I assume that a lot of us will be playing Guild Wars 2, so I figured that I'd start a thread on it.
Prerelease is this Saturday. I personally am gone for the weekend, but plan on playing quite a bit on Monday (assuming they don't kill the servers prepping for release on Tuesday).
I guess that Vlad is playing on Tarnished Coast, so I'll probably go there as well. My understanding is that server transfers are very pain free though, so it might not be a big deal.
I'll also probably start with a Mesmer, if anybody cares.
My understanding from people who played in the beta is that its a really solid game, so I might be playing it a lot. I've been waiting for a non derivative, well executed MMORPG for a long time.
This makes me frownie face.
yeah - I've been pretty annoyed lately with the game. The lag is the absolute worst when it happens... haven't felt this type of pain since Demigod. The joys of casting a spell with 5 enemies around you, not seeing the spell be cast, wandering around wondering what is happening, then realizing you are dead 8 seconds later is a hoot. And their trading post.. also amazing. I was happy I was able to use it one time successfully... a few times failed and most of the time "down for maintenance." And that I queued of for WvWvW yesterday and did not get in after 1 hour and 45 minutes. And that I cannot easily group with pals for reasons I don't understand. And that one map is bugged so that you cannot complete it... and (whatever else I find to bitch about tonight).
Ive not had lag or anything like that.
My only bitch is that Im useless in game no matter what I do. I die and die and die. Im so poor its not even funny. Everything I do at this point is hordes of NPC's vs Me. If I bring in help it still adds more to the instance. Its silly and infuriating!
I can watch engineers in WvWvW clear out entire places ALONE. I jump on the sentry and die. EMO RAGE!!!!
I guess I should redo my build from damage and tank to pure tank do not die when something looks at me wrong. Oh look a feather, DEAD.
OH! and btw, just b/c you go stealth doesnt mean enemies who were in the middle of skill will stop shooting god damn arrows at you. Im looking at you Rapid Fire skill for the rangers. AoE I get that, but a non AoE skill that still will hit you for the full effect when you go stealth. total crap, add that to my list of BS.
We'll start building our guild stash tomorrow. Not sure how long it takes to get up and running, but I'd wager it will be live in the next 2-3 days.
Here's what I want to organize. 1 guild night. This will be a night where anyone that wants to group up shows up at a specific location on the map (eg SCOUT IT OUT in advance if you don't have a way point nearby). This particular night will just be for knocking out an area with those boxes and gaining exp that way. Should be worthwhile even for our higher level friends as they'll still get alot of xp, we'll all get karma xp, etc. Anyway, the question is, where should we start and what area would we like to focus. Maybe we spawn near an asura gate - then just go to an area that the majority of us have not cleared. I suppose we could decide on what we want to do if we just agree on a starting location in adv.
I can cover the "what time" angle. It would be 7 or 8 PM EST some week day this week. I'd like to come to a decision on this quick so I can put up a message of the day (don't overwrite it so we can get folks that don't follow the forums in on this).
Sounds good to me. I'm eaaaasy.
Sounds good to me - this is where you officer folks earn your keep. Help me figure out a location that pretty much everyone will have or be able to find quickly.
I don't have the WvWvW issues you do (Elementalist FTW until the inevitable super nerf bat) but taking down the corrupt Seraph commander (forgot his name) in the monastery was brutal. The guy is at least a level above you and you're stuck fighting him and his bodyguards multiple times in an enclosed space while he swings a greatsword at you. Oh, and when you finally go down to the courtyard he switches to a pair of pistols so ranged kiting is useless, and he uses Thief skills like Unload. I finally beat him for the final time by abusing the staff's Water attack which heals friendlies (including you) in its area of impact and staring him right in the face. DPS on that skill is about as useless as you would expect so it took forever to finally bring him down. No, Commander Thackeray was completely fucking useless.
Well, as our levels are slowly increasing, even with the constant restarts, we should aim for one of the 15-25 (or whatever) areas. I'm not sure how many plant folk we have in our guild, but I don't think there's many, so their territory should be one where we will get the most benefit. Unfortunately, I haven't been there enough to know the name of the area, but I can scout it out a bit on my next session, and provide a more exact location.
It's a little late to help now, but if you had to resort to that tactic, you might want to also use the healing skill that heals you every time you cast a spell. Double the healing!
It sounds like the profession just isn't for you. My understanding is that Thief is considered reasonably strong. Sometimes a class just doesn't fit. Try something different.
I don't know how much fun this is going to be. Heart quests are really easy to solo, so grouping them will just be a bit silly. I personally find events really boring when there are lots of people too - they are actually pretty fun when you have 2-5 people, but above that, its just a spam fest. Also, are high level people really going to get decent xp? Unless they scale the heart quests to give about 10x the xp, its not going to be anything - chopping down 2 trees gives me as much xp as a low level heart quest.
