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[Mxrz]

This isn't worth $5, right? I think I'll save them and go with the regular edition that's on Humble Store.

Depends. The only things you can't get any other way are the Elite and the Mini pet..

Each character will have access to the elite skill at level 30 without the need to spend 10 skill points like all the other elites. So its somewhat handy, but you wont likely be using it much at 80 or anything. I hated seeing it locked on the character select screen, so I upgraded just to get rid of that.

The armor skins can be purchased for 500 gems, but are available any time.

18 slot bags cost about 2 gold to make.

 

[shysaursoft]

I am *loving* this damn tower. I wish it were forever.

 

[Arkanius]

It is so pretty

 

[Retro]

Thanks for the fun times everyone. I've uninstalled. I'm not able to go on in this game. Nothing personal to anyone, but my life requires changes, and this game can't be a part of that.

I missed this post earlier.

Thanks for running with us. Of course, it goes without saying that the door is always open if you want to come back, but I totally get where you're coming from. Life is so much more important than a stuff like games, so it's good that you're aware of it. A lot of people don't figure it out and let it really wreck their lives.

If we don't see you again, have a good one and stay cool. Take care and don't be a stranger, even if it's just here on GAF.

 

[Lunar15]

Thanks for the run, guys! Sorry I can't be around nearly as much, but my schedule is easing up more recently, so it was fun to come back for this dungeon. It was made for GAFguild!

I have to say though: after missing the last update, I do kind of understand where people are coming from when they say they don't get the whole story when they miss a chunk of it.

Hopefully they'll roll out that new system for handling that.

 

[Pumpkin King]

Sorry to hear that. Hope you decide to change your mind and come back. You will always have a spot in GAF Guild.

I missed this post earlier.
Thanks for running with us. Of course, it goes without saying that the door is always open if you want to come back, but I totally get where you're coming from. Life is so much more important than a stuff like games, so it's good that you're aware of it. A lot of people don't figure it out and let it really wreck their lives.

If we don't see you again, have a good one and stay cool. Take care and don't be a stranger, even if it's just here on GAF.

Thanks for the open door to come back. Maybe some day, but I have to step away for now. The past 2 months playing just haven't been the same as it was before. The things I used to like doing, like playing GW2, just aren't worth doing anymore. I just need to unplug, and make my nights and weekends more fulfilling than sitting in front of a monitor. My life doesn't need any more wrecking lol.

I'll still be on GAF, see you all around.

 

[Retro]

As per guild chat, here is the woman who has nothing but disgust for turtles.

Seriously, who the hell hates turtles?

That's like hating sunshine and candy and Guild Wars 2.

 

[leng jai]

That's not how I imagined Roxie to look like.

 

[Pumpkin King]

Never mind

 

[Lunar15]

Sure loved the design of the tower!

 

[gamergirl85]

That's not how I imagined Roxie to look like.

Oh hardy har har Adriaaa!!!

 

[Hawkian]

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the event, and also for being patient with our stragglers and new players!

I got multiple requests to do a similar thing again so we will definitely schedule something for those who missed this'n. Definitely feel free to suggest convenient times/dates.

Reminder that next Sunday, 11/17 we are going to be map clearing Cursed Shore at 7:00PM EST.

I generally had a really fun long session of gaming today/tonight with very little downtime. This happens pretty commonly but I try not to take it for granted. As always, GAFGuild is the best and really ups the enjoyment no matter what we're doing in-game.

 

[Noisy Ninj4]

Seriously, who the hell hates turtles?

That's like hating sunshine and candy and Guild Wars 2.

Must be a Kurzick. Only those slimy emo bastards dislike turtles.

 

[Arkanius]

Must be a Kurzick. Only those slimy emo bastards dislike turtles.

Don't you dare talk about the Great Families like that
zu Heltzers burn you!

 

[Kos Luftar]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ptkrj/scarlets_portal_in_kessex_hills/
This image was of the portals outside the tower, before we even got inside but as you can see they were just showing what was coming up.

I feel like when they first showed up you they were just showing the new jumping puzzle that they added in Gandaran Fields.

I feel like they are using these portals to hint at where we are going to go next as far as Scarlet's Story goes.

What do you guys think?

 

[Noisy Ninj4]

Don't you dare talk about the Great Families like that
zu Heltzers burn you!

House zu Hitler and the other "great houses" are responsible for the murder of countless turtle babies. I bet all that makeup is to hide the shame and self loathing they must feel.

 

[Retro]

What do you guys think?

I think you're right. I also think the Thaumanova Fractal will be interesting to check out; hopefully it's more than just "LOL Scarlet showed up and blew it up, LOL", that'd be insanely disappointing and salt in the wound of everyone who voted for Abbadon.

I'm also curious what's coming at the end of the Injection sequence, maybe nothing, maybe some kind of event. We'll have to wait and see.

While I'm thinking of it, the little cut scene before the last fight in the Nightmare Tower was pretty cool stylistically. I like that sort of "flying through a painting" type thing and hope that they'll use that for more in the future. Sometimes it feels like the cutscenes are all over the place stylistically, which obviously stems from multiple teams working out of sync with each other. They maybe need to standardize certain things so that the look remains the same throughout each update.

