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Guild Wars 2 |OT2| Funding An MMO Entirely On Quaggan Backpacks
- Thread starter Teknopathetic
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Currently trending: The vocal minority on BP on the official forums are really mad about the red keep water gate teleport glitch.
People basically get ported to the other side at random from standing up against the gate because they were hitting it so we'll occasionally lose a golem and players to the other side and BP will record video and scream.
Got 9 levels in on my elementalist today though I spent 9 hours in WvW as well. Almost 80 again!
People basically get ported to the other side at random from standing up against the gate because they were hitting it so we'll occasionally lose a golem and players to the other side and BP will record video and scream.
Got 9 levels in on my elementalist today though I spent 9 hours in WvW as well. Almost 80 again!
Jest Chillin
Member
I had a busy weekend, and now there's a lot I want to comment on but I dislike long multi-quote posts... I'll try to make this quick.
If you're reading the novels, read Edge of Destiny, then Ghosts of Ascalon, then Sea of Sorrows. That's in reverse chronological order, but best enjoyment order. It also helps to note the timeline printed at the beginning of each book.
I don't think Necros are overpowered right now. They've been given one only one new Fear skill in the form of Spectral Wall. Other than that, they've been given one other CC skill in the form of their Death Shroud 5. Burning has helped their DPS a bit since it's the equivalent of five bleeds. The primary thing they've done is up their survivability by making it about 50% easier to up your Death Shroud bar. If that's all it takes for a class to become overpowered then I can see why ANet never touched Necros beyond bug fixes. This is also why Rangers will never be awesome. If people are actually trying out that AoE Diversion Mesmer trait, the metagame might have gotten more interesting anyway.
Here's the truth: Necro always had a ton of this amazing ability, and both class stacking along with condition spikes are annoying. Even before the patch, the WvW meta had been shifting towards Necro condition pressure through the use of Staff marks, ranged wells, and Epidemic spam. Terror, the trait that lets Fear do condition damage, was already hard hitting and was even nerfed a bit by being put higher up the trait line.
And the fact is that they didn't take away the one weakness Necro still has: extreme weakness to CC. Both condition and stun versions of CC. Necros absolutely have to force the battle into their terms, or at least relatively even terms, because attrition still doesn't work in GW2 all that well unless you're kiting. And you're seeing it in hot join right now, especially with the buffs to Hammer Warriors.
To me, it feels like Necro was bumped up to one of the higher tier of classes, but not completely OP, and it's going to take a while for people to adapt. However, the threat of both them and Engineers are going to keep the tPvP meta decidedly on condition hate for a while longer. Which is sad, because we were just starting to move away from that.
I'll watch the ESL stream later today. $33 is a really good deal for any big game. Hawkian is back, cool. Concerning the developer who left a dumb comment on the PvP forums, I know he means well but it feels like ANet doesn't understand just how some of their design decisions have led to many, many people seriously sticking to only one or two game modes only. That said, the server prices are not all that expensive.
It would be nicer if guilds could more easily leave marks in PvE, WvW, and PvP, and I could picture guilds becoming less of the "extra social group" or "military raid group" stereotypes you always see and more like corporations such as from EVE Online or real life guilds that form teams for open world defense, dungeons, WvW ownership, and PvP tournaments in order to gain in-game fame and fortune. Could you imagine how WvW tactics would change if your guild earned a gold income from owning a keep, tower, or supply camp? Or if guilds earned commendations or more massive influence boosts than they get now for winning in PvP tournaments? You could easily take the WvW system for claiming ownership of a place and use that for towns and outposts in the open world, and if a guild didn't stay in that area watching NPCs and pushing back enemies, the economy for that zone would grind to a halt.
If you're reading the novels, read Edge of Destiny, then Ghosts of Ascalon, then Sea of Sorrows. That's in reverse chronological order, but best enjoyment order. It also helps to note the timeline printed at the beginning of each book.
