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Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns |OT| Welcome to the Jungle...

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Mono

Member
I'd say it's more welcoming than most MMOs, probably because of the game's natural focus on helping other players out.

I mean, people get salty AF in PvP, but that'll happen in any PvP.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
This the only mmo where the questing isn't a mind-numbing experience.

The events feel like I'm the game version of Westworld.

I'm having a lot of fun with the ranger, too. Just realized I can switch pets, and they have their own skills and stats? Shieeet.
 
This the only mmo where the questing isn't a mind-numbing experience.

The events feel like I'm the game version of Westworld.

I'm having a lot of fun with the ranger, too. Just realized I can switch pets, and they have their own skills and stats? Shieeet.

Yup. They all have unique F2 skills which is mostly what you'll be considering when picking which pet to take. It's fun to run around the world and collect all of them too :D.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
I read the Druid spec for Ranger is mostly healer, though.

So I put my ranger on hold until the next expac.

Switched to Mesmer and I'm loving it. Feels like Naruto and Kage Bunshins. Liking the complexity of the class.
 

Massicot

Member
Ranger/Druid is super versatile. Arguably the most versatile in the game.

Druid is a great pure healer, yea, but a "DPS" focused Druid can still dish out decent DPS and give the party some great buffs for the groups damage through traits like Spotter/Grace of the Land and spirit passive effects. Condition Druid is one of my favorite classes to play in Fractals. Power has kinda fallen out of favor though. Needs some love in the next balance patch. A power focused elite spec for expansion 2 would be cool.


If you want to go a pure damage role, you can spec out of Druid into a pure ranger class for a relatively easy but fun and high damage condition dps role.

Mesmer is also super fun. I never played it a lot initially but I've gotten my feet wet over the last few months and have learned to like it a lot. I love doing fractals with a good mesmer. That focus pull is probably the greatest single weapon skill in PVE imo. I wish other group pulls (Guardian Tether/GS, Druid CA Tides) worked half as well.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
Ranger/Druid is super versatile. Arguably the most versatile in the game.

Druid is a great pure healer, yea, but a "DPS" focused Druid can still dish out decent DPS and give the party some great buffs for the groups damage through traits like Spotter/Grace of the Land and spirit passive effects. Condition Druid is one of my favorite classes to play in Fractals. Power has kinda fallen out of favor though. Needs some love in the next balance patch. A power focused elite spec for expansion 2 would be cool.


If you want to go a pure damage role, you can spec out of Druid into a pure ranger class for a relatively easy but fun and high damage condition dps role.

Mesmer is also super fun. I never played it a lot initially but I've gotten my feet wet over the last few months and have learned to like it a lot. I love doing fractals with a good mesmer. That focus pull is probably the greatest single weapon skill in PVE imo. I wish other group pulls (Guardian Tether/GS, Druid CA Tides) worked half as well.
Tell me about it, with other class I could handle mobs of 3 but more than that started being a problem, at least soloing PvE. With Mesmer I can pull a group of 5 and not have problems thanks to that skill, it's super good.

Also that skill gives swiftness i think? so it's good for mobility.
 

Massicot

Member
Instead of focusing on pure healing you only go into CA to stack Grace of the Land really. Instead of running utilities like traps you usually run a combination of glyphs and spirits depending on the fight. In some ways it's more passive than pure DPS since you just park spirits but in others more nuanced since you have to make sure not to quick draw into CA if you don't want to.
 

Massicot

Member
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-July-11-2017

you can be ironman now

new commander tag colors

DEeAt8QVYAEGF0c.jpg


rip wvw pip scumming
 

Wanderer5

Member
Not too sure about the changes to the decay timer yet. I did some roaming, and I suppose I was able to maintained it well mostly with capturing camps and sentries (lasting for around 5 mins least at times maybe before the timer kicked in).

And course I had to get the new outfit (glider is cool also, but pass). It is probably my new favorite now, and I am kind of glad I ended up passing on Taimi's outfit for looking into a futuristic outfit.
 
servers down right now? I can't even enter my login at the splash window

Yeah I was getting a "connection error detected... retrying" error. Tried various fixes through Google but nothing worked. Turns out it's a known issue that they're working on, and there's a temporary fix here

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/for...nection-error-s-detected-retrying-115/6643415

EDIT - nope. The workaround let me start the launcher and patch the client, but I still can't actually login.
 

Massicot

Member
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/...rce=launcher&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=rss

I can't wait. Is it safe to assume the expansion announcement will drop then?