 

[Arkanius]

I think you're right. I also think the Thaumanova Fractal will be interesting to check out; hopefully it's more than just "LOL Scarlet showed up and blew it up, LOL", that'd be insanely disappointing and salt in the wound of everyone who voted for Abbadon.

I'm also curious what's coming at the end of the Injection sequence, maybe nothing, maybe some kind of event. We'll have to wait and see.

While I'm thinking of it, the little cut scene before the last fight in the Nightmare Tower was pretty cool stylistically. I like that sort of "flying through a painting" type thing and hope that they'll use that for more in the future. Sometimes it feels like the cutscenes are all over the place stylistically, which obviously stems from multiple teams working out of sync with each other. They maybe need to standardize certain things so that the look remains the same throughout each update.

Maybe they are trying multiple styles, and watching how the community responds to each?
I loved that cutscene, but I also want more in-engine stuff, like Twilight Assault

 

[Lunar15]

I was finally able to see the cutscene. I really loved it, design wise. That's the kind of stuff they should have used for TV commercials and such.

That being said, man, I'm really disappointed that this was another "whelp, scarlet did it" arc with no background whatsoever. Shame on me for thinking it would be otherwise.

 

[Lunar15]

Don't know why it double posted.

 

[GLopez12]

I like the new content and story, but I'm starting to get annoyed with how bad the rewards are. It's almost like ArenaNet wants people to flock back to Frostgorge Sound, Cursed Shore and Queensdale as soon as they complete their achievements. That's what happened with the Halloween and Kessex Hills events in a lot of servers.

How often are the developers going to mess up this specific aspect of the game before they learn?

 

[Retro]

I like the new content and story, but I'm starting to get annoyed with how bad the rewards are. It's almost like ArenaNet wants people to flock back to Frostgorge Sound, Cursed Shore and Queensdale as soon as they complete their achievements. That's what happened with the Halloween and Kessex Hills events in a lot of servers.

How often are the developers going to mess up this specific aspect of the game before they learn?

I feel like I'm opening a big ass can of worms replying to this, but here goes.

TLDR: Guild Wars 2 is just not the kind of game that forces you to chase after shiny rewards constantly.

ArenaNet just isn't making that kind of game. Apart from the addition of Ascended Gear (I'll come back to this in a sec), they haven't had anything even remotely approaching what could be considered a mandatory grind. The mandatory part there is important, because while I would consider stuff like Dragon Bash pinatas, fireworks, and so on to be a grind, none of those things were required for any kind of item, cosmetic or otherwise.

As far as Ascended stuff goes, it was simply adding a new tier and nobody needed to rush out and get it ASAP unless they were fanatical about having the absolute 'best' gear. All the internet outrage over that died out quickly (most players knew what was going on) and it's pretty obvious looking back that it was a good move without any nefarious intent.

The rewards for the Nightmare tower are all cosmetic; a new mini, a new head skin for the meta, a chance at a few other cosmetic features. That's been, is and will likely continue to be the norm as long as the current team of developers remain in control of the game. New content comes out, you have fun with it for however long you want, then you go back to what you were doing or take a break for a week until something new comes out. Nothing is forcing you to play beyond missing out on the experience.

This flies in the face of a decade of MMO design where slightly better statistical gains were dangled just out of reach to keep players constantly playing. If you wanted to play the "end game" of a game like World of Warcraft, you would have to leap with both feet onto the gear treadmill, where you're constantly chasing after slightly-better gear with slightly-better stats so you can be ready for the next level of content with slightly-better rewards so you could be ready for the next level, and so on and so forth until an expansion resets everyone's gear and the process begins again.

Because of the way raiding worked, there were also a limited number of people who could participate. That made the game a competition with everyone else in your guild for a raid slot, and all the back stabbing, politics and bullshit that brings. If you weren't running the optimal gear with the optimal build, researching the content before you got to it, then someone else would and would prove themselves more valuable to the raid.

Not only that, but if you ever stopped, everyone else would continue advancing and there'd be no way to catch up. The locus-like feeding habits of MMO players means that content is usually completely ignored as soon as something new hits. If you were done with Raid A and missed raid B, you'd likely have a horrible time convincing anyone to let you into Raid C and an even harder time finding anyone to help you go to Raid B. In fact, WoW even has built-in gear checks now where it won't even let you use their Looking for Raid tool unless your gearscore is at a certain threshold.

All of this (and more, like the social aspects of 'letting your guild down' or 'not keeping up with your friends') was more or less the result of developers trying to keep players paying a subscription fee. It's proven so successful that it's started to spread into other genres where that sort of thing doesn't make any sense at all (Call of Duty, Halo 4, etc.).

You can go look up "Skinner Box" on your own. It should go without saying that this kind of constant push and reward system can cause some serious behavioral problems without people really being aware of it because it's wrapped up in the shell of a game.

