I guess I should try this since I have like four beta codes left.
Did you actually play the beta Freyj?
There's quite a bit more different than just not needing to pick up quests. It's miles beyond War's PQs. Dynamic Events move around the map and have different outcomes. I was playing with CG and we failed an event at this water pump. Suddenly the sprinklers at the farm start spouting poison water and the worms turn into toxic blobs. We have to kill the blobs and collect poison samples to bring to a alchemist who will cleanse the water pumps. Since this happened, the well by the entrance to the city is poisoned as well. That well and the pumps are about 2 or 3 minutes apart. If we succeeded in defending the pumps, as I did before, then the poison doesn't show up. Instead, I followed a path into an understairs cavern, chasing down the bandits who were trying to poison everyone.
Also, when I returned to the first farm with CG, most of the worms were gone so we did feeding the cows and watering plants instead. I kind of prefer doing that actually.
The content isn't the same. When you kill ten bandits in Westfall, they just keep respawning and the world stays the same. When you kill off the bandits at the farm, they're gone. They don't respawn until the process of events starts over again. And they don't respawn as much as they come running from around a hill towards the bottom of the farm. If you don't defeat the bandits, as I saw when lag was hitting up the server, they run across the farm and become a mob zerg of their own. They headed right for the next farm after overrunning the first one.
Code has been used already and I downloaded the entire client :'(
No, I didn't play the Beta. I'll complete that argument for you by reminding myself to go back to WoW.
What do you think about combat feedback? For me it doesn't have enough UMPF weight in it, its just so floaty.
The public quests will probably become empty in no time don't you think?
You know, I kept thinking a lot of the public quests will be empty, leading to some tough situations for new players. We'll see
Being able to articulate what others can't
Melee vs ranged. I also saw a lot of threads on melee vs ranged. I think ranged abilities are much easier to use than melee ones. It’s easier to pick a ranged class, back up a lot, and keep hitting your opponent….but…once a good melee character figures out how to disable your movement, dodge your attacks, and then get you in range, YOU ARE IN TROUBLE. There are many melee builds that destroy ranged builds, but the trick is getting there. Once melee players learn how to work together, you’ll see them dishing out a ton of pain on ranged foes. BUT, having said that, don’t worry – balance isn’t final, and we’re still tweaking things. We’ll keep an eye on the balance, as we always do.
I believe the ability delay people are noticing is actually server lag. We have a very large number of testers this weekend and the servers are under stress that we have not experienced before. The way the actual combat works is that each skill has an associated animation as well as points in that animation that trigger the damage. Everything is based on that real animation timing which is being thrown off by the servers being pounded. Rest assured we understand this makes the game and combat much less responsive and will be working hard to improve performance in upcoming beta weekends and towards release.
We’ll be conducting a stress test on Monday May 14 from 11 AM to 6:00 PM PDT (-7 GMT).
This special test event is open only to Pre-Purchase customers who have registered their accounts. With your help, we can conduct important tests and address some of the issues we identified during our first Beta Weekend Event. During this event, all you need to do is play normally with a new or existing character on your Beta account using the same game client. Please note that since this is a stress test of our servers, you may experience some in-game performance issues. If you’ve pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 and wish to participate in the stress test, we recommend that you register the account and download the game client.
Pre-Purchase customers, log in to the Beta Forums for more information and/or to download the Beta client if needed.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/stress/news/Getting-Started/169235
Having issues logging in? Contact Support: https://support.guildwars2.com/
~RB2
(http://i.imgur.com/zXEKg.jpg)
Leaked patch notes with some useful information.
http://i.imgur.com/mYBht.png
Some other images related to that:
http://imgur.com/pZ9NE
http://imgur.com/zCHtr
http://imgur.com/Nk158
http://imgur.com/dJ5tH
http://imgur.com/pAEhE
http://imgur.com/AuQrg
Also Droknars Forge has sunk.
Update:
http://i.imgur.com/rv8dG.png
Seems that high level dungeons were being tested internally.
More rumors (take in with grain of salt):
The "Mystic Forge" (found inside Lion's Arch) is used to make some of the most rarest-high-level items. Many of it's recipes are a total mystery.
The game is pretty close to finishing, just some high level zones needing work.
Asura zones/quests are coming along pretty fast. Sylvari zones lag you like a mother----- (framerate issues)
So a list of 'big stuff' needing some work to make it readyish for release:
Sylvari zones optimization
Structured PvP being finished (still in development)
Content (lot of quest logs etc missing and tagged with weird numbering like QEB82E and high level zones seem to miss some hearts and such.)
There's only 4 structured PvP maps in atm, the two you guys are familiar with and two more. The other two are called "Memories of the past", which is basically a conquest map mixed with some oldskool GvG elements mixed into it like killing guildlord wins you the game and "something something Capricorn", which is a coastal map with a huge pirate ship, water and beaches.