Well the end of season 2, Point of No Return, had a cutscene leading into HoT, which was then fully announced at Pax South the same month with a full blowout at Pax East a couple months later. So perhaps we get a title card after episode 6 here, with a reveal at Pax West. It's not perfectly analogous, but it seems like a good guess.

The HoT logo leaked on the website a few weeks early last time iirc.

Edit: Is this the first Season 3 episode announced without a title? Interesting.
 
Well, the end of season 2, Point of No Return, had a cutscene leading into HoT, which was then fully announced at Pax South the same month, with a full blowout at Pax East a couple months later. So perhaps we get a title card after episode 6 here, with a reveal at Pax West. It's not perfectly analogous, but it seems like a good guess.

The HoT logo leaked on the website a few weeks early last time iirc.

Edit: Is this the first Season 3 episode announced without a title? Interesting.

Maybe the title is literally just Finale?

Anyway that image looks like a revitalized Orr. That definitely looks like Orrian architecture.
 
The dream of Jormag eating Braham in the final episode dead? lol I really don't even want to explore anything with Braham any further. He's so damn obnoxious. Lets steal the Jormag kill ;p I'm curious to see what exactly has went down with Primordius. I think they at least already said the expansion is first quarter next year, right? Or maybe it was approximated off of NC Soft's list?
 

Massicot

Member
Here's the reddit quote. Into the release cadence with some extra leash for the expansion, basically.

Mo said:
We announced that today’s episode, Flashpoint, is the second-to-last episode of the season. Yes, that means what you think it means: there’s one more episode after this, and then straight to the expansion pack.

A lot of you have been wondering about the upcoming release cadence, given that last time around we took a long break from Living World releases to get Heart of Thorns out the door and then to support that expansion after release.

The good news is that this time around we have two separate fully-staffed teams that are both hitting on all cylinders. So our rough plan is to slot the expansion pack into the release cadence as if it were an episode: episode 5, then episode 6, then the expansion pack, then episode 1. But we’ll make some allowance for the fact that shipping an expansion pack is a big deal logistically and will probably take longer than the 2~3 months we normally allocate between episodes.
 
Hopefully we do get an open beta before release.

I actually kind of want the opposite to a certain extent. Looking back on my experience with previous MMO's, namely classic WoW, the anticipation of not knowing all that much about upcoming talents and skills and just how powerful you'll become was a huge part of the excitement.

The build up for HOT having half and hour videos detailing every aspect of the elite specs with really dry dev hosts who clearly are not experienced at being charismatic news hosts was definitely a wet blanket on the whole thing.

Elite specs should only get trailers like the Reaper trailer.
 
Woodenpotatoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_-fYM2gdBY


But does this mean that more of Orr is being added, or are they updating the existing Orr maps? TP is right- It's always been a debate. If this is a living world, then Zhaitans corruption should have let go. And I guess Modremoth too.

I think TP is right- At the end of this episode we'll get the announcement for the Elona expansion.
 
Woodenpotatoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_-fYM2gdBY


But does this mean that more of Orr is being added, or are they updating the existing Orr maps? TP is right- It's always been a debate. If this is a living world, then Zhaitans corruption should have let go. And I guess Modremoth too.

I think TP is right- At the end of this episode we'll get the announcement for the Elona expansion.

0% chance they're updating old Orr. To be honest, I'm not all that interested in radical changes to the old world like transforming the Orr areas into some kind of verdant jungle, especially because the game has so many jungles already. We only have 2.5 creepy zombie zones. I never liked how WoW Cataclysm took the iconic old world and basically just added hideous lava pits everywhere. And while I would be okay with tuning hearts and events to make them more interesting and to teach players the game better, drastically nuking zones is not something I've ever cared to see.

If the map is Orr, and it seems that it will likely be the case, it'll be a small zone unique zone set years after the fact like Lake Doric is for Queensdale.
 

Massicot

Member
I wonder if it's going to try to "top" nightmare (ie, it will have a challenge mote, be the new fractal 100, etc) or if it's just going to slot in as another fractal.

This release is kinda weird though. No little promo trailer, no title for the episode, but a 15 second animation just to say "new fractal". Just a little different from normal.
 

Mifec

Member
So had some bad stuff happen and decided to just spam the hell out of GW2 to take my mind off it.

Got a few questions if you guys don't mind:


What's the best Necro build currently?

Will it be hard for me to get back into the game if I quit right after finishing the PVE content of the base game?

How hard is it to get geared for Heart of Thorns stuff?

Is it dumb for me to just attempt to make a legendary with the new precursor system?

Oh and can I just buy the expansion off CDkeys? It says it's both the base game and HoT. Will it just unlock HoT on my acc without issue?
 

Massicot

Member
So had some bad stuff happen and decided to just spam the hell out of GW2 to take my mind off it.

Got a few questions if you guys don't mind:


What's the best Necro build currently?

Here's a pretty good resource. Some people treat this site like gospel, but...it is pretty great source of builds.

I like the blood magic variant of the fractal reaper for general purpose stuff.

Will it be hard for me to get back into the game if I quit right after finishing the PVE content of the base game?

If you're level 80 with a good exotic gear set, you can jump right into anything except for higher scale fractals (5 man instanced content) and raids (10 man instanced content). You will be able to do lower fractals though.

How hard is it to get geared for Heart of Thorns stuff?

You can get exotic gear pretty cheap. A handful of gold on the trading post, trade in some dungeon token currency for armors and weapons or karma. The main complication is that the best Necro/Reaper builds are condition focused, and the best condition focused gear sets, Viper and Sinister, are usually a little more difficult to obtain. People do run Berserker Necros with some success though, and it's an easier stat set to acquire.

Most builds you find online will assume you have access to the elite specialization from Heart of Thorns. This requires 250 Hero Points past level 80. Ie, you have to do 25 Hero challenges in HoT maps on a character.

Is it dumb for me to just attempt to make a legendary with the new precursor system?

You can start on a collection for a precursor at any time, yeah. Just note that if you don't have a high supply of money or materials that you'll hit a roadblock in the 2nd part of the collection. It's still expensive stuff.

Oh and can I just buy the expansion off CDkeys? It says it's both the base game and HoT. Will it just unlock HoT on my acc without issue?

CDKeys isn't listed as an official retailer of the game, but at the same time, I consider them a legitimate site and not "grey market". 99% sure you're fine. And yea, HoT will also give you the full base game without F2P limitations.
 

Mifec

Member
Here's a pretty good resource. Some people treat this site like gospel, but...it is pretty great source of builds.

I like the blood magic variant of the fractal reaper for general purpose stuff.



If you're level 80 with a good exotic gear set, you can jump right into anything except for higher scale fractals (5 man instanced content) and raids (10 man instanced content). You will be able to do lower fractals though.



You can get exotic gear pretty cheap. A handful of gold on the trading post, trade in some dungeon token currency for armors and weapons or karma. The main complication is that the best Necro/Reaper builds are condition focused, and the best condition focused gear sets, Viper and Sinister, are usually a little more difficult to obtain. People do run Berserker Necros with some success though, and it's an easier stat set to acquire.

Most builds you find online will assume you have access to the elite specialization from Heart of Thorns. This requires 250 Hero Points past level 80. Ie, you have to do 25 Hero challenges in HoT maps on a character.



You can start on a collection for a precursor at any time, yeah. Just note that if you don't have a high supply of money or materials that you'll hit a roadblock in the 2nd part of the collection. It's still expensive stuff.



CDKeys isn't listed as an official retailer of the game, but at the same time, I consider them a legitimate site and not "grey market". 99% sure you're fine. And yea, HoT will also give you the full base game without F2P limitations.

Thanks man I appreciate it.
 

HRRRRRNG. I hope it has a CM mode like Nightmare.

Nightmare was so good, really excited about this.

Agreed. The bullet hell parts of Nightmare help make it one of the coolest dungeons I've ever played. The boss fights are all great too.

The only current event I really liked was the Caladbolg stuff.

The Caladbolg stuff was excellent and proof that a the game needs a traditional questing system to better tell these kinds of stories imo. Having it being in the achievement tab is just not a great system. Like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
 
Oh and can I just buy the expansion off CDkeys? It says it's both the base game and HoT. Will it just unlock HoT on my acc without issue?

Don't do this. Anet will revoke your key. I bought the game at launch from an unofficial retailer, thankfully I never played it much back then because it was revoked two years later. Just buy it from an official source like directly or through one of their listed retailers.
 

Mifec

Member
Don't do this. Anet will revoke your key. I bought the game at launch from an unofficial retailer, thankfully I never played it much back then because it was revoked two years later. Just buy it from an official source like directly or through one of their listed retailers.

Why would they revoke a key from a retailer that sells it by buying boxed copies and selling the codes from inside the box? It's also a worldwide key.
 
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