The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Axel_am]

The writing in vanilla Guild Wars 2 was meh but not bad.

For me the writing in MMOs is just there for some extra spice. But the one in Guild Wars annoys me more than the rest of them. I just can't find it in myself to care.

uuhhhgggghhh. I forgot that she was in GW2...

What has she touched?

She was in some DA2 DLC, again playing as herself.
New Vegas but a minor character.
Also I'm pretty sure in The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk, wizard was voiced by her.
And yeah, she also in Supernatural..................

Holy shit, yes. She does appear in everything as it's going downhill. I remember how I was thinking: "Oh, this show is going down." when I first heard she was appearing in Supernatural. Can't remember her in DA2. Can't remember much of DA2, thankfully.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Can't remember her in DA2. Can't remember much of DA2, thankfully.

She was in a minor story DLC, even mocapped if I remember right. I didn't play it also but that "thing" was all over the internet back then.

 

[Caim]

Made it to level 72, currently making my way through the Straits of Devastation. I'm starting to feel the lack of questing hearts, so now I have to cut my teeth on the mobs and the map events. Sometimes there's loads of people around to help speed the process up, other times I'm SOL and have to do it alone. I can still do some exploring in the Straits, but from the looks of it I either have to do the events or some old fashioned grinding. Or am I missing something here?

And how exactly do armor stats work? From what I gather all armor of the same level (in this case 80) has the same power, just a difference in focus. This would mean that if I get my hands on a set of Exotic gear it has roughly the same power as any other set of Exotic gear. Now, since I'm playing an Elementalist and are planning on checking out the Weaver, I reckon that Zhed's armor is a good choice: increases to power, crit chance and crit damage, and free runes that boost both power and swiftness, both of whom are useful to a Weaver. Plus, the whole set is less than 2 gold on the market, so it would be a great choice... if my understanding of how this works is correct.

 

[pickmeister]

I recently returned to the game and made level 80 in two or three days. Quickly overleveled the zones I was in.
If you wanna speed it up, focus on the Character Adventure Guide achievements. They give obscene amount of XP.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Character_Adventure_Guide
Before the introduction of these achievements, back when the game released, I simply did world map exploration.

Yes, all the armour of given rarity is the same and it only differs in stat distribution. That's what people mean when they talk about Guild Wars 2 horizontal progression.
Exotic is the second best gear you can get. The advantage is you can buy it on the Trading Post.
Better than exotic is Ascended, which is statwise 10 - 15% better (from what I've read, never did the math) but is more difficult to get. It can be obtained from crafting, WvW, special currency vendors and ton of others I don't know.
Then, you might also hear about legendary armour, which has the same stats as ascended but you can switch the stats whenever you like.

What gear is good for you greatly depends on the build you're using and content you want to do. Personally, I wear Celestial gear for the extra toughness, boon duration, condition duration, and some extra healing, beside all the power, precision and other stats it gives. But that's because I only do open world PvE solo. If I'd run with a group or did dungeons and raids, I'd definitely have to get something else so it's tough to recommend something.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I can still do some exploring in the Straits, but from the looks of it I either have to do the events or some old fashioned grinding. Or am I missing something here?

Mob farming is far and away the least efficient way to level up. You get far more EXP from doing meta event chains, or from doing PvP and getting tomes of knowledge that raise your level by 1 per tome used.

And how exactly do armor stats work?

There are only five (maybe six) types of gear that really matter in GW2.

For general PvE play, you're almost always going to be using either berserker gear (stats tailored for maximizing power based damage), or viper gear (stats tailored for maximizing condition based damage). This might be too glass cannony for HoT expansion maps, as the mobs there are much more dangerous. If you die a lot in HoT maps and adding more defensive abilities and traits to your build isn't helping, then consider getting gear with Marauder or Trailblazer's stats. They deal a little less damage than Berserker/Viper but give you a 25-30% HP increase that can allow you to survive a few more hits.

Celestial gear has the highest stat total, but that number is spread out evenly among all stats and there are only a few builds that can effectively benefit from such a spread of stats.

For WvW gameplay, you usually want to wear marauder, trailblazer, or celestial gear, since they give you more survivability. Glass canon stats like Berserker and Vipers are generally not recommended there because of the low time-to-kill. You could die in less than two seconds wearing those glass canon armors.

If you play a healer build (for WvW zergs, or for the small handful of PvE raids in the game), then you can wear Minstrel's gear.