Obviously you can't just walk up to the guildlord and kill it easily. It takes time to get to him even, there's a castle gate and bodyguards and it's fairly close to the enemy teams spawn.
Pirate map
narrow bayish coast with capture points on each side
Pirate ship in the middle of the two capture points
Capture point under the pirate ship, so in the water.
Pirate ship has cannons.
Caribbeanish setting.
Memories of the past
3 capture points, two near the spawn points and one in the middle.
Each team has a fort, with a guild lord in it.
Killing guild lord win you the game, but it´s not easy getting to him. He´s protected by fortification and bodyguards.
Grassish setting.
Beta Weekend Event 2 will begin on Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) and will run until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).
If that isn’t enough to get you all bursting with excitement, here is some more news:
Your existing beta characters have not been deleted, and you will be able to continue right where you left off! This means that enterprising players with characters level 35 or higher will be able to test their mettle against the explorable version of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon!
For those who haven’t yet pre-purchased Guild Wars 2, you’ll still have a chance to play in the beta. We’re teaming up with our partners to give away keys for Beta Weekend Event 2, so follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest news.
Keep Your Characters!
Or create new human, norn, or charr characters and start a whole new story. Since players will be able to play with their existing characters from the first Beta Weekend Event, they can experience some of the new higher level content.
Enter the Catacombs (Explorable Mode)
Looking for a real challenge? Try out the explorable mode of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon for groups of ambitious level 35+ players. The tough explorable mode of the Catacombs presents a party with three different paths through the dungeon, each with its own dangers and rewards. Enter if you dare!
Visit Lovely Gendarran Fields
We’ve opened up a new map, Gendarran Fields, for players to explore. A level 25 to 35 map just outside Lion’s Arch, Gendarran Fields is a picturesque area of pine trees and rolling hills, teeming with wild beasts and bandit gangs.
Unlock the Mysteries of the Mystic Forge
On a less dangerous note, the Mystic Forge has arrived in Lion’s Arch. This strange forge actually holds the imprisoned djinn Zommoros, who hails from distant Elona. If you offer the Mystic Forge gifts (like unneeded items and weapons), you will receive a gift in return. Got a pair of pistols that you don’t need? Drop them in the Mystic Forge and see what Zommoros gives you in exchange!
Expanded World vs. World
Once again, the Mists will echo with the sound of combat as we open up World vs. World for the weekend. As usual, massive armies of players from different servers will battle for supremacy on four huge maps, but this time we’ve added a couple of interesting new twists.
Players can now take their WvW battle underground in a new “mini dungeon” beneath the central map. This brand-new subterranean level is full of tricks and traps that can be used against enemy players, and is home to the aptly named Dark Room, which players will have to see (or not) to believe.
We’ve also added skill challenges, dynamic events, and even jump puzzles to the WvW maps. Why are these PvE elements being integrated into WvW gameplay? “We want to make the transition from PvE to World vs. World easy and natural for players,” says developer Matt Witter. “We always wanted additional meaningful content on the WvW maps so that players will always have something to do, even if the frontline of battle is far away.”
New Automated Player vs. Player Tournaments and More
For this beta, we’re introducing Automated PvP Tournaments. Each tournament pits eight teams of five players against each other. Teams that excel during the three-round, single-elimination tournament are rewarded with tournament chests full of valuable loot.
The PvP reward system has also been greatly improved with the creation of a two-tier reward structure that involves Glory and Rank. Put simply, Glory is a currency that players can spend to unlock reward chests stuffed with useful loot, while Rank is a measurement of your success in PvP. You’ll receive valuable reward chests as you climb in Rank.
Combat— “A Sense of Hitting”
Combat in Guild Wars 2 is more visceral than ever. We’re constantly making improvements to the entire combat experience—better timing, enhanced sound design, subtle camera shakes—to enhance what designer Jon Peters likes to call “the sense of hitting.”
Improved Overflow Servers
We listened to a lot of the input we received from players regarding their experience with overflow servers in the first Beta Weekend Event, and we’ve implemented a new party UI that tells you when party members are on a different overflow world. We’ve also given party members the ability to fast travel to overflow worlds where other members of their party are located, and we’ve made it easier to keep party members together when moving between maps. It’s all designed to give you as smooth an experience as possible.
Improved Chat
Communication in general has been greatly improved, as well. We’re adding the much-requested chat bubbles, as well as map chat and an updated local chat function, both of which make it easier to communicate with other players.
New Key-Binding Feature
This is one of our most requested features. For those who want to customize their gameplay experience, we’re introducing a new, easy-to-use key-binding interface, which now allows you to bind modifier keys.
UI Improvements
MMO players are often very particular about their user interface, and we’re no exception. We’ve listened to your feedback and have refined our UI to make it even easier to use. We’ve revamped the mini-map in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The formerly round mini-map is now square and can easily be resized for better navigation.
