Harfang.1507

I noted that as soon as the festival started, prices of some commodities shot straight up, probably because of the LC's Traders who exchange them for Zephyrite Supply Boxes. For example, I used to sell copper ore at 50c, now it shot to 70c.

I can rarely do strikes, fractals or other instanced group content, so I have to fall back on open world. I can't say I am rich, but it is a decent enough cash flow for my needs. Dailies (0-2 WvW + rest in PvE) Harvesting a lot of the resource nodes I pass by with my Infinite Volatile Magic gathering tools. Using the volatile magic to buy Trophy Shipments. Selling material storage overflow. Very rarely crafting and selling Jewelled Damask Patch, Jeweled Deldrimor Steel Plated Dowel or most profitable restored boreal weapon when I am really flush in materials. As to how I get large amounts of materials, I prefer to do open world metas. I especially like Octovine, Palawadan, Dragonfall and Drizzlewood Coast.

I got this watching a video from Fast Farming Community about the Dragonfall map: not only does karmic retribution give you karma, it also gives you volatile magic, arguably one of the easiest curriencies to convert to gold. Answer: level 1 is priceless on S4 maps you farm regularly.

Pros: good lore, many Central Tyria AP's, ascended backpack, bloodstone dust gobbler, one BL chest key. Con: too long, main draw would be the maps, but these are already accessible anyway. Also extremely frustrating: you must play through an episode twice with the same character to get that episodes achievements. Both pro and con: one SW POI locked behind completing a story step, i.e., it is unaccessible from open world.

I did the story mission on a third character tonight. Still no credit despite being within the time limit. I just watched three YouTube videos (TiffyMissWiffy, GuildJen and Senieth) and there was nothing special. I did essentially the same as them. Edit: I did it on a fourth character tonight (~two days after this original post). This time I finally got credit. I still do not know what made the difference.

There is no single right or wrong answser to what you ask. I would lean toward PoF first for story continuity and mounts. I would even go as far as pushing for LW Season 4 (six episodes, 1200 gems in total) before EoD because it is a better story, very profitable, and offers access to the best mount in game. What would EoD offer in terms of gameplay that PoF won't? Hmm. Jade Bots. Siege Turtle. Its own set of nine elite specs. An easy precursor for a legendary weapon.

I just did the instance on my ranger. I failed because at some point I got spotted, but I still found a trick that might prove useful to others: most of the ground area movement can be avoided by hugging ledges on the perimetrer, a bit like we sometimes do in JPs.

My favourite metas before EoD were Octovine, Palawadan, Dragon Fall and Drizzlewood Coast. My favourite metas after EoD are still Octovine, Palawadan, Dragon Fall and Drizzlewood Coast. Add a sizable Research Notes reward to EoD ones and I may be willing to revise that list. Nevertheless, unless they make major changes to the Dragon's End meta, I will not return there, no matter how many Research Notes you offer me. No meta has ever left such a bitter tase in my mouth.

WoW transfuge from a loooong time ago. I played Vanilla & TBC when it was new and cool. It is a game I loved, maybe too much, and like you, I am disappointed at what Blizzard has become. GW2 is an MMO that dared not be a WoW clone, despite many similarities. They are both high fantasy games with ridiculously epic plots, though GW2's is much tighter in focus. I find both games to have similar paces, different from ARPGs like Diablo or PoE. It does not have open world PvP per se, but it has a game mode, World vs. World (WvW), entirely dedicated to large scale PvP. It also has a structured PvP (sPvP) mode, of which I am not qualified to talk about. Gear progression, economy and crafting are radically different from WoW. In WoW, you grind your fancy epic gear in raids (or at least used to when I was a player). It was a treadmill. In GW2, a fresh max-level character can be equipped with exotics (nearly Best-in-Slot gear) in a matter of minutes without resorting to your credit card. What end-game content gives you is currencies and materials for convenience and cosmetic purpose, essentially. Ascended and legendary gear is just 5% better than exotics. Raids can give you cosmetics, but a lot of cosmetic upgrades are locked behind the Black Lion Company's paywall. That paywall can nevertheless be bypassed by RL money or gold garnered in game.

Another thought: ask a friend who is either at that step or has completed that chapter. Have them start the instance. Yes, you need to redo the instance, but not the whole chapter. I also believe that story instances do not scale with the number of players--I could be wrong there--making things that much faster and easier. EU or NA?

The new buff is so inconsequential, I would argue that not only should canisters be taken off, the very buff itself should be discontinued. Yet another useless icon cluttering our buff bar. And allow us to vendor the canisters.

I have done it. In itself, for my loner play style, the ability to make ascended food was not worth it. It was a time and resource sink and making the food now has so many steps I normally do not bother. Recently I came back to it and to make my life easier, I just have gw2efficiency tell me what to craft. This being said, I think there were a bunch of achievement points involved. You can put a big check mark "Done that". Having the garden plot in your home instance may be a way of quickly getting daily achievements like "Krytan Harvester" a breeze. In short: a low reward:effort ratio.

I do keep one character slot open for a weekly key farmer, if that is something you would consider. I rue the day where I mass converted my Tomes of Knowledge into Spirit Shards I already had too many of.

One additional thought. You really want to know how you compare to the rest of the crowd in terms of dps? Install ARCdps and join a commander's bounty train in PoF or S4 maps. There doubtless will be some on those nights where it is a daily. ARCdps will show you where your stand in the relation to the squad. P. S.: Quand on se regarde, on se désole; quand on se compare, on se console.

