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[jersoc]

I recently got another monitor and I'm loving dual monitors.

I don't play on both screens I just have learned to love Windowed Fullscreen mode on Guild Wars 2.

It is especially valuable in WvW because you can know all the timers for the camps so you don't waste time walking to one that has 4 min buff on it.

#TeamTimberlineFalls

i dont play anything with both monitors either. most of the time i'm watching SC2 streams when playing guild wars.

also it's great having gw2stuff up to see the events. the overlay is ok, but I think it just gets in the way in game UI.

 

[Retro]

Just a heads up, only about 13 hours left to get the Riding Broom and Sonic Tunneling Tool items at only 200 gems. It's only 50 gems cheaper, but that's still not a bad deal.

Plodding? More like running with swagger.

I've been playing my Charr Warrior (which was originally just to hold a name I want for a future Charr) with my brother as he levels, and their animations have been growing on me more and more. I'm hoping any new profession they add is Heavy armor (since there's three light and three medium, but only two heavy), that just seems fitting for a Charr.

 

[Hawkian]

Charr are pretty much the superior race when it comes to racial skills. eg. Hidden pistol is an evade with a 15s cd+minor damage. That's actually pretty handy sometimes with my warrior.

The asura Pain inverter and Radiation Field are also decent skills.

Hidden Pistol rocks hard with the cyberninja engineer build I'm trying. Only problem is I hear the toolbelt skill doesn't activate Static Discharge. What's up with that, it's perfect for it...

The Asura skill Radiation Field is also very underrated for PvE especially considering the weakness buff. It has a huge radius and one of the most luxurious durations of any field.

edit:At the gym and will be a bit late for makeups, but feel free to get started without me if the peeps are there!

 

[Sir Abacus]

Mesmer takes a while to ramp up in terms of power; I'd say 30 or so, but a lot of people will say you don't really feel godly until much later. They're certainly difficult to level early on, but if you approach things with caution and get the right weapons (Greatsword and Staff are usually the top choices) it will be easier. They're definitely a fun class though, and if you've played other MMOs will stand out as very unique.

My mesmer isn't max level (somewhere in the 30s), so I'll let others comment more.

Mesmers usually fall into one of two groups, phantasms or shatterplay.

Phantasm players will focus mostly on keeping their high DPS phantasms up as much as possible while simultaneously having phantasms do much of the tanking. This will usually involve a GS with iBeserker and sword/focus with iWarden and getting up close and personal. This is all about keeping sustained damage high.

Shatterplay will usually involve generating piles and piles of trash and throwing it at the enemy relying a lot on shatters. It's much higher and much more well controlled burst damage than playing phantasms. Starts with at least 20 points in dueling to get Deceptive Evasion. Can be played strong power with boosting Mind Wrack, Dazzling + Imbued Diversion can do absolutely insane mass vulnerability (20 stacks) on a group of up to give enemies. Can be played condition damage going heavy into precision and relying on sharper images but doesn't work in big fights due to 25 bleed limit. You need to be on top of your cooldowns and constantly be diverting enemy attention by spawning more and more trash to shatter. But I think it's more fun than phantasms.

 

[Mxrz]

Thief sword 2 feels like a beautiful thing. My thief is only in the 30s, but some of the stuff I've managed to do in WvW has me convinced I need to her to 80/exotic.

I love the charr animations myself, and I believe they have the best voice/sounds in the game. At least on the female side. The constant gurgling when the males talk put me off them.

 

[Retro]

A big thanks to everyone who helped out with Mission Makeups tonight; we only had 4 or 5 people who needed Comms, but we ended up with 11 or so people going through. That helps a lot since a lot of folks are in Europe or Asia and can't always make it to our Saturday missions.

Remember, Tuesday night missions will probably be skipped since it's the start of the Queen's Jubilee and everyone is going to be running through the new content. Anyone who still needs Comms should try to make it Thursday night, at 6:30 Eastern!