UI Artist Vicki Ebberts says, “Little adjustments, like making the map resizable or wrapping the dodge meter around the top of the health bubble, may not seem like a big deal at first, but over the course of many hours spent playing a game, you start to appreciate a well-designed interface.”
Tiers for Skills
We’ve organized each profession’s elite and utility skills into three different tiers, or levels. When you get enough skills in one tier, you unlock the next level of skills. Why the change from the previous model, which let players choose from all the available skills at once?
“The tier system gives players both a sense of progression and accomplishment,” says Lead Designer Eric Flannum. “It encourages them to experiment with different skills as they increase in power, and it avoids overwhelming new players with a huge list of skills to choose from.”
“Plus,” Flannum adds, “the tier system is more scalable and expandable. We can more easily add new skills in the future with this system.”
The Gem Store is under New Management
The Black Lion Trading Company out of Lion’s Arch has officially taken over operation of the Gem Store, Currency Exchange, and Trading Post. Its new owner’s first action was to completely overhaul the Gem Store.
As a result, the all-new Gem Store is easier to use and has a greater variety of items, from the decorative—like dye packs and costumes—to the whimsical—like the Box o’ Fun, which spawns a chest that applies random crazy effects to everyone who touches it. Each beta player will receive 500 free gems on their account, so do a little shopping on us!
In Closing…
There’s no shortage of things to see and do during our second Beta Weekend Event, and this is just a small sample of what awaits you when you log in.
We’ll see you in-game from Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).
I understand that obscure level design can be intriguing and help with immersion/give the game a sense of adventure, recent Souls games did this really well imo. But it also just seemed obscure and janky to the point of making the game look crap, it's an RPG first and foremost sure, but putting stuff in that plays that bad seems more to detract from the game. It's one thing to have dark paths and pitfalls and jumps, it's another to have jumps that require a reliance on the dodgy clipping (Heads clipping through object) and trial and error. Still looks like an interesting game though, feeling the MMO buzz after getting into D3. Never taken the jump before, but I quite like having something big and consistent to play and I can't imagine D3 holding my interest for that much longer.
Review predictions:seriously?
1UP - B
Gamespot - 7.5
IGN - 8.6
Eurogamer - 8
Orr is very focused on these large meta events and fighting your way into orr and then taking it, the first zone in orr has 3 assault paths players have to do, the northern path is the sea and air path where you're firing golems to the beaches and subs that sail in, the center path is pretty much just the navy with subs and boats progessing, then the southern path which is another meta chain where troops are progressing along bridges and pontoons, and eveyrthing that had been built during the meta chains to get forces into Orr. once you get them into Orr it unlocks more new event chains where you're trying to take control of the corrupted god temples that were corrupted by Zhaitan, then there's little god statues scattered all over Orr and if the Orrians hold control of the god temples the little god statues will cause all klnds of effects to happen if you're near them like roots will come out of the ground and grab you or you might not be able to use some of your healing abilities, it all depends on what statue you're near. now the players want to actually take hold of the corrupted temples because it makes the progression through Orr easier, now also it allows for you to get to the final dungeon of the game (story wise) and it's a huge event chain getting to that point in southern Orr and a big part of the game is goign to be everyone working together to hold these things and fighting up to the final battlefront and holing it so that the dungeon can be done
My only explanation for the money based betas so far is that they wanted to refine the game more before letting in a more generalized audience. I hope they do open up the last beta a bunch, because they need a stress test that will be equivalent to what will happen at launch.I didn't know what RP was when I chose my WoW server!
Also, PD! All you need to know about RP and the RP servers! We all know you're rolling Tarnished Coast now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wltZGVXsVD4
How was it not clunky? Maybe they've fixed it, but I found movement and jumping to feel quite bad, and more like a bad third person shooter than WoW.
That sounds cool, but CG and I were instancing :(STILL BEAT IT.
and got kicked off :((
So like outside of PvP, what is there to do in this game.
So like outside of PvP, what is there to do in this game.
PvE?
It's ALIVE! We're in.
Their overflow servers are overloaded.
I played a little today and it might be even worse than the last time I played. I'm fucking SHOCKED by how sloppy the intro is, how sloppy the controls are, how chaotic everything is. It's just........ wow. Just wow.
The way characters move is unresponsive as fuck. WoW does it better, amazingly enough. An 8 year old fucking game does it better.
Even Guild Wars 1 feels better.
I played a little today and it might be even worse than the last time I played. I'm fucking SHOCKED by how sloppy the intro is, how sloppy the controls are, how chaotic everything is. It's just........ wow. Just wow.
Sounds just like Guild Wars to me. Complete shit. ArenaNet just got a big marketing budget this time to make slick videos and pay viral marketers to annoy forums.
I dont even know what to say to that. What makes a game an MMO then?
I though the controls were very meh in the beta, to put it lightly
I'm running on integrated graphics rite nao but TBH, given how it's still not running well for some people, this game doesn't have particularly good graphics. Although the art direction mostly makes up for it. Looks better than TERA for me, that's for fucking sure.