Sometimes theorycrafters will swap out one or two pieces of gear with an alternative, ie replacing a couple pieces of your marauder set with dragon gear (same stat total but just shuffles the numbers around) for minmaxxing purposes. Ie you've hit crit cap and thus you wear a couple of different pieces of gear that give you stats in other areas rather than just letting those excess crit points going to waste. But minmaxxing to this degree is irrelevant to the vast majority of players. Minmaxxing DPS only matters if you are PUGing the highest end Fractals or something. The highest DPS check you will encounter in average play is the paltry 5k DPS check for the Dragon's End meta event final boss at the climax of the End of Dragons expansion, which anyone can hit if they aren't AFK, and even if there are AFK the showoffs pushing 40k DPS will singlehandedly carry all of the AFKers anyway. If you fail Dragon's End, it's not because of a lack of DPS. You either got screwed by bad RNG and the boss went into too many invincibility phases, or people botched a mechanic. Lack of DPS is almost never an issue in GW2 like it is in WoW or in FF14.

As for runes, use the Fireworks set until you reach the PoF expansion and acquire mounts. It gives you a passive +25% movement speed so you don't have to waste one of your ability slots on a movement speed signet. Runes are being reworked when the new mini expansion arrives at the end of the month so don't sink a lot of money on them.

 

[Caim]

So I've been playing Secrets of the Obscure, and I managed to get Weaponmaster Training. It was... something.

If you want to know

It wasn't unlocked automatically.

Spoiler

It wasn't through a grindy achievement.

Spoiler

It wasn't unlocked through a mastery.

Spoiler

It wasn't through paying a fat stack of cash.

Spoiler

It was through the campaign.

Spoiler

Start of the first mission prior to the mandatory "complete first level of mastery track" thing.

Spoiler

Just talk to beefcake mc spikeyarm when he has a book over his head and you get it.

Spoiler

No really, that's it. No grand mission, no fanfare, not even a filling bar to hype you up. You talk to him, say that you want to learn how to use more weapons and bam, you're done. You get the achievement and now you can use more weapons. There aren't even any changes to how leveling works: if you have Secrets of the Obscure play through, talk to the guy and BAM, moar wepon.

This does mean that getting stuff is locked behind an NPC in a max level zone, which is not very fun. It'd have been better if it was just unlocked from the start, but instead ArenaNet decides to do this. Oh well.

 

[pickmeister]

And how is Secrets of Obscure so far? Is it better than the absolutely moronic pleonasmic name?

 

[Caim]

And how is Secrets of Obscure so far? Is it better than the absolutely moronic pleonasmic name?

Haven't played a lot, but I can talk a bit.

The stuff you find out in the first two and half of the third story missions

Honestly it kinda feels like they went with the MULTIVERSE LAWL angle that is so common in media nowadays. The main areas of the first map are more or less Fractals except instead of being the Fractal system you might be used to they're of the map. They include options like "Kessex Hills, but ruined", "Maguuma, but no fuckups", "Shiverpeaks, but Dwarves", "Cantha, but Terminator" and a few more. But instead of being several maps with their own stories they're just a bunch of floating island chained together that you need to navigate. The new zone is part of the map, shoved all the way to the north-west of Maguuma, where the islands are floating because of the wizards have no sense of right and wrong meme. I think.

Don't expect any hearts or hero point stuff here: it's just the standard fare of mastery points, waypoints, vistas and points of interest to find, the latter of which having a massive 50 of them to find. So if you want to get XP for your masteries, expect to do a lot of events. Those are like the ones you've seen before: fight bosses, escort missions and the like. Don't expect them to be difficult so far what with the massive amounts of players running around doing them.

As for navigation, since this expansion doesn't assume you have Path of Fire they gotta solve that somehow. So what they do is that as part of the second mission they go HEY HAVE A SKYSCALE YOU CAN USE JUST HERE. So don't expect to fly out in the main world with the thing: they give you one and let you play with it as part of the new zone. You kinda need it to fly around, even though I've gotten mileage out of my raptor and rabbit.

Masteries include a new one for the Skyscale and one where you interact with the new zone, like being able to open special boxes for loot and doing more magic stuff. Haven't done a lot with them yet.

I still have to play more to get a feel for what it's like.

 

[pickmeister]

Sounds a lot like there was some truth to the theory that they're sick of the dragons story arc and wanted to get rid of it (EoD) and proceed with something else.

Not like I've expected original ideas but still, kinda letdown.

 

[Caim]

Sounds a lot like there was some truth to the theory that they're sick of the dragons story arc and wanted to get rid of it (EoD) and proceed with something else.

Not like I've expected original ideas but still, kinda letdown.