Wednesday, we'll be doing a special Champion Hunt. There's still time to vote for your favorite zone, please do so here: http://gafguild.com/index.php?threads/where-should-we-hunt-champs-poll.562/ Timberline Falls is in the lead with 6 votes, only a few votes could change it (not that Timberline is that bad).

Embargo will probably end sometime tomorrow so check the thread for any news about the Jubilee.

 

[hythloday]

Ooooo, I forgot about the press embargo usually getting lifted on the Monday before an update. Should be some nice articles to read tomorrow.

Thief sword 2 feels like a beautiful thing. My thief is only in the 30s, but some of the stuff I've managed to do in WvW has me convinced I need to her to 80/exotic.

Some of the Thief skills really are ridiculously awesome. When I finally sat down and gave my thief a chance, I had a moment where I thought "I'm never playing anything else again." Some traits feel almost too powerful. Swiftness on Dodge feels like I'm cheating.

 

[Lunar15]

Is the link to the controller setup in the OP still up to date? Gonna try setting this up tonight.

 

[Hawkian]

Ooooo, I forgot about the press embargo usually getting lifted on the Monday before an update. Should be some nice articles to read tomorrow.

Bear in mind there's also a twitch steam, just showing off the new stuff.

Is the link to the controller setup in the OP still up to date? Gonna try setting this up tonight.

That link is right to the download. It should actually link to this post though with info

 

[Complistic]

i never watch the twitch stream. I like to experience the stuff on my own. I can wait an extra day

 

[Hawkian]

Same here, I don't really like to read the articles spelling stuff out either.

 

[Lunar15]

Controller mode is pretty sick, not gonna lie. Not sure which I prefer, each has advantages.

 

[Pumpkin King]

A big thanks to everyone who helped out with Mission Makeups tonight; we only had 4 or 5 people who needed Comms, but we ended up with 11 or so people going through. That helps a lot since a lot of folks are in Europe or Asia and can't always make it to our Saturday missions.

I like doing guild missions, even if I don't need comms it is fun showing up.

I can't wait to read the juicy patch info everyone will post. It helps get through a mundane Monday.

 

[Retro]

Time is running out on the discounted Riding Broom and Tunneling Device, and the price for Aetherblade Weapons goes up to 5 tickets soon. I'm not sure when the price goes up; they said "this weekend" but it seems like Tuesday or something would make more sense. Either way, if you've been waiting for an Aetherblade Skin, get it ASAP or the price is going to shoot up.

That link is right to the download. It should actually link to this post though with info

Fixed.

I can't wait to read the juicy patch info everyone will post. It helps get through a mundane Monday.

Well, the Update Notes usually go live Tuesday, about an hour or so before the actual update. ArenaNet keeps their updates pretty close to the chest. The press embargo though, should be up, and that usually has a few more details than their preview page. So we'll be chatting it up for sure, but the really juicy stuff will have to wait another day.

 

[Mxrz]

Its really annoying to do the entire Centaur chain in Harathi only to have bunch of goons show up at Ulgoth and demand you not kill the boss till after the reset. F'ing greedy ass player base, Its like the Queensdale raging lately spewing over. Bleh. I really hope something Tuesday addresses this stuff, or makes it worse to the point that all the farming angst becomes entertaining.

 

[Complistic]

kanik bought 350+ of my votes for evon for 2 gold. lol.

i felt dirty for a moment.

 

[Sophia]

Its really annoying to do the entire Centaur chain in Harathi only to have bunch of goons show up at Ulgoth and demand you not kill the boss till after the reset. F'ing greedy ass player base, Its like the Queensdale raging lately spewing over. Bleh. I really hope something Tuesday addresses this stuff, or makes it worse to the point that all the farming angst becomes entertaining.

Not like you have to listen to their demands.

 

[Jira]

Its really annoying to do the entire Centaur chain in Harathi only to have bunch of goons show up at Ulgoth and demand you not kill the boss till after the reset. F'ing greedy ass player base, Its like the Queensdale raging lately spewing over. Bleh. I really hope something Tuesday addresses this stuff, or makes it worse to the point that all the farming angst becomes entertaining.

