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[Levito]

And I think that's enough for now. Feeling better already.

Very good list, agree with partically everything you said.

Guild Wars 2 spoiled not only most MMO's for me, but mutliplayer RPGs in general. Something like level scaling helps so much when playing with friends, especially if you play with people that love to power level.

 

[shysaursoft]

Some additions to my previous list, as the Blizzard twitter account reminded me of a few things:

No maintenance downtimes. No having to wait 8 hours for servers to come back up every Tuesday.
No "Rested XP", forcing you to log out at specific locations.


Also, over in the WildStar thread, lots of "omg you guys, WildStar is trying to avoid the "the real game is the end game" trap that other MMOs fall for! How amazing!".

Oh sure, NOW it's cool.

I remember a while back reading an article fawning over how WildStar's bosses have a Defiance mechanic so they can't be CC'ed, and how unique and amazing that was.

 

[Mxrz]

Back pieces caused some crafting mats to spike. If you have a lot of them on hand, you can make a bit dumping everything before the price drops. Friend pulled in 90g+ off it.

 

[nataku]

Free mini pets in the gem store go get em

Quoting this in case people missed it. The 3 pack set 2 is free right now.

 

[Hawkian]

Yeah, I've been selling the sellable backpiece drops, but they're pretty worthless since they drop like rain. And now that people have discovered that precursors can drop from the alliance bags...

Seems the only way to ever make money off events like these, is to sell things within an hour of the patch dropping, since the falloff on their value is meteoric.

I have 132% luck. I'm not sure where that is on the median scale, but it seems pretty high.

Ooh, sorry. I think I've also been selling the blade shards, and just any Iron Ore I gather.

Quoting this in case people missed it. The 3 pack set 2 is free right now.

What's the time limit?

 

[Proven]

I've been dying to get a endless potion. So far, i've only received a ton of trash loot, a lot of kids drawings, and two exotics. No luck on any previous event item drops, despite getting damn near 1900 rescued the other day.

No idea how that worked. When I entered the instance, it was already at close to 1300, despite just starting. Probably a glitch.

It was a bug. Should have been fixed with yesterday's patch. Also, I think you get the rare item drops from getting the "Group Event V" pop up, not from surviving to the end with the high score.

Also, over in the WildStar thread, lots of "omg you guys, WildStar is trying to avoid the "the real game is the end game" trap that other MMOs fall for! How amazing!".

Oh sure, NOW it's cool.

I remember a while back reading an article fawning over how WildStar's bosses have a Defiance mechanic so they can't be CC'ed, and how unique and amazing that was.

To be fair, the Defiant mechanic Wildstar uses is something I wish GW2 would use for open world bosses. Not sure how I feel about it for dungeons.

 

[shysaursoft]

Ooh, sorry. I think I've also been selling the blade shards, and just any Iron Ore I gather.

What's the time limit?

You can't sell blade shards, they're account bound. I have almost 5k of the damn things. They're the new bloodstone dust... >..>

Also:

Well, that didn't take long. Considering how worthwhile AP is, since the rewards are not insignificant, they really do dole them out like candy.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Also, over in the WildStar thread, lots of "omg you guys, WildStar is trying to avoid the "the real game is the end game" trap that other MMOs fall for! How amazing!".

Oh sure, NOW it's cool.

I remember a while back reading an article fawning over how WildStar's bosses have a Defiance mechanic so they can't be CC'ed, and how unique and amazing that was.

It's not a trap that other MMO's fall for. It's a misconception that the relatively newer players have because they never knew how the sentiment came about in the first place. Something I tried to explain in the thread but was misconstrued anyways. Oh well. The overall point though is that almost zero Western MMO's in the last few years are guilty of having nothing but bland, straight forward kill/collect or fetch/deliver quests.

In any case, with Wildstar and GW2 both being parented by NCsoft, having similar systems shouldn't be surprising. As much as the Dev teams are independent, you know that NCsoft would encourage them sharing information about features that work well. Hence the similarities between Gems and Credd and similarities in the Defiant and Interrupt Armor.

People of course will play the two games off of each other, preferences and all that, but ultimately NCsoft profits from both so there's no point to any of that.