Back to Guild Wars 2. I would venture that the reason some people (and I would venture that it's a very very small percentage of the community) farm Frostgorge Sound, Cursed Shore and Queensdale champs is that they're still in the mindset that they must gain an advantage over everyone else around them, be it gold or stats. But from a purely gameplay perspective, there's very little beyond skill to distinguish the guy who just got to 80 and is in rares/exotics from the guy who's sitting in full exotics/ascended. As long as you're able to play the game, that's exactly what you should do.

It's not that ArenaNet wants those places to be the places where players go after they're done with the Living Story. It's that those places are the path of least resistance for people who are treating Guild Wars 2 like every other carrot-and-stick affair.

So, the developers aren't 'messing anything up'; the game seems to be more or less how they want it to be based on their stated goals, and outside of the champ farmers fucking with the economy, nobody really suffers for it. The content is there to be fun, not another batch of shiny rewards for you to chase. If that's all you're after, I'm sorry to say this game will inevitably prove to be a disappointment, but there are tons of games out there already that will give you that sort of experience if that's what you want.

Alright, now everyone come tell me how wrong I am.

 

[shysaursoft]

I agree 100% Retro.

While I undestand how some people want rewards and such, I personally just don't play Guild Wars 2 for that. I play it like I play a fighting game, or a puzzle game - something where the act of playing it, is the reason for playing. That Guild Wars 2 has new content every two weeks, is for me the single most amazing part of their idea, and something I'm so glad exists again. Not since UO has there been an MMO with this pacing of content changes, though in UO's case it was due to the dynamic interactions between players and systems, here it's Anet putting out new content.

With this new update, the tower IS the reward.

I could never go back to WoW, and the hours of grinding and Need-ing on drops, so I can finally get all the gear I need so I can go on that new raid.

 

[Hawkian]

Regardless of whether or not adding the Ascended tier was a good idea, it certainly is not mandatory for anything.

I dunno, I thought the rewards in the tower were pretty good Filled my inventory up with rares, uncommon champ boxes (shell pouch/heirloom seed pouch), and mat bags selling for 3s+ apiece. Plus I got a Mini Toxic Nimross on my second run through, and I actually haven't had the chance to open the tri-key chest once yet.

Really if the standard you're looking for is "any new content should provide a greater gold per hour return than the current path of least resistance" then you are indeed going to have a bad time, every time.

 

[shysaursoft]

The people that run the Queensdale/Frostgorge train non-stop for hours on end, tend to be the first to complain on forums about how boring the game is, and how they're quitting because there is "nothing to do" and "the game is just all about grind".

The irony being, based on the math I've seen, while running the Queensdale train for karma, or the Frostgorge for gold, does yield a higher-than-average return, you'd actually get more out of the game just playing it normally. Doing the personal story and exploring, playing new classes, doing WvW or PvP, etc - all give non-direct rewards like AP or materials or such, which adds up to far more gain over time than just killing the same six champions over and over.

 

[Kai Dracon]

I would generally agree with Retro's observations. As I see it GW2 so far is an experiment in progress that Anet is still defining the parameters of. The living world updates seem like they're made to play for the sake of playing, to see how the world is evolving. The main draws of playing the game regularly seem to be living world evolution and WvWvW rather than keeping up with any grind.

There's the flipside of the coin where initially a lot of players complain every time a new item is introduced that does require some form of "grind". Because they say Anet promised there would never be any grinding. I think they're missing the point; there's no required grind, no real competitive grind.

In my mind GW2 doesn't have a treadmill at all, it's more a bank of redemption games. There's a few expensive prizes that require a shitload of tickets to buy, but for the most part everyone is expected to play the games for fun while saving up their tickets. So that once a year or so, they can go buy a cool reward.

 

[FYC]

The game tempts me a lot, and I've been told that it's great.

Is there any difference between the Humble Store version and this one, apart from the extra $5 on Amazon?

I just bit the bullet and finally bought it thanks to the Humble sale.

Join me Rionaa, we can be new...Together.

 

[Hawkian]

The people that run the Queensdale/Frostgorge train non-stop for hours on end, tend to be the first to complain on forums about how boring the game is, and how they're quitting because there is "nothing to do" and "the game is just all about grind".

The irony being, based on the math I've seen, while running the Queensdale train for karma, or the Frostgorge for gold, does yield a higher-than-average return, you'd actually get more out of the game just playing it normally. Doing the personal story and exploring, playing new classes, doing WvW or PvP, etc - all give non-direct rewards like AP or materials or such, which adds up to far more gain over time than just killing the same six champions over and over.

I definitely won't argue with that. It seems to me GW2 is least rewarding (in terms of satisfaction as a user of a product, not "material" reward) to the type of player who might say, "I will do whatever is the quickest way to obtain something that I want, regardless of whether or not I enjoy it" and most rewarding to those who would say "I will only do things that I enjoy regardless of the tangible benefits." Obviously the vast majority of the playerbase lies somewhere in the middle here, but it occurs to me that a lot of the difficulty in structuring material rewards for the dev team has to do with reconciling those two extremes.

