The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[RK47]

tried making female character ..

30 mins later.

still staring at the norn models, armor hidden.



oh yea, quick question. do i have to get to 80 to WvW effectively? Or does it upscale my level?

 

[Mortmal]

tried making female character ..

30 mins later.

still staring at the norn models, armor hidden.



oh yea, quick question. do i have to get to 80 to WvW effectively? Or does it upscale my level?

It upscales to your level, but only the base stats, so you will be still more efficient with level 80 gear. Also mandatory link : http://dulfy.net/2012/08/11/skimpy-armors-in-gw2a-list/ have fun with your norn warrioress !
The site has also a good list of temple armor you can buy with karma at 80 .

 

[Average Manatee]

Actually all equipment scales in WvW. If you equip a lvl 5 white weapon then you get a lvl 80 white weapon's damage. If you equip a lvl 5 blue with +power then you get a lvl 80 blue with a lvl 80 blue +power stat. This means that a level 80 character with a level 80 white (not that anyone would have that) would actually have weapon damage than a level 5 with a blue. Of course, higher rarities are only available at higher levels, but yellows unlock at level 25 and they are only 1 step away from the top of the power curve. You may lose out on runes and upgrade components, but I didn't check.

Of course, you also lose traits. But leveling to gain trait points is unbelievably BSB, so just start WvWing around level 20-30. WvW is about asymmetrical tactics anyway, a 3-5 person team that hardly fights enemy players at all and just controls supply/sets up siege can be done by any level.

 

[RK47]

Wow. Ok man. I'm so going into WvW with my engineer then. Fuck the haters.

 

[RK47]

Tried it out for an hour. eh, it was a very meh experience with shit ton of lag. I can't imagine why anyone would find it great fun TBH. Maybe I'm missing something, but there's not really much of an opportunity to plan anything since it's just zerg v zerg - and every man is for himself.

 

[Excidium]

Yeah...well, don't see the appeal either, you fight a door for 10 minutes then kill a boss and capture the building.

Never been a big fan of large scale pvp.

 

[SerratedBiz]

It's become fun for me since I joined a guild which devotes a lot of effort towards WvW. Rolling around with a zerg is nice and all, but actual organization and executing strategies brings a lot of depth to the experience.

Zergs are very effective at taking over shit, especially at first, but as more points are captured and its members gradually disperse it loses strength until it finally comes upon an obstacle it can't swarm to death - then it resets, loses all or most of the things it captured, and the cycle begins anew. Nothing particularly exciting about that.

OTOH, an organized group knows the effectiveness of claiming captured points, upgrading them and laying down siege weaponry for defense. A properly defended (reinforced walls and gates, + arrow carts / ballistas / catapult) keep with 5 defenders can periodically turn away a zerg of 20-40. At the same time, a properly defended point also serves as a staging point for the next offensive - you gotta lay down a couple of trebuchets and establish defense around them so they're not zerged or commando'd.

All in all, it's fun if you enjoy playing it. As said earlier it doesn't really have the carrot hanging from the stick to keep you motivated, so it comes down to how much value you find in the available gameplay. If not, well, maybe future content will tickle your fancy.

 

[Average Manatee]

Main problem with my continued enjoyment of WvW is that no matter what you do another side just has a few guilds at 4 in the morning to take the entire map, lay infinite amounts of defense and stockpile supplies to the cap. Then they easily hold it for the next 12 hours and it takes a further 4 hours just to bring the map back into a stalemate.

As said earlier it doesn't really have the carrot hanging from the stick to keep you motivated, so it comes down to how much value you find in the available gameplay. If not, well, maybe future content will tickle your fancy.

PvP that gives you (in-game) rewards for winning isn't PvP, it's a shitfest disguised as PvP

 

[Mangoose]

Sneaking through a break in the side wall of a keep while the defenders are preoccupied at the front, laying down a portal for your army, profit.

 

[RK47]

The intricacy of this siege warfare is lost on me when the lag kicks in and the extreme bias to ranged classes is too extreme.
Even vanilla WoW Alterac Valley is more fun than this, the latency can be quite high when you're engaging - but it's never so unmanageable that it made a lot of classes unable to do much since the target just gets lost in the crowd while a goddamn red circle on the ground forces you to move or be hit with a few k of damage.

 

[sea]

- But credit where it is due: reckon it's Jeremy Soule's best soundtrack in approximately forever (ie, since Morrowind).

