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[Mr_Antimatter]

Well, got my four of the five mounts now, making progress on the fifth. Each seems to have it's own allure and usefulness so far.

I do kind of miss zone meta in the new maps, hopefully they give us some worthwhile events in LWS4.

 

[Stuart444]

I had a longer post on this but it ended up sounding too ramble-y. But I'm wondering if the lack of reasons to revisit the PoF maps is going to be a weakness in the long run. I really like these zones and have done some cool events in them and have taken a lot of screenshots, but for instance I don't know if I'll ever want to do the Serpents Ire meta again for 2 blues a green and a small handful of elegy marks.

I don't want the maps to be on a timer or play exactly like HoT, but I'm just wondering where these maps and events will be in 3 months let alone a year+ from now.

Well 2 things:

1. Maybe they will up the rewards at some point (just a thought) for stuff to incentivise people to go back to the maps and

2. Even ignoring World Bosses, the original maps usually have people in them, I think PoF will be fine. Thankfully most events seem to be non-group events (same with HPs) so it's more like the original maps than HoT maps. There will always be people in the maps I'm sure basically.

We'll see but I think it's a bit premature to worry too much personally.

 

[Nemesis121]

I had a longer post on this but it ended up sounding too ramble-y. But I'm wondering if the lack of reasons to revisit the PoF maps is going to be a weakness in the long run. I really like these zones and have done some cool events in them and have taken a lot of screenshots, but for instance I don't know if I'll ever want to do the Serpents Ire meta again for 2 blues a green and a small handful of elegy marks.

I don't want the maps to be on a timer or play exactly like HoT, but I'm just wondering where these maps and events will be in 3 months let alone a year+ from now.

Over 2 years of map meta conditioning, it's going to be a hard adjustment, i also feel like there's no reason to go into these maps, I got all mounts mastered, 100% the 5 maps, and last night i had no idea what to do, i am not a AP(achievements) hunter, so i was bored last night, less 2 weeks after release...

 

[Massicot]

I don't want to sound like I'm whining for rewards (even if that's what it essentially boils down to), but I think even a tiny tweak like a Daily choice chest for extra Contracts/Elegy (like HoT) or a set of Dailies for each map (like LS3) could go a long way. Yes, it's about the rewards, but it's also just a nice way to know that people will always be around to kill the Justicar or Draconis wyverns, etc. I did run around doing some events yesterday for some Trade Contracts but ended up having to do two group events on my own because the natural draw is to do bounty trains and not events.

 

[mikeGFG]

Across my 25-ish hours of PoF, I only found one group for bounties.

I don't know if the maps are too big or if the interest in a new GW2 xpac is not there, but doing the events and metas has been a mostly solitary endeavor.

 

[Freeman76]

Across my 25-ish hours of PoF, I only found one group for bounties.

I don't know if the maps are too big or if the interest in a new GW2 xpac is not there, but doing the events and metas has been a mostly solitary endeavor.

I cant work it out either. I think this is the best GW2 has been but for some reason whenever I log in I dunno what to do.

 

[SourBear]

Across my 25-ish hours of PoF, I only found one group for bounties.

I don't know if the maps are too big or if the interest in a new GW2 xpac is not there, but doing the events and metas has been a mostly solitary endeavor.

Really? I come across them all the time.

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

I've noticed a lot of GAF guild still away, I suppose a lot of folks are too busy with destiny 2 to come back just yet.

May see a spike during the holiday events or something though.

My focus, personally, is getting my griffin, then fully unlocking the elite skills on all my characters. Tempted to try for a elite class weapon, but it's not a huge priority.

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

Just tried Scourge in PvP. Holy shit. It's just like "What if I just press buttons and everyone dies and I do 50% of my team's total damage."

 

[Ashodin]

I have limited time right now to play because I'm over here trying to earn that green, but when I do play I feel like I always have a choice on what to do in the desert maps, as opposed to "GET IN LOSER WE'RE GOING TO TARKIR"

 

[Auraela]

would be great if for halloween they make the chests in desert u keys for drop trick or treat bags or something

 

[Jira]

Over half of GAF has logged in for the expansion.

