I'm not sure how they could make the world work with them. Like, why would Asura let you do their content? They'd need special reactions at the very least, Asura wouldn't just go "hey, adventurer, help us exterminate these Skritt!". And Charr consider them vermin.
It's a whoooole lot of work before you can even begin working on their own content/assets/etc.
I do know the movement thing wouldn't be an issue, for Allods Online and the Gibberlinds there is a central Gibberling with the other two at the same. Mostly they are there for flavor and extra oomph to animations.
So....crafting. Looking at GW2DB, I see that you can get fine (discovery) versions of items, but also masterwork versions of the same item. I assume the masterwork versions are critical successes?
So....crafting. Looking at GW2DB, I see that you can get fine (discovery) versions of items, but also masterwork versions of the same item. I assume the masterwork versions are critical successes?
Critical successes in GW2 crafting only give bonus xp. You can craft masterwork items directly using the upgraded version of the basic relevant rune/insignia, which you can also craft if you're a crafter of weapons or armour. Also some karma vendor rewards are masterwork item recipies.
I do know the movement thing wouldn't be an issue, for Allods Online and the Gibberlinds there is a central Gibberling with the other two at the same. Mostly they are there for flavor and extra oomph to animations.
Now I can't get the word skritt-trio out of my head.
what a happy day it is
0
Marslois, the dirty frenchmenMontrealRegistered Userregular
So....crafting. Looking at GW2DB, I see that you can get fine (discovery) versions of items, but also masterwork versions of the same item. I assume the masterwork versions are critical successes?
Critical successes only grants you more experience.
Master works are generally upgraded versions of an item. They uselessly require 5 activators instead of 3 to make the Inscription/Insignia.
Hmm, can you make a guardian, toss the class starting special item into the bank, and then give it to a warrior? I know you can do it with warrior helm/shoulders to warrior, haven't tried other classes (that can use the same armor type).
(I gave my ranger in the last BWE the eye piece from the engineer)
That is some deliciously devious thinking. Presumably one could make TWO warriors, and wind up with a warrior who had both a starting helm and starting shoulders
Thinking more on the final BWE (I only got to play the last one), of the classes I tried (Guardian, Elementalist, Ranger, Necro), Necromancer was far away the most boring. In particular, Death Shroud just seemed like such a wasted mechanic. It just didn't feel much stronger than my normal form other than not taking damage, and the skills you get in it weren't very fun or interesting... Can you customize/power up DS later on, or is it just that underwhelming?
Thinking more on the final BWE (I only got to play the last one), of the classes I tried (Guardian, Elementalist, Ranger, Necro), Necromancer was far away the most boring. In particular, Death Shroud just seemed like such a wasted mechanic. It just didn't feel much stronger than my normal form other than not taking damage, and the skills you get in it weren't very fun or interesting... Can you customize/power up DS later on, or is it just that underwhelming?
There are a number of traits which make it a little more interesting, but largely it's a second health pool with a ludicrously strong autoattack if the life force bar is over half.
Thinking more on the final BWE (I only got to play the last one), of the classes I tried (Guardian, Elementalist, Ranger, Necro), Necromancer was far away the most boring. In particular, Death Shroud just seemed like such a wasted mechanic. It just didn't feel much stronger than my normal form other than not taking damage, and the skills you get in it weren't very fun or interesting... Can you customize/power up DS later on, or is it just that underwhelming?
I thought it was pretty useful in pvp as an escape mechanism. Other than that, it rarely lasts long enough for me to even use more than one or two of the skills anyway. It felt more useful in the BWE before last but that could just be my perception. The way I see it it's mostly just a way to make necros more durable. Kinda meh but useful. I like the class a lot but death shroud isn't what sold me on it.
You can customize it in that you can have effects tied to it (aoe heal when it ends, wipe condition/speed boost when you enter) with traits. If you aren't too excited by the general things that necros do like fear bursts and lifesteal then I can see how it wouldn't be interesting. I think the point of it is that you don't take damage in it and everything else is just there to give you stuff to do during that time.
The big thing about DS is the trait which gives you stability whilst it lasts. Couple that with the build built around hopping in and out of DS and you suddenly have a target which is really annoying, difficult to control or kill.
I'm not sure how they could make the world work with them. Like, why would Asura let you do their content? They'd need special reactions at the very least, Asura wouldn't just go "hey, adventurer, help us exterminate these Skritt!". And Charr consider them vermin.