To be honest most of the songs sound like leftovers from the Oblivion and Morrowind soundtracks. Not necessarily a bad thing but it is pretty weird to be playing and hear what is basically Elder Scrolls' signature music playing in the background. It's nice music and makes exploring more enjoyable and all that, but also kinda feels... cheap, in a way, that they couldn't come up with some more original themes.

In other news, I am level 25 with my Sylvari necromancer. Took the time to clear out another race's starting zone on the necromancer, was a bit surprised that the XP was still worthwhile at level 22ish, I gained about 2-3 levels and it only took me a couple of hours to 100% it. That helped make up for the monotony I was experiencing a bit... problem is that you go into a zone but the hearts and events don't get you leveled fast enough to manage the enemies in the area, so you basically wind up having to grind the same events over and over to get enough XP to move on. Not very fun in my opinion, and a bit annoying that you have to apparently split your time between multiple zones to be able to proceed rather than clearing them out one by one.

Also, started a Nord ranger just to see some of the other parts of the game. The story stuff is even lulzier than I imagined, they really went full retard with the VIking stuff. Nice-looking mountains and whatnot, though.

 

[Mangoose]

The intricacy of this siege warfare is lost on me when the lag kicks in and the extreme bias to ranged classes is too extreme.
Even vanilla WoW Alterac Valley is more fun than this, the latency can be quite high when you're engaging - but it's never so unmanageable that it made a lot of classes unable to do much since the target just gets lost in the crowd while a goddamn red circle on the ground forces you to move or be hit with a few k of damage.

Huh? No latency problems here.

 

[Kane]

So guys, is this game basically just 1) run around map until you find mobs of your level 2) grind event near said mobs until level up 3) repeat? As much as I like it compared to other MMOs it is starting to get very stale about 15 levels in.

as i stated earlier in this thread, gw2 is just another world of warcraft expansion. don't bother.

 

[SerratedBiz]

The intricacy of this siege warfare is lost on me when the lag kicks in and the extreme bias to ranged classes is too extreme.
Even vanilla WoW Alterac Valley is more fun than this, the latency can be quite high when you're engaging - but it's never so unmanageable that it made a lot of classes unable to do much since the target just gets lost in the crowd while a goddamn red circle on the ground forces you to move or be hit with a few k of damage.

Huh? No latency problems here.

He might be referring to the limitation on model loading. Like sometimes you run into an area and enemies don't load until after a long time has passed (often after the zerg has already rolled past you). It's a pretty big problem, in my opinion, since it also helps make the mesmer portal trick even more crazy by not just forcing an army of dudes on top of you, but an invisible one at that.

 

[Average Manatee]

Nice-looking mountains and whatnot boobs, though.

No need to be redundant.

In other news, I am level 25 with my Sylvari necromancer. Took the time to clear out another race's starting zone on the necromancer, was a bit surprised that the XP was still worthwhile at level 22ish, I gained about 2-3 levels and it only took me a couple of hours to 100% it. That helped make up for the monotony I was experiencing a bit... problem is that you go into a zone but the hearts and events don't get you leveled fast enough to manage the enemies in the area, so you basically wind up having to grind the same events over and over to get enough XP to move on. Not very fun in my opinion, and a bit annoying that you have to apparently split your time between multiple zones to be able to proceed rather than clearing them out one by one.

The other fun part is that beyond the initial leveling areas there is generally only 2 or 3 areas for a given level range, almost requiring you to grind the same stuff again on a new character.

The intricacy of this siege warfare is lost on me when the lag kicks in and the extreme bias to ranged classes is too extreme.

Short of enabling FF so that people can't spike down the nearest target in half a second, this is pretty much an unavoidable fact of life for large scale combat.

 

[Mangoose]

Friendly fire would've been a good way to de-motivate zerg behavior in both PVP and PVE... Oh well.

 

[Average Manatee]

Letting people on the internet kill their teammates. What could go wrong?

Reflected FF might work well though.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

What really kills it is the level scaling. Your damage, HP, resistances, everything seem directly linked to your level, and while equipment does have an effect, it means that you basically cannot explore beyond a 2ish level area around you - and even if you manage to run past those guys 3-4 levels above you, where does it take you? Another identical town with identical merchants and services as your home city, with quests that you can't complete because the enemies will fuck you up in seconds. Because your damage is scaled it's hard to kill enemies even through sheer perseverance, and as soon as you finish killing one chances are the enemies have already respawned, making it almost impossible to advance further. I've died a bunch of times in a zone, come back after leveling once, and found it a complete cakewalk despite making no changes whatsoever to my build or gear. It just feels way too artificial for my liking.