Well the champ loot system is going to be a very big deal. Yeah people will run the big event still cause there's champs but once they're done people are going to be seeking out champs all over the world and the playerbase is really going to spread out.

 

[Black-Wind]

Classes linked to races - Nothing confirmed one way or another, my guess is they won't have class/race limits since you choose your race and then you can be 1 of 40 classes at any time and they have a very big focus on no limits. Say like you have a Warrior equipped as your class, you can then choose skills from the Warrior and/or any of the other classes in which you've unlocked and then unlocked skills in the 4 ability slots. So you can mix and match up to 4 different class skills at once but only Warrior weapons while playing the Warrior. Like GW2 each class using a Sword has different skills than one another. Each class has a certain setup of the secondary skill bar where a Warrior might have the ability to slot a Movement/Offensive/Defensive/Utility skills where as a Rogue might have Offensive/Offensive/Movement/Utility. So the class you're currently playing will dictate the slot types but not the skills. You could go Rogue/Wizard/Enchanter/Necro if you wanted.

The class that you currently have equipped dictates your weapons that you can use and therefore your armor type. For cosmetics all we know is there will be a wide range of cosmetics within armor weights.

http://www.twitch.tv/soe/c/2680835

Watch that video starting at @ 7:50 or so to see character concept art.
The face tech is called SoEmote and is in EQ2 right now. Essentially it uses your webcam to track your facial expressions and ma ps them onto your character in real time. You can turn it off or on.

Ok, so for the bolded ... does that mean that if you pick thief as your class you're locked into having dmg/ damg/ movement/ utility BUT you can swap in other classes dmg or movement or utility skills that you have unlocked? Are there classes that will just have all movement or dmg or all heal or w/e skill slots? And if there are 40 different CLASSES you can play ... does that mean that there are 40 different set of WEAPON SKILLS as well? Because you said that weapon skills are dictated by class and there are 40 classes so there should be 40 different sets of 4 weapon skills for any given weapon, right?

And for the armor, thanks for the link but that was the prez I saw already. But I was in the EQN thread and read this

Gear Augments Abilities (Use less resource, alter delivery of attack, etc..)

What does that mean?
Is the effects of your skills and attacks dictated but the material you have on you? Because I thought that they weren't linking stats and stuff to armor. Does that mean that if you run around in skimpy chain-mail bikinis you will have great movement speed/ jump height and have to use less energy on movement skills EVEN IF the class of armor is heavy?

Also, is the armor going to be racially linked in how it looks on different races (so that the same armor looks different on each race so that it fits their design and culture/ body types) or is it going to be like in GW2 where basically if you're not human then you get a massive "F U, you're wearing human gear regardless"? In other words, are the kitty people gonna get screwed in this like the Char are in GW2?

Should I just go to the other thread? These post are getting long and detail and I guess it's off topic.

 

[Mxrz]

There were some snotty whispers that set me off, I think.

Aspect arena was a hoot. I had fun with it. There seems be a lot more people trying to kill crystal runners than run them, so not going to worry about that achievement all that much. Never figured out the other aspects, but lightning was working well for me.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Ok, so for the bolded ... does that mean that if you pick thief as your class you're locked into having dmg/ damg/ movement/ utility BUT you can swap in other classes dmg or movement or utility skills that you have unlocked? Are there classes that will just have all movement or dmg or all heal or w/e skill slots? And if there are 40 different CLASSES you can play ... does that mean that there are 40 different set of WEAPON SKILLS as well? Because you said that weapon skills are dictated by class and there are 40 classes so there should be 40 different sets of 4 weapon skills for any given weapon, right?

Let's say you're a Rogue. Rogue's class skill slots are Dmg/Dmg/Movement/Utility. Once you find/unlock another class, let's say Wizard, you can then replace the Rogue Movement skill with the Wizard Movement skill.

For the weapons, each class has a limitation as to which weapons they can use, just like GW2. So there wouldn't necessarily be 40 different sets of Sword skills unless the Sword can be used by all 40 classes.

