• Breaking News

    Monday, February 8, 2021

    Home Unlabelled Guild Wars 2 I got my beautiful Asura boi sketched!!

    Guild Wars 2 I got my beautiful Asura boi sketched!!

    February 08, 2021

    Guild Wars 2 I got my beautiful Asura boi sketched!!

    I got my beautiful Asura boi sketched!!

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST

    Rolled some secret Blacklion skin :p

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 02:48 AM PST

    The Commander, Time And A Place

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 09:26 PM PST

    Another Asura commission finished. A lovely scourge this time. :)

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 10:40 AM PST

    My Ranger decided to be Michael Jackson

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 09:55 PM PST

    Drew my sylvari druid, Merivelle!

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 08:59 AM PST

    World Cup Beetle Champions League has finally arrived!

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 02:21 AM PST

    Hardstuck Raid Challenge Mote Giveaway!

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 10:17 AM PST

    Greetings Gamers,

    Raids are challenging group content and the challenge motes even more so!
    However, I bring good news - in about 30 minutes from the creation of this post on both the EU and NA servers Hardstuck will be running Raid Challenge Mote Giveaways!

    We will be running groups of gamers who will assist you with whichever of these fearsome bosses you desire. Participants can pick one 'Hard' CM or multiple 'Easy' CMs depending on the queues - we'll try to get as many different people a taste of raiding as possible so we may adjust on the fly to achieve that goal!

    You can participate as much or as little as you like (/gg if you want, we hopefully won't feed even without you!) and we'll be demonstrating how to approach these encounters with strategy, composition and raid leading.

    The goal is to not only kill bosses for players who may not have the time to commit to progression but also to help anyone interested in tackling raids & raid challenge modes by answering questions and giving some decent example kills. (ignore the wipes!)

    Accessibility is a big concern in raids and many are intimidated by the challenge and by the community. We hope that with events like this we can dispel the idea that the raid scene is a bunch of DELUSIONAL TOXIC ELITISTS and show that raids can be a welcoming and enjoyable part of every player's Guild Wars 2 experience one way or another!

    Watch and hop on board on these streams!

    EU - Mela
    EU - Teapot
    NA - Deaxxon

    Join the HARDSTUCK DISCORD to be involved in more events like this one that we have planned for the future and also listen in on communications!

    submitted by /u/MightyTeapot
    [link] [comments]

    The Weekly Map Recap, Week 34 - Ember Bay

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 01:25 PM PST

    Welcome to the Weekly Map Recap, a series where we look back at one map in the game each week. We'll look with a critical eye at how each map represents its theme, proves faithful to its lore, and implements its design. We'll see how effective its gameplay is, whether the art holds up, and the forecast for the map's long term retention. With 52 maps to date, it'll be quite the journey!

    Links to the previous entries in a reply at the bottom!

    34 of 52 - Ember Bay - Level 80

    Embery Bay, released in September 2016, was a fairly strong swing of the pendulum in Guild Wars 2 map design. Where Bloodstone Fen is cramped and thin, Ember Bay is wide and open. Where the Heart of Thorns maps are crammed with activity and a sense of urgency, Ember Bay feels relaxed in comparison.

    Released during a boom-time in PvE content production at the studio, this map contains a whirlwind of ideas, from the first exclusive pass area, to raid bosses and incredibly elaborate coin hunts.

    Theme/Concept - 4/10

    I struggle to identify a real theme to Ember Bay. While nominally the island is at risk of going volcanic, the map is not designed to convey that in any meaningful way. Unlike Draconis Mons - where the ever-present heart of the volcano looms over everything, and the destroyer meta bosses are actually tough - this map has a giant wurm boss at its peak, which is a bit of a pushover.

    That goes for the map in general: the difficulty has been turned way down from HoT and even from Bloodstone Fen. Given that the Ring of Fire islands were at the peak of difficulty in the original Prophecies campaign, it comes across as a little deflating that the first map set in that region is not similarly difficult.

    So if the map isn't difficult, and there isn't a lot of urgency - both things we would associate thematically with a volcanic realm - what thematics are here? My eye is drawn to the circus and skritt pirates - both seem to lend themselves to an interpretation of this map as focused on 'castaways and outcasts'. If that is the intent, it accomplishes it fairly well. But again, those thematics clash a bit with the region in which they're set. It is difficult to separate out the thematic legacy of the Ring of Fire as the punishing domain of the Mursaat.