There's a couple issues that are compounded here. First, the maps are gigantic with a lot going on in them. Second, the map pop caps are lower than other maps so in conjunction with the first issue, you have less people over more land mass. Third, things like bounties don't really reward you as well as they should. I can get more contracts killing a pack of mobs in 10-15 sec than I get for completing a bounty. They're going to need to tweak the rewards for sure. People do bounties, but they all go to one map typically to get into a zerg. Much like HoT, you have specific instances doing specific stuff. Some do bounties, some do [REDACTED] related stuff, some people are just exploring completely unrelated to events, some are doing story stuff. The fact is there are less people allowed into these maps that are flat out gigantic in terms of overall playable space and you don't really get that collective feeling of players that HoT had outside of bounties.

 

[Nemesis121]

This has to be the buggiest game i have played, even the bug reporting system crashed, and caused my PC act all weird..

 

[Bionic]

Hiya, I'd love to join the GAF guild if there's room. I'm Sophism.1347, thanks!

 

[mordecaii83]

I'm wanting to get back into GW2, but I haven't played since before HoT and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should be doing... I'm being told about mastery's being a thing, but I think I have to do some quest first... And there are hero points now (I guess renamed skill points?) and I need to get some to get the new elite specs, but I'm not really sure how to earn them other than the old skill point spots on the maps.

Any good resources for an oldie like me who's completely out of the loop on current GW2?

 

[Boss Doggie]

Looks like I'll only get the Ember Bay, Draconis Mons, and Bitterfrost Frontier scrolls.

 

[Fishious]

I'm wanting to get back into GW2, but I haven't played since before HoT and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should be doing... I'm being told about mastery's being a thing, but I think I have to do some quest first... And there are hero points now (I guess renamed skill points?) and I need to get some to get the new elite specs, but I'm not really sure how to earn them other than the old skill point spots on the maps.

Any good resources for an oldie like me who's completely out of the loop on current GW2?

For HoT masteries I think you need to do the first 2 story instances for HoT. For PoF masteries, I think it's also the second story instance in PoF. HoT masteries include things like gliding, bounce mushrooms, and some other stuff that's mainly useful in the HoT expansion areas and Season 3 maps. Gliding is by far the most useful and can be used everywhere. When playing a level 80 character XP you earn will go towards the mastery. Once the XP bar is full, spend a mastery point to learn it. PoF masteries unlock different mounts which can be used pretty much anywhere.

Mastery points are earned from achievements, doing story, and channeled at certain points on the map. They come in 3 colors based on where you found them: Central Tyria-Red, Maguuma Jungle-Green, and Elona-Purple. You can only use a mastery point on that respective region's masteries. So if you want gliding do stuff in the jungle. If you want mounts, do stuff in Elona. Masteries are also account wide so you can work on them between several characters with no progress lost and once unlocked they're available for all your characters at any level.

Hero points are in fact renamed skill points. The new HoT and PoF zones have hero point challenges that are worth 10 instead of 1. HoT hero challenges tend to be harder and may require a group. Unlike masteries these are not locked to region so you can earn them in HoT areas and spend it on a PoF elite spec if you want. Or vice versa.

As for resources, this is what I found, but I don't think it's up to date as of PoF. If you have more specific questions someone here can probably help.

 

[razorblade79]

Maybe you guys got some pointers for me. I was a big gw2 hiatus for a while and now played through POT and really enjoyed it.

Although I have a couple 80 characters though I tend to play pretty casually. I'm close to broke (<10g) and my main character has half exotic / half rare gear with some rare upgrades or less.

This game has a ton to do and mostly respects my time but I have no good idea where to go from here.

So what would a good way to (pve-) progress for me, granted that I usually play with no more than 1 or 2 friends?

Basically, make money (what's a reliable way, I usually TP / vendor what I can) and get more exotics and some ascended stuff? (as I understand it, ascended gear is kind of big grind)

I'm more or less looking for a basic end-game guide for someone who plays mostly solo/in small groups.

 

[NormalFish]

If you've got HOT, then map metas are decent money and fairly fun. Otherwise, silverwastes is steady income.

If you have LWS3, or even if you don't but it will be more difficult, work on getting ascended trinkets. in the process you'll make a fair bit of money off of mob drops and event rewards.

