Guild Wars 2, part three

Ok guys and gals....here's a new spot for all things Guild Wars 2. Our Previous Thread (part 2) reached our page limit. Feel free to discuss and inform.

Another stress test August 9th noon to four, Pacific, again that's two - six for me.

And I do have August 25th (head start) off work!

Wooo Hooo Guybrush, that is great news!

Well its working, we're all stressed. Nobody can get in. I got to character selection screen that dropped and now can't get passed log in screen at all. Keep getting restart client and try again message.

Okay, its working now. I have decided to save an orphanage or a hospital, one I don't save will burn down.

And out again. (sigh)

Had fund once I got in.

Over so back to vanquishing Eye of the North.

They're doing it again, stress test Friday, 4pm-8pm Pacific. I'll be working during the whole thing.

Sounds like it was a good thing they tested it!

Argh - 4PM, that's like 1 AM saturday morning for me!

The latest blog Arenanet entry simply announces that they won't be using the blog much anymore since the redesign of the official Guild Wars 2 web site (which doesn't even have a link to the blog anymore) but will be posting news on the Guild Wars 2 site instead. The blog will talk more about the original Guild Wars. So I guess, once Guild Wars 2 is up and running more of the staff will return to maintaining and updating Guild Wars 1.

Thanks Guybrush!

Ana

Subscription MMO Model Offers Huge Barrier To Entry

End Game interview part 1 - Youtube video: talks about dungeons and using extra skill points, which you still gain after level 80 to craft Legendary Weapons

End Game interview part 2 - only about 2 minute on "end game", most of this part of the interview is answers to Twitter questions. Big news is that Wintersday and Mad King Thorn will be back. Since GW1 only had human player characters Wintersday was only a human holiday so will be interesting to see what the other four races do for the holiday and how they react to this crazy, undead human king.

Thanks Guybrush. Collector's Editions are all sold out at this point.

Seems silly to me but there is a one hour stress scheduled for Sunday, 11:00 AM PST to 12:00 PM. I'll be working.

I wonder how it went?

The Final Countdown—Guild Wars 2 Launch Times - looks like the counter on the mage page is now correctly counting down to midnight, instead of noon as it had been.

Thanks Guybrush..I hope it lives up to it's hype

Another strees test, Wendesday, 12PM Pacific, which again is 2PM Central.

How did the last one do?

Don't know. It was only an hour and I was working.

This one is four hours.

Over at guildwar2guru fans are all a buzz because Amazon has a 10 second sample of a Guild Wars 2 song with actual lyrics, apparently written by Ree Soesbee, lore and continuity designer most responsible for sylvari lore.

Some of the same fans are also very annoyed that those who have the time and money to attend Gamescom in Germany will have access to a unique in game item not available to most fans.

Guild Wars 2 at Gamescom 2012 = Youtube video

Thanks Guybrush. I thought they might have released that info on a blog.

European fan sites giving away GW2 CE

Wow, that is fantastic. Those collector's editions are all but impossible to get now.

A World of Choice – The Regions of Guild Wars 2

Introducing the Worlds of Guild Wars 2 - North American and European server names


It is now possible to change your Guild Wars 2 account name, it still has to be an email address and changing it changes your contact address as well as log in ID for both Guild Wars 1 and Guild War 2. Just go to account.guildwars2.com.

Some people like me got stuck with an old and no longer active email address as GW account names and didn't like it. Now it can be changed. Note: changing your GW2 password will also change your GW1 password. So if you can't get into GW1, after the changes, this is why.

Thanks Guybrush!

Ana

Thanks Ana, Thanks Guybrush

What we're up against - a screen shot from Guild Wars 1. Near the Charr homeland, the charr believe it to be a mountain. In fact its a sleeping elder dragon, Kralkatorrik.

The little guy who looks like a mummy is my character. The Xunlai Investigator NPC appears to know something about the future because he talks about the coming cataclysm.

The Pale Tree sapling - the young Pale Tree with my ritualist character and Ventari, the centaur who carves the Tablet the Sylvari will revere in 250 years.

Thanks Guybrush. I love dragons

Thanks L4L. The computer people told me that virus software, firewalls, etc are pretty much useless because they only cover current viruses. It's the new ones that get you and they haven't been added to the databases of most all of the virus protection programs.
It's a shame that the people who write the viruses consider it fun to cheat and destroy people's property and lives.
<Getting off soapbox now> Onward and upward!

Debra, every virus program I've ever had can be updated to include the new viruses. I update daily and sometimes, more than once a day.

Ah what doe viruses have to do with Guild Wars 2?

Winner of the IGN People's Choice Award

Guybrush this should have gone under the WoW thread about changing your password and security question due to a breech Blizzard had.
I guess it's just another senior momement for me.
Oops!

Another stress test August 21, noon to 4pm Pacific. I'll be able to play about an hour and a half before going to work, unless I'm called in early again.

Nice, since I have tomorrow off

Let us know how it goes

New security feature with the stress test: Before I could play I had to verify my email address by receiving an email and then going to the included web site. Email said click on it but it wasn't actually a clickable link, I had to copy and paste.

Interesting...

Once I got in a had a letter. They're letting us test the items we got for pre-purchasing the game.So I'm wearing a magic ring +2 on stats and being followed by a miniature Rytlock Brimstone.

The ring and the banker golem (follows you around giving you access to the storage bank wherver you are) are apparently per character, because each time I changed characters they got the mail with those two items. Other pre-purchase stuff, including the mini are once per account so only the first character I logged in on got those. But they can be banked so different character could use them. In fact the option to send all "Collectibles" to the bank no matter where you are included, much to my surprise, the mini. The banker golem lets you take stuff out of the bank or put stuff in not considered collectible wherever you are otherwise only collectibles can be sent in without having to go to a banker.


Dance emote /dance is finally in. I'm not certain whether its race based, profession based, gender based or some combination. GW1 only had human so dance was profession and gender based. My favorite in GW1 is male monk, it uses some martial arts type moves. Monk flex in GW1 has monk stand on its head, other professions just flex their arm muscles.

Dancing is race based only.

Couple of Youtube videos showing the dancing:

Guild Wars 2 dances, in game sound

Guild War 2 dances with music - embedded video shows where the dances came from

Thanks Guybrush, lots to choose from there

Bill-Freist talks optimization and performance

Supposed to be Zaihtan, main foe of GW2

Thanks Guybrush, I don't envy PC game makers the job of trying to make a product that works with the many many different computer builds out there.

Dang it! I just learned there was a one hour stress test last night which I missed. Seems they gave 10 minutes notice on Twitter.

Claiming your Hall of Monuments Rewards

Arenanet Is Hiring

Sorry you missed it! Thanks for the links.

They deleted the database before, requiring the creating of new characters which has led to speculation that was they were testing was how much stress character creation could take.

John Smith on the Guild Wars 2 Virtual Economy

Any one who did not link Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 when they purchased Guild Wars 2 (since you're promoted to do that when you first activate GW2 the only way this should happen is if you bought GW2 first then later bought GW1) may now link the two games (to receive GW2 rewards for playing GW1) by going to Link Accounts

Thanks Guybrush

Free Guild Wars 2 ‘Celebration Hat’ Available for a Limited Time Only! - its an in game item. I'm disappointed its not a real world hat

Go Deluxe! Upgrade Your Game with Digital Deluxe - features a new video showing the Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill

If you have the game I'd check for updates every couples of hours. Been lots of small ones.

@#$%&*() I spend an hour and a half (they started head start early) making my character and find that somebody stole my elementalists name. One word names couldn't be made in GW1 so they couldn't be reserved.

Awww Guybrush, that is too annoying. I hope you came up with one you liked nearly as well anyway.

Gets worse my asura warrior's name was taken too. I changed "a" to "â" and was able to make Whâkk.

Whâkk, asura warrior in armor

Whâkk, in street clothes, so you can see his hair

Whâkk, in street clothes, wearing the limited edition free hat

Étienne Martel (French for Stephen Hammer), human guardian in original armor

Étienne Martel, in street clothes

Rameî, sylari elementalist in armor - apparently I have a thing for blue and purple

Rameî, sans armor - sylvari first appear in the Dream wearing armor but after killing the first boss the sylvari appears on Tyria, wearing nothing bud leaves were undergarments would be. After talking to an NPC you get your armor back.

Note: sylvari undergarments are not actually clothes but are as much part of the sylvari's body as what is being covered up.

Rameî in street clothes

Kissa Nimbleclaw, charr thief, in original armor(updated since betas)

Kissa Nimbleclaw in street clothes)

Anvîndr, norn ranger in original armor

Anvîndr, norn ranger in street clothes


The Hall of Memorial armors and weapons are just skins. You If you don't have the weapons they don't give them to you. If you have mace and want to change its appearance to Deldrimor Mace you get the skin from HOM and double click on it then drag the actual mace to the new window to combine Deldrimor Mace skin and with the existing mace's stats. All the HOM weapons and armor work that way. If you later get armor or weapons with better stats and what the HOM skin you have to return to the hall and get them again.

You get weapon skins, armor skins and mini pets from Kimmes the Historian. The ranger pets are just walking around the hall. Most of them in the first room but the jellyfish is in the second room in the water near Kimmes. Your ranger can charm any or all of them.