It's certainly not to say that I don't want things in-game, but the craziest part to me here is that I can honestly say that with two exceptions since launch, I've never done anything in-game that wasn't simply what I wanted to be doing at that time- and yet, I am not impoverished and condemned to never get any of the nice shinies on offer. I have commander tags on two of my characters, multiple armor sets on my 80s, a handful of prestige skins.. I'm not really interested in the legendaries thus far, but I'm nonetheless at a point where saving up for a precursor buy order would be totally within reach if I wanted to do it.

This:

I play it like I play a fighting game, or a puzzle game - something where the act of playing it, is the reason for playing.

Is definitely to a tee how I feel. It actually came to me in a sound-bite as I was logging off last night, "Guild Wars 2 is a healthy part of a balanced gaming diet." It doesn't exist in some special category outside of other "games I like to play," it's just one of them.

 

[Ceres]

Should do another guild tower run Saturday afternoon when I can actually make it

Would anyone be interested in a Saturday dungeon weekly run (3pm EST maybe)? Do the story for each one first starting with AC, then move through each path 1, path 2, etc. Try to do up to 3 each time depending on length. I don't have that many completed and would like to get them all finished and I'm sure there others in the same boat. I could do Sunday instead but don't want to conflict with makeups.

 

[Retro]

Twitter just reminded me that there's a livestream today at 3pm EST / noon PST: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/

With this new update, the tower IS the reward.

This (and the rest of your post) is pretty much how I feel too. I approach it as a game, not a list of things to get done, and the experience is so much the better for it. When I'm not having fun, I stop playing and do something different (and yes, there are times where I just don't want to play, gasp!). All of the updates are just giving me some new kind of fun to try, and sometimes I love it (Bazaar of the Four Winds is still my favorite), sometimes I'm lukewarm to it (SAB 2). But one thing I've never felt is obligated to play.

I could never go back to WoW, and the hours of grinding and Need-ing on drops, so I can finally get all the gear I need so I can go on that new raid.

I think this right here is the reason Wildstar is going to fall flat. It's a great game with a lot of talent people working on it, but it's about 5 years too late. Early impressions say that it's very much World of Warcraft-esque, and while WoW still has decent numbers (which I still say are fudged by the inclusion of Chinese 'subscribers') that doesn't mean WoW clones will get them. History shows that even very solid, competent (Rift) and big-budget (SWTOR) WoW Clones don't pull in those numbers. Nobody ever will, because even the most rabid internet defender will admit that WoW was the right game at the right time and that sort of thing is absurdly rare.

Regardless of whether or not adding the Ascended tier was a good idea, it certainly is not mandatory for anything.

I included it in that post because I feel like that will always come up in conversations about ArenaNet not adding a loot grind. Completely a reflex action at this point.

I dunno, I thought the rewards in the tower were pretty good Filled my inventory up with rares, uncommon champ boxes (shell pouch/heirloom seed pouch), and mat bags selling for 3s+ apiece. Plus I got a Mini Toxic Nimross on my second run through, and I actually haven't had the chance to open the tri-key chest once yet.

In the two times I've done the tower, I've gotten a couple exotics (One named, a harpoon gun), the Toxic Hybrid mini and a slew of rares. I think you can make some valid arguments against the Nightmare Tower (you can't really solo your way up it without being careful as hell, the various rooms closing and opening feels random, etc.), but that there's terrible loot isn't one of them, at least by normal standards.

The people that run the Queensdale/Frostgorge train non-stop for hours on end, tend to be the first to complain on forums about how boring the game is, and how they're quitting because there is "nothing to do" and "the game is just all about grind".

I wish I could find that damn interview / forum post where one of the devs mentioned that the majority of the posts on the forum come from the same 100 accounts just spewing garbage into an echo chamber. Hawkian's post about it in the OT is still pretty relevant without it though.

The irony being, based on the math I've seen, while running the Queensdale train for karma, or the Frostgorge for gold, does yield a higher-than-average return, you'd actually get more out of the game just playing it normally. Doing the personal story and exploring, playing new classes, doing WvW or PvP, etc - all give non-direct rewards like AP or materials or such, which adds up to far more gain over time than just killing the same six champions over and over.

My daily completion surprises me more often than not. I'll just be tooling around in a dungeon or something and "surprise!" it's done. Got my monthly a few days ago the same way. I mention it because it's just another example of you getting things without really having to try; the game is built to reward you just for having fun, no matter what you're doing.

The only exception I can think of is the current WvW Season, where having fun doesn't seem to enter into most peoples' minds (though I imagine in Bronze League the fights are more relaxed and fun than the silver and gold ones).

Everything else, just go have fun and don't worry about your drop rate, your gold-per-hour, etc. It's kind of sad that so many people have forgotten how to just have fun with games lately...

 

[Hawkian]

Should do another guild tower run Saturday afternoon when I can actually make it

Would anyone be interested in a Saturday dungeon weekly run (3pm EST maybe)? Do the story for each one first starting with AC, then move through each path 1, path 2, etc. Try to do up to 3 each time depending on length. I don't have that many completed and would like to get them all finished and I'm sure there others in the same boat. I could do Sunday instead but don't want to conflict with makeups.

I'm happy to be a part of your dungeon spelunking any Saturdays I'm around.

