Hey. I was getting back into GW1 as well. Finally bought the expansion that lets me get access to the hall and linked up my old existing characters. That got me up to 10 points already. But I'm not sure what I need to do from there I would be interested in forming a party or something if our schedules sync up.
That would be great. Main's name is Cyrenna Foehunter. I'm past most of the "easy" stuff (still need to grind challenge missions for hero armors, which should be easy-ish, but until HoM is fixed in GW2 I'm in no hurry on that part) and into the slow grind of Hard Mode missions/vanquishes/faction/titles in general. There are a couple of missions I'm already dreading trying to solo in Hard Mode (Eternal Grove, I'm looking at you) and would love the help, but in truth, as long as I remember to bring Lockpicks, I'm up for pretty much whatever.
I'd be down, though someone would have to help me create non terrible builds. I was maining a Dervish before the Great Dervish Nerf of 2011, and now I'm total butterfingers at the game.
Quick look over PvX, it looks like the two "best" builds either involve spamming Pious Renewal as your feeder for at least 4 teardown attacks + Pious Fury and to proc Aura of Holy Might, or using Vow of Strength with Sand Shards and Warrior's Whirlwind Attack for crazy AoE, though there are a few interesting "Good" builds that use Onslaught, Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Lyssa.
...which is better than what PvX says I have going with my ranger, where the only two "Great" builds are really Assassin builds that use Expertise instead of Critical Strikes for energy management >_< Most of the time I'm running Barrage with a pet for Never Rampage Alone, using Distracting shot to cover the interrupts Gwen misses on. Normally I'm running monk as the secondary for a hard res (Rebirth was essential for that crazy Urgoz's Warren attempt), but after seeing the numbers I put up when my Ritualist tags me with Splinter weapon, I wonder if I might get more fun going Rt with Drunken Master as my IAS skill and provide my own weapon spells, or at least take advantage of Expertise working with Binding Rituals for a cheap Vampirism.
Hey. I was getting back into GW1 as well. Finally bought the expansion that lets me get access to the hall and linked up my old existing characters. That got me up to 10 points already. But I'm not sure what I need to do from there I would be interested in forming a party or something if our schedules sync up.
That would be great. Main's name is Cyrenna Foehunter. I'm past most of the "easy" stuff (still need to grind challenge missions for hero armors, which should be easy-ish, but until HoM is fixed in GW2 I'm in no hurry on that part) and into the slow grind of Hard Mode missions/vanquishes/faction/titles in general. There are a couple of missions I'm already dreading trying to solo in Hard Mode (Eternal Grove, I'm looking at you) and would love the help, but in truth, as long as I remember to bring Lockpicks, I'm up for pretty much whatever.
I'd be down, though someone would have to help me create non terrible builds. I was maining a Dervish before the Great Dervish Nerf of 2011, and now I'm total butterfingers at the game.
Quick look over PvX, it looks like the two "best" builds either involve spamming Pious Renewal as your feeder for at least 4 teardown attacks + Pious Fury and to proc Aura of Holy Might, or using Vow of Strength with Sand Shards and Warrior's Whirlwind Attack for crazy AoE, though there are a few interesting "Good" builds that use Onslaught, Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Lyssa.
...which is better than what PvX says I have going with my ranger, where the only two "Great" builds are really Assassin builds that use Expertise instead of Critical Strikes for energy management >_< Most of the time I'm running Barrage with a pet for Never Rampage Alone, using Distracting shot to cover the interrupts Gwen misses on. Normally I'm running monk as the secondary for a hard res (Rebirth was essential for that crazy Urgoz's Warren attempt), but after seeing the numbers I put up when my Ritualist tags me with Splinter weapon, I wonder if I might get more fun going Rt with Drunken Master as my IAS skill and provide my own weapon spells, or at least take advantage of Expertise working with Binding Rituals for a cheap Vampirism.
Splinter weapon with bow is amazingly fun. I am trying to remember the build I ran with but there was a multi shot skill that worked with it as well (barrage didn't but I think dual shot did).
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Hey. I was getting back into GW1 as well. Finally bought the expansion that lets me get access to the hall and linked up my old existing characters. That got me up to 10 points already. But I'm not sure what I need to do from there I would be interested in forming a party or something if our schedules sync up.
That would be great. Main's name is Cyrenna Foehunter. I'm past most of the "easy" stuff (still need to grind challenge missions for hero armors, which should be easy-ish, but until HoM is fixed in GW2 I'm in no hurry on that part) and into the slow grind of Hard Mode missions/vanquishes/faction/titles in general. There are a couple of missions I'm already dreading trying to solo in Hard Mode (Eternal Grove, I'm looking at you) and would love the help, but in truth, as long as I remember to bring Lockpicks, I'm up for pretty much whatever.