I thought there was a bug with one of the weapon skins but I was mistaken. The icon does not change so it looks like weapon hasn't changed even though its renamed. But when you equipe the weapon it will show the new appearance on your character.

Thanks Guybrush

I love the Sylvari

These characaters are the ones I had to buy extra slots for, at 800 gems or $10 real money each.

Ravnur, norn mesmer, original amor - only one word character name some one else didn't take

Ravnur in street clothes (very different color scheme to armor and unmasked)

Tomas Nathan Tinker, human engineer in original armor

Tomas Nathan Tinker in street clothes

Draén, sylvari necormancer, in original armor

Draén, just after he awoke in Tyria

Draén in street clothes

Draén in the dark, no armor

Sylvari hardest to design, they have so many combinations, including the ability to glow in the dark. See if I can get a night shot of Ramei without his armor.

I redid Tomas Nathan Tinker. So if you looked at him before, look at him again (the links have changed).

Been so busy playing I missed the news.

Introducing the Guild Wars 2 Official Strategy Guide - not free

Learn How to Play with Our Online Manual and Tutorial Video - free

Well, that must mean you are having lots of fun

Guild Wars 2 is now live for those who did not pre-purchase. So buy it now and join in the fun, And if you buy the standard version and decide later you'd like the deluxe you can upgrade later. I think the CE is sold out.

I just came from getting my weekly slice of cheeseburger pizza. And now I'm laughing at myself. Seems I unconsciously patterned my engineer's face after the restaurant's manager.

Additional image of my sylvari elementalist. So far, he's the only character I like in Hall of Memorial's Heritage Armor. Course it could be that the heavy armor and medium armor don't look good without the shoulder pads. There are also should pads for the light armor but I don't think they're needed to look good in the light armor. The staff is also a HOM skin.

Rameî wearing Heritage Armor and a Gnarled Walking Stick (staff)

I love this new look for my ranger:
Anvîndr's new armor - funny thing is its not a set, each piece is random drop or a purchase from different NPCs and I got lucky on a random dye drop.

Interview with first person to reach level 80 (max) in Guild Wars 2

The Hat

There is more to crafting than we were originally told. Each crafting discipline can make additional items.

Artificer: magical weapons (focus, spear, staff, trident), sigils (upgrade weapons) and potions

Tailor: light armor (elementalist, necromncer, mesmer), runes (upgrade armor) and cloth bags

Huntsman: wooden weapons, firearms and sigils

Leatherworker: medium armor (ranger, thief, engineer), runes and leather bags

Weaponsmith: metal weapons and sigils

Armorsmith: heavy armor (warriors, guardians), runes and inventory boxes

Chef: food and dyes

Jeweler: jewels (no additional items at this time)

There normal bags and boxes (hold anything) and specialized bags and boxes. Some will hold only crafting materials, some only junk and some only armor and weapons. Some will make what is put in them invisible to merchants so you can't accidentally sell items.

As a tailor I made myself four ordinary eight slot bags. The bags you get from merchants or at personal story rewards only hold 4 items. There are larger bags (and boxes) but you can't craft those to start.

Each crafting discipline comes with some already known recipes its also possible to try different things to come up with your own. Recipes are also available from vendors.

Thanks Guybrush, good to know

Current status of the game

Thanks Guybrush, glad to hear they are taking quick action with bots and exploiters.

Another status update (August 31, 2012)

Thanks again

I don't know if I mentioned it but I actually did get most of this week off work after all. I worked a full day today and I work all but 2 days this coming week.

And I did get that message to check my email in order to authenticate my access to the game. It was quick and easy.

Looks like there will be daily status updates for awhile. September 1st update - some things on these updates are repeated, like account safety tips.

What are your impressions of the game so far, Guybrush?

I've enjoyed it for the most part. Every explorable area and every city Waypoints, Undiscovered Vista and Undiscovered Points of Interest, which give you experience for discovering. Explorable also have Skill Point Challenges to complete to gain a skill point to spend on skills. If you can complete every one of these in an area you'll get a chest to open that will contain some rare item. Some of the vistas require a lot of jumping to get get to and I can't do most of those. That's one expect of the game that I don't like.

After playing some of sylvari, norn, human and asura areas I find the charr area very frustrating. First off, all the five races cities have multiple levels and all but the charr's city shows you on the map what level you are on and lets you look at other levels. The charr's Black Citadel map treats the city as if it were all on one level which it isn't. So finding those locations I listed above are extremely frustrating. On the map it looks you like you're standing on say a waypoint but actually its either above you or below you.

Then outside in the explorable areas there are hearts on the map which tell you what level the general area is. There will be things you'll be asked to do to fill in the hearts and gain experience, money and karma. In the other races starting area there are more than one heart per level in the charr area there is only one of each. So you have to hang around each heart even after you've finished it and just kill random monsters until you level up. Also things happen that don't actually match the level the heart. I was standing by a level 3 heart when a mob of level 5 foes attacked me. I was level 2. I could expect to handle level 3 foes but not level 5 in a bunch. If other players hadn't showed up I'd have been overwhelmed.

One of the sylvari personal storyline quests was a lot harder than it should be. I had to ask other people to help me out. The personal stories are supposed to something you can do alone.

I sent Arenanet feedback about all these problems.

These things notwithstanding I've enjoyed the game. They've sped up the unlocking of weapon skills since the betas which surprised me. So you don't have to kill as many monsters to get all your weapon skills as you did before.

Do you have a favorite profession?

Rifle warrior just barely over elementalist.

Kissa Nimbleclaw's new look

She's looking deadly!

Son made a charr yesterday. Now I might just have to go make one but I'm not sure what profession I would want.

Rameî looking cool

He's feeling blue today, I see

You reach a point in personal story where you join one of the three orders. I was going to go with Durmand Priory because I thought the lore behind it fit an elementalist, but I found out it has a jumping puzzle so I went with the Vigil.

Update notes (actual in game changes)

Trivia:
The offspring of a human will be seen as "Child". Charr as "Cub". Asura as "Progeny". Sylvari do not have children, they spring from the Pale Tree full grown.

Thanks Guybrush, I think my ranger is nearing that point. I noticed last night I was getting Cinnamon sticks when I harvested trees.

Tengu going to be a playable race in expansion? Many fans hope so. There is some evidence to support the conjecture.

1. They have their own city, Dominion of Winds, which surrounded by a great wall to keep everyone else out. You can see on the map that this city is has a fairly large area.
2. In Hanto Trading Post in Caledon Forest its possible to hear two tengu talk about an asura gate linked to their city being built in Lion's Arch. If you look at the map of Lion's Arch it looks like there is room for 3 more gates where the gates leading to racial cities are located. Kaineng City (Cantha), Kamadan (Elona) and Dominion of Winds?
3. There's a gate leading to Dominion of Winds in Caledon Forest but its locked and guarded by tengu.
4. There's a gate leading to Dominion of Winds in Lion's Arch (so an asura gate isn't realy neccesary) but its locked and guarded by tengu.
5. Tengu will mention that destroyers, minions of the elder dragon Primordus, have dug under the wall in an attempt to invade the Dominion of Winds.
6. Tengu will tell you that they are watching the other races to see which if any they should form alliances with in the future.
7. If as a sylvari you ask a tengu why the distrust of other races, they will say now is not the time or place to discus their history but they may be willing to talk to the sylvari about it at some future time.
8. In their city the tengu are said to be divided into four "houses" named after the four winds, North, South, East, West. Sounds like character creation choices similar to human social rank, charr legion, norn quality of a hero, asura college, sylvari vision. If this is the case one of those Houses will probably turn out to be rebels similar to charr Flame Legion, norn Sons of Svanir, asura Inquest, sylvari Nightmare Court and human White Mantle.

In Rata Sum there is a locked asura gate with no destination listed. Some people think this will eventually lead to Dominion of Winds. I don't because the only city you can get to directly from Rata Sum is Lion's Arch. It doesn't seem likely they'd add a gate way to Dominion of Winds when there are no gates to the other four racial cities. It's Lion's Arch that has the asura gates leading to the five races cities (also gates to the Mists for World vs World and one leading to Ebonhawke, the last stronghold of Ascalonian humans). I just don't know what that locked gate is for, I'm guessing some future event in the asura personal story.

There are also five still underconstruction asura gates in Lion's Arch. Where they will eventually lead is unknown but as they are being financed by the Krytan queen I doubt they go to Cantha or Elona, probably more currently unaccesable areas on the continent of Tyria.

Thanks Guybrush

Game Status Update September 9th

Patch notes September 9th

Not needing to take crafting items out of storage to craft known items is great. Safes time and inventory space. You sill have to have items in inventory for discovering though.

Some cooking items you used to have to buy now drop or a gathered in the world instead.

I haven't been there, yet, but apparently if you get to Durman Priory you can learn from NPCs that:

The Gigantic Lupis, who's skeletal remains can be found in GW1, were in fact wiped out by the elder dragons in an earlier awakening.

