Why doesn't this forum use regular image tags like the rest of the internet world?

Someone should ask Dave on the next radio show. Image tags would be so much easier. Although I guess having it this way might prevent spam? I dunno.

@Dourin: I'll bring it back in force!

@UssjTrunks said:

Why doesn't this forum use regular image tags like the rest of the internet world?

Yeah, mine's supposed to be a .gif, but it just refuses to play it for some reason. @Maystack: I agree, this definitely needs to be brought to their attention if it hasn't already been.

@Dourin: You just have to use html to post a .gif. For example, I just posted:

<a href="http://imgur.com/yorLb"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/yorLb.gif" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a>

into the html interface to insert my .gif above. As you can glean from that code, I just find the .gif I want to use and upload it to imgur, which conveniently enough takes care of the html code for you so all you have to do is copypasta back over here. This is our little secret though.

@Dourin said:

@selfconfessedcynic said:

@Dourin said:

Oh, trust me, I wouldn't call me a "super-leet pro" at pvp. Even though I've played more than my fair share of MMO's, I rarely get into the pvp side of things, and never have done so in a serious sense before GW2. This is definitely my first foray into theorycrafting and actual competitiveness in a pvp environment.

Nah man, we're like heaps pro and shit.

*puts on too-cool-for-school glasses*

I can't wait to run with you @Dark_Lord_Spam - I STILL HAVE YET TO HEAR YOUR VOICE. You need to get a mic dude! Same with you @UssjTrunks !

Oh, right....ahem! @Dark_Lord_Spam, what I meant to say was you'll never be as good as us pros and shit.

@Subjugation in that case, let me try this one last time...

@Dark_Lord_Spam what I meant to say was that you'll never be as good as us pros and shit.

@Subjugation said:

@Dourin: You just have to use html to post a .gif. For example, I just posted:

<a href="http://imgur.com/yorLb"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/yorLb.gif" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a>

into the html interface to insert my .gif above. As you can glean from that code, I just find the .gif I want to use and upload it to imgur, which conveniently enough takes care of the html code for you so all you have to do is copypasta back over here. This is our little secret though.

@UssjTrunks: Oh no, I just turned this into Myspace ...

Oh for fu-

*leaves*

Really solid profession discussion. Feel like a new player would be pretty safe with any profession aside from Engineer or Mesmer. :P

@project343 said:

Really solid profession discussion. Feel like a new player would be pretty safe with any profession aside from Engineer or Mesmer. :P

I think we sold the Engineer rather short, but personally I agree with what you've taken away there. I wouldn't recommend for someone to start with either of those over any of the others.

Then again, I'm frequently wrong about many things : P

@selfconfessedcynic said:

I think we sold the Engineer rather short, but personally I agree with what you've taken away there. I wouldn't recommend for someone to start with either of those over any of the others.

Then again, I'm frequently wrong about many things : P

Coming from someone who plans to main an Engineer, you guys did a fine job. The fact that the class is so nuanced that speaking about it just leads to a fumbling of words is kind of amazing. Though, I would have loved to see you guys talk about the new nuances that they've done with turrets (their new toolbelt non-active skills) and fumble all over describing it... heh. Basically, each turret skill has:

• Summon turret utility skill (healing turret, rocket turret)
• Non-active turret toolbelt skill (healing mist, rocket fire)
• Turret overcharge skill (cleansing burst, explosive rockets)
• Turret toolbelt self-destruction skill (self-destruct)

I just think it's hilarious that ArenaNet went back and added more nuance to an already incredibly layered profession. A simple summoning turret skill comes with 4 abilities. :\

@project343: Oh god I didn't even know any of those turret skills existed. I just thought that you laid down the turret and it just sort of...went. I'm even more scared to try engineer than I was before.

@shinboy630 said:

@project343: Oh god I didn't even know any of those turret skills existed. I just thought that you laid down the turret and it just sort of...went. I'm even more scared to try engineer than I was before.

It's really not that bad. Just having the contextual toolbelt skill thing is a little weird (toolbelt skill changes whether you have the turret out or not).

I'll give you a practical example with wiki links. So you're running around and you've got your thumper turret in the slot and you get surrounded. Immediately, you use the toolbelt skill shockwave then throw down your turret. So you've smacked them in the face with AoE, then set up a constant barrage of AoE pulsing from your turret. They move over to your turret and start attacking it while you're attacking them. You use the turret active skill thump to send them flying up in the air and detonate your nearly-dead turret as they're back in range to give them a final blow--making the most of your turret before it dies. Now, obviously all those combo finishers can make that more complex, and you have the ability to salvage some cooldown time by 'picking up' the turret before it dies, but that's a practical scenario using all those turret skills.