And for the armor, thanks for the link but that was the prez I saw already. But I was in the EQN thread and read this
What does that mean?
Is the effects of your skills and attacks dictated but the material you have on you? Because I thought that they weren't linking stats and stuff to armor. Does that mean that if you run around in skimpy chain-mail bikinis you will have great movement speed/ jump height and have to use less energy on movement skills EVEN IF the class of armor is heavy?

It works similarly to Diablo 2. You can equip a ring and while it won't have straight stats (+2 Strength) it may have a passive that affects your resource. So it may make your Whirlwind consume less Energy, so you can Whirlwind more times before your Energy pool is emptied. Then you could equip a Chest Piece that may have the ability to alter your Whirlwind to make it shoot projectiles as well. These types of bonuses aren't tied to Armor type. Whether they're tied to the materials used in Armor is unknown but it does work like that with Weapon effects.

Also, is the armor going to be racially linked in how it looks on different races (so that the same armor looks different on each race so that it fits their design and culture/ body types) or is it going to be like in GW2 where basically if you're not human then you get a massive "F U, you're wearing human gear regardless"? In other words, are the kitty people gonna get screwed in this like the Char are in GW2?

This is unknown.

Should I just go to the other thread? These post are getting long and detail and I guess it's off topic.

Yes. Especially as discussion goes on and we always have returning or new GW2 players. They can end up mistaking what we're talking about as being apart of GW2 rather than that of EQN.

 

[Ashodin]

Jest it gets even nuttier when you realize they said every family of weapons has their own skills. An elven longsword has different skills than an orc longsword. Wat.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Jest it gets even nuttier when you realize they said every family of weapons has their own skills. An elven longsword has different skills than an orc longsword. Wat.

This is news to me. Sounds unbelievable.

 

[Lunar15]

I definitely agree that we should start keeping EQN talk in here to a minimum. It definitely can confuse new people who show up. Also, the more I keep talking about it, the more I realize that we really know next to nothing about it.

Also, there's a big, lovely EQN thread full of people who are way more knowledgeable about this stuff.

Although, I have a feeling that, with this week's events, the discussion will veer back towards GW2.

 

[Retro]

Although, I have a feeling that, with this week's events, the discussion will veer back towards GW2.

Account Wallet, Queen's Gauntlet, Crown Pavilion, new dungeon/champion loot, new champion-specific skins and God knows what else... yeah, back to business in the GW2 thread... though I'd say if people want to talk about EQN, that SOE live thread is... rough. 6, 7 pages straight of bitching about the Trinity, and some pretty nasty, uninformed opinions about our beloved Tyria being passed off as facts.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Yup. Wear your flame suit and brew some oolong tea before venturing into the SoE thread as I think bad things can easily happen if you let some of the more volatile comments get to you.

 

[Proven]

Missed two days of stuff and don't feel like making a mega-post.

I'm following only second and third hand information about EQN right now because it's the best way for me to avoid hype. But I have to say that reading Jira's description of a given character's skillbar makes me think of a hybrid system between GW1 and GW2.

Also, GW2 wouldn't work with an automated event creation system. There are too many little bugs that crop up from things dying, getting stuck, or having shitty pathing. Remember all the problems at launch? It took them some time to get all of that under control. That's why I don't expect EQN to have the same thing without either having a much less detailed system/world to compensate, or giving people Starcraft 2 level of editor tools.

One more thing, I realized why I hate leveling my Mesmer and Ranger. Both of them have build defining traits that are the core reason I'm leveling the class. But for the Mesmer they're at Master level and for the Ranger they're at Grandmaster level. This leaves me with a miserable time because in order for me to do what I actually want to do, I might as well play sPvP only, but that doesn't help any since I also want to give these guys a try in WvW.

It didn't bother me with most of my previous classes because I was building from bottom up; I'd pick the weapons I wanted to use, they happened to be mostly weapons with cooldown reduction traits or anything so they always felt effective. And then every trait I added on gave me side benefits.