The elder dragons were at one time fought by five other races, dwarves (now nearly extinct), jutan (now reduced to brute savages), forgotten, mursaat and seers. What's interesting about this is by GW1 time the mursaat and the seers were ancient foes, the seers having lost a war to the mursaat. The mursaat would eventually fight against humans and lose. I don't know if any have survived to GW2. Though Arenanet has hinted they have. And most GW1 players suspect their involved in human personal story at some point. I haven't read of anyone meeting them in GW2 but then I haven't been looking for that information either. I don't want to know in advance.

There may be a sixth dragon. Some people think its awake now (and in Cantha not Tyria) but that would mean it awoke before Primordus or two woke at a time. As far as we know now they awaken one at a time every fifty years. Which seems to me to mean number six will awaken AFTER Guild Wars 2 time.


On another note: some people have completed the game already. Some liked the battle against Zaihtan, some did not. I've avoided learning any details about it.

My elementalist has just reached level 30, unlocking elite skill slot. Unlocking a slot does not provide a skill, but purchasing the deluxe digital version of GW2 game me a free elite so I'm using it until I have enough skill points to get another. It takes 10 to unlock an elite but I still haven't unlocked any of the 6 point utility skills. He's met Destiny's Edge, it did not go well. In sylvari story line its Caithe who tries to get the group back together. I'm assuming that is different for each race. Though why Rytlock would want to reform the group when he now despises Thackery is perplexing.

I have not yet done the first dungeon, which becomes available at level 30.

The Official Guild Wars 2 Trailer (on YouTube)

Thanks Guybrush, I'm looking forward to the elite just cause it's a dog in wolf's clothing, or is that fur?

Hi L4L
What is your name in GW2 and what guild are you in? My name is Stone Walker I am on the Isle of Janthir. Mike

Mikeplay, as usual I have way too many characters. They are Ayshaia, Allora Longbow, Mysty Arias, Aingealita and Catatonic Katalyzer. We all live happily on Stormbluff Isle. Allora is in a guild but doesn't know anyone and can't find the guild name at the guild armorer etc The rest of of are not guilded.

We went to Stormbluff cos my neighbor is there, but I need to get his name and add him to my contact list.

Obviously, I am having fun

Guild Wars 2 breaks 2 million

I'm on Ehmry Bay (named after Kevin Ehmry, Arenanet programmer).

With the special characters in their names some of my characters are hard to find. If you want to look for me try Kissa Nimbleclaw.

The End Game Reimagined

Game Updates

Game Status reports are more general. Game Updates are specific.

Thanks Guybrush!

Guild Wars 2 For Mac

The State of World vs World

That really sound different than the battlegrounds I'm used to

Mike O’Brien on Account Security

Concept Artist Spotlight: Jamie Ro

I just completed the easiest map in the game. I stumbled into completely by accident on the Chantry of Secrets, the Order of Whisper's hidden base (I'm in The Vigil) and unlocked the Point of Interest there, completing the map. All the chest containted was 6k XP, no money or anything.

There's an Asura Gate and some other odd gate, both guarded. I'm guessing one of those leads to Elona, where the Order came from.

Guybrush, I haven't been there yet. I'll have to look for it

Your personal story

Each character has a Personal Story, which is closest thing to traditional quests in Guild Wars 2.

Your personal story consists of 8 parts, or chapters of differing lengths. Each quest within a chapter will have an increasing character level recommendation. Sometimes I think they underestimate the difficulty of the quests.

The first three chapters are determined by your character's race and how you answer the biography questions. Several times during your personal story you will have to make a choice, usually from two possible directions, sometimes three. Once you make the choice you can't change it. This allows for replying the races and not having to do the exact same story line every time. Course it also means you'll have to buy extra character slots if you want to see every branch of every personal story.

At the end of the third chapter you will have to chose which of the tree multiracial Orders to join, the Order of Whispers (the oldest of the three, formed by humans in Elona it spread to Tyria), the Durmand Priory (led by an asura) or the Vigil (led by a charr). The fourth chapter takes you on assignments for your order.

In chapter five your order will ask you to aid one of the lesser races in order to recruit them. Which three races you will have to choose from is determed by your race. For sylvari I had to chose from Hylek (frogs), Skrit (rodents) or Quaggan (an aquatic species). I chose Quaggan. Keep in mind that if you choose Quaggan you will be fighting underwater, so your weapons and skills will be different.

Chapter six is a mixture of order based quests and ones that everyone gets. For example, everyone has to fight the Battle of Claw Island. During this chapter you will be asked what your greatest fear is and the answer determines how chapter 7 plays out.

Chapter 8 takes you on the offensive against the elder dragons.

I've only played the first six chapters.

At some point Destiny's Edge will join in and how they are brought back together is covered in the dungeons. You will get an in game email inviting you to your first dungeon at level 30. I've done the first 3 dungeons. I thought the first was the hardest, so far. After completing a dungeon in story mode you'll receive an invitation to do it again in explorer mode, which is supposed to be harder. I haven't attempted either of the first three in explorer mode.

Eeeeek Guybrush, if you delete the dungeon mail can you still do the dungeon?

As far as I know. However, the invitation has a button on it that will show you were the dungeon is, which I found useful. The first dungeon is in charr territory and I was playing a sylvari that hadn't actually been there when I got the email. Second dungeon is in human territory. Third in sylvari.

Hi L4L,Guy
Just got through with a dungeon and you do not need to keep the mail, the mail will just show you where it is at, after the email it will show up on your world map.

Thanks guys. Son wants to do a dungeon, but so far we have not had the time. We will have to check it out. I do see folks in chat looking for groups quite often.

Is there an "average time" to allot per dungeon, or does it totally depend on the group and the dungeon? I'm assuming you get some awesome gear?

At one time Arenanet had said that a human character would be able to choose ethnicity. You could be Ascalonian, Canthan, Elonan , or Krytan. (Guld Wars: Prophecies characters were Ascalonians who end up moving to Kryta. They had been at war with the charr before following their prince to Kryta. Guild Wars: Factions was set on the continent of Cantha and Nightfall on Elona.) Then they decided to cut back on the number of biography questions. I was disappointed. I wanted to make a fierce Ascalonian human and be mean to charr NPCs. If you go with your human's biggest regret being not recovering your dead sister's body you are asked by Logan, who is updating records, whether you and your sister are Krytan or not. You can then choose any of the ethnic groups. I of course, chose, Ascalonian. I haven't finished the story line yet but apparently in some way you see your sister, I don't know if a ghost or if she's actually alive, but your choice determines how she looks.

Being fierce I had the option of taking my sister's betrayer in alive or killing him. I killed him (if I'm going to be barbaric, I may as wall act it). Logan Thackery didn't like it but he didn't interfere either.

The final chapter (8) of the personal story is the longest, with 14 parts. There are 4 places in which you will have to chose between two paths. Some parts everyone gets and some are based on what your greatest fear is.

Dungeons can be done between personal story parts or saved for after the personal story or skipped altogether. Although if you skip them you'll miss Caithe trying to reform Destiny's Edge and getting frustrated by the behavior of the others which she doesn't understand.

Thanks Guybrush! Son and I are ready to try a dungeon, I think.

Tomas Nathan Tinker in Heritage Adventurer Armor - purely coincidence but a guild member also made an engineer with the family name of Tinker. I included the middle name so I could nick name him TNT, for explosive temper.

Ramei as Risen (undead) - there are several places in the game where you will be disguised, this is just one of them. Some people want a playable undead race, like in WOW. I suppose this is what such a character would look like.

I still believe Tengu is coming as playable.

I love the disguises. TNT is a great nick for an engineer.

Concept Artist Spotlight: Theo Prins - I don't think he looks old enough to have done all that traveling.

Guybrush, you do know that we are not getting older. The rest of the world is just getting younger.

Dont choose "To The Core" horrible personal story quest. I finished it with only 1 piece of armor that wasn't broken. You are forced into a golem suit that's not very maneuverable and 5 skills that are not all that usefull.

And they made "Sad Duty" impossible for squishy types, like elementalist to do alone. Second time I'll have to get help in Personal Story. Since the NPCs all drop dead in the first 30 seconds the mob of undead have only one target, you.

Guybrush, I've noticed that with some of my personal stories. I usually wait till I'm a bit overleveled for the story.

I helped my son do one level in his personal story with his asura. Then a bit later went to do mine thinking it would be the same as his. So Not! Mine took the both of us nearly an hour to do. So,the choices you make do matter.

Tip for "Breaking the Bone Ship", don't dive. swim on the surface. If you dive there are mines and foes to fight. Swimming on the surface you just have to watch out for floating mines. When you get to the ship you have to dive to fight a couple of sharks. Surface again and swim back on top of the water.

Thanks Guybrush

So, Halloween is coming to Guild Wars 2 as well as 1 it seems. Guild Wars 2 Halloween Diorama Contest

For GW1 they are apparently not making any new masks but will do like the last holiday and give previous years masks, I just hope they allow for 2, one from Lion's Arch and one from Kamadan.

For GW2, they aren't talking yet.

Thanks Guybrush, that is an interesting concept. Is this a first or have they done dioramas before?

Done them before, for GW1.

Sounds great Guybrush.

