LucidMagic.net

Also, Mo made a special channel for us called "Cochy" so we can chat more easily while in game. The private message system just wasn't very effective, especially if you were in the middle of lots of combat.

I'm pretty sure I'm incapable of a military victory in Age of Empires II. I literally just gave up on a game because an enemy computer had completed a wonder before me, and I wouldn't be able to clear a path to the wonder before the clock ran out. This is probably why I play healers in other games...

I'm about level 15 now, and I'm really enjoying the game. As far as I'm concerned, it plays exactly like a Diablo game with slightly different mechanics. I don't think I've really gotten far into the story, although I don't think that's really the focus. I think it'd be worth shelling out some money to buy if I had to.

Also, question: do you invest in attributes other than your primary attribute as a marauder? The only bonuses to strength and dex I've gotten on my witch are from items, and I'm wondering if I can keep only investing in intelligence or if I'll eventually have to get strength or dex to be use the gear I will need.

I'm going to give it a try since it's free for the beta. I'll let you guys know how I like it.

Maybe if I have time I'll check out the mods. For now I'm fine playing the game as is. My username's etelrunya. I already went and found you.

Really, where? Most things I've read have called the dungeons the best part of the game.

Yeah, the default settings adjust to the optimal settings for your computer.

I've actually enjoyed playing WvW on a team with some guildies, but I will definitely admit it can easily become a bit of a zergfest...

I have a character named Elessar Telrunya so that should add me to your list.  If you look at your followers section in your contacts list it should have me somewhere, because I added you to mine.

Cool!  Maybe someday soon I'll actually have time to play again! lol...but seriously, I might not have time to play again for a few weeks.  Also, I can probably get you an invitation to my guild, if you want.

So, when I first started playing, crafting made about zero sense to me, but through trial and error, I've more or less figured it out, which I now realize, was actually the whole point.  The system is designed to be explored through trial and error to discover how to craft different items.  However, I'm putting this together to take out some of the initial confusion about how the fuck the system works.  Please forgive I forgot to take some pictures that would probably be more useful to see, but I think I have enough that it should make sense.


The Disciplines
There are eight crafting disciplines: armorsmith, artificer, chef, huntsman, jeweler, leatherworker, tailor, and weaponsmith.  Each focuses on different broad categories of items, so each is more useful to different classes.  For instance, my guardian, who wears heavy armor, is an armorsmith and can craft some pretty good armor for herself, whereas my ranger, who wears medium armor, is a leatherworker, so she can craft herself armor as well.  A character can learn two disciplines at a time and can switch between crafting disciplines for a cost, but the more experience you have in a discipline, the more expensive it is to switch.


Materials
All disciplines require crafting materials, which can be acquired in the world through drops, salvages, or gathering nodes, or through trade.

Most of your materials will come through gathering, so I'll start with that.  To gather, you first need gathering tools: a mining pick for ores, a logging axe for lumber, and a gathering sickle for various foods.  There are also different qualities of tools for different qualities of materials - for instance, you need a stronger pick to mine silver ore than to mine copper ore, but all higher level tools are backwards compatible and can still gather from lesser material nodes.

So, first you equip the appropriate tool:

Then you find yourself a node.  This is relatively easy because they show up on your mini-map, so whenever you're adventuring you're aware of what resources are nearby:

In this case I found an Ekku sappling:

And began to chop it down:

In the process I acquired green wood logs.  Most trees and ores will yield three of the material, unless it's a rich ore vein, in which case I've collected as much as 20 pieces of ore, plus gems.  For foods, it's a bit of a toss up how much you get depending on what food you're harvesting.  I don't have a chef yet, so I'm not really sure how it works.

Alternatively, you can trade for materials.  Some materials, such as thread and smelting materials (tin, coal, etc), can be purchased from vendors:

In this case, I needed to purchase jute thread.  This image also shows the tier system for crafting materials.  Many crafting materials come as part of a hierarchy of materials used for similar things.  In this case, you can see all six tiers of thread.  The better the item, the better the materials needed to craft it.  To start, you'll only be able to craft with the first tier, and you unlock the other tiers when you hit certain crafting levels.  I think wool thread unlocks at either level 50 or level 75 in the crafting discipline (to add perspective, crafting levels max out at 400).  It's also important to note that different materials may require different levels in different disciplines.  For instance, a pile of glittering dust can be used from level 0 as an artificer, level 25 as an armorsmith, and level 50 as a jeweler.

There is also a huge trade for materials on the trading post, and often times when I'm in the middle of crafting and fall short of a certain item (particularly if it's a harder to acquire item) I will turn to the trading post to acquire what I need.  The trading post is pretty easy to use for buying items.  You can search for what you want, it gives you the lowest price available by default, and you hit buy:

You will have to actually got to a Black Lion Trading Post vendor to pick up any materials you have purchased, as well as to collect money from items you've sold.



The Crafting Panel
To learn a crafting discipline, you have to speak to a Master Crafter for the discipline you want to learn.

And voila, you've learned the discipline.

Then you go the crafting station, and the crafting panel will open up.