It's a whoooole lot of work before you can even begin working on their own content/assets/etc.
But it'd be so awesome.
They can become heroes during their opening and ongoing personal story. A problem that only the full might of the skritt were able to handle!
Maybe they take down an elder dragon by accident, throw a glass bottle in it's eye causing it to fall in a volcano or stop rata sum from being destroyed.
It wouldn't have to be work, as the world story goes on and the skritt's position in the world may start to change or improve, making them a playable race could start to seem like a pretty reasonable decision. I think the opportunity could present itself eventually, if not here and in expansions, maybe GW3. Though it would be a shame to wait that long.
I don't think Death Shroud is particularly less interesting than other profession mechanics if you want to boil them all right down to the pure utility.
On the whole, profession mechanics are nice to differentiate the professions, but there isn't a case where they are the reason I play a profession.
I don't think Death Shroud is particularly less interesting than other profession mechanics if you want to boil them all right down to the pure utility.
On the whole, profession mechanics are nice to differentiate the professions, but there isn't a case where they are the reason I play a profession.
Agreed. They are one aspect of each profession, but they're not defining aspects. I really like the decision to devote an entire trait line in each profession to the mechanics, because it gives players the choice whether or not to focus on them.
0
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Saw Totalbiscuit's video of the end of beta event.
Damn, now I really wish I hadn't logged off early..I just assumed they were going to repeat the last one.
I honestly didn't find the end of beta event that fun. Slowly moving around while slowly dieing.. meh. Really enjoyed the Wuvwuv and playing with PA guys though! Can't wait for release!
I didn't much care for Necros, but admittedly I only played to about level 6 and never found another weapon I could use but axe, which I hated. When I first played my Guardian I didn't really care for it until I found a hammer and a staff, and I didn't like Engineer until I got a rifle.
Weapon selection is every bit as important as class selection!
I honestly didn't find the end of beta event that fun. Slowly moving around while slowly dieing.. meh. Really enjoyed the Wuvwuv and playing with PA guys though! Can't wait for release!
I think the main problem with the event was that the map it was played on was just way too big to keep it exciting. At a certain point it was basically, "Wander around the map and die of hunger, fight someone if you get lucky." It was even less exciting when you were stuck as a robot. Pooping out ammo was amusing for a little bit, but it still turned into "Search around desperately for the action," since the enemy scanning ability would 90% of the time only lead you to more bored robots.
If they ever decide to bring it back in some way they really have to go with a smaller map. And patch out that exploit where transformation potions got you out of the robot state.
0
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
I didn't much care for Necros, but admittedly I only played to about level 6 and never found another weapon I could use but axe, which I hated. When I first played my Guardian I didn't really care for it until I found a hammer and a staff, and I didn't like Engineer until I got a rifle.
Weapon selection is every bit as important as class selection!
I didn't particularly dig on Necros for PVE, but there's a decent chance I may roll one as an alt for PVP trolling. The staff abilities are all super good and it turns into a scythe when you cast them so there's kind of a "fuck yeah" aspect there. Of course, that's assuming I can tear myself away from the Engineer and Elemental classes which is not a good bet since I do ever so much enjoy setting things on fire.
Up until the last beta event, my go-to weapon set was the staff + 2 handed sword. The 2 hander provided a great deal of damage at a long range, plus a knock-back great for pushing people off cliffs and the staff provides a good mix of damage and defense. It's a great combo, and you can keep a decent amount of clones around for shattering if you switch weapons regularly. However over beta weekend 3 I saw the merits of using a staff + scepter/pistol combo.
The great thing about the scepter is skill 3. It does so much damage, but that's not all, you also get 5 stacks of confusion added in for free. Use it on someone auto attacking and they'd suffer quite a bit of damage from the confusion. Plus the constant clone generation from my auto-attack was nice as well, giving constant shatter fodder. The pistol offhand could easily be replaced by the torch, as that has a phantasm that gels with the confusion stacking focus, but the gun adds a bit of extra damage from the duelist phantasm (who's damage was nothing to sneeze at) plus a quick use stun to add a small amount of control.