Guild Wars 2 is just........ yeah. One of the worst games I've ever played.
In the interest of maintaining credibility of those who criticize GW2 I think you should voluntarily shitban yourself from this thread, ManaShite. None of the shit you say seems to make sense.
How far are you in Secret World?
How far are you in Secret World?
Faction Rank 3 is the closest thing to level? I've been finishing up the second phase of zombie land- im all shotgun/pistols; magic is for PUSSIES. This is a mostly older picture of my character- have a tier 4 shotgun now which looks awesome.
(http://i.imgur.com/BsaN9.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/fT2AM.jpg)
Maybe if you had criticisms that made any sense or didn't equate to being a noob then it might go over better.
But if you walk into a thread and spout factually incorrect things or make ridiculous comparisons, then you're going to get yelled at.
Seems like the TOR crowd is the sanest mmo community on GAF. At least they can recognize and admit to reality; last time I visited they were talking about switching to GW2.
The WoW folks are overly excited for MoP to baffling levels. I know many WoW players who are either indifferent, don't care, or are reserved to the fact that they'll buy MoP regardless of how they feel about it. I don't see any nuance in the GAF thread though, everyone is hyped. And for what?
I love TSW's UI, so clean.
Game has a stellar ambiance. Unfortunately Blue Mountains was enough of a bore to make me drop the game 2-3 weeks in and I'm not paying a sub for it. I hear the content gets a lot more interesting after that, but the generic quests start to require more and more enemies and the enemies seem to take longer and longer to kill. There are usually a few particularly prominent quest chains in each zone, the Theme Park in Savage Coast being one of the better ones I played.Maybe if you had criticisms that made any sense or didn't equate to being a noob then it might go over better.
But if you walk into a thread and spout factually incorrect things or make ridiculous comparisons, then you're going to get yelled at.
That's never happened, but I haven't been since BWE1 or a little afterwards. Prior to that I was as excited about the game as anyone else. This isn't my first time dealing with a rabid MMO-hyped fanbase and GAF's GW2 gang is up there with the best of them. There's not even a Londa about for entertainment purposes.
Seems like the TOR crowd is the sanest mmo community on GAF. At least they can recognize and admit to reality; last time I visited they were talking about switching to GW2.
The WoW folks are overly excited for MoP to baffling levels. I know many WoW players who are either indifferent, don't care, or are reserved to the fact that they'll buy MoP regardless of how they feel about it. I don't see any nuance in the GAF thread though, everyone is hyped. And for what?
:shh they're all sekrit furries
The crafting system is downright WEIRD- I dunno what im doing
Seems like the TOR crowd is the sanest mmo community on GAF. At least they can recognize and admit to reality; last time I visited they were talking about switching to GW2.
The WoW folks are overly excited for MoP to baffling levels. I know many WoW players who are either indifferent, don't care, or are reserved to the fact that they'll buy MoP regardless of how they feel about it. I don't see any nuance in the GAF thread though, everyone is hyped. And for what?
The crafting system is downright WEIRD- I dunno what im doing
http://yokaiblog.wikidot.com/guides:craft-patterns
Minecraft Lite!
If you were enjoying Guild Wars 2 during the headstart weekend, you weren't alone. In fact, chances are 400,000 others were doing the same thing at the same time. Although Guild Wars 2 only officially launched in the wee hours of this morning, the game has already hosted 400,000 users online concurrently. At the same time. Yes.
ArenaNet and NCsoft have also announced that over one million copies of the game were pre-sold, not counting the one-day pre-orders. Of course, that number will rise as folks purchase the game now that it has launched.
I LIKED Tera as a game- but GOD DAMN that player-base. I've never seen so much open chat about screwing characters that look 8 years old. At least the furries kept their crap on the down-lowHay guyz how do i installed korean vers characters models pax ???
sazzy on GAF came into WoW with Cata and this is his first expansion. He's hyped and loved the game for Cata. EXPLAIN THAT.
Thanks for the link- should help
I have some Gamestop credit and I could get this, but then I think of the floaty controls and the clusterfuck UI.
Ruzbeh more opinions please to keep me fromt his game.
I have two weeks off soon :teehee
D3, CS:GO or GW2?
Is CS GO any good? I'm kind of itching for a team based FPS
I love how etiolate's screens made the game look bad. I mean I'm running at lower settings and my game looks better. :lol
And I have to say my female human Guardian is sexy as FUCK. DAMN.Is CS GO any good? I'm kind of itching for a team based FPS
Uh, you do know TF2 just released something along those lines.
wut
Is CS GO any good? I'm kind of itching for a team based FPS
Is CS GO any good? I'm kind of itching for a team based FPS
Uh, you do know TF2 just released something along those lines. Unless you're talking about pvp teams. Pvp anything bores the fucking shit out of me, though.
