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[GW2] Season 2 Episode 3 - The Dragon's Reach Part 1 (Use Spoiler Tags!)

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Posts

  • ky13ky13 Registered User regular
    Kylindra wrote: »
    Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Sparkle System shall be explained.

    Let it be known that Sparkles shall be redeemable once per week before Saturday Night Guild Missions, by whosoever is at the top of the Sparkle Leaderboard. And further, let it be known that the choice shall be made to redeem Half of one's sparkles for an Announced Prize, or to redeem All of one's sparkles for a Mystery Prize. Let it be known that the Mystery Prize can be anything, it could even be a boat, and indeed, it is known how much we have always wanted one of those.

    If it should come about that more than one person is at the top of the Leaderboard, they shall decide amongst themselves who shall have that week's honor, and the rest shall wait. If they cannot decide, they must Fight To The Death (in the guild's custom arena) for the honor.

    Thus it was said, and thus it shall be.

    Sparkles are badass. And historically accurate.

    Eternity_Sky-banner-4.png
    Hey, it's me, Teldra! Did someone say "greatsword"? [Eternity]
  • OwenashiOwenashi Registered User regular
    Kylindra wrote: »
    Owenashi wrote: »
    What's special about the pass?

    So, the Royal Terrace is a mini-city in Divinity's Reach that has all the things in a small space: crafting, portals, bank, TP, vendor, Mystic Forge, etc. And the pass lets you teleport there from anywhere for free, so it's the ultimate in convenience.

    They had 2-week passes back in the day, but this is the first ever time they've offered a permanent pass. And it's only on sale for 24 hours, so if you want it, grab it while you can! :)

    Is this character or account-bound?

  • KylindraKylindra Registered User regular
    Owenashi wrote: »
    Kylindra wrote: »
    Owenashi wrote: »
    What's special about the pass?

    So, the Royal Terrace is a mini-city in Divinity's Reach that has all the things in a small space: crafting, portals, bank, TP, vendor, Mystic Forge, etc. And the pass lets you teleport there from anywhere for free, so it's the ultimate in convenience.

    They had 2-week passes back in the day, but this is the first ever time they've offered a permanent pass. And it's only on sale for 24 hours, so if you want it, grab it while you can! :)

    Is this character or account-bound?

    Account bound.

  • KylindraKylindra Registered User regular
    Kylindra wrote: »
    Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Sparkle System shall be explained.

    Let it be known that Sparkles shall be redeemable once per week before Saturday Night Guild Missions, by whosoever is at the top of the Sparkle Leaderboard. And further, let it be known that the choice shall be made to redeem Half of one's sparkles for an Announced Prize, or to redeem All of one's sparkles for a Mystery Prize. Let it be known that the Mystery Prize can be anything, it could even be a boat, and indeed, it is known how much we have always wanted one of those.

    If it should come about that more than one person is at the top of the Leaderboard, they shall decide amongst themselves who shall have that week's honor, and the rest shall wait. If they cannot decide, they must Fight To The Death (in the guild's custom arena) for the honor.

    Thus it was said, and thus it shall be.

    Ye Old Sparkle Leaderboard:

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhYAzkdjWLM7dGRfOEFEOVI0Mm1CN3JYY243UElXU0E&usp=drive_web#gid=0

  • omega71omega71 Too old for a title, too ornery to care. Sacramento, CaliRegistered User regular
    I just got this yesterday, won it from a local tv channel's Facebook contest. I like it so far, but it is a bit daunting if you are used to WoW. So question time. I am level 4, I wanted to start crafting, like maybe tailoring so I can start hopefully making gear. Where do I start? I was told to WvW my way to the portals and hit up Lions Arch, so I did, but I have no idea who to talk to and whatnot.

    Anything else I should know for a new player as well would be pretty spiffy, I made a Mesmer if that matters, since in GW1 I was Ele/Mes and I am really loving the new way Mesmers play out.

    24.24.2.2148
  • KylindraKylindra Registered User regular
    omega71 wrote: »
    I just got this yesterday, won it from a local tv channel's Facebook contest. I like it so far, but it is a bit daunting if you are used to WoW. So question time. I am level 4, I wanted to start crafting, like maybe tailoring so I can start hopefully making gear. Where do I start? I was told to WvW my way to the portals and hit up Lions Arch, so I did, but I have no idea who to talk to and whatnot.

    Anything else I should know for a new player as well would be pretty spiffy, I made a Mesmer if that matters, since in GW1 I was Ele/Mes and I am really loving the new way Mesmers play out.

    Tailoring is normally a good idea, but there was a recent patch that put a premium on low level cloth. You may find an advantage in selling any cloth you find for awhile, and using the silver you get to buy cheap gear for yourself

    If you want to delve into crafting, Jewelcrafting is easy and good for all classes.

    You can see crafting stations on the map. They have little symbols to show you which stations they are. In LA, they are far north.

    If you want to join the guild and join in our fun (and have people to ask lots of questions to), post your account name here and we'll send you an invite. :)

  • omega71omega71 Too old for a title, too ornery to care. Sacramento, CaliRegistered User regular
    Kylindra wrote: »
    omega71 wrote: »
    I just got this yesterday, won it from a local tv channel's Facebook contest. I like it so far, but it is a bit daunting if you are used to WoW. So question time. I am level 4, I wanted to start crafting, like maybe tailoring so I can start hopefully making gear. Where do I start? I was told to WvW my way to the portals and hit up Lions Arch, so I did, but I have no idea who to talk to and whatnot.