Utility skill wise, I love decoy just in general. It's saved my bacon so many times in WuvWuv and pvp and can also be used to help confuse people as to which version of me was the real one. In the event I had mirror images on my skill bar as a source of clones to burn on shatters, but with the trait that allows me to create a clone when I dodge I think that would be overkill. Instead i replaced it with null field due to it being a glamor skill, which thanks to a trait also causes confusion whenever someone enters or exits the field. Feedback is amazing to use in WuvWuv, cast it in the center of the zerg and watch as everyone scatters to avoid their projectiles coming back at them. It's also a glamor skill so will be generating confusion as well. Also worth noting is that the enemy doesn't have to be inside the feedback dome for the attack to bounce back, the projectile just has to touch it in some way. So it's often best to cast it towards the front of a group to cause the back line attacks to be bounced.
Traits are the area I'm least sure on due to little first hand experience, though what I have seems pretty solid. The idea there was to make my confusion duration as long and painful as possible, whilst also generating a large amount of clones to shatter. The fun things are the trait bonuses, one in particular makes confusion last 33% longer (hopefully on top of the extended duration from domination) plus the ability to have glamor/shatter skills cause confusion as well. The other focus is clone generation/phantasm damage - as the build can be pretty easily countered by condition removal so it's nice to have something else to fall back on, but in my wuvwuv experience it wasn't too much of an issue yet. Also anything that makes illusionary dualist more awesome is okay in my book. Some of the rest could possibly be changed but I went with the traits that sounded cool.
Anyways long story short, I want to play this game again.
Hullabaloo on
Xbox ID: Oggie Rock
0
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
edited July 2012
Necromancer was the only class that has sort of disappointed me so far. I knew mesmer wasn't going to be for me from the start but I was very interested in how the rest would turn out and most of them have atleast one setup that made me feel very comfortable with them. I enjoyed guardian, elementalist and warrior far more than I expected to.
Necromancer is conceptually probably the most badass class but I kind of struggled to find any satisfaction in it aside from stomping around with a small army of pets.
Definitely going to fiddle around with it more at launch though. Had my eye on it for too long to write it off now.
Necromancer was the only class that has sort of disappointed me so far. I knew mesmer wasn't going to be for me from the start but I was very interested in how the rest would turn out and most of them have atleast one setup that made me feel very comfortable with them. I enjoyed guardian, elementalist and warrior far more than I expected to.
Necromancer is conceptually probably the most badass class but I kind of struggled to find any satisfaction in it aside from stomping around with a small army of pets.
Definitely going to fiddle around with it more at launch though. Had my eye on it for too long to write it off now.
Necromancer has gone through some changes. I played 15+ hours necromancer just this BWE3 as well as a bit in BWE 1 & 2. BWE3 necromancer is the weakest of the bunch.
As a mechanic, Death Shroud isn't all that bad - compare it to, say, Virtues (which is a mechanic too many guardians ignore), or Burst Skills (that's only 1 additional skill! Different with each main hand weapon, but only 1 more skill). Trait support does help - you can have a piercing Life Blast which grants Might with each hit, or you can go for a build that pops in and out of DS. Those two are different enough to play significantly, but if you trait more for weapons and utilities, DS becomes less flavorful. DS tanking got kind of hit hard BWE3, though.
I'm curious what changes the Thief class would need. It seemed to be a pretty solid high DPS class. I can agree with Necro and Mesmer needing some PVE related fun tweaks though.
Guild Wars 2 is the first MMO in a long time that I couldn't instantly parse and judge. Even after playing it for 20 hours or so it still has me scratching my head at how some things fit together or work. With no monthly fee I can't afford to not buy it.
I'm curious what changes the Thief class would need. It seemed to be a pretty solid high DPS class. I can agree with Necro and Mesmer needing some PVE related fun tweaks though.
As I understand it, the changes are not for straight balance, they are to give those classes a greater number of viable builds/styles.
thief not as much, but i'm excited to see what they do since i was very hyped for thief pre-beta and then the weekend events kinda turned me off the class
thief not as much, but i'm excited to see what they do since i was very hyped for thief pre-beta and then the weekend events kinda turned me off the class
What didn't you like about the thief during the beta weekends?
I'll probably main a thief as I love the sword/dagger and pistol/dagger combos for moving in and out of combat in PVE. For wuvwuv I'll probably use the shortbow though.
0
Marslois, the dirty frenchmenMontrealRegistered Userregular
Made a quick spread sheet of all the amount of required mats to discover, at least the first tier of crafting. Everything but Jeweller applys to breathy much the first 3 tiers.