But with Mesmer and Ranger, I just feel so slow. I have to constantly take things easy. I have to be defensive to start with. It might also be because of the type of builds I'm going for them versus the types of builds I've made before (almost all very aggressive) and that's making me think "if only I had such and such trait..." But either way it's infuriating.

Ranger is a Longbow/Greatsword that I think I'm going to change to a Cleric build just so I can go more wild. Mesmer will either be a hybrid or condition build that I will do everything in my power with to avoid the Precision trait line. In both cases I will start updating my armor every 5 levels to see if it'll help.

 

[Sophia]

This game is so beautiful, and to think this area is just a small semi-hidden area on the map.

 

[Jira]

Ok, so for the bolded ... does that mean that if you pick thief as your class you're locked into having dmg/ damg/ movement/ utility BUT you can swap in other classes dmg or movement or utility skills that you have unlocked? Are there classes that will just have all movement or dmg or all heal or w/e skill slots? And if there are 40 different CLASSES you can play ... does that mean that there are 40 different set of WEAPON SKILLS as well? Because you said that weapon skills are dictated by class and there are 40 classes so there should be 40 different sets of 4 weapon skills for any given weapon, right?

And for the armor, thanks for the link but that was the prez I saw already. But I was in the EQN thread and read this
What does that mean?
Is the effects of your skills and attacks dictated but the material you have on you? Because I thought that they weren't linking stats and stuff to armor. Does that mean that if you run around in skimpy chain-mail bikinis you will have great movement speed/ jump height and have to use less energy on movement skills EVEN IF the class of armor is heavy?

Also, is the armor going to be racially linked in how it looks on different races (so that the same armor looks different on each race so that it fits their design and culture/ body types) or is it going to be like in GW2 where basically if you're not human then you get a massive "F U, you're wearing human gear regardless"? In other words, are the kitty people gonna get screwed in this like the Char are in GW2?

Should I just go to the other thread? These post are getting long and detail and I guess it's off topic.

Ok, so for the bolded ... does that mean that if you pick thief as your class you're locked into having dmg/ damg/ movement/ utility BUT you can swap in other classes dmg or movement or utility skills that you have unlocked?

Correct, class determines which slot types you get but you can use any skill from any class of that slot type.

Are there classes that will just have all movement or dmg or all heal or w/e skill slots?

Potentially, though we won't know till more classes are shown.

And if there are 40 different CLASSES you can play ... does that mean that there are 40 different set of WEAPON SKILLS as well? Because you said that weapon skills are dictated by class and there are 40 classes so there should be 40 different sets of 4 weapon skills for any given weapon, right?

That is my assumption, I'm unsure if every class has a way of using every weapon though. I'm not sure if this has been asked and is actually the question I would have asked if I were at the panels.

Is the effects of your skills and attacks dictated but the material you have on you? Because I thought that they weren't linking stats and stuff to armor. Does that mean that if you run around in skimpy chain-mail bikinis you will have great movement speed/ jump height and have to use less energy on movement skills EVEN IF the class of armor is heavy?

Right, there's nothing like + 500 to X stats or anything and instead stuff that will help benefit your build or even stuff like boots that make you glide through the air. Gear is more gameplay based instead of + Gooder. It seems the weight type of the armor has no bearing on what can be put into it for augments but we really don't know for sure yet.

Also, is the armor going to be racially linked in how it looks on different races (so that the same armor looks different on each race so that it fits their design and culture/ body types) or is it going to be like in GW2 where basically if you're not human then you get a massive "F U, you're wearing human gear regardless"? In other words, are the kitty people gonna get screwed in this like the Char are in GW2?

Unknown at this point.

Should I just go to the other thread? These post are getting long and detail and I guess it's off topic

Probably so, I'm sure some people here would rather we stick to that thread but are too nice to say GTFO.

 

[Hawkian]

i think all answers are more like "we don't know yet" anyway.

 

[markot]

Guild Wars 2 |OT3| Two Week Updates, One Box, Zero Subscriptions


SOE Live 2013 - EverQuest Next Thread: Return of the Sandbox [free2play]

 

[Deleted member 10571]

So far, EQN for me personally seems to be way too much Minecraft to interest me. Well we'll see I guess.