I'd be down, though someone would have to help me create non terrible builds. I was maining a Dervish before the Great Dervish Nerf of 2011, and now I'm total butterfingers at the game.
Quick look over PvX, it looks like the two "best" builds either involve spamming Pious Renewal as your feeder for at least 4 teardown attacks + Pious Fury and to proc Aura of Holy Might, or using Vow of Strength with Sand Shards and Warrior's Whirlwind Attack for crazy AoE, though there are a few interesting "Good" builds that use Onslaught, Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Lyssa.
...which is better than what PvX says I have going with my ranger, where the only two "Great" builds are really Assassin builds that use Expertise instead of Critical Strikes for energy management >_< Most of the time I'm running Barrage with a pet for Never Rampage Alone, using Distracting shot to cover the interrupts Gwen misses on. Normally I'm running monk as the secondary for a hard res (Rebirth was essential for that crazy Urgoz's Warren attempt), but after seeing the numbers I put up when my Ritualist tags me with Splinter weapon, I wonder if I might get more fun going Rt with Drunken Master as my IAS skill and provide my own weapon spells, or at least take advantage of Expertise working with Binding Rituals for a cheap Vampirism.
Splinter weapon with bow is amazingly fun. I am trying to remember the build I ran with but there was a multi shot skill that worked with it as well (barrage didn't but I think dual shot did).
...and Barrage totally works with Splinter Weapon, even if you completely drain the weapon enchant with a single attack. Are you sure you're not thinking Ignite Arrows? That was the ranger skill that did something similar, though since it was a preparation Barrage would remove it before firing.
Which reminds me, need to remember to keep the next elemental damage bowstring I find, might be able to do crazy things with it and the Elementalist's Conjure spells.
Hey. I was getting back into GW1 as well. Finally bought the expansion that lets me get access to the hall and linked up my old existing characters. That got me up to 10 points already. But I'm not sure what I need to do from there I would be interested in forming a party or something if our schedules sync up.
That would be great. Main's name is Cyrenna Foehunter. I'm past most of the "easy" stuff (still need to grind challenge missions for hero armors, which should be easy-ish, but until HoM is fixed in GW2 I'm in no hurry on that part) and into the slow grind of Hard Mode missions/vanquishes/faction/titles in general. There are a couple of missions I'm already dreading trying to solo in Hard Mode (Eternal Grove, I'm looking at you) and would love the help, but in truth, as long as I remember to bring Lockpicks, I'm up for pretty much whatever.
I'd be down, though someone would have to help me create non terrible builds. I was maining a Dervish before the Great Dervish Nerf of 2011, and now I'm total butterfingers at the game.
Quick look over PvX, it looks like the two "best" builds either involve spamming Pious Renewal as your feeder for at least 4 teardown attacks + Pious Fury and to proc Aura of Holy Might, or using Vow of Strength with Sand Shards and Warrior's Whirlwind Attack for crazy AoE, though there are a few interesting "Good" builds that use Onslaught, Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Lyssa.
...which is better than what PvX says I have going with my ranger, where the only two "Great" builds are really Assassin builds that use Expertise instead of Critical Strikes for energy management >_< Most of the time I'm running Barrage with a pet for Never Rampage Alone, using Distracting shot to cover the interrupts Gwen misses on. Normally I'm running monk as the secondary for a hard res (Rebirth was essential for that crazy Urgoz's Warren attempt), but after seeing the numbers I put up when my Ritualist tags me with Splinter weapon, I wonder if I might get more fun going Rt with Drunken Master as my IAS skill and provide my own weapon spells, or at least take advantage of Expertise working with Binding Rituals for a cheap Vampirism.
Splinter weapon with bow is amazingly fun. I am trying to remember the build I ran with but there was a multi shot skill that worked with it as well (barrage didn't but I think dual shot did).
...and Barrage totally works with Splinter Weapon, even if you completely drain the weapon enchant with a single attack. Are you sure you're not thinking Ignite Arrows? That was the ranger skill that did something similar, though since it was a preparation Barrage would remove it before firing.
Which reminds me, need to remember to keep the next elemental damage bowstring I find, might be able to do crazy things with it and the Elementalist's Conjure spells.
Barrage and splinter weapon was amazing, even after the nerf to the number of targets you could hit with it.
I had all of my npcs heroes with splinter weapon, so I could just constantly be casting it on myself.
