gw2spidy API in Google Docs on Steroids

  Guild Wars 2 is pretty much dead to me, but I find gw2spidy's API fascinating and fun to play with.  I'm not a professional programmer by trade but I find it interesting to play around with this kind of stuff.  Before I was pulling the data into Excel and manipulating it using the article linked below written by Marthisdil.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79348276/GW2spidy%20Excel%20Data%20Processing.pdf

  Granted, I took it way farther than Marthisdil did in his article, but all the basics for doing it yourself are in there.  I read a similar simple little how-to by Valaadus where he was doing the same thing in Google docs with JSON and a little Javascript.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79348276/GW2Spidy%20API%20Google%20Drive.pdf

  This is particularly interesting to me because its web based and uses google doc's API which is by itself incredible.  So this is what I've created (sample).  Instead of using the CSV calls I used in my previous implimentation I'm using json calls.  Below is an example of a json call, clicking this will just throw up some junk on the screen.  Below that is what the call looks like in a little bit more understandable format.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/json/item/24464

  The example written up by Valaadus was parsing the results of a json request for min_sale_unit_price and formatting it a little bit with some javascript.  I wanted to see if I could return an entire row of values using only the item ID, and then do some more in depth calculations.  I modified the script as shown below.

  Lines 5-8 are where the data is fetched, and 10-14 are where I grab each of the individual items I want out of the string returned in the json call (first graphic).  Usually you can't modify the contents of cells arbitrarily in functions, but if you format it like I've done they "spill over" into cells to the right.  You can view my sheet below.

Google Spreadsheet - gw2spidy Gemstones and Jewels

  Column B is the only column that calls the function =getItemInfo() and its fed column A for the itemID. Columns B, C, D, E, and F are populated with that function call because of the way the return statement is formatted.  Columns G-P are normal excel formulas.  I'm calculating projected earnings, total investment required, and the return on that investment (i.e., how fast your gold will grow by flipping this item).

  Gemstones and Jewels were always a pretty good market for me, as long as you didn't dive very deep.  Using the sheet you can simply refresh the page and sort by ROI, or the Earning column to see what to buy and sell.

  To keep things simple I left all units of measure in copper.  Really you only need to know that more profit is better anyway... so the units don't matter much.  It's all simple math anyway */ 100.  The big challenge with doing this in Google documents is that their API limits the amount of function calls you can make in a given time, so you've got to write the script to pull more data per query, and use some javascript to dump the data in the sheet with an array.  Really gw2spidy's API will have to mature a little so you can get better defined querying before this becomes useful.

Enjoy!

Playing with the gw2spidy API

     The gw2spidy API is pretty great.  I was working with pulling some data into Excel and building custom reports, calculating Return on Investment, Net Profit (after taxes and fees) to see how effective it would be as a tool on the trading post.  Pretty soon this could be something you could do autopilot.

     For example:  http://snipurl.com/25i2r8i
     This link will give you every level 80 rare weapon with "Berserker's" in the name.  There is a guide on the github page that will guide you through how to import this into Excel.  Once imported, I created a few columns for calculating what I was interested in to see which items would be the best to try and trade.  It looked like this (I have everything on my sheet, not just Berserkers's weapons).

     I could set the spreadsheet up to auto-update, but I prefer not to since a snapshot in time is really sufficient to get the data I want.  I basically then just go from top to bottom placing buy orders on each item until I'm out of money.  My thinking is that this will maximize my potential profit, instead of just randomly buying whatever items I find, or having to look through each window to check the margin and do some quick calculations in my head.

     I have similar sheets set up for the following:

• Gemstones and Jewels
• Level 80 Masterwork Gear (greens)
• Common Crafting Materials (cloth, leather, ore, wood)
• Fine Crafting Materials (blood, fangs, claws, etc...)

     Next I'll be working a sheet with 80 Rare Gear, then I don't know.  It's definitely a useful tool I think, for people who are willing to dig a little deeper.  Because I'm such a swell fucking guy here are all the API calls I created for my spreadsheet.

Common Crafting Components
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=24272,24273,24274,24275,24276,24277,24278,24279,24280,24281,24282,24283,24284,24285,24286,24287,24288,24289,24290,24291,24292,24293,24294,24295,24296,24297,24298,24299,24300,24341,24342,24343,24344,24345,24346,24347,24348,24349,24350,24351,24352,24353,24354,24355,24356,24357,24358,24363

Fine Crafting Components
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=19701,19700,19699,19702,19698,19703,19697,19679,19680,19681,19682,19683,19684,19685,19686,19687,19688,19718,19739,19741,19743,19745,19748,19720,19740,19742,19744,19746,19747,19719,19728,19729,19730,19731,19732,19733,19734,19735,19736,19737,19738,19722,19723,19724,19725,19726,19727,19709,19710,19711,19712,19713,19714

Gemstones and Jewels
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=24889,24876,24875,24874,24873,24872,24871,24870,24535,24534,24527,24526,24522,24521,24520,24519,24516,24515,24512,24511,24510,24509,24508,24507,24506,24504,24503,24501,24500,24475,24474,24473,24472,24471,24470,24469,24468,24467,24466,24465,24464

80 Masterwork Gear
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13397,13444,13481,13403,13445,13487,13394,13447,13478,10496,10531,10566,10601,10643,10671

80 Rare Weapons - Berserkers
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=25923,25944,28530,28553,26352,26370,27278,27300,27588,27610,27903,27924,13892,13927,13976,14011,14422,14472,14514,14563,14598,14647,14682,15265,15307,15349,15391,15426,15468,15510,15552,26114,26125,26963,26986,28216,28238,26649,26672,26818,26839,26488,26511,28389,28409,28780,28791,28075,28095,27761,27781,27446,27467,28703,28723,27131,27153

80 Rare Weapons - Carrion
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13889,13924,13973,14008,14428,14469,14511,14560,14595,14644,14679,15262,15304,15346,15388,15423,15465,15507,15549,32946,32950,32954,32958,32962,32966,32970,32974,32978,32982,32986,32990,32994,32998,33002,33006,33010,33014,33018,34809,34813,34817,34821,34825,34829,34833,34837,34841,34845,34849,34853,34857,34861,34865,34869,34873,34877,34881

80 Rare Weapons - Cleric
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13890,13925,13974,14009,14420,14