cyndelaq.7148

Not being able to earn pips because I'm, "not yet considered a citizen," of the world I joined is just stupid! I transfered so I could play with a guild I just joined only to find out that I'm basically being punished for doing so! And why is it 2 weeks!? 2 Days? Sure, but 2 weeks!? Come on...

I've been talking to a friend of mine, trying to get him to play the game once he gets a PC up and running, but while we were talking today, I said to him, “I need a reason to play the game!” He looked at me, laughed, and said, “You're not selling it to me. If you need a reason to play the game, then why should I?” I couldn't fault him for that because it makes sense. If I - someone who's put nearly 10k hours into the game since the closed beta – am not currently all that interested in playing the game, why should he? I told him that there are loads of different activities for a brand new player to do such as: WvW/PvP, Dungeons, Fractals, Raids, and so on, but one of the biggest concerns he has is that, once he gets to endgame, he won't have anything to do because, unlike WoW and other MMOs, this isn't a loot-driven game. Sure, you could work on legendary items – I myself have 2 full sets of armor and nearly 2 dozen weapons/trinkets – but those items don't make your character any stronger, which is typically why people play MMOs: to advance/progress their character(s). However, he brought up one activity WoW has that GW2 doesn't. He said, “But, does it have battle pets?” I was speechless! I completely gapped on the fact that GW2 has well over 700 minis to collect, but there's nothing to do with them! Almost every single time you go into a public space or do a world boss the game automatically hides them all in an attempt to reduce lag and keep people playing seamlessly. I don't even show my minis anymore because of that! But, if we could battle them... Not only would that bring something fun to the game, but it would keep people playing the game for a very long time if done right! My friend said to me that, when battle pets was introduced to WoW, he spent most of his time playing the game just for that! And, I mean, think about it! I've been playing Raid: Shadow Legends a lot lately (NOT A SPONSOR!!!), and, “Mini Wars,” as it could be called, could function a lot like that in the sense that you'd have to collect all of the different minis in the game, level them up, equip them with items that boost their stats and make them better at whatever they do, build a team that functions well as a whole, and battle them against other players! It'd be so frickin' fun!!! Mini Wars would bring a whole new level of entertainment to an already amazing game! And, since the only way to get a lot of these minis is by doing the activities already in the game, players would be forced to do activities they wouldn't normally do! Through which, they might find a whole other aspect of the game they didn't know they loved! It seems like a no-brainer to me! Now, yes. With well over 700 minis in the game, that's a lot of development time. However, not every single mini would have to have a completely different set of abilities, mechanics, and traits. Think of it like Ranger pets. There are three major categories of Ranger pets: Aquatic, Amphibious, and Terrestrial. The same could be true for minis for Mini Wars. Aquatic minis could only be used in aquatic arenas, amphibious minis could be used in any arena, and terrestrial minis could only be used on land arenas. There are also different, “Families,” of pets: Armored Fish, Bears, Birds, and so on. Again, the same could be true for minis. A pet that's apart of a family might have subtle variations of skills, but, for the most part, they provide the same buffs and/or do the exact same thing as the other pets in the family. Meaning, that if you wanted a specific mini, you might not have to farm for THAT specific one, but would have several potential routes to acquiring the mini(s) you want/need for your team, reducing the frustration of spending hundreds of hours farming only never to find what you're looking for. This is also how the devs could get around having to think of, implement, and balance potentially thousands of different skills/traits for each mini; they could just apply the same skills, traits, and roles to all minis in the same family. All-In-All, I absolutely love GW2, but don't really have a reason to play it at all as I've done just about everything this game has to offer at this point. I know that not a lot of people have as much time to play games as I do, so many might just see this post as me complaining, but I think Mini Wars could completely revitilize the game!