    Anything else I should know for a new player as well would be pretty spiffy, I made a Mesmer if that matters, since in GW1 I was Ele/Mes and I am really loving the new way Mesmers play out.

    Tailoring is normally a good idea, but there was a recent patch that put a premium on low level cloth. You may find an advantage in selling any cloth you find for awhile, and using the silver you get to buy cheap gear for yourself

    If you want to delve into crafting, Jewelcrafting is easy and good for all classes.

    You can see crafting stations on the map. They have little symbols to show you which stations they are. In LA, they are far north.

    If you want to join the guild and join in our fun (and have people to ask lots of questions to), post your account name here and we'll send you an invite. :)

    Awesome! That would be pretty nifty, because I am sure I will have a crapton of questions. Its omegablack.6941

    24.24.2.2148
  • EnderEnder Registered User regular
    Well, I gotta say, you guys are awesome.

    Thanks to your internet sleuthing, I've gotten my account back. I'm reinstalling the client now, and I'll be able to check the status of my characters tomorrow morning. If you could invite me back to the guild at some point, that would be cool. It's Ender.5798

  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    Hey! WvW people! This is the thing I said I was gonna write. I hope you like text.

    Enemy servers hate him - defeat your enemies in WvW using this one weird trick (actually there's way more than one).

    If this sort of thing is up your alley, sign up for Team Tryhard here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap0eryO5km6WdGZiMms2NWVPSFBZdFZ2X3VRWVAyWkE&usp=sharing

    Without further ado, here's the...

    Team Tryhard Playbook
    Welcome one and all. I'm Yougottawanna and if you ask me, WvW is the best thing about GW2. I've never succeeded at explaining exactly why, even to myself, but if I had to try I'd say because it's not designed for me to win. PvE content, even though it's sometimes difficult, is designed to be beaten. It's not made deliberately unfair. But WvW IS unfair. The best servers are generally the ones that outnumber their opponents for at least 13 out of every 24 hours. That makes it a unique challenge, and the strategies that have emerged organically out of this challenge are, to me, the most interesting thing GW2 has.

    Don’t think of WvW as something that's designed for you to win at least 50% of the time. Think of it as a puzzle to be solved. Beating a force that outnumbers me is the single most satisfying thing I’ve done in this game. The fact that it doesn’t happen that often just makes it sweeter when you pull it off. Before I played GW2 I played EVE. There’s an alliance in EVE called Rooks and Kings which has used creative tactics to beat larger (sometimes much larger) forces time and again. One of them was interviewed here: http://themittani.com/features/blaze-western-sky-0?page=0,0. In the interview he said something that I think is applicable to GW2 WvW:

    “…in egalitarian fashion, everything must be equal to everything else, or people will complain, and so the game panders a bit to the masses, rather than standing aloof and mysterious as an imposing, cruel mountain, daring us to scale it.”

    Let's scale this stupid mountain and show it who's boss. To do it we'll need to work together, and the playbook's job is to explain how. If you've WvW'ed a lot you may already know a lot of the stuff in here, but there might also be a few things that are new. If you haven't WvW'ed much or at all the guide is (hopefully) accessible to newcomers.

    Forming up
    First we form good groups. Guardians are the best source of group stability in the game, so step one in forming up is making sure there's a guardian in every party. The quickest way to do this, and the way that's become at least a little bit common on FA, are the letters x and y. If you're not in a group with a guardian, type "x" in chat. If you are a guardian and you have space in your group, type a "y" in chat. This way people can join and invite by right-clicking instead of having to worry about spelling your name right or recognizing your voice in teamspeak.

    Second is to stack. Stacking should be something that happens almost on an instinctual level. The stack is where the swiftness will be, where the veil will be next to, where the empowers and water fields will be. The stack is your home. Are you too good for your home? On a tactical level, to be stacked is to be ready - and we should always be ready. At any given time there might be an enemy zerg right around the corner. If we're scattered and disorganized when it hits we're putting ourselves at a big disadvantage. It's a simple thing, but oh so important.

    Moving around
    To be most effective we should spend as little time as possible standing still, and we should have group swiftness up at all times. Back in the olden days we would sometimes blast static fields for group swiftness. Now there's a new trick with guardian symbol of swiftness (staff #3). Basically, we stack up, and then guardians drop the symbols at our feet. We wait a few seconds for them to pulse, then head out. It's quicker and simpler than the old way, and you can get plenty of swiftness out of it.

    Once we're moving, guardians should continue dropping symbols in front of us whenever it comes off cooldown. The other two major sources of group swiftness are the Warrior's "charge" (warhorn #4) and the Ele's "windborne speed" (staff #4 in air attunement). Those should also be used whenever they come off cooldown. Between those three things we should be able to maintain 100% swiftness uptime for the group.

