Brutal Honesty Needed: Guild Wars 2

[alpav]

I just got the Metrica province Jumping Puzzle. HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS

 

[Maniacal]

Major January update!

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-January-28-2013

Spoiler :

LIVING STORY Flame and Frost: Prelude A mystery presents itself in this first entry in a multipart Living Story series. What could be causing such discord in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks? All those poor homesteaders and ranchers displaced with nowhere to go calls into question if the storms could be that bad—or if there’s something more sinister stirring up the flame and frost. The ground is shaking, and the sky is falling in northern Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. Norn and charr refugees, crawling from the wreckage of their homes, are fighting their way to shelter in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. Many are in shock and wounded; most have only what they can carry on their backs. A call has gone out for volunteers to assist them in their time of need, when the environment itself seems to have become their enemy. Achievements
A new Living Story achievement category has been added, which will contain a series of achievements specific to the storylines unfolding in Tyria.
The first Living Story achievement, Refugee Volunteer, has been added. Players who complete this achievement by playing the Flame and Frost: Prelude content will be rewarded with the Volunteer title. They will also receive a karma reward via in-game mail.
More achievements will be added as the Living Story continues to unfold.

Events
New Living Story events have been added to Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau.

Heralds
Starting shortly after the January 28th^ update, heralds will begin appearing in cities across Tyria. Their task is to keep adventurers apprised of the events currently underway that are driving the Living Story forward. Be sure to check in with them if you need direction.

Other Content
Persistent world content related to the story of the refugees has been added to Wayfarer Foothills, Diessa Plateau, the Black Citadel, and Hoelbrak. This content will continue to change and evolve as the story unfolds, so be sure to keep checking back.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Daily/Monthly Achievements
Rewards
A new currency has been added: the laurel. Players earn one laurel for completion of the daily achievement category and ten laurels for completion of the monthly achievement category. This new currency can be spent at laurel vendors in all of the major cities to obtain over 90 items, including:
A new category of infusion, the utility infusion
Ascended amulets
Crafting starter kits
WvW blueprints
Obsidian shards
New boosters, advanced harvesting tools, and crafting trophy bags
A new, unique miniature: Goedulf, the mythical wolf-cub spirit that protects lost norn children
A new, unique miniature: Chauncey von Snuffles III, who placed second in the Divinity’s Reach Fanciest Cat competition

UI
Achievement tracking UI has been added to provide at-a-glance information on daily and monthly achievements as well as quick access to the achievements panel.

Achievements
New daily achievements have been added.
Daily achievements now rotate on a daily basis.
Daily achievements now only have a single tier.
The number of achievement points awarded for daily achievements has been adjusted.

Dungeons
Polished dungeons and removed the ability to use waypoints while any player is in combat.
Dynamic Leveling
Attribute calculations for dynamic level scaling have been rebalanced. In general, this means weaker when adjusted down, stronger when adjusted up. Rewards when adjusted down have been increased to compensate. It is now possible to receive your own level of loot from any level of enemy.

Fractals of the Mists
Players can now reconnect to the Fractals of the Mists if they are disconnected.
Players can now connect to a fractal map even if they are not part of the original group that created the fractal instance.
Players can revive at a checkpoint in fractal maps if the entire party is out of combat.
Players are no longer prevented from entering fractal maps. The difficulty of the fractals is shared, and players will receive rewards based on their “reward level.”
Reward level increases as players complete fractal rounds.
If players have a higher reward level than the current fractal difficulty, they will receive bonus karma at the end of a round. However, item rewards are set to the minimum of the fractal scale and reward level.
Daily Fractals of the Mists bonus chests are awarded after defeating the kraken. The rewards are now based off of the minimum of the player’s reward level or current fractal scale.

Guesting
Players may now log in to a world other than their home world as a guest.
On the character select screen, click the “World Selection” button.
Choose a world you would like to guest on and click the “Guest” button.
Select any of your characters and select “Play” to log in to the world you chose as a guest.
Guesting has some limits and restrictions:
You may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.
You may not participate in World vs. World for any guest world. If you choose to enter World vs. World, you will be moved back to your home world. Only changing your home world using a world transfer can change your World vs. World participation.
You are only eligible to guest on 2 different worlds at a time. Each time you guest on a world, that world becomes available to play on for the next 24 hours. After 24 hours, you may choose to guest on a different world. You may log in to any active guesting world as many times as you wish with no restriction.
Guesting on worlds that are full or highly populated increases your risk of being put into an overflow map.
While guesting, all guild influence earned will be applied to your home world, and you will only have access to your home world guild benefits, including the guild vault.

World Transfer Fee
It now costs a gem fee to transfer your home world.
Gem fees for world transfers are based on the population of the world you are transferring to.
Each account is still limited to one transfer every 7 days.
Players still cannot transfer to servers that are “Full.”