I'm gonna be honest- I know practically nothing about this game, but from etoilet's mega pic post I can conclude a few things
-grafx sux
-whatever race etoilet and cg are playing as is a twee monstrosity for the whimsy addled set
-it looks like etoilet likes playing house... BORING. games should be about killing fucking monsters n shit. this is why mmos are universally dogshit and arpgs are where it's at. no dumb guild activities, no dumb job crap, no feggity playing house. MANLY KILLING OF MONSTERS AS MEN SHOULD DO. then acquiring of loot. i am judging every single one of you who show any signs of enjoying this nonsense.
I'm gonna be honest- I know practically nothing about this game, but from etoilet's mega pic post I can conclude a few things
-grafx sux
-whatever race etoilet and cg are playing as is a twee monstrosity for the whimsy addled set
-it looks like etoilet likes playing house... BORING. games should be about killing fucking monsters n shit. this is why mmos are universally dogshit and arpgs are where it's at. no dumb guild activities, no dumb job crap, no feggity playing house. MANLY KILLING OF MONSTERS AS MEN SHOULD DO. then acquiring of loot. i am judging every single one of you who show any signs of enjoying this nonsense.
playing dress up is manlier than playing house
got it
http://www.teamfortress.com/mvm/
It's not pvp, but as previously stated pvp is for fucking wankers who want to waive their e-peen about.
PeeDee was looking for some team-based FPS and you recommend him a five year old game...
yeah whatever race that is, its a big turn off. I must be MMO racist :(
Looking through the dungeon reward vendors, I noticed that each dungeon has a set of gear relative to the level of the dungeon, but they also have an extra set of Exotic level gear that is much higher in level. Ascalon Catacombs is a lvl 30 dungeon with a level 60 set, and Cadacius Manor is a level 40 dungeon with a level 70 set. The other six dungeons have max level 80 gear sets. All of the dungeon vendors have special sigils that you can buy for your weapons, and they have some sort of token needed for crafting Legendary Weapons.
Due to the downleveling, this means that all the dungeons are valid at max level and have max level rewards. Catacombs and Manor don't have an 80 set, but are probably part of creating Legendaries.
ANet takes their betas as actual bug finding and fixing betas. This overloaded their system, but after a few minutes it worked for me. They just don't see beta as anything other than a beta for testing.
You know, so they don't launch a feature-less, unfinished game that nobody can log in to for the first week. *cough*
What’s going on behind the scenes right now?
We’ve stress-tested every system in the game, but no stress test will get you to the point our servers are at right now with launch, so we’re monitoring every part of the game. It’s a big game, and — you’ve played it, so you know — there are so many moving pieces to it. There’s the game itself, the guilds, parties and friends lists, the trading post, web services and tons more.
Read more: http://techland.time.com/2012/08/29/guild-wars-2-producer-wed-turn-off-sales-to-preserve-the-game-experience/#ixzz2555v97O9
How’s server stability at this point?
In general the game has been holding up very well and the servers are running great, even under launch stress. We did have to take some things down, like the Trading Post, which as you know has been offline for a while. That’s because, as players started hitting it, we had capacity issues, and we wanted to make sure it’s in really good shape, because it’s such an important part of the game — it needs to work well. Behind the scenes, we’ve got a lot of brilliant people working on that software, and they’ve identified where players ran into capacity constraints, and we’re testing and testing and testing to make sure we get that fixed.
I’ve had no problems to speak of so far, and I know that’s anecdotal, but I was listening to a pretty popular Guild Wars 2 podcast earlier, and all they talked about was how surprised they’ve been that the servers aren’t underwater.
Demand has just been off the charts. We can’t believe the sales volume so far — it’s been way beyond our expectations. We’ve had concurrent users pushing the 400,000 number, and that’s before the game was even on store shelves. This is why none of us have had any sleep for days. And I do think those numbers will only go up now that the game is on store shelves.
We scheduled the headstart [three- and one-day early launch access] so we’d have a chance with pre-purchasers to discover and fix any problems, and we’ve already discovered and fixed several. I think demand is crazy and it’s only going to go up, but I think we’ll keep things running smoothly.
My priority — our priority — is ultimately making sure that players have a great experience. We spent five years working on Guild Wars 2, and we’re going to spend years and years supporting it. If we got to a point where sales continued to be off the charts, and it threatened the experience that players are having with the game, then we’d just turn off sales.
Turn off sales?
To clarify what I mean by that, we sell the game on our website and we also sell the game at retail. And we know how many boxes we’ve created, so we know how many copies can possibly sell through retail. If it gets to the point where sales are so high that it would be unwise of us to keep selling on our website because it wouldn’t leave enough slots for all the people who’ve already bought and all the people we know are going to buy, then we’d just turn off sales.
That would be a shocking thing to do, obviously — not something that you ever see in the games industry — but for me it’s an easy decision, because for me, Guild Wars 2 is a long-term project. I want players to keep having a great experience, and I know if we had to turn off sales temporarily, it’d be okay.