 

[Ashodin]

In other news, real life frost fang

 

[Reknoc]

Hmm I just thought; I don't want a mini child of karras (well okay I do) I want a mini queen jennah

 

[Hawkian]

Lion's Arch still gets me sometimes.

 

[Da DreadLord]

Finally made a mesmer and damn.. fuuuuuuuun

Too bad I can't play long periods cause it's so hot here atm and it seems my pc doesn't like it lol.

But yay for getting an achievement earlier for contributing to the alliance

 

[jersoc]

yeah mesmer is pretty neat. it's the character i'm working on.

it's quite a shocker going from a guardian to a mesmer. have to actually pay attention to my hp!

 

[Taffer]

Need to get one more Evon achievement for the mini today, I don't know if I should try and cheese tier 3/4 trials solo or play another twelve games of survival. I just want to get it done as fast as I can and get back to levelling some alts.

Edit: Minipet get

 

[Hawkian]

Looks like I missed out on getting an Aetherized pistol and shield. The prices are just skyrocketing.

Least I can make them a much, much longer-term goal I suppose

 

[Retro]

Looks like I missed out on getting an Aetherized pistol and shield. The prices are just skyrocketing.

Least I can make them a much, much longer-term goal I suppose

In theory, you could just hoard Black Lion Tickets until you have 5. Who knows, maybe like the gem store, they'll occasionally have discounts on specific weapon skin sets where they drop the price to three tickets or even back down to one.

The nice thing is that the skins aren't gone and lost forever when the content rolls on; they'll always be there on the vendor and, in theory, the tickets will always drop from BL chests.

 

[Retro]

Apologies for the double post but it looks like bits of the Embargo are lifting. Here's the currency wallet, via GW2Hub:

Probably the best addition to Guild Wars 2 from the Queens Jubilee is this fighting arena (I like to call it the Thunderdome) that reminds me very much of Mad Max. You choose your tier of difficulty and opponent (after redeeming a ticket) before you're thrown inside the dome. The dome hangs above the Pavilion so should you fail to kill your enemy in the time limit, the floor falls away and you'll meet a very messy death on the floor below. Your opponents will all have a mechanic that you need to learn in order to defeat them, such as a Quaggan that gets bigger (and stronger) every time you hit him. Learning how to kill them tactically is a key element to the Gauntlet.

To make the Queens Gauntlet even more challenging, you can add Gambits to yourself before you enter the arena. Whether you're permanently on fire or permanently crippled, it makes a massive difference to the difficulty and rewards. It must be said that no one has completed the highest tier difficulty with 5 gambits active, so the challenge to do this has truly been set. Certain achievements can also only be completed by facing off against a specific boss, with a specific Gambit active. Lastly, every four fights you complete within the arena will result in a tier boss that is much harder but also a little more generous in the time limit you are given to kill it, due to its difficulty.

The most sought after reward for undertaking the Queens Gauntlet is a mini-pet (a sort of shadow miniature) that is only obtained after killing the hardest boss. People will know you're awesome if you're walking around with that by your side.

Bookended by my bitching about Temporary content:

As I mentioned briefly at the beginning, the worst part about this content addition is the fact that the Crown Pavillion will only be accessible for a month. I cannot grasp the reason for this as similarly to the Bazaar, it's some of the best content ArenaNet have made and yet it's going to be removed once again. Instead players are going to have to rush to participate and complete it.

Yes; because it's there for a month, everyone must 'rush'. Did anyone who didn't just start playing again last week feel they were rushed with the Sanctum?

 

[Shanlei91]

Yes; because it's there for a month, everyone must 'rush'. Did anyone who didn't just start playing again last week feel they were rushed with the Sanctum?

...I actually did.

Did almost all of it this weekend. Had not played any of the minigames until Saturday. Didn't even do the hunt for crystals across the map because it would be too time consuming in relation to other activities.

Every time I logged in this month I wanted to do a dungeon instead of minigames but realized it was leaving soon so tried it and fell in love. And now it will be gone. Like all thing I love. ;_;

Edit: I think I might take off work tomorrow just to do it all prior to patch!

