Danikat.8537

When you get down to things like that it's also very subjective. I've been collecting mini pets since GW1 (there's 22 I still haven't got in that game) but I don't think of it as a content type and wouldn't have thought to include it in a poll like this. Minis are a type of reward I like and which motivates me to do different things, but what you have to do is too varied to group it all together. It ranges from completing hearts, fishing and doing simple collections to reward tracks, clearing raids, placing in PvP tournaments and often to spending gold and real money. But other mini collectors might disagree, and I'm not going to tell them they're wrong, it's just a different way of thinking about it.

FYI it's impossible for anyone who has already voted to edit their vote, so the poll will show inaccurately low numbers for PvP and WvW. (This is not directed at the OP, but at anyone who uses this poll to interpret the popularity of different areas of the game.)

If you really don't want to do it you can use an Extra-Pungent Skyscale Treat to skip it. You were given one when you started the Skyscale Lost collection and can buy or craft more. As for why you need to do group events for personal rewards: it's a multiplayer game. It is possible to do a lot of things solo but the overall intention is that most of the time you'll be playing with other people. You can use the LFG tool to ask people to help you, or ask your guild/s directly. If you can tell us which region you're in (NA or EU) some people from this forum could come and help you.

It might be a good idea to edit the title to say it's only about PvE. (I think it's too late to edit the poll to include PvP and WvW because a lot of people have already voted and even if a poll is changed you can't change your vote.) I like story and exploration, including meta-events, so my favourite parts of the game are any which add areas to explore and build on the story. If I had to choose 1 thing though I'd say meta event maps, it doesn't really matter what the event is. That's pretty much what I imagined MMOs to be when I first heard about them back in the 90's - an RPG where you can be doing your own thing, and if anyone else is around doing the same things you can do it together and as things progress it scales up to everyone on the map working together to take down a huge threat. I think that, and the casual-friendly cooperative design are what GW2 offers that I haven't found elsewhere.

Build guides recommend ascended because it's the top tier and it would be weird to recommend less. They don't show legendaries because the stats are identical to ascended and it might mislead inexperienced players into thinking they have to get legendaries to use the build. In reality you don't even need ascended, you could make exactly the same build using exotics and it would function the same, the only difference would be slightly smaller numbers. Although viper's is an expansion stat combination (added with Heart of Thorns) which means it's actually likely to be easier/cheaper to get ascended trinkets than exotic ones.

I think it was in the Manifesto from the early days of the game's development. I'll have to look it up when I have time but as I remember it this was about using dynamic events instead of traditional quests - they didn't like it when someone tells you to kill 10 grawl, so you go to an area where there's 15-20 grawl just standing around, kill 10 of them and then you're done even though there's still a bunch of grawl doing the same nothing they were before. Or when you're told somewhere needs defending and yes it's full of monsters but again they're just kind of wandering around the town, not actually destroying anything and you can't clear them all out because someone else might be coming along who also needs to save the town. So they designed events that not only start and proceed regardless of players participation but scale up or down to the number of players present - everyone will (ideally) get a chance to kill something but it can end when all the enemies are dead rather than your bit ending when you've ticked off your arbitrary participation, and often that leads into another quest.

PCs are difficult. I once got a noticable FPS boost by cleaning dust out the case. (I clean the intake filters regularly, but this time I opened it up and cleaned the inside too.) Apparently the computer was reducing my FPS to keep the components cool, even though they weren't getting that hot.

Agreed. I have 2 characters in full ascended (some crafted, mostly stuff I acquired from various places over the years) and several other level 80 characters in either a mix of ascended and exotic or full exotic and I don't notice a difference when I switch between them. There's other differences of course which mean it's not a 1:1 comparison, they're all different professions and some are more damage focused than others etc. but the only time I worry about making sure I'm on one of those characters is when I'm doing Fractals, because they're the only ones with agony resistance.

I don't mind them being repeatable if I can buy from the vendor without having to complete the heart each time, but I can't remember many times when I actually wanted to complete a heart again. There's a lot I don't mind doing and some I like, but I can't remember making an effort to repeat one on a character who had already done it without an additional incentive like wanting to access the vendor or for the Wizard's Vault daily.