    Callouts
    "Callout" refers to someone noticing enemies nearby and alerting everyone else to them in teamspeak. A fight starts with the callout. As soon as you have reason to believe there are enemies in the area you should be getting ready to fight (read: stacking). Here are a couple of things to know about callouts:

    First, be in teamspeak. This might seem obvious but it's important enough to mention anyway. Everything in this guide assumes that you'll be in teamspeak. You don't have to have a mic (though it helps), but you do have to be able to hear what's going on.

    Second, not every enemy is worth mentioning. If there are ten or more of us running around and you see 1-2 enemies you don't need to even bother. They're not a threat to us. The one exception is if we're trying to do something incognito. In that case, it only takes one person to alert the bad guys to where we are, so in those situations saying "we're scouted" is appropriate even for just one enemy.

    Third, this is the preferred format for callouts: "incoming" followed by the cardinal direction followed by the number. "Incoming" is the magic word that indicates that there's an enemy force in the area large enough to threaten us. (Don't use "incoming" for one person). Once we know that there are bad guys incoming, the first thing to relay is the direction: north, south, east or west. Finally, guess at their numbers. Make the best guess you can. I know counting large groups of moving things is tricky and sometimes you can't see them all. Just try to get it within ten (like 10, 20, 30).

    Here are words not to use in callouts:

    "Lots": not helpful. How many is lots?
    "Over here": I don't know where "here" is.
    "This way": Ditto
    "Behind us": It's better than "over here" or "this way," but not great. What's "behind" for you may be in front of me or vice versa.

    A bad callout: "Here they come! Lots of them, from over here!"
    A good callout: "incoming, west, twenty or so"

    A good callout can mean the difference between winning and losing. If we have good info, stack quickly, and move alertly, we can take the initiative over the bad guys. Very often the deciding factor in a fight is who bombs first. If we don't like the numbers matchup, a good callout means that we'll be more likely to retreat without losing anyone.

    Notes about movement in WvW
    Now that we've heard the callout and stacked, it's time to fight. About time, right? But first, more typing.

    A useful but counter-intuitive thing to know about WvW is that pushing into the enemy is often the safest thing to do. Backing up is slow, which makes you an easy target. Standing still makes you an even easier one. Dodge-rolling backwards won't last long. Trying to attack the enemy sideways while circle-strafing away is awkward. Turning and running takes away nearly all your offence and makes you a sitting duck. However, moving forward - pushing through or around the enemy to the far side - means that you have both good mobility and access to all of your offensive and defensive abilities.

    There are situations where it's appropriate to stand still or back up (especially ones involving a chokepoint). But for most fights, remember that safety is not to be found by moving away from the bad guys - it's to be found by getting behind them. There are two routes to this goal: go through them or go around. Characters that go through the enemy zerg have come to be called "frontline" fighters, and those that go around have come to be called "backline" fighters. The terms are a little misleading. The backline is rarely "behind" the frontline in any kind of spatial sense. Instead, the frontline dives in to the mass of bad guys, while the backline skirts around them.
    fDsLWZi.png

    Of course an actual fight isn't going to look so simple and clean as this. Here are a couple videos of frontline vs. backline movement in action. The first is a damage-focused frontline warrior. Notice how he sticks to the commander (who's running tagless but has been party-targeted). Occasionally he gets seperated, but he always quickly finds his way back.

    The second is a backline elementalist in a GvG. She takes the long way round the enemy zerg, not diving in - but she still moves with them, and is aware of where they are and what they're doing. (The commander here is also party-targeted)

    Hopefully the two videos give a sense of the difference between frontline and backline. Here are how the classes generally split up:

    Front: Warrior, Guardian, Necro (when using plague/death shroud/melee), Ele (when using tornado)
    Back: Ele (when using staff), Necro (when using staff)

    As you can maybe guess from the above, a good zerg is mostly (like, 3/4 or more) frontline.

    Approach-Bomb-Scramble-Recover-Repeat
    These are the four(or five) parts of a fight, and knowing what these terms means makes it easier to talk about WvW tactics.

    Approach: The approach starts the instant we enter within 1200 units (max range for most ranged weapons) of the enemy. Once we're that close, they could be dropping CC on us at any time. Getting CC'd and then spike damaged is how you lose fights, so the one word to remember for the approach is "stability." A party with a guardian has three sources of group stability: the "stand your ground" shout, traited virtue of courage, and using your elite to refresh your virtues and using virtue of courage again. When the commander calls for stability the first time, use the first, the second time use the second and the third time use the third (don't use them all one right after the other). During the approach it's important to be stacked, so that everyone gets stability, and so that everyone is in range when it comes time to drop the bomb.

    Bomb: This is when we drop CC on the nearest clump of bad guys, getting them to stand still just for a second or two while we all dump damage on their heads and instadown them. Timing is important here - the damage has to come within a few seconds of the CC to be most effective. A good bomb can down 3-5 enemies within seconds of the fight starting. Obviously, this is very hard to recover from, so everyone bomb together. During the bomb everyone needs to be within range of the enemy as it drops. If some of our damage is still catching up it'll arrive too late to be most effective.

    Scramble: This is that in-between period where you're trying not to die. You're dodging, avoiding red circles, using your second-choice abilities, and doing whatever damage you can. This is the hectic part of the fight. Do what you can. It's not as important that you be stacked at this point - but won't wander too far, and stay aware of where the commander is because you'll be restacking in a second.