 

[nataku]

What's the time limit?

I'm not sure, I didn't look before I grabbed it. It doesn't say anything now that I already got it.

 

[shysaursoft]

It's not a trap that other MMO's fall for. It's a misconception that the relatively newer players have because they never knew how the sentiment came about in the first place.

Oh, I know - I'm just laughing at the people who're seeing a bunch of things WildStar is touting as features, as 'new and never done before', when GW2 is over a year old and, well. Did them first (and better in many ways). It reminds me of the people who said LOTR ripped off Blizzard, who "invented orcs". That kind of stuff.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Oh, I know - I'm just laughing at the people who're seeing a bunch of things WildStar is touting as features, as 'new and never done before', when GW2 is over a year old and, well. Did them first (and better in many ways). It reminds me of the people who said LOTR ripped off Blizzard, who "invented orcs". That kind of stuff.

Well of course. I mean you see it in every fanbase for every kind of game. Revisionist history or just plain fanboyism. All one can do is try to ignore that kind of stuff.

 

[davidsaurus]

Just getting back into this. Have only played a little... I have three characters created.

A warrior, a guardian and a mesmer. What would you guys recommend as a "first" character.

 

[Ceres]

I've been dying to get a endless potion. So far, i've only received a ton of trash loot, a lot of kids drawings, and two exotics. No luck on any previous event item drops, despite getting damn near 1900 rescued the other day.

No idea how that worked. When I entered the instance, it was already at close to 1300, despite just starting. Probably a glitch.

If you don't get one by the end of the event, I have a blue one I can send to you. Already have my mystery one I wanted that I ended up just buying. Prices are dropping fast tho.

 

[shysaursoft]

Just getting back into this. Have only played a little... I have three characters created.

A warrior, a guardian and a mesmer. What would you guys recommend as a "first" character.

Warrior is straightforward and easy, perhaps boring if you get tired fast. Guardian is more dynamic than warrior, and Mesmer is fascinating but really weird to get a hang of.

 

[davidsaurus]

Warrior is straightforward and easy, perhaps boring if you get tired fast. Guardian is more dynamic than warrior, and Mesmer is fascinating but really weird to get a hang of.

None of those sound like a rousing endorsement. Perhaps, I should just re-roll something more interesting? Engineer? Thief?

Thanks for the opinions

 

[Jest Chillin]

Guardian is pretty fun and you'll coast through PvE content with it. Warrior does well also but not quite as easily as Guardian. Ranger, Mesmer, and Thief are all rougher to level early on but once you've unlocked enough skills and found weaponsets that fit your style then it eases up. Elementalist is fun but like Mesmer has a high skill cap to fully realize their potential. Engineer is super fun once you unlock and start using Grenade kit.

 

[Mxrz]

All the classes are have a bit of depth to them that might not show until later on. Warrior and Guardian just have the easiest time leveling up due to Glorious Heavy Armor Master Race.

Rangers are probably the closest thing the game has to a 'weaker' class, but even they aren't bad so much as the Pet AI & mechanics having some issues. You can't really go wrong with anything unless you subscribe to the pug/forum mentality of 'zerker or gtfo.'

 

[Moondrop]

What are y'all talking about? For open-world leveling, no one has an easier time than the ranger.

In other ranger news, I'm really feeling my new spirit build in sPvP. I'm using torch, which is surprisingly effective if you can land the throw. If you can't beat the condi-tank meta...

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

Warrior is pretty easy, given great armor, some interesting weapons, and good ranged and melee abilities that flow well in many groups.

Guardian was fun as well, but suffers a bit more at ranged, but rocks at melee, at least to me. Great survivability though between armor and various skills.

Mesmer is fun, but as a light armor class, lacks the survivability of the other two. Skills are fun though, although, group zerging xp isn't as effective with this class compared to others.

Engineer is fun, but wow, limited weapon choice means you spent a lot of time with one of your kits instead.

Honestly? iId so go warrior, then once you get the hang of the game or get that class to 80, try out one of the others.