    In general, then, I find the thematics here a bit confused. There seem to be several competing ideas, none of which are dominant.

    Lore - 8/10

    More Mursaat lore is always - always - welcome. We get some great lore tablets and books on this island about the relationship between the Mursaat and the Forgotten, and the Mursaat's own perspective on how they were abandoned in the last rising of the Elder Dragons. That stuff is fantastic - you can inject it right into my veins. It's too bad that the plot wouldn't end up pursuing this thread, save for a disappointing resolution in Siren's Landing. I suppose we'll never see the Isles of Janthir after all.

    Elsewhere, we have the first reappearance of a dwarf in the game outside of Ogden Stonehealer, which is significant in and of itself, as well as some cool bits regarding jade constructs. Beyond that, we get some karka - which helps to more firmly place that species in the lore as not just an anomaly in Southsun Cove.

    Design - 5/10

    Ember Bay has a bit of a crab shape, looking at it from above - with two spits of land sticking southward as the claws, and the main playable area extending along the southern coastline of the 'body'. In general, this map is quite large - it certainly has more playable space horizontally than any Season 1-2 map. But that's a bit deceptive, as the content is spread quite thin on the ground. Large sections of the map are taken up by isolated mobs - these large empty sections providing ample room for the new lava tube mastery to stretch its legs.

    The flow of the map is odd, without a clear relationship between the four main meta areas, and none of those four clearly the 'main' meta. Moving forward, this is a bit of an anomaly in map design - most future maps will have a 'core meta' and an 'off meta'. Four short metas which are little more than normal event chains is essentially unheard of.

    These four metas - the jade, sloth, wurm, and destroyer, are all quite short and can be completed by a small group. We are left to wonder a bit at the design direction here. What is the extent to which the decrease in difficulty is a response to criticism of the brutal nature of Heart of Thorns and Bloodstone Fen, versus simply an attempt to future-proof the map? As we move forward, we'll see that the team is clearly trying to find ways to ensure that each map has a reason to exist, and is playable with a lower population, as more and more maps are added. Perhaps this is simply the start of that trend.

    In fact, the metas are so short and so easy that there exists almost no line separating them from simple event chains - to the extent that it could be argued there are no metas on this map at all. What separates the 'Skrilla treasure hunt' event from the 'wurm boss' chain? Very little. Either way, the construction is unusual, and I'm not sure it's entirely effective. The map feels a bit listless, without clear direction or presence of a real threat.

    This may all be on purpose, an attempt to return to a more relaxed 'vanilla' map structure. Further evidence of this - and of the attempt to ensure long-term map population - is the reintroduction of renown heart areas. Reworked as a form of daily quest, they were met on release with equal parts welcome and ire from different parts of the community. Some see them as anchoring a daily gameplay loop which provides something to do as the game gets older in the tooth. Some see them as busywork which is redundant and takes away focus from the core gameplay system that should anchor the maps - the dynamic events themselves. Interestingly, we won't see renown hearts go away again until Season 5.

    So where does this leave the design, in the end? Ember Bay is at its core more of a vanilla map than anything else - more than any other map released since. The next map from this team, Draconis Mons, has much more Heart of Thorns DNA than this one. If that was the goal, the team accomplished it: I'm just not sure it led to an exciting or terribly interesting design.

    Gameplay - 4/10

    All of this could work, I think, if the map were fun. Unfortunately, it's mostly not.

    The first problem is the renown hearts. With their first implementation as daily quests, the tuning is a bit off - I find that the hearts on this map take much more time and effort to fill than on almost any other map since. This is somehow equally a problem with the braindead easy destroyer enemies and the more challenging (or annoying, depending on your perspective) jade construct enemies.

    Throw into the mix that, again, the metas here are hardly metas. Bosses have never felt less like an epic battle and more like a checklist - certainly not since the leveling maps. Bosses like the slothasaur retain some of their interesting raid abilities, but tuned so low that the zerg doesn't need to interact with those mechanics.