    Recover: This is when we restack, clear conditions, blast water, empower, and prepare to approach and bomb a second time. If you want might, healing, and condition cleanses you should be stacked. The commander should stay still for a couple seconds during this part, to give people time and to allow empowers to finish. The recover can happen anywhere, even right in the midst of the enemy, but we want to avoid combo fields that aren't water. So we shouldn't recover in the same spot we bombed.

    Repeat: Rinse and repeat until the fight is either won or lost. Players that are comfortable with the approach-bomb-scramble-recover-repeat rhythm are the ones that make skilled groups, and skilled groups are the ones that win fights even when outnumbered.

    How we'll have an edge

    Now that the preliminaries are out of the way it's time for the good stuff - the stuff that we'll be doing that the bad guys probably won't. This is what'll give us an edge. If we can pull these things off, we'll be golden against 80% of the groups we run into. These are the things we'll be doing better than the competition.

    Multiple bombs: Most groups, even skilled guild groups, dump all or nearly all of the CC they have on their first push. This is a bit of a waste IMO. If they come up against a group that pops stability at the right time all that CC is wasted - what's more, two static fields are not twice as good as one even if there's no stability involved. By having multiple bombs (and multiple sources of stability), we'll have more good pushes than the enemy.

    Recovering earlier and better: A lot of commanders only occasionally group up to blast water, or they only do it as an attempt to turn around a fight they're losing. But by the time you're losing it's often too late for blasting water to make a difference. Instead, the recovery phase should be as automatic as the bomb - and it should also be predictable, so that people know when to expect it, and stack up and prepare blast finishers in anticipation of it. This'll give us both more organization and more staying power.

    Now, for tedious and exhaustively detailed descriptions of how to do the above two things.

    Multiple bombs
    For the sake of this example I'll assume that we have fifteen people, divided into three groups. When we're forming up will give them names - group A, group B, and group C. When it comes time to bomb, instead of just saying "bomb" the commander will say "bomb A" on the first push, then "bomb B" for the second, and "bomb C" for the third. When bombing, you'll be doing one of three things - crowd control, damage, or mitigating enemy damage (ie, blinds and dazes).

    For Bomb A, group A uses CC, while groups B and C use damage, blinds, or dazes.
    For Bomb B, group B uses CC, while groups A and C use damage, blinds, or dazes.
    For Bomb C, group C uses CC, while groups A and B use damage, blinds, or dazes.

    If you're in the grouping that's CC'ing in the bomb, here are the abilities to use (and to watch for):

    Elementalist: Static Field. Static Fields are easy to use (1200 range, ground targeted, big radius with the trait) and easy to see (a big ring of electricity-looking stuff). So it's a good thing to watch there the static field drops even if you're not the one dropping it. That's where the bomb is. Aside from static, elementalists have earth #5 (immobilize) and #4 (line), as well as water #4 (which chills). But static is the best one, and the one you should use when you're in group A and the commander just called for bomb A (for example)

    Guardian: Guardian chains (greatsword #4). Don't use this to pull people out of the bomb! Send out the chains as soon as you're in range, then wait until you're inside the static field to pull. It'll take a second or two longer to pull this combo off, which is actually good, as it may be that the enemy's stability has worn off by then. Line of Warding (staff #5) is your second choice, and not as good for bombing.

    Necromancers: First, what not to do: don't fear. That'll cause them to run out of the bomb, which is the opposite of what we want (you can use fear later, just not during the bomb). Necros don't have much hard CC aside from fear, but they do have a lot of ways to chill. Chills slows the enemy way down and also ignores stability, so in a way it's better than hard CC. By the way: well of corruption turns stability into fear - so you actually don't want to use it during or just prior to the bomb.

    Warriors: If you have adrenaline, earthshaker is great. If not, hammer #3 with the leg specialist trait is an AoE immobilize. You can also use hammer #4 and #5 to try and knock people into the bomb (but try not to knock them out). Earthshaker is good enough that you should use it whenever you can, even if you're not in the group that's bombing this push.

    For all of the above, remember that with the exception of earthshaker you should save your CC cooldowns for when your group is bombing. Don't use them too early, save them for when you know your teammates are gonna be dumping damage on top of the people you just CC'd.

    If you're not in the group that's CC'ing, pick abilities that either damage, blind, or daze and hit as many people with them as possible (eles and necros, don't forget about tornado and plague). Remember to keep an eye out for the static field: it's the first CC to go down (usually) and the most visible, and it's where the juiciest targets will be. If you're dropping damage, pick the people in the static field - if you're dropping dazes/blinds, it may be better to pick other people to mitigate the most damage.

    Recovering earlier and better
    First, a note on timing. The steps of the approach-bomb-scramble-recover pattern go by pretty quickly. The approach will only be 1-2 seconds, the bomb 2-3, and the scramble 2-3 (it's not always super clear where the bomb stops and the scramble starts). That means that the recovery will take place just 5-6 seconds after the bomb. That might seem early, but that's where I'd like for us to start. So when you see the first CC go down for the bomb, start counting down six mississippies in your head (as well as you can manage) and when you hit six you're ready to restack, blast, and start over again. We may adjust this timing as we experiment with how well it works, but for now when I say to recover "early" I mean early. If we enter our second and third pushes with our health topped off we'll be hard to beat.