I don't think Necros are overpowered right now. They've been given one only one new Fear skill in the form of Spectral Wall. Other than that, they've been given one other CC skill in the form of their Death Shroud 5. Burning has helped their DPS a bit since it's the equivalent of five bleeds. The primary thing they've done is up their survivability by making it about 50% easier to up your Death Shroud bar. If that's all it takes for a class to become overpowered then I can see why ANet never touched Necros beyond bug fixes. This is also why Rangers will never be awesome. If people are actually trying out that AoE Diversion Mesmer trait, the metagame might have gotten more interesting anyway.
Here's the truth: Necro always had a ton of this amazing ability, and both class stacking along with condition spikes are annoying. Even before the patch, the WvW meta had been shifting towards Necro condition pressure through the use of Staff marks, ranged wells, and Epidemic spam. Terror, the trait that lets Fear do condition damage, was already hard hitting and was even nerfed a bit by being put higher up the trait line.
And the fact is that they didn't take away the one weakness Necro still has: extreme weakness to CC. Both condition and stun versions of CC. Necros absolutely have to force the battle into their terms, or at least relatively even terms, because attrition still doesn't work in GW2 all that well unless you're kiting. And you're seeing it in hot join right now, especially with the buffs to Hammer Warriors.
To me, it feels like Necro was bumped up to one of the higher tier of classes, but not completely OP, and it's going to take a while for people to adapt. However, the threat of both them and Engineers are going to keep the tPvP meta decidedly on condition hate for a while longer. Which is sad, because we were just starting to move away from that.
I'll watch the ESL stream later today. $33 is a really good deal for any big game. Hawkian is back, cool. Concerning the developer who left a dumb comment on the PvP forums, I know he means well but it feels like ANet doesn't understand just how some of their design decisions have led to many, many people seriously sticking to only one or two game modes only. That said, the server prices are not all that expensive.
It would be nicer if guilds could more easily leave marks in PvE, WvW, and PvP, and I could picture guilds becoming less of the "extra social group" or "military raid group" stereotypes you always see and more like corporations such as from EVE Online or real life guilds that form teams for open world defense, dungeons, WvW ownership, and PvP tournaments in order to gain in-game fame and fortune. Could you imagine how WvW tactics would change if your guild earned a gold income from owning a keep, tower, or supply camp? Or if guilds earned commendations or more massive influence boosts than they get now for winning in PvP tournaments? You could easily take the WvW system for claiming ownership of a place and use that for towns and outposts in the open world, and if a guild didn't stay in that area watching NPCs and pushing back enemies, the economy for that zone would grind to a halt.
She's more of the Words With Friends typeBuy them GW2. It's on sale!
I'm all for that. Crazy good ideas.
I glitched through the main door when we took BP's keep in the morning, I ran up the wall and jumped back over.
BP shouldn't be complaining about it tho, when we were defending their keep a couple of them got through and started attacking our siege on the walls, I had to get off my catapult to kill a few of them.
I might have been defending with you. A ranger ran to the back wall and knocked me off my arrow cart with his longbow. They had at least 20 glitch through the door and most ran up and over but at least 5 stayed inside.
Kos Luftar
Member
Was trying to post this sexy image of my legs to show you guys what I was doing this weekend but the 3G connection was terrible at the cottage.
Happy Canada Day everyone! Set off so many fireworks last night.
I am one chapter into the 4th Act of Sea of Sorrows and it had been great so far. Can wait to finish it up.
Has there been any leaks on the BotFW release info that will hopefully get tomorrow?
Kos Luftar
Member
What does name matching mean?
Eh, it's human nature in the sense that it's only okay when you do it but not someone else.
BP is just pissed that SBI is going at it this week since I heard in TS that their vocal minority were posting about BP taking a break this week. Sure didn't seem that way from the zerg that we managed to invoke last night beating against their front gate.
What do we do? None of us are used to his new name and we can't refer to him by his old name.
That BP zerg last night was the most cowardly 60 (?) man zerg I've seen so far if that makes sense. They didn't do anything except lose points on the tic as we fucked around the keep.