Do you have Geforce Experience? It's got an option to optimise game settings for your computer, which might help. I don't use it for every game, and sometimes I use it and then manually change some settings afterwards (it tends to turn on things like anti-aliasing and motion blur which I don't like), but it can be helpful as a starting point. I've had a few games which seemed to be freezing or getting unpredictable FPS and my graphics card was heating up rapidly running them and that stopped the problem immediately, much easier than me playing around with different settings to work it out. Afterwards I'd change anything I didn't like one at a time and see if the problems came back, but they usually didn't.

Exactly that. The process for making legendary weapons was originally secret - all the parts were in the game and Anet had told us legendaries existed, but there was nothing to tell players what they needed to make each one. In the first few months of the game's life there was a big cooperative 'scavenger hunt' as players tried to figure it out. Then for years the process was well known but instructions were only available outside the game. A while ago they added these collections to show players what they need to get within the game. (It also means new players are notified when they get something used for a legendary, so they know it might be worth keeping.) There's no new rewards for doing the collection, but if you complete one you'll have the 4 items you need to put into the Mystic Forge to make the legendary.

I disagree that there's more gen 3 legendaries around, I think that's a case of confirmation bias where because you think they look more interesting you notice them more. If anything I think I see the gen 1 and 2 ones more often, but it might just be that I'm not familiar with all the variants and haven't noticed them when they are around. I like that there's a mix of legendaries with a lot of flashy effects and more understated ones, I think it makes it more likely everyone can find ones that work for them. I assumed my charr thief would never get a legendary weapon until the Claw of the Khan-Ur came along and I think adding anything to it would make it disappointing. (If anything I'd like to make the aura a bit darker.) Likewise I like that there's a mix of silly ones and more serious ones, even if it makes one or the other less popular. I think gen 3 has largely fixed the problem of weapon types without all the options - for example if someone wanted a legendary rifle they had to choose between The Predator which looks great but is relatively understated or HMS Divinity which is very silly. Now they have the dragon ones as well which definitely covers the 'very big and flashy' category. (BTW I am planning to make HMS Divinity at some point, for my pirate norn.) (I was going to say I definitely wouldn't want any of my legendaries to have more or bigger effects because that would be excessive, but I assume Exordium, The Bifrost and The Dreamer are not among the ones the OP thinks aren't flashy enough.)

I'd like that, or an option to move them somewhere else. I never pay attention to the numbers, unless it's consistently 0, which tells me I'm doing something wrong. In my other MMO I have it set to tell me only if my attacks aren't working, and the text appears above the chat box rather than in the middle of the screen so it doesn't block my view of other things. Although that's a mix of in-game settings and a mod.

Getting a full set of ascended equipment is intended to be a medium/long term goal. Originally exotic was the top tier, but Anet found that some players got a full set much quicker than they'd expected (and they expected it to be quick), so they added ascended for people who wanted something to aim for after getting to level 80, and started adding optional harder areas of the game like Fractals, to encourage using it. But for most players, especially if you're focusing on the story and map completion, ascended is an optional extra. It's a good idea to have it in mind as something to aim for, but you don't need to stop what you're interested in doing or go out of your way to make time to grind it ASAP if you don't want to.

That's what random means - it will take different people different numbers of attempts to get the same result. We know Black Lion Chests don't have any mechanism to make desirable items more likely if you use more keys, the drop rates are the same each time. There's never been any evidence (in spite of plenty of speculation) that certain accounts are luckier than others. Someone might get lucky once but another time they won't. Or their criteria for 'lucky' will be different, maybe if they get it within 60 keys they think they got lucky, whereas someone else will be wondering what's wrong that they didn't get it using 5. I used to know someone who claimed to have a lucky account that got loads of precursors (back when they were extremely valuable) and speculated it might be tied to the fact that they bought gems regularly. It turned out they were sort of right - they'd just neglected to mention that they converted all those gems to gold, used them to buy exotic weapons and threw them in the Mystic Forge, meaning they got many more chances at a precursor and once you factored that in their drop rate was actually about average.