@Khisanth.2948 may have nailed part of your problem. Last Tuesday's patch axed a lot of what your videos may be relying on as baseline buffs, like banners and spirits. Your Vindicator build is one I can comment on. Specifically, Assassin's Presence has been reworked. It used to be a 150-Ferocity buff to your party. Now it is a 3-s Fury pulse to your party every 10 s. On a golem, it amounts to losing 150 Ferocity. I'll be damned if it accounts for a 20 kdps difference though. This being said, there are three things I want to point out. First, it's a game. Unless you are going straight to raids and high-level fractals, one does not need that 20k+ dps to enjoy the game and pull their weight. (I cannot comment on sPvP or WvW.) Second, cut yourself some slack as a new player. These guys pumping out YouTube videos are pros with countless hours of practice at this game. Do you expect yourself to be even close to that good right off the starting block? Third, if dps is so frustrating, have you considered support roles you would enjoy? If you can learn a quickness or alacrity role reasonably well, you'll be soooo popular!

I returned to the game four years ago and I still have not run out of things to do. @Danikat.8537 covers it very well. What do you enjoy doing? Is your return something that is likely to last weeks, months or years? Legendaries are somewhat overated. Convenient, but pricey status symbols. If you do the Return to achievements, you'll be indirectly progressing for legendary accessories Aurora and Vision. With that many alts, they might prove more useful than a legendary weapon. As for legendary armor, that would require raiding, something I do not feel qualified to advise you on. Masteries are more of a long-term project. I would definitely max out the mounts and the HoT ones (the non-raiding ones at least). The Mastery Point grind varies from almost trivial in EoD to painfully long and protracted in IBS. Given what you are discussing, a good source of income is called for. I would recommend setting yourself some mid- or even long-term objectives, researching what mats you will need, and figure out how to get a decent cash flow without gimping your progress in the aforementioned objectives. Good luck and welcome back.

Really?!? I will certainly try that next time. If it proves to be true, many thanks to you.

I don't know, but of the two pictures left, the first one reminds me of the last area you explore in SW during the S2 finale. As for the second one, it vaguely reminds me of Arborstone. Wild guesses, really.

Actually, it's surprisingly easy. Pick a charzooka off the ground in the Cold War strike mission and try to aim at the choppers in the snowy sky. Most of the time I just cannot see it. It might be a display issue on my side, but that action camera dot is the single hardest thing to find even if we all know where it supposedly is.

Season 4, hands down. Half of it was the fact that I had essentially dropped out of GW2 from sometimes during Season 1 until A Bug in the System (S4 E2) was released. Now I suddenly had two expansions and two LW seasons of stuff to catch up to. I had done most of the basic storyline catchup by the time War Eternal (S4 E6) came out. Even without all that catching up, Season 4 presented the best collection of maps and open world experience for my enjoyment.

I mostly agree with @Hannelore.8153 except for that part about 30 g/hr. An experienced elite player, sure. A newbie? Unless they are very gifted, that's unrealistic, by an order of magnitude. Lore: chronological order Rewards: arguably S4 > S3 ≈ IBS (aka S5) > S2 Cost: LW episodes will sometimes be made free for a short while, but it is true that it is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Yes, the August sale is probably your best bet for cost saving, though last year's August sale was a wash.

It is still dropping. I had maybe three BL chest keys drop through map completion in the last three days, completing maybe six maps. Given the small sample size we are all working with here, I say what you observed is perfectly in line with what could happen randomly. Frustrating, but not out of line. GL.

First time I chime in on yet another one of these threads. "It's ridiculously hard to complete" vs. "It's not broken, don't fix it." I look at Cyninja.2954's reply. It is quite helpful and to the point for those of us who want to get the thing done and over with. Ultimately, the complaints we hear are less about how to get it done and more about a disconnect between what us casual and semi-casual players have come to expect and enjoy of an Open World metas and what is asked of us in this keystone one. I enjoy Open World metas because they are fun and rewarding and they fit in my unpredictable/irregular gaming schedule. In that regard, Dragon's End meta does not fit well in my schedule; it is just too long and inconveniently-schedule. If I do not raid, it is exactly for that reason. Add the fact that the success rate for casuals is doubtless much lower than 60% and it sums up for many of us as "why bother?" + epic-level frustration. I have seen the ArenaNet blog post about why they made it so challenging. I can see the logic. Unfortunately, once more, they did not play to their strength, nor their (wider) audience.

I quit sometimes during Season 1. I came back four years ago. I still have not exhausted all I could and would want to do, and that is just PvE. I could say a lot more, but the others already covered it. One thing I want to emphasize is: how important is story continuity to you? My Story --> Season 1 (free, work in progress) --> Season 2 --> HoT (free with PoF) --> Season 3 --> PoF --> Season 4 --> Season 5 (aka IBS) --> EoD The jump from My Story (the one that came with the base game) and HoT (the first expansion) can be quite jarring both from narrative and gameplay difficulty perspectives. Season 1 is being 'remasterd' to make it available once more, but will probably not be complete for several more months. Season 2 is behind a modest paywall (1,600 gems, or US$20). The HoT expansion is massively harder than anything that preceded (or followed) it, especially if you do not break story continuity to dip into PoF for at least raptor mount. Despite that, HoT remains popular content; it has aged well.

Core: All the things wish I knew the first time around. Season 1: Did I miss something? Yes, I did. Season 2: Shiny crystals! And too much Silverwastes. HoT: Glad I did not experience it at release. It aged well. Season 3: I #&*% as a warrior. The pain, the agony! PoF: GW1 nostalgia. Mounts: best features in game. Season 4: Best time of my GW2 life. Skyscale. IBS: The acronym says it all. EoD: Most frustrating meta ever one MUST go through. Jade bots. Endless Research Notes Grind(TM).