 

[Massicot]

Maybe you guys got some pointers for me. I was a big gw2 hiatus for a while and now played through POT and really enjoyed it.

Although I have a couple 80 characters though I tend to play pretty casually. I'm close to broke (<10g) and my main character has half exotic / half rare gear with some rare upgrades or less.

This game has a ton to do and mostly respects my time but I have no good idea where to go from here.

So what would a good way to (pve-) progress for me, granted that I usually play with no more than 1 or 2 friends?

Basically, make money (what's a reliable way, I usually TP / vendor what I can) and get more exotics and some ascended stuff? (as I understand it, ascended gear is kind of big grind)

I'm more or less looking for a basic end-game guide for someone who plays mostly solo/in small groups.

It's not going to be possible to do everything 100% linearly, so this is more of 1a 1b 1c rather than "do this first, do this second", etc but

I would work on getting exotic gear. 10g won't go incredibly far but you can use things like karma to get temple armor pieces.

A lot of ascended trinkets can be obtained pretty easily without spending a ton of gold, so even if you dont have perfect exotic trinkets you might be able to jump straight into ascended on these. You can grab Amulets using laurels, rings using fractal relics, and accessories by using Guild Commendations. You can also gain any of these by doing Living Story 3 map dailies/events and buying them from unbound magic vendors. You can earn backpieces from numerous collections (for instance, PoF has 4 of them you can get).

Start learning fractals. You wont be able to progress very far with rare gear but you can start doing the first handful of levels to at least get to learn whats going on and start earning relics. It'll be a bit of an investment but once you get it down they are a consistent source of gold and ascended bits.

Like NormalFish said, if you have HoT, doing the "meta events" in those maps can be decent sources of gold and materials as well.

 

[PatzCU]

It really is bizarre that these PoF maps have a lower population cap on them. I wonder if this is due to some kind of CPU/hardware resource limitation for GW2 players? I agree with most of the sentiments in this thread that GW2 is now better than it has ever been, but damn is it frustrating to be doing these PoF events all by myself time and time again. Even the base game maps have way more life in them!

 

[Ralemont]

Maybe you guys got some pointers for me. I was a big gw2 hiatus for a while and now played through POT and really enjoyed it.

Although I have a couple 80 characters though I tend to play pretty casually. I'm close to broke (<10g) and my main character has half exotic / half rare gear with some rare upgrades or less.

This game has a ton to do and mostly respects my time but I have no good idea where to go from here.

So what would a good way to (pve-) progress for me, granted that I usually play with no more than 1 or 2 friends?

Basically, make money (what's a reliable way, I usually TP / vendor what I can) and get more exotics and some ascended stuff? (as I understand it, ascended gear is kind of big grind)

I'm more or less looking for a basic end-game guide for someone who plays mostly solo/in small groups.

Depending on the amount of mats you have, leveling the crafts you need to craft your own exotics can be worth the time effort. Just make sure you have crafting boosters.

Farming in Silverwastes can net you some gold. The basic idea is called RIBA and is basically going from outpost to outpost (Red Indigo Blue Amber) and tagging the events to get bags/rewards. Keep repeating this until the meta's up and then do the meta for more bags/rewards. Meanwhile you can use shovels and keys to get more bags/rewards.

If you really want to make money, transfer those bags to your bank and then open them on a ~level 50 character. You'll get a lot of mats that are in high demand and, aggregated, you'll make a lot of money off those mats + selling rares on the TP.

Things are a little slower in the SW right now with the PoF release, of course.

Hot metas can also get you some good loot but I wouldn't venture into the jungle until you're in full exotic. That place is dangerous.

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

Found a squad doing the griffon stuff today. All Runes/eggs, all maps. Was wondering how long till that popped up, seeing as HP trains are already a thing, if you catch one at the right time.

My own griff is going well. Two maps down, three to go. Hardest part is really finding people doing the events part. No way to solo those. Eggs are relatively painless though.

 

[Proven]

Depending on the amount of mats you have, leveling the crafts you need to craft your own exotics can be worth the time effort. Just make sure you have crafting boosters.

Farming in Silverwastes can net you some gold. The basic idea is called RIBA and is basically going from outpost to outpost (Red Indigo Blue Amber) and tagging the events to get bags/rewards. Keep repeating this until the meta's up and then do the meta for more bags/rewards. Meanwhile you can use shovels and keys to get more bags/rewards.