So... I actually have a copy of Guild Wars that I've never played. Nightfall, I think.
It can be played entirely like a single player RPG, right? I was going to beat the story, get EotN, then go for any easy HoM points. Nice way to fill the gap till GW2.
Anything special I should know?
You should know:
1. Guild Wars (the original) is completely unlike GW2 much in the same way that a sandblaster is different from a glass of water. The only thing they share in common is the lore and the name.
2. Playing to get HoM points will make you hate the game. Forget the HoM exists. If you think about "How do I get to xx/50 fastest?" you will not have fun. Just play the game. Having said that, Guild Wars is kinda unique and a lot of people simply don't care for the playstyle. It has a few quirks that some people simply can't get beyond (no jumping, spacebar makes you "do it", etc.)
3. Completing a Guild Wars campaign is not as trivial as you think. If you're coming in cold (ie new) expect completing the single player campaign to take as much as two to three months of casual play without help. It will take a solid 50 hours of gameplay to get through the Nightfall campaign assuming you catch on to the GW style quickly.
4. Assuming you don't hate it, prepare to read the wiki a LOT. This is a game that has been around as long as WoW and has just as much (and very different) background lore and gameplay. Imagine you are playing WoW for the first time today. Would you know how to even begin to get into an end-game raid group? Would you know what the different roles are? Or which classes are best suited for those roles? Or even how to level/gear up your character? Guild Wars is just as complex (some would say more complex) and mature as WoW.
5. Eye of the North is serious end-game content. Think of this section of the game like the final set of level 80 WoW raids. Before you can even hope to get through this section of the game, you're going to need a solid hero group, a decent amount of skill unlocks, end game gear, and full runes and inscriptions on each of your heroes.
Good luck!
I played GW1 for HoM, and I thought it was a blast. GW1 veterans overstate the difficulty of the game. Basically, just get this build for your heroes: http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Player_Support and the game suddenly becomes a lot easier (later once you're used to the game you can try different stuff).
I liked the HoM because it basically gives you a complete tour of the game, and if you go in knowing what to do then you'll be more time efficient, e.g. taking charm animal when when you do the last mission of Factions, getting storybooks for the campaigns, doing the bonuses/master reward as you do the missions, etc.
I got 30/30 in less than two months with little difficulty. Here's a 2 minute guide (where you'd have to use the gw wiki to look up the terms i use):
Note: Don't waste money on anything. Buy the cheapest max stats armor you can get, and save all the rest of your money for HoM points.
1) Do all 3 campaigns with the storybooks, getting the bonus for each mission (Nightfall contains major spoilers for Prophecies and Factions, just a heads up. Bring charm animal and get the imperial phoenix when you beat Factions. I recommend turning in the Nightfall book for Lightbringer points.
2) Finish EotN
3) Finish War in Kryta and Hearts of the North (you'll need a good hero build for WiK). Save your war supplies for medals of honors and get as many oppressor weapons as you can with them (don't get two of the same one).
4) Get all your hero armor you can without doing Domain of Anguish.
5) Get the black moa chick
6) Using the money you should have buy now, get the cheapest 3 HoM armors for your character.
All of that is easily done solo, and that will net you 20 points or close to it. By that point you're probably good enough at the game to figure out how to get the remaining 10 points. Joining an active guild, like the reddit guild, will help because they do Deep, Urgoz, DoA runs, etc.
Posts
It's a whoooole lot of work before you can even begin working on their own content/assets/etc.
But it'd be so awesome.
Critical successes in GW2 crafting only give bonus xp. You can craft masterwork items directly using the upgraded version of the basic relevant rune/insignia, which you can also craft if you're a crafter of weapons or armour. Also some karma vendor rewards are masterwork item recipies.
Now I can't get the word skritt-trio out of my head.
Critical successes only grants you more experience.
Master works are generally upgraded versions of an item. They uselessly require 5 activators instead of 3 to make the Inscription/Insignia.
For exemple.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mighty_Embroidered_Coat
Most items that you can discover work in this way. (2x crafting components + 1x activator)
That is some deliciously devious thinking. Presumably one could make TWO warriors, and wind up with a warrior who had both a starting helm and starting shoulders
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
There are a number of traits which make it a little more interesting, but largely it's a second health pool with a ludicrously strong autoattack if the life force bar is over half.