I think that people should just get to 30 so that we can do the first dungeon.
I was. It still felt bad that I had to resort to cheese rather than honest battle. At least with the Hruud and Mallus centaur bosses in the previous quest I got to do battle rather than simply abusing Elementalist healing mechanics.
yes.. it is easy to solo... but you get karma/guild points AND we actually play together. #1 reason for being in a guild for pacov? playing with folks. % of time I do so? 3% tops (fair estimate). Reason? Folks choose not to do so. For instance, I've been bitching about this for awhile. Has anyone made any effort to slow down and help folks? Not really (that I'm aware of). I think the only thing you (karl) disliked about that one time we all played together and roamed was that we hit an area where you weren't strong enough for at the time. Correct me if I'm wrong. And if I am correct, then there's no reason that we shouldn't all get together for 1 freaking night and grind out some levels together. We aren't doing it because its impossible to get challenges solo (I assumed that would be obvious, mr karl pants). The goal is to get more and more of us PLAYING TOGETHER and closer together in level so we can do more of the same things. If that means you have to take a single night break from trying to hit level 70, then OMG - you now have folks you usually play with closer to that goal because of your benevolence. It's not that bad being good guy pacov or good guy karl for a single night. Think about it for 2 seconds. If I was level 70 and so were you karl, don't you think we'd play together frequently? I do. So, my simple goal is to get as many of us up in level as possible and build some relationships along the way.
I think we should help people get to 30 so we can all play together. My solution to this is to host OCCASIONAL guild nights were we just hang out and try to level in areas where folks have not all cleared. The amount of EXP you get should be pretty damn comparable to what you get soloing a level 70 whatever. Pretty sure they designed it that way. Pretty sure if my statement is right... well... smeh on your head. I'd love to play with folks - PERIOD. If I don't soon, I'll likely just phase back to lol. Its boring to just grind out levels alone. Some people like that crap. I'm not a fan. So, the solution is to help folks Eg - my simple solution is to get everyone together for a single night and grind out some levels and enjoy playing together.
Consider the basic math - no real loss to you for a few hours and still gaining the same xp (side note - I've actually had Amazing item drops in level 1-15 areas as a level 29 - pretty sure that will happen for you as well... again they appear to have designed it this way). You bring players that you know/like (at least some) up to your level more quickly. You build a sense of community. Or you can grind out and just play with folks that do the same without getting bored out of their minds. I'll give you what I think is the clear and proper solution - help folks in your guild. Especially help folks you know. You benefit by keeping people playing a game you like.
Anyway, we need to build a real sense of community imo. asap. Make an effort pretty please.
Dax has, more than once, come to hang out with me, whether it be to collect resources or to help take down a champion spawn. He's been pretty awesome. The rest of you, though, have been Antisocial Archibalds!
Yes, I'm also suggesting that we get together and play as a group. It's just that I'm saying that if we go through the effort to schedule something, we could consider doing something other than simply grinding out more levels.
Grinding levels can be boring. But the gameplay is even more boring if you do it as a group - everything is absurdly easy, so its shooting fish in a barrel. This can be offset by having people around to play with, but its not ideal.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I'm all for getting together and playing. I'd just rather not have our first get together be a "let's take a break from grinding levels alone so that we can grind levels together". The dynamic scaling systems lets you do fun things as a larger group even if you aren't the same level. Let's take advantage of that and do group content as a group (meaning dungeons if we have a high enough % at 30, WvW otherwise), and leave solo content for random guild pickup groups
If people disagree with me and really want to group up to grind some more, fine. I'll help out. But I'm just making an alternative suggestion.
It's not really important since I'm not that concerned with my xp/hour or getting 1337 drops, but as an FYI:
The system is designed so that you can go back and help friends and get some reward, but your xp and drops are way scaled back. I'd say that xp gain is about half what it would normally be at level appropriate content. You do sometimes get drops at your clevel instead of the mob level, but they are much rarer.
Once again, not a big deal, but as an FYI.
Actually the way its been said many times in game and a few other places Ive seen, loot is always dropped at your lvl no matter what the zone. How good it is Im not sure.
Xp is percentaged based. Yes lower lvl areas wont give as much as higher lvl if your of course higher but you still get some. Helping my bro alot Ive seen this as I way higher than him.
But the point behind the system is to promote playing with people of all lvls and not just your own.
I try and join up with you guys some more when I can. Weekdays are busy for me with school and work.
That maybe true its not my fit. And your right about it being strong, it is strong but extremely situational at best given the current way the game throws things at you. Single target Champions are usually the easiest thing it gives me.