For this upcoming one though, I assume you'd prefer we do a guild tower run around that time (3PM EST)?

I'm pretty sure I can make that, and we'd likely be able to get into main

 

[Retro]

I just bit the bullet and finally bought it thanks to the Humble sale.

Join me Rionaa, we can be new...Together.

One of us. One of us. Gooble Gobble, Gooble Gobble....

Be sure to roll on Storm Bluff Isle if you want to GAF it up with GAF.

\I can honestly say that with two exceptions since launch, I've never done anything in-game that wasn't simply what I wanted to be doing at that time.

Ooh, I'm curious what these two are.

Would anyone be interested in a Saturday dungeon weekly run (3pm EST maybe)? Do the story for each one first starting with AC, then move through each path 1, path 2, etc. Try to do up to 3 each time depending on length. I don't have that many completed and would like to get them all finished and I'm sure there others in the same boat. I could do Sunday instead but don't want to conflict with makeups.

At one point there were plans to do this, but it kind of fell through. Mainly because we realized that having a schedule loaded with stuff was burning people out, which is why we don't have anything Mondays or Wednesdays. But we've always always always said that we will support and try to help any kind of events that guildies want to run. So if this is something you want to do every week for a while, we can put it on the schedule, guild message and make ourselves available to fill up groups as often as we can. There's a lot of dungeon paths I don't think I've done yet, so I'd be down with this.

And yes, I'd recommend Saturday instead of Sunday. Makeups tend to be hit or miss depending on how many people need them, usually we have a lot of people volunteer so we have the numbers to do stuff like puzzle. An event along side that would make that a bit harder.

 

[Spehornoob]

Thanks for the replies a few days ago, guys. I'm gonna try and get back into the game next week. I kind of wish some of the content from the living world updates were kept in the game though. I understand the need to remove some content to make the world honestly feel "alive" but I still wish some of the dungeons had been kept. That said, I'm excited to get back at it.

 

[Hawkian]

Be sure to roll on Storm Bluff Isle if you want to GAF it up with GAF.

Yeah do this!

Ooh, I'm curious what these two are.

One was getting this achievement for the Flame and Frost arc. Back then I really just wanted to "get the most from the Living Story," which at the time meant doing literally everything- the interplay of meta achievements with only a subset of the total required for completion along with LS dailies was unheard of at the time. So I set out to go find these 6 objects, which look like sparkles on the ground, in two zones. And I got bored. Bored before I found the first one. Unbelievably bored while having trouble finding the fourth one. But I kept going anyway, because I wanted to "do the living story." Map/guild helped me with a couple but I ended up using a guide and just getting it over with- obviously it was very quick to do this way, just not fun for me. There was no rhyme or reason to where the objects were, nor anything interesting about them. Just random objects placed randomly to go fetch and bring back to an NPC.. and you needed to do it to complete the meta.

I just want to contrast that scenario with the current method of delivering LS achievements- in the current story, there's an achievement to go find 12 obelisk shards. But they're not randomly placed. They are nestled in and around krait Deeps throughout the world. They're visible physically and there's a generous UI-level icon that shows up from far away. I got to use my knowledge of the world to seek these out and when I got stuck, I just asked guild chat if there were any zones I might have left out (Bloodtide! d'oh!), and hopped over there and scouted 'em out. These and the Bazaar's Sky Crystals are a massive improvement over the more traditional fetch and actually felt satisfying to get. More importantly, if I hadn't wanted to do them at all I could have just done dailies in their place!

The other one was: when Ascended items were first released, I decided that I really wanted to go out and get one of the quivers as soon as possible. That meant lots of powerful blood, and that meant farming. Farming lots and lots of skelk. I don't hate it (actually you guys came with me quite a bit and we even had Kristen come along once), but I was very actively working against my play instincts to get something I wanted as quickly as I could. I'd certainly have preferred to be doing something other than farming at some of those moments. But mostly it was an experiment of sorts just to prove to myself that I could do it and Ascended gear wasn't much of a big deal.

Of course... anyone who was present for that occasion knows that I accidentally fucked up at the Mystic Forge and did not get my quiver, instead crafting one of the books. But it worked out; I transmuted my complete Mad Memories from Halloween and now that is one of my most prized possessions- Usually hidden unless I need the light, but displayed it proudly for the last month.

And yes, I'd recommend Saturday instead of Sunday. Makeups tend to be hit or miss depending on how many people need them, usually we have a lot of people volunteer so we have the numbers to do stuff like puzzle. An event along side that would make that a bit harder.

Indeed sunday makeups have been going very well, best not to mess with it.

Thanks for the replies a few days ago, guys. I'm gonna try and get back into the game next week. I kind of wish some of the content from the living world updates were kept in the game though. I understand the need to remove some content to make the world honestly feel "alive" but I still wish some of the dungeons had been kept. That said, I'm excited to get back at it.

Ooooh man. The Twilight Arbor Aetherpath is a permanent addition, and the Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat will be coming back permanently as Fractals in 13 days. Good timing!

 

[Proven]

PSA: The Toxic glory-sink lockboxes in the mists now give Spore Samples, Spore Finishers, certain skins (got the Spore backpack in one), and as of yesterday they give pieces of the Tri-Color key. Unfortunately I can't sell the keys.