 

[Hawkian]

Searching for Sky Crystals was some of the most fun to me. I'm gonna miss the Bazaar a lot.

Got a couple catcher skins plus the desert rose. Now to acquire some decent back pieces to put them on...

 

[Retro]

Fans of large-scale PvE may find the Crown Arena fights particularly exciting. The battles are designed for twenty to thirty players, and involve events to take down bosses in each area. Until these bosses are defeated, combatants will have to deal with their individual quirks -- these include cannonballs pelting the arena floor, bombs on the battlefield, and the heat in the room rising to dangerous levels. It's important to note that the boss mechanics have been specifically designed to "blow apart zergs," so if you're expecting to be able to pile on them and unload mindlessly, proceed with extreme caution. (source)

That explains why the Pavilion is temporary; eventually, at some point (probably in, oh... I dunno... 2 weeks or so?) something new will come out and the number of players required will dwindle, in the same way people stopped running old raids when the new ones came out (unless, of course, just for fun... or is my guild the only one that did that?).

I haven't heard anything about the Gauntlet disappearing though; since it's solo content and (according to that massively article) "have their own category in the achievement UI and are not necessary for completion of the Queen's Jubilee meta achievement", I think that particular part might be sticking around. Not 100% sure though, we'll have to wait and see.

From MMORPG.com: (just spoiler tagging the boss' name, it's not anything lore related that I can recall).

Defeating the final boss of Tier 3,

Spoiler

Liadri the Concealing Darkness

, will reward you with a Mini . . . pet which resembles [their] likeness. However, only around 8% of the testers at Arenanet have defeated her after several weeks.

From Dufly:

In the various parts of Divinity’s Reach, you will find Torchbearers (these have the same map icons as the Heralds) who will start you in a mini activity that involves racing between two points to lit a bunch of Beacons of Kryta before the timer runs out. This is a call back to the original Guild Wars’ Beacons of Kryta content and serve as a metaphor for the spreading of Kryta’s influence.

This mini activity isn’t as straightforward as you might think as you will run out of time if you follow the path of the marked beacons. Instead, you will need to do some improvising and urban parkour to find the shortcuts. Completing this mini activity a number of times will reward you with an achievement and Flame of Kryta, a permanent torch to use in dark places (i.e. jumping puzzles).

Very nice.

 

[Shanlei91]

I'm sure the reasoning behind temporary content is due to two factors:

1) Mini-games are swell, some are even the best content the game has offered. But when you have so many mini-games available at once, the user base spreads out, making the game seem like the user base is dead. This is the reason why every event has an achievement for "complete mini-game x number of times". People like me will think "oh, let me try that out" 2 weeks after release, and the game will be filled with people occupying the space there, just for an achievement. If the achievements didn't exist, aspect arena would be close to dead by now. Keg Brawl was dead two weeks after release. They need to keep the number of distractions to a minimum, to make them special.

Counter argument: keep the content that can be solo'd all year round.

2) They need a reason to make people feel like they're obligated to play. Monthly fees make players feel like they need to log in just to get their money's worth. (Silly concept if you consider the price of everything else in life in relation to entertainment value) But people feel obligated. Without that, Guild Wars 2 has established an obligation to play through content. I find myself logging in daily just to get my laurels (which I don't even use anymore!) In addition, the monthly events have me spending my time exploring it all before it's gone. And before I think I can take a breather, there's more content. Granted, it's the lesser of two evils ($15 can pay for a handle of vodka!), but thanks to the system in play, I never play another game because I'm constantly on Guild Wars. Maybe because I genuinely like it or maybe because they have me in their grasp?

...did I just write an essay?

 

[Zod the Bear]

I really don't like the idea of a pay gate behind the Royal Terrace.

(Unless everyone gets one one-time access, and you pay for continued entry.)

 

[Retro]

...did I just write an essay?

