Super Adventure Box - Bubble Bauble Farming

Video for BB Farming: First Run

Video for BB Farming: Speed Run

This guide is designed to teach lay-peoples how to grind baubles in a realistic and reasonable manner.  This method is most effective for people who have 5+ character slots full, who do not want to delete a character to re-run them through the starting instance like some people do.  Each character is an investment, and should be treated as such.

Super Adventure Box went live on the 31st of April, 2013.  It provides rewards for exchanging Bubble Baubles for weapon skins.  Bubble Baubles themselves can be obtained 2 different ways;

• Opening Chests at the end of each Zone
• Converting Baubles into Bubble Baubles at the Moto NPC in Rata Sum

You get 2 Bubble Baubles for each zone chest, and 1 Bubble Bauble for every 250 Baubles you redeem at Moto.  This means that completing World 1 will give you 6 BB's for each character you run through (in 1 reset period).  Additionally, getting a full wallet (500 Baubles) will net you another 2 BB's per speed run, resulting in 8 BB's per character.  On a standard account, you have 5 characters, which means you can get 40 BB's per day using this method.  My account has 10 characters, so I can get 80 BB's per day (which I did until I collected all 9 skins I wanted).

At the top of this guide are the links to two videos I've created for this guide.  The first one is for the First Run, the run you would do to prepare a character for farming.  The emphasis behind it is to get both a shovel and the 500-capacity wallet.  You would do this for each character, and after the first day (where you get 6 BB's instead of 8) - you can move them into production mode, farming 8 BB's per day without the incessant bauble grind of Zone 2.  In order to follow through with this first part you're going to want about 500 Baubles to start out with.  This is simply because you need 100 Baubles per character to buy the shovel with.

Step 1: First Run

Put 100 Baubles on the character you intend to run through the Speed Run.  Buy the shovel in Zone 1, and the Wallet in Zone 3.  You'll be able to afford the Wallet by the time you get to it, so long as you follow the digging locations shown in the First Run video guide.  The actual run takes around 13 minutes from start to finish, and yields 6 BB's, 1 shovel, 1 wallet.

Step 2: Speed Run

Make sure your character has no Baubles on them now.  You won't be buying anymore gears, and you will be hitting up several convenient digging locations in all 3 zones until you have 500 Baubles to redeem after Zone 3 completion.  This run also takes about 12-13 minutes, and yields 6 BB's, and 500 Baubles (which is an extra 2 BB's).

Engineer Ideas:

The premise behind these changes is solve multiple issues people have with Engineer;
1. Engineers are unpopular, these changes may result in a short flavor-of-the-month feel at first, but should bring them to standard popularity with other classes.
2. It will resolve some of the image issues behind engineers being non-engineerish
3. It will simplify, yet make more attractive, one of the more underpopular skill trees in game

These changes are designed specifically for turret engineers, to bring about a new class mechanic that is both fun, unique, and intuitive, while iconifying the class as a whole.

Turrets currently exist in the following form;
Healing: Healing Turret
Utility: Rifle, Rocket, Thumper, Net, Flame
Elite: None

By consolidating all turrets into one turret-based class mechanic (inevitibly replacing the tool belt skills), there can be one overall turret available to the engineer at all times, with different customizations (performed at the Turret Workshop, detailed below).

Turrets will be given independant stats from their owner, also customizable in the same manner.  The below stat tables indicate level 80 values (scale appropriately for lower levels).

Rules of Turrets:
-They will have a static 25% chance to crit for 10% crit damage by default.
-They will have 0 natural condition damage by default.
-They will have 5000 HP by default.
-They will have 2000 armor by default.
-Their attack speed, movement speed & cooldown reduction is static, and determined by their configuration.
-The look of the turret is determined by the race of the Engineer.  It cannot be changed unless the race of the engineer is changed.
-Turrets will follow the engineer unless directed to a specific location or they are out of range
-Turrets will automatically whatever it is you are actively in combat with

Look and Feel:
The turret will resemble a design similar to it's race of creation.  Asuran turrets will be similar to floating golem construction, whereas charr turrets will be closer to a harrier-jet with a rifle mounted on it.  Human would resemble a small propeller-driven wind-ship, and I'm not sure about Sylvari or Norn, but they might have designs with borrowed assistance from one of the other races.  This is an attempt at making the player relate more to their Engi and their racial choice, which currently only reflects in that all turrets appear to be of Charr design regardless of race.