Read more: http://techland.time.com/2012/08/29/guild-wars-2-producer-wed-turn-off-sales-to-preserve-the-game-experience/#ixzz2556DDVQW
Bears do banking now?
Two stupid questions:
1) Why isn't this on Steam?
2) Why wasn't this F2P from the outset if it comes with a buttload of microtransactions?
Two stupid questions:
1) Why isn't this on Steam?
2) Why wasn't this F2P from the outset if it comes with a buttload of microtransactions?
So, last night, I finally did Ascalon Catacombs. AC is a level 30 dungeon and its Story Mode is the first dungeon in the game. It was much harder than I was expecting or anyone in my group was expecting. I think everyone thought they could just mindlessly DPS and be fine. We all rushed in without a strategy and nearly wiped on the first pull. Our group had two thieves, one guardian, an Elementalist and my Mesmer.
As the dungeon went on, we started getting much better at the pulls, mobs and flow of the dungeon. We had a couple of people who had tried Story Mode before but not beaten it. I think I'd rather just break this post into certain encounters, why they kicked our as, and what we did about it.
1. Mobs
Our first pulls - We fight the first two or three mob pull and nearly wipe. The Melee goes down first and rather quickly. Some people are just DPSing and standing still. I try to rez one of our melee guys and nearly die myself. Early on, we were doing a lot of corpse runs from the Waypoint to progress. I hope this is not by design, as it racks up the repair bill. Luckily, they include a armor repair guy in the dungeon. Anyways, what we learned is:
-You have to figure out your pulls before going in. Call Targets and separate targets. You can pull individuals from a pack away from the rest. This allows you to fight one mob at a time, and this is much easier. You also don't want to fight multiples in a tight area. Pull the mobs out of stairwells and chaotic tight spots.
-When fighting a ranged + melee mob, you can LoS the range or anti-range him. As a Mesmer, I switched up my toolbar to aoe combo fields and a lot of anti-range stuff. My Illusionary Warden could occupy a ranger mob while we focused on another mob.
-Combo fields! Drop them, use them. I was stacking combo fields with our Guardian. Applying chaos fields on top of light and fire fields. This gave chaos armor and condition cleansing to those who used them up with a finisher. After awhile, our melee adjusted, remembered to move and dodge, and take advantage of fields. They began to live longer.
2. Traps
We ran into our first trap room and did pretty well with it. We quickly focused on the gryphon heads that controlled the traps and took them out. The trap room that gave us trouble was an open room with a gate, and a Champion level mob guarding the gate. The room was full of spike traps. The person who did it before informed us that there is a chain by the Champion that disables the traps. I blinked thorugh, found the chain and pulled it before dying. The rest of the group had run in and died on the traps, so I had the miniboss focused on me. After this was done, we downed the gate guard pretty easily.
At this point, we were starting to improve as a group. The next part was the locked gate that required you to drop a stone on a pressure plate, but we all know about that and it was done before I even got to the door. We then cleared out the next trap room. The following stairs gave us trouble because we made the previously mentioned mistake of fighting in a tight area. Once we began pulling each mob from the pack of three out of the stairs, one by one, we took them down. There was still a lot of dying and corpse res and running.
3. Bosses
Next came another miniboss that was already engaged in a fight with a NPC. We ran in and joined the fight. There was some dying and corpse running here. I realized this miniboss needed some interrupts, but I didn't have many on me. I used my KD from Greatsword and my Diversion shatter here and there, plus my CHaos Storm had a daze chance. Someone pulled him into the stair well entry, and that gave the rest of us a chance to DPS him for awhile, but tight spots are dangerous. After some dyings going on, I ended up kiting the miniboss until my staff hits killed it.
Another thing I should mention is that story mode has story segments. There are cut-aways and conversation scenes between the NPCs. When we downed this miniboss, we freed up Eir and there was a dialogue scene. After that, Eir joined our party. So we had us five, plus two NPCs. One a ranger and the other a Warrior-like.
The real bosses:
There are three real bosses after all the minibosses. We started off with the Ranger boss. In this fight, the boss stands atop a platform and range attacks you. The platform is separated from the rest of the surrounding area, and the only way to get to it is going up a beam of wood. Our melee went on the beam, and the rest of us kited in the circle area surrounding the island platform. This boss went farely well. He was by far the easiest encounter. He randomly attacks people from range, then teleports to the surrounding circle and engages in melee distance. This process then repeats. When he dropped into melee range at low health, I dropped my Time Warp on all of us and we speed bursted the last of his health down. When He was on the island, I kept my anti-range skills up on him. By now, I had ditched my Greatsword for a Scepter and Focus. The reason for this is the Focus has the iWarden for DPS and deflections, and the temporal curtain/into the void skill allowed me a way to pull groups of mobs and do knockdowns during fights. Plus the Scepter 2 skill was a block/blind depending on how you used it.
