Gearing up for GW2 - The next GW1 resurgance

[miltonite]

I will try to be on tonight. Where are you stuck?

[Teggy]

I will try to be on tonight. Where are you stuck?

Well, I still would like to get past Hell's Precipice, and after that I have screwed up Nundu Bay in Nightfall like 10 times already.

Tonight might not best - are you around tomorrow or another day this week?

[miltonite]

Tomorrow I can help after 9. I will be on Steam always and TS when I am playing any game. Feel free to shoot me a message and ask.

[Arcanis]

If I'm available I'll give a helping hand as well. Message me whenever you know you will be on and I'll try and make it.

[Teggy]

OK, thanks!

[Lockdown]

Cross posted from GT.

So I was watching one of the 6 million videos of GW2 on youtube yesterday, and someone mentioned that in the upcoming game Tera, they are going to have actual guild wars where, much like EVE, guilds can 'declare war' on other guilds, and when in the world, will be flagged automatically toward each other. That is a pretty cool concept, and something I always liked in EVE.

Do you guys have any thoughts regarding that? I mean, since you can literally switch guilds "on the fly" from what I understand in GW2 - would you guys endorse a concept like that?

[Lagom Lite]

Cross posted from GT.

So I was watching one of the 6 million videos of GW2 on youtube yesterday, and someone mentioned that in the upcoming game Tera, they are going to have actual guild wars where, much like EVE, guilds can 'declare war' on other guilds, and when in the world, will be flagged automatically toward each other. That is a pretty cool concept, and something I always liked in EVE.

Do you guys have any thoughts regarding that? I mean, since you can literally switch guilds "on the fly" from what I understand in GW2 - would you guys endorse a concept like that?

Not unless they create special PvP "shards" for guild, er, wars.

GW1 was pretty strict about separating PvE and PvP. I don't see how something like sandbox EvE could work in GW2 without changing the game drastically. I mean, GW2 is, like GW1, much about PvP but only when it's separated from PvE (world v world, guild battles, arenas)

[Arcanis]

I've been keeping up with GW2 development. They have not discussed a method of guilds actually going to war, as you describe it. They do have a 3 way world vs world that you could do so in, assuming each of the guilds is on a different server. Also you don't just switch guilds on the fly, you can be a member of multiple guilds and at login select which you represent. That representation means that that guild gains the benefits of your actions, such as any influence gains.

[Teggy]

Woot, up to 6 points I guess my underachiever goal should be to get to 9 points, so I'll at least get a kitty Need to figure out the easiest way to get there.

[Teggy]

So I opened up the area that has the challenge for getting ancient armor remnants. Are they reasonable to obtain? Worth spending some time to try and upgrade some of my hero armor?

[Lagom Lite]

So I opened up the area that has the challenge for getting ancient armor remnants. Are they reasonable to obtain? Worth spending some time to try and upgrade some of my hero armor?

Absolutely. It gives you the option to add statues to the "Fellowship" tapestry in Hall of Monuments and it's well worth it.

[Arcanis]

So I opened up the area that has the challenge for getting ancient armor remnants. Are they reasonable to obtain? Worth spending some time to try and upgrade some of my hero armor?

Not too difficult to get. Also IIRC they are put directly into your inventory so make sure you have open space or you won't get them.

[Teggy]

I am just horrible at this game - roadblocked again at Gate of Pain in Nightfall and Warband of Brothers in EotN.

[Teggy]

OK, I switched my secondary to ranger so I could pull groups a bit more carefully and that got me through Warband of Brothers. Did the jelly dungeon after that and then stopped before trying the final mission on that quest line so I have a path to follow for the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to score another tapestry tonight.

[Tareeq]

I got into the last round of beta. I thought about breaking NDA to write something about it at Popehat, but I'll just say that, even in beta format (and yes, what I played in March was a beta which needed and will get lots of improvement), this is the best leveling MMO I've ever played. Whether its endgame will rival WoW's remains to be seen, but already in beta the way to endgame is better than anything you'll see in other MMOs.

Since I didn't write about it, http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1058358-Guild-Wars-2-Mass-info-for-the-uninitiated.-READ-MEthis%20is%20the%20best%20single%20write-up%20of%20what%20the%20game%20is%20like%20that%20I've%20seen.

You can play beta (a more polished version than what I played) on the 3 day weekend beginning April 20 (or maybe 27) by pre-purchasing from Arena Net. Not pre-ordering, pre-purchasing. Pre-purchase begins April 10, i. e. Tuesday.

Best guesstimate for release date, from someone who knows better than I do, is mid-June. I look forward to seeing some of you there.

[Teggy]

OK, got my tapestry up for armor, so I'll be able to get that point when I get another 22 or so plat. The mission was surprisingly a lot easier than the couple that came before it.

Milton, I must have been concentrating on the fighting because I didn't see your chat. I thought that I needed at least one in marksman to use the bow because that's what it said on the item, I guess that's wrong. No big deal, I wasn't using any of my secondary abilities on this character.