On the left hand column, you'll see the four panes available.  The first is the discovery pane, which I will talk about later.  The second, shown, is the production pane.  This is where you will make any materials you already know how to craft.  As you can see, I already have a default list of items that I know how to craft.  If you notice the numbers next to some of the items, those indicate items I already have the materials ready for in my crafting storage.
The third is the bank pane, so I have access to anything in my storage.  The fourth is my collectibles storage pane.  This pane is where all of the crafting materials you've collected in the game are stored.


Back on the production pane, if you click on a recipe, it will tell you what materials you need to craft it.  This particular one is one of the default recipes, and it shows the basic recipe for any piece of armor: two base components for the item, and an upgrade.  Most recipes follow a similar structure.

If you look at the recipe for one of the components, you'll see we need raw materials, in this case a stretched rawhide leather square and jute thread.

So those materials are the ones you need first, some of which, like the stretched rawhide leather square need to be refined from your base crafting materials.  I don't have a picture of this, but if you look at the production pane, you will see a category called "Refinement".  To start, my leatherworker could craft bolts of jute and stretched rawhide leather squares.
The next item you need is an upgrade component, which in my case, was an insignia.  Each upgrade component will require a special crafting material, such as a vial of thin blood or a tiny scale (like the one I purchased through the trading post).  These are typically the most expensive materials to acquire if you need to purchase them, so it's wise to stock up on them as much as possible when you get them while adventuring.


Discovery
To learn new recipes, you have to discover them through the crafting pane.  You will have access to all of the materials in your inventory and collectible storage that there are still recipes to learn for.  If you place an item in the discovery pane, it will tell you how many more items you need to make something.  If you get the right combination, as shown here, it will let you craft it.

And we've created something new!

This will give you a small chunk of experience, and the recipe will become available in your production pane.  While crafting from your production pane grants experience, you will get the most experience discovering new recipes, so this is the most effective way to raise your crafting level.

Every 25 levels, new base crafting recipes and materials will become available for use.  5 levels prior to that, the new recipes will show up in your production pane in red.

The other colors indicate how much experience you will get from crafting that item.  Gold recipes will give the most experience, whereas white or gray recipes will give no experience.

When you actually reach that 25th level, you will be able to craft the new recipe, which will open up new recipes to discover and continue gaining experience.



Results
The cool thing is that you can actually craft some fairly useful items.  I was caught by surprise on my guardian when I realized the armor she was crafting was actually better than the armor she was using, and there are a bunch of other odd recipes that can come in handy, such as equipment bags.  What's even better is that you can then sell the useful items on the trading post, sometimes for a nice chunk of change.  Earlier today I sold some larger equipment boxes for about 20 silver each, and I've raked in as much as 40 silver selling masterwork armor pieces.  Granted, some of them have inherent costs - I think I only netted about 6 silver on the boxes (the runes required can only be purchased and cost 14 silver), and because I purchased some of the materials for the masterwork armors, I think I only netted 16 silver.  Of course, this just gives more impetus to gathering materials on your own.  If I'd acquired all of the materials on my own, I would have netted the entire 40 silver for that masterwork armor.  A point of caution on the trading post though, the trading post collects 15% of whatever you sell your items at for itself, so when selling items close to their merchant value, be aware that you might not be getting as much as you think.

As for my ranger, she now has a full set of armor.  Unfortunately, she is level 3 and won't be able to wear it until she's level 10.  In the mean time, it can sit in her inventory and wait.  On top of the new equipment, she also gained an actual level in experience while crafting, so that's a nice bonus too.  My mesmer actually gained two levels when I went on crafting spree earlier today - he finally was able to start using silver in his jewelry, which I've been stockpiling for the past month since my guardian doesn't use it.



Anyway, I hope this might be helpful to anyone who wants to start crafting.  Overall I like the system a lot.  It's definitely got rewards, and I always feel inclined to craft when I have the materials.  The recipes get more complex as you advance, and there are recipes that you actually have the purchase with karma to learn.  The other cool thing, though, is that your character level doesn't have to match your crafting level.  My level 7 mesmer is crafting jewelry suitable for my level 45 guardian.  Granted, my guardian collected most of the materials, but it's still pretty cool.

I think you can freely change until they activate guesting, which they said they would do when server populations level out a bit, but I think there are still limitations on how often you can change.

Anyway, if you're having trouble leveling then you should read this.

I'm still focusing on my guardian before moving onto another character...she's level 36 now.  I think when she gets into her 40s I'll start playing another character some.

I'm just going to provide a little counterpoint and expand on some things, because there is a lot that the game does well.

GW2 is definitely very different from GW1, but that's because they made a definitive choice in the style of game they were making.  GW2 is much more like WOW in terms of MMORPG structure than GW1, so that's inherent.

Monster Respawns
I won't deny that they respawn fast, but unless I've actually stopped to do something, I've never really had a problem with monsters respawning on me.  Not until after I've finished a battle anyway.  Either way, there's really not much to be gained by clearing an area - killing monsters generally gives very little experience.  The bulk of your experience comes from completing tasks such as personal story chapters, events, renown hearts, etc.  Seriously, just entering an area you've never entered before will give you more experience than killing a monster.  Which is good, because the game rewards you more for engaging in the world rather than sitting there and mindlessly hacking away at spawn after spawn.