Condition damage isn't scaled, which lets condition-based builds face enemies in the +2-5 level range without a ton of trouble and lets them magically kill enemies 10-15 levels higher then them that regular damage wouldn't even scratch if they have boosted evasion or can kite melee. The problem then becomes: You get practically no reward from fighting those enemies. Drops? Higher level equipment you can't use anyway. Experience? +10-20% for +300% time and instant death from any mistake. Karma? lolz. So even if you have the perfect build to survive and win in higher level areas you are still gimping your advancement compared to grinding faster in lower level areas.

Don't complain about enemies respawning 5 feet behind you though, or Ulminati will call you a noob. He gets upset if you call out shitty MMO mechanics.

No reward indeed , the whole game is built it that way. You can gear up easily , and even get your full set of exotics is trivial, its easier to buy it on ah rather than farming dungeons or buying karma sets, stats will be the same you just get a different look, so you are completing dungeons for the sake of completing them, extra looks,and a few more points to your character score, same for pvp battlegrounds , the outrage ! playing a game being it own reward what were they thinking...
I guess you prefer world of warcraft model with its eternal carrot , a whole set of gear with better stats to get each expansion that wil become obsolete and being forced to grind and raid forever while in gw2 you have the choice to do the sets or not without impending your characters stats .

GWII replaced the carrot with a dangling turd.

 

[RK47]

The GW 2 Rotten Carrot

After messing around with WvW over the weekend and giving up. I decided to return to PvE. Messed around with an alt, and got a guild chat invite to Heart of the Waves again. Changed to my healing spec Guardian and cleared all three wings again. Just one party wipe in all three paths.

I had fun not because of the content, but because of how we just commentate on how awful the design of the dungeon overall (It was my second run and I wasn't seeing anything new.)

1. Glitch
The second path had a boss that knocks people off platform. They can climb back up to the fight, but the boss would glitch and reset its HP. Imagine taking him down to 20% HP after 10 mins of just dpsing him over and over - only to get it reset. TWICE. Party chat is full of rage. I was just laughing when I taunted 'Hey he's 5% now. Good time for reset.' and one of the party popped his Elite just to burn it down faster.

2. Obvious pace breaker
Let's put a totem here. It'll fuck over any stupid party who didn't snipe it down before engaging the mobs, that'll show them.

3. Underwater combat~!
Where half of skill bar changed and most of your exotic weapons count for shit, cause nobody spent gold on exotic aquatic weapon. And I loled when I realize I'm still wearing my level 0 aquatic rebreather at 8 DEF cause no mobs ever drop them. Way to go, Arenanet.

Also, Guardian only has one Elite Skill working while underwater. Good fucking game. And no more party heal skill - just because.

4. Warrior made out of tissues
Saw this Norn Warrior drop to 20% HP when hit by an attack. Painful. And kept telling us to hurry up so he can get back to WvW. I bet they love his Rifle shooting when fighting trash mobs, and pathetic attempt of dps with grea-wait, Glass-sword build. The other warrior with mace & shield was tanking - quite worthy of the heals and shouts I'm throwing and just laughed whenever the GS dude drops again and again.

5. There is no trinity - but that doesn't mean people should melee
When I hear the promise 'there's no trinity' I'd expect 'anything goes, as long as your build is a solid role'. Bullshit. Everyone needs to heal themselves - don't expect to live long without self survival utility. And some boss is just not designed to fight at melee. Exotic greatswords don't stop you from being feared out of melee. So pull out your bow or rifle and suck it up.

After all that bullshit - are the rewards worth it?

Honestly, no.
Just pull out your wallet and spend gold or spend $50 if you really care so much and purchase Exotics off Trading Post.
It's less painful that way. I'm a heal spec and I don't really care about the 'World v World'. The reward of 13% increment from rare to exotic may seem much, but the amount of fun is criminally poor.

And for the record, I never managed to find a party to do it for the 'story' of these dungeons.
I end up watching all of their cinematics on youtube while munching on a bag of chips over a slow Sunday noon.
All cinematics are meant to be skipped, cause everyone just wants to get it over with.

When will Arenanet actually understand the fun behind the dungeons?
Probably never since people are too busy buying gems to create The Legendary Greatsword of Rainbow Dash
So yeah, I'm just gonna try for the 100% explore before moving on to another single player game (if there is even any out there)

 

[RK47]

Ulminati

What's the best weapon pick for Bunker Guardian?