I thought it was pretty useful in pvp as an escape mechanism. Other than that, it rarely lasts long enough for me to even use more than one or two of the skills anyway. It felt more useful in the BWE before last but that could just be my perception. The way I see it it's mostly just a way to make necros more durable. Kinda meh but useful. I like the class a lot but death shroud isn't what sold me on it.
You can customize it in that you can have effects tied to it (aoe heal when it ends, wipe condition/speed boost when you enter) with traits. If you aren't too excited by the general things that necros do like fear bursts and lifesteal then I can see how it wouldn't be interesting. I think the point of it is that you don't take damage in it and everything else is just there to give you stuff to do during that time.
But it's simultaneously also really boring. It's basically "throw up a damage shield, lose all your interesting skills".
Which kinda makes it difficult to fix.
Maybe they take down an elder dragon by accident, throw a glass bottle in it's eye causing it to fall in a volcano or stop rata sum from being destroyed.
It wouldn't have to be work, as the world story goes on and the skritt's position in the world may start to change or improve, making them a playable race could start to seem like a pretty reasonable decision. I think the opportunity could present itself eventually, if not here and in expansions, maybe GW3. Though it would be a shame to wait that long.
On the whole, profession mechanics are nice to differentiate the professions, but there isn't a case where they are the reason I play a profession.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Agreed. They are one aspect of each profession, but they're not defining aspects. I really like the decision to devote an entire trait line in each profession to the mechanics, because it gives players the choice whether or not to focus on them.
Damn, now I really wish I hadn't logged off early..I just assumed they were going to repeat the last one.
Looked pretty fun too.
I know what I'm going to be doing for the whole of the first day...
Weapon selection is every bit as important as class selection!
I think the main problem with the event was that the map it was played on was just way too big to keep it exciting. At a certain point it was basically, "Wander around the map and die of hunger, fight someone if you get lucky." It was even less exciting when you were stuck as a robot. Pooping out ammo was amusing for a little bit, but it still turned into "Search around desperately for the action," since the enemy scanning ability would 90% of the time only lead you to more bored robots.
If they ever decide to bring it back in some way they really have to go with a smaller map. And patch out that exploit where transformation potions got you out of the robot state.
That alone would tide me over for a good bit of time.
100 times this. I could kill hours making characters, especially Sylvari.
This thread is equal parts awesome and true horror.
Well, you did just walk in...
I didn't particularly dig on Necros for PVE, but there's a decent chance I may roll one as an alt for PVP trolling. The staff abilities are all super good and it turns into a scythe when you cast them so there's kind of a "fuck yeah" aspect there. Of course, that's assuming I can tear myself away from the Engineer and Elemental classes which is not a good bet since I do ever so much enjoy setting things on fire.
http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=3g2ag0kkl2l4l5l910pf00ubsc4d2kmlhli
Up until the last beta event, my go-to weapon set was the staff + 2 handed sword. The 2 hander provided a great deal of damage at a long range, plus a knock-back great for pushing people off cliffs and the staff provides a good mix of damage and defense. It's a great combo, and you can keep a decent amount of clones around for shattering if you switch weapons regularly. However over beta weekend 3 I saw the merits of using a staff + scepter/pistol combo.
The great thing about the scepter is skill 3. It does so much damage, but that's not all, you also get 5 stacks of confusion added in for free. Use it on someone auto attacking and they'd suffer quite a bit of damage from the confusion. Plus the constant clone generation from my auto-attack was nice as well, giving constant shatter fodder. The pistol offhand could easily be replaced by the torch, as that has a phantasm that gels with the confusion stacking focus, but the gun adds a bit of extra damage from the duelist phantasm (who's damage was nothing to sneeze at) plus a quick use stun to add a small amount of control.
Utility skill wise, I love decoy just in general. It's saved my bacon so many times in WuvWuv and pvp and can also be used to help confuse people as to which version of me was the real one. In the event I had mirror images on my skill bar as a source of clones to burn on shatters, but with the trait that allows me to create a clone when I dodge I think that would be overkill. Instead i replaced it with null field due to it being a glamor skill, which thanks to a trait also causes confusion whenever someone enters or exits the field. Feedback is amazing to use in WuvWuv, cast it in the center of the zerg and watch as everyone scatters to avoid their projectiles coming back at them. It's also a glamor skill so will be generating confusion as well. Also worth noting is that the enemy doesn't have to be inside the feedback dome for the attack to bounce back, the projectile just has to touch it in some way. So it's often best to cast it towards the front of a group to cause the back line attacks to be bounced.