If you really want to make money, transfer those bags to your bank and then open them on a ~level 50 character. You'll get a lot of mats that are in high demand and, aggregated, you'll make a lot of money off those mats + selling rares on the TP.

Things are a little slower in the SW right now with the PoF release, of course.

Hot metas can also get you some good loot but I wouldn't venture into the jungle until you're in full exotic. That place is dangerous.

Ah, I was looking for something that wasn’t fractals/dungeons to help me get some mastery XP in Central Tyria. Really want to get that auto-loot mastery after getting it in WvW. The Silverwastes are boring for farming but I really like the meta for how much it reminds me of WvW so maybe I’ll hang out there and do stuff at my own pace.

 

[Ashodin]

I like that they basically added the LWS3 meta-meta map reward as actual tangible reward. Bravo

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

Spellbreaker is absurdly powerful in pvp. So fun. But so overpowered Let me explain.

Warriors don't use spells.

Thieves? They use spells. Fight a thief? Break their spells.

Guardians? They use spells. Fight a guardian? Break their spells.

Neck Romancers? They use spells. Fight a Neck Romancer? Break their spells.

That's true of all the other professions. They got a spell? Break their spell. It's an unbeatable strategy.

But seriously Spellbreaker is on fire in PvP. Something like 30 seconds of resistance straight. And that's not counting the traited Full Counter resistance. People are freaking out about both Scourges and Spellbreakers but I think Spellbreakers take the cake. Just run onto a node a Scourge has made a nest out of and just no sell his conditions until he's dead.

 

[Ashodin]

I am entirely A-OK with specs that perform better in various modes over others. That's the point of elite specs imo.

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

I am entirely A-OK with specs that perform better in various modes over others. That's the point of elite specs imo.

I'm primarily a warrior and chronomancer main so I'm am 100% on board with spellbreaker right now.

 

[Stuart444]

• Story Chapter&#8212;The Departing: Drastically decreased the amount of health the Eater of Souls can steal.
• Story Chapter&#8212;The Departing: Increased the duration the defiance bar is vulnerable on the Eater of Souls's leap attack.
• Story Chapter&#8212;The Departing: Removed the Eater of Souls's ability to steal health from pets and minions.
• Bounties: Fixed an issue in which the Legendary Ellutherius Wintergust was unable to attack players.

The first one wasn't too much of an issue (though admittedly annoying to see when he steals and goes back up to full health), the second and third ones are very good changes (now if only they would do the same for other party members as well that can't participate in the fight.)

 

[NormalFish]

really my only ask of anet is that they split spellbreaker's "crit damage to target without boons" bonuses so that they can buff it in PvE. It's actually a pretty fun spec to run outside of PvP, it just doesn't do enough damage generally.

Maybe when power warrior sees buffs more generally it'll be up to snuff.

 

[LumpOfCole]

Mirage doesn't seem like it has any advantages in PvE.

In PvP, it seems wonderful for really confusing other players (even more than typical Mesmers)

 

[NormalFish]

Mirage doesn't seem like it has any advantages in PvE.

In PvP, it seems wonderful for really confusing other players (even more than typical Mesmers)

not having to stop casting to dodge is a pretty sizable dps increase if you have good positioning.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Heartwarming thread on reddit;

As a black person who plays MMO's its often so hard to create beautiful black characters. There is usually one skin tone for dark skin characters which is usually some random shade of brown that is muddy and doesn't actually take note of the beautiful shades black people can come in. There is red based dark skin tones. Blue based. Yellow based. and you guys really did you research when creating the skin tones. AND THE HAIR. The texture on these are so beautiful its not just some smudgy brown circle afro. I see so many handsome elonian males and gorgeous females everyday and it makes me super happy. <3

A Dev responded too!

 

[StrongArmSteady]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HOW DO YOU COMPLETE THE FORGED WITH FIRE META?
IS IT JUSTA WAITING GAME?

FUCK THIS GAME

 

[Massicot]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HOW DO YOU COMPLETE THE FORGED WITH FIRE META?
IS IT JUSTA WAITING GAME?

