Guild Wars 2 Catch All

SaintFaucet wrote:

New patch notes are up.

Tower of Nightmares
What happens when the evil agendas of the krait and the Nightmare Court align? The answer can be found around Viathan Lake in Kessex Hills, where a dreadful tower has risen to spew poison into the sky. It’s causing hallucinations and illness in all who breathe in the spores. The malevolent forces behind it have Tyria’s subjugation in mind.

Couldn't they hit up the thesaurus? "Toxic Alliance" makes me think of the recent "Molten Alliance".

The alliance should be called "Tuna Salad Sandwich".

Tyops wrote:

Well it's their attempt at a recurring villain.

I just wish she'd make an alliance with Giants... that way we could get the giant slayer achievement without horrible grinding.

She just has been implemented in a bad way. We have no idea why she does anything or how she does what she does, especially with these unlikely alliances. Things just happen because Scarlet shows up.

When you actually see her in game I like her, it is just she acts without any context whatsoever.

Tink of it like the first season of a sci fi show. The firat half is usually bad while they establish characters.

Tyops wrote:

Tink of it like the first season of a sci fi show. The firat half is usually bad while they establish characters.

It has been about six months. I would think that is enough time.

Video teaser is now up:

I played some of the new patch this evening. They seem to have put a lot of work into this one, the altered Kessex Hills is pretty cool and the introductory instance, with spoken dialogue and cut scenes was nice. A lot of the open world gameplay is the typical champ zerg stuff or the scavenger-hunt-for-achievement stuff. There's an odd feature in that Toxic Courtiers need stomps to kill, which gets a bit tiresome after a while. Overall it's pretty easy, though. I played on my zerker warrior, a bit hesitant that I might be eaten alive by condi ... but nothing of the sort. Not enough challenge if anything.

Also, people in world were saying the skill was 5 gold plus a lot of the spores you collect ... but I just unlocked it for 25 skill points. Seems like not a good use of 5g.

Tenebrous wrote:
Tyops wrote:

Tink of it like the first season of a sci fi show. The firat half is usually bad while they establish characters.

It has been about six months. I would think that is enough time.

Yeah but we've really only had 3-4 episodes of "The Scarlet Show".

So is it now too late to do the Halloween stuff?

jdzappa wrote:

So is it now too late to do the Halloween stuff?

Nope, all that stuff is still up until the 11th.
Royal tradition game of mad king says starts tomorrow.

Ok, I am trying to piece together what has happened in the last couple of months and what is occurring now. I logged in last night, but was so lost I didn't know where to start. I had to pick new traits on some of my gear and apply a new magic find buff.

1. Is there any pre-req to the new living story event? Do I just go to Kessex and join in?

2. Did they do away with the mad king's clocktower this year?

3. Is there anything special I need to know regarding major changes to WvW, Dungeons, or something major?

GoldenDog wrote:

Ok, I am trying to piece together what has happened in the last couple of months and what is occurring now. I logged in last night, but was so lost I didn't know where to start. I had to pick new traits on some of my gear and apply a new magic find buff.

1. Is there any pre-req to the new living story event? Do I just go to Kessex and join in?

2. Did they do away with the mad king's clocktower this year?

3. Is there anything special I need to know regarding major changes to WvW, Dungeons, or something major?

1. no pre-reqs
2. It is in an instance now to prevent lag
3. not really.

Tyops wrote:
Tenebrous wrote:
Tyops wrote:

Tink of it like the first season of a sci fi show. The firat half is usually bad while they establish characters.

It has been about six months. I would think that is enough time.

Yeah but we've really only had 3-4 episodes of "The Scarlet Show".

Exactly, there is a problem with pacing here. If you are going to stretch out something for that long you need to think of better ways to deliver the narrative.

GoldenDog wrote:

3. Is there anything special I need to know regarding major changes to WvW, Dungeons, or something major?

Well we are currently in the midst of "Season 1" of WvW. For this season we squeaked in as the lowest seed in silver league (middle tier). There's some speculations that servers around us tanked to make sure they would be in bronze. This week's match has us paired against Stormbluff Isle, which is a server that apparently could have been in gold league but tanked so they could be one of the top dogs in silver. Unless you have a a damned good reason to do so, do not go in WvW this week. We are getting crushed (our score has routinely dipped below +50).

Also in WvW.