I'm enjoying splintering off more and taking camps (and potentially paper towers ) but sometimes the kill and exp count of the zerg is just too nice to not be in.
I'm enjoying splintering off more and taking camps (and potentially paper towers ) but sometimes the kill and exp count of the zerg is just too nice to not be in.
thoseAREmySHOES
Member
Just refer to him as Shoes for mass confusion.
elazullizard
Neo Member
Blah blah blah I'm shamelessly promoting once again: please take a look at Neko's guide to elementalist. He's real good and stuff, a real breath of Fresh Air in the community
Please take a look if you can, he's answering questions about it today. Also, Levi, your name is MINE
Blahblahblah
har har
Please take a look if you can, he's answering questions about it today. Also, Levi, your name is MINE
Blahblahblah
Pumpkin King
Member
I bought full sets of berserker and knights armor the same day for my ele. Now I'm poor. Maybe I should have just bought one or the other.
And those guides do look good. I'll look over them after work and see what changes I can make to my build. Thanks for posting them.
And those guides do look good. I'll look over them after work and see what changes I can make to my build. Thanks for posting them.
Full beserker, knight, soldier or any other FULL set of something is a complete waste on an ele... Eles scale incredibly good with mixed stats.
With soldier's armors, mixed crit dmg and healing power trinkets, and properly traited, an ele is an unstoppable killing and supporting machine.
With soldier's armors, mixed crit dmg and healing power trinkets, and properly traited, an ele is an unstoppable killing and supporting machine.
Pumpkin King
Member
I have tons of wasted potential!
I actually have a section planned in the OT3 for guides and such, since Hawkian had done some really good ones too. I'll be sure to include this one in there.
This is almost completely subjective, but more importantly it's almost completely moot, because you can get to any of the five by level two.
What are you looking for in a starting zone?
- Charr is autumnal, with a healthy dash of streampunk and industrialized military. It's built over the ruins of a human empire, so there's a lot of that too.
- Human is kind of the standard medieval MMO landscape: pastoral and green. Help farmers, stop bandits. It's very pretty though, so don't let that deter you; even though it's pretty standard, GW2 does it exceptionally well.
- Norn is snowy, full of animal shrines to protect and aid. Maybe it's just that everything is mostly white and grey, or that a lot of the zone is just ping-ponging between homesteads, but I have to say the Norn is my least favorite. That said, it's still a great zone by MMO standards and has some particularly amusing parts (helping the possibly-mentally handicapped norn chase down a jackalope, beaning kids in the back of the head with snowballs because their parents asked you to, facing down waves of bears...)
- Asura is the most amusing: experiments gone wild, asura kids teasing each other (seriously, they make "Your mama so dumb" jokes). Basically a jungle with lots of laboratories. Very humorous.
- Sylvari is a jungle, but more overgrown; you feel like you're right on the fringe of civilization there. Lots of spooky groves, overgrown valleys and tide pools. Absurdly pretty.
theMrCravens
Member
I found it awful.
Those who went it with me when it opened probably seen the hate I showed for it. :O
The scenery was nice though. Well designed. Ship is cool.
(FU tiny pad jumps)
Like I said, the Norn one is probably because of it's muted color scheme (the green area in the south is perfect, I wish they'd have made more of the zone like that) and that it's just a wide, open mountain valley with lots of little forts and homesteads scattered around it. Out of all the zones, it's the one that feels the most directionless.
The Human starting area is a tad on the boring side, but I think that's because I've been through it so much. I knew my main was going to be human in the Betas, so that's always the area I went to (before we discovered you could just jump through two gates and be in any other starting zone).
As for Norn... I've never been able to get a Guardian past 30 because I always second guess my choice; human or norn female. However, I was looking at their cloth options last night and I'm wondering if maybe a Norn Necromancer might be fun.
I'm looking for some good lore, does any race have a particularly outstanding story?
Damn, I love snow zones, but Charr sounds kind of cool too.