[miltonite]

The 1 needed is to get the benefits the bow gives. On my Paragon I am secondary warrior but use a long bow to pull. Any character can use any weapon, but like I said in the chat, you just wont get any of the benefits from it. You will still be able to pull because even hitting and doing 0 damage will be enough to get the mob's attention.

[Arcanis]

Pre-Purchase is tomorrow, BTW guys. Thanks for the info Tareeq.

[Jag]

I'm still confused about the difference between pre-purchase and pre-ordering. I was under the assumption that if the final product is not released, you can't be locked into a 'pre-purchase' unless they try to claim that the beta is part of what you are paying for, which may be a first I think.

[Arcanis]

I'm still confused about the difference between pre-purchase and pre-ordering. I was under the assumption that if the final product is not released, you can't be locked into a 'pre-purchase' unless they try to claim that the beta is part of what you are paying for, which may be a first I think.

Pre-purchase guarantees you get into all the beta events until release. Pre-order doesn't. Pre-purchase also looks like it is the entire cost up front where pre-order is normally a nominal fee to hold you a copy for when they come in.

[hepcat]

I'm in for a pre-purchase. But then again, there was never any doubt that I wouldn't be.

[Vorret]

Same.
I was first in line to get in the beta and I'll be first in line to pre-purchase.

Everything I've seen and heard about this game makes me want to play it.

[hepcat]

....and prepurchase is made.

[Teggy]

After you guys logged off last night I finished up my Norn quests so I now have a fully tapestried Hall of Monuments. I need about 8 plat for my armor and then have to level my bird up another 3 or so levels, because it's looking like my stupid lioness is never going to evolve. After that I'll figure out the easiest way to a 9th point.

[Teggy]

By the way, I've been reading a bit on the wiki, and it seems they starting talking about Guild Wars 2 in 2007?! I'm amazed people have hung in so long.

[Vorret]

By the way, I've been reading a bit on the wiki, and it seems they starting talking about Guild Wars 2 in 2007?! I'm amazed people have hung in so long.

There wasn't much detail back then though.
5 years in production isn't that bad if you want to put a good product on the table.

[Tareeq]

Pre-purchased.

One thing that I was happy to see is that the game gave me the option (which I accepted) to link my Guild Wars 2 account to my old Guild Wars account, for Hall of Monuments / shiney gear purposes. It didn't ask me to log into the long-dead email address under which the first account is registered. So I've got that going for me.

Meanwhile I've begun playing again. I do believe I can shoot my HOM score from 33 to 37 with a weekend's work, and to 40 or 45 with more effort. So I've got that going for me too.

Friend me in game as: Fivefold Happiness. I've been playing for many a year and am, usually grudgingly, willing to help. On that note, I currently have 3 hero armor remnants of various sorts and a number of undedicated minipets to give away, to a good home. I can spare most of the materials for a destroyer weapon, if someone asks very nicely.

[Teggy]

Oh, mememememe for minipets! Just trying to get a few extra points as I haven't been playing long and I don't really have any way to get those. I'll gratefully take anything you are willing to spare that can help add to my hall (really, anything you mentioned right there).

The character I have been playing most is "Tahra Snowborn" if you want to friend it.

[miltonite]

Oh, mememememe for minipets! Just trying to get a few extra points as I haven't been playing long and I don't really have any way to get those. I'll gratefully take anything you are willing to spare that can help add to my hall (really, anything you mentioned right there).

The character I have been playing most is "Tahra Snowborn" if you want to friend it.

Put them on whatever character you have all of EOTN done on.

[Teggy]

Oh, mememememe for minipets! Just trying to get a few extra points as I haven't been playing long and I don't really have any way to get those. I'll gratefully take anything you are willing to spare that can help add to my hall (really, anything you mentioned right there).

The character I have been playing most is "Tahra Snowborn" if you want to friend it.

Put them on whatever character you have all of EOTN done on.

That's the one.

[Teggy]

OK, up to 8 points now. Status:

Prophecies - main quest completed
Factions - up to Tahnnakai Temple. Died a couple of times in the same place about halfway through, haven't put a lot of effort into it yet.
Nightfall - up to Gate of Pain. Died a bunch of times, can hardly get out of the starting area.
Eye of the North - up to Destruction's Depths. Only tried it once, died at the part where you protect the Norn. Annoying that you have to fight your way into Battledepths any time you want to try this.

Spent a bunch of time yesterday doing random stuff like the brawler missions and some of the Ebon Vanguard missions. I found that the advanced mission to protect the Eye of North was dropping the item for gifts of the traveler so I tried it a bunch of times. Almost beat it when I got down to the last two groups, but for whatever reason they aggro together and I couldn't seem to get rid of the prophets and priests to actually do damage and they broke me down.

Oh, I've also done Remains of Sahlahja and Shadow Nexus a few times each to try to get armor upgrades but did pretty horribly on both.