I'm not sure if anyone has touched on this regarding raids, but if you want more people to get into raids, not only does there need to be a sort of metaphorical ramp instead of a giant leap from say Fractals to Raids, but there also needs to be incentive for people even to care about raiding, and a much easier way of finding groups. Every time I try to convince people to play the game, one of the biggest concerns they raise is, "Where's the loot!?" I have to tell them that really isn't any loot in GW2 because getting newer, better gear isn't the focus of GW2; This isn't a loot-driven game. Sure, you can work toward legendary gear - I myself have 2 full sets of legendary armor and several legendary weapons - but aside from flashy animations and the convenience of not needing multiples sets of gear for different builds, legendary items don't bring anything to the table in terms of making your character(s) stronger. It's also not easy finding groups to raid with. Not only do you need to find a group that raids at a time that's convenient for you, but you need to find people that you get a long with, have the same or similar goals as you, and can actually get the job done when it comes to getting the kills you need to work on that legendary gear you want. I know there are several ways of finding groups: LFG, Discord, Reddit, etc... But, I honestly wish there was just a raid finder in the game. I badly want to get back into raiding myself, but I don't want to deal with the stress of meeting new people, having to prove myself, and hoping that we all get along, only to find out that we can't get boss kills. I doubt a raid finder would be anywhere near perfect right out of the gate, but it's better than not raiding at all. On the topic of Fractals, we don't need any new Fractals! What we need are the super old ones, such as: Aetherblade Retreat, Cliffside, Solid Ocean, Uncategorized, Underground Facility, Urban Battlegrounds, and Volcanic to be completely reworked! They're so old and outdated that it almost makes me not want to do them at all, especially the Underground Facility! When we get the final boss and find out that we have to fight the Elemental, I want to bail every time. But, despite Fractals needing a lot of love, what REALLY needs a LOT of love are dungeons! Aside from needing the tokens for legendary weapons, there's absolutely no need to go into them at all. They might as well not even be in the game and the tokens be ported over to Fractals. I know they exist as an introduction for new players, but Dungeons were all we had before the introduction of Fractals. I remember when the game first came out, Ascalonian Catacombs was unbelievably difficult. Nobody had the damage needed to destroy the Graveling Burrows in time and the NPC would always die. It got to a point where Frostbow Elementalists were a must have in every single group because of the super high damage output they had at the time, otherwise you might as well just not bother. Now, they're practically (if not) soloable. It's a shame how far they've fallen, and it'd be nice if they got a major overhaul. All-In-All, I'm super excited for the future of this game. I've been playing (off/on) since the closed beta way back when, and have nearly 10k hours logged in by now, but lately haven't found it in me to play because of the lack of content. (One hour LW episodes every couple of months just isn't enough) So, here's to the future! Cheers!

Hey there! I'm super excited to play as Heal Warrior! Quick suggestion, however. Add skill links to the wiki please? As someone who plays many different classes/builds, it's difficult to keep track of every skill/trait there is. I usually go back and forth from the forum to the wiki (or in-game) to see what each skill/trait is to get an understanding of how the changes will impact the class. It'd just be a nice addition to the notes is all. In any case. Love the game. Super excited. Have a good one!

The weirdest thing with me is that I don't use any kind of app or sms on either of my accounts, yet - after the announcement - they both have authentication enabled. I removed the one on my 2nd account, but can't log in to my main account to remove that one which is the account that I ABSOLUTELY want access to! I don't know how 2FA got enabled on my accounts, but I didn't put them there...

I didn't even get a mail, and I've been playing since the launch of the game.

"While Reapers were designed to be durable frontline fighters, the Soul Eater trait is providing a little too much survivability, so we're removing the ability for this trait to heal while in a shroud." Why not just reduce the healing we receive? Or, I don't know: make it so we can be healed in Shroud!? OR, like some are saying: heal us ONLY in Shroud!? It's super difficult to be a durable, frontline fighter when you can't be healed while in the form where most of your damage comes from. And as someone else stated, it wasn't a ton of healing anyway. You had to cleave a ton of mobs to get a lot of healing; it only really served as a method of topping your health off while in Shroud. (To maintain the 5% bonus damage from runes!) Necromancer has been an underdog since the launch of the game. It only took nearly 7 years, 2 expansions, many reworks/tweaks, and 2 elite specializations for the class to get to a respectable space. Why take away such a great improvement?