Jest Chillin
Member
I really liked some of the activities in the Norn area like the bunny field and the raven questions but I agree with Retro that the snow zones in particular seem a bit bland. I guess that's the effect of the lore though. They just don't inhabit zones that vary all the much. Other races have less zones before they combine in the lower parts of Kyrta so they tend to feel more unique. Charr have a similar problem to me though since Ascalon is pretty much entirely wartorn.
I wonder if the direction you're approaching the pad from has anything to do with it. If it's anything I learned early on in Dragon Ball, it was how to use those pads the way I needed it to nail people with fire.
From what I could see, all the cog and launch pads operate at intervals so I just position myself behind it in the direction I need to go and then step on and wait if need be. I've never landed where I never intended to go yet. The upwards launch ones you treat them like the SAB mushrooms where you'll see it the moment you first get launched and use that to establish a direction. The closest example I can give is that one hollow tree where you had to spiral upwards to get to the baubles you needed to collect. You'd have bounce once and then on the way back down prepare to "edge" yourself and move forward so you could get to the next one since you'd often fall short if not.
took me like 5 tries but i finally landed in the stupid pool of water for the diving goggles after the new jp
it's also very seldom that i venture into the official forums for any game but these two threads are really amusing
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/livingworld/skypirates/Obsidian-Sanctum-for-achievement-really-merged
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/livingworld/skypirates/Aether-dungeon-needs-radical-nerfing
it's also very seldom that i venture into the official forums for any game but these two threads are really amusing
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/livingworld/skypirates/Obsidian-Sanctum-for-achievement-really-merged
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/livingworld/skypirates/Aether-dungeon-needs-radical-nerfing
Yeah. That would work. The platforms near the end of the jumping puzzle are small, lots of player bodies right now, and they have these electric gates positioned so that if you place the camera behind you you often get an amazing view of your character's shoulder blades.
That's like....the whole point of the miniboss.
Forum Post said:
That's like....the whole point of the miniboss.
If you love snow zones, Norn's your best bet. Don't get me wrong, it's only boring compared to other places.
Plus, the Norn story starts out with you joining a Great Hunt to kill a giant ice wurm, and you're recognized as the Slayer of Issormir. It's pretty cool, and if you love viking and norse culture, it's right up your alley. Hoelbrak (the main Norn city) gets a bad rap because it's so spread out, but there's so many details it's crazy. Each hall has its own story tellers that tell stories at different times of the day, all about the history of the norn and the spirits. It's a relaxing area, even if it isn't my favorite. It's easily one of the best snow-based areas I've seen in a game though.
Really, all the starting zones a pretty amazing, even the human one which is pretty standard as far as MMO's go. However, I wouldn't put too much stake into starting zones in terms of what race you pick, as you can go to any starting zone and pretty much any time. All of the major racial cities have a direct warp to the main city, Lion's Arch. From Lion's arch you can take a gate to any other racial home city.
The Charr territory is beautiful, although I'm not a huge fan of the starting zone. It's gorgeous in the areas farther away, with fall foliage surrounding ancient human ruins. Honestly, they're all pretty great, and worth checking out at some point, but I'd go more with the race that attracts you than where they start.
They all do; the humans, of course, have all of Guild Wars 1's lore to build off of, in addition to being one of the oldest races of Tyria (I've always liked that aspect, since most fantasy has Mankind as the 'youngest, inexperienced' race). They're hard to place, having a pantheon of gods but a wealth of both technology and magic.They sort of feel like the Greeks if they had continued uninterrupted.
The Charr are quite old too (predating Humans, actually), but they're much easier to explain; Romans minus gods (they killed them!) plus a military industrial complex = charr. They are, simply put, a war machine.
The Norn feel like a hybrid of Native American (especially the High Plains civilizations, shamanistic and nomadic) with a healthy dose of Northern European. They're all about Legacy and Legend, so they feel like a race of storytellers who are constantly looking to better themselves with deeds rather than material goods.
