I’m sure I’m not the only one. Quaffing cans of super-charged caffeine drinks so as to power me though every single hour possible in the BWE and in the Monday stress test. If you’re also like me, you’re probably feeling a little conflicted right now. You want to maximise every single moment in the next BWE but don’t want to spoil the story or explore too many zones. Since going outside in the sun on a GW2 BWE is unthinkable we need other things to do. Well here are some ideas for when the next BWE comes around.

1. It’s a bug hunt.

One of the most valuable activities you can do during a BWE is try to find bugs for Arenanet. Have you noticed something odd in the sky? Are there clipping errors on armor, a break in an invisible wall or maybe even an exploit you found? Going bug hunting is a fun way to pass the time, without spoiling the game. Just make sure you note down, what you did and where so Arenanet can repeat and then fix it. There is a little bug report icon in the top left (next to the cog wheel) you can use to give the details and even send in a screenshot.



Keep watching the skies...

2. Practice basic gameplay

There’s no doubt that GW2 offers a very different way of playing to the traditional MMO. Active dodging, kiting, watching what the enemy is doing are now all vital parts of gameplay. Due to downscaling you can go back to those early areas and practice all of the above. Sure it’s not like pressing into Terra Incognita but being able to spot that one shot kill, instinctively kite, and practice getting used to the combat mechanics will stand you in good stead for when you do.

3. Use your free gems

If you don’t want to use your free gems to transfer servers, then cash some of them in (to fund crafting and the like perhaps) or use them to try out the cash shop items to see if you like them.

4. Crafting

Use the crafting system to create and discover recipes. GW2’s crafting system is very complex, especially cooking. So how about taking up your gathering tools and heading to the nearest crafting NPC(found in all major towns) and just play with the crafting system. You’ll need to be careful you don’t wander too far on your node hunt of course, but there are enough nodes dotted around to make a good start. Don’t forget to note your recipe findings down though.

5. Try classes and races you don’t want to play

Rather than going for the class and race you know you want to play, how about going for the opposite? Make sure you stay away from the homelands of the race you intend to play, unless you want to spoil the story and the area.


6. Make your live character already

By this I mean, spend the time with the character creator now, rather than spend the time doing it once the game is live and you want to just get on and play. Since you can take screenshots of the sliders in the character creator, how about making a screenie of their settings now? So that when the game goes live all you need to do in live is call up the screens and copy them. Of course, they may well add more styles and settings between now and live, but at least you’ll be most of the way there.



Making a note of sliders could save you hours when the game goes live

7. Mess about with friends

GW2 has many ‘fun’ places to chill so why not head to one. Like the Diverse ledges waypoint in Lions Arch with some friends, then put on your diving goggles and just mess about in game. Invite people to a diving contest, and give points for style, grace and sheer disregard for life and limb. Why not use your free gems to get prizes for people and make an event of it.

Just chilling can be a lot of fun.


8. Practice Theorycraft.

If being serious is more your style, you can head to the mists and experiment with skills, traits and combos. Use the combat log chat tab to note down the effects of what you are doing. The conditions/debuffs and how many times they are stacked are on top centre(just below the target’s name) Not only will it help give you a better idea of the class you are playing, but it will give you an edge going forward. Of course, everything is liable to change but the concepts and combo’s are unlikely to be altered that much.

9. Explore Strange New worlds

Not sure on a home server yet? Then use the BWE to visit servers you are considering trying, before you are locked down when the game goes live.

10. Express yourself

How about making a note of the features and ideas you think the game is lacking or perhaps doesn’t do quite right? Don't just focus on the big things, but also on the smaller ones that no one really sees but misses if they are not there. Then make constructive and logical reasons why you think they should be changed and posting them in Guru's Primordus Visions forum and/or the official GW2 beta site when it's open.

So I hope this has given you at least a starting point on what to do in the next BWE and should give you a whole weekends worth of fun without actually spoiling the game. Back to Top

Along with the vast assortment of armor set images on the web, GamerDiNG took it upon himself/herself to combine those with several in-game shots from the last BWE into two neat armor set videos.