On our way to the second boss, our Guardian pulled a gorup before we were ready. We wiped on this, but when I came back, they were still engaged from corpse running. They were focusing on the Warrior and my presence drew the monk mob. Because I fucked it up, I decided to kite/tank the Monk with my anti-range attack skills. I ended up pulling this off long enough for them to finish the other mob and switch to the monk. So yes, a Mesmer semi-tanked for a bit. The second boss we fought was also pretty easy. You could fight this boss as a straight dps attack. She was sort of a Necro boss, and would summon adds. In story mode, we just ignored the adds. At certain points she sends out these beams to the adds and channels something to herself. RUnning across the beams fears you, so you have to stick to an area. Mostly, we DPSed and ressed each other from downed stage.
The third boss was directly after this, and was the boss our Guardian couldn't beat in his last group. The fight is like Twins from AQ or anyone of the raid bosses that followed that strategy in WoW afterwards. The difference is that you can't simply aggro and tank the two bosses apart from each other. You have to use pushbacks and knockdowns to separate them. There are boulders all over the area, and picking them up lets you throw the boulder and knockback a boss. This fight took a long time, a LONG time, and we died and ran back from waypoints over and over. It was very hard to move the bosses how you wanted to move htem, and we weren't totally coordinated. You might have one player knock the boss one direction, and then another knock the boss back another direction. If we did it again, I think I'd have one or two players on Boulder duty, and make sure they just keep knocking one of the bosses down and away from the other. Then have the other three focus on one boss. Our damage ended up split in all the chaos and the bosses got next to each other quite often. We did manage to defeat them though.
Final boss was the ghost of Duke Barradin. He's a warrior/ melee boss. He hits hard, but the real bitch is the Foefire he summons. This is an AOE holy fire that will kill you almost immediatly. Once you realize you can't spend a second in it, then it becomes top priority to avoid. After that, my second priority was blinds and disables on the boss to lower his damage output. My combo fields, scepter, and iDuelist applied stacks of confusion to the boss to do condition damage. The offhand pistol also gave me another interrupt to lower damage output on the Duke. We beat him, and I felt he was far easier than the Two Lovers bosses. You just had to stay out of Foefire, and kite/play defensively if he came after you. Help your teammates with combo fields, rezzes and disables on the boss. By this point, that process was a part of every encounter for me.
4. Loot:
I got half my wardrobe replaced on this dungeon run. I got loot off of bosses and loot from treasure chests that drop after beating a boss. I got a new scepter, greatsword, pistol and torch. I also got a new head, shoulders and chest. The last boss doesn't drop a treasure chest in Story mode, but completing it the first time gives you a rare helm. This was my first rare item, so I was pretty happy. Defeating the dungeon in the variatiants in Explorable mode will get you the other rares that are part of the dungeon set.
Unfortunately, they removed the dungeon set look from Story/Explorable mode. Those unique looks are now moved to the higher level versions which require rerunning the dungeon in explorable mode. At least, thats what I think they involve. I'm not sure how they dole out the tokens.
Overall, we died a lot and I learned a lot. Their dungeon design is different than WoW or Rift, but it has to be because the trinity is gone. I think they expect you to go into downed state, and expect teams to help each other out of downed state.
Afterwards, I cleared out some inventory, put some stuff up for sale on the Trading Post and then grouped up with FatalT to run around in Queensdale for some fun.
Dungeon pics and dungeon armor pic:
(http://i.minus.com/iEACmpI1W6y8K.png)
(http://i.minus.com/ibnyk9AeuBD4Qr.png)
(http://i.minus.com/iJBDoAMSLVxRl.png)
Do you que for dungeons, or does it rely on finding people in chat on your server?
Didnt they stop the sales?
Ruzbeh, do you have autism? That post was intense.
By that logic, Barack Obama must be the most autistic man in the world.I'm not gonna lie, I skip to the end of every conversational cutscene because I don't give a shit about story. I just like to mash keys and make XP bars fill. So far, the game has fulfilled my enjoyment of watching numbers go up.
A brainless game for brainless people.
I'm not saying WoW was perfect. I'm just saying: WoW at launch is fucking WAY ahead of GW2 at launch.
I'm not saying WoW was perfect. I'm just saying: WoW at launch is fucking WAY ahead of GW2 at launch.
Were you at the wow launch?
I had a TON bugs with vanilla wow. Then it was perfectly balance though. Now it is shit to cater to the casuals.
I was in the US beta AND the euro beta and I don't remember bugs in either, although I should say I only made level 18 in US beta.lol
Yeah I was in US beta too actually before launch :)
Dont remember any bugs either.
Upon release, a small number of quests had software bugs that made them impossible to complete.
The Bad
Some stability issues immediately following launch
Player-versus-player elements not complete.
I was in the US version when it was released. It had a fuck ton of bugs for me that crashed the game and made it impossible to complete some quests.
Maybe you were playing it on a Mac?
ITT Ruzbeh argues PC Gamer is a sham
It was a Guild Wars fansite that was hacked, and people were using the same login credentials for their GW2 account.
