5321

In other news:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/february-2013/

Choice of daily achievements and guild missions coming next patch. Interested to see what guild missions are. Also, as a PSA, the QT3 guild has been running quite a few dungeons lately. Ask around in chat in the evening.

5322

Kind of underwhelming compared to January. Two of the features I will never touch due to there (still) not being any compelling reason to participate in sPVP.

Guild missions sound cool, but it’s hard to say how they’re going to accomplish it.

Choosing your own dailies is great, but more of a minor feature IMO.

5323

Anet has heard our cry and will NOT be resetting the WubvWubs after all! Yay.

We’ve been keeping a very close watch on this week’s matchups and, despite our concerns regarding the recent population shifts, it seems that many of the games are quite competitive. At the same time we’ve been evaluating some possible changes to the math we use to calculate ratings. After examining a number of new methodologies for weighting the outcomes of matches we have found that our existing formulas already do pretty much what we want them to do. Certainly none of the candidates that we tried yielded better results.

In light of the strong community response to the idea of a WvW ratings reset, the results of our ratings formula investigations, and our data on the current matchups we have decided not to reset the WvW ratings at this time. All existing WvW ratings will be preserved and the rating calculation methodology will remain unchanged. Any existing mismatches should be corrected by the system in relatively short order. Now that there is less volatility in the player base for each world we expect the quality of matches to improve more quickly. This is both because the rating system is operating in a less unpredictable environment and because more stable teams tend to produce better results.

Thank you all for your feedback on this matter, and for your patience while we explored the various options. The community response was a key element in our decision making process.

5324

Are there any advantages to being in a guild? As in, hardcoded advantages like a bonus to xp and whatnot!

5325

Yes, there are guild rewards. I am not in a guild, but I know people who are. They speak about them now and then, buffs that can be purchased by influence.

5326

More info on benefits from guild: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild#Rewards

Note that the banner which is spawned by guild can benefit anyone (not just guild members) who interacts with it, when they are planted in any location in the world.

5327

I’m sorry, right after posting Dark Souls kidnapped me and didn’t let go until just recently.

I’m playing a Necromancer which I’m finding a lot more enjoyable than my prior attempts at engineer and warrior. Now I may have been playing those two classes wrong but I feel like my Necro allows for a little more flexibility in combat in that I can fire off a string of spells with my staff, crushing with its AOE, and then swap over to either death shroud for more AOE/life steal or swap to dagger for same plus minor CC.

The synergy between “modes” (for lack of a better word) makes me feel like I can tackle harder encounters if I take advantage of everything at my disposal whereas my engineer felt a bit clunky in comparison: stationary turrets, somewhat boring skill sets attached to the weapons I had found, and the core gameplay/movement in the game makes kiting feel a bit sluggish compared to WoW.

Mind you, I haven’t gotten into PvP yet so this is purely about PvE and my experience leveling up as a relative newbie. But the simple act of killing things is fun and randomly doing it with a bunch of other people is even more fun because every single gameplay system encourages and rewards mass co-op.

Annnnd I’m moving tomorrow so cue another awkward absence.

5328

Speaking of dailies, has anyone used their laurels on class gear yet? I will get my 5th laurel tonight (just need to do some quick crafting) and am tempted to use it on the exotic gear. I have only run two dungeons and am in mostly blue gear now, so the upgrade sounds tempting, especially compared to the cats(?) that you can get for more laurels.

5329

In another week I should have enough for an ascended ring from the vendor. I’m told you can get the same equipment 3 times faster by just doing fractals every day, but I haven’t done those yet. I figure getting the 30+ laurel gear will be better than the 2 random ones from the exotic chests.

5330

It’s a sad sign how long I’ve been away from Guild Wars 2 that I have no idea what you’re talking about in that paragraph. :(

But laurels that give you cats? I like the sound of that!

-Tom

5331

They cost 75, so start hitting up those dailies. At 1/daily, 10/monthly, you can pick one up on April 1 if you start today!

5332

“It’s a trap!” :)

5333

Hmm. Can’t I just buy one of these cats with gems? Wait, what do these cats actually do?

-Tom
5334

I believe its a mini-pet. I don’t think anyone knows what it looks like yet. I think the only new store items are a riding broom and a quaggan backback. Not sure.

Haha, I was amused by the coincidence as well. 13 for the remainder of Feb, 31 for Mar, 20 for the two monthlies brings you to 64. Then if you manage to complete the daily and the monthly on Apr 1, thats 75.

5335

Some interesting tidbits revealed on twitter:

Colin: Orange swords in WvW won’t show if there are less than ~25 people after February’s update (unsure exact number)

Colin: WvW updates will not introduce new skills. Will bring passive abilities aimed towards group play eg. Extra supply

Colin: Modifications to the commander book are coming, with more features. Will remain character bound

Colin: All the bosses in AC have been completely rebuilt for the February release. Some of the open world champions will be too

Colin: There will be 5 types of guild missions built with influence. Bounty is one of them, available in different difficulties

Colin: Guild missions will be taking place in Southsun Cove

Colin: Possibility of new legendary types (ie not weapons) and combinations.

5336

I think this is gaining traction elsewhere, so apologies if you’ve already seen it, but it certainly deserves a link and a mention here:

http://guildwarschef.blogspot.nl/

In game recipes prepared by a talented cook! I really want to try making the Front Line Stew.

5337

More info on the incoming updates:

Lunch with Colin Johanson

5338

If anyone is considering picking this up anytime soon, the Amazon sale post over at CAG (and mentioned in the bargain thread here) states they’ll have the digital download version of the game on sale for $40, with the deluxe for $60 on the 27th and 28th. If the 25% coupon works (and I don’t know why it wouldn’t), that brings it down to $30/$45.

5339

Having bought the deluxe edition, I can say it is definitely not worth the extra $15. If you play the game long enough to want it later, buy it with in-game currency.

5340

Hehe, I remember thinking when I first saw some of those plausible, mouthwatering recipes, I wonder if someone will try making them for real? Neat!