 

[Retro]

Also, over in the WildStar thread, lots of "omg you guys, WildStar is trying to avoid the "the real game is the end game" trap that other MMOs fall for! How amazing!".

If there is one gaming term I could strike from existence and cast whoever first laid claim to such a miserable descriptor into the fiery pits of hell, it would be "End Game." Not "visceral", not "cinematic", not even "hardcore/casual" which has been such a plague.

Look at this shit.

LOOK AT THIS SHIT.

LOOK UPON IT AND DESPAIR.

Banished is a god damned city building game, made almost entirely by one dude that came out Tuesday. A city building game, and there are "Lol, no endgame" complaints.

Ugh. Fuck off. Not every game needs to have some absurd mechanic to keep you playing into infinity, even though this is a city building game and the variables for repeated play are actually much higher than usual.

Okay, rant over. Back to Guild Wars 2's utter lack of things to do at max level.

Just getting back into this. Have only played a little... I have three characters created.

A warrior, a guardian and a mesmer. What would you guys recommend as a "first" character.

In order of recommendation: (Necros left off since I haven't played them enough to appreciate their nuance).

• Warrior: Warrior feels a bit like the old 'Jack of all trades'. Solid ranged combat (both AOE and single target), great control, great melee damage and even some condi damage tucked in (bleed, burn, even torment). You can even support like a champ with banners and shouts. Some would argue they're almost 'master of all' too, and in some ways I agree just because the total package is so damn rock solid. The problem is, they aren't boring but they're just not as interesting as the other professions. The variety of weapons they can use (more than any other class) helps.
• Guardian: Very survival oriented (obviously) and they can be a blast to play. A good starting profession if only because they take a lickin' and keep on tickin', which is important in a melee class because you're going to be charging in and engaging enemies face to face (they've very little ranged attacks to speak of).
• Ranger: Lots of range (obviously) and the pet helps you keep enemies controlled, so that can make your early experience less difficult. I was very anti-ranger early on, but I've gone back and they're actually kind of fun.
• Engineer: Engineer has a bit of a learning curve, but only until you start unlocking the more interesting kits (flamethrower, grenades, etc.). The toolbelt is fun and the usefulness of turrets helps with the early levels. It's a profession where you can get chopped up rather easily until you find the groove, but very fun to play.
• Elementalist: Learning to 'stance dance' between the 4 attunements means they have a very sharp learning curve. Dagger / Dagger is kind of damage / melee oriented while staff will give you enough tools to learn how to self-combo and such.
• Thief: Batman: The class. You will spend more time dodging, using your naturally evasive attacks and dancing in combat than you will straight up attacking. Fun, but difficult to master. Thieves die a lot if you're not careful about who and what you engage.
• Mesmer: A cloth class with a weird sort of melee-duelist vibe with illusionary magic. It's a unique design in MMOs (Hell, gaming) that doesn't 'click' right away, and the design of the profession still feels like it doesn't rev up until level 40 or so. It can be extremely fun, but it's hard to find that fun early on.

That said, my wife went straight for a Mesmer and had a ton of fun at launch, my second profession to 80 was my thief, and in general you can have a lot of fun with any class if it 'clicks' with your playstyle.

Try them all, seriously. Go into the Heart of the Mists (not the edge, that's a tad dangerous) and you'll have all of your traits / skills unlocked, and you can play around a bit and get a feel for things.

 

[shysaursoft]

None of those sound like a rousing endorsement. Perhaps, I should just re-roll something more interesting? Engineer? Thief?

Thanks for the opinions

The thing is, each class is so unique, it's very difficult to know what will 'click' with you. Ideally, I'd say try them all - you can get a very quick overview by making a char, going to PvP, and playing around with the full skillset for a bit.

I personally have almost 2k hours with the Engineer alone. It's basically the only class I play.

 

[Moondrop]

I see your point, but that particular poster is ignorant and entitled. However the term "end game" does have value in describing gameplay scenarios in many modern games, particularly those that extract money from players after the initial purchase/installation.

Relatedly I bought Banished this morning.

 

[Retro]

I see your point, but that particular poster is ignorant and entitled. However the term "end game" does have value in describing gameplay scenarios in many modern games, particularly those that extract money from players after the initial purchase/installation.