The Asura are the smart asses of the game, in that they're smart and they're asses (in a good way!) They definitely talk down to everyone and have the brains to back it up. Everything has to have a fancy name, regardless of purpose. In the Making Of GW2 book that came with the Collector's Edition, when the Asuran voice actors needed direction, the go-to response was always "pretend you're ending each sentence with 'you idiot!'. They're definitely a fun race. They don't really have a parallel with any existing culture.. maybe Americans, with their "American exceptionalism" and smug sense of self-satisfaction, though definitely not as smart as they think (and I say that as an American too).
The Sylvari are the newest race, but they still have an interesting history. They're essentially born, fully grown, having gained a lifetime of knowledge through the "Dream". There's a ton of mystery around them too; why they suddenly awakened at a specific time, how many Pale Trees there are (spoiler: probably more than we know about) and what their goals really are. Nature-worshiping and heavily Celtic.
They're all good, and because of the downleveling system, you can experience them as they're meant to be without feeling like you're not getting properly rewarded (you'll still get XP and loot you can use).
Edit: Damn, double post. Sorry! I thought somebody would have posted something by the time I finished a second mega-post.
Just remember; the Official Forums are almost always the smallest, loudest and lowest group of players in any given game. They usually can't be bothered to examine the big picture, instead focusing on their own wants, desires and difficulties (i.e. "Class that killed me is OP", "This content is too difficult", "I want xyz now!").
Being a community manager for any kind of game has to be one of the worst jobs in the world. Whiny, entitled, selfish brats with an endless array of conflicting demands and no real sense or understanding of what goes on in game development.
I always forget how gorgeous this game is when I play it. I'll be standing behind my wife when she's playing and just notice all the little touches and details that just sort of blend together when I'm focused on playing. Same with screenshots; I'll look through my Screenshot folder and just be blown away at how pretty the game is when I'm not absorbed in it.
Great choices on those shots.
Yeah, I was going to comment on how the latter Charr Zones (Iron Marches and Fields of Ruin) ended up being my last zones for world completion (since I literally decided to tackle it west to east) but turned out to be my favorite zones visually and thematically. I'm a sucker for ruins and autumn and those zones have that in spades. Plus, the Dragon Brand is sort of a nice, dangerous area without dominating the entire zone.
The fact that a lot of those ruins actually have hidden rooms or jumping puzzles tucked away in them makes it all the sweeter.
I honestly have a hard time thinking of a zone I actively dislike... Harathi Hinterlands, maybe, but I recently went through it on my Thief and it's actually really exciting. You feel like you're in the middle of a warzone with the Humans and Centaur fighting backwards and forwards for every inch.
As others have said in this thread, the game would be amazing if players could actually make more lasting impact in the game world. Taking over towns and such would be neat, but I'd actually like to see something like the actual Harathi loading screen;
All of the forts in the zone are timber construction, and a lot feel like the humans just moved in and are waiting for the centaurs to come back before they tear down their ugly tents and camps. I'd love it if we could keep the centaurs out of an area and build actual stone construction to defend the human areas better (and the centaurs set to work on siege to tear it all down). So instead of just back-and-forth fighting over centaur camps with wood palisades, we can push them back hard and have actual castle walls and human-looking towns spring up.
Just remember; the Official Forums are almost always the smallest, loudest and lowest group of players in any given game. They usually can't be bothered to examine the big picture, instead focusing on their own wants, desires and difficulties (i.e. "Class that killed me is OP", "This content is too difficult", "I want xyz now!").
Being a community manager for any kind of game has to be one of the worst jobs in the world. Whiny, entitled, selfish brats with an endless array of conflicting demands and no real sense or understanding of what goes on in game development.
I always forget how gorgeous this game is when I play it. I'll be standing behind my wife when she's playing and just notice all the little touches and details that just sort of blend together when I'm focused on playing. Same with screenshots; I'll look through my Screenshot folder and just be blown away at how pretty the game is when I'm not absorbed in it.