    The recovery procedure: first, the commander gets clear of any stray combo fields. It's not a disaster if the stack is still is in an old field, since I think the most recently placed one takes priority, but just in case. The commander stands still for a few seconds in that spot. Then everyone else does this:

    Elementalists: We'll have a water field order, and if you're water 1, then you drop first your big water (#5) and then your small water (#3) right after that. The small water is an instant heal so I'd like to drop both for now. Then, you blast the big water (it lasts two seconds). You have two blast finishers: arcane brilliance (ranged) and arcane wave (centered on you). If you're close enough, use wave, otherwise brilliance. If you're close enough you can also dodge-roll (with evasive arcana it's an AoE heal). It also helps to be close to the stack when you attune to water - you'll grant area regen, which will also remove a condition.

    Guardians: Dodge roll near into the stack (group heal), then virtue of resolve (group heal), then empower (group heal + might). Lots of healing.

    Everyone else: Get in the water field and use whatever blast finishers you have available for area healing. Also, stack tight on the commander. This way you'll both benefit from the AoE cap and get the full benefit of the ele's small water (which is an instant heal for ~3000 but has a small radius. Believe me, you want to be stacked. Between regen, multiple group heals from two classes, and water blasting we may be talking about 10,000+ hp worth of healing.

    Coming soon

    Well, that was a lot of typing. I still have more crazy plans in my crazy head, like the melee train, pre-pushing, portal shenanigans, using the guardian book, and more. Stay tuned.

    Yougottawanna on
  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    By the way, for those who remember the guy outside the TP the other day selling bolts of damask via map chat: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/bltc/Fraud-Alert-Don-t-buy-outside-of-TP/first#post3450536

  • The Deranged HermitThe Deranged Hermit Inside the walls Merry Old EnglandRegistered User regular
    omega71 wrote: »
    Awesome! That would be pretty nifty, because I am sure I will have a crapton of questions. Its omegablack.6941
    Ender wrote: »
    If you could invite me back to the guild at some point, that would be cool. It's Ender.5798

    Invites sent.

    Steam: the_deranged_hermit
    GW2: Tavalisk.9463
  • mojojoeomojojoeo A block off the park, living the dream.Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    2 more folks may earn promised sparkles with WVW music suggestions here. Youtube link madotory.

    All sparkle debts from yesterday and WvW are paid!

    mojojoeo on
    Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
  • JiaYaoJiaYao AKA: Invidia Laetitia Registered User regular
    mojojoeo wrote: »
    2 more folks may earn promised sparkles with WVW music suggestions here. Youtube link madotory.

    All sparkle debts from yesterday and WvW are paid!

    http://youtu.be/Z-LAcjwV74M

  • Omega2112Omega2112 GW2 AKA: Robocow, Veristia Reaven Registered User regular
    mojojoeo wrote: »
    2 more folks may earn promised sparkles with WVW music suggestions here. Youtube link madotory.

    All sparkle debts from yesterday and WvW are paid!


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33TeRVtJqhQ

  • doomybeardoomybear Hi People Registered User regular
    mojojoeo wrote: »
    2 more folks may earn promised sparkles with WVW music suggestions here. Youtube link madotory.

    All sparkle debts from yesterday and WvW are paid!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN2zcLBr_VM

    what a happy day it is
  • FoefallerFoefaller Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    * Finding the vendors for tactical armor is a gigantic pain in the ass. I want the leggings, shoulders, and boots; I managed to grab the leggings but half the time the vendors are tied to specific dynamic events in Malchor's Leap, Cursed Shore, and Straights... ones people never freaking DO.

    I think the final look I want is going to be Whispers chest and gloves, Dry Bones shoulders and leggings, and Tactical boots; or it's gonna be Whispers chest & Gloves and Dry Bones everything else, with the Necro Skull Masque starting helm. Haven't even started thinking about dye yet x_X

    I believe you can buy the skins of all the non-temple karma sets with Badges of Honor in Wuv, for about 10-30 badges an armor piece.

    Foefaller on
    steam_sig.png
  • FoefallerFoefaller Registered User regular
    mojojoeo wrote: »
    2 more folks may earn promised sparkles with WVW music suggestions here. Youtube link madotory.

    All sparkle debts from yesterday and WvW are paid!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

    Or the better version (starting at 1:30):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfjj7Y9N27c

    steam_sig.png
  • DraygoDraygo Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    Best music is always ironic:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo4OnQpwjkc

    Or you can play this one (NSFW - audio, sounds vulgar even though it isnt) if you don't want to talk for 5 mins as teamspeak will be drowned with uncontrollable laughter.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Wd-Q3F8KM
    Sometimes I play it at the end of my raid on kaineng and it kills every time.

    Draygo on
  • EnigEnig a.k.a. Ansatz Registered User regular
    Count Censored gets me every time :D

    ibpFhR6PdsPw80.png
    Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
  • omega71omega71 Too old for a title, too ornery to care. Sacramento, CaliRegistered User regular
    I love Count Censored so much.

    24.24.2.2148
  • KylindraKylindra Registered User regular
    Hey all, we're gonna do the Sparkle thang after missions instead of before. We talked and it seems to work out better.