ORR
The Risen creatures all across Orr have had their population density adjusted.
Areas, chests, and merchants in Orr now offer better rewards.
See “World Polish – Orr” below for more details.

UI Improvements
Changes have been made to the attributes section of the hero panel to cleanly display more information.
Several PvP dialogs no longer take UI focus away from chat when opening.
Players can once again preview armor and weapons that cannot be equipped by their character.

Structured Player vs. Player January 28th – February 4th Is Temple of the Silent Storm Week
Instead of 3-round paid tournaments, there will be a 1-round match between 2 teams on the Temple of the Silent Storm map.
The price for entry will be 3 tickets per player.
Rewards for the test will be reduced from the normal paid tournaments.
After the game is finished, both teams will be returned to the lobby, where they can reenter the tournament queue.
To participate, go to the PvP lobby and speak to the Tournament Master.
At the end of this period, the Temple of the Silent Storm map will be added to the tournament rotation.
Skillbars now have team-colored backgrounds in sPvP.

World vs. World
Character load times in WvW have been improved through the use of preloaded placeholder models.

And.. for the... bronies >_<

Spoiler :

 

[History_Buff]

They haven't added any new zones after that Karka nightmare have they? New places to go are really what I'm waiting for before I go back.

 

[Maniacal]

Not yet.

 

[aelf]

I've repaired 75 refugee signs! Woot!

The Orrian Jewelery Boxes are great, though. Wish I didn't spend so much karma buying obsidian shards before, which would have meant 50+ more tries at getting lodestones

I just got the Metrica province Jumping Puzzle. HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS

It's not that bad. Once you've completed it, you realise it's actually fairly easy and doing it a second or third time would be a walk in the park.

And.. for the... bronies >_<

I thought that was in reference to Robot Unicorn Attack.

 

[Maniacal]

No, it has a "cutie mark" on it. Also yeah, I spent over 600,000 karma on nearly 200 of those boxes (and they gave me almost as much karma back, so I kept buying them) and made 15 or 16 gold, 5 of which was just from the ~1000 unidentified junk objects and the rest from lode stones.

 

[Leonel]

I was a little skeptical about Guild Wars 2 and that it'd be as boring as I thought Guild Wars 1 was but I generally like it. The leveling system is different to what I'm accustomed to but that's a good thing.

 

[Maniacal]

Massive new update with numerous changes, including being able to preview items in the trading post.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-February-26-2013

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm late to the game, but I just bought it today. I'm just looking for some generic advice because I have never played this game or the first Guild Wars. I happen to have some free time available for a MMO (break from my gf), so I figured I'd use a MMO to escape from the real world for a while. And I just feel too bored of WOW. The only other MMO I've played is The Old Republic. So I'm a bit of a MMO newbie.

I'm looking forward to playing something different. Unfortunately after installing the game from 2 DVD's, I still have a massive, massive download. I was around 1 gig at 10% which means a 10 gig download. I'm at 15% right now. So no play for me today. Early morning tomorrow I'll start.

I have no clue what race or profession to start. And the talents (I know they are called something else) seem confusing. Luckily respec seems pretty cheap and I don't mess with that until level 11 or so.

I'm thinking I'll play human although that seems kind of lame and unoriginal. I never got into short races very much in fantasy games aside form Dwarves, so no Asura for me. I'm leaning towards the Norn as well. So it will either be human or Norn.

I haven't narrowed profession down yet either. I'm not used to a lot of movement in a rpg, so what would you guys suggest? I'm not sure if I want to be dodging every attack that comes my way, so I'm not leaning towards melee professions. I'm thinking either engineer, ranger, or elementalist. What would be the best race for someone who doesn't play FPS games and doesn't want to dodge and move around a lot?

 

[Maniacal]

Traits don't really matter until you get to level 70-80, then there are tonnes of discussions on the forums and various other sites about builds.

You have 5 character slots ot start with so you can make one of each race anyway.

You don't have to do that much dodging, mostly just from AoEs and some boss attacks. Engineer is fun but it takes a whiel to get the skill points to unlock the cool gadgets. I haven't played ranger but, while it is the buggiest class iirc, its pretty fun and good regardless. I haven't really played elementalist either, it invovles al ot of weapon swapping and switching between the different elements to get the most out of afaik but they can be really effective at high levels. My main is a thief and a lot of fun, especially being able to go invisible.

 

[Disgustipated]

Thief sounds fun too. What I'll probably do is play several alts to around level 5 or 10 or so and get a feel for each one. So you only get 5 slots for alts?

I'm thinking I'll start with a human engineer and Norn ranger. And maybe a sylvari thief. For ___s and grins I may do a Charr elementalist.

 

[Maniacal]

You can buy additional slots, but they cost 800 gems ($10 USD or you can buy them with gold, but right now its almost 4 gold for 100 gems which is absolutely ******** and not worth the money).