Not at all. You do bring up a good point with activities; having either NPC opponents to fill in for real ones or having them solo-oriented would be best. Keg Brawl is fun every time I play it, but unfortunately it's tucked away in Hoelbrak (where I rarely go) and not too many people play (even when it's a daily).

Fortunately, that changes tomorrow;

Both Captain’s Council candidates have promised to introduce a new rotation of exciting competitions each day. The initial rotation includes the well-loved Sanctum Sprint, Keg Brawl, Southsun Survival, and Crab Toss. Speak to the activities NPC in Lion’s Arch to participate in the competition of the day!

So all you have to do is talk to an NPC to get into the day's activity. That will boost the population so each activity will have a healthy population. They'll undoubtedly have a Daily achievement tied to the currently running activity as well.

As far as feeling obligated to play, I've never felt that way myself. I mean, is anyone really upset that the game is constantly being updated with cool new things to do across a variety of playstyles? There's almost always a mini-game, something new to do in the world (preferably not of the 'do x things' variety), some new 'challenging' content (dungeon, trials, etc.). The only update I can remember being skewed heavily towards one was Super Adventure Box (and that was so good, who needed anything else?)

And that's kind of why I play as much as I do; I adore the game and there's always something interesting to do. If something isn't fun or doesn't interest me, I skip it and do something else. For example, I don't think I've played more than two games each of Southsun Survivor or Aspect Arena. I love the Sanctum Sprint though, and Dragon Ball the month before. The Achievements aren't so rigid that you can't get the rewards by dabbling (I went the Dungeon / Fractal / Daily / Trials route, skipping all the activities).

I've never sat down at my PC and said "I don't want to play this game, but I have to." When I don't want to play (which happened Friday night, I think; I just wasn't in the mood), I don't.

Do people feel like they have to play or they'll miss something?

I really don't like the idea of a pay gate behind the Royal Terrace.

(Unless everyone gets one one-time access, and you pay for continued entry.)

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with that. It'm curious how expensive it is, or if there will be an alternative method of getting in (random drops in the world, for example). It sounds like it's just a compact version of Lion's Arch: there's nothing unique or special about it other than it's (presumably) easier to get around in.

As cheap as I am (I travel through the mists if I'm going anywhere) I can't see myself paying to get in, though if there are tickets that drop I can see myself saving them for something like power leveling an alt or something.

It sounds like it might just be a fun 'thing' that exists but doesn't really do anything you can't do somewhere else. If people really want everything in one convenient location, Rata Sum does pretty damn good in a pinch.

 

[Hojaho]

Anyone knows if the fortune scraps are still going to be useful after the bazaar is gone (like the NPC in the Bazaar will be moved to LA) ?
Or should I use them all before tomorrow's update ?

 

[Retro]

Anyone knows if the fortune scraps are still going to be useful after the bazaar is gone (like the NPC in the Bazaar will be moved to LA) ?
Or should I use them all before tomorrow's update ?

There's a vendor in Lion's Arch, the "Black Lion Weapons Specialist", hanging out above the TP vendors. He has a tab for all of the Fortune Scrap items; the Helms (250 each), Catcher skins (150 each) and the Sanctum Supply box (10 each). I don't think that's going away. If you don't have scraps in those quantities, I don't see much point in hanging onto them.

Since everything is account bound, there's no way to earn scraps later. You could always theoretically save them and hope they're used again in the future. Since we're just now coming up on the one year anniversary, we haven't seen if they reuse currencies. The Zephyr Sanctum being Living Story, though, probably means we won't see them again.

If you're desperate, you could always grab some of the kite fortune boxes off the gem store. They're not too outrageously priced.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

I got so many characters leveled because of the sanctum champions circle. I still need to get Mesmer, and Guardian to 80, it's going to be sad and slow without Sanctum.

My 80 ranger hardly had any of the map discovered. All I needed was my main starting area, lion's arch (get there with the wvw warp), and sanctum. If I didn't want to try different pets I would have had even less of the map revealed.

I didn't even vote yet, nor knew where to vote until I just googled it now. I lived in Sanctum since it was introduced. I think I have about 200 voting tickets.