Valor 30 Med/Med/Med - I don't want to die
Honor 20 Shout 20% CD/ Symbol Heal - Moar Holding the Line and Heals
Virtue 20 Retaliation activation? / Absolute Resolution I don't know what to pick for V-10 but 3 Cond removal is what I need

Was thinking of Mace+Shield / Hammer since the Shield Protection should let bunkers live longer and Hammer is simply for the Banish knock back -
I doubt I can kill anyone with this build since the principle is to absorb damage right - and the lack of range pressure weapon ... I kinda hate to be on the offensive as well.

Utility seems dead set on
Hold the Line : Prot & Regen
Smite Condition : Condition removal and heal
Contemplation of Fury : Self heal and reverse the Conditions if there are too many on me to Smite.
As for elite - Should I go for Virtue Refresh + 2 Sec Invul. or Tome of Courage for Spamming 2k heals on myself?

 

[Average Manatee]

1. Glitch
The second path had a boss that knocks people off platform. They can climb back up to the fight, but the boss would glitch and reset its HP. Imagine taking him down to 20% HP after 10 mins of just dpsing him over and over - only to get it reset. TWICE. Party chat is full of rage. I was just laughing when I taunted 'Hey he's 5% now. Good time for reset.' and one of the party popped his Elite just to burn it down faster.

Not a glitch. Everything regenerates at a % of health per second when out of combat. GW1 had a similar mechanic, except it wasn't retarded (flat HP/sec that only slowly scales up, ended immediately on taking damage). GW2 just took a good idea and fucked it up by making it % based and not end immediately when attacked (so a boss WILL regenerate at least 50% even if you are right ontop of it again), and making it start immediately rather than every about 10s of out of combat + slowly ramp up.

Lets be honest, GW2 is basically The Phantom Menace to GW1's original Trilogy. Take something that works, make derp out of it. Maybe it will be bearable after 2 expansions?

 

[Excidium]

Yeah I didn't like the dungeons either, they lack polish. But I've only done AC and Arah on story modes so far.

 

[RK47]

Another glitch tonight. But profitable for us.
The final underwater boss somehow went into the walls and refused to come out.
But our party realized we can still damage it while it doesn't attack us.
I auto-skilled my water spear guardian #2 and went to brush my teeth.

It still took longer than 10 mins for a flat out dps by 5 members who had no need to heal nor dodge underwater.



How fucked up is it gonna get before Arenanet realize that their HP mobs need 33% reduction. There really isn't a reason for them to stretch encounters in such a stupid manner.
We already figured out the bosses yet we still took a long time cause dpsing this dude seems to go on forever.

Also spent my 42k karma on exotic chest piece. Hope it's worth it.

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah... I'm waiting for them to balance the dungeons before I try them.

 

[Ulminati]

Ulminati

What's the best weapon pick for Bunker Guardian?

I assume you're talking tournament here.

1) Have a staff in your inventory. Use it to cast symbol of haste when the game starts (2sec left on the countdown). Then switch back to normal weapon.

2) On Niflhel/Kyhlo go Hammer + Sword/Sceptre. The hammer knockback, snare and (circle) wall are all really strong for denying points if you knock people down the stairs of keep/cocktower. Also, the hammer circle can effectively block an entrance to the side points.

3) On Foefire, the capture points are larger and it's generally a lot harder to keep people off them. Swap hammer for either greatsword or staff depending on your team composition. Staff AoE might+heal is quite handy in graveyard if you get into an extended fight.

4) If you're holding a side point and the enemy keeps sending a melee towards you, consider swapping scepter/shield for sword/shield.

5) PvP weapons are free and inventory space is plentyful. There is no excuse for not bringing one of each to switch to in a tight spot. Except perhaps mace. Fuck mace.

6) All mainhands should be specced with a sigil of energy, 'cause it's awesome. I generally favour hydromancy on the offhand.

 

[Condiments]

Yeah... I'm waiting for them to balance the dungeons before I try them.

This is my stance on the dungeons at the moment. Some of the dungeon armors looks cool, but I don't think I want to bash my head against cheesy mechanics and hp bloat to get them. For me, PvP is what makes this game tick and I'm having a lot of fun in hot join and tournaments. I'll devote more time into WvW once I get into a more devoted guild, running with a bunch of strangers in a zerg isn't that much fun.