    Also, tonight we're doing a TREK after real missions, and it will be awesome!

  • mojojoeomojojoeo A block off the park, living the dream.Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    thank you for taking care of my little bro.

    He is like a baby deer standing up in gw2 right now, but learning fast.

    Redesigned WVW UI from beta.

    http://imgur.com/a/IEAhP

    no more drop downs!

    mojojoeo on
    Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
  • Kai_SanKai_San Commonly known as Klineshrike! Registered User regular
    Is there any word on us being able to get into that beta?

  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    We're not in the edge of the mists beta but I read somewhere that the last one starts January 9th. So once that's over maybe they release it?

  • mojojoeomojojoeo A block off the park, living the dream.Registered User regular
    Kai_San wrote: »
    Is there any word on us being able to get into that beta?

    Never got the mail.

    Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    Team Tryhard! Assemble!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPpiCdt5aC8

    Well, not right now, but tomorrow night at 8 eastern/5 pacific. So far we have:

    Me on Yououghtawanna (warrior)
    @Who-Psyd on Gry Coppermane (warrior)
    @Joiry on Hilthi (warrior)
    @Fenny on Aleppa (guardian)
    @Doomybear on Vedawr (guardian)
    @Ardor on Sasarai the Bishop (elementalist)
    @LucidSeraph on Soundless Legion (necromancer)

    I choose our class comp assuming you're all fine with playing those characters, let me know if there's a different one you'd rather play. Also, I forgot to ask this in the google doc, but I'm assuming these alts are level 80... if not I prefer level 80s to uplevels.

    If you have a chance, read the Team Tryhard playbook, which I put in a post earlier in this thread. Don't worry, we're not going to go over the whole thing in one night or anything. It'll be bite-sized chunks. There won't be a practice or anything either, I'll cover stuff as we run.

    If you're not in Team Tryhard, come to Monday WvW anyway, everyone is welcome. Now that FA is (mostly) back from vacation we're playing TC close again, we're within 1500 points as of now.

  • KreutzKreutz Blackwater Park, IARegistered User regular
    I'd sign up on Yngvar Warbringer (80 warrior), but I can't access that Google document. I also have a guardian, ranger, or engineer if you need one of those. I'll be playing WvW regardless, so if you're full I'll roll with Mojo instead.

  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    Also, I said I would include new build stuff in the playbook and forgot. These are the builds:

    Warrior 1 (CC focused): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBiYDbk0p5N5RGCHOggUohVhSBcUHpHiBakGA-w

    Warrior 2 (damage focused): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR8XjcOFvxQuQMxBEkCNMLMKGCgQ9wOqj2A-w

    Guardian: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlUgqCnFSPEf4ESmiRKBxUgRZ01jEyhYIA-w

    Elementalist: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWnEEVZYzBKHQlYAg8wlTYZUIkyjdmxGA-w

    Necromancer: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmQD7Ejo2ND1QTD+NTASKu+5IFFPM1DzZ/cA-w

    So you'll notice I left the gear blank on these builds. That's because I'm leaving the gear up to you, with a couple caveats. First, don't go full zerker (some zerker is fine, but not all. A common combination is zerker trinkets but tank armor or vice versa). Second, have good toughness. Toughness is (IMO) the most important stat in WvW, not only because it synergizes well with healing (which we'll be doing a lot of) but because you're gonna be spending at least part of your time standing under arrow cart fire. Guardians should have good healing power (900-1000 is best). Aside from that I'll leave the right mix of damage vs. survivability up to you. The necromancer build is partly guesswork on my part. If you want to change traits around you can, but I want ground targeted wells, chill-on-blind, and I definitely want plague. Also, since both the warrior and guardian builds are shout builds, I recommend runes of the soldier.

    For weapon sigils, sigil of endurance is always a good choice, as is sigil of force and hydromancy.

    Yougottawanna on
  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    Kreutz wrote: »
    I'd sign up on Yngvar Warbringer (80 warrior), but I can't access that Google document. I also have a guardian, ranger, or engineer if you need one of those. I'll be playing WvW regardless, so if you're full I'll roll with Mojo instead.

    What happens when you try to access it? It's supposed to be public, but this is the first google doc I've ever made myself so maybe it's gone haywire. I've added you anyway. Also, team tryhard doesn't roll seperately from the rest of NICE, we'll all be together, so no worries.

  • Who-PsydWho-Psyd Registered User regular
    @Yougottawanna
    Gry is just under 40ish right now, I had been planning a crafting spree to level him, which may not be done by Monday night since I have not been online much this week but I can always use my current 80 Luscinia [Mesmer] .

  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    Who-Psyd wrote: »
    @Yougottawanna
    Gry is just under 40ish right now, I had been planning a crafting spree to level him, which may not be done by Monday night since I have not been online much this week but I can always use my current 80 Luscinia [Mesmer] .

    No rush. NICE has several mesmers and I'm gambling that at least one will show up on monday, so go ahead and bring your warrior anyway (make sure his gear isn't too far behind his level though).

  • InvectivusInvectivus Registered User regular
    @yougottawanna
    I gotta bow out of the next few Team Tryhards, too much RL shit going down...Guardian is Paroxysmal

  • ArdorArdor Registered User regular
    Sorry for not being around for this, I didn't get any notifications via email and was out most of the day.