    Other elements of the map seem to be tuned oddly as well. The achievement to carry 50 apples to an npc is an exercise in mind-numbing frustration. The jumping puzzle on the map was a step too far for the majority of the community in terms of challenging puzzles. The puzzle remains a bit of a sore point to designer Josh Foreman to this day - who reportedly regrets that some players feel as if they were 'made' to play it, given that as a piece of optional content there is no real need to engage with it unless you're really looking for a challenge.

    Perhaps the only really engaging gameplay on this map lies in the coin hunt. If you are really into similar hunts on other maps, this one takes the cake for hidden coins in the most elaborately tucked-away spots possible. You will find nooks, crannies, and underwater caves that stretch almost the whole length of the map.

    Art - 7/10

    There are several cool things going on with Ember Bay's art that work really well, and some that I'm not sure are quite as strong. On the one hand, the overriding motif of great carved skeletal heads and masks in the mountains work wonderfully. They are universally remarked on by players as rad as hell, and appropriately metal for the zone. Throw onto that some great new lighting effects, and you've got a great unique feel to the map that isn't replicated anywhere else. Another highlight is the jade architecture in the Mursaat section of the map, and some of the assets built for the stranded circus. And regardless of your feelings about the puzzle itself, the Chalice of Tears does look like it comes to us straight out of an album cover.

    However, large stretches of the map are filled with simple rock textures which over time blur together and end up feeling much the same. Especially in areas where you need to run through tunnels with tight close-up camera angles, the rock textures used are not shown off to the best effect.

    Long Term/Retention - 6/10

    Ember Bay does better than some maps, but is definitely towards the back of the Season 3 pack in terms of player count. There's just not a great deal here in terms of long term rewards. The ascended rewards on this map are gated by some of the most overtuned renown hearts of the season, and are separated by large stretches of playable area that are not incredibly efficient in comparison to other maps. The circus weapon set - which seems to me to be one of the most hidden sets in the game - is unusually expensive, time gated, and doesn't require any map-exclusive currency. Players can simply purchase them with currency obtained more efficiently elsewhere. However, ascended equipment and higher level wood can be farmed here and that alone puts it at higher retention than any number of vanilla maps.

    Even stranger, this map has the first appearance of a gemstore VIP area - a carnival themed area in a volcanic landscape which, at least to me, doesn't seem like the kind of place I'd like to spend much of my free time or crafting time in-game. It's a dreary and bleak little area, with the feeling you get in real life attending a local dingy circus put up temporarily at your local shopping center. Why anyone would purchase a pass for this area intentionally is beyond me.

    Overall - 5.5/10

    Ember Bay is our second 'paradigm shift' in GW2 map design. The results are mixed. The LWS3 renown hearts have always seemed overtuned. The map design is a strange mix of wide open and labyrinthine nooks and crannies. Some of this seems to be Josh Foreman-ness, and we'll see it again (but more successfully, I think) in Draconis Mons. The difficulty on the map is really uneven, and the meta events dull. We see the start of experimentation with VIP areas which have since fallen by the wayside. Visually, it's a mixture of really cool assets and effects with really bland rock textures. Overall the most solidly 'okay' map of the season.

    ----------

    That's all, folks! What do you think of today's map? Any fond memories, or strong complaints? How well do you think this map stands up in comparison to all the others? Next week, bundle up, because we'll be headed to Bitterfrost Frontier.

    submitted by /u/Jonah_Marriner
    [link] [comments]

    NCsoft Q4 2020: Guild Wars 2 improves on 2019.

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 07:51 AM PST

    The Griffon flying course in the alliance guild hall

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 11:11 PM PST

    A compilation of my Mesmer's journey

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 06:22 AM PST

    http://imgur.com/gallery/G10Vah6

    Hey all! I wanted to make a compilation of my Mesmer as he progressed through the story! I have included small backstories to each look. Please enjoy!

    submitted by /u/gw2maniac
    [link] [comments]

    One of the best covers of Fear not this night I have heard in a while!

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 11:16 PM PST

    1% left and failed because the timer runs out

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 03:59 AM PST

    A little more thought onto Older content (Dungeons and HoT)

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 06:00 AM PST

    I guess its a rant and some thoughts here but i notice some older content now isnt being played, Why do we have so many different forms of currency, So many types of dungeon tokens (despite them being dead, ill go into this more).

    Some of the older content is/will push new players into confusion, Iv been hanging around a little more in the older content for achievments iv missed and i notice now unless you were around when it launched your not going to complete some of them now especially in HoT's dead maps.

    I know why they came up with so many currencies originally to stop us headstarting content and completing it by farming old content as we can with current living seasons in places. But now we have 8 dungeon tokens we could easily condense into a single "Testimony of the dungeons" kinda token? I guess its similar to how many map currencies there are now on an old expansion pack HoT. Is it really needed? I know alot of older players who have been here since core aint worried anymore as the maps are useless to them, There is little to no gold to make from HoT map currencies

    I know arenanet has said Dungeons are no longer cared about but i wonder if a reboot of them with changes of currencies and adding a single dungeon portal (similar to how fractals work) to Lions arch would bring enough popularity back into them so you can always find a group again?

    submitted by /u/UnicornNarwhals
    [link] [comments]

    Lunar New Year Fashion Contest

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 12:41 PM PST

    Good game for 2?

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 01:14 AM PST

    Hi,

    a friend of mine and I have had a casual lockdown-inspired nostalgia re-run of Everquest 2. Our nostaliga can't hide the many issues the game has anymore, though ... so, it's time for greener pastures!

    Questions about GW2:

    • Is there content that is challenging, but doable for two non-hardcore players?
    • Is exploring the map and doing all those mini activities (hearts, orange event circles etc.) the main game play loop?
    • Are there larger story missions that can be done together?
    • What are good class combinations?

    ​

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/gegenzeit
    [link] [comments]

    Collective guide for Raid CMs?

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 04:31 AM PST

    As a fairly new raider that just managed to complete my first legendary armor I find it extremely hard to find guides on CMs.

    Currently people assume everyone knows everything for CMs since it's old content but this makes it even harder for people to get in.

    Going to google and trying to find a guide for the Keep Construct CM seems to be a dead end.

    I haven't found a single guide for the KC CM.

    The only thing around is a few POV videos and that's it.

    Is there really no resource to read up on CMs or am I supposed to join a training guild to find out how they are done?

    Where can I educate myself on all raid CMs?

    edit: It seems I might have miscommunicated my goal with this post. The problem I have is finding enough detailed information of how EVERY RAID CM works and I brought KC CM where I found nothing as an example.

    submitted by /u/ZhaitanK
    [link] [comments]

    Where can I read about entire Guild Wars history (lore)?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 10:58 AM PST

    Hello,

    Is there possibly a place where I can read about Guild Wars lore in a chronological order? Are there any books?

    Thank you for answers.

    submitted by /u/Gankeros
    [link] [comments]

    Good builds for a group?

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 06:23 AM PST

    Hi everyone!

    I thought this sub could maybe help a few guildmates and me to get the best builds for a lot of PVE content. Also sorry for the formatting, I'm on mobile.

    So here's the thing, five of my guildmates and myself are interested in doing PVE content. This means raids, strike missions and fractals for them (I usually don't do fractals). For now, raids are out of the equation as we are not 10, but it is to take into account, as we would like to only have one character with one set of armour (so not have to switch between condi and berserk, etc) for all PVE content.

    Each of us has a set of classes we like :

    • A likes to play ranger (also druid), engineer, warrior, necro

    • B likes to play Mesmer and Guardian BUT he has a lot of problems with hard rotations (which Chronomancers usually have) and is usually more of a casual player. The easier the job is, the better it is.

    • E likes to play thief, warrior and revenant

    • V liles to play guardian, ranger, elementalist and necro

    • N liles to play thief, necro, ranger, warrior and revenant

    • Me, I like to play all classes so I'm the easiest to please haha.

    I did not write any specialisation as all of them are open to change to another one than the one they have currently.

    So here is my question : is there a best team composition we can have with builds that would oermit us to do both strike missions and fractals? And that would also be compatible to add 4 more player for raids in the future ?

    Please also note that we are not interested in doing a full dps or being fully meta and optimized. We are ok with being slow, as long as we are able to finish the things after some tries. So having a healer, supports and any tanks is fine with us.

    Thank you all in advance for any advice!

    submitted by /u/NyoTheNeko
    [link] [comments]

    Self sufficient Fractal Set-Up

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 02:29 AM PST

    Hi all,

    I am currently playing T1-T3 (rarely T4) fractals with my partner, as we are currently not interested in pugging T4 and CM.

    The groups are expectedly pretty random (both in player skill as well as classes/setups used), which makes "meta" classes like Weaver and Soulbeast pretty subpar in my experience, as the self-buffing capabilities seem to be quite limited (if there's a workaround for these classes that doesn't involve prestacking [pugs mostly just run into bosses...], I'd be interested!) and they kinda fall off a cliff dps-wise without the required buffs (especially Weaver).

    Long story short: which class set-up would you recommend that is able to carry dps well on it's own? My partner plays a Reaper, so I am looking for something else that is preferably not a Guardian (burned out on that).

    I hope you can help me out, given my pickiness. Your help would be greatly appreciated!
    Should you have questions, I'll be around to answer during the next hours.

    submitted by /u/FichteFTW
    [link] [comments]

    Do you think Anet will ever put Fawcett back to his spot in the JP?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 05:24 AM PST

    Calm in the Storm (bugged or still a timer?)

    Posted: 08 Feb 2021 04:27 AM PST

    I've been a bit behind on the Living story and am only just getting through the latest story content and just hit 'Calm in the Storm' and a bit of a brick wall..

    Doing a quick google seems to show it used to have some timer and a link to a event late last year, however in my story journal I don't see either of these things.

    I can't seem to find anything posted about it recently since the new chapter came out so I was curious if anyone else has done this and if it is still linked to the 6 day timer that used to be in place (which is no longer displayed).

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/OodOne
    [link] [comments]

    Poll: WvW- when it comes to new content, do you all generally prefer New Maps or New Features/Mechanics?

    Posted: 07 Feb 2021 11:25 PM PST

    Question for the WvW community. Between these two:

    *New Maps

    and

    *New Features/Mechanics

    Which would you all generally prefer over the other in terms of importances?

    New Maps such as EoTM and the Desert Boarderland tend to come with new features of their own of course, but old concepts stay the same.

    New Features and mechanics on the otherhand adds new ways to play WvW with new concepts, but using the same maps. Think of this like the Warclaw mount mechanics or how the WvW traits system was added. These things added new mechanics to the already established maps.

    View Poll

    submitted by /u/Knighthonor
    [link] [comments]

    I am so glad y'all convinced me not to quit!

    Posted: 06 Feb 2021 12:13 PM PST

    Hi everyone,

    A while back, I posted a rather angry thread, having just been banned from GW2. I am blind (I use special screenreader software to get online to read/write here), and I play by splitting controller inputs with my spouse, who can see—she moves and aims, I kill. But we got banned for playing this way, and I was pissed, because I've never had this issue before in any other game. Anyway, I was angry, but many of you encouraged me to keep trying to contact support and get it resolved. I did, but wasn't sure I still wanted to play at this point; the experience felt soured.

    All that to say, I did keep going. I'm still a bit slow-going—my Ranger is only level 64 at this point—but for me, that progress is still good! And the experience I am having is incredible! The voices, the sounds of this vibrant world! They're so exquisite to hear and get absorbed into. Even just exploring Tyria with my spouse leads to all sorts of new adventure. Either slaying giant worm monsters or feeding rabbits, or even having an impromptu snowball fight with other players. It is all so much fun and I am genuinely enjoying our time in this game.

    So I wanted to say thank you to all of you who encouraged me to push forward, resolve my issue, and keep trying the game. I'm very happy with it, have since bought the expansions, and am just so enraptured with this awesome world! My Sylvari, Qaelynn Reed, is one of my new favorites of all my custom game characters. She feels so alive. And adorable! (Incidentally, anyone know any outfits that'd give her bare feet? I can't see them, but stylistically, it'd be neat for her. For reasons.)

    And I'd have gotten to enjoy none of this if I'd let a misunderstanding and some bitterness cloud my judgement. Thank you all for helping me see reason (hahaha, "see"; it's funny 'cause I'm blind), and if I ever run into any of y'all in game, I will gladly dance for you and offer you snowballs that may or may not contain inexplicably room-temperature shrimp. Anyway, thanks everyone!!

    submitted by /u/ZoeSparkleTits
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment