Legendary Weapons: Clarification Edition

According to this post all of the steps and components to creating Twilight, a legendary greatsword (apparently there's another, Sunrise) are now known.  Here's the gist of it:

-It's crafted at the mystic forge from Dusk, the exotic greatsword, and Gifts of Mastery, Fortune, and Twilight.
-These require an absolute minimum (not including the cost of purchasing any of the mountains of crafting materials you need) of 120g and 525000 karma.
-Each of the Gifts are created from combinations of other Gifts (which all also have ridiculous requirements) and certain rare materials.
-The only components of this process that are soulbound are the Obsidian Shards and the dungeon specific tokens required for the dungeon's Gift.  All other bound items are account bound.
-The components which require some form of grinding include the dungeon Gift, Gift of Exploration (requires 100% map completion, note that the Gift itself is account bound), Bloodstone Shard (requires 200 skill points, but also account bound), Gift of Battle (requires 500 Badges of Honor from WvWvW), and the Obsidian Shards (soulbound and bought with karma).

There's another thread here compiling information on the other legendaries.

Legendary Weapons: More Rumors and Speculation Edition

Back when I made this post I didn't have a lot of information on Legendary Weapons, so here's a few more notes to fill in some gaps:

-All legendary weapons are made from two "Gifts" + Bloodstone Shard + a specific exotic weapon.
-The Bloodstone Shard is, ironically, probably the easiest to get as it only requires 200 skill points.
-Many of the gifts are created from max level craft skills but are reportedly bind on account, which should mean that having tradeskills on multiple characters won't hinder creating the legendary for one particular character.
-The gifts also have some pretty obsurd requirements themselves (Gift of Metal reportedly requires 250 of orihalcum, mithril, darksteel, and platinum ingots), and each weapon requires at least one Gift that in turn requires a material bought from several hundred (500 apparently?  I could verify this but I'm not logged into the game right now) of a certain explorable mode dungeon's token--so I was partially wrong about explorable mode dungeons not being endgame.
-It's not yet clear how exactly the required exotic weapons are made.
-It's not clear how much of the process requires stuff that is soulbound or if the weapons themself are souldbound.  Obviously many of the crafting materials are not soulbound, however I'm aware that the explorable mode dungeon tokens (Tears of Ascalon et al.) are soulbound for sure.

Here's the current list of legendaries being tossed around the internet:
Frostfang (Axe): Gift of Frostfang(Jeweler) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Tooth of Frostfang of Rage
Incinerator (Dagger): Gift of Incinerator(Cook) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Spark of Rage
Sunrise (Greatsword): Gift of Sunrise(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Dawn of Rage
Twilight (Greatsword): Gift of Twilight(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Dusk or Rage
Juggernaught (Hammer): Gift of Juggernaught(Jeweler) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + The Colossus of Rage
The Moot (Mace): Gift of The Moot(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + The Energizer of Rage
The Flameseeker Prophecies (Shield): Gift of The Flameseeker Prophecies(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + The Seeker of Rage
Bolt (Sword): Gift of Bolt(Artificer) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Zap of Rage
Maw of the Deep (Spear): Gift of Maw of the Deep(Leatherworker) + Gift of Metal(Weamonsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Maw of Rage
Kudzu (Longbow): Gift of Kudzu(Leatherworker) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Leaf of Kudzu of Rage
The Dreamer (Shortbow): Gift of The Dreamer(Jeweler) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + The Lover of Rage
Predator (Rifle): Gift of Predator(Tailor) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + The Hunter of Rage
Quip (Pistol): Gift of Quip(Armorsmith) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Chaos Gun of Rage
Dragons Maw Torch: Gift of Dragon Maw(Unknown) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Dragons Claw of Rage
Howler (Warhorn): Gift of Howler(Leatherworker) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Howl of Rage
Frenzy (Speargun): Gift of Frenzy(Cook) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Rage of Rage
The Minstrel (Focus): Gift of The Minstrel(Jeweler) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + The Bard of Rage
Meteorlogicus (Scepter): Gift of Meteorlogicus(Armorsmith) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + Storm or Rage
The Bifrost (Staff): Gift of The Bifrost(Cook) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + The Legend of Rage
Kraitkin (Trident): Gift of Kraitkin(Leatherworker) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + Venom of Rage.

Guilds War

I want to write a bit about the paradigm shift of player community interaction in Guild Wars 2, and as someone who has had an administrative hand in guild and groups in nearly a dozen MMOs I have some advice for people trying to build a Guild Wars 2 guild. The "paradigm shift" I speak of is the fact that a single player (or, more specifically, their account) can be a member of multiple guilds.  This isn't new to MMOs, except perhaps to one as "mainstream" as Guild Wars 2.  Final Fantasy XI had linkshells, which was that game's equivalent of guilds, and you could have as many as you had inventory spaces for (since they...literally took up inventory space).

The thing I'm looking for and hope develops in Guild Wars 2 is the compartmentalization that occurred in FFXI.  By either design or the game's social evolution, individual linkshells had very specific specializations.  Players had their social LS, their ENM (endgame) LS, perhaps a Dynamis LS if their ENM one didn't also do Dynamis (or they might have had a separate LS just for Dynamis with the same members).  I'm not yet committed to a guild (or circle of guilds) and so I'm trying to collect solid guilds, but whenever I see a recruitment message that touts that they intend to be super duper active in everything, PvE, sPvP, WvWvW, endgame, leveling, et al. all at once it's an immediate turn off.  This is an old school mentality that comes from WoW-style MMOs where your guild was really your only social circle, so by necessity guilds had to do everything to attract members.

Anyways, to get back to that advice I referred to in the first paragraph.  If you want to build a successful guild, start by doing what nobody else is doing: specialize.  Pick the thing you like doing most, whether it be PvE, sPvP, or WvWvW and get the word out that your guild does nothing but that.  Let's use sPvP as an example.  Get the word out that your guild eats, drinks, and farts sPvP and discusses and engages in it ad nauseam.  In time, wise players looking to play with others focused on sPvP and improve and talk sPvP will like the idea of joining a guild that does nothing but that.  Players who would like to sPvP more but are stuck in ho-hum guilds where only one or two other people are sort of vaguely into it will eagerly jump on board as well.  So far I've found guilds that sort of casually only do WvWvW and PvE, but I'd still like to find guilds actively committed to only doing them.  I still haven't found a guild full of die-hard sPvPers which is frustrating because I want to do it more but can only take soloing through the server browser in small chunks, and thus I don't have anyone to talk PvP theorycrafting with at all.
"Representing" guilds is an issue that throws a kink into my desire for specialized guilds, as representing a guild for influence does encourage a certain amount of guild loyalty.  Right now guilds really want you to represent them for influence, though I think this'll probably die off over time as guilds finish all the upgrades they want.  Right now a lot of guilds are very adamant (or at least passive aggressive) about it; early on there's a lot of incentive for guild leaders to persistently ask their members to either exclusively or semi-exclusively represent them.  I just had an officer from my WvWvW guild send me faux-sad tells asking why I wasn't representing.  I had to explain to him that when I was in WvWvW, grouping with members from the guild, or particularly starved for conversation, I always represent the guild, and furthermore that in a game like Guild Wars 2 where you have a neigh-infinite choice of guilds a player is only holding themself back by sticking to one.  As a guild leader there's two ways to ensure a steady flow of influence: either recruit like mad just for sheer numbers, which will maybe give a short term boost unless you can create a truly steady large community (which can happen, shout out to All Shall Perish), or do as I advised above.  Like I said before, guilds used to be the only social circle a player has.  Now you need to create the need or incentive for a player to choose your guild over others and right now I believe specialization is the best way to do that.


Fortunately for me, guilds are a very accessory part of GW2, so I've not urgently needed one for anything and have had the luxury of not being desperate to shoehorn my way into an existing community.  I actually made my own tiny guild to invite a few friends I know who play and to dump small bits of influence into when things are dry in other guilds.  Since I don't feel attached to any of them yet, I'd rather my influence be my own right now.

Guild Wars 2 Endgame: Karma Weapons and Armor and Legendary Weapons; also I bitch about Necromancer a lil bit

I've got a ton to write about and now I've finally got a good reason to get around to it.  Two days ago my Necromancer, Desyrel, hit 80.  Since then I've mostly been working on map completion and crafting while slowly collecting information on what comprises the endgame.  Here's what I've learned so far:

-Explorable mode dungeons give tokens for corresponding sets of armor and weapons.  The armor sets are all level appropriate to the explorable mode dungeon it corresponds to.  The weapons are all several levels higher, starting at level 60 weapons from Ascalon Catacombs and then finally reaching level 80 at Twilight Arbor and up.  Unless you are going for the asthetics, explorable mode dungeons are not really "endgame".  So far I've finished Ascalon Catacombs and Honor of the Waves on exploration mode once each.
-The most readily available sets of level 80 gear are the Tier 3 cultural armor sets and the faction armor sets available from either the Order of Whispers, Durmond Priory, or Vigil depending on which you chose during the story; any of these sets are available for purchase with gold.  I compared the Sylvari cultural set and Whisperer set last night and found they had the same stat values, however the Whisperer set was both cheaper and had slightly higher armor values.
-From what else I've been able to gather, the big armor items come from karma vendors that spawn at the ends of strings of events in the Orrian zones.  These armor sets are referred to as the God Temple sets (this refers to said events)--there are evidently 6 sets amongst each armor class corresponding to one of the human gods.
--At this time I don't know which god corresponds with which set but I do know the names of the sets.  The names of the armor pieces are Light/Medium/Heavy Arcon/Armageddon/Aurora/Mortal/Rubicon/Whispering X.  If you want a sneak peak at the stats head on over to GW2DB and simply search for "light", "medium", or "heavy" and they all pop up in the item list (they're all ironically amongst the few items in the game that simply have the title of the armor class right in the equipment name).
--They all have rather hefty karma costs, as in 60k+ per piece.
-Karma "cultural" weapons are also available at similar karma costs to the armor pieces above from karma vendors in the race capitals.
-The super duper big ticket weapons are the legendary weapons.  I don't know much about these aside from the fact that they require a max level crafting profession, some absurd amount of skill points (reportedly 200, remember that once you hit 80 you continue "leveling up" and getting skill points this way), and supposedly involve a lot of bind on account stuff to keep it from turning into a market game.
-All of the above, as far as I know (except explorable modes obviously), are doable solo.  There's evidently no strict need for an endgame PvE guild.

Also, I've written and just now updated a fairly popular Necromancer Minion Master build.  Check that bad boy out.

Right now I'm working on a zone a day for map completion and finishing up jewelcrafting and the story on my Necromancer while trying to decide which character I want to play second.

Necromancer is fun to a point but I feel that overall it's a weak class.  I feel like it provides very little utility that isn't available to other classes, or at least I haven't completely found Necro's niche.  I think that niche may be something like condition removal but that's only useful in some situations.  Necro also feels pretty week in PvP; it can be VERY tanky in the right build and situation but often lacks the oomph to nail home kills on a consistent basis.

Death Shroud as a mechanic is very weak.  All the abilities in Death Shroud are very marginally useful and while in Death Shroud you have no access to your slot skills.  It's basically only incredibly useful as a tanking mechanic--and naturally in a game where tanks aren't a central mechanic I feel this further dilutes Necromancer's overall usefulness.  It really needs some kind of tweak somehow.