They have email authentication.
So i guess it is because of dumbasses like these that i have to use an authenticator for wow? I hate that authenticator bs that i get constantantly prompting me to get an authenticator. Which is why i wont play another WoW game again.
So i guess it is because of dumbasses like these that i have to use an authenticator for wow? I hate that authenticator bs that i get constantantly prompting me to get an authenticator. Which is why i wont play another WoW game again.
Because downloading a free app on your phone is so fucking hard.
Staff
1
Winds of Chaos Bounce an orb of energy between foes and allies that applies random boons to allies and random conditions to foes.
2
Phase Retreat Clone Teleport away from your target, summoning a clone that casts Winds of Chaos.
3
Phantasmal Warlock Phantasm Summon an illusion that deals extra damage for each unique condition on the target foe.
4
Chaos Armor Give yourself chaos armor, which gives yourself [sic] random boons and your foe random conditions whenever you are struck.
5
Chaos Storm Create a magical storm at the target location that applies random conditions to foes and random boons to allies.
Skill Type Description
Sword
1
Mind Slash Chain Slash your foe to make them vulnerable.
- -Mind Gash Gash your foe to make them vulnerable.
---Mind Stab Stab your foe and rip a boon off of them.
2
Blurred Frenzy Strike your foe with a flurry of strikes, distorting the space around you, making you evade attacks.
3
Illusionary Leap Clone Summon an illusion that leaps at your target, crippling them.
- Swap Swap locations with your clone. Immobilize nearby foes.
Torch
4
The Prestige Disappear in a cloud of smoke, blinding nearby foes. Reappear three seconds later, burning nearby foes.
5
Phantasmal Mage Phantasm Create an illusion that confuses foes and grants retaliation to allies.
Decoy Clone Gain stealth and summon an illusion to attack your foe.
Blink Manipulation Teleport to a target location.
Signet of Inspiration Signet Passive: Grants a random boon every ten seconds. Active: Copy all of your boons to nearby allies.
ANet opened up digital sales on their website again, and Amazon got a bunch of new digital keys to sell. They must have upped their server capacity or are ready to open brand new servers.
They also released a shitty launch trailer a week after launch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4R5Q0ZOTa8
wtf seriously
:wtf
Your complaints are so inane. OMG the world isnt alive! Atleast in guild wars 2 it is possible to reach level 80 just by crafting. SOmething you cant do in WoW. I felt like wow penalised you for crafting.
Jesus, I will never understand this. It's part of the mmo mindset that is just so foreign to me. "I'm gonna engage in banal, boring simulated crafting of items as opposed to fighting shit in order to achieve in this game."
I bought it- i'll play it- prolly wont tell any of you about playing it.
Jesus, I will never understand this. It's part of the mmo mindset that is just so foreign to me. "I'm gonna engage in banal, boring simulated crafting of items as opposed to fighting shit in order to achieve in this game."
But the grinding to get items is boring too in these games. And i find the crafting fun in GW2 as opposed to WoW which takes hours per level of crafting to do and you still dont get decent items for it.
NCsoft has just announced that the recently launched Guild Wars 2 has sold over two million copies. The record was reached shortly after sales resumed earlier this week. Sales were originally halted shortly after launch when the studio was overwhelmed with more players than they anticipated, which caused problems with server stability.
ArenaNet is launching an all-out assault on subscription MMOs according to a forum post by game designer Colin Johanson. "Guild Wars 2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from GW2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for," he said.
The company isn't abandoning the concept of profit for a barter economy just yet, though. The Black Lion Trading Company will feature additional offerings as well as "large-scale expansion content down the road," according to Johanson.
"We do appreciate that you'd like to buy lots of new content, but we'd prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, because that's what we think a responsible MMO company does," he said
Man alive this game runs shitty in the most unpredictable manner
Yes, you read that right. Guild Wars 2 is available for Mac -- now. ArenaNet just announced that Guild Wars 2 will be supported on Apple's Mac OS X moving forward. Anyone who's purchased Guild Wars 2 has both clients available to them. Players using a Mac client will have all the same features and access to the same servers as a PC client.
guess I'll be getting MoP before this afterall
I'd still prefer a little more skill breadth than so much focus on skill depth.
Anyway, the idea of combos is great on paper, but it's pretty much never going to happen in any strategic way in a many person environment. I use the Holy and Fire combos with 2H Mace as much as I can, but anyone else taking advantage of that is going to be pure coincidence of positioning.
guess I'll be getting MoP before this afterall
I doubt I'll be playing it much after Monday. Just killing time until MoP. It's no where near being a WoW replacement at all, and there are already rumors that server populations have dropped 45% since launch.
The world continues to evolve with new events, jumping puzzles, bosses, mini-dungeons, and achievements appearing across a variety of maps.
Guild Wars 2 is totally free now, also there's a [paid] expansion coming out in October.