In other news, I'm out of glory. Looks like I didn't have as much as I thought...

 

[Retro]

I wonder how many people noticed?

The interior of the Tower of Nightmares has periodic group events. These collect players into groups, which is necessary because trying to run through solo is nigh unto suicide.

There is a group event at the entrance. This groups up people like in the tutorial. The event ends, and a small zerg descends upon the maze. Halfway through, a champion awaits, and dispersed players unite to defeat it. Thus gathered, they proceed to the second section, now able to safely proceed as a group rather than dying in a thin line. And so on.

This is good design. It organically groups people without their even noticing it’s happening. It promotes and rewards doing the right thing to succeed. (source)

 

[Ashodin]

I wonder how many people noticed?

Unless you're those people who just keep running like a marathon to the top.

 

[Hawkian]

So I really like the current meta achievement a lot. Not just because it's easy (they really all are at this point), but because it's very logical in terms of acquiring it through normal play.

Essentially, if you enjoy the Tower and play it a bit over the course of the next two weeks, you are bound to get the meta by the time it's over. If you don't, you won't, and that's exactly how it should always work.

That said, if you are interested in giving a little structure to your approach to The Nightmares Within, here are some tips:

• Aim to ascend the Tower four times total over the next two weeks. Your first time killing the Hybrid will unlock the bonus achievements including Toxic Hybrid Slayer, which you get for killing him 3 times. Between those four runs you are almost guaranteed to obtain every achievement.
• Stability, evades, teleports, condition cleanses and stun breaks will be your best friends throughout.
• On your first run, take the red swirly exit from the boss room to do the outside Diver achievement. On subsequent runs you can grab the goggles outside the entrance to the boss instance and do the internal one, by killing the boss and then leaving the instance via the Leave Instance button.
• Ensure you have a full tri-color key before reaching the top each time. You can buy one of each color key from Dee, once per day at the ridge camp in Kessex. Because you get one for free on starting, you could easily get this achievement (open 5 tri-key chests) within the 4 runs as well.
• Only 3 Nightmare Chambers, out of 9, are active at any given time. The achievment is simply to complete 10 instances, regardless of which entryway you do them from- so just pop into any active ones on your way up. They can be soloed, and key pieces drop from them.
• The Meta is for getting 10 achievements- and there are 10 total in the category. However, there are 13 more daily achievements available as well, and they are essentially automatic ("Do an event in the tower") if you're playing.

If you prefer the company of GAF above all else, it's looking like we are aiming at another guild Tower-stomp on Saturday at 3PM EST.

All that said, tonight I'm planning to skip the tower. I wanna get in on a Teq kill, and then do a couple dungeons. For those who don't know, Tequatl spawn times have been fully normalized. There is no "window" at all anymore.

via Reddit:

Tequatl spawns have been fixed to spawn one minute after the hour, every two hours, since the Oct. 29 patch, e.g.
3:01 server time,
5:01 server time,
7:01 server time,
etc.
I have not seen an official dev comment on this yet, but because this has not reverted as of today's (Nov. 12) patch, it is most likely that this is a permanent, intended change.

I'm gonna be trying to get in for the 8:01 EST attack. After that, I'll be doing either all three AC Explorables, or a TA Aetherpath run if anyone is interested in either.

 

[Ashodin]

tl;dr: Bring a Guardian

 

[Mxrz]

Woo. Mini Hybrid will be made tradable. That means I can finally tell how happy I should be to have one or something.

Anyway. Gaf crashes made it hard to reply earlier. But Guild Wars being the exact opposite of the typical mmo with gear grind is what pulled me into the game way back. With GW2 they have inched away from that even if only a little. Stats do matter and they do add up to point where they have an impact.

Skins, and to a lesser degree minis, have always been ANet's PvE carrot of choice. With GW2, given how the system works with living story updates , the prices of skins sky rocket after their initial period. The RNG BL chest is really unreliable. So a player is left with two choices. Either grind like hell for the 50-100g a skin will sell for during its initial month, or take a more casual approach and pay ever increasing cost later.

Take a look at the Halloween skins from last year. Much to my annoyance, I wasn't around to snag one. Now these suckers cost more than most precursors, and its the only way to obtain one. That's pretty much the opposite of GW, where skins/weapons decreased due to people farming them. In GW2, farming/grinding only devalues gold, driving prices up more.

Its a weird system, and I'm sure there's math involved that proves its better than most of the alternatives. But I can sort of understand why people will grind/farm their brains out.

* Forgot to mention the RNG of Black Lion chests.

 

[Hawkian]

With GW2, given how the system works with living story updates , the prices of skins sky rocket after their initial period.

Might bear mentioning that not all skins are added identically. The living story skins added with yesterday's purchase are just outright buys on the gem store. The aetherized Nightmare skins from TA were just added in as permanent drops. Acquisition varied for SAB and Sovereign skins during their respective releases.

Undeniable that the basic idea of limited supply for skins tied to BL chests are primarily a revenue driver of course.