Ana

If you played Guild Wars 1 and got the Hall of Memorials points you are rewarded with items in Guild Wars 2. Here's what the Heritage Armor looks like actually worn by characters in the game. These are close up images and they are not showing how the characters would actually look standing besides each other. Whâkk would actually be the smallest. Whâkk (asura warrior) is wearing a complete set of Heritage Heavy Armor. Tomas Nathan Tinker (human engineer), Heritage Medium Armor and Rameî (sylvari elementalist) Heritage Light Armor. The light head piece is a half mask that I don't like so I normally have it hidden. Head pieces and shoulder pads can be set to not show. Rameî is also wearing a Gnarled Walking Stick (staff) on his back, which is another HOM reward. You can also see part of the Wheel lock Rifle, Tomas, sticking out over his left shoulder. The colors are my choices not the default colors.

My favorite is the light, scholar, version.

Weapons and armors are just skins. You actually have to have a piece of armor to transform its look into heritage style. Same thing with the weapons.

There are also 3 sets of armor, heavy, medium and light you can buy with gems (ie real money) but I haven't done that. And again those are just skins you use on existing armor to change their appearance.

It is fun to play with armor. I think I chose my Order affiliation because of the gear.

New Items Usher in October for the Black Lion Trading Company

Colin Johanson Outlines Guild Wars 2 Live Game Development

“My Legend Grows!” Forging Your First Legendary Weapon - there are exotic weapons in the trading post sold by other players, I guess

Legednary Guild Wars 2 Sweepstake - US and Canada only

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ON GW1 front, my dervish was 4 years old yesterday. She got a mini Abomination. My mesmer has birthday at the end of the month.

That's fantastic Guybrush

Using the Lion's Arch diving tower Rameî (sylvari elementalist), Whâkk (asura warrior), Anvîndr (norn ranger), Étienne Martel (human guardian), Kissa Nimbleclaw (charr thief, only female), Draén (sylvari necromancer), Ravnur (norn mesmer), Tomas Nathan Tinker (human engineer). When you put on the diving goggles you armor is temporarily replaced with swimming attire (same as your underwear) and you get two diving skills.

I found that on one of my guys while looking for vistas. Too funny

Entet the diorama contest

Structured PVP

Are you going to PVP?

Nope.

According to a post at Guldwars2guru some new items are coming, probably through the gem store. They include make over kits so you can change existing characters appearance and permanent access to bank, merchant and trading post. I'm guessing a banker golem that doesn't expire.

Also, I discovered by accident on the wiki, that if you find and read all the books in Ebonhawke on the founding of Ebonhawke, there are 20, I've probably read 5, you get a title. You have to read them all in on one character in one session.

I've been trying out crafting. My elementalist makes light armor and magic weapons. My warrior makes heavy armor and the heavier weapons. My thief cooks. Haven't tried medium armor or ranged weapons making yet, but by ranger will do those. I just started making jewelry on my mesmer. Since I can only craft low level stuff right now most of it is sold to merchant or donated to guild. A few items other players will buy. The jewelry I can actually use on my lowest level characters.

In the gem store you can buy a chef's outfit for town clothes. Wish I hadn't picked charr as chef the outfit looks best on human or asura in my opinion.

Crafting:
Artificer: focus, scepter, staff, trident, sigils for such weapons and potions

Huntsman: longbow, pistol, rifle, shortbow, torch, warhorn, harpoon gun, sigils for such weapons

Weaponsmith: axe, dagger, greatsword, hammer, mace, shield, sword, spear, sigils for such weapons

Tailor: light armor, runes, inventory bags

Leatherworker: medium armor, runes, inventory packs

Armorsmith: heavy armor, runes and inventory boxes

Chef: food (temporary boons) and dyes

Jewler: rings, earrings, necklaces

Each character can have up to 2 crafting disciplines. Since chef is most expensive, I didn't want one character to do cooking and something else. I have not yet made potions, dyes or packs. Do make myself 8 slot bags and boxes (merchants and reward bags are 4 slots).

Rarely you may get a drop of a bag that some color other than brown and which has 5 inventory slots. I received a blue bag.

Thanks Guybrush, a permanent golem will be nice.

Raiini asura elementalist in starter armor

Raiini in street clothes

Made this asura elementalist just to hear what female asura player characters sound like. May not keep her since I already have a sylvari elementalist.

The Asura are so cute.

Raiini's turn at diving platform

Tip for rangers: anywhere you find a juvenile animal you can charm it (as long as its not another ranger's pet). Even in the cities there are some animals to charm. My norn ranger just charmed several new pets in Hoelbrak and Divinity's Reach. Including a pig. Probably not the best fighter, but the pig's special ability is to dig up magic items. I got a potion and a healing seed just trying it out. Not much use in side a city since nothing can attack you.

Charming animals was my favorite part of playing a ranger. I have them all except the pvp ones and one that is only in a level 50 area.

I still have a long ways to go on collecting ranger pets.

On another topic, I bought a set of mini pets and got Eir. My norn ranger has it of course. My charr thief has Rytlock. I don't have Logan yet. Oddly there are no minis of Caithe or Zojja. Perhaps they're being saved for the first anniversary.

You can find out what mini pets are available by looking in the bank under collectables, there you'll find slots for the minis, including the HOM ones and Rytlock (Deluxe Digital and Collectors Edition).

You can buy mini pets from gem store, or trading post if players selling. I haven't tried it but you can also put minis in the Mystic Forge. Most of what I get from putting weapons and armor in the Forge I just end up selling to merchant or donating to guild, though occasionally I get something I can use.

Guild Wars 2 top seller - this article says game sales in general are down. Doesn't cover casual games though.

Cincept Artist Spotlight: Naomi Baker

and the big news:

Guild Wars 2: Shadow of the Mad King


Oh in charming pets in Divinty's Reach, I felt like a thief. I mean I walk into a government official's mansion and walk off with his dog and into a poor refugee farmer's yard and take his pig. However, in Rata Sum the asura actually want me to take the animals. At leas the land ones. I didn't talk to anybody about the jellyfish.

Sounds like lots of fun

A few basic questions about Guild Wars 2 - are there different realms or servers that you sign on to for playing, like in WoW? Or is all just one big happy family on one server? If there are different servers are there any that you would recommend being on?

Would you say that the graphics are about the same as for Elder Scrolls:Skyrim and Lord of the Rings and Wow? The pictures that I see on the Internet seem to be fuzzier but perhaps that is just in the reproduction.

And finally, is it okay to just jump into Guild Wars 2 without having played the previous Guild Wars games? Since they are already four years old I figured the graphics, etc. are a lot poorer and may have problems running in Windows 7.

Thanks for your input.

Hiya Oldfeeble, yes there are different servers to pick from. As for picking one, I'd assume a higher population server would be preferable to a lower pop so there'd be more folks around for the world bosses, etc....but that is just my opinion.

The graphics are better than WoW's I think, and I'm a confirmed WoW fan.

It is really easy to jump into GW2 without having played GW1. A lot of the past lore is given in-game.

I played for a bit and was very impressed. Currently I'm playing the Pandaria expansion of WoW, but I'll be back to GW2 once I've seen the new content on WoW.

Different servers are for the World vs World vs World form of PVP. There is no attacking other players in the PVE world. In PVE everyone is on the same side, even humans and charr who hated each other in GW1 are finally allies.

I'm not best judge of graphics since I've only played GW1 on high and GW2 on low. Never played any other MMOs. But I have a better computer, with better graphics card, coming that should let me run GW2 on high.

Some lore in GW2 will make more sense to GW1 players. For example: one of the skill challenges is the grave of Gwen Thackeray. To GW2 players who haven't played GW1 she was just the great grandmother of Logan. Those of us who played Prophecies and Eye of the North, knew Gwen (last name before marriage is still a mystery to me) as a little girl in Ascalon and as a young woman in the Far Shiverpeaks. We helped bring her and Keiran together (I still think he was crazy to marry her). The charr turned Gwen from a sweet litle girl to a crazy woman. I could never forgive them for that. Those who play charr and have played GW1 will recognize the first boss charr face, a ghost of a GW1 NPC. The first dungeon has ghosts of GW1 NPCs as well.

BTW anyone found out what happened to Keiran? Gwen's grave is right there in Ebonhawke, but no sign of her husband's grave.

Oh part of the norn personal story reveals that a well known to Eye of the North players, dwarf has survived all these centuries, though he's living stone now.



----
I've been so busy playing GW2 I let a Big Fish free coupon expire To keep a second one from expiring I had to use it on a game without playing the demo. But its part of a series I like so it should be okay.

Personal story;

Sylvari:
Prologue: Fighting the Nightmare
Part 1: Waking from the Nightmare
Part 2: A Season of Growth
Part 3: Branching Out

Asura:
Prologue: Explosive Intellect
Part 1: Graduation Day
Part 2: Legacy Code
Part 3: Something Lost, Something Gained

Charr:
Prologue: Fury of the Dead
Part 1: For the Legion!
Part 2: Bloodying the Past
Part 3: From Howl to Silence

Norn:
Prologue: The Great Hunt
Part 1: Rising to the Challenge
Part 2: Things Best Left Behind
Part 3: Brawn over Brains

Human:
Prologue: Defending Shaemoor
Part 1: Crime and Punishment
Part 2: Family Reunion
Part 3: Storming the Castle

Members of the Vigil:
Part 4: Some Must Fight, That All May be Free

Members of the Durmand Priory:
Part 4: Defending History, Informing the Future

Members of the Order of Whispers:
Part 4: To Know the Unknown

All Characters:
Part 5: A Friend In Deed
Part 6: This Far, No Further
Part 7: The Cost of Victory
Part 8: Savior of Tyria

Each part has multiple "quests" (for lack of a better word) some of which branch out in two or three directions. Part 4 is the shortest, part 8 the longest.