I want minions to good again. Recently, I find myself without minions because I dismount and they disappear, or I get knocked off my mount and they disappear, or they just straight-up die... Which, I thought they had fixed a long time ago by making them take less damage. In any case, I would love to see them make minions similar to signets in the sense that they had a passive effect and active effect. The passive would be that, as soon as you equip the minion skill, the minion is always summoned. And the active would the already in-game minion abilities. Minions would still be able to die, obviously, but they would just go on cooldown and automatically resummon when the passive is off cooldown. However, it'd be nice if minions didn't die anywhere nearly as often as they currently do.

I understand that it would quite the endeavour, but I wish they would bring it back. Even though I've been playing since the closed beta (off and on), I missed out on most of LWS1. And what I didn't miss out on, I can't remember. I would love to play that content!

Map Discovery Pack. Since we have the central tyria waypoint pack, why not have a similar pack but for zone discovery in central tyria? Since discovering a zone doesn't count for map completion, it'd be nice to have.

Hey! Thanks for your comment. I've since revisited the spread out (Divide & Conquer) strategy and came a conclusion. Regardless of the strategy, a full/nearly full map is the key to success with this meta. You NEED a ton of people. With that said, yes... it is wise to have two squads on the map participating in the event. :D I also updated the post to add sections like you suggested. Hopefully everything's easier to find now.

Thank you for your comment. It's greatly appreciated. While I do appreciate the heads up on some abilities I missed, a few of the abilities you mentioned aren't correct from what I can tell. Darkrazor's Daring - Although it does hit six times, it only does a 1/4s daze per hit totalling only a 1.5s daze for 150 CC damage.Surge of the Mists - I'm not exactly sure how they calculate knockback damage, it does seem to deal 450-750 CC damage so I will add it to the list.Mirage Thrust - From what I can tell, it only deals 100 CC damage at most simply because that's the base amount of damage any hard CC can deal. I can't find any information that states this ability gains more ticks or deals more CC damage via: traits, utility skills, or amount of illusions.Diversion - It does deal 400 CC damage but is very situational as: you have to have 3 illusions up, they all have t be focusing your target, and you have to be within melee range of the target for the shatter to hit it.Signet of Humility - This does deal 1k CC damage. I'm not quite sure why it deals that much damage as it only lasts 6 seconds, but it will make the list now.If I'm in fact incorrect on the above, please let me know and I will make the necessary changes. Thank you once again.