So a player is left with two choices. Either grind like hell for the 50-100g a skin will sell for during its initial month, or take a more casual approach and pay ever increasing cost later.

I dunno. More pragmatically I'd say "decide to spend some of your savings on something you want." I mean that's what occurs to me when I'm deciding if I want a new skin enough or not. Of your two options I have taken the second before (and am still holding out on some to this day) but never the first.

That's pretty much the opposite of GW, where skins/weapons decreased due to people farming them. In GW2, farming/grinding only devalues gold, driving prices up more.

In my time playing, weapon skins themselves were fairly trivial to get but the was no transmutation, to my knowledge, meaning you needed a perfect base stat one with the skin you wanted (at least until Nightfall, I guess?). It's sort of a different setup all around for weapons and that's to say nothing of armor. Whenever I think about the grinding demands of GW2, I think back to how completely out of reach Obsidian Armor was for me during my tenure with that game and nothing really feels that onerous to me.

 

[markot]

Scarlet is so awfulllllllllllllllllllllll....

And she looks so awful too...

 

[Retro]

Unless you're those people who just keep running like a marathon to the top.

Well, in theory the events that close up the passage and cause people to clump up should catch them unless they're lucky (in general, soloing straight to the top requires a bit of that anyways). We did the tower last night with a ton of GAFers and we managed to get separated in a few places because of them; not the desired effect, but it shows that it does work (especially when other people on their way up congealed there as well).

You can buy one of each color key from Dee, once per day at the ridge camp in Kessex.

Ah, I hadn't heard that they were daily, I'll have to grab some before the reset. Xeris had said in mumble last night that they were a one-time deal, but if they're daily that's excellent.

After that, I'll be doing either all three AC Explorables, or a TA Aetherpath run if anyone is interested in either.

If I'm on, I'll be down for whatever. Right after launch I got into the habit of doing AC3 / COF 1 / HotW1 with Keoni and a few others, and it was a great way to make some gold, get some loot and do dungeons (which have always been my favorite part of MMOs). I want to get back into the habit of regularly running them... preferably with drunk people on mumble, since those are bestest.

With GW2 they have inched away from that even if only a little. Stats do matter and they do add up to point where they have an impact.

I think the difference between Exotic and Ascended stats is so miniscule almost no one would notice. I seem to recall someone on Reddit did the math and it came out to single digit percentages. To my knowledge, GW2 doesn't have any "Gear check" type bosses where you need to hit a certain DPS level or fail (since none of them have enrage timers), so that sort of garbage that's so prevalent in other MMOs doesn't even show up here.

Take a look at the Halloween skins from last year. Much to my annoyance, I wasn't around to snag one. Now these suckers cost more than most precursors, and its the only way to obtain one. That's pretty much the opposite of GW, where skins/weapons decreased due to people farming them. In GW2, farming/grinding only devalues gold, driving prices up more.

Its a weird system, and I'm sure there's math involved that proves its better than most of the alternatives. But I can sort of understand why people will grind/farm their brains out.

* Forgot to mention the RNG of Black Lion chests.

I will absolutely 100% agree with this. I hate the RNG element of the Black Lion chests and think they'd sell a lot more actually if they weren't such a gamble. I too missed out on last year's Halloween skins, and was shocked to see they're up around 5-600g a pop.

Of course, if I had gotten a Greatsaw skin, I probably would have blown up Dhalion and rerolled a Charr Warrior, because that's just too damn perfect. I still say the best solution is to increase the number of scraps required for a full Ticket, but make them guaranteed in every chest. In this case, it's important to always be progressing towards something, or you end up with horror stories like people dropping $40 worth of gems for nothing.

 

[Hawkian]

To my knowledge, GW2 doesn't have any "Gear check" type bosses where you need to hit a certain DPS level or fail (since none of them have enrage timers), so that sort of garbage that's so prevalent in other MMOs doesn't even show up here.

The encounter closest to matching this description I have witnessed is Simin in Arah 4. Not coincidentally, it is by far my least favorite boss fight in the game.

 

[xeris]

Well, in theory the events that close up the passage and cause people to clump up should catch them unless they're lucky (in general, soloing straight to the top requires a bit of that anyways). We did the tower last night with a ton of GAFers and we managed to get separated in a few places because of them; not the desired effect, but it shows that it does work (especially when other people on their way up congealed there as well).

Ah, I hadn't heard that they were daily, I'll have to grab some before the reset. Xeris had said in mumble last night that they were a one-time deal, but if they're daily that's excellent.

Small point of correction. That wasn't me, I was the one who said they cost 15 silver + the mats. Someone else said the one-time deal thing.

 

[Retro]

Small point of correction. That wasn't me, I was the one who said they cost 15 silver + the mats. Someone else said the one-time deal thing.

Ah, sorry then to whoever noted that. I was busy bringing up the rear, feeding the cat, etc. Plus, I have a pretty terrible memory to begin with. You know how it is with us senior citizens.

 

[Hawkian]

going to try to squeeze a dungeon in before teq.

 

[Angelus Errare]

As per guild chat, here is the woman who has nothing but disgust for turtles.