FUCK THIS GAME

I was lucky enough to see it listed in LFG when it was halfway progressed. I don't know how it starts ;~;

 

[SledGod]

I've been sick as a dog lately so I've made almost no progress in PoF, but it sure is making me nostalgic. Seeing the Tomb of the Primeval Kings really made me miss the Hall of Heroes.

 

[Massicot]

I've been sick as a dog lately so I've made almost no progress in PoF, but it sure is making me nostalgic. Seeing the Tomb of the Primeval Kings really made me miss the Hall of Heroes.

I was really sad when they reworked the ToPK to be some weird quasi-pve/pvp thing in GW1 and moved the pvp the battle isles which just had a lot less flavor.

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

Mirage doesn't seem like it has any advantages in PvE.

In PvP, it seems wonderful for really confusing other players (even more than typical Mesmers)

It's the best damage a mesmer can get right now. You're still the 2nd lowest damage in the game now (Warriors have Banners and PS though so they'll be fine) but it's actually not all that bad in practice.

https://qtfy.eu/guildwars/mesmer/condi-mesmer-quick-guide/

 

[Ashodin]

Full Nadijeh's Armor, ahhhh

it's like a breath of fresh air

 

[Stuart444]

I'm not reading the whole AMA on reddit right now but I'll post one question quickly:

Question : Are we going to see the meta events focused maps with LS4?

Answer: The focus of the maps for Path of Fire was around deep and meaningful exploration, and reconnecting with the pure sense of discovery. Map wide metas didn't have a place in this expansion but I wouldn't say they are gone from future releases.

I'll read the whole AMA later on but here is one that some might be interested in.

 

[LumpOfCole]

It's the best damage a mesmer can get right now. You're still the 2nd lowest damage in the game now (Warriors have Banners and PS though so they'll be fine) but it's actually not all that bad in practice.

https://qtfy.eu/guildwars/mesmer/condi-mesmer-quick-guide/

Expectation: Alright guys, I'm ready to push mad DPS with my Mirage. Let's conquer this RAID!

Reality: Ehhh can you go on your Chronomancer please, I know you got that Minstrel set just sitting in your inventory, come on brah don't let that Minstrel gear get lonely.

 

[Massicot]

Expectation: Alright guys, I'm ready to push mad DPS with my Mirage. Let's conquer this RAID!

Reality: Ehhh can you go on your Chronomancer please, I know you got that Minstrel set just sitting in your inventory, come on brah don't let that Minstrel gear get lonely.

I wish I could refute this in some way and say its not true but it is lol.

I've started raiding with a second group just so I can play other classes ;_;

 

[Stuart444]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/74re46/pof_developer_ama_summary/

Summary of the PoF AMA.

 

[Ashodin]

"The focus of the maps for Path of Fire was around deep and meaningful exploration, and reconnecting with the pure sense of discovery. Map wide metas didn't have a place in this expansion but I wouldn't say they are gone from future releases."

yessssssss

I love the discovery. Metas would make me feel like I'm missing out on something.

 

[Boss Doggie]

My only problem with PoF exploration is that the mobs won't let you.

CC! CONDIS! BLIND! HIGH AGGRO! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Ashodin]

Blow em up!

Also jungle exploration is soooooooooooo much easier with mounts now

 

[Noisy Ninj4]

My only problem with PoF exploration is that the mobs won't let you.

CC! CONDIS! BLIND! HIGH AGGRO! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Play a spellbreaker and no sell all that shit, then full counter their asses for deigning to try.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Oh definitely, but because I'm mostly melee it really is aggravating, especially with the "melee you're blind/tar but ranged HAHAHA BOONS!" Thank god for mounts.

 

[Noisy Ninj4]

Oh definitely, but because I'm mostly melee it really is aggravating, especially with the "melee you're blind/tar but ranged HAHAHA BOONS!" Thank god for mounts.

I play melee a lot myself. Running resistance and/or condi cleansing seems to help. Resistance is especially relevant against blinds, which is why the GM full counter trait gives it to you. Never miss with your counter.

 

[demonkaze]

Thinking about coming back for the expansion but only started HoT, still worth playing through all of that first or is there some QoL stuff from PoF to get to make it better? I don’t really wanna do the story out of order.