Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Xilurm]

Raptor unlocks at lvl 10 when you have the HOT/POF expansions.

Wait so, players didn't have any mounts in the game prior to the first expansion, 3 years after the game released?

[PACOX]

Wait so, players didn't have any mounts in the game prior to the first expansion, 3 years after the game released?

Yup, we didn't get mounts until the 3rd expansion. One thing to remember is that mounts in this game arent simple move speed boost like other games, which is why they weren't in the game at launch - Anet was against the idea of mounts being just a means to go faster.

Also used to be that you didnt get your first mount until you started the POF story. Thats 6 story chapters into the game.

[Xilurm]

Yup, we didn't get mounts until the 3rd expansion. One thing to remember is that mounts in this game arent simple move speed boost like other games, which is why they weren't in the game at launch - Anet was against the idea of mounts being just a means to go faster.

Also used to be that you didnt get your first mount until you started the POF story. Thats 6 story chapters into the game.

Wait, 3rd expansion? Wasn't the 3rd expansion, End of Dragons just released?

Anet was against the idea of mounts being just a means to go faster.

I'm glad they did. Imagine mounts in GW3, if that ever happens.

[Saradain]

Wait, 3rd expansion? Wasn't the 3rd expansion, End of Dragons just released?

A typo likely. We didn't have mounts before Path of Fire.

Thank goodness we got them, makes going around Heart of Thorns zones far more enjoyable, giving access to interesting skips and travel methods

[PACOX]

Wait, 3rd expansion? Wasn't the 3rd expansion, End of Dragons just released?



I'm glad they did. Imagine mounts in GW3, if that ever happens.

I meant 2nd.

But yeah. Probably one of the best additions to the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

My mount trial ended. Was a good mount experience. Does it take long until I get an actual mount?

You get the raptor during the first mission of Path of Fire. Takes about 15 minutes. The Springer, Skimmer, and Jackal just require doing hearts in PoF zones. Griffon requires 3-4 hours spent doing hearts and finding eggs across PoF zones (and 250 gold). Roller Beetle can be down in a couple hours, involves going around gathering items. Skyscale requires about 4-5 hours work total but it's timegated and takes a few days, involves finding stuff scattered around Dragonfall and season 4 zones, and about 50-60 gold. The Turtle requires beating the Dragon's End meta event and then acquiring a few items, almost all of which can be bought for cheap off of the auction house, so once you've done DE you almost immediately get the turtle.

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Apparently if you do all of the Living World Season 1 meta achievements, you get an item to teleport to the Old Lion's Arch. It has crafting stations, banker, etc, all of the amenities, and it is a public instance so you can see other players chilling out there. No gliding or mounts allowed, though.

[Xilurm]

My lvl 40 quest just sent me across 3 big cities. Kind of overwhelming. Though I suppose if exp gain was way lower I'd already be to most of these zones at this point.

[Edge-]

Wait so, players didn't have any mounts in the game prior to the first expansion, 3 years after the game released?

Correct, there was previously never any need for them. Teleport points are plentiful and most builds have access to easy movement speed bonuses, simply "going faster" wasn't really necessary.

They were added in PoF specifically to solve traversal problems in it. Additional mounts were just for funsies (beetle for racing, flying mounts for QoL funsies, and I still have yet to earn the warclaw since fuck PvP/WvW), and they all serve the de-facto purpose of being more general speed boosts nowadays.

[Lotus Victoria]

Finished EoD. Been fishing ever since I finished.
I don't care about dragons anymore. I just wanna fish.
Best Mastery. Fight me.

[Svifnymr]

They were added in PoF specifically to solve traversal problems in it. Additional mounts were just for funsies (beetle for racing, flying mounts for QoL funsies, and I still have yet to earn the warclaw since fuck PvP/WvW), and they all serve the de-facto purpose of being more general speed boosts nowadays.

They also made the boards a bit bigger when they added mounts, I think, so you needed them more in the expacs (plus the hero points/ mastery points hidden behind mount powers).
I did run around and get the warclaw, worst of the mounts by far, only thing he's for is Wv, and I don't play it, so it's useless to me. Does look okay I guess.

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Wait so, players didn't have any mounts in the game prior to the first expansion, 3 years after the game released?

First expansion added gliding (and some other stuff), second expansion added mounts (and some other stuff).

[Lotus Victoria]

With the new patch notes, Deadeye can now walk, but it has reduced range.
Not sure if I like this change to be honest. The class is horrible to play in PvE (it's strong, but it's so damn boring!), and I don't understand the changes.

I'd much rather keep the 1500 range and get some other form of movement buff (maybe a different dodge style when you're kneeling?) than losing range to gain 25% movement speed.

Now I can't walk properly, and I can't shoot as far. What the hell, ANET?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The dev's plans for Untamed are grim. They're going to nerf Fervent Force. FF is the only notable thing about Untamed (Fervent Force reduces your cooldowns, increasing your APM). The Ambush skills don't do enough to be worth switching back and forth for. You can't use your pet abilities while in Unleashed Pet state (also pet control is still borked), so there is no reason to go outside of Unleashed Ranger unless you are wielding a hammer, and only because Hammer gets slightly different skills while in Unleashed Pet state. The other two grandmaster traits don't transform your gameplay like Fervent Force does (Ferocious Symbiosis is just a passive damage boost), and one of them is practically useless (Restorative Strikes. For meta events and instanced content, other people are going to be healing you anyway. For solo gameplay your dodge button and heal skill (and maybe a "protect me!" or "guard" utility skill) will be fine for anything up to legendary mobs. The only reason to consider restorative strikes is you want to solo legendary bounties for some reason. I am hard pressed to think of any other situation in which you might want to take Restorative Strikes. WvW and SPvP is very bursty which makes Restorative Strikes inadequate for self preservation).

The spec needs a rework to live up to the name of being an elite spec that truly transforms your gameplay, rather than just being core ranger+ with slightly higher DPS than just 3 vanilla ranger specs.

[Xilurm]

Finally used up all my hero points after reading carefully where I should be putting them. I put them all in Honor since it seems to keep me alive the longest.

Also managed to do my first jump puzzle I think.

Is this a jump puzzle? It's a small cave I found in the Wayfarer Foothills. Had a nice chest at the end. I tried it earlier but couldn't do it because the last two mobs wiped the floor with me, but after working on my specialization it was easy.

[Edge-]

I believe that's a JP, yes, though I don't recall which one. If there's a chest at the end and you get an achievement though, that's definitely it. They're not super rewarding (at least not anymore) and you can cheese them if there's a mesmer around with portals, but they're pretty fun. Difficulty varies considerably and some are actually pretty technical/have fairly confusing routes (there's one where you're jumping around high pillars and birds are all over trying to knock you off that's a mess to navigate and I have to look up guides for to make sure I'm going the right way) but most of the OG zones have at least one JP in them to discover/complete. Dailies help with this since they'll point you towards one to do for some bonus rewards each day (do your normal dailies if you can, the 2G per day is very helpful).

For hero points, they won't matter much over time as you'll have more than enough earned to unlock all the core stuff with plenty to spare. Focus on what you want/what build you're going for for now, but you'll get everything.

[Xilurm]

Well it was pretty rewarding to get, mostly because I failed multiple times earlier though.

I also did the first 3 dungeons today. From what I understand there's no tanking and healing in the traditional sense right? As in there ain't a "trinity" in this game right?

Also, is there some sort of automatic group queue? I did join a group that was listed for the first two dungeons, then listed my own for the third, but in two cases where the group wasn't listed anymore other people still joined. And in the second dungeon when we joined there was another person already in.

But man, Destiny's Edge is such a dramatic group like.

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Oh I think I found another jump puzzle.

[PACOX]

Well it was pretty rewarding to get, mostly because I failed multiple times earlier though.

I also did the first 3 dungeons today. From what I understand there's no tanking and healing in the traditional sense right? As in there ain't a "trinity" in this game right?

Also, is there some sort of automatic group queue? I did join a group that was listed for the first two dungeons, then listed my own for the third, but in two cases where the group wasn't listed anymore other people still joined. And in the second dungeon when we joined there was another person already in.

But man, Destiny's Edge is such a dramatic group like.

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Oh I think I found another jump puzzle.

There's no automatic queue in PVE for the most part. There's a few expections later on in the game called public instances but even then people generally prefer to use the LFG tool. Groups tend to fill fast as long as you say what you are doing in the description. So if you are doing say, Ascalonian Catacombs, the first dungeon, just make sure you write something like 'Story mode' in your description and people will be more inclined to join.


JP puzzles will give you an achievement your first go through. There's also what they can 'mini dungeons' scattered around the world, only some have achievements attached to them. Then you small permanent chest just laying around to reward exploration.


Some chest have a chance of consistent valuable drops from them. A lot are tied to some collection but those come later in the game.


GW2 has a soft trinity. The game does not assign hard tank, heal, dps, roles but combat pushes and encounter design later encourages people to specialize in support, heal, and dps builds. There's several ways the game determines who the 'tank' so you can't really build to be THE tank everywhere outside of pvp/WvW.




Side bar.


All expansions are going on sale starting on the 22nd. Anet is also adding the 'Complete Edition' to their storefront. There's on Steam but it only benefits those created their account on Steam.

[Xilurm]

There's no automatic queue in PVE for the most part. There's a few expections later on in the game called public instances but even then people generally prefer to use the LFG tool. Groups tend to fill fast as long as you say what you are doing in the description. So if you are doing say, Ascalonian Catacombs, the first dungeon, just make sure you write something like 'Story mode' in your description and people will be more inclined to join.

Yeah that's what I did. Surprised so many high levels joined too. Must be some daily or w/e at the endgame. I imagined the dungeons would be dead content but I'm glad they don't seem to be. Also people wait for cutscenes, which is nice.

[Edge-]

I also did the first 3 dungeons today. From what I understand there's no tanking and healing in the traditional sense right? As in there ain't a "trinity" in this game right?

For dungeons at least, yes. There's a more formal "healer" role of sorts (though can often just be a buffer) but it's not really "required" for dungeons as they were created before that role solidified.

Also, is there some sort of automatic group queue? I did join a group that was listed for the first two dungeons, then listed my own for the third, but in two cases where the group wasn't listed anymore other people still joined. And in the second dungeon when we joined there was another person already in.

Automated, no. You have to create/join groups on your own.

But man, Destiny's Edge is such a dramatic group like.

There's a novel that came out before GW2 that goes into them a lot more if you are curious. Forget the name, but I had the book ages ago.

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Yeah that's what I did. Surprised so many high levels joined too. Must be some daily or w/e at the endgame. I imagined the dungeons would be dead content but I'm glad they don't seem to be. Also people wait for cutscenes, which is nice.

They made dungeon currency more generic so there are a lot of things you can use it now. I haven't run dungeons in ages but it seems that they've bene more active since the chance (with EoD I believe).

But people are usually pretty nice in GW2. If you lot folks know it's your first run or something they'll usually wait for you to enjoy cutscenes and gives some fight tips and whatnot.

[Unholyground]

Just remember as a PSA to login at least once a week so once new living seasons start you get them for free. If not you have to pay 200 gems per episode after the fact.

I had to grind a lot of gold when I could have easily logged in once a week lol.

[Lotus Victoria]

Good work!
You just did Shaman's Rookery, one of the first JP's in the game. It can be a little annoying at first, but I'm glad you finished it!