When you complete the last quest of each part you'll see a brief message on the bottom of your screen announcing that you've completed that part.

My sylvari elementalist has completed 1/3 of part 8. My asura warrior is just about done with part 4. And my norn ranger is 3/5ths through part three. Those are my most advanced characters.

All of those section titles, except for the prologues are titles you'll find under your characters achievements, under "Hero".

When they add other playable races (tengu), they will presumably add more titles.

I really enjoy the personal story aspect. We discovered that some choices led to much harder battles than others.

My norn ranger just joined Durmand Priory. Already had two characters in the Vigil and plan to have charr thief join Order of Whispers.

Great! That way you can experience them all

I haven't encountered any major changes in characters home instances as result of personal story (still very disappointed saving hospital in human story didn't leave orphanage burnt down like Arenanet said it would) but I have found minor editions.

My sylvari elementalist has the White Stag in his home, from doing that story line, Larra the asura from Act With Wisdom story line and Shasoo the quaggan from befriending quaggans story line. She's under water naturally. Shasso is the only one you can actually talk to.

My norn ranger has Minotaur Spirit and the kodan Followed by Night in his home from doing Protect the Spirits and Lost Heirloom story lines. I don't know why he has a charr in his home. Don't recall doing anything with charr.

I haven't checked other characters homes lately. The charr home instance is so big I have no idea where to look for charr's sire (father) but it was said that he'd be going there.

I hope you find him.

My sylvari necromancer joined the Order of Whispers. So I have 2 characters in the Vigil, 1 in the Durmand Priory and 1 in the Order of Whispers. Five characters to go. I'm not certain what orders the others will all join (except thief=whispers), but I already have it worked out what races they will all befriend. There are only five and each races only chooses from three. So there will have to be repeats, on both orders and races befriended. I've got it worked out so no playable race befriends the same other race twice. Example: my first sylvari befriended quaggan so second will befriend the skritt. One human will befriend the quaggan and the other the skritt. My other characters will cover, grawl, hylek and ogres.

Tomas Nathan Tinker, a mighty pirate - the wooden sword gives you skills including build cannon. Unfortunately I couldn't get the parrot to cooperate (seriously it wouldst stand still so I could get a capture). This is the last screen capture I'll do on low settings. As I should have new computer later today. The pirate costume is account bound, not soul bound, so I could pass it around to each of my characters. Hmm, maybe that'll be my first images on new computer. Once the cannon is in place anyone can apparently fire it.

Interesting to see if this pirate costume will be useable in the new Costume Brawl. Right now it strictly town clothes.

Love the pirate! And grats on the new computer.

More on Halloween

Wow, this thread will be closing soon, and part 4 started? I talk to much about Guild Wars

No such thing as talking too much about a game. We'll let this thread go to 15 pages or so.

I got my new computer. It arrived just before I had to leave for work Friday. It was after midnight before I got started on redownloading Guild Wars 2. It finally finished a few minutes ago.

Looking at my characters on the the starting screen. Wow, what a difference a different graphics card has made. The detail is amazing.

I am so glad you are happy with it. Enjoy!

The log on screen remembers my password now too which is great except I keep forgetting I don't have to reenter my password now.

Rameî's new look - that's from the character screen selecting screen. Thats light heritage armor with a little different color scheme than before. I didn' think I was going to like heritage armor but think it looks great on him (even though its a human style armor).

Whâkk updated - he's wearing heavy heritage armor

Anvîndr updated - his armor is a mixture of styles

Kissa Nimbleclaw - hood restored

Draén looks the same

Poor Ravnur has the worst looking armor combination right now

Tomas Nathan Tinker in his medium heritage armor

Étienne Martel's new look - I don't care for the helmet

last but certainly not least, Raiini

(this space reserved for future tengu player character)

Wow, they are all dressed up.

Don't know why but the game told me I should change my password. So I did.

Holiday hasn't started yet. No update.

Hmmmm, was that when you were signing in?

Yes when I was signing in a got a message to change my password and a link to do so.

Raiini in pink so which is better?

BTW game is updating as I type this, so Halloween week has finally begun in Guild Wars 2.

I like her in the pink

Updating again.

So, the new computer was worth every penny? How is the game playing?

Since the holiday stuff started, I get disconnected frequently. Too many people on.

Each of the five playable races has its own cultural armor and weapons. The armor is I believe limited to that race, the weapons are not. Armor cost gold, weapons karma. And neither is cheap.

Level 80 armor is 119 gold for one complete Ramei just reached level 80, but I haven't figured out how to make money. He has 2 gold. Just the gloves or just the boots cost 12. If i can ever afford the sylvari armor this is what Ramei would look like (from armor seller preview screen) in light sylvari armor. Right now I could put all my characters money together and still couldn't buy the gloves.

A sylvari staff would cost about 5 times what he has in karma.

I previewed dungeon armors, which cost dungeon tokens you get from doing dungeons in explore mode many times, didn't like any of them.

Don't like Vigil armor on elementalist either.

For now Ramei will stick with heritage armor.

That is nice looking armor

Anvîndr with shoulder pads

I got Master Carver title, for carving 150 pumpkins. Its account based so you don't have to do it on a single character. I got most of them on two characters, including Anvîndr, with a third doing just a few.

Congratulations

From the official Guild Wars 2 forum:



I've done Ascent to Madness on one character with guild members. Its considered a dungeon except it has no story mode. So when you go in it says Explore Mode. However, its smaller and easier to do than most dungeons. You get more of a reward the first time through. So once is enough for me.

I've done Labryth on several characters. My necromancer had the best results, upgraded half his armor. Mad King's Realm stuff is all level 80 but your characters is temporarily upgraded to level 80, except you do not gain access to elite skills if you haven't actually unlocked them. What skills you do have simply do more damage. Drops are mixed as usual, some will be usable by your character, some will not. Some will be right armor or weapon but of higher levels so you can't use them yet. There is a chance to get Mad King armor from chest but I haven't yet. Though I did get a weapon with a rune that grants bonus damage if its night time in the game (which is not necessarily connected to real time I've been on at 1 AM at its been bright as day or the afternoon and its dark).

I've done Reaper’s Rumble and Lunatic Inquisition once each. The last is kind of fun. You start out as a villager with no skills. You find things that will give you a skill or two. Your team gets points for villagers surviving. Once your killed you switch sides, becoming a ghostly servant of Mad King Thorn. Now you have skills which you use to "convert" villagers. To my surprise the villagers actually won more times than the lost when I played. I was always converted, one time by Thorn himself. I didn't die. I just got a message that I was worthy to join his side and I was no longer a villager. At one point I was credited with being the best trapper of villagers even though I only saw one villager actually step in one trap, because I was constantly on the move.

I tried the Clock Tower but as expected didn't get far. It a timed jumping puzzle. I have a hard time with non-timed ones. A friend told me he spent 18 hours repeating it to get to the top. The creator of this puzzle said he expected less than 5% of players to make it.

I'm jealous of a guild member who from his second Mad King Chest got the scythe skin, makes a staff look like a scythe. I've opened six Mad King Chests and over a dozen Black Lion Chests, no Halloween weapons.

I'm sucker for costumes. Can't figure out why, but I own them all in Guild Wars 1 and now all but the chef's outfit in Guild Wars 2, I'm waiting for it to go on sale. I haven't bought any of the real money armor however.

I also have 1 each of all the Halloween minis, the last one you have to forge in the Mystic Forge by sacrificing the other 3 plus 250 candy corns. So if you want to keep all 4 minis you have to buy the first 3 twice.

I haven't made any of the Halloween crafting items. I have the candy corn, 3 stacks, but not enough of the other stuff. The weapons recipes require items you only get from playing dungeons repeatedly and I haven't done all the dungeons in story mode yet.

Christmas (or Wintersday as GW1 calls it) is coming. Afraid to think of how many costumes or minis it might have.

Nothing to do with Halloween: I was disappointed that human NPCs in Divinity's Reach had no reaction to my charr showing up there other than the queen saying that a charr visiting her thrown room was a good sign for the peace treat.

Sounds like a lot of fun

Etienn Martel, better helmet and with shoulder pads

Kissa and Raiini dressed as witches (not dyed) - the male characters could wear the costume I just haven't gotten around to passing it around to them. I only have the one costume I just put in storage and switch characters.

Very nice!

Mad King Chest finally gave me a rare item, a Deathly Bull shoulder pad for heavy armor. Makes shoulder armor look like the heads of dead bulls. I listed it in trading post for sale.

Halloween comes to an end around noon (Pacific) November 1st.

There were other non-holiday events added that will be staying in. And there is some kind of major update planned for November 15th. No details about it given yet.


OH I should fix that signature, I actually finished Stolen Beauty, took a short break form GW2.

Grats, Guybrush. It's always fun to get good drops.

From official Guild Wars 2 forums:



also there's this:

The Lost Shores - the deep sea dragon makes an appearance? Right now characters in game seam to know only about four dragons since the fifth know to players to exist is deep at sea.

Dragons...I love dragons!

November 1st updates - notice the ability to get Mad King achievement and the witch hat is extended due to the hurricane. Also at the bottom new jumping puzzles, mini dugeons and a skrit thief event are mentioned as new items permanently in the game.

Wow, that is really thoughtful

On the wall of the bank in Lion's Arch is a poster. The text is New Krytan, which theorigtcally your characters are actually speaking, not English, French or German. Here is the English translation, from Arenanet:

I want to go

Me too but I suspect those radiant waters are inhabited by some realty nasty creatures.

Well you know, you can't have everything

I haven't seen it (yet) but apparently a dead whale can be found beached in Lion's Arch.

Also on top of the Lost Shores page is a scrolling calendar bar. It has "October 2012 Shadow of the Mad King", "November 2012: The Lost Shores" and "December 2012 Coming Soon". That last with a locked symbol instead of a picture. Don't know if that supposed to mean monthly updates from now on or what.

November 1st update accidentally increased drop rate of unidentified dyes (got several my self), November 5th update lowered it back to normal.

Ahhh poor whale

I've seen a Lost Shores schedule. If you actually have a job its going to be awful because its all one time only events all happening in the middle of the three days it run.. Arenanet needs to stop with these one time only events that most people will never see. They didn't do that with the first Guild Wars.

I searched Lion's Arch. No beached whale. I suspect like everything else in Lost Shores it was a one time thing.

Oh and despite their previously saying it begins the 15th, which I have off work, it actually starts the 16th.

I'm sorry to hear that you'll be working on that day

Kissa Nimbleclaw is now an agent of the Order of Whispers. She's going to investigate the grawl.

Vigil members aid a lesser race.
Durmand Priory members study a lesser race.
Order of Whisper members investigate a lesser race.

The most militaristic order, the Vigil, is also the most charitable.

Lesser race=less advanced non-playaable race. Skrit are an option for players who are not asura or norn which is one of the reasons I don't think skrit will ever be a playable race.

Well, congrats to her

Yesterday's update, in addition to adding links to Lost Shores page and Halloween diorama winners, also stopped raw candy cane nodes from popping up. Before the update, I would occasionally see one appear for a second or two than vanish. Couldn't mine them.

The only icon I don't have on my character load screen now is the equip legendary weapon one.

Rameî (formerly of the Vigil) is Commander of the Pact (second in command).

Whâkk is a Warmaster of the Vigil.

Anvîndr is an Explorer of the Durmand Priory.

Kissa Nimbleclaw is an Agent of the Order of Whispers.

My other characters haven't joined an order yet.

WooHooo Guybrush, are you pursuing that legendary?

The posters have vanished from Lion's Arch. Don't know what that means.

Not at the moment. Ramei hasn't beaten Zaihtan yet.

Made my previous entry too soon, Whâkk has just been promoted to Warmaster.

Just saw legendary short bow, The Dreamer, being used in Lion's Arch.

Guybrush, what is involved in getting the legendary?

Have to check the wiki for the recipe for the legendary you want. I know each involves collecting different rare items and feeding them to the Mystic Forge. One of the ingredients for each legendary weapon is an exotic weapon of the same type, ie sword for sword, staff for staff, which you have to either craft first, requiring other rare items, or buy from trading post.

I just looked at the wiki. You need an item you get as a reward for completing every map (ie every heart, every point of interest, every skill challange, every vista). I have troubel with vistas. You need an item you from playing World Vs World. I hate PVP.
You need to max out 2 crafting disciplines. Thats level 400. I don't think I'm half way there on any one. You need those max levels to craft some of the other items. And finally you need luck. Because you need the forge to give you 77 Mystic Clovers and it does so randomly. Each time you use the recipe you either get a clover or some other crafting material.

I don't know how much of this can be bought instead. The exotic weapons are listed in the gem store. Ramei only has 3 gold, thats not enough to buy anything needed.

A little late, Whakk crafted a Minor Rune of the Mad King. I've got stacks of candy corn.

Sounds like there is a reason it's called Legendary.

Ramei has 8 personal story quests and 4 dungeonss to go. I did two personal store quests tonight, one was horrible. The boss was easy it was getting to him that was bad. The next didn't have a boss but was close quarter fighting inside a ship. BTW the charr have submarines and helicopters. Steam powered apparently.

Here's the recipe for The Bifrost, a Legendary staff:

1 The Legend
1 Gift of The Bifrost
1 Gift of Fortune
1 Gift of Mastery

The Legend is an exotic staff. To get it you have to be very lucky and receive it as a drop, or put four other exotic staves in the Mystic Forge or put four other gold weapons in the Mystic Forge. What the Forge makes is random, no guarantee. The Legend is also shown in the trading post.

Gift of The Bifost requires 100 icy Runestones (costing 1 gold each), 1 Superior Sigil of Nullification, 1 Gift of Color and 1 Gift of Energy.

Gift of Color requires 250 Unidentified Dyes, 250 Pile of Crystalline Dusts, 1 Opal Orbs and 1 Gift of Zhaitan.

Gift of Zhaitan requires 100 Shards of Zhaitans from doing Arah dungeon in explore mode many times.

Gift of Energy requires 250 each Pile of Crystalline Dusts, Pile of Incandescent Dusts, Pile of Luminous Dusts, Pile of Radiant Dusts

Gift of Fortune requires 77 Mystic Clovers, 1 Gift of Magic, 1 Gift of Might, 1 Gift of Mastery and 250 Glob of Ectoplasm.

1 Mystic clover requires 1 Obsidian Shard, 1 Mystic Coin, 1 Glob of Ectoplasm, 6 Philsopher Stones and there is a 1/3 chance you'll actually get a clover.

Philosopher stones cost Skill Points.

Gift of magic requires 250 of each Vial of Powerful Blood, Powerful Venom Sacs, Elaborate Totems, Pile of Crystalline Dust.

Gifr of might requires 250 each of Vicious Fangs, Armored Scales, Vicious Claws, Ancient Bones

Gift of mastery requires 1 Bloodstone Shard, 1 Gift of Exploration, 1 Gift of Battle.

Bloodstone Shard requires that you spend 200 skill points (after buying all elementalist skills I currently have 9 skill points left over)

Obsidan Shard costs 525,000 Karma ((I have around 40k)

Gift of Exploration requires completing every map in the game.

Gift of Battle requires 500 Badge of Honor from doing World vs World over and over and over and over...

Some of this stuff you apparently craft because you need a 400 level artifice and 400 level cook. I hope not on the same character because I have Ramei as artificer/tailor. Kissa is my cook.

How anybody has a Legendary weapon is beyond me. The only item I have plenty of is Mystic Coins, you get one every time you complete the Daily Achievement.

In comparison a Sylvari Wardens Staff (which is an exotic staff) costs 63,000 karma. So I'm about 20k short. Karma is not transferable. You can't move it between characters. You can't buy it. You have to earn it doing personal story and dynamic events. I can't imagine actually earning 525,000 karma.

Oh for completing the game you get 1 free exotic weapon. I saw somebody with the greatsword. Didn't know what it was at the time but I've since seen it on wiki. So you could complete the game on 4 character then have 1 put those 4 weapons in the forge and hope you get lucky and get the weapon you need to forge your legendary. Odds are not good though.

That sounds like quite an undertaking

Yeah. Most of the Legendary weapons don't actually have a photo on wiki. For that matter nether do most of the racial weapons, can see that sylvari staff I mentioned however. I suspect the aquatic weapons will be the last Legendaries to ever be made. I'm thinking of getting the free end game trident for Ramei then buying the sylvari staff for 43k karma. Its going to take a long time to get that sylai armor I posted an image of.

Yes, but think how happy you will be

Rameî has two personal story quests and four dungeons, in story mode, to go. Technically only the last dungeon is required, you face Zaihtan in the dungeon. The other three just tell how Destiny's Edge finally comes back together so you know how they show up in the last one. I don't think he actually has the last dungeon location on his map yet.

Hasn't even started on Legendary weapon. Still has 45% of the current map to complete. Actually mapping two continents , Tyria and Orr. And its not really all of Tyria. There are places you cant get to like the Dominion of Winds, the tengu's walled city.

Probably going to require completing a few more maps and doing daily events to get to 63,000 karma to buy that sylvari staff, currently have 46,146. No where near purchasing sylvari armor only have 3 gold.

If anybody would like to try Guild Wars 2 for free from November 15-18th please send me a private message with your email address. Current players can invite up to three people to a free trial this week. I do need to keep one slot avilable to see if a coworker wants it.

Free Trial Event

Linsey Murdock Unveils New High End Ascended Gear


Oh one other thing on Legendary weapons. I'd guess that the least likely to be made one is Eternity, a greatsword that is actually made by sacrificing two other Legendary swords, Sunrise and Twilight. So you would need all the ingredients to produce the two Legendary swords plus two more ingridients to use with those two swords to make Eternity. What's special about it? During the day it has the special effects of Sunrisde and at night the special effects of Twilight.

Guybrush, I hope you get some takers on that.

Haven't so far.

Rameî 's current look - got tired of going to Hall of Memorials to get heritage transformation every time I changed armor

Whâkk's current look - not as many parts of his armor has changed but enough to make a difference

Kissa Nimbleclaw's current look

Account Medals - if you logged into Guild Wars 2 you'd see something like this on your character screen, except new players would have fewer items. First item is your Map Completion. Hover mouse over it to see how much of the world has been completed by your most active character (64% in my case). The next line shows the Orders your characters have joined. The middle, black one, is the first one I got. Its the symbol of the Vigil. If you turn your head you see its an eye. The blue banner on the left is the symbol of the Durmand Priory. Knowledge is key, is I think what its trying to convey. The third, red, banner is the symbol of the Order of Whispers. And its got me perplexed. The first symbol on the third line is your Player vs Player (PVP) rank. Yes, you start out as a rabbit. If I did more PVP it would change. Next symbol is for World Vs World (Vs World). I'm guessing it would change if I did more WVW. The final symbol, which is still blank on my screen, is for equiping a Legendary Weapon on any character.

Guybrush, do you tend to play one of your toons more than the others?

Rameî, sylvari elementalist, he has the 4 dungeons to do to complete the story of Guild Wars 2. Others aren't that far in.

They keep adding videos. Check guildwars2.com
There's a Lost Shores video and one for the new dungeon that's coming. And I just watched one that for gives a short summary of the game for new people.

More items coming to gem store for Lost Shores. I already purchased $20 worth of gemes since I know I'll end up buying the mini pets at the least.

How many mini pets do you have now?

A dozen I think.

I just had my first encounter with the skritt thief. Whâkk was exploring Snowden Drifts when he came across a chest. When he opened it the skritt thiif jumped out. He ran after it. Naturally it ran right through a mob. Other player saw what I was doing and came running. We got the thief. I then ran back and got the stuff she dropped for me. What happens is the the thief tries to distract you. But you can go back and collect your treasures after you've taken down the skritt. Whâkk replaced his chest and leg armor again thanks to the skritt.

That's cute!

Lost Shore minis are not for sale. Instead you buy a Consortium Chest which has a chance to give you one. Bought a bunch of chests, no minis. But I sold air breathers and shoulder pads to other players for 2 gold, 44 silver and 18 copper. Ramei now has 7 gold! Five more and he can buy one piece of that armor (lol).

There are also new dyes, I got Peatnut Butter and Sea Green.

Lion's Arch has two new Point of Interest so if you haven't completely mapped it before its now slightly longer. If you've already mapped it you just get some extra experience for visiting these two spots.

Peanut Butter...is it chunky

Ramei has the sylvari staff (cost 63,000 karma, he has 3,000 left) - Lost Shores gave him 6k which put him over.

That is really nice looking. Grats!

Unfortunantly it turns out its there are harder to get staves that do more damage. If I get one I can use transmutation stone to keep the warden staff skin but upgrade the stats.

Kissa Nimbleclaw just got a Lionguard Pistol. I think its funny to have a cat person carrying a gun that has a lion's head on it. Its only a level 40 version, comes in 40,60 and 80. But again, when she gets a pistol that has better stats she can transmute the better stats onto the skin.

Lionguard weapons cost either karma or Captain's Council Commendations. Twenty-five commendations for tier 1 weapons, 40 tier 2, 50 for tier 3. Above tier 3 is Exotic at the insane cost of 1300. I barely had time to get the 25. Commendations can also be traded for gathering tools that have more uses than standard ones. Presumably the commendation collector goes away after this weekend.

I liked being able to transmute

Now I'm really mad. Some body posted on You Tube that if you did the finale for Lost Shores, which started an hour after I had to be at work yesterday, you got one of the exotic weapons you need as an ingredient for a legendary. So people who don't work got help with legendary and people who do work (or live in wrong country, some one from Australia was really mad too) don't.

Awww Guybrush, I'm sorry.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

They erased Ramei's emails. I kept all the dungeon invites because they had a button that showed were they area. I also saved all the emails you get when you complete a map so I could tell at a glance where I've mapped. And all but the last 2 areas mapped have vanished from Ramei's email. Thanks Arenanet for making it hard to find the dungeons (never mind doing them).

Ahhh Guybrush, that is the pits!

My latest character, male charr - his first name is taken from the Blakes 7 character Kerr Avon.

Note: Monday's update removed the investigation NPCs, the armor trading NPC is still there. The update also turned off the stats upgrading that was done to allow low level characters to try the new area, Southsun Cove, now you need to be level 80.

Very Striking!

Southsun Cove does have waypoints and points of interest to unlock and doing so gives you experience but does not count towards Tyria map completion. I haven't tried it but there is also a jumping puzzle with a chest, which is now guarded by a champion so after completing the puzzle you have to fight for the chest.

Last time I did a jumping puzzle with a fight at the end a mesmer beat my elementalist up there and killed the foe so I didn't have to. I'm not good at jumping so I'm proud of actually completing four of them. One of the four, the pirate ghost captain in Lion's Arch, is after a vista, the others are actually part of getting to vistas. The LA actually has the least jumping but is after navigating a maze and the hardest jumping is in the dark. I've done this puzzle twice, one on engineer and once on elementalist. Easiest on engineer because flame thrower lights up the cave and then there is a engineer rifle skill that makes jumping easy.

A mesmer can create a teleport portal so if they fall down they can teleport right back to where they were, which is what that mesmer on the other puzzle did.

I have to get back to my mesmer

Number 14 in Amazon's Best 20 Video Games of 2012

Black Lion Trading Company Black Friday Weekend Sales!

Friday:

Black Lion Keys - 25 for half price, individual keys are not reduced

Black Lion Merchant Express - 5 at 60% off, individual express not reduced

Fine Transmutation Stones - 5, 10, 25 at 40% off, 5 is the minimum you can purchase of these

Gems are 800 for $10.00 so you have to spend $20.00 to have enough gems to buy the keys, you would have 40 left after the purchase. Which is enough for 11 merchant express or one bank express leaving you with 5 gems which wont buy anything. You can also trade in game gold for gems or gems for gold.

Thanks Guybrush!

Ana

Saturday:

Evon Gnashblade's Box of Fun - 70% off 1 or 5
Experience Booster - 30% off 1 or 5
Revive Orb - 60% off 1 or 5

Oh, if you buy Guild Wars 2 online this weekend you can get a free upgrade to digital deluxe version.

Sunday:

Black Lion Trader Express - 60% off 5 only
Karma Booster - 40% off 1 or 5
Mystic Forge Stone - 5 or 10, can't buy just 1

Only thing I bought was the Revive Orbs, 10 of them

Ohhhhhh, sales

Decided that after taken a break to play SWTOR I should check back in with Guild Wars 2. Both games were updated last night. GW2 was just routine maintenance, whatever that means. How ever this announcement was up on the Guild Wars 2 site: Wintersday - December 2012. Look at the events bar on top of the screen, you'll see January 2013 says "Coming Soon". So maybe they are doing monthly content updates.

That's great Guybrush. Thanks for the news

Makeover Kits - you tube video

I bought a kit to change Whakk's hair but don't have time to use it right now.

They should make a name changer kit, if you change your character's gender the name may not fit.

Guy, that is true. Son just gender changed a toon on WoW, and then had to name change for just that reason.

Whakk went from black hair to a red-blank hair, probably not worth the cost. But once I bought it I had to do something with it. It was not the gender changing one. I already have one of each gender of asura (and charr). Most likely if I decided to change a character's gender I'll just erase it and start over. I've barely played necromancer, mesmer or guardian so I couild redo them.

I spend so much time on character creation that I don't ever change anything afterwards. :wave:

After mapping Lion's Arch nine times, I couldn't do it on tenth character because they had changed how you have to do one of the vistas. Nine characters I did it the same way. Tenth is different. Spent one very aggrevating half hour trying to figure out why I could get jump up where I've always jumped up. Finally had to check a you tube video on vistas to find the new way.

So what used to be easy vista is a little harder. On the other hard, what used to be the hardest, at least for me, vista in Lion's Arch now has one less step. So I got it without having to jump to the pillar which is so easy to miss. I did it any after I got the vista, just to see if I could still do it.

Awww Guybrush, those jumps can be really annoying.

They sent out, in in game email, an Ancient Karka Chest to people who couldn't get one during Lost Horizons. One only, so Ramei at least gets the item he would have gotten if he could have done the finale.

New people can still buy the digital version of Guild Wars 2 and get a free upgrade to deluxe, which now includes an exclusive Wizard's Hat. I posted on Facebook asking about the hat since those of us who pre-purchased it didn't get the hat. In fact I thought that was what would be in email.

Anyway. drum roll.....and Ramei gets......wow! Three exotic items, two rare items and 20 piece inventory slot item.

Two exotics and the inventory space Ramei can use, others would go to Whakk but thats okay too.

Have to leave for work, don't have time to type up all the item names right now.

That is super cool!

Ancient Karka Shell Box - adds 20 slots to inventory,

Berserker's Rifle of Water (rare) level 80 rifle with extra power, precision and chance of critical damage, the major rune of water is an odd one to have on a rifle, every time you fire a shot there is a 30% chance of healing allies.