(But an effective Engineer would maybe swap out to his bomb kit to take advantage of all the blast finishers in this situation. Laying down a smoke bomb prior to the shockwave to give blindness and explode into area stealth via it's smoke field--setting up a pretty solid early defence. The second detonate blast finisher could easily take advantage of the fire bomb's fire field to give a bit of that area burning. Between each bomb placement, I could certainly see someone swapping out to the flamethrower for some continued AoE spray since they'll all be stacked in the thumper. But you know, we're trying to keep stuff simple here.)

That wasn't so hard, was it?

*Edit: I'm a horrible person. :)

Oh god. That sounds cool and all but I think I'll just be over here with my great sword and rifle warrior wrecking faces the old fashioned way.

Gotta consider that the ingame feel of the profession we've only been able to play a mostly incomplete build. I got to lvl 22 in bwe2 and was really starting to get the feel down. I purchased a few skills i thought I wanted but ended up swapping them out after acquiring something better, plus only partial trait build at that point. It sucks that it took that long for me to understand how the class plays but I was trying as many of the skills out as i could but more importantly I was completely distracted by everything else in the game. Its a fun and effective profession but I do agree that this might not be a good class to start as a main for most mmo veterans.

I couldn't find episode 13 to post in but this is partially relevant to that discussion plus it has a non creepy collectable doll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS85KJsw2rg&feature=youtu.be&a

@punxotani said:

Gotta consider that the ingame feel of the profession we've only been able to play a mostly incomplete build. I got to lvl 22 in bwe2 and was really starting to get the feel down. I purchased a few skills i thought I wanted but ended up swapping them out after acquiring something better, plus only partial trait build at that point. It sucks that it took that long for me to understand how the class plays but I was trying as many of the skills out as i could but more importantly I was completely distracted by everything else in the game. Its a fun and effective profession but I do agree that this might not be a good class to start as a main for most mmo veterans.

I couldn't find episode 13 to post in but this is partially relevant to that discussion plus it has a non creepy collectable doll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS85KJsw2rg&feature=youtu.be&a

@ZoomyRamen does not approve.

@No0b0rAmA: What? Not approving of my comments on the engineer class or the doll being non creepy?

@punxotani: Felicia Day.

@No0b0rAmA: Like d3 im burned out on fd as well.

@punxotani: WHY IS SHE IN GUILD WARS 2. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

I don't know. I'm at a loss of words. I know not how to remedy your pain... if it helps gw2 comes out in 2 1/2 weeks?

@No0b0rAmA: Yeah, guess who has to deal with it for having an asura main? This guy.

@project343: Yes! They've improved turrets. That's the one change I wanted for engineer. The non-active toolbar skill sounds really interesting.

@No0b0rAmA: @punxotani: @Subjugation: Oh, come on, duders. I can understand being put off by the people who fawn over frequently-exposed media personalities, but despising the personality themselves (especially when they actually seem like a decent person) is tiresome and unnecessary.

Felicia Day is alright.

@Dark_Lord_Spam: @Subjugation: @punxotani: @No0b0rAmA: See, my problem with Felicia Day is that I just don't get why she is so popular at all. The simple answer is that she's an attractive "geek". That's legit all I can come up with. She has done ZERO for the industry, she is annoying and personally I don't think she is attractive in the slightest.

The show that made her "famous" the guild USES STEREOTYPES THAT WE ALL DESPISE. SERIOUSLY. Has anyone even looked at the characters?

Adult who scrounges internet and dedicates his life to the game instead of paying attention to jobs etc

Mother who legit cares more about her game than her kids

Creepy guy who stalks the "attractive" female

Girl who manipulates a guy into buying her shit

Guy who buys a girl lots of shit purely because he might sex her up.

If this was a news outlet everyone who be going crazy and saying that's not us, we're not like that, horrible forced gender roles! Yet because it's made by an "attractive" female everyone laps it up. It's also not very good.

@No0b0rAmA said:

@punxotani: WHY IS SHE IN GUILD WARS 2. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

She does a much better Asura female than whoever does the female Asura player character. :P

@ZoomyRamen: But now you're going out of your way to denigrate someone who it sounds like you'd be better off ignoring entirely. I personally don't get it.

@Dark_Lord_Spam: I'm simply explaining why I don't like her. And I do choose to ignore her completely but sadly, Anet has chosen to put her in a game I'm super hyped for, in a race that I love (see: Asurable).

Then again, this really is a pointless topic. Some people like her, others don't.

Lets' talk about Guild Wars 2 some more!

Just finished listening to the podcast guys, good show! Liked the debate format especially, you should definitely keep that going.

Firstly, n00b... just say no. And if you can't turn to a stranger on a gaming forum for advice on whether to buy a $50 lion girl... then where can you turn? Certainly not to normal people... dear god man do you want to end up on the news with a police mugshot? However in all seriousness... think of all the great stuff you could buy with gems from that money... the chef's outfit man...