So... do we want to name a particular time / date to go GW1-ing? ... by which I mean in my case, "probably sit around patching for literally ever every time I enter a map"
So... do we want to name a particular time / date to go GW1-ing? ... by which I mean in my case, "probably sit around patching for literally ever every time I enter a map"
I'm good for this Friday evening or Sunday afternoon/evening. Saturday I'm getting Google Fiber (YAY!) and I have no idea how long that will take, but I suspect that, barring some sort of hitch, I'd be open for that evening as well.
One of Evon Gnashblade's first great successes in the market were the capitalization of sales on clockwork shock-absorbers for human shins and knee joints so they could jump like every other race.
One of Evon Gnashblade's first great successes in the market were the capitalization of sales on clockwork shock-absorbers for human shins and knee joints so they could jump like every other race.
So I guess the reason why Pyre, Vekk and Jora never jumped was because they felt bad for me?
Calling out humans for their inability to jump was perceived as a racial slur. They were pretty sensitive about it 200 years ago.
Some say the Foefire was actually caused when Frye Fireburn taunted Adelbern from his own throne room after jumping onto a shin-high ledge that inexplicably blocked his magical projectiles. Human architects were pretty dumb like that.
Beta first impressions: The storyline is good. I haven't followed the Living Story much so I'm fuzzy on some details but it seemed pretty clear what was going on. I actually find myself interested in how it's going to progress for once.
Spoilers(just in case)
Not terribly impressed with the Revenant. It's not bad but I didn't care for it. I want to like it because I love playing the anti-hero archetypes but frankly I was bored with it. They do seem rather durable compared to my engineer though. That might be a difference in gear though.
I played around with the melee weapons mostly(so axe and mace). Main hand #2 ability sets up a fire field and #3 is a blast finisher. #4 was a teleport/backstab type ability. #5 didn't seem to do much. I'll have to try the ranged 2H hammer more next time. It has an anti-ranged ability that might work better against some of the mobs. The Legends were ok. Dwarven was more control/defensive while Demonic was more offensive. There are talents and abilities to manipulate conditions(take them from allies, gain resistance to them, spread them around) as well as stuff to give mobs torment and confusion.
The new trait trees seem a tad restrictive. Feels very limited. I think they need more choices. It does make your weapon choices seem a lot more relevant though. Maybe it will feel better once they have all the elite skills in. I wouldn't mind a fourth trait added to each tree.
The first area gave me vertigo...a lot. F*ck Anet and their love of heights right in their ear. Lots of vertical elevation changes and abrupt drops. Mobility related masteries seem like a mandatory thing to go for first....so gliding and bouncy mushrooms. Getting around without those is a little frustrating. Speaking of I was a bit confused about unlocking mastery stuff. I eventually managed to click something that started me gaining exp towards gliding.....I think.
Watch out for mobs that knock back and be very careful about abilities that teleport you behind the mob. It's easy to pull a Wile E. Coyote moment if you're not careful.
/was careful
Skill trees as in utilities or trait lines? Also all beta classes appear stuck with celestial gear, was hoping to try Revenant with a different set. Verdant Brink is overwhelming at first but after two tests, it's pretty manageable, especially when you unlock the glider. Really detailed, layered, and pretty. Gliding feels great while floating around, but it isn't as immediately responsive as I'd hoped. Masteries are weird. You checkmark a path, then each level up lets you spend a point (not granted by the level up I think?) to unlock an ability in the path. Did one of the challenge mote type things that involved grabbing ammunition in a pit full of tendrils where you're stripped of abilities except dodging. Was pretty okay, don't know what the rewards are for it yet. Enemies so far aren't much harder than those in Silverwastes but events definitely need coordination in places. Day and night cycles are neat but feel like they go on too long. Don't know what the rewards are yet and more than half the zone still isn't open I think so I'm not sure if it'll feel better with that? There's a zone called the Forgotten City and the Auric Basin somewhere.
I meant the trait lines. I think they might have pruned back too much? But maybe I'll feel differently once everything is unlocked and there are more elite specs to play with.
.....although the utility skills didn't give you a choice at all. You were stuck with whatever they gave you. Have they just not finished designing the rest yet?
You start off in the Silverwastes and have to do a small event where you escort a caravan. After that you can port into the new area where you have the option of doing a personal story. I chose to ignore that part and just start in the new area right away. The area starts you off on sort of a hill looking out over some impressive landscape. From this point there are actually only two directions you can go. But the game does a very poor job of explaining this to you. Even the dynamic events have you go off into one direction - but that direction is a dead end. Let me pause there for a second and say this. If you are the type of player who loves to explore and find every little hidden secret, to find new ways to get places, then you will enjoy this area. If you are the type of player who likes to be directed some place or be told what to do or dislikes chaos in general - you will dislike almost everything about this area.