 

[Disgustipated]

The download took quicker than expected (the bigger files were first). Too bad all the cool names are taken. Like rainingblood, darkavenger, manowar, blackdeath, abaddon. I need to find a dark name that isn't taken.

okay started a hunter, but I'm completely lost. This game is so confusing. If only I had an instruction manual in the game box...

I keep getting a pop up saying I completed some achievement, but I can't clear that stupid message from coming up every minute or so.

It says I completed some kind of quest, but I can't tell if I got any reward, or where to collect it.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get this vista that is showing on my map.

Do I even have a quest log in this game?

This game is quite confusing for someone who only knows world of warcraft.

 

[Disgustipated]

Got a human engineer up to level 11. My main problem now seems to be I suck. Everyone else seems to do so much damage to me. And it takes forever to kill Ettins. And I can't kill the veteran Ert and Burt. I'm trying to get all the skill challenges. When I look at other players they have a ton of buffs, but I have none. Why is that? Is it because they have high level alts? Or do they have guild bonuses?

Some other guys were in the same area and I was able to get it. Although it turns out I didn't need to kill him. On the previous attempt I already grabbed the liquid in the jug quickly as I was running away from him, and that's all I needed. Still would be nice to be sucky and die all the time though.

 

[Rub'Rum]

When you go in a lower level zone, the game reduces your level (health, attack power, etc.) so that it's still adapted and challenging, and you still get a decent amount of experience, karma and whatnot from doing events. That's to make sure all zones remain relevant, even to high level characters who want to complete all the zones or play with lower-level friends. That being said, even if they are "level-reduced", they still retain access to their aquired skills, traits, buffs and whatnot, albeit at a reduced strength. Maybe you're seeing people who are in reality of higher level. You can usually tell when a green arrow pointing down shows up next to their level over their character's head next to their name.

 

[Maniacal]

I keep getting a pop up saying I completed some achievement, but I can't clear that stupid message from coming up every minute or so.

If it in the upper right of the screen? If so you are probably completing daily achievements.

You can press H and click on the bottom button on the left side for the Achievements tab, and in there you can choose which dailies to display progress of. Up to five can be displayed as you only need to complete five of them for your daily.

The daily rewards you with a Mystic Forge coin, which you don't need to worry about yet (they are also deposited into your back along with any other collectibles when you click on deposit collectibles in your inventory's options menu (gear icon in upper right). ), a jar of liquid karma (4,500 karma, I recommend keeping them in you bank until you need to spend a bunch of karma as you can use multiple different ways of getting MUCH MORE karma out of them) and one laurel (yet another currency, can be spent at a laurel vendor in the hub cities). As well as a small amount of money.

If it is the actual achievement pop ups, those disappear fairly quickly.

It says I completed some kind of quest, but I can't tell if I got any reward, or where to collect it.

The heart quests that show up on the world map and your UI send you your reward via mail. It is worth talking to the NPC with the heart above their head both before and after completing it as they often have more story, also after you complete the quest they turn into a karma merchant.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get this vista that is showing on my map.

Some of them can be rather annoying to get to, and sometimes the path is so obvious you still somehow miss it :/ Don't be afraid to ask in map chat for help or to check the gw2 wiki (I recommend launching it through Steam so you can use the Steam browser in-game).

Do I even have a quest log in this game?

Not really no. The quests don't need one.

This game is quite confusing for someone who only knows world of warcraft.

Yeah, even going from partially familiar with GW1 to GW2 there was a lot to learn.

 

[Disgustipated]

Not so confusing now. But I feel like I'm missing something. For a while I was over leveling my areas. But now I'm at 13, and I'm not sure where to go for the next quest. I explored the area pretty well, but can't find any level 13 heart quests. I may have missed a couple events. The next "area" of Queensdale is level 14. So far I've gotten all the points of interest, skill challenges, vistas, and hearts. It takes a while to complete areas for completionists like me.

 

[Rub'Rum]

You can do your personal quest (green text top right of your screen), or go straight to lvl 14 zone, it's not like it's going to straight up murder you. Or you can participate in events that prop up everywhere all the time (look for orange indications on your map after seeing the notification). Events repeat themselves once in a while and are often chains (if you stick around, a "sequel" happens, and so on). Events are different from the "quests" (hearts). I never ran into this situation of being underleveled, there's always something to do. If anything, I found I leveled too quickly and completely skipped on some zones later on in the game.

 

[Maniacal]

You can also go into the starting areas for the other races too. Take the portal in the capital city for your race to Lion's Arch and then one of the portals there to another city. Each city also has its own PoIs, WPs and Vistas to find as well for more XP.

 

[Disgustipated]

I did give up on this game. All it did was make me want to play world of warcraft (which I did for 3 weeks). That's not a good mark for a game. It's pretty, and does have some things I like. But combat skills are what's lacking in this game. I don't like the combat very much or the skills/spells you use.