  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    Invectivus: no problem, let me know (or sign up on the google doc) if/when you have time again

    Ardor: you didn't miss anything, it's not till tomorrow

    Everyone: attendance is not mandatory, you're not gonna get kicked or anything if you can't make it to this day or that one. Just show up for MWF WvW like you normally would, we'll make it work

  • Lucid_SeraphLucid_Seraph TealDeer MarylandRegistered User regular
    edited January 2014
    I may be late/have to bail today, but I will attempt to do the thing.

    My gear IS pretty shitty right now just because I am poor as shit in this game, but I might have enough badges to go buy something nice. AND IF I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH NOW I WILL GET SOME LATER

    *e* Also that Necro build looks miles better, thanks dude. I might run with Well of Blood instead of Signet of Vampirism since Signet works best if we're focusing a single target, while Well is a good ERRYBODY HEAL NAO thing, but it might be situational.


    AND ALSO: I am SO SORRY for bailing Fractals last night guys, but there was nothing to be done.

    Lucid_Seraph on
    See You Space Cowboy: a ttrpg about sad space bounty hunters
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  • EnderEnder Registered User regular
    Is there like a "what to do at 80 if your a idiot" guide somewhere? Walking back into this game after a year off has left me...confused.

  • veritas1veritas1 Registered User regular
    I'm gonna try to be a Tryhard tonight, I think I am on the spreadsheet now. I just switched my thief to a 10/30/0/20/10 build, and seem to be much more durable. I hope this works! Otherwise I have a guardian as well.

  • ArdorArdor Registered User regular
    I may be late/have to bail today, but I will attempt to do the thing.

    My gear IS pretty shitty right now just because I am poor as shit in this game, but I might have enough badges to go buy something nice. AND IF I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH NOW I WILL GET SOME LATER

    *e* Also that Necro build looks miles better, thanks dude. I might run with Well of Blood instead of Signet of Vampirism since Signet works best if we're focusing a single target, while Well is a good ERRYBODY HEAL NAO thing, but it might be situational.


    AND ALSO: I am SO SORRY for bailing Fractals last night guys, but there was nothing to be done.

    I can craft you exotic armor, weapons and jewelry if you don't have at least exotic rarity stuff. Just let me know. I will be around tonight.

  • ky13ky13 Registered User regular
    ...
    AND ALSO: I am SO SORRY for bailing Fractals last night guys, but there was nothing to be done.

    No worries! Real life trumps game time. =)

    Eternity_Sky-banner-4.png
    Hey, it's me, Teldra! Did someone say "greatsword"? [Eternity]
  • KylindraKylindra Registered User regular
    edited January 2014
    Ender wrote: »
    Is there like a "what to do at 80 if your a idiot" guide somewhere? Walking back into this game after a year off has left me...confused.

    So, there are a lot of changes. I've divided this into sections under spoiler tags so as not to give you a wall of text.

    General Changes:
    Account Wallet: All your currencies from all your characters are account-bound and accessible from your account wallet (click the bottom of your inventory, or find the tab on your Hero panel).

    Laurels and Achievements: The daily and the monthly award laurels, which can be spent at laurel vendors for various things. Laurels can get you ascended amulets, rings, and accessories. They can also get you some fun items, or you can spend them on T6 mats or dyes if you just want to turn them into gold. There are also achievement rewards now, with a new chest at each 500 achievement points. You probably got a few of those chests the first few times you logged in. Reward list is here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Achievement_reward

    Living Story: Every 2 weeks there's a new patch (they took a break for the holiday but there should be one soon) with a new chapter in the Living Story. Sometimes the story is awesome (Bazaar of the Four Winds!) and sometimes it's terrible (Scarlet). But there's always new achievements and new stuff to do. The meta achievement for each living story usually requires a combination of the listed achievements (Under Living Story) and the daily achievements (1 daily each day will be LS-related). That way you can get the meta without doing all the achievements, and instead you can just do a little each day. It's a pretty flexible system.

    As for stuff to do, it depends on what you're into. Events, champ farming, WvW, dungeons, and fractals are all popular. There's also sPvP, but that's being overhauled at the moment and is about to get more interesting, so I won't go into that. The one change I will mention is that glory is going away and sPvP gets you gold now. If you have glory built up, go spend it on Tomes of Knowledge (free PvE levels) or Wintersday Gifts (free money). Or skins, I guess.

    Events:
    World events and guild missions are the events with the most rewards. World events have bonus chests (guaranteed rare or better) once per day per event. Guild missions give rares, gold, and commendations.

    How to Get Started: People will link waypoints in guild chat when a world event is up. Watch for abbreviations such as SB (Shadow Behemoth) and FE (Fire Elemental), or names like Jormag and Maw. If you want to keep an eye on these events yourself or if you don't know where they are, check out this website: http://us.gw2stuff.com/events/fort-aspenwood

    For guild missions, we do them on Saturday 7pm PST and Sunday Noon PST, but you only need to come to one or the other for maximum weekly rewards. Guild Missions include Bounty, Challenge, Puzzle, and Rush. We congregate in Teamspeak and link waypoints in guild chat. If you mention that you're new, we'll explain everything. Saturdays we get a big crowd, usually 20-40 people. Sundays are smaller, usually 10-15. We used to run more events, but it's been a long time since missions first came out and most people have the commendation rewards they want. The commendation vendors are in LA by the bank and they sell ascended accessories, banners, skins, and other stuff.