Traits are the area I'm least sure on due to little first hand experience, though what I have seems pretty solid. The idea there was to make my confusion duration as long and painful as possible, whilst also generating a large amount of clones to shatter. The fun things are the trait bonuses, one in particular makes confusion last 33% longer (hopefully on top of the extended duration from domination) plus the ability to have glamor/shatter skills cause confusion as well. The other focus is clone generation/phantasm damage - as the build can be pretty easily countered by condition removal so it's nice to have something else to fall back on, but in my wuvwuv experience it wasn't too much of an issue yet. Also anything that makes illusionary dualist more awesome is okay in my book. Some of the rest could possibly be changed but I went with the traits that sounded cool.
Anyways long story short, I want to play this game again.
Necromancer is conceptually probably the most badass class but I kind of struggled to find any satisfaction in it aside from stomping around with a small army of pets.
Definitely going to fiddle around with it more at launch though. Had my eye on it for too long to write it off now.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Yes. Death magic top-tier trait. I think it poisons now?
EDIT: but only for your minions, not other players.
Necromancer has gone through some changes. I played 15+ hours necromancer just this BWE3 as well as a bit in BWE 1 & 2. BWE3 necromancer is the weakest of the bunch.
As a mechanic, Death Shroud isn't all that bad - compare it to, say, Virtues (which is a mechanic too many guardians ignore), or Burst Skills (that's only 1 additional skill! Different with each main hand weapon, but only 1 more skill). Trait support does help - you can have a piercing Life Blast which grants Might with each hit, or you can go for a build that pops in and out of DS. Those two are different enough to play significantly, but if you trait more for weapons and utilities, DS becomes less flavorful. DS tanking got kind of hit hard BWE3, though.
(sPvP opinions, mostly)
Edit because!
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
As I understand it, the changes are not for straight balance, they are to give those classes a greater number of viable builds/styles.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
thief not as much, but i'm excited to see what they do since i was very hyped for thief pre-beta and then the weekend events kinda turned me off the class
tumblr | instagram | twitter | steam
What didn't you like about the thief during the beta weekends?
Made a quick spread sheet of all the amount of required mats to discover, at least the first tier of crafting. Everything but Jeweller applys to breathy much the first 3 tiers.
edit.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgwiBRyg-AObdFlsYjJiQU5Mc0ZtY2Y2RDVRU2c1WlE
Spreadsheet of mats for the first 2 tiers used for artificer potions.
Working on one for cooking as well, buts its going to have to go for another night.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgwiBRyg-AObdE9qd3VicU14V1FiMl94MEM4Yjc4THc
I played GW1 for HoM, and I thought it was a blast. GW1 veterans overstate the difficulty of the game. Basically, just get this build for your heroes: http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Player_Support and the game suddenly becomes a lot easier (later once you're used to the game you can try different stuff).
I liked the HoM because it basically gives you a complete tour of the game, and if you go in knowing what to do then you'll be more time efficient, e.g. taking charm animal when when you do the last mission of Factions, getting storybooks for the campaigns, doing the bonuses/master reward as you do the missions, etc.
I got 30/30 in less than two months with little difficulty. Here's a 2 minute guide (where you'd have to use the gw wiki to look up the terms i use):
Note: Don't waste money on anything. Buy the cheapest max stats armor you can get, and save all the rest of your money for HoM points.
1) Do all 3 campaigns with the storybooks, getting the bonus for each mission (Nightfall contains major spoilers for Prophecies and Factions, just a heads up. Bring charm animal and get the imperial phoenix when you beat Factions. I recommend turning in the Nightfall book for Lightbringer points.
2) Finish EotN
3) Finish War in Kryta and Hearts of the North (you'll need a good hero build for WiK). Save your war supplies for medals of honors and get as many oppressor weapons as you can with them (don't get two of the same one).
4) Get all your hero armor you can without doing Domain of Anguish.
5) Get the black moa chick
6) Using the money you should have buy now, get the cheapest 3 HoM armors for your character.
All of that is easily done solo, and that will net you 20 points or close to it. By that point you're probably good enough at the game to figure out how to get the remaining 10 points. Joining an active guild, like the reddit guild, will help because they do Deep, Urgoz, DoA runs, etc.