Welcome to the meta event that will destroy your soul!Important Update!!!As of the 28th of May, 2019, Arena Net did the unthinkable! The ACTUALLY improved Serpents' Ire!!! Below are the changes they made to meta. You can also click this link to check out the full updates! Domain of VabbiIncreased rewards for all events in the Serpents' Ire meta-event in the Domain of Vabbi.Reduced the base amount of control effects required to break the defiance bars of Branded Forgotten zealots in the Serpents' Ire meta-event by 33%.Reduced defiance-bar scaling of Branded Forgotten zealots by 50%.Increased the cooldown before the defiance bars of Branded Forgotten zealots are active again from 10 seconds to 30 seconds.Champion loot rewards in the "Defeat the Branded Forgotten zealots before the Branded crystal detonates" event have been moved from the creatures themselves to the event rewards to ensure all participating players receive loot for all five champions.Ysshi Hessani's base health has been reduced by approximately 15%.Pek Rakt Grag's base health has been reduced by approximately 10%.Increased rewards in the chest dropped by the Legendary Forged Hounds.Significantly increased the drop rate of the Mini Air Djinn, Mini Fire Djinn, Mini Water Djinn, and Mini Earth Djinn from the "Defeat the grand elder djinn" event in the Domain of Vabbi.Serpents' Ire is the meta event that takes place in an area known as, "The Brand", within the Path of Fire map, "The Domain of Vabbi". It contains three (3) different phases each lasting 20-30 minutes and requires a full, or close to full, map to complete as of Sunday, January 28, 2018. The event is on a ninety (90) minute restart time that begins one (1) hour after server restart. Server restart is at Zero (0) Hour UTC (00:00/01:00 UTC | 7pm/8pm EST/EDT | 6pm/7pm CST/CDT | 4pm/5pm PST/PDT) thus, the start times for the event are as follows. UTC: 1am, 2:30am, 4am, 5:30am, 7am, 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am, 1pm, 2:30pm, 4pm, 5:30pm, 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm, and 11:30pm. UTC: 2am, 3:30am, 5am, 6:30am, 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 12:30am, 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, 6:30pm, 8pm, 9:30pm, 11pm, and 12:30pm. EST: 8pm, 9:30pm, 11pm, 12:30am, 2am, 3:30am, 5am, 6:30am, 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 12:30pm, 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, and 6:30pm. EDT: 9pm, 10:30pm, 12pm, 1:30am, 3am, 4:30am, 6am, 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, 12am, 1:30pm, 3pm, 4:30pm, 6pm, and 7:30pm. CST: 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm, 11:30pm, 1am, 2:30am, 4am, 5:30am, 7am, 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am, 1pm, 2:30pm, 4pm, and 5:30pm. CDT: 8pm, 9:30pm, 11pm, 12:30pm, 2am, 3:30am, 5am, 6:30am, 8pm, 9:30am, 11am, 12:30am, 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, and 6:30pm. PST: 5pm, 6:30pm, 8pm, 9:30pm, 11pm, 12:30am, 2am, 3:30am, 5am, 6:30am, 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 12:30pm, 2pm, and 3:30pm. PDT: 6pm, 7:30pm, 9pm, 10:30pm, 12pm, 1:30am, 3am, 4:30am, 6am, 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, 12am, 1:30pm, 3pm, and 4:30pm. It is wise for the commander(s) to start getting a map set up for the event thirty (30) minutes early. By this I mean: going from map to map, advertising for your squad; placing the markers, setting up the groups for phase 2, explaining the meta to everyone, and getting a taxi set up for the map. With all of that said, here is what you should expect when attempting this event. How To Set Up The Map:When in a squad, the leader of the squad has access to eight (8) different icons with which they can use to mark the map: Arrow, Circle, Heart, Square, Star, Swirl, Triangle, and X. You do this by using the specific key binds provided by the game. Go to the location you wish to mark and simply use your key bind to place the marker. If you wish to mark an object, there are key binds for that as well! First, select the object to target it then use your key bind specifically for marking objects and the object will be marked with the desired icon. You'll want to use five (5) of those markers for phase two (2) so your groups know where to go and the remaining three (3) for the general locations in which the zealots in phase one (1) spawn. The general locations for the zealots are as follows: Dehwan Expanse, Dzasha Uplands, Zagonur Cliffs, Kodash Bazaar, and Resplendent Trace. Since these are general locations and not exact, be aware that the zealots can spawn all the way to the north of the map, near the mastery insight, and all the way to the south of the map in Resplendent Trace. Note: I have yet to see a zealot spawn directly in the Grand Court of Sebelkeh or Yahnur Plateau, but don't rule them out. However, there is some certainty to the spawning of the zealots. When the zealots do spawn, they always spawn near a Djinn safe zone. So be on the look out for said safe zones and you should find the