"LITERALLY A BIRD posted:

everything's great, OP is updated, goon guilds are active, still no sub fee, reinstall and try it out for yourself.

Kajeesus posted:

Basically, dungeon tracks are good and all others are worse, but some of the poo poo ones give unique skins.

Any completed track gives 8 tomes of knowledge, 4 transmutation charges, and a variety of thematic loot boxes, which are affected by magic find and are supposed to replace killing stuff in PvE.

A completed dungeon reward track gives 3 weapons and 1 armor piece of your choice, as well as 240 tokens. If you pick three two-handed weapons and a chest piece, that's a total of 1740 tokens' worth of rewards, which is nothing to scoff at. Most loot bags are veteran quality or better, which means you get a decent amount of champ bags, too.

Other tracks instead contain a handful of tier 5/6 crafting mats, significantly fewer champion bag loot boxes and a single skin and some ascended/legendary crafting mats at the very end. The Region tracks just give a rare drop from the region (Tribal for Maguuma, Legionnaire for Ascalon, etc.), while the Glorious/Balthazar tracks give unique skins that can only be unlocked this way. You might also want to do the Maguuma Wastes track, since it gives 300 geodes (and 2,050 silky sand piles), and is the only way to get Ambrite Fossilized Insects that isn't a random drop.

A 50S RAYGUN posted:

so you've decided to try pvp

so, you've ran around the world a bit, and you've killed a few thousand flags on sticks. what's this pvp people talk about? well, i was just like you, friend, and i decided to try it out last night. the first thing you need to is click the pvp button (i think it's two crossed swords, but that could have just been the two dudes banging in world chat distracting me). join a pvp lobby??? you bet!

you will arrive in a tutorial world. this place is useless and i recommend you treat every friendly npc as if they were an enemy counterintelligence officer trying to confuse you. revive my allies? why the heck would i do that?!

you will next arrive in the mists, or something, i don't really know. there will be a bunch of people yelling about nerf guns, i think. at the top, there's a button that says 'find pvp match'. click it, then choose unranked, because your dad was right, you're too scared of risk, and that's why no one went to prom with you.

after reading about two charrs screwing for a while, you'll find a pvp match! vote for whatever map you think sounds coolest. i voted for the legacy of foo fighters, I think, but other people picked Sky Hammer so we had to have our rumble there.

the objectives
there are three points in gw2 pvp: home, mid, and far. i will break them down briefly.

home is the point where you go to inexplicably be killed by 5 of your enemies appearing from the fog, like a grim specter of vengeance.

mid is the point where most of the action happens. this means you will be the only person on your team to make a meaningful effort to appear there.

far is the point where your team goes to lose 4v1s against the opponent bunker guardian, at which point your team will tell you that you are a fucker.

the teams
now, let's break down the teams. as this is your first game of gw2 pvp, the enemy team will consist of five Europeans with over a million games who share a single consciousness and whose hivemind allows them to coordinate to a startlingly preternatural degree. they have long forgotten the concept of mercy, and the only joy they feel is when the opponent team does not score above 50 points. even if you could beat them (you can't), it would be cruel to deny them their fleeting happiness.

your team will consist of you, a family of vaguely organized salamanders, a phone book on a keyboard, a 1990s lego mindstorm trying to play using a primitive light sensor and a shoddy series of if-then statements, and a well-trained feline who will immediately change their class so as to be as redundant as possible. let's do this!

the match begins
four of your team immediately rush to capture the nearest point (home). this will be the last time you see three of them, so i suggest you do not become too attached. you should go mid and see if you can beat the opposite team there (you can't). when you see four of the opposite team on mid, you should attempt to pull back and find your team. an enemy thief will immediately appear behind you and begin the process of humiliating you. i either could not find the proper hotkey or else i did not assign the skill where my character comically falls on his butt, killing the thief, so i did what i am pretty sure is 100 percent correct play: died. while the opponent is trying to kill you, throw a bunch of rocks at them. in this way, the thief will live up to his name, and fall victim to his own hubris, and then you can awkwardly die next to each other, just like in titanic. you could have shared the door, kate.

you check the sidebar, and realize what you feared: three of your team are repeatedly throwing themselves off of cliffs. the cat, your 3rd engineer, has become distracted and is trying to stack turrets on top of each other. at this point, there will be an announcement that the skyhammer is online, or something. i don't know what it is, what it does, or how to turn it online, nor will i ever, because i paid a wizard to lay a cantrip upon me that will kill me if i ever have to play skyhammer again.

at this point, your team will begin to complain about how they are the best player on your team, and it is unfair to be matched with untouchables such as you. the enemy team will sense this and immediately collapse upon whoever is typing. the salamander's final words will be 'noob war doesn't even hambossssssss6'. at this point, the skyhammer will again be online. you will still not be sure what it does. is it scrambling your teammate's brains? i think so. the phonebook has been making remarkably unsound choices.

after a few more minutes, the enemy team will reach 500 points (you will have somehow acquired 20, although no one on your team is sure how or will accept responsibility). the opponents will all thank you for your time and offer a few helpful tips to improve your play, which your teammates will drown out with hyphens, either unwilling or unable to accept that there is a profanity filter, or else really trying to explain the concept of subtraction.

that wraps up your first game of guild war 2 player versus player! i hope you had as much fun as i did, and join me next time, when i explain how to play pvp when the person yuo are queuing with has level 80 in pvp!

REAL MUSCLE MILK posted:

hello fellow noob (that's a novice player in internet lingo, LOL (laugh out loud))! as a kindred spirit just trying to get into the immersive world of norrath albion hero city tyria, I feel like i can offer some advice on how to join the guild you'd like! which goon guild you choose is up to you, but the steps are the same!

step 1: download and install the gw2 client! this is a big one, and it took me like 5 years to figure out.
step 2: weigh the pros and cons of the two goon guilds! goon is easy to remember, but starfleet dental may pay for your character to have nice teeth, or something. i'm really not too sure.
step 3: go into the gw2 client (good thing you installed it earlier)! at the top of your screen, there will be a series of white icons. one of these will be for 'guild'! this is the one you want to click on using your LMB (left mouse button). if you cannot read, i don't think what I say here matters, but i think the icon is a bear or a lion or a castle or a compass or something. i have trouble with shapes.
step 4: search for the guild you want to join! after you have found it, message the guild leader and tell them you would like to join their guild! they will generally not know who you are or care, so see step 5.
step 5: tell the leader of the guild you want to join you found them via the Something Awful forums Guild Wars 2 thread (this selfsame thread, coincidentally oft frequented by players of the game Guild Wars 2: Guild Harder)
step 6: they will generally accept you into the guild at this point, but sometimes they won't! i recommend asking nicer, or something.
step 7: now you're in a guild! congratulations, and enjoy the immersive world! i think you have to run around the map a lot, to win the game, but i usually get distracted by fighting flags on sticks.

Do Not Fear Jazz posted:

(700 hours in 6 months )

Kazoo posted:

In case you want to make an informed decision on how to be a special snowflake:

Tivac posted:

I love this new thread and OP, great job Arus.


PS fat ololo

NihilVerumNisiMors posted:

Is the TP down or something, I suddenly can't sell my poo poo anymore. It just doesn't load the page.

malhavok posted:

Maybe you could refer people to intothemists.com for builds.

Traitorous Leopard posted:

Thinking about playing this game - what class/race/whatever combo is the best/easiest to get into groups/most desired. And don't give me that fun bullshit. MMO's aren't about fun.

Full Fathoms Five posted:

Haven't played this game in like 6 months. Did they ever make getting a precursor any easier? I got to the point where I had done basically everything aside from endlessly grinding boss chests every day and acquiring a pile of wealth, and then I burned out and haven't touched it since. Is it worth coming back to, or is it just going to be a little bit of new content for me to work through and then its back to the same?

savagehenry posted:

This is a pretty good game, and every class is neat so pick whatever and have fun.

Alteisen posted:

You guys are seriously making me wanna move to Magumma and join you.

Secret Sweater posted:

Well the league additions have sure done well to highlight the lovely, lovely lag in WvW. Maybe they'll devote some more resources to fixing it.

NapoleonAtWaterloo posted:

SSNeoman posted:

Can a person be in both GOON and SFD? Or is it frowned upon?

BexGu posted:

Food and Pretty Princess End Game chat covers a lot of ground.

PS

Should the Ranger pet list I made die with the last thread? Or just throw this under Ranger to help people find pets: http://guildwars2hub.com/guides/professions/ranger/pets

Silento posted:

I played this game a ton for a week or two after it came out, and then I just stopped. I dunno why, probably just generic Goon burnout. My only long term character was a low-mid 30s Charr Elementalist. Have they added any new Elementalist weapons? I remember feeling that the non-staff weapons were kinda meh, and the staff got old after using it non-stop for a while.

Secret Sweater posted:

Oh I see. Post it in the thread and it's instantly added. I PMed him last night and nothing was done. Well I guess I know where I stand

Reverend Dr posted:

Also:
http://us.gw2stuff.com/en/events/maguuma

http://www.gw2spidy.com/

If you haven't already.

Lyer posted:

Hey Arus, could you add in http://orrmaps.com/server/maguuma?

NihilVerumNisiMors posted:

You're all forgetting the most important thing:

CuddlyZombie posted:

Speaking of adding Maguuma stuff to the OP, could we put the public Maguuma mumble info there, as well?


I... I don't know it

Secret Sweater posted:

On the subject of useful links for the OP:

Egg Baron's material promotion spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As-wCpIszrT9dFB3YjVUVFhfenlDUUpXTVBIdm5qWmc#gid=8

Event Map:
http://gw2hero.com/ - visual map of currently active events.
http://mosli.net/events/ - tracks the most active servers for each map for guesting purposes. good if you want to level weird zones that nobody is ever in.

Trading Post:
http://www.guildwarstrade.com/ similar to spidy, but way faster refresh and better layout imo. watchlist is on the homepage so I can see which of my investments is tanking the hardest at first glance.
http://notifier.zicore.de/ Zicore's Trading Post Notifier - lets you know when you've been outbid and shows trades being posted in real time. Questionably legal, but if you tell it to get data from spidy, there's no way Anet will find your rear end.

Not sure why you posted gw2lfg with a note about it being obsolete once the lfg tool is out, as the lfg tool is already out.

Map Completion:
http://en.gw2codex.com/ has a nice map, only one I've found that shows motherfucking heart levels on mouseover.

Secret Sweater posted:

fair enough. LFG is rolled out fully at this point.

Lamp Stack posted:

Am I too late to post my pretty princesses?

Xun posted:

Someone should come do Arah 2 with me

Digital_Jesus posted:

So what I'm getting here is that ANet isn't ever going to give me a reason to give them more of my money. Whelp can't say I didn't try oh well.

Jonny Angel posted:

2) I'm 100% on every Shiverpeak area, but my exploration achievement for it says I'm 169/175. Do Shiverpeak dungeon areas count, or should I be seeking out 6 Shiverpeak areas without any waypoints, PoIs, etc.? I'm sure there are a few caves that just contain jumping puzzles or whatnot.

Full Fathoms Five posted:

Between Necro and Ele, which is A) more fun to play, and B) more useful in you guys' opinions? I've got a Mesmer already, but I've never really tried the other two casters because everyone just constantly told me how much they sucked when I was starting out. I mostly do dungeons and WvW, so I'm not too concerned about sPvP, and everything works in PvE.

DarkAvenger211 posted:

So are there any prolonged sieges anymore in WvW? Most fights seem to be over in absolute seconds, and nobody tries to take even slightly defended forts.

Dreggon posted:

Prettiest princess?

Cowboybot posted:

It's University of Texas Arus, that's where Anet is located.

MysteriousThing posted:

I really don't know a great deal about the specifics of what Arena-net is facing but I can say with certainty that money is not their problem.

shymog posted:

Maybe you need to explain this because I'm new to Guild Wars 2, but what the hell does the term "skill lag" have to do with connections/latency? Skill lag typically refers to balancing issues, not connectivity.

EDIT: Balancing isn't something you can fix by throwing cash at a computer screen.

Secret Sweater posted:

To be fair, money could possibly "fix" this problem. What some games have done in the past is buy the additional processing power to alleviate the symptoms while they work on the optimization aspect of it. Once they patch that, then they dial back their computing power. Anet just didn't choose to go that route, so here we are.