You can comment on them here:

• Guild Wars 2 - Armors 1/2
  
• Guild Wars 2 - Armors 2/2

And if you haven't checked out or used our Videos section yet, you really should! Back to Top

Finally, we have information on how you can reserve your Guild Wars 1 character name for Guild Wars 2.

Quote

Read the full blog post here.

This news is something that many people have been waiting for and now that we know how it works, you better remember to log in to GW1 if you haven't this year soon and remember to create that special character or 2 (or 5) so you don't lose your character names.

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Have you ever sat down and wondered if there's a place to watch, stream, and comment on user uploaded video content for Guild Wars 2 all on your favorite Guild Wars 2 forum? Of course you have (who hasn't?)!

Up along the red navigation bar at the top of your screen, you can find links to the video section of the site, the Videos section, and the Streaming section. Both of which are waiting very patiently for you to explore all they have to offer.

Videos

Here you're able to find videos that users have uploaded, and either comment or favorite them yourself. If you're looking for something more specific, try filtering by profession, game format, fan trailers, or even impressions. We've got some pretty cool stuff here already, so dig a bit and you're bound to find something interesting.

Adding your own video is pretty straightforward once you have it uploaded to youtube. Simply fill out the title, description, and category and you're good to go. After that, you can view all of your uploaded videos in one spot any time you want.

Streams

Want to watch the game, but can't play it? Head over to the Streams section to find streams members have set up. Watching a stream is as simple as picking one from the list. Adding one is nearly as easy. Just like adding a video, click the "Add Stream" button in the upper right corner just below the Facebook and Twitter icons. Once you're there, choose which site you'll be looking to stream from, then enter your user or channel name. After everything has finished, either you or other forum members will be able to post comments on the channel you'll be streaming from.

As we get closer to release, these sections are going to be a great way to find content provided by the community. Hope to see you guys post some insane videos there! Back to Top

Rejoice! Were you spending the last week and a half sobbing uncontrollably in a corner because you so dearly missed the first Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event? Well, it looks like it's time to come back for more a bit earlier than you might have expected. This Monday, May 14th, everyone who has pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 will be able to participate in a surprise stress test for the game from 11AM-6PM (-7 GMT). And for those of you who want one more chance to screenshot your human, norn, or charr from the last beta test, you're in luck! Existing characters will be completely playable during this exciting window of opportunity. There is also no need to download any sort of new client either. The one used for the last test in April will be made available again (so don't delete it!).

Don't miss out! Back to Top

Last night, ArenaNet hit yet another fan milestone on their Facebook page for Guild Wars 2. Upon hitting the impressive number of 490,000, ArenaNet has once again unleashed another new piece of concept art. Check out the Undead Globster boss below, or head to their Flicker page for an assortment of sizes available to download!

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Today we have an interesting post written by Neato on tips & tricks you might not have known about during your first BWE play-through.

I found a few that some may have not noticed and figured I'd share them with the rest of you, and everyone else can add their own too!

I'm sure you've heard the complaint... "We can use skills even if we aren't in range and there's no way of knowing if we're out of range!"
But I learned that's wrong. I actually thought this too, and thought they should make the skills turn red or have a red bar over them when out of range, that is... until I discovered that they already do. It's the number. If you're in range, the skill number is white, if you're out of range it's red. Here's a visual example, watch skill #4 and F1, F2, F3:



Next, the complaint... "If I finish off a monster and have skills queued then they'll auto target the next mob and possibly agro something I had no intention of agroing!"
Well, this one's true. But there's a few workarounds...

1) In Options, just disable Auto Targeting. Now, for your game to not have become suddenly incredibly difficult... you need to go into Options -> Control Options and set Targeting Foe - Nearest to a hotkey you can easily use. For those familiar with GW, you may want to use C as the hotkey. From now on, you'll have to target manually using C (or clicking), but if you finish something off you won't start attacking something else (unless it's in your line of fire).

2) This method is a little harder in some ways and easier in others, but it's just a different way of going about it. Rather than disabling auto targeting, instead we want to set a hotkey in Options -> Control Options. The option is Targeting: Hold Lock (locks the auto-target while held down). So, you can set this to something like say... Shift, and then when you're about to kill something you hold down Shift (or whatever hotkey you chose), and it won't select a new target once your current one is dead. All you have to do is let off the "hold lock" key you designated to begin auto targeting again. Overall, the best all around solution I think. Very useful.