zealots with ease. I use the following markers to mark the general spawn locations in P1: Swirl to mark the northern part of the map (Dehwan Expanse and Dzasha Uplands).Triangle to mark the middle part of the map (Kodash Bazaar and Zagonur Cliffs).X to mark the southern part of the map (Resplendent Trace).I then use the following markers for P2: Arrow to mark the NW corner of the Grand Court of Sebelkeh (GCoS).Circle to mark the exact Northern (middle) part of the GCoS.Heart to mark the NE corner of the GCoS.Square to mark the SE corner of the GCoS.Star to mark the SW corner of the GCoS.The Phases:NOTE: Use your Skimmer mount to move around in The Brand as the Skimmer floats over the ground and actually prevents you from being hit by the lightning. Phase One (1) - The Hunt:To start this event off, you'll literally be hunting down and killing five (5) branded, forgotten zealots. On the right of your screen, you'll see an empty bar and a counter that reads zero of five (0/5). In order to find all five (5) zealots, you first have to flush them out of hiding. To do this, you need kill veteran branded within The Brand. When a zealot spawns, a notification will appear on your screen for a brief time, so pay attention and start hunting the moment you see this notification. NOTE: It is wise to continue killing vets even when a zealot has spawned as not to run out of time and fail the event. When you spot a zealot, hit it! Yes. Hit it; Smack it in the face! When the zealot becomes damaged, its location will be revealed on the world map to all players in the Domain of Vabbi. This makes it a lot easier, for the rest of those participating in the hunt, to find them. Once all five zealots are dead, phase two (2) will begin after a short two (2) to three (3) minute respite. Phase Two (2) - Immortal? I Think Not!:This is hardest phase in the event as it relies more heavily on CC (Crowd Control) then damage. When this phase begins, the five (5) zealots you thought you killed earlier will respawn. Remember the five (5) markers from earlier? These are where the zealots will respawn for this phase. When they respawn, they'll immediately begin channeling a giant bomb that spawns in the middle of the GCoS as indicated by a constantly depleting bar on the right side of your screen. To prevent the bomb from going off and killing everyone, you must kill all five zealots once more. However, it's not so simple this time. Each zealot will spawn with a very hefty defiance bar that you MUST break in order to deal any damage to them what-so-ever, thus EVERYONE participating in the event MUST bring CC. No exceptions. NOTE: See below for a detailed breakdown of the CC abilities each profession Should bring. Phase Three (3) - Is That... A HYDRA!?!?:Immediately upon completing phase two (2), Ysshi Hessani, another branded, forgotten zealot..., and Pek Rakt Grag (Greg as I like to call him) will spawn where the Circle marker is (but in the water), in the northern part of the GCoS. Ysshi Hessani:Like the other five (5) zealots, Ysshi will also have a defiance bar however it isn't imperitive that you break his bar as he takes full damage even with it up, it just makes the fight easier as he's not hitting you in the face as you're trying to kill him for however long, so break it as often as possible. Ysshi will switch between ranged immunity and melee immunity throughout the fight, making damaging him difficult, but not impossible. Ysshi will also revive Greg if he dies. Ironically, Ysshi's usually the reason why Greg dies as Ysshi will also siphon 50% of Greg's health from him to heal for 25% health. Therefore, the strategy here is to stack on Ysshi so that Greg stacks on the zerg much in the same way that you stack on the Jade Bow in Bloodstone Fen to get the Jade Armor to stack on the zerg, so you can cleave them down. Ignore Greg completely until Ysshi dies as, like I said before, Ysshi will just revive Greg if he dies. When Ysshi gets to 25% health, he will phase and start summoning Branded Sparks on the southern side of the GCoS. During this time, Ysshi will become invulnerable and start channeling an explosion to hit the group with. To reduce the amount of damage this explosion does, KILL THE SPARKS. Each spark that reaches Ysshi will empower this attack by 2%, so the more sparks that reach him, the harder this explosion will hit, eventually one-shotting everyone, wiping the group. NOTE: It is possible to mount up to avoid the damage of the aforementioned explosion. Also, you don't fail the event if you wipe, only if you fail to defeat Ysshi/Greg before time runs out. After the Sparks phase ends, head back to Ysshi and continue damaging him until he dies. I don't know how often Ysshi actually does the sparks phase, but he does it very often; what seems to be every 2% hp lost to every 5% hp lost, so be prepared to kill a lot of sparks. Once Ysshi dies, you FINALLY can focus on Greg. Pek Rakt Grag (Greg):Yes... Greg is a massive, purple hydra... Greg enjoys: taking long walks on the beach, singing in the