You see, much like previous areas in the game, there aren't quest markers saying 'Hey over here!'. And that is fine and it is something I've grown accustomed to. Unlike previous areas however, this one throws up road blocks at you preventing you from reaching places unless you've got a fancy glider, or the ability to jump on mushrooms, etc. In previous areas you could follow a chain of events around a map just getting lost - but you never felt restricted in where you could go. In this new area, a chain of events will happily take you places that will then become a dead end to you.
Take the green path.
Like any other average player I chose to follow a series of events. These events led me and others further and further south. Unfortunately for me, and any other player new to this area, south is a dead end. Unless, I'm assuming, you have gliders - as I saw a number of player jump off the cliff and activate their abilities. A task I couldn't do yet, sadly. The messaging for the end of this series of events was so poor however the only hint that it was over was these wouldbe veterans jumping off and activating their gliders. Thinking they were just having fun, I chose to stick around... as the event appeared to still be active... right?! Right guys?!? Why isn't this event over yet?! Anyone??
A bridge to nowhere.
After 15 minutes of defending these snipers by this broken bridge I began to question what was supposed to happen next. The players gliding off into the distance were long gone. Not a hint to where they may have run off. Myself and other testers were fighting never ending spawns of enemies that we had to kill to cover the snipers that were shooting things on the building across the way. Meanwhile in chat some players were shouting orders at other players for events that weren't happening in my area. Too busy being models of the modern military general to answer simple questions like "Hey, I'm lost.. where do I go?". I began to sense that I was missing out.
I look high. And I look low.
I'm sure exploration is fun - when you aren't on a schedule. I begin to panic here. I'll be honest. I'm seeing all sorts of cool sounding orders being shouted out at to people for these interesting sounding events and nothing is happening around me. I'm backtracking, trying to find where I'm supposed to go. Events no longer spawning where I'm at. Finally after probably a solid 5 minutes of bitching in chat someone says I should go back to the starting WP and go north. Thank you thank you thank you.
Our journey begins... take two.
Go north until I hit a river, then head west the guy said. Seemed simple enough. Along the way I ran into a few interesting things. There were flags scattered around with various challenges you had to complete. You got some sort of reward I'm sure. I was too much in a hurry to bother. You see, something I had come to find out is that for this beta the end event only happens once. The big event at the end is the wyvern fight. The beta period is too short for the event to occur twice. So if you aren't there at the end, you miss out. And I was already running short of time. It was almost 9pm.
A few interesting things.
Unfortunately for me I missed out. I got lost again. Little to no enemies were spawning or around at all. Absolutely no events were happening to maybe help point in the general direction. And map chat became eerily quiet. I scrolled up a bit in map chat - the end event was done. All of the veteran beta players who were there for the previous times earlier in the day and the lucky new players who happened to follow the right players by chance, got to enjoy that aspect of the beta.
At least I got to see some beautiful things along the way.
I'm a bit sour on the whole experience, to be quite honest. I kind of regret seeing this map for the first time as part of the beta. As a player not naturally inclined to exploration, I would have rather experienced this map for the first time in a more relaxed fashion. I had fun at first, but the experience quickly turned and I found myself reaching for the migraine medication. It reminds me of the experience I'm sure every small child has growing up where a shiny thing catches your eye in the grocery store and your so enthralled that you haven't noticed your parents wondered off - and you begin to panic.
Another thing that kind of irked me is that the best way to earn your masteries was to get in on all of the events that were happening. Get in on the events, earn your gliding mastery, and you can get around better. But if you miss the events, you are basically fucked and are forced to wait around because you are effectively gaited from the rest of the content. Maybe if I had a fucking tour guide they could have shown me some other way of getting to the area I needed?! But it seemed like I was getting nowhere fast stuck on the ground.
Also the mastery UI needs serious work. It is unintuitive as hell. You get a mastery point almost right away. But you can't seem to spend it on anything. You cant earn experience towards a mastery unless you pick a path and nothing tells you to do so. They need to do a second revision on this UI. And when they are done they need to do a third revision. It is just terrible.
About the Revenant.
There isn't much to talk about really. The beta doesn't expose any new ground here that hasn't already been detailed in videos and blogs. All I can talk about are some of my initial impressions. These are half thoughts mostly and better suited for a bullet point list.
Legend swapping is really clunky right now. Often times you are spamming the swap button and it isn't switching and no indication why. A common theme it seems.
Some of the skills and weapon abilities have painfully long activation times.
Hammer is either too slow or not enough damage. I'm not going to expand on this as I'm sure they are tweaking things.
Axe 4 is a really awesome shadowstep where you roll a bit forward after. My impression from this ability, and Hammer 3, and seeing the Revenant video with the shadowstep sword attacks is that the Revenant leans towards the Heavy / Thief hybrid style. And I wouldn't be surprised to see that idea solidify as we get more information about the other weapons.