Next... "Where's the Guild Panel?!"
There's no button at the top left for it, so it's a little hard to find. But there's a hotkey set for it, just hit "G".

Next... "How do I sheath/unsheath my weapons?"
This one's easy, there's a hotkey for it but it isn't set. So you gotta go in there and set it. It's called Action: Stow/Draw Weapons, and there you go!

Next... "Chat is too transparent and too small, I never even notice it's there, and there's no tabs or anything! I have to keep using these stupid slash commands to switch chat channels. They had a good thing with GW and shouldn't have changed it."
I feel your pain. I thought this too, for the longest time... That is, until I figured out that it wasn't the case.You should see this down at the bottom left hand corner of your screen:



Click that little icon next to [Guild], which for you will probably be [Local]. Show/Hide Chat Panel. Then, it'll come up. I have mine resized, but it should look like this...



And here's what all that junk is...

#1 Show/Hide Chat Panel (toggle)
#2 Where you type.
#3 Area where text appears.
#4 Settings

• You can change the size of the font displayed in the chat panel here.
  
• You can also change the profanity filter to various levels.
  
• You can also enable timestamps or channel tags.

#5 Tab settings

• Click another tab so it's active to edit its settings.

#6 Close tab.
#7 Add new tab.
#8 Drag this to resize the chat panel.

Next... "The towns are too freakin' huge! I get completely lost, and having to run all over the place is a major pain in the butt!"
Indeed it was, until I discovered I could use waypoints in town at no charge. Hit M to pull up your map. There are 3 levels. Above ground, ground level, and under ground. You can click each of the levels to show a different map. Wherever you need to go, just find a waypoint near there and use that to fast travel to that location rather than getting lost or running all over the place trying to find it. This proves very very useful...

That's all I've got for now... feel free to add your own!

Updates! - May 04, 2012

"I hate having to find X weapon for Y class, I end up having to play with some weapon I don't want for so long!"
Well if you have a little bit of money (something in the range of 50 or so copper) then you can head to your "home." For instance for human noble, this would be in the Salma District - the place you have your party. If you go there at another time, you have your own personal instance. It has all sorts of merchants in there. You can find an armorsmith and weaponsmith as well. Oh and there's a dye npc as well. He'll take your colorful seeds and take a day to convert them to random dyes. If you have plant food then he'll do it instantly.

"Having to hit F and click each item individually to loot them is so annoying! They need some kind of auto loot."
There is an auto-loot system actually - it's in Options. You still have to hit F, but it'll automatically pick up everything for you so you don't have to click each individual thing. It can still be somewhat annoying if there's an NPC near you since there is no dedicated loot button and you'll tend to "interact" with the NPC a lot by mistake, but it's worlds easier than clicking each item individually.

"OMG I have this stack of X and I can't split it!"
Try alt+clicking and dragging the stack to open the split dialog panel.
Thanks Umbradomo for this tip!

"I've tried to mail items to my alt but it says that I can't send stuff to myself!"
At this time mail to other characters on your account can't be done, but...... Your bank is account wide so you can put items and cash in there and any character on your account can access them. This is great for the times you get a nice weapon you can use but an alt may be able to.
Thanks Umbradomo for this tip!

"I wish there was an easier way to sell things..."
You can sell things at the trading post from anywhere by right clicking the item and going to sell at trading post. You only need to head to the trading post to buy things, and collect what your items sold for.
Thanks Enenion for this tip!

"I wish there was an easier way to aim these ground target skills..."
There is, actually. There's a fast-cast ground target option and it'll automatically cast them for you without having to aim. But, that's not all... There are four ways to cast ground target skills:

• Press hotkey, aim ground reticle, cast by pressing left mouse button.
  
  
• Press hotkey, aim ground reticle, cast by pressing hotkey again.
  
  
• Aim at ground with mouse cursor first, rapidly tap hotkey twice to simulate fast cast. This retains the ability to aim with reticle (tap once instead of twice), or cancel the cast with right mouse button, when needed.
  