The borderlands maps have been updated. The big lake is gone, and replaced with an area with 5 ruins. If your realm gains control of 3 of those 5 ruins for a certain amount of time, you get a buff for your server. It's a replacement to the old orb mechanic and although it still favours the server that dominates, it's somewhat more balanced when the matchup isnt as lopsided as this week's and a server is able to keep a good foothold in their BL. Each ruin has a different feel and that area is designed with small skirmishes in mind.

Tenebrous wrote:

Exactly, there is a problem with pacing here. If you are going to stretch out something for that long you need to think of better ways to deliver the narrative.

Fair. They have been releasing written content on their site and the Wooden Potatoes stuff helps, but those are crutches they shouldnt be relying on.

Tenebrous wrote:
GoldenDog wrote:

Ok, I am trying to piece together what has happened in the last couple of months and what is occurring now. I logged in last night, but was so lost I didn't know where to start. I had to pick new traits on some of my gear and apply a new magic find buff.

1. Is there any pre-req to the new living story event? Do I just go to Kessex and join in?

2. Did they do away with the mad king's clocktower this year?

3. Is there anything special I need to know regarding major changes to WvW, Dungeons, or something major?

1. no pre-reqs
2. It is in an instance now to prevent lag
3. not really.

Woot, welcome back, Ivan!

For the Clocktower, go through a Halloween gate and then talk to the Charr NPC.

They did increase gold rewards for dungeons and added a lvl 80 path to twilight arbor but now everyone farms champs for champ bags. Popular champ farms are Frostgorge, Queensdale and Cursed Shore and probably for the near future, kessex.

For WvW, the new season is probably the biggest change.

Is there an established rotation for the Kessex champs like there is in Queensdale? Or is it still too new?

Delmarqo wrote:

Is there an established rotation for the Kessex champs like there is in Queensdale? Or is it still too new?

Not sure there would be as long as people farm the flower spawns, these would take precedence (they spawn champs) and disrupt any possible set rotation.

ok so I found the clocktower and got the gloves.

Do people not farm the world events anymore? Have those bosses been replaced by hunting champions? I killed a couple champions and received mini chests, but they all had junk in them (blues, greens).

GoldenDog wrote:

ok so I found the clocktower and got the gloves.

Do people not farm the world events anymore? Have those bosses been replaced by hunting champions? I killed a couple champions and received mini chests, but they all had junk in them (blues, greens).

People do the world bosses less, partially because they all take much longer now but really because the gold per hour from champs is much better, 4-8 gold an hour depending upon whether you sell everything or not.

The frostgorge train produces 6-7 champ bags every 4-5 minutes, that adds up quickly. In addition to yellows/greens/blues, I normally average 2 exotics per 100, but the real money can come from the tier 6 mats and lodestones that you can get.

Also, the principal source of account magic find comes from the salavaging of blues and greens.

Teacup is a different animal all together but to do it, you really need to join TTS, the Tea killing guild. Many of us are in TTS, so just ask in guild chat for details.

You can now read the preview for the Dec 10th Balance Patch. A few interesting and far reaching changes proposed, particularly for warriors, necros and thieves. Guardians are also up for some small buffs to damage, which are welcome.

Do we still have an active goodjer guild on Northern Shiverpeaks ?

krev82 wrote:

Do we still have an active goodjer guild on Northern Shiverpeaks ?

Yep

Managed to get my Krait obelisk shard for the home instance. Not sure how useful it'll be (I missed out on the quartz node when I wasn't playing the game) but it's an extra skill point. The Kessex Hills event has proved good for working toward the monthly and for levelling my Necro (lv46 without crafting yet).

So speaking of necros ... at the moment I'm using power gear for levelling, but was intending to go condi once I reach 80 for WvW. But now I'm undecided. Power seems better suited to zerg fighting wheras condi seems better for small group or solo roam. I'm not sure what I really want from WvW in the future (I've basically ignored the whole season thus far) but am curious what builds you guys are running?

babakotia wrote:

Managed to get my Krait obelisk shard for the home instance. Not sure how useful it'll be (I missed out on the quartz node when I wasn't playing the game) but it's an extra skill point. The Kessex Hills event has proved good for working toward the monthly and for levelling my Necro (lv46 without crafting yet).

So speaking of necros ... at the moment I'm using power gear for levelling, but was intending to go condi once I reach 80 for WvW. But now I'm undecided. Power seems better suited to zerg fighting wheras condi seems better for small group or solo roam. I'm not sure what I really want from WvW in the future (I've basically ignored the whole season thus far) but am curious what builds you guys are running?

I have two basic builds I can modify internally for PvE and WvW, a 30/30/0/0/10 (basically a condi build but it could be counted as a hybrid, PvE WvW) build and a 30/10/0/0/30 power build (PvE WvW).

You are correct in that Condi is not as good for zergs expect when you can get off an epidemic.

My Condi PvE build is about building conditions then a might spike (blood to power and activating the signet, 13 might) and epidemic for spreading high powered conditions everywhere.

My WvW build is about using spectral skills to keep opponents off balance while you build conditions on players. If I am hitting a camp I will sub in epidemic instead of corrupt boons (which is awesome against players btw.

I currently use a mixture of rabid and carrion gear for Condi.

My power builds are about using wells to augment damage and building lifeforce for frequent use of deathshroud. I use PTV gear for these builds.

I think I have been playing necro longer than anyone here so I have tried quite a few things and these work with for me for now.

I've been using pure condition with rabid gear. I'll post more at lunch tomorrow.

--Update--

OK so I've been using a build that I found here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptGYV...

This guy has a lot of sweet necro videos and builds.

It's a condi build with rabid gear and trinkets. The big appeal for me was that I already had the gear, and you can get all that gear from temple karma vendors.

The build uses the following setup

-0
20 (IV, IX)
20 (VI, VIII)
-0
30 (III, IX, XI)

I use Scepter/Dagger and Staff
Heal is consume conditions
Epidemic, Corrupt Boon, and then either signet of locusts or spectral wall
Elite flesh golem if roaming or plague if zerging

You have a lot of fears, and you can CC well enough, decent condition damage. The key is to use armor runes, food, nourishment to get your condition duration to +50% and get an extra tick or two to all your fears.

With this I can roam pretty effectively (my issues are really down to skill at this poiny), and necro staff lets you do pretty nice things in a zerg, attacking, or defending.

I like it because I can switch in and out of different roles and be pretty effective with minimal changes to traits/utilities.

That's given me some good ideas, thanks! I'm considering going for dire armour with rabid weapons and trinkets, enough to add some extra vit but without losing too much crit chance. I've seen both 30/30/0/10/0 and 0/20/20/0/30 utilised effectively, and a terrormancer build with lots of fear is appealing

Tyops, the problem I see with that is condi is weak LF generation. It is a shame if you dump 30 into soul reaping and you are not really using death shroud as consistently as you could.

You would really be dependant on the staff auto attack and scepter three for LF during a fight and both are sub-optimal in one way or another.

Tenebrous wrote:

Tyops, the problem I see with that is condi is weak LF generation. It is a shame if you dump 30 into soul reaping and you are not really using death shroud as consistently as you could.

You would really be dependant on the staff auto attack and scepter three for LF during a fight and both are sub-optimal in one way or another.

LF generation hasnt been that much of an issue so far to be honest, I dont really tend to stay in DS very long, I pop in and out quickly to fire off a fear, cleanse a condition, and gain stability. If you have rabid gear or close enough give it a try, or have a look at that guy's videos. He seems to run with it fine, though arguably he could be getting by on skill more than on build quality.

I haven't had much to contribute, but I'm definitely very interested in all this for my baby necro (the only char I've played in the past month). I don't use DS all that much either, but that might still be my inexperience talking.

DS is awesome for a number of reasons. The DPS in the form can be awesome. It has two very good AoE's one of which puts out two of the better conditions in the game, the other of which builds and feeds the form. DS 2 is great for catching fleeing people.

Most importantly, it is a great damage sink on top of the necro's already impressive HP pool. If specked for it, one can gain LF fairly quickly with axe and/or dagger so you do not even have to invest in blood magic or death magic to have really good survivability.

Any tips to help me enjoy this game? I just picked it up a few weeks, but haven't been able to play it much. I've been playing as a Charr warrior. I'm about lv 10. I still don't know what I'm doing. I think I'm the only person in the starting area. It just hasn't clicked at all. Should I try a different race or class?

I'd stick to that race and class if you're having fun with it. Be sure to ask if anyone is up to leveling an alt with you in guild chat. Other that, you can head to Queensdale (via the gate to Lion's Arch in the Black Citadel then head to Divinity's Reach then south - it's the human stating area and usually packed). Maybe lay off the story and just explore, do hearts, vistas?