The mace/axe combo is pretty fun. Dealing with a cluster of enemies? Axe 5 -> Mace 2 -> Mace 3.
One impression I'm left with that I think is deserving of more than just a bullet point entry is that I think the Revenant plays pretty simple. I don't necessarily mean this as a bad thing. It is more nuanced than a Warrior or Ranger but not as complicated as an Elementalist, Mesmer, or Engineer. Upkeep skills automatically cancel when switching legends. I was expecting Thief levels of capability when it comes to spamming buttons - assuming I had the energy - but this isn't the case. All utilities have at least a GCD. Some even seemed longer than a GCD but I can't see anything on the official wiki that backs up that claim. I'm disappointed that there is both an energy cost and cool downs to pretty much all weapon abilities. I don't think the weapon skills are so powerful that they should be gated by two resource systems - yes time is a resource.
Those are my thoughts. Hopefully they don't resemble that of a madman too much.
Agreed on the mastery UI needing work. I'm not sold on the events either. I participated in a couple but did not enjoy them. After that I mostly just ran around trying to explore the map. I say trying because I ran into dead ends or places I would like to get to but couldn't because I lacked gliding. I did snag that one waypoint to the north but it was always contested so dying sent me all the way back to the entrance. Never did find another waypoint.
Also, I know so far my comments have been somewhat critical of the expansion. Admittedly I'm a tough sell. I like the game well enough but I'm extremely casual about my play and not nearly as invested as I've been in other MMOs. I've seen very little of the expansion so far. What I've seen does feel rather polished but I'm still waiting to be wowed by anything I've seen.
I meant the trait lines. I think they might have pruned back too much? But maybe I'll feel differently once everything is unlocked and there are more elite specs to play with.
.....although the utility skills didn't give you a choice at all. You were stuck with whatever they gave you. Have they just not finished designing the rest yet?
Yeah, they haven't put in everything for the Revenant yet. The trait lines in the beta are still the old style/current style. They just stuck all Revenants for this test day with axe and mace/hammer, a condi/precision build (just three lines and locked in stat modifiers), and celestial gear. I'm assuming as the tests continue there will be more trait lines and probably the new trait system eventually. I made a warrior for the second test though, and they still had the old trait system and were stuck with celestial as well. Yesterday's tests were most likely another stress test with slightly more people than the first ones and a little more exploration to the north and south. Also, though your character resets each session of the beta (goes back to the start point), my masteries didn't so I had gliding pretty much as soon as I jumped into my second test that day.
I think that southern event chain isn't able to reach completion yet or I missed something. What appears to happen is the vinetender dies and we are able to attack a large vine left vulnerable. I couldn't reach it though and trying to glide across the bridge gap is met with an instadown to a fall damage death. I think once the vine is dead, Laranthir and co continue clockwise around the map, but since it isn't open yet, they just end up looping.
With that said, please, PLEASE please PLEASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE submit this kind of feedback through some sort of official channel, be it a bug report, a post on the official forums, or whatever feedback survey they give you at the end.
/puts on "I used to work for ZeniMax Online Studios, but then I took a layoff to the face" hat
Game studios NEED this kind of feedback. "Breadcrumbing for this event is non-intuitive and had me feeling left out / stymied instead of allowing me to explore in a natural way" is HUGELY IMPORTANT STUFF for this sort of beta. It means that my fellows in QA can then go and try it themselves, and then WE can go "Hey devs, they're right; here's a few suggestions on how you can properly breadcrumb the way to get to this thing so players aren't frustrated."
A beta like this isn't just LOL PREVIEW even if the game is largely finished. It really is the last chance to polish and fix before launch. So please, if you don't like a thing, TELL ARENANET, because they might be able to fix it before launch.
*e* And the most annoying thing in the world is people bitching on Reddit or forums or Twitter or whatever, failing to submit anything in any remotely official capacity, and then bitching that we didn't fix it. Dude, we cannot be on every single corner of the internet at all times, we are busy people. Seeing your angry feedback three weeks after launch because it was buried in a Reddit thread means we can't fix it. Submit feedback in places where game devs can FIND your feedback. And, for the love of god, be constructive, don't be an ass (xgalaxy your post was very constructive and exactly the sort of feedback we like to see btw)
Finally earned enough gold to get leatherworking to 500.
I believe I have enough materials to make the 15 Elonian leather squares I need for the Tempered Spinal Blades upgrade. Still need a ton of Blade Shards though (and thus Watchwork Sprockets).
Before I forget- thank you again to everyone who's sent me Sprockets!
After that, will probably work on the combined infuse/color step, though need to save up more gold again for the mats and do fractals for that essence thing.
Also tempted to do LS2 so I can work on Mawdrey and the luminescent armor stuff.
It’s been roughly eight weeks since I started this thread, so here’s an update. All major assets for the Personal Story restoration are in place in our development environment. We’re testing and bug fixing now.
While I don’t have an official release date to share at this time, I can say that you have a little more time to get your characters into the desired state of Personal Story progress. Please refer to the details in the original post when making your own evaluation.
You might be asking yourself why I don’t have a date to share yet. It’s because we’re looking at a few potential release dates on the calendar. We also want to factor in some wiggle room in case we discover any big issues during our testing pass or we encounter any other technical or resource surprises along the way. You know, game development stuff.
Finally earned enough gold to get leatherworking to 500.
I believe I have enough materials to make the 15 Elonian leather squares I need for the Tempered Spinal Blades upgrade. Still need a ton of Blade Shards though (and thus Watchwork Sprockets).
Before I forget- thank you again to everyone who's sent me Sprockets!
After that, will probably work on the combined infuse/color step, though need to save up more gold again for the mats and do fractals for that essence thing.
Also tempted to do LS2 so I can work on Mawdrey and the luminescent armor stuff.
So many things... ><
I think you're better off buying the Elonian Leather from the trading post as it works out cheaper than crafting it yourself.
Elonian Leather and Deldrimor Ingots are both pretty cheap - I think Spiritwood Planks as well. Any of those are probably better to hop onto the Trading Post rather than craft 'em, though prices have fluctuated a bit lately.
Bolts of Damask are another thing entirely. Pretty sure even now you can make a profit crafting and posting them, though it's nowhere near as massive as it used to be. It's also the most expensive by far, so be glad you aren't trying to craft the backpiece via tailoring.
Posts
Quick look over PvX, it looks like the two "best" builds either involve spamming Pious Renewal as your feeder for at least 4 teardown attacks + Pious Fury and to proc Aura of Holy Might, or using Vow of Strength with Sand Shards and Warrior's Whirlwind Attack for crazy AoE, though there are a few interesting "Good" builds that use Onslaught, Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Lyssa.
...which is better than what PvX says I have going with my ranger, where the only two "Great" builds are really Assassin builds that use Expertise instead of Critical Strikes for energy management >_< Most of the time I'm running Barrage with a pet for Never Rampage Alone, using Distracting shot to cover the interrupts Gwen misses on. Normally I'm running monk as the secondary for a hard res (Rebirth was essential for that crazy Urgoz's Warren attempt), but after seeing the numbers I put up when my Ritualist tags me with Splinter weapon, I wonder if I might get more fun going Rt with Drunken Master as my IAS skill and provide my own weapon spells, or at least take advantage of Expertise working with Binding Rituals for a cheap Vampirism.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Splinter weapon with bow is amazingly fun. I am trying to remember the build I ran with but there was a multi shot skill that worked with it as well (barrage didn't but I think dual shot did).
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Triple Shot? Incendiary Arrows?
...and Barrage totally works with Splinter Weapon, even if you completely drain the weapon enchant with a single attack. Are you sure you're not thinking Ignite Arrows? That was the ranger skill that did something similar, though since it was a preparation Barrage would remove it before firing.
Which reminds me, need to remember to keep the next elemental damage bowstring I find, might be able to do crazy things with it and the Elementalist's Conjure spells.
Barrage and splinter weapon was amazing, even after the nerf to the number of targets you could hit with it.
I had all of my npcs heroes with splinter weapon, so I could just constantly be casting it on myself.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
I actually had splinter and triple shot on my bar for a long time. I probably still do, actually, unless I left the game trying builds.
RA/RT was the way to go.
Edit: it has been a few years.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Me too
/trying to tap the dodge key
/why can't i dodge
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
jump, jump, jump, damnit jump!
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I'm good for this Friday evening or Sunday afternoon/evening. Saturday I'm getting Google Fiber (YAY!) and I have no idea how long that will take, but I suspect that, barring some sort of hitch, I'd be open for that evening as well.
EDIT:
*Coming back to GW2 after a long day of GW1*
/clicks where I want to go
/why am I not moving to there
obviously knees were not invented until 1325 AE.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Oh they existed, how else would you dance.
However they would shatter instantly at the slightest amount of shock. So people were very careful to not move vertically quickly.
So I guess the reason why Pyre, Vekk and Jora never jumped was because they felt bad for me?
Some say the Foefire was actually caused when Frye Fireburn taunted Adelbern from his own throne room after jumping onto a shin-high ledge that inexplicably blocked his magical projectiles. Human architects were pretty dumb like that.
Spoilers(just in case)
I played around with the melee weapons mostly(so axe and mace). Main hand #2 ability sets up a fire field and #3 is a blast finisher. #4 was a teleport/backstab type ability. #5 didn't seem to do much. I'll have to try the ranged 2H hammer more next time. It has an anti-ranged ability that might work better against some of the mobs. The Legends were ok. Dwarven was more control/defensive while Demonic was more offensive. There are talents and abilities to manipulate conditions(take them from allies, gain resistance to them, spread them around) as well as stuff to give mobs torment and confusion.
The new trait trees seem a tad restrictive. Feels very limited. I think they need more choices. It does make your weapon choices seem a lot more relevant though. Maybe it will feel better once they have all the elite skills in. I wouldn't mind a fourth trait added to each tree.
The first area gave me vertigo...a lot. F*ck Anet and their love of heights right in their ear. Lots of vertical elevation changes and abrupt drops. Mobility related masteries seem like a mandatory thing to go for first....so gliding and bouncy mushrooms. Getting around without those is a little frustrating. Speaking of I was a bit confused about unlocking mastery stuff. I eventually managed to click something that started me gaining exp towards gliding.....I think.
Watch out for mobs that knock back and be very careful about abilities that teleport you behind the mob. It's easy to pull a Wile E. Coyote moment if you're not careful.
/was careful
.....although the utility skills didn't give you a choice at all. You were stuck with whatever they gave you. Have they just not finished designing the rest yet?
Spoiler alert.
You see, much like previous areas in the game, there aren't quest markers saying 'Hey over here!'. And that is fine and it is something I've grown accustomed to. Unlike previous areas however, this one throws up road blocks at you preventing you from reaching places unless you've got a fancy glider, or the ability to jump on mushrooms, etc. In previous areas you could follow a chain of events around a map just getting lost - but you never felt restricted in where you could go. In this new area, a chain of events will happily take you places that will then become a dead end to you.
Take the green path.
Like any other average player I chose to follow a series of events. These events led me and others further and further south. Unfortunately for me, and any other player new to this area, south is a dead end. Unless, I'm assuming, you have gliders - as I saw a number of player jump off the cliff and activate their abilities. A task I couldn't do yet, sadly. The messaging for the end of this series of events was so poor however the only hint that it was over was these wouldbe veterans jumping off and activating their gliders. Thinking they were just having fun, I chose to stick around... as the event appeared to still be active... right?! Right guys?!? Why isn't this event over yet?! Anyone??
A bridge to nowhere.
After 15 minutes of defending these snipers by this broken bridge I began to question what was supposed to happen next. The players gliding off into the distance were long gone. Not a hint to where they may have run off. Myself and other testers were fighting never ending spawns of enemies that we had to kill to cover the snipers that were shooting things on the building across the way. Meanwhile in chat some players were shouting orders at other players for events that weren't happening in my area. Too busy being models of the modern military general to answer simple questions like "Hey, I'm lost.. where do I go?". I began to sense that I was missing out.
I look high. And I look low.
I'm sure exploration is fun - when you aren't on a schedule. I begin to panic here. I'll be honest. I'm seeing all sorts of cool sounding orders being shouted out at to people for these interesting sounding events and nothing is happening around me. I'm backtracking, trying to find where I'm supposed to go. Events no longer spawning where I'm at. Finally after probably a solid 5 minutes of bitching in chat someone says I should go back to the starting WP and go north. Thank you thank you thank you.
Our journey begins... take two.
Go north until I hit a river, then head west the guy said. Seemed simple enough. Along the way I ran into a few interesting things. There were flags scattered around with various challenges you had to complete. You got some sort of reward I'm sure. I was too much in a hurry to bother. You see, something I had come to find out is that for this beta the end event only happens once. The big event at the end is the wyvern fight. The beta period is too short for the event to occur twice. So if you aren't there at the end, you miss out. And I was already running short of time. It was almost 9pm.
A few interesting things.
Unfortunately for me I missed out. I got lost again. Little to no enemies were spawning or around at all. Absolutely no events were happening to maybe help point in the general direction. And map chat became eerily quiet. I scrolled up a bit in map chat - the end event was done. All of the veteran beta players who were there for the previous times earlier in the day and the lucky new players who happened to follow the right players by chance, got to enjoy that aspect of the beta.
At least I got to see some beautiful things along the way.
I'm a bit sour on the whole experience, to be quite honest. I kind of regret seeing this map for the first time as part of the beta. As a player not naturally inclined to exploration, I would have rather experienced this map for the first time in a more relaxed fashion. I had fun at first, but the experience quickly turned and I found myself reaching for the migraine medication. It reminds me of the experience I'm sure every small child has growing up where a shiny thing catches your eye in the grocery store and your so enthralled that you haven't noticed your parents wondered off - and you begin to panic.
Another thing that kind of irked me is that the best way to earn your masteries was to get in on all of the events that were happening. Get in on the events, earn your gliding mastery, and you can get around better. But if you miss the events, you are basically fucked and are forced to wait around because you are effectively gaited from the rest of the content. Maybe if I had a fucking tour guide they could have shown me some other way of getting to the area I needed?! But it seemed like I was getting nowhere fast stuck on the ground.
Also the mastery UI needs serious work. It is unintuitive as hell. You get a mastery point almost right away. But you can't seem to spend it on anything. You cant earn experience towards a mastery unless you pick a path and nothing tells you to do so. They need to do a second revision on this UI. And when they are done they need to do a third revision. It is just terrible.
About the Revenant.
There isn't much to talk about really. The beta doesn't expose any new ground here that hasn't already been detailed in videos and blogs. All I can talk about are some of my initial impressions. These are half thoughts mostly and better suited for a bullet point list.
One impression I'm left with that I think is deserving of more than just a bullet point entry is that I think the Revenant plays pretty simple. I don't necessarily mean this as a bad thing. It is more nuanced than a Warrior or Ranger but not as complicated as an Elementalist, Mesmer, or Engineer. Upkeep skills automatically cancel when switching legends. I was expecting Thief levels of capability when it comes to spamming buttons - assuming I had the energy - but this isn't the case. All utilities have at least a GCD. Some even seemed longer than a GCD but I can't see anything on the official wiki that backs up that claim. I'm disappointed that there is both an energy cost and cool downs to pretty much all weapon abilities. I don't think the weapon skills are so powerful that they should be gated by two resource systems - yes time is a resource.
Those are my thoughts. Hopefully they don't resemble that of a madman too much.
Also, I know so far my comments have been somewhat critical of the expansion. Admittedly I'm a tough sell. I like the game well enough but I'm extremely casual about my play and not nearly as invested as I've been in other MMOs. I've seen very little of the expansion so far. What I've seen does feel rather polished but I'm still waiting to be wowed by anything I've seen.
I am purposefully dodgeing any beta activity so that im fresh come launch (and completed). Your feelings lead to believe i am on the right course.
Please go back and put your post in spoiler tags. That goes for all spoilers, but doubly so for images.
/puts on "I used to work for ZeniMax Online Studios, but then I took a layoff to the face" hat
Game studios NEED this kind of feedback. "Breadcrumbing for this event is non-intuitive and had me feeling left out / stymied instead of allowing me to explore in a natural way" is HUGELY IMPORTANT STUFF for this sort of beta. It means that my fellows in QA can then go and try it themselves, and then WE can go "Hey devs, they're right; here's a few suggestions on how you can properly breadcrumb the way to get to this thing so players aren't frustrated."
A beta like this isn't just LOL PREVIEW even if the game is largely finished. It really is the last chance to polish and fix before launch. So please, if you don't like a thing, TELL ARENANET, because they might be able to fix it before launch.
*e* And the most annoying thing in the world is people bitching on Reddit or forums or Twitter or whatever, failing to submit anything in any remotely official capacity, and then bitching that we didn't fix it. Dude, we cannot be on every single corner of the internet at all times, we are busy people. Seeing your angry feedback three weeks after launch because it was buried in a Reddit thread means we can't fix it. Submit feedback in places where game devs can FIND your feedback. And, for the love of god, be constructive, don't be an ass (xgalaxy your post was very constructive and exactly the sort of feedback we like to see btw)
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Looks what's in this week's Community Showcase!!!
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/community-showcase-2-creative-contributions-from-guild-wars-2-players
I believe I have enough materials to make the 15 Elonian leather squares I need for the Tempered Spinal Blades upgrade. Still need a ton of Blade Shards though (and thus Watchwork Sprockets).
Before I forget- thank you again to everyone who's sent me Sprockets!
After that, will probably work on the combined infuse/color step, though need to save up more gold again for the mats and do fractals for that essence thing.
Also tempted to do LS2 so I can work on Mawdrey and the luminescent armor stuff.
So many things... ><
FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS SHARKEY
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
I think you're better off buying the Elonian Leather from the trading post as it works out cheaper than crafting it yourself.
Bolts of Damask are another thing entirely. Pretty sure even now you can make a profit crafting and posting them, though it's nowhere near as massive as it used to be. It's also the most expensive by far, so be glad you aren't trying to craft the backpiece via tailoring.