    WvW:
    Mojo and Yougottawanna lead us in guild Wuv on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Get in TS and join in! On Wednesdays, Mojo collects folks on our TS and then heads to the FA community TS. Check the guild calendar in the OP or on the tumblr (http://gw2nice.tumblr.com/post/62204709992/guild-event-schedule) for more info.

    How it's Changed: Orbs are gone, battlegrounds have ruins and bloodlust, Season 1 happened, and more changes are coming soon with the Edges of Mist. Also, WXP is a thing. You earn WXP in Wuv and spend it on WvW-only abilities like spending supply faster, longer range on arrow carts, etc. Mojo can give you advice on how to spend your points. Also, even though WXP is currently character-bound, it'll be account-bound in an upcoming patch, so don't worry too much about which character you want to play in Wuv. Also, WvW rewards are much better, you get a chest every time you hit a new Wuv level and XP abounds. It's actually a great way to level a character!

    How to Get Started: Show up! Getting in TS will improve your experience, but other than that just ask in guild for a party and find Mojo's tag. If you're in Wuv at other times, find a good commander to follow and just run with them. Blue dorito = action.


    Dungeons:
    Popular dungeons to do fast include CoF 1&2, SE 1&3, HotW 1, and probably others I've forgotten. There's a LFG tool now, although I recommend trying to fill your groups with guildies first and then resorting to LFG second. Hit Y to bring up the interface, it's the second tab. If it looks empty, don't worry--it's because most groups fill super fast so they hardly spend any time listed.

    How it's Changed: Well, other than the LFG tool existing now, there's also buffed rewards. You don't want to hit up the same path more than once per day, since you'll get a gold and a bunch of tokens for the first time you do a particular path per day.

    How to Get Started: Ask in guild or use the LFG tool to find a group. Be warned, people in LFG can be picky, so start your own group if they're only after zerker warriors or whatever.

    Fractals:

    If you never got into fractals before, here's how they work. There are 11 regular fractals and 3 boss fractals to choose from. Each fractal run consists of 3 regular fractals and a boss fractal. Each of the 3 regular fractals will get you a chest that has loot, fractal relics, and a +1 agony infusion. Completing the boss fractal gets you an extra reward (once per day per tier) that has fractal relics, some coin and other rewards depending on fractal difficulty level.

    There are 2 levels involved: your personal reward level, and the difficulty level of the fractal run. Your personal reward level starts at 1 and goes up each time you complete a fractal that is equal to or higher than your own personal reward level. Doing a fractal level BELOW your own level results in karma based on how much higher you are than the fractal you just did.

    Fractals have a unique mechanic called agony. It's a nasty debuff that takes a percentage of your health each tick and you can't mitigate it through normal means. The purpose of agony is to gate progression through fractals via agony resist.

    At fractal levels 1-9, there is no agony. After that, agony increases every ten levels, with 10-19, 20-29, 30-39 and 40-49 being "tiers" of fractal difficulty. There are tables that show how much agony resist (AR) you need at a given fractal difficulty to survive, but for someone with zero AR you probably don't want to go above 10. Level 10 is common to farm when you are gearing up because it's the first level that you can get ascended rings as a daily reward, which means it is also the first level that rewards Pristine Fractal Relics. Get 10 Pristine relics, and you can trade them for the ascended ring of your choice.

    Ascended gear is important to fractals because only ascended gear has infusion slots, which can hold infusions with AR on them. You can trade 75 fractal relics for a +5 AR infusion that can go in a regular infusion slot. [There is another, more confusing mechanic with ascended gear where you can "infuse" the item itself to gain a new slot that holds a special kind of AR infusion that's different than the standard +5 ones you buy with relics. Don't worry about those yet, other than to know that the +1 agony resist infusions you get in each chest 1) are useless to you for now 2) sell well on the TP, so just sell them.]

    How it's Changed: If you were around when fractals came out, the changes are that there's better rewards, there's more fractals and more boss fractals, you get a boss fractal every level instead of only even levels, and they added the little +1 infusions and the special AR-only slot on infused gear.

    How to Get Started: Try a low level fractal first (1-9). You can't earn level 10 rewards until your personal level hits 10, so just run the low level ones until then and get used to the different fractals and bosses. Then start running level 10 fractals until you have some AR. To get AR, you'll need ascended gear to put those +5 AR infusions in (you should spend your first fractal relics on these).

    Ascended gear sources:

    Rings - fractal bonus chest after level 10, or 10 Pristine Fractal Relics, or from laurels if you're desperate
    Amulet - laurels, or laurels + WvW badges if you have them (it's fewer laurels that way)
    Accessories - guild commendations! Come to Missions. :) (or laurels)
    Back pieces - crafted or mystic forge recipes, these are all kind of expensive

    Weapons and armor - crafted, armor is cheaper than weapons, but still quite expensive depending on your amor class. If you wear light armor, you're kind of hosed unless you've been hoarding silk and linen all this time.

    For more information, including some of the stuff I glossed over:
    http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists

    Kylindra on
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