Great choices on those shots.
Yeah, I was going to comment on how the latter Charr Zones (Iron Marches and Fields of Ruin) ended up being my last zones for world completion (since I literally decided to tackle it west to east) but turned out to be my favorite zones visually and thematically. I'm a sucker for ruins and autumn and those zones have that in spades. Plus, the Dragon Brand is sort of a nice, dangerous area without dominating the entire zone.
The fact that a lot of those ruins actually have hidden rooms or jumping puzzles tucked away in them makes it all the sweeter.
I honestly have a hard time thinking of a zone I actively dislike... Harathi Hinterlands, maybe, but I recently went through it on my Thief and it's actually really exciting. You feel like you're in the middle of a warzone with the Humans and Centaur fighting backwards and forwards for every inch.
As others have said in this thread, the game would be amazing if players could actually make more lasting impact in the game world. Taking over towns and such would be neat, but I'd actually like to see something like the actual Harathi loading screen;
All of the forts in the zone are timber construction, and a lot feel like the humans just moved in and are waiting for the centaurs to come back before they tear down their ugly tents and camps. I'd love it if we could keep the centaurs out of an area and build actual stone construction to defend the human areas better (and the centaurs set to work on siege to tear it all down). So instead of just back-and-forth fighting over centaur camps with wood palisades, we can push them back hard and have actual castle walls and human-looking towns spring up.
elazullizard
Neo Member
nvm, I misread what I had edited before :V
Probably my favorite thing about the Charr zones is the music:
The Great Wall Has Fallen
I think that Ascalon, the Charr starting zone, is the most interesting for people who started with Guild Wars 1. At this point we've seen Ascalon in 3 different states, Pre-Searing, Post-Searing, and 200 years later. While other areas of tyria have changed as well, I think Ascalon's changes are the most noticable because of the Great Wall, which was incredibly iconic in the previous game. It's hard to explain the full feeling, but the song I posted above actually fits it well. Not to be overly sappy, but there's this feeling that time keeps moving forward, the land went through total destruction and now has growth once again. The great wall has indeed fallen, but with new rulers comes new monuments and buildings. It's an area steeped in history, but also has all of the brand new charr technology popping up here and there. It's a great clash and it makes the world feel lived in rather than just "generic fall-time area". Overall, it's a great feeling, and I think lore wise, Anet nailed that area the best.
I'm also quite fond of Dredgehaunt Cliffs, where you have the technology of the dredge clashing with the buried cities of the dwarves. I'm a big fan of ancient structures clashing with new technology, if you can't tell. Race-wise, the Asura have the coolest looking buildings. Once again, it's the blend of a seemingly advanced technology imbued into monuments that really look like mayan ruins. It's a great and highly unique effect.
The Great Wall Has Fallen
I think that Ascalon, the Charr starting zone, is the most interesting for people who started with Guild Wars 1. At this point we've seen Ascalon in 3 different states, Pre-Searing, Post-Searing, and 200 years later. While other areas of tyria have changed as well, I think Ascalon's changes are the most noticable because of the Great Wall, which was incredibly iconic in the previous game. It's hard to explain the full feeling, but the song I posted above actually fits it well. Not to be overly sappy, but there's this feeling that time keeps moving forward, the land went through total destruction and now has growth once again. The great wall has indeed fallen, but with new rulers comes new monuments and buildings. It's an area steeped in history, but also has all of the brand new charr technology popping up here and there. It's a great clash and it makes the world feel lived in rather than just "generic fall-time area". Overall, it's a great feeling, and I think lore wise, Anet nailed that area the best.
I'm also quite fond of Dredgehaunt Cliffs, where you have the technology of the dredge clashing with the buried cities of the dwarves. I'm a big fan of ancient structures clashing with new technology, if you can't tell. Race-wise, the Asura have the coolest looking buildings. Once again, it's the blend of a seemingly advanced technology imbued into monuments that really look like mayan ruins. It's a great and highly unique effect.
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