Events
This is actually two separate things, and I'm not sure where you're distinguishing them.  Renown Hearts are an area of the map that will have several tasks that need to be done to help the residents of the area.  Yes, these often have objectives such as "throw snowballs with so and so'children," "heard a bunch of dolyaks," etc, but the idea is that not everyone needs you to kill monsters to help them, especially in the really low level areas.  If you're helping a farmer, then watering her crops or feeding her cows actually will help her (those are, no joke, two of the options to help in the first renown heart you encounter as a human).  As you progress, then yes, a they do involve a lot more fighting off centaurs or undead, etc.  These probably form one of the larger sources of experience, because when you complete them, they give you a nice large chunk of experience, cash and karma as a reward.

The second thing is dynamic events, which are triggered events in the area, and yes, a lot of them do involve defeat x waves of y monsters, but they actually do give to the sense of immersion because the area won't necessarily be the same every time you pass through.  Although I will admit some of them occurred with a slightly silly degree of regularity during the beta, but I haven't seen as much of that since launch.  As for the foes that just appear - they have to appear somewhere, and they really can't spawn too far away from where the event is actually happening, so I don't really know what solution there is to this problem, if you view it as a problem (I personally don't really care).

Again, I've admitted the gfx can make it super chaotic, but it also doesn't take much to do that because a lot of the gfx have these large particle effects going off.  I just did a dungeon with only 5 of us (the limit on dungeon size actually), and the particle effects still got crazy.

Personal Story
Yeah, some of them are small, but I think they're much more pointed than GW1 missions.  There's a lot less "wander through the jungle until you reach this special target" because you don't enter the instance until you're pretty much at or near the special target.  They leave the random travelling out and get straight to the action.  I think this helps make the personal story more engaging, because when you're on your way to the next point, there are actual things to do (dynamic events, renown hearts, etc...) instead of just going through a maze long enough to justify a mission.  Again, Mo, the mobs have to spawn somewhere, unless of course, you're saying they're spawning right on top of you, instead of spawning some distance away and running in.  Spawning right on top of you is definitely lazy.  As for the difficulty, I'll admit, I prefer to stay a couple of levels ahead of my personal story.  Even with the scaling system, it makes worlds of difference, especially when you start accumulating traits, etc.

Control
First - they've already had some talk about bringing GW2 to a console (back in January or something), but they said it was not a priority before launch.  Other than that, this is really a personal preference thing.  Yeah, it was weird to get used to, but I don't really have a problem with the no click-to-move thing.  Occasionally the directionality thing will irritate me when I fizzle a skill because I faced the wrong direction when I cast it, but usually it's not a big deal.  Movement and positioning plays a much larger role in GW2, as I've elaborated on before.

Radar
Again, a personal preference thing.  Yeah, having a hud radar would be helpful, but I don't really feel hindered without it.  I just got used to it.  The map they do have, though, is super useful.  It points out every resource node, every way point, point of interest, vista, skill point, renown heart, and when they occur, dynamic events are pointed out on the map.  You can still draw and ping locations on the map too, so it is still useful, just not for finding monsters in your vicinity. 

Weapons
Yeah, the limited skills seems like a problem at first, but even after you unlock all of the weapon skills, it can take a while to really learn how to best synergize your weapon skills, slot skills, and profession specific abilities.  You won't even finish unlocking skill slots on your bar until you get your elite skill at level 30, and even then you'll probably have a lot of skills left to unlock for use.  Another thing you won't get to either until level 20 is traits, which can really adapt your character to a specific style of play and give additional benefits and effects.  My current traits allow me to apply more conditions faster to enemies and gives some nice passive buffs to my teammates.

(I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I certainly have more to say on dungeons and crafting at this point...yes, I've done crafting, and it's pretty neat.)

I definitely think they still need to build up some of the tutorial, but comparatively it has gotten a lot better.  There was virtually nothing in the way of tutorial in the first beta event.

As for playing together, usually, if I was in an overflow server, I didn't have a problem connecting with someone else in the overflow server, and it's pretty easy to get into the overflow if it's overflowing (just zone to another area and zone back).  Also, for the personal story, you can bring party mates with you, but you both have to be near that personal story point, and a dialogue box will pop up asking if you want to join your team mate in his personal story.  I think his problem is that he hasn't figured out how to find his teammates, which admittedly is never really explained.  It's something you have to figure out or have someone else tell you.  I've honestly never had much of a problem finding my teammates unless only one of us was queued in the overflow.  They have fixed it that when you zone between areas, all party members are zoned to the same area, but I gathered from the other night that they hadn't yet ensured that all party members could go to the main server at the same time.  I suspect that will be fixed soon though.

Renown hearts and dynamic events do get more complicated as you move up in areas, and while there are some events that occur somewhat frequently, there are others that happen a lot less often.