brandstorm, cozy nights by the fire, and... Summoning meteors that damage the group and knock anyone down that it hits.Summoning minions.Charging the group, damaging and knocking back anyone he hits.Bullet-Timing your computer by using an ability called, "Magically Unstable Breath".Magically Unstable Breath, "miniaturizes", everyone it hits: reducing their size, reducing their outgoing damage by 90%, and increasing the damage they take by 50%.Isn't he lovely? Once Ysshi dies, he's very easy to kill, just stack on him and burn him down. NOTE: Greg's abilities don't change at all throughout the entire fight. The Strategies:There are two strategies to this phase: Zerg and Split. Regardless of the strategy a full or nearly full map is required in order to successfully complete this phase. The Zerg:The zerg strategy is quite simple. The commander place five (5) high CC Damaging professions in four (4) different groups. These, "CC Groups", do nothing but make sure the zealots are well controlled (health damage isn't as important hear as CC damage is). The remaining thirty (30) players remain in the zerg. The zerg will start out in the NW corner of the GCoS (Arrow) and kill that zealot as quickly as they possibly can. Once that zealot dies, they'll move to circle, then to heart, then to square, and lastly to star. If successful, it will seem as though you're going to fail at first, but the moment you kill that first zealot, killing the other zealots gets faster and faster until you kill all five (5) of them and phase three (3) begins. The squad groups should look as follows: Arrow (NW Corner) = Zerg starting location.Circle (Northern part of the GCoS) = CC Group One (1)Heart (NE Corner) = CC Group Two (2)Square (SE Corner) = CC Group Three (3)Star (SW Corner) = CC Group Four (4)NOTE: Also try to have five (5) high CC damage dealers in the zerg as well to make killing that first zealot as easy as possible. Split:This strategy is very similar to the zerg strategy but differs in the size of each group. Instead of having one (1) big group and four (4) small CC groups, the commander should divide the squad evenly between all five (5) groups, having ten (10) people in each group. In this strategy, there is no main group like with the zerg strategy. instead, each group is responsible for both the controlling (CC) and damaging (DPS) of their zealot, so the commander should try to divide the high CC damaging professions between all five (5) groups evenly as best they can to give each group the best possible chance of killing their zealot. However, when one group does kill their zealot that group should move clockwise (to the right) to the next zealot and help kill it. Here is what the rotation would look like: Arrow to Circle - Circle to Heart - Heart to Square - Square to Star - Star to Arrow. Basically, no group should ever be sitting around doing nothing; everyone should be unleashing every ounce of Krytan wrath they possess on the zealots so they stay down for good this time! And there you have it! That's the event. Although this is a very difficult meta, it's very fun to do, and when you do complete it, it's very exciting. CC breakdown:NOTE: This is not a comprehensive list. I've listed only hard CCs and the CCs I think each profession should bring to the fight based off of individual recharge times and the CC damage they deal. Also. for the professions I didn't mention, they use the same CCs as the, "vanilla", version of their profession. Warrior:Tremor (Mace 5)Pommel Bash (Mace 3)Skull Crack (CORE Mace Burst)Berserker:Headbutt (Elite)Wild Blow(Utility)Plus Tremor & Pommel BashGuardian:Bane Signet (Utility)Banish (Hammer 4 (Optional))Revenant:Jade Winds (Shiro Elite)Surge of the Mists (Staff 5)Herald:Chaotic Release (Dragon Elite)Renegade:Scorchrazor (Shortbow 5)Engineer:Big Ol' Bomb (Bomb Toolbelt)Overcharged Shot (Rifle 4)Scrapper:Big Ol' Bomb (Bomb Toolbelt)Blast Gyro Tag (Utility)Holosmith:Holographic Shockwave (Photon Forge 5)Big Ol' Bomb (Bomb Toolbelt)Ranger:Call Lightning (Utility)Concussion Shot (Shortbow 5)Pets: Electric Wyvern & one of the following:Rock GazellePink MoaSmokescaleAny porcine – Soulbeast OnlyThief:Tripwire (Utility)Basilisk Venom (Elite)Daredevil:Hook Strike (Staff 1)Basilisk Venom (Elite)Deadeye:Binding Shadow (Utility)Basilisk Venom (Elite)Elementalist:Gale (Focus 5 Air)Weaver:Gale (Focus 5 Air)One of the following:Pile Drive (Earth+Air Staff 3)Mud Slide (Earth+Water Dagger 3)Mesmer:Signet of Domination (Utility)Diversion (Shatter 3)Chronomancer:Signet of Domination (Utility)Gravity Well (Elite)Necromancer:Wail of Doom (Warhorn 4)Charge (Flesh Golem Elite)Scourge:Oppressive Collapse (Torch 5)Charge (Flesh Golem Elite)**NOTE: For a more comprehensive list of CC abilities, please follow the below link: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiance_Bar#Control_effects In closing. If you got this far, I want to thank you for reading this post. If you have any suggestions/criticisms, don't hesitate to leave a comment. I hope this helps everyone! Let the hunt begin!