Seriously, who the hell hates turtles?

That's like hating sunshine and candy and Guild Wars 2.

She kinda looks like Ryan Cartwright

 

[LiveSpartan235]

Changes to Skyhammer
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/for...date-Notes-November-12-2013/first#post3200260

BUG-FIXING AND BALANCE
Living World

Fixed a bug that could prevent the Champion Spider Queen from eating players and cause players to be stuck inside the cocoon longer than intended.
Fixed a skill-animation bug with the Toxic Hybrid.
The Mini Toxic Hybrid is no longer account bound.
Removed Halloween content from the open world.

Structured Player vs. Player

Updated the Skyhammer map by reducing the number of breakable panels and adding guardrails in various locations in order to put an emphasis on positioning and skillful play.

 

[swnny]

Finally, I'm done with the sPvP in GW2 for the coming months (or years, depends how much time they take to fix it). After ~2k hours spent in the mists, 3011 tourny game played and I just reached R50, was in the top 100s solo and team ladders, before the reset and mmr rework, and I just cannot be more sure of the fact that Anet gives exactly Z-E-R-O f*cks about the sPvP mode. It's just insulting.

Spent thousands of hours playing it to this point, and when I finally reached it (legitimately, only through tournaments/rated games, with little to no hotjoin/custom games, don't talk about farming them), I cannot get my f*cking reward - the light champion's(winged) armor set, because it's a ridicules mystic toilet recipe (i.e. i have to spend a fraction of my tons of useless glory for chest, from which to get tons of repeatable and useless items, that I have to salvage in the hopes of receiving the needed material - bear token, as for the other arcane powders, orbs, slivers etc - I have f*cking dedicated TWO of my bank TABS to them).

I knew about the state of the game since I reached r30, like a year ago, but I guess it took me way too long to go from r40 to r50, that and all the recent pve/wvw improvements just made me forget/blinded me about the pisspoor condition of the sPvP, which haven't changed much from the very first CLOSED media sneakpeak preview of the game back in feb 2012...

I mean, seriously? Almost two years now, and we are still looking at the very same, ridicules glory/chest/reward system we have now. I can dig out some press preview videos from back then, if someone is doubting how pathetic this looks. Ok, to be fair, back then every vendor offered the exact armors for said rank, which in the second public beta test were replaced by these f*cking chests, because players "love to open chests", remember? Well, half my inventories in all my characters are full of stacks and stacks of chests, and atm they even "reward" us with TWO reward chests, and we all know of players with milions of glory, tons and tons of arcane stuff and reward chests. We need some chests, to store our award chests in.

Unfortunate, rewarding isn't the only problem here. We are talking about essential things/systems, that have to be TOP PRIORITY, like matchmaking, spectating (a tournament/rated plays, who actually spectates a bunch of randoms farming hotjoin?), ladders, punishments just missing or not working properly/at all.

Matchmaking and ladders were released back in march, and half an year later, after all the "pointing out" from the community about the flawed systems, Anet just now realized and admitted that there is something wrong in MMRs/ladders and started to applying fixes/resets.

Also the so called dishonorable system (which worked perfectly in GW1, have no idea why they don't want to reuse it and instead they are trying to reinvent the wheel) is so messed up, it's not even funny. At the moment you need to afk for 3 minutes in a rated match to get ONE dishonorable stack for 72 hours. Leaving a match will give you one stack for 72 hours as well. So what? You need FIVE such stacks to get banned of rated play for the (wait for it...) remaining duration of your FIRST stack! Basically , if you want to be jerk, every 2 days you can ruin up to 4 matches and don't even get remotely close to being punished about it. And there is no way of reporting players/teammates for being afk, leeching, trolling the match, leaving etc, it's all up to this useless system. It's beyond me, why they just don't use the GW1 system(or something similar to it).

The other big, big issue for the past half an year is the complete lack of balance and the stupid condi meta, that noone asked about, noone wants it, yet it still in the game, almost untouched... Same goes for all the petting zoo, and passive >>> active playstyles, that may not get changed "soon", if ever. For example, I love how an ele player have to be like playing on a piano only to stay alive, while a 5-signet warrior can just spam earthshakers every few seconds and will do much, much better for his team, then the ele. Or how a ranger have to get a bunch of spirits, dumping all his utilities, because they are all lacking... Or (maybe my favorite) - that it took almost a year after release for warriors to be even playable in sPvP, and now how they are all almighty powerful.
It's just pathetic how they used to say things like "we don't want to do knee-jerk balance overhauls every couple of patches, we prefer periodically applying small changes and touches" (u can find quotes like that in almost every state of the game video), and now - out of the sudden, they are all about pushing bigass changes every 2 months or so. Even doing a balance preview thread, just shortly after the last balance patch... like, seriously?!

I can continue on and on and on about all the problems surrounding this part of the game, like the loading stuck bug that comes from time to time, or like "why the hell, do we have a loading screen in the middle of our #esport game, while the guy spectating gloryfarmers doesn't?!" and other ridiculous and really annoying things, but then I'll be wasting my (and yours) time way too much now.

Long rant again... but I just can't help it. :/