasons WM abandoned SBI; you can read Jang Gun's own words on Guru. Your oft repeated speculation that there exists a significant number of SBI denizens waiting to return to WvW once the server falls to lower tiers is laughable and has been disproven already.
In fact, the greatest concentration of toxic assholes I've ever seen in GW2 was in the map/team chat of SBI WvW before I left. Enjoy playing with them; I'm sure y'all will go far together. And by far, I mean further down the server rankings.
Jest Chillin
Member
Uncalled for post.
If your desires for WvW have taken you elsewhere and you're enjoying that, then great! Enjoy it! The weird bitter sounding posts though aren't necessary.
But tell me how you really feel?
Jang Gun's reasons are very clear; he was tired of people who "play the game in a wrong way, plant spies in the the other servers' guild and/or commanders, pm spamming all kinds of abusive words and making cynical remarks." He goes on to talk about "pm spamming", " abusive words" and calls the other Tier 1 servers " uncivilized and low leveled."
At no point does he say "Stormbluff Isle mistreated us" or "the rest of Stormbluff Isle didn't pull their weight." In fact, he says "We will miss SBI" in the postscript. He does take a sentence to direct some complaints against ArenaNet, but the majority of his comments are aimed squarely at the hateful, exploiting, underhanded players who are more concerned with winning than having fun or playing fairly.
So tell me again how my commentary is wrong, when the guy you're referencing to show my supposed rudeness and ignorance backs those comments up?
As for SBI waiting to settle in a lower tier and then start playing WvW again, the SBI Community had a big open meeting two weeks ago (and having another one tonight, see this thread for details, if you are into SBIWvW you might want to attend) and one of the points of discussion was:
Additionally, I've seen the same sentiment thrown around in LA map chat and expressed by members of our own guild, but surely this would be dismissed as anecdotal.
As for SBI being full of "toxic assholes", that's your opinion and I'm sure many would disagree with you. Have fun on Jade Quarry.
That seems pretty unnecessary. I wish you all the best in your endeavors, but whatever rudeness you believe Retro employed appears to be eclipsed by your assumption that he was talking about you or even a majority of hardcore WvW players, rather than a very specific type of player which absolutely did exist in the top tier matchups we witnessed.
Not everyone needs to be looking for the same things out of the game. That's why it's great that you can pick the WvW environment you think is best for you while guesting with your guild. From my perspective, requiring 24/7 coverage to be competitive and finding our borderlands JP camped by 20 invaders are two examples of things which may be considered viable or even necessary tactics at the highest levels of play, but were intimidating to new and casual players. What might be fun for some players, guilds and servers can be a barrier to enjoyment for others.
I don't know what constitutes a "significant number" or "wanting to return" in raw capacity terms, but I have no qualms assuring you that some number of people are looking forward to playing WvW in a new, reset line of matchups in the lower tiers. Only an idiot would argue that there will ever be as many people competing as in the top tiers, but that's not the same thing. As far as it already having been "disproven," how can that even be? Feels to me like it will take some time, at least a month, to have any idea of how things will shake out.
I've found the groups I have been in with you in WvW to be efficient, fun, and honorable. I'm glad you'll be bringing those qualities to the top tiers. But I'm certain that Retro respects you personally too, so I'm unable to see why the language directed to him specifically was called for. If you have any further comments for him or other guild members of that nature, please deliver them via PM.
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