The new player class discussion was really good. I'm going to throw in my two cents about the ranger, as it's the only class I've really played enough of to comment on. Provided that you aren't as dissuaded by working with AI as Cynic or Dourin, then I think it may well be the best profession to start out with for a new player. I think there's something to be said for familiarity. It's why the elementalist and warrior are up there as good options. They're similar to classes from other games. I can't speak for everyone, but when playing GW2 for the first time it wasn't about how cool my class was, it was about how cool the game was. It was about seeing the new dynamic event system, and how the combat differed. So I really think that a class that can allow you to see that the best while still being interesting but not confusing or annoying is what you need as a new player.

The ranger gives new players some familiar footing; it's similar to hunter/ranger classes from other games, especially with the pet mechanic. The axe allows you to start from range, which I feel is more forgiving and hence friendly for new players, however the axe also has 2 multi-target attacks and 2 conditions, allowing the player to be introduced to those. The ranger also has a decent choice of weaponry, however not a staggering amount so unlocking the skills is not too taxing. In this way I feel it is better than the elementalist where the unlocking of so many skills may get confusing for a new player. Similarly the warrior has so many weapon options it may become confusing for a newer player to decide which weapon they want. Of course these aspects of the ele and warrior can be viewed as positives in the sense that they allow more versatility of playstyle. Also the ranger does have the drawback of playing quite differently depending on your starting pet. Choosing a bear is very different to choosing a cat, drake or wolf. So this may influence a player's experience (whether it be positively or negatively is hard to say without knowing the individual player's desires for the class).

Overall I think the 3 classes mentioned above would all be good for a new player. I feel the warrior or ranger would be slightly better due to less unlocking of skills and greater awareness of weapon swapping. Ultimately it depends on what the new player is looking for though, what their background in MMOs is and especially how much research they've done on the game before playing.

Just an addon to the discussion, I forgot what the conversation topic was exactly but I think someone said that elementalist was 'easy' according to the devs.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/42375-highest-skill-player-ceiling/page__st__30

(go to comment #34) Apparently the devs felt that Necros were the hardest profession, followed by elementalist, then mesmer then engineer.

I believe that what Jon intended to say was about skill ceiling, and not skill floors (anyone who's played a necro can attest to the fact that necros are easy to get into). Same goes for elementalist, they're rather easy to get into.. but dificult to master. An effective elementalist would be switching attunements quite frequently, and would also have to decide on when to switch to what attunement as there is a 20 sec cd (or was it 25?) on the attunement you switched out from. Button spamming and frivolous switching gets you killed.

Overall an awesome episode, reccommended to my mates as some still had indecisions about the classes.

PS: Guardian, boring, really? That point was hammered in with such enthusiasm it might have made the decision for listeners who didn't bother to try the class! It isn't just 'buff buff buff' heal, swing sword. Using that context, a warrior would be just reduced to swinging and hitting f1 whenever the adrenaline bar was up. Dead boring no? Compared to being able to buff, and heal, and do damage, all while keeping in mind that you are actually rather fragile. That's over simplifying things and I thought the only downpoint to the overall great episode. Cheers!

@Covaloch: I just personally think Guardians are boring from a conceptual level (healer/damage dealer, blue light, etc - sounds like a bad fantasy novel, and I'm a bit of a fantasy freak). The Warrior though fits with some of the modern fantasy movement of a 30s style action hero in a fantasy setting - beat up, scrappy as fuck, a bit on the angry side, etc.

However, @shinboy630 has started getting people to try out the DPS guardian, which may be more my style : )

Oh, and the thing I said about the elementalists came from the 20+ hours of live PvP streaming done by some Arenanet quality testers where they pretty much state (with umming-and ahhing, so not definitively) that the Elementalist has the highest skill cap of them all. I believe you misinterpreted that. But yeah - different devs think different things, which just means the game is well designed.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback and happy to hear you enjoyed the episode.

@selfconfessedcynic: Ah! Yeah that makes so much more sense now, the part about the QA testers - sorry about that. I guess I can agree with you on the conceptual level for why you find it boring, but then there are so many other professions who'd be guilty of that. Warrior, thief, ranger, elementalist, guardians - all part of the 'standard' fantasy archetypes - if you're not basing what you've said on class mechanics and rather the concept. Then again I doth protest too much.

Still at a lost though on what to play, will be trying out the stress test tomorrow for the guardian and the ranger! So far I must say that elementalist has struck me as such an awesome profession though purely because you EXPECT the archetype of staying still and conjuring huge fireballs, but because the elementalist in GW2 reminds me more of the Avatar in Legends of Korra, where you aren't stuck to just one type (ie Fire Mage, Ice mage) and have to switch and make use of ALL of em.

And dude, you really reply quick.

@selfconfessedcynic: I sort of felt the same (and guardian is still one of the three professions I'm not rolling at launch), but I had a huge amount of fun with my sylvari guardian. You may be emphasizing the healing too much in your head. My experience - with the weapons I favored, anyway - was flying across the battlefield dropping insane AoE and knocking everything back 30 feet.