[Teggy]

It was ugly, but I got through Destruction's Depths. I actually did quite well until I had the big disc guy down to 25% and some adds suddenly popped out and then everything went to hell. In the end I was at 60% death penalty and didn't even have enough total energy to revive one of the golems But after clearing out everything but the disc, my healers were able to keep up the melee attackers enough that the ranged attackers could whittle it down.

Thank goodness for respawn in dungeons or EotN would be a much different story...

Now, what's the trick to the Great Destroyer? I've read some of the hints on the wiki, but they're more complicated then I'm going to understand at this point. I tried one thing that had you kill a few of the nearby mobs from shore, but then their platforms turned permanent lava so I really couldn't do much at that point.

EDIT: spent a little plat and I can haz cat.

[Tareeq]

The best way to kill the Great Destroyer is to bring two of the new racial skills introduced in Eye of the North: Pain Inverter (an Asura skill) and Breath of the Great Dwarf (duh).

The Great Destroyer has attacks that do heavy party-wide damage. Pain Inverter, while active, reflects all of that damage back to him. If your Asura title track is high enough Pain Inverter will really bite.

Breath of the Great Dwarf is an area-wide heal, which counteracts the Destroyer's partywide damage. More importantly, it automatically removes the burning condition, which the Destroyer applies liberally, from anyone in the area.

Bring these two skills and you should be able to beat him.

[Arcanis]

IIRC when I beat the great destroyer we went in with a minion master fully loaded and a rt with spirits (could have been a second MM or just extra summons). We basically had so many people there that the first AoE that went off with Pain Inverter killed it out right.

I also watched a guy with just a hero do it as well. I think he used a bond and something like a 55 monk. The hero only precast a few spells then stayed out of the chamber to maintain them.

[Teggy]

Do you just run right at him? The first problem seems to be getting close enough before you are burned up by lava. I'll have to check on what's required to get those skills.

I was watching a video last night that showed how to beat Glint's challenge while AFK. Pretty amazing. However, I had like 20% of the skills needed .

[Tareeq]

You don't run right at him. He's surrounded by concentric rings of lesser destroyers, and you can't run through them. Kill a destroyer, your platform turns to lava. Jump to the next platform, kill the next destroyer, getting closer with each step.

Getting to him is like peeling layers from an onion.

[Teggy]

OK, I got the abilities, but I'm obviously still doing something wrong. I started by killing the 2 destroyers between me and the boss, got pain inverter up and took him down to 50%, but there was nowhere to stand, so I got rolled. Other times I tried this I never got close because there wasn't anywhere to stand. I must have just gotten the heals down perfectly the first time.

Then I tried working around on the platforms that were solid, but then eventually still had nowhere to stand. I'd also flag heroes to stand on a platform and they'd stand in lava which didn't help any.

EDIT: WOOT got it done. I tried the initial plan again, heading in a straight line towards the boss. This time his helpers all came right at me, which helped a lot, because I was able to kill all of them together and concentrate on healing. After that, I headed for him and got pain inverter up. He killed me a couple of times, but my heroes got me back up so I was able to heal/get pain inverter up enough times. He went invulnerable a couple of times but came back up fairly shortly - don't know if that was bug or that's just the way it works. I certainly didn't target his minions.

[skystride]

I started playing after a long hiatus and I'm a bit lost. I'm trying to finish the EOTN campaign (which should get me some hall of monuments points I think). Is there a good guide on party setup or does someone here have any tips? Looks like you can now have all heroes in your party. Is it better to do that rather than take henchmen? I tried looking at recommended templates. I have all the skills for Obsidian Flesh farmer. Is this a good one to use for the campaign? How should I setup the rest of my party?

[Lagom Lite]

I started playing after a long hiatus and I'm a bit lost. I'm trying to finish the EOTN campaign (which should get me some hall of monuments points I think). Is there a good guide on party setup or does someone here have any tips? Looks like you can now have all heroes in your party. Is it better to do that rather than take henchmen? I tried looking at recommended templates. I have all the skills for Obsidian Flesh farmer. Is this a good one to use for the campaign? How should I setup the rest of my party?

I don't know about Obsidian Flesh Farmer, it seems more like a solo item/xp farming build than a campaign/hero build.

There's a few 7 Hero builds here, you could look at those. I recommend finding a build you yourself enjoy though, and try to come up with synergies - I use a build myself that relies on lots of small sources of physical damage (a Minion Master and everyone has a Ranger pet) + the necro skill Mark of Pain and Barbs, and a couple of ritualists for healing all allies rather than single targets. And Barrage Rangers for physical AoE and interrupts. And a Paragon for ally-wide shouts. The build doesn't work in every part of the game (it falls short of the Master quests in Gate of Torment) but I've enjoyed it and it's taken me competently through every campaign, including EotN Hard Mode.

[skystride]

I finished one mission and now I'm stuck. Not sure if it's possible to do Heart of the Shiverpeaks solo. My party doesn't have the burst to take the wurm down while I'm dropping those barrels on it.

I took a look at some of those team build guides but it's hard to find one where I have all the skills.