I don't think Anet would do that though, because part of the design of GW2 is that you don't lose anything by taking breaks, even for years. If your guild could be deleted because you didn't log in often enough that could mess things up for a lot of people (especially since guilds can be a major investment for players). I suppose it would be slightly lower risk because all the players in the guild would have to be inactive, but it could still happen especially with family guilds and other small ones where everyone is likely to take breaks at the same time. That's another possibility. Mine is named after a band. It's not a well known band, or one I think anyone else is ever likely to want as a guild name, but it's still a name that's taken by a guild which isn't recruiting.

That depends on what you're doing in the game: for Fractals ascended is required above tier 1 (because you need agony resistance and can only put it in ascended items), for raids, strikes and WvW it's recommended, for other areas of PvE it's optional and you can't use it at all in PvP. Crafting it is the simplest and most reliable way to get it, but that's balanced out by being expensive and time consuming. There are alternatives. The simplest is probably to buy it from the Wizard's Vault, but that's limited to 2 armour pieces and 1 weapon each season. Playing Fractals, strikes, raids and WvW will give you a chance to get ascended items as drops, and will get you currencies you can use to buy it. It can also come from various achievements (only once per achievement though). Oh and you can get trinkets from laurel vendors or from Living World Season 3 map vendors. It might seem contradictory that the best places to get ascended equipment are also the ones where it's required or recommended, but you can start doing all those things (especially Fractals and WvW) without ascended equipment and use the drops and currencies to upgrade gradually as you progress through it. Raids and strikes are more variable - it depends on the group, but if you ask your guild they can probably help you.

I was going to ask about the name as well. There's at least 5 or 6 guilds on EU with the tag [Dark] and a few of them have very similar names, as far as I know (having been a member of 2 at different times) it's purely a coincidence - different people thinking along different lines. Likewise I've been a member of 2 tea themed guilds and 2 with cookies in the name and each time they were unrelated. Although I got into the second tea themed guild via a recommendation from someone in one of the cookie guilds which was being shut down, so I think they also attract a lot of the same people, likely because the silly names appealed to a similar sense of humour. If they're actually impersonating your that would be a problem. But that needs to go beyond a similar name, for example claiming credit for things your guild is known for when advertising theirs, or at least not correcting people who mix them up. Say for example your guild is very active in WvW and they let people believe by joining them they'll be in the same guild as your commanders and end up grouped with them during the restructuring beta (and when it becomes permanent), or saying they organise events that are actually run by your guild. Even then I'm not sure it's strictly against the rules, but it would be worth reporting them to see what Anet think of the situation and what they can do (it is possible for them to change a guilds name). It would be best to use the support link at the top of the page so you can explain the situation and why it's a problem rather than using the automated system in-game. Anet might tell you it's allowed and they won't do anything, but at least then you'll know.

I know the OP has got the achievement now but I'm just adding something I've discovered a few people don't know: you don't need to go through the middle of the arches in a race, as long as your character touches the blue arch it counts, so you can focus on taking the shortest path between them rather than going out of your way to hit each one dead on. Also if you're using teleport skills make sure to use them between arches, if you teleport 'through' one it may not count.

I was thinking about this yesterday because I switched between a character using Claw of the Khan-Ur and one using Exordium. The Exordium footsteps do fade more quickly, but I think that's balanced out by the fact that they're taller and much, much brighter. They're like a little crystal swirl around each foot and if they stuck around longer I think it would be excessive. Whereas Claw of the Khan-Ur puts a flat, brown footprint on the ground, if they didn't stay for a few seconds you wouldn't see them at all. But that fits each legendary, the Claw is very understated for a legendary, while Exordium is anything but. I suspect legendaries are not intended to all be exactly equal, which is good because it gives the artists more freedom to tailor each one to it's theme and players more chance of finding ones they like which fit their characters. (I barely notice the footsteps on the Bifrost, but that's partially because even when it's stowed the aura and the trail are so bright, I think it's a reasonable trade-off to have less noticeable footsteps and a brighter trail.)

That's why I didn't buy it. I'd definitely want to use the backpack and the glider together and while I know I could just not dye the glider that seems disappointing. (Especially because I'd previewed the glider first and was already thinking about how I'd dye it when I realised the backpack isn't dyable.) I understand why they didn't go back and make all the older backpacks dyable, but now it's possible for some of them it seems a shame that we still get new ones which can't be dyed.

I'm using mainhand dagger on my untamed ranger. I was unsure about doing that, but then they changed the ranger's sword skills and I don't like the new version, so it's nice to have an alternative. Most of my characters were already using core weapons, so it's not been a big change. Oh, I'm also thinking about making a daredevil thief using a rifle, but purely for thematic purposes, not because I think it will be a good build.

I really like the helmet, for some reason I even like that it's animated as if it's your character's actual face, when the cat ears on the outfit creeped me out by moving. I doubt I'll ever use it except on a tempoary novelty character, but I like how it looks. Although I've got this story-adjacent head cannon where ever since my main character made herself a 'Champion of Aurene' outfit she's had to periodically remind/reassure people that it's just clothes and Aurene has not branded her or taken over her mind. I could absolutely imagine her using this combined with a few other bits to freak out the rest of Dragon's Watch. Let them think things have gone a bit nuts since they stopped keeping in touch. 😄 You don't need to do the firecracker lighting. I got it by doing Celestial Challenger, Light up the Sky, Celestial Racer, New Year's Resolution (foot race) and Firecracker Finder (getting the 10 around the Crown Pavillion with no time limit). I did the firecracker adventure once for the permanent achievement, but I don't like it at all so I've skipped it every year since.

Any skill customisation would have to be fairly restrictive to avoid exactly the problem illustrated in this thread - players will find and use the most over-powered options they can get (even if it's not as fun) and that not only leads to power creep but can prevent other builds being used. That doesn't mean it can't be done (we've already got a lot of customisation options in the game in the form of choosing professions, skills, traits, weapons etc.) but it would probably need to be very limited, especially if the plan is to add negative effects to balance OP ones, because as people have already pointed out all you need then is another skill or another person who can counter the negative effects. I would like to be able to dye skill effects though. I know it could be a problem in PvP and WvW and sometimes in PvE because the colours can tell you what profession used the skill, but they could add an option to disable it on your end if you want to, like they have with unique item sounds, or add something like the team colours and standard model settings. It seems unlikely. The new system will be in the next expansion so it's not even on the PTS yet but based on the announcement it sounds like a more extensive version of the skill morphing system - you can mix and match primary, secondary and tertiary effects for a skill, but only from a pre-determined selection. They've also said there will be colour variations for existing skills, but no options to change their effects.

I just did the race on my core account, it was very close, but then I did hit a few lamp posts along the way. Here's a few things I think might help, although you might be doing all this anyway: 1) Rent the raptor before starting the race. It lasts for an hour and if you dismount you get a skill to get back on. 2) Don't (always) jump as soon as the bar has refilled, save it for flat ground with enough space for the full jump - if you jump when you're going down a slope you'll end up going straight then dropping down which is a longer path, if you jump going up a slope you'll hit it and won't go as far forward, and if you jump going into a corner you'll probably hit the wall. 3) It does help to jump across the bridges going up Dwayna Highroad though, because it's much quicker than trying to go around all the corners. 4) You probably already know this but you don't need to go through the middle of the arches, as long as you touch it you get credit for the checkpoint, so you can aim for the straightest path. 5) I find action camera really helps, the camera moves with the character so it's 1 less button to hold down and 1 less thing to think about. The one that got me stuck was the firecracker lighting, I couldn't work out how to get down to the one in the arena (under the eagles head) without a glider or flying mount. I know there used to be a portal to it but I couldn't find it, I just kept going to the lower levels and back up. In the end I jumped down and died and someone revived me.