Relatedly I bought Banished this morning.

It's not an invalid complaint, because some games do feel like they're building towards something, and for a lot of games 'endgame' is simply 'multiplayer' because the human variable means the gameplay is always changing.

It's the widespread belief that every game needs to have an 'end game' now that drives me up the wall. Imagine Mega Man or Mario having an "end game" complaint and try not to go cross-eyed.

Also relatedly: Banished is definitely a down-in-the-dirt city building. In fact, I'd call it more of a survivalist builder, since you spend more time keeping people warm, sheltered and fed than anything resembling city-sized projects. My only complaints so far is the assignment of labor (it seems too micro-manage-y to me), the unwieldy trading menu (I get what is going on and how it works, but it's a mess) and the lack of transparency in the simple mechanics (how long are seasons, how many units of food does an individual citizen eat, etc.).

Still a good game, and for a genre that sees so few games, I'm willing to learn the little nuances and to have anything that isn't replaying Tropico and Caesar for the 500th time.

 

[Proven]

"Endgame" to me seems to be a term made for games that are primarily about "growth". The only issue is that, realistically, growth is rarely something that's infinitely achievable. You see this both in real life and in video games. There will always be plateaus.

 

[oktarb]

Side question: Finishers. They say they can only be used in PvP and WvW. What about events. Often in the LA mayhem I get the 'Finish Them" prompt. Do the custom finishers affect that?

 

[Retro]

Side question: Finishers. They say they can only be used in PvP and WvW. What about events. Often in the LA mayhem I get the 'Finish Them" prompt. Do the custom finishers affect that?

The Toxic Alliance enemies (specifically the Sylvari ones, never the krait) have a unique mechanic in that they're downed, much like players, rather than instantly defeated. That's where you're getting the prompt from.

As far as I know, there's no difference what finisher you use.

 

[Ashodin]

The Toxic Alliance enemies (specifically the Sylvari ones, never the krait) have a unique mechanic in that they're downed, much like players, rather than instantly defeated. That's where you're getting the prompt from.

As far as I know, there's no difference what finisher you use.

He's asking if they can use them in PVE. And yes, the toxic enemies are the ones you can use them on.

 

[davidsaurus]

Thanks guys, I have a 21 warrior that I always felt wasn't great - though I have a 2 handed sword. Not sure if that's a great weapon for solo.

I think I might try an engineer.

 

[LiveSpartan235]

Check you emails ArenaNet is sending out a survey for EOTM thats gives you 400 gems
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/for...out-survey-and-get-400-gems/first#post3665775

 

[davidsaurus]

Check you emails ArenaNet is sending out a survey for EOTM thats gives you 400 gems
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/for...out-survey-and-get-400-gems/first#post3665775

Is this random.. or is it for everyone?

 

[Atrophis]

No email here

 

[Levito]

Check you emails ArenaNet is sending out a survey for EOTM thats gives you 400 gems
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/for...out-survey-and-get-400-gems/first#post3665775

Don't have it myself, not yet anyways.

 

[LiveSpartan235]

Is this random.. or is it for everyone?

I have a feeling it might be random

 

[Retro]

Official forums/Reddit screaming they didn't get free gems in 3...2...1...

 

[Nemesis121]

no email .

 

[Lashley]

no email for me either

 

[xenoflux2113]

Check you emails ArenaNet is sending out a survey for EOTM thats gives you 400 gems
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/for...out-survey-and-get-400-gems/first#post3665775

Got my email this morning. Thought it was spam but I decided to fill it out anyway.

 

[Kos Luftar]

If you want to help out your LA run by getting more civilians. This should help a lot.

Credit to this guy from reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1yfitm/lions_arch_civilian_location_map/

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Do a lot of people still play this game? I hunger for a new MMO to try and have never played a guild wars game before. I know I'm pretty late to the party here but I want to be able to join some guilds and meet other players.

 

[xeris]

Do a lot of people still play this game? I hunger for a new MMO to try and have never played a guild wars game before. I know I'm pretty late to the party here but I want to be able to join some guilds and meet other players.