  
• Enable fastcast ground targeting option in menus, aim at ground with mouse cursor first and tap hotkey once to cast instantly. No ground reticle will ever appear, no second chance to retract or hold the cast if a situation changed.

Thanks Trei and highteqz for this tip!

"I wish there was some kind of crafting material storage..."
There is, actually. And not only that, but you can right click on crafting materials to add them to your collection and they'll be transported to your bank instantly.
Thanks to Linfang for this tip!

"I wish there was a way to easily swim up and down..."
You can swim directly up by pressing the spacebar and directly down by assigning a key to that action in the options menu (it has no hotkey by default).
Thanks to Enyth for this tip!

Updates! - May 05, 2012

New! "What do all these area of effect circles on the ground mean..?"
Red circles on the ground have a bad effect on you, blue circles have a beneficial effect on you and white circles have no effect.
Thanks to Lanka for this tip!

New! "This PvP armor looks so boring!"
You can spend the glory you earned from PvPing to purchase new looks. These glory merchants will sell you rank 1 vanity PvP armor at 1500 glory and items costs around 500-1000 glory each.
Thanks to Lanka for this tip!

New! "I wish I could add markers to the map..."
You can add your own markers (waypoints) to the map, by using Alt + left mouse!
Thanks to Lanka for this tip!

New! "I've seen some people linking things in chat. How do they do that?"
Shift+click an item/waypoint/point of interest will allow you to link it into the chat log. Doing so with a waypoint for example, will allow anyone that clicks on it through the chat log to pull up the map showing them its location and allowing them to travel there if they have unlocked it.
Thanks to Lanka for this tip!

New! "How do I join PvP with a friend?"
Right click their name (Party list, guild list, etc.) and select, "Join Friend in PvP". You can also go to the PvP Channel NPC by the LA Portal, any channel which contains a Friend will have an icon beside it.
Thanks to Dastion for this tip!

Thanks guys, keep them coming! Back to Top

It sure has been a crazy few days here over at Guild Wars 2 Guru! And if you thought we were done, you'd be wrong! Right on the heels of our forum conversion we have GW2DB going live, created to cater to all your item/recipe/achievement/trait look-up needs. Give it a browse-through.

With the database going live, we're also introducing item tooltips which can be inserted into your posts here on GW2G. Here are a few examples:

• Arc Lightning
  
• Svanir Chestguard

Adding the tooltips is relatively easy. All you have to do is use the regular url BBcode and insert the GW2DB url and item info:

[url=http://www.gw2db.com/skills/11759-arc-lightning]Arc Lightning[/url]
[url=http://www.gw2db.com/items/29329-svanir-chestguard]Svanir Chestguard[/url]

Future plans include:

• Skill and trait calculator
  
• Better map integration
  
• Personal storyline and renown hearts
  
• And more!

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Welcome to Guild Wars 2 Guru on IP.Board!

The first time you login to the new Guild Wars 2 Guru, you will need to migrate your old account and link it to a Curse.com account. Follow the steps below to get set up for the first time.

1. Click the "Sign In" button on the site header.
2. You will be presented with a page asking you to login with either the email or username associated with your Curse.com account OR the email or username associated with your Guild Wars 2 Guru account. After entering either of these details, click "login".
3. From here, the steps will vary based on the situation you are in. Follow the step that matches your account situation:

If you have only a Curse account: Choose a Guild Wars 2 Guru display name on this page, then click "create account."
If you have only a Guru account: Enter the necessary details to register a new Curse.com account on this page, then click "create account."
If you have accounts on both sites:

• And the email associated with your Guru account is the same as your Curse account: Enter your Curse.com account details on this page, then click "login." This will link the accounts.
  
• And the email associated with your Guru account is different than your Curse account: On this page, find the text that says "Already have an existing Curse account? Login." This text is beneath the "Confirm password" box and above the "Create Account" button. Click the "login" text to be taken to a page where you may enter your Curse.com account details, linking the Guru account and Curse account.

4. Now you should be logged in and good to go!
5. When logging in in the future, you will need to use your Curse.com login details, though your display name will be whatever you chose when creating your original Guru account or in step 3.

Any bugs on this forum should be reported on this thread. Back to Top