Im dodging as often as I can to avoid hits and such but you can only dodge so much when your outnumbered 10to1 on an easy instance. Like you said its even harder when there is no room to maneuver, kit, or pull. Which as far as I can tell are the thiefs way of tanking.
I queued up the guild stash before heading into work this am. fyi
The issues that you guys have expressed haven't really been an issue for me. Lag has only really happened once. Missions get way more epic and awesome as the game goes on... (As in recruit the grawl tribes to help fight a champion boss, and if you take too long they will have to be recruited again) It certainly beats "Take care of so-and-so's garden for them"
I took on bosses who swarmed me with too many guys and I died, sure, but it was more because I wasn't prepared than because my class was a failure.
Engineer is awesome
as I can take on a million guys from a ridiculous distance, soloing bosses and mobs with relative ease. The Engineer's damage output is very low compared to the other classes, however.
Engineer is certainly a strange class, as his primary attack has a massive range (1200) that pierces through in a line, while pretty much all of his abilities are close range. It was rather frustrating at first to figure out how to use my abilities and still stay far away, but I discovered that building all my traits/items on crit damage and precision allowed me to ONLY use my attacks to kill mobs, and allowing me to fight at close range with my low damage output. Setting up turrets was also a great way to stay alive in small spaces, as they draw enemy aggro rather than me. Playing Norn also gave me access to their forms, which basically allow me to change into a high-damage, high-health, high-sustain melee-range animal for 30 seconds, which was invaluable for fighting many enemies at close range. It's just fun to be able to switch between the long range kiting gameplay and the close-range melee combat at a whim.
And that is why playing engineer has kept me interested in this game, and has allowed me to get to level 68 without raging to death. (I had several level 80s tell me that I could have been level 80 by now if I had actually done crafting like they had >.> [as if I would do something as wimpy as crafting to get my levels... puhleeze])
Whenever I am on (pretty much all the time) you can ask me for help with missions... I am perfectly happy to come help with whatever. I will usually say something like "hold on a minute" and then I will come help.
If you want me somewhere, tell me where to be in guild chat...
sweet
I've scouted a possible area for a guild run:
The plant people don't get more than their starter area to themselves, instead sharing the Brisban Wildlands (15-25) with the Asura, and Kessex Hills (15-25) with humans. Either of which works for me, as I haven't explored them, but perhaps less useful for the others. Both are easy to access, with Brisban being the second zone directly north of Rata Sum, and Kessex 2 zones directly south of Divinity's Reach. They are also directly adjacent to each other, which is a plus.
Pacov will probably post something in a minute, but I thought I'd throw my thoughts up as well.
Tonight we tried a dungeon. It went poorly.
Like, very poorly.
We started it with only 4 people, and going into it, I think we all had our grinding DPS builds going, which caused a party wipe on the very first enemy. And another one.
We did improve, with time, only being wiped when faced with multiple opponents, but I think we were too slow to adjust.
Unfortunately, it looks like the only XP you get is for completing the dungeon itself, which after 2 hours we had failed to do. I've heard it's fantastic XP if you do complete it. We just aren't there yet.
What kind of builds do you need for the Ascalonian Catacombs?
Wait til 40
do Caudecus Manor over and over and over
it rewards well and is ridiculously easy to complete
I can do a CM run in about 9 minutes if I have a good team, and 30 minutes if we spend too long on it. 20k Exp per run. Grinding to level 80 has never been easier. Of course you probably shouldn't abuse the Manor as the developers probably won't like that.
Current level: 74.85 hue
I dunno
AC is a very tough dungeon with poor rewards.
Balanced team is 3 ranged 1 melee tank, 1 melee DPS. In that ranged group you need an engineer. A lot of utility comes from the engineer, don't let it go to waste.
The ideal team:
Ranger/Elementalist
Engineer
Elementalist/Ranger
Guardian
Warrior/Thief/Mesmer
I agree. the Manor is much easier.
Its sad really that the first dungon they give you is stupidly hard. Hence my rant about dungons being lame with crappy rewards.
For a game that boast that you didnt need roles to complete stuff, its sure looking like you need those dedicated roles.
Well, I will add this - I did get some really nice item drops during the quest (didn't really get a chance to check everything out in detail, but one item was like substantially better than what I had before and it was something that I could use immediately. So, I'm happy for the loot I got anyway. I didn't notice not getting any xp - that kind of blows. Also, I wonder if it would have been easier if we had one more person with us or if the difficulty scales and is more challenging. If it doesn't scale, then I think 5 would have been adequate. All said and done, I feel like we could have finished the dungeon, but it would like have taken us another hour and 1/2 based on the remaining objectives. So, it would have been 2 1/2 hours total. smeh.
I'd try it again, but I'd like a full party ofc.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