It's not a theory if it's true. There was a nice one-dragon-per-expansion thing going on that players also enjoyed, and Path of Fire showed it doesn't need to be all dragons all the time. But then Icebrood Saga hit, Jormgag and Primordus did a mutual kill, and then the story was rounded out with End of Dragons. They could have addressed this with an expansion that focusses on the Kryptis (the demons of SOTO) and pit them against Jormag, pitting their focus on mental attacks against one another. This is followed by End of Dragons, which pits Primordus against Soo-Won in a fire and water metaphor, giving the dragons a final sendoff with a big battle and referencing Guild Wars 1 where Primordus and his Destroyers were the final antagonists as well.

Instead they got impatient and pulled a stunt similar to Game of Thrones, which crashed and burned in a spectacular fashion only a few months prior.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Judging by the forums it seems like a low budget, asset reuse fare. Expected from the shitty trailers I suppose but still dissapointing.

Anet used to make beautiful games.

 

[El Presidente]

At this point I'm not sure if I have a love-hate relationship with GW2 or a hate-hate relationship.

 

[Caim]

Judging by the forums it seems like a low budget, asset reuse fare. Expected from the shitty trailers I suppose but still dissapointing.

Anet used to make beautiful games.

On one hand, they did say that they wanted to go with smaller expansions whose size is in between full expansions and Living World chapters.

On the other hand... well, they could have tried a bit more.

 

[Zewp]

I bought it, but we'll have to see how much I actually end up playing. The combat is a nice distraction once in a while, but I absolutely hate the overall tone and story.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Primordus against Soo-Won in a fire and water metaphor, giving the dragons a final sendoff with a big battle

I ponder what an Elder Dragon vs Elder Dragon meta event could have looked like if it wasn't for budget cuts and development time being cut off like what happened with Dragonstorm. Maybe full bodied Elder Dragons moving around the map rather than just seeing their heads floating in the background.

 

[Caim]

When you're running around on your borrowed Skyscale the game suggests that if you max out the mastery you get to keep it, no need to do the regular method of unlocking it. Sure, doing so will get you the mastery boons you get from that mastery track to get an even better Skyscale, but if you just want one completing the mastery track should do the trick, all for just under 7 million XP and 25 Mastery Points. And yes, you can still get those by just exploring and doing story missions.

 

[rubinstein]

minor spoiler for chapters 1-2

AND THE CROWN OF MISS ESG 2023 GOES TO...
DAGDA!

i have just only entered Amnytas and havent learned much about her, but i just know... i am just fucking 100% sure, just by judging by this stupid fucking haircut and this face of a clean-shaved bugbear, that it is going to be revealed, that she will/is/was involved in a romance with a fellow person with uterus. bonus points if its an representative of some ridiculous race like ettin, thats kinda the theme of SotO anyway. the dissonance between her feminine body and her orcish physiognomy makes me laugh whenever i see her. its so bad, an absolute train wreck, it really does land in what were they thinking? category.

when it comes to soto itself i would be able to excuse asset flip approach if they limited themsleves only to assets. it feels like ideas were reused as well. voice in your head gimmick isnt that interesting, when it was such a big part of HoT (afair). skywatch archipelago? the aesthetics are a mix of fractals and dragonfall. rifts are bounties v1.5. thats just lame. i was kinda excited when i learned this will be pure magic expansion without, what i consider, the worst things of gw2 setting: magitech and jade tech, but they (unsurprisingly?) still managed to make it all lame.

 

[Caim]

The map meta of Amnytas is an absolute clusterfuck near the end, but at least I got a shitton of loot out of it.

And with the new Wizard's Vault it is laughably easy to get yourself a legendary weapon. Save up 1000 points for the legendary weapon starter kit, pick the one you want and get the penultimate weapon, the weapon-specific gift and either of the two crafting item gifts. So instead of it just being a "starter" kit it gives you everything except four full stacks of tier 6 crafting materials, which will set you back 200+ gold. Sure that's a hefty stack of cash, but after getting the kit all you need is a stop at the trading post and a quick walk to the mythic forge and you can have a legendary weapon of your own.

... if the weapons you are interested in are the legendary staff, sword, pistol or scepter. If you're not, or already have all of those, you can multiply your investment several times for a minimal amount of work.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The map meta of Amnytas is an absolute clusterfuck near the end, but at least I got a shitton of loot out of it.

And with the new Wizard's Vault it is laughably easy to get yourself a legendary weapon. Save up 1000 points for the legendary weapon starter kit, pick the one you want and get the penultimate weapon, the weapon-specific gift and either of the two crafting item gifts. So instead of it just being a "starter" kit it gives you everything except four full stacks of tier 6 crafting materials, which will set you back 200+ gold. Sure that's a hefty stack of cash, but after getting the kit all you need is a stop at the trading post and a quick walk to the mythic forge and you can have a legendary weapon of your own.

... if the weapons you are interested in are the legendary staff, sword, pistol or scepter. If you're not, or already have all of those, you can multiply your investment several times for a minimal amount of work.

Interesting. That might be a selling point of the expansion for me. I farmed Gifts of Battle and did all of the ranked PvP prerequisites I needed to make a full set of legendaries, but held off when I added up the costs and realized I would have to drop $400 in mats.

What do you mean about "multiply your investment several times"? Does a legendary hammer cost considerably more than a sword? Also, which generation of legendaries can you get here? Does it include the Aurene legendaries?

 

[Caim]

The map meta of Amnytas is an absolute clusterfuck near the end, but at least I got a shitton of loot out of it.

And with the new Wizard's Vault it is laughably easy to get yourself a legendary weapon. Save up 1000 points for the legendary weapon starter kit, pick the one you want and get the penultimate weapon, the weapon-specific gift and either of the two crafting item gifts. So instead of it just being a "starter" kit it gives you everything except four full stacks of tier 6 crafting materials, which will set you back 200+ gold. Sure that's a hefty stack of cash, but after getting the kit all you need is a stop at the trading post and a quick walk to the mythic forge and you can have a legendary weapon of your own.

... if the weapons you are interested in are the legendary staff, sword, pistol or scepter. If you're not, or already have all of those, you can multiply your investment several times for a minimal amount of work.

Interesting. That might be a selling point of the expansion for me. I farmed Gifts of Battle and did all of the ranked PvP prerequisites I needed to make a full set of legendaries, but held off when I added up the costs and realized I would have to drop $400 in mats.

What do you mean about "multiply your investment several times"? Does a legendary hammer cost considerably more than a sword? Also, which generation of legendaries can you get here? Does it include the Aurene legendaries?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_Weapon_Starter_Kit

Only ones you can get, all Gen 1:

- Quip (pistol)
- Meteorlogicus (scepter)
- Bolt (sword)
- Bifrost (staff)

But nevermind, I fucked up a lot. You still need:

- Gift of Battle
- Gift of Exploration
- Bloodstone Shard
- 250 Obsidian Shards
- Gift of Might/Magic (the one you didn't get)
- 77 Mystic Clovers
- 250 Ectoplasm

Combine the first four into an item, the last three into the one you got with the kit, then combine with the last two remaining weapons.

Or, you know, put down cash to buy any of the Gen 1 or Aurene weapons: about 85 bucks worth of gems for Gen 1 (1600-ish gold), about 120 bucks for an Aurene (2400-ish gold).

 

[rubinstein]

every prof has an access to a sword with soto and anyone, except engies, has an access to staff. these are really tempting, especially sword, seeing how often it is used in metas for fractals/raids/strikes. pistol is useful too, that skin though . and scepter is for people into fashion wars i guess, because it is the best skin of gen I, but who runs it in pve? it would have been cool if they added some gen ii starters, however im not sure if its possible with the way you get them. i have like four gen Is and only one gen ii - freakin chuka and champawat of all of them. i barely see anyone with gen ii legends and some of them look amazing.

 

[Caim]

Note that the "new" weapons for the professions (guns for Guardian and Elementalist, Staff for Warrior and so on) won't come out until the second content patch, somewhere in February. So don't go splurging on weapons you can't use yet.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Started playing this game recently. On the surface it feels OK and like something I wouldn't mind getting into, but I'm struggling to find a class I like to play. I rolled a Necromancer as pets + DoTs is my favored gameplay style for all MMOs since EQ but here it's not engaging at all and the pets look lame. I'll give the Mesmer a try next, hopefully I'll have more luck with that. I also took a look at some of the end game armor models and most of the Light suff looked like crap people would wear in a carneval. Are there no class sets?

 

[rubinstein]

Started playing this game recently. On the surface it feels OK and like something I wouldn't mind getting into, but I'm struggling to find a class I like to play. I rolled a Necromancer as pets + DoTs is my favored gameplay style for all MMOs since EQ but here it's not engaging at all and the pets look lame. I'll give the Mesmer a try next, hopefully I'll have more luck with that. I also took a look at some of the end game armor models and most of the Light suff looked like crap people would wear in a carneval. Are there no class sets?

5 races to play (even if 3 are humanoids) means no class sets

 

[Rahdulan]

Cultural armor is probably the closest, but that's race-based. Everything else is divided based on light, medium and heavy armor categories. Then again game is called Fashion Wars for a reason which just demonstrates money can't buy taste when you see what most people wear. Big thing in GW2 is acquiring equipment skins to mix and match, as well as costumes.