Short answer is yes. Longer answer is that the last little bit has even seen an increase due to in-game events. GAF is also alive and well, so if you dip in feel free to join us.

 

[Ashodin]

GAF Guild is one of the longest surviving (if not the only longest) guilds still active, with over 100 members still active within several month's play. We have over 350 total.

 

[Levito]

Pretty sure GW2 is second only to WoW in terms of player numbers.

 

[shysaursoft]

Do a lot of people still play this game? I hunger for a new MMO to try and have never played a guild wars game before. I know I'm pretty late to the party here but I want to be able to join some guilds and meet other players.

Because there is no sub keeping people hostage, GW2 is a bit different when it comes to population numbers. There's always a steady core of players, which is not an insignificant amount, but the graph wobbles up and down every two weeks. New content comes out, people join in and check it out, doing achievements, finishing the meta, and then a large chunk will go off to do other things. Then, when a new patch hits, the cycle repeats. The reason for the two week cycle, as ArenaNet explains is, is they know how fast people go through content, and what kind of rate they need to put them out at to keep people coming back. I'd hazard a guess that the peak returning players keeps going up, but it always drops down to a steady (but slowly increasing) core group, each time.

It's also hard to figure out true numbers, since people can be so spread out (or grouped up). There's a huge zerg always bouncing between the World Events, so that's nearly a 100 at any time that might suddenly appear in your zone, then disappear once the event is over. Not unlike a train station: looks empty, then a train rolls in and boom, people everywhere.

Guild Wars 2 is also, and I can't stress this enough, *nothing* like Guild Wars 1. GW1 is like having a party of Yu Gi Oh decks fighting other roaming Yu Gi Oh decks, while GW2 is more like, well. Guild Wars 2.

 

[CoLaN]

Damn! I came back to the game after a loooong break, and my server looks like a ghost town.

I really dont feel like spending money to transfer since i am not sure if i will play the game again for more than a week, but i wanted to be in a lively server :\

 

[Ashodin]

Damn! I came back to the game after a loooong break, and my server looks like a ghost town.

I really dont feel like spending money to transfer since i am not sure if i will play the game again for more than a week, but i wanted to be in a lively server :\

We have a service specifically setup for this. Do you wish to play with GAF guild on SBI?

Also, what does "ghost town" mean to you? Leveling areas? Because I assure you most people are probably going to be 80 and hanging out the hub areas of the game.

 

[CoLaN]

We have a service specifically setup for this. Do you wish to play with GAF guild on SBI?

Also, what does "ghost town" mean to you? Leveling areas? Because I assure you most people are probably going to be 80 and hanging out the hub areas of the game.

I have a level 80 on Gandara (EU) and the leveling zones seems pretty empty. I remember that i used to freely transfer between EU and US to play with some friends, but now you have to pay.

I wanted to play on one of the most populated US servers, and start a new character... I may just delete my level 80 so that i can select a new home

 

[shysaursoft]

Didn't expect this. Too cool:

Yeah, server transfers were free in the first month or so, so that people could settle into populations and end up with friends. You can still guest to other servers for free, but only to the same region (NA/EU).

 

[Hawkian]

CoLan, if you do delete, and want to be in the guild, join Stormbluff Isle. You can guest at will to other NA servers with just a few limitations (any 2 within any 24 hour period).

edit: If you don't delete but do wind up deciding you're going to stick with the game and be active for a while, you'd qualify for our Immigration Fund if you were to join GAF.

 

[Ashodin]

CoLan, if you do delete, and want to be in the guild, join Stormbluff Isle. You can guest at will to other NA servers with just a few limitations (any 2 within any 24 hour period).

Hawkian and I will be happy to welcome you to the GAF Guild. We do missions every weekend!

 

[shysaursoft]

Bug Fixes:

• Added additional basic enemies to Lion’s Arch escort events in order to make it easier to participate and get credit for them.
• Removed ambient citizens that could not be rescued from rally camp locations.
• Fixed an issue with the Citizens Saved counter that caused it to reset while players were still rescuing citizens.
• Replaced a missing airship in Gendarran Fields.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-February-18-2014