Shaman's Banded Pauldrons of Dwayna (rare) level 80 heavy shoulder armor with extra vitality, healing power and condition damage. The superior rune of Dwayana adds more healing with additional benefits for each other piece of armor with the same rune.

Shield of the Moon (exotic) level 80 shield, adds to armor, power, vitality and condition damage, the superior sigil of purity adds a 60% chance of removing a condition every time you do critical damage

Ancient Karka Shell (exotic) level 80 armor accessory which adds 25 to each of power, precision, toughness, vitality, healing power, condition damage, +3% critical damage and magic find, has a slot to add one upgrade.

Carrion Amulet (exotic) level 79 amulet which adds 63 power and vitality and 88 condition damage, with an extra upgrade slot

That is a very nice thing to get.

The accessories are on Ramei, with the slots filled to do even more, as is the inventory slot. The shoulder pad, shield and rifle are in storage until other characters that can use them reach level 80. Unfortunately once I equip an item it becomes bound to that character, except for the inventory item which is account bound. Right now the armor and weapons are not bound since they have not been used. Sould Bound items can still be sold to NPC merchants or used in the forge they just cant be sold to other players or used on different characters

Well, it's great to have a choice

Checked on Guild Wars 1 characters. One of them got Lich mini for second birthday. That's the rare one. Another got a Raptor, extremely common, which I already had so I gave it away. There are people there, getting ready for Wintersday, which starts Thursday in GW1. Starts Friday in GW2.

I wonder why it starts on 2 different days?

Wintersday page updated, including video teaser - each day 15th-19th Tixx the Toymaker visits a different city, first he vists the Grove, followed by Divinity's Reach, then The Black Citadel, next Hoelbrak and finally home to Rata Sum. On the 20th he goes to Lion's Arch and stays there through January 3rd. Apparently if you miss any of his stops all events will be available in LA, along with new ones. Visit him in Lion's Arch to receive a gift.

War Against The Bots

That sounds like a lot of fun.

Some stuff starts today but probably after I'm at work, nothing yet. I'll check again after 9:30 pm.

Good sized update December 14th, included Wintersday stuff and bug fixed. My favorite change is an expansion of the crafting materials portion of storage bank. Now holiday crafting material and most rare crafting material have slots in the crafting section of your storage bank so they no longer take up space in the other section.

Note 1: maximum is 250 of each item anything over that still has to go in the other section. For example I have several stacks of candy corn. Only 1 stack of 250 goes in the crafting materials storage.

Note 2: not all rare materials got a slot, I noticed the doubloons for example still have to go in the main portion of the bank. also some cooking ingredients don't have a crafting slot. Example: floor and water have slots in crafting material storage but if use them to make dough, the dough does not, has to go in main storage until you use it to make something else or decide to sell it.

I bought some new chests from the gems store, got a holiday hat which is normally purchased by itself. I also got some "ugly wool" items. When you get enough of those you can trade them in for other stuff.

The wizard hat new purchasers of the deluxe digital version were getting is now free to everyone through the gem store.

Ramei is wearing a celebration costume I purchased. It automatcially dyed itself to match his previous town clothes, so its blue and purple instead of red and white. I could change that by removing the dye. I had to do that to make the hat show up red. Like other costumes it gave him costume brawl skills. So thats not just a Halloween thing. I haven't tried any of the minigames that are in Lion's Arch for Wintersday yet.

There are weapon skins in the store, which will also rarely come from the new chest, like the hat.

And there are new mini pets which I don't know how you get yet, possibly from later Wintersday events. I do know a baby quaggan can be forged in the mystic forge but not how to get the ingredients, yet.

Minipets

Okay, doing the Grove version of toymakers shop (its a dungeon), I got Ventari Frame, 100 Mystic Cogs, 250 Wads of Enchanted Stuffing. I had to chose between the stuffing and glue. 250 stuffing, 250 glue, 250 gogs and frame = 1 ventari mini pet.

Each town will only give rewards like this once per account. So it looks like to get Ventari I will have to do Sunday's dungeon in Divinity's Reach and remember to pick glue.

I went nuts and bought 30 chests. I gotl 4 snowmen, 1 infarium, 1 festive golema and the mni quaggan! Since they are account bound, cant be sold I put 3 snowmen and 1 infaorum in forge and got an air elemental mini which is not bound and since I already had one I sold it for 70 silver. Ramei can now buy the gloves to to that armor set (lol).

Congratulations

I got staff skin, obviously I wont be using it on sylvari's staff. I may sell it.

Guybrush, is there a good guide to the Winter's Celebration that you know of?

Just http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wintersday_2012

Each day the dungeon gives a different toy frame, needed to make a mini pet, but not enough of the other ingredients to make one. Takes 3 dungeons, once a day for 3 days, to get enough to make one mini. Fourth and fifth days will give enough to make a second mini. Each day the minis are added to the gem store. So if you really want all five you can forge 2 and buy 3.

The Grove: Ventari Frame
Divinity's Reach: Princess Doll Frame
The Black Citadel: Toy Soldier Frame
Hoelbrak: Plush Griffon Frame?
Rata Sum: Toy Golem Frame?

If you miss any one the will all be available starting the 20th in Lion's Arch.

Hoelbrak and Rata Sum toys are my guesses based on the slots in the bank.

I just forged Ventari. I took extra wading. Tomorrow I will take glue. After Wednesdays dungeon run I'll be able to forge another mini.

Thanks Guybrush. How does one find a group to dungeon with?

For these wintersday dungeons I just type "LFG Tixx" in chat while standing next to dungeon entrance. Something similar with any other dungeon. Some people look for dungeon groups in Lion's Arch which doesn't make sense to me since the other dungeons are out in the world.

Thanks Guybrush

Forged Toy Soldier. SO I have Ventair and Toy Soldier. Tomorrow afternoon when I get off work (assuming I'm not snowed in and just stay home) I'll see what happens in Lion's Arch.

Congratulations! Come back and let us know.

If you do the dungeon in Lion's Arch it asks which you are going for. If you've already done the dungeons in the previous towns than it doesn't matter what you pick at the end you'll just get a choice between different size Wintersday bags. The smaller begs have less chances of the good stuff you get more bags. The Giant bag has a chance at better stuff but you only get 1 so the odds are against you. I just get the ugly stuff which I sell of in the gems store.

If you talk to Tixx in Lion's Arch (not in the dungeon) he gives gifts.

I got 200 cogs, 3 Unsafe Wintersday Bags (gives Wintersday weapon skins, 1 Toymaker's Bag and a 15 slot Gift Box.

The bag is goes in your armor back brace slot, It gives +2 Toughness and +2 Healing, with an empty upgrade slot. The Gift Box adds 15 slots to your inventory. Cogs, These items are all account bound. The toy skins from the Unsafe bags are not bound so you can sell them.

I got 2 Toy Staff Skins and 1 Pop Gun Skin.

Sounds like a nice haul.

They changed it. Now Tixx won't give the gifts until the finale.

Ahhh well you got in on the early gifts then.

Actually I got the email gift too. So now I have 450 cogs, but don't have the wadding needed to make 3rd mini pet. I do have the glue. Supposedly you can get wadding from Wintersday gifts but all they ever give me is ugly stuff.

on getting the wadding

Gamespot has named Guild Wars 2 as the PC Game of the Year for 2012.

Time Magazine's Top 10 List of Everything for 2012, lists Guild Wars 2 as the number one video game.

High Praise and well deserved

There is a way to get gold quickly, but its costly. You spend real world money on gems than trade the gems for gold. I now have 30 gold in the bank. That's enough for a couple pieces of armor.

Yes, like in real life, money can be hard to come by. (sigh) .

Level 57 & wait for it ! 2 gold & some pieces of silver sheeesh.

Dunn

You can make a little money crafting stuff, as long as you don't buy most of the ingredients. Some ingredients you have to buy but most you can gather yourself.

Today only:
Black Lion Salvage Kit one 30% off
Booster Multipack one 40% off
Pirate Captain's Outfit 50% off

Different sales Saturday and Sunday. I hope chef's costume goes on sale.

Ohhhhh, sales. Thanks Guybrush!

Today only:
Character Slot Expanssion 25% off
Mins 3-Pack (Set 1) 30% off
Total Makeover Kit 5 for 25% off, single not on sale

I bought two mini pet packs but got 3 of the same ones. I put the duplicates up for sale.

Ahhhh, good to know! Thanks

Final day of the sale:
Krytan Armor Skin (medium) - was ranger in GW1
Primeval Armor Skin (heavy) - was warrior in GW1
Profane Armor Skin (light) - was necromancer in GW1
all 25% off

They're skins that means they change the appearance of your existing armor, taking on its stats. They're all based on Guild Wars 1 elite armor. Why they chose these particular ones I don't know.

They made a change I don't like. Now your character can only preview the armor skin of the type it can wear. Probably some people bought the wrong skin for their character when you could preview all three on a single character. The skins are account bound not character so any one of your characters can buy the skins then put them in storage for another to take. Now though you have to log in on three characters each matching the armor type to preview the skins.

Do you have a favorite skin?

Raiini in Profane Armor - its funny I like it best on tiny asura and large norn, not in inbetween humans and sylvari.

This thread is getting unwieldy. I'm going to start a fresh one for us.