Turret Interface:
F2 = Defensive Skill.  This skill is chosen in the turret workshop and consists of both a passive effect as well as an active one.
F3 = Offensive Skill.  This skill is chosen in the turret workshop and consists of both a passive effect as well as an active one.
F4 = Assign Turret.  This skill will set your turret to stand in a designated area (ground targetting) with a range of 1200.  Using it again will recall your turret to your position.  Assign turret is on a 30s cooldown.

Healing a turret:
-Your turrets primary source of healing will be out of combat where it will regenerate health in the same manner as a player, ranger pet, or NPC.
-If your turret dies and you are still in combat, you can [F] interact with it to regen it the same way you would a player, ranger pet, or NPC.  This will take a shorter amount of time due to significantly decreased turret health as opposed to any of the above examples.
-If your turret dies and you are out of combat, you can either [F] interact as stated above, or it will slowly regenerate over a period of 20 seconds (unless combat starts in which it will stop)

Turret Workshop:
The user will be able to go to a turret workshop, and customize the turret to fit their playstyle.  The turret workshop is located in every capital city including Lions Arch, and has a theme designed to it it's designated city/race.  Configuration is done through an intuitive user interface window which is only available at the workshop itself, and allows the user to create what should usually result in a balanced turret situation at all times.  The first two parameters listed below are adjusted with sliders that go toward/away from one of the titles or another.  The second 3 are selected either via Radio button or Drop-down.  The parameters are as follows:

Power vs. Range - 8 varying levels.
Mobility vs. Attack Speed - 8 varying levels.
Defensive attributes - 1 selectable
Offensive attributes - 1 selectable
Passive attributes - 1 selectable


PWR vs. RNG (slider)
Level___Damage__Range___Crit Dmg____Condition
Lvl 1____320_____2000____49.00%_______0
Lvl 2____370_____1800____42.00%_______75
Lvl 3____430_____1600____35.00%_______150
Lvl 4____480_____1400____28.00%_______225
Lvl 5____530_____1200____21.00%_______300
Lvl 6____580_____1000____14.00%_______375
Lvl 7____630_____800_____7.00%________450
Lvl 8____680_____600_____0.00%________525

MOV vs. A-SPD (slider)
Level___Mov Speed___Atk Speed___Offense CD__Defense CD
Lvl 1____150.00%_____1 per 3.1s____CD -49%____CD -0%
Lvl 2____130.00%_____1 per 2.8s____CD -42%____CD -7%
Lvl 3____110.00%_____1 per 2.5s____CD -35%____CD -14%
Lvl 4____90.00%______1 per 2.2s____CD -28%____CD -21%
Lvl 5____70.00%______1 per 1.9s____CD -21%____CD -28%
Lvl 6____50.00%______1 per 1.6s____CD -14%____CD -35%
Lvl 7____25.00%______1 per 1.3s____CD -7%_____CD -42%
Lvl 8____0.00%_______1 per 1.0s____CD -0%_____CD -49%

Defensive Abilities (F2): You can only have one of these
1. Armored Shell (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Turret gains an additional 500 armor
Active: Turret gains 2 stacks of aegis for 5 seconds.

2. Smoke Screen (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Absorbs 10% of damage taken by Engi
Active: Turret sprays blinding gas for 5 seconds (Combo field: Smoke)

3. Space Distortion (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Energy regeneration +25%
Active: Engi teleports 900 range away in random direction

Offensive Abilities (F3): You can only have one of these
1. Sure Shot (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): All turret attacks pierce their target
Active: The next turret attack crits for 100% extra damage

2. Rapid Fire (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): All turret attacks have a 50% chance to bounce to an adjacent target for 50% damage
Active: Turrets attack speed doubles for 5 seconds

3. Explosive Shells (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Every seventh turret shot dazes the target for .25 seconds
Active: Turrets next attack knocks the enemy down

Passive Attribute: You can only have one of these
1. Red Shells:  Everytime you activate an offensive or defensive turret ability, your turrets next attack will inflict 5s of burning.

2. Blue Chassis:  Your turret emits a regenerating mist every 15s which lasts for 5s and effects surrounding allies (and itself).

3. Yellow Battery:  If your turret dies, it explodes in an area dealing burning and knockback to nearby enemies.


Key changes required to Engineers:
1. Tool belt skills will need to go away, as there will be too many class mechanics on one bar.  However, I don't feel that this would be a problem, since the tool-belt skills exist in their current form to account for the utility skills being eaten up by kits, and the fact that we didn't have a class mechanic otherwise.  This is a benefit, as I'll state below...

2. Weapon swapping will need to be enabled on engineers!  Kit skills will still take up a spot without providing an extra skill.  This can be accounted for by allowing engineers to have weapon swapping.  This is more important due to the fact that Engineers will now have more..

3. Weapon combinations!  We currently have Pistol/Pistol, Rifle, and Pistol/Shield (in addition to kits if used).  We need a real, viable, melee option, and I think that will be allowing the following additional weapon combinations to be possible:
* Hammer
* Mace

4. The above weapon skill additions, in conjunction with the configuration possibilities of the redesigned turrets, will allow engineers to spec into a melee build that does not depend on the Wrench skill.

5. The wrench kit has not been accounted for just yet, neither has the missing utility/healing  skills as a result of the now missing 5 turrets.  Traits, similarly, are also not yet accounted for.

6. Many parts of Engineer are still broken, non-functional, and non-synergetic.  We don't have a wide variety of builds, and some skills are substantially better than others.  This redesign does not account for that, and there will still need to be balancing work done all across the board to make this a whole class.

Benefits of the redesign:
1. Engineers will feel more like engineers.
2. Engineers will have more of a connection to their race.
3. Some (if not all) of the pangs of poor weapon choice, weapon combination and weapon skinning should be alleviated by the racial turrets, and non-dependance on kit-skills.
4. Turrets will finally be viable in all situations, not just PvE leveling.  This is a result of allowing the player to choose how their turrets will act, as well as allowing them to have a targetting skill.
5. Engineers should find themselves no longer the least popular class to play.

Of Portals and Pouncing

Today, the long-awaited response from ANet was heard on the official forums.  If some of you will remember my previous postings about Thieves and the inherent flaws of shadowstepping (as well as ways to improve them) - there was a lot of criticism met with some of my solutions.

One of these ideas for improving shadowstep (and thus our class mechanic 'Steal') was to allow it to ignore LoS requirements, allowing thieves to sneak into fortresses and keeps by attacking enemies up a wall or over a gap in order to engage the enemy - thus providing a crucially needed role for Thieves as a whole in WvW. However, this was considered by many to be 'OP' and 'gamebreaking' as it does something that ANet themselves did not intend, which was to let people into a keep to assault it without taking down gates and walls.

As of recent there have been many complaints about the possibility of an exploit with Mesmers, and their use of the skill Portal (entre/exit).  It seems as though our clothy-compatriots have discovered a way to sneak into keeps without taking down gates/walls by using their portal skill!  Considered by many to be blatant cheating, and a violation of game mechanics - there have been numerous posts on the official forums documenting the exploit with an appeal to ANet to respond.  And respond they did.

When a user questioned what actions ArenaNet would be taking on the formerly considered game-breaking portal usage in WvW, arenanet responded saying;

"As we have stated, this is no exploit so far but another tactic that players can use in their gaming experience."

ARENANET OFFICIAL RESPONSE

Simply put, ANet encourages the Mesmer portaling (gate ignoring) 'exploit' as actually a 'tactic', and therefore legitimate in use and legal.  Not only does this mean that Mesmers can freely assault keeps with their team by allowing a trojan horse-like strategy to get them through the gates, but it means that any criticism about an individual character (in particular - a thief) - being able to assault a tower/keep from the inside, are completely illegitimate and unfounded!  If a Mesmer can let an entire group into a keep without taking down walls, than it must be so, that an individual Thief (or group of organized Thieves) can do the very same with what is arguably a semi-functioning class mechanic.

Thieves need to be able to shadowstep up walls, to attack enemies in keeps and towers.  They also need to be able to jump gaps, because thats just common sense for ninja-poofing.

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that this response wasn't in fact to the use of render-induced-latency allowing Mesmer's to portal their parties past keep defenses.  It is actually an approval of using the render-induced latency caused by mass invisibility + portal = laggy shitfest for enemy forces.  Basically the amount of rendering needing to happen when players are invisible and portal a distance away are creating invisible zerg armies that are depending entirely on the lag generated by themselves.  THIS is what ANet considers a legitimate strategy(?).

However, as pointed out in one of the posts I brought up this subject on, user Tyrestrian came up with the amazing idea that things like Thief infiltration/Mesmer portaling would be acceptable and non-game-breaking if they put a buff on keep/tower lords that made them invincible while the walls/gates were still up.  This would allow Thieves to infiltrate and hurt the player-defenders and veteran NPC's (and siege weapons) without allowing a massive group of Thieves or portaled-players to simply knock-off the lord without defense.  To that, I would say that siege weapons on top of siege walls would also need a buff for increased survivability to prevent them from being demolished instantaneously.

Sorry for the misunderstanding!
-LoreChief

The Reckoning of Boring Traits

As promised, I've created a list of traits that simply need to go away.  The reasons for this are one or more of the following:

• The trait doesn't contribute to gameplay
• The trait is boring and/or completely unnoticeable
• The trait takes the fun out of customizing your characters playstyle
• The trait encourages bad play (rewarding not using skills/mechanics/dodges/etc)

The link to the Google Docs spreadsheet is here.

LINK TO SPREADSHEET

Now, I'm open to input on this, but there are some traits I chose not to address in this iteration of the Reckoning.  There are traits out there that I've previously seen as "must haves" - things like the Warrior's "Forceful Greatsword" - which not only reduces the cooldown of greatsword (and spear) skills, but also grants might for each greatsword crit (or spear).  I mean, c'mon - holy shit thats a powerful talent.  You pretty much HAVE to get it if you plan on being a serious greatsword (or spear?) Warrior.  OR DO YOU?

You see, I have this idea for redoing the trait trees, which incorporates these kinds of talents for EVERY kind of weapon.  Bonus? They should be available at the Adept level.  Why?  Because you should be able to  trait into all sorts of fun goodies throughout your vast leveling experience (or not if you're just doing SPvP) - and choosing to be good with a certain weapon (or two) should not be grounds for pigeonholing you into a specific tree.  My idea looks something like this;

• Warrior:  Axe Mastery:  Axe skill cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Axes grant an extra strike of Adrenaline on critical.
• Thief:  Master Trapper:  Trap cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Allows you to lay 3 of one type of trap.
• Elementalist:  Pyromancer's Alacrity:  Fire skill cooldowns reduced by 20%.  All fire skills have a 30% chance to cause burning for 3 seconds.
• Guardian:  Zealous Blade:  Greatsword cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Greatsword attacks heal you.
• Engineer:  Short Fuse:  Bomb cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Bomb have a large explosion radius.
• Ranger:  Piercing Arrows:  Longbow/Shortbow cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Arrow attacks pierce.
• Necromancer:  Dagger Mastery:  Dagger cooldowns reduced by 20%.  All dagger attacks lifesteal 5% damage.
• Mesmer:  Phantasmal Haste:  Phantasm cooldowns reduced by 20%.  Phantasms now have Fury.

These are just examples of what I had in mind.  Some of them are not weapon-based, and would thus not be located at Adept level (such as the Mesmer, Elementalist and Thief examples).  I'm not claiming that the values I've assigned any of these traits are balanced or not either.  The point is, cooldown reduction can be seen as either a necessity, a luxury, or a supplemental.  I would prefer to think that if you get something such as cooldown reduction, it should also come with something else to further enhance the play of the character as well.

In the coming week's, I'll be doing articles tailored to individual professions, where I'll go in more detail the ideas I have for improving trait trees.  However, what I've been able to convey to you is this;

Traits are a way to further customize the play-style of our character, and compliment the ways in which we are effective in combat, have fun, and create a unique synergy with our character.  Traits that give +5% dmg for X situation, or +5% damage for just wearing a type of weapon - are not contributing to any of the above (unless you're a min-maxer who thinks the +5% dmg benefit outweighs the benefits of more utility-type traits!).  Even if you DID pick one of the +5% damage traits, you have to admit that you were NEVER happy/excited to do so.

Thank you for reading, stay tuned for more updates.
-LoreChief

Crunching Numbers - Combo Highlights

A few weeks ago I created a spreadsheet and uploaded it to Google Docs.  It was a highlight of the different varieties of combo finishers and fields available to each class.  It was incomplete at the time due to;

LINK TO SPREADSHEET

1. The game hadn't been launched yet
2. I didn't include some of the info like ranger pets skills, downed skills or underwater skills

Well today I fixed that, and have re-uploaded it to Google Docs.  I've provided a link for you.  Just to provide a little bit of a key for you to use;

• Numbers in ( ) represent those available while downed
• Numbers after the & represent those available underwater

I have even included the 'auxiliary' skills provided to all of the classes, including their unlikely outcomes (such as the random transform elixir provided to the Engi).

Some special notes to gleam from looking at this spreadsheet:

• Guardian has the only combo field while downed
• Engineer has the only combo finisher while downed
• Warrior has significantly more finishers available to them than any other profession
• Elementalist has both a large number of finishers, as well as the highest number of fields
• Elementalist is the only profession with a lightning field

Elementalist - The Squish-Army Knife.

(Note: You don't have to be a fire-type just because the class symbol is actual fire)

I had a whirlwind romance this weekend with Elementalist.  I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with the versatility of this Profession.  After being bored of playing Thief this weekend (see my previous post on Thieves) - I decided to play the Engineer, almost-Mesmer, and eventually went to Elementalist.  Must-have talents not-withstanding, this class is very well put together.  Here are a few reasons why:

1. The class mechanic of elemental attunements ensures that you always have 20 weapon skills available to you at any given time (vs. most professions only having access to 10).  Not only that, but each different element has it's own different play-style, meaning that you have different roles you can accomplish with the same trait-spec, weapon, and utility skills.
2. Want to be a close-range elem?  You can do that.  Want to be a long distance elem?  You can do that too.  Close-Range AoE?  Yup!  Long-Range AoE?  Yup!  Healer?  Why not!  Support-utility!? YES! They have it all!  Pets?  We get elementals!  Mobility?  Yes, everywhere.
3. There are such a variety of skills available, that it's legitimately hard to choose which ones to use.

Hell even if you don't want to use any of your 20 weapon skills for whatever weapon you're using, you can Conjure up even more!  Unlike the Engi - you aren't punished for using slot-skill weapons (R.I.P. Flamethrower y.y).  This adds even MORE variables to the fun-factor.  Let's say you want to be a long-range AoE mage (we'll go with Staff) but then you decide "I want to go bury an axe in that guy's skull" - Conjure up a Flame Axe, and you're good to go.

I've been playing a lot of double-dagger elementalist this weekend, which is legitimately more fun/interesting than Thieves (source:  I main a Thief).  Nothing quite feels as satisfying as dashing into combat leaving a fiery trail in your wake, blowing up the area around you with a ring of fire, BREATHING fire all of your enemies, detonating that fire with Fire Grab, swapping to your air attunement, kicking the enemy in the face with Updraft, and going in for the kill with a lightning-quick body-burst of.. well... lightning.

I recommend Elementalist for anyone bored with their current profession, wanting a load of power, wrapped in a robe of versatility.

Traits - a request.

(Maybe these are what the key is for?)

At some point in the distant past, Blizzard introduced the "Talent System" - which was hailed as being a great idea, bringing about uniqueness and investment into a characters playstyle that was previously non-existent.  They made it so you could reset them, tailor your character, and even unlock skills.  Just a few short years later, every new MMO has a talent system of some sort.  In Guild Wars 2, we call them 'Traits'.

Near the end of the development of GW2, just a short while before launch - it was determined that traits needed to be presented in a hierarchy system.  Some traits would be limited to the last slot, 'Grandmaster', and would be the last to get, whereas the simple/not-as-powerful (read: niche) traits would be available first, at the 'Adept' level.  This created not only an expectation of significant character growth, but the expectation that you would get some super-neat traited abilities when you finally hit the threshold.

Reviewing again, the post I submitted about a Thief Re-work - I would like to address ArenaNet's mentality when it comes to the trait system, and what it ultimately means for the player and their character.  You are given 60 different talents to choose from, not including the 15 minor traits which are automatically chosen when you spend 'X' points into any given tree.  These choices though, are sometimes more rigid than others. I would like to emphasize that the trait system in it's best form would be one that allows the player to further tweak their style of play to be more beneficial to them, but mostly for more fun and utility.

Far too many traits take the form of; "Increases damage with ____ by 5%", or "Reduces the cooldown of _____ by 20%".  The former are so... frivolous, that I would never consider investing into them.  The latter - are so powerfully noticeable that to NOT use them is akin to breaking your characters legs.  Suuuuure, you can use that Flamethrower without Fireforged Trigger, but you're only screwing yourself.  Just like that, you have what you would normally consider a 'choice' taken away from you.  At this point they might as well just auto-spend that point for you.

In another light, the traits that should be propagated throughout ALL of the different professions trees resemble ones like, Hard To Catch (shadowstep away from the enemy and gain swiftness when disabled) or Burning Precision (30% chance to burn enemies on crit).  I've compiled a list below, of all the different professions, and how much trait space is wasted on either the must-haves or 5% frivolous traits.

	Must-Haves	Frivolous
Elementalist	8	10
Warrior	13	4
Ranger	8	2
Necromancer	11	1
Guardian	10	6
Thief	5	7
Engineer	10	6
Mesmer	13	1

Some important notes about these numbers.

1. I didn't include talents which were simple like "+10% damage on _____ attacks", because they didn't seem that required, nor did they seem that frivolous.
2. Some of the must-haves, especially on the Mesmer and Warrior, are like... BEHEMOTH must-haves.  Where most classes with cooldown reduction traits have JUST the CD-Redux, Warrs and Mesmers have that + some super extra utility.
3. Some of the traits I didn't include are ones that encourage stagnation.  Warr has one that benefits him for NOT using signets, and Engineer gets one for NOT moving around.
4. Some of the other frivolous traits not included were the ones I'm not sure of, like the convert 5% of ___ into 'X-trait'.  They encourage synergy and require the player to put some thought into gear choice, at least.

Mesmers honestly surprised me.  While I attempted to venture into playing one this weekend (failed due to non-functioning traits and improper tooltips) - they honestly did a very good job at NOT putting in bloaty-frivolous talents.  Likewise with the Necromancer (though both these professions are heavy in the must-haves/cooldown redux) also had a lot of must-haves but not a lot of frivo's.  I think it may have something to do with the fact that mesmer and necro were two of the higher-priority classes that were being 'fixed' just before launch.

TL;DR:  Get rid of the "you have to take this to even be serious about your build" talents, and the ones that make you go "why would I waste a talent point on that?".  Replace them with talents that make you go "hmm.. should I have the chance to set all the enemies on fire with my flamethrower, OR should I have the ability to set them alight from 1200 range back?".  Again, less number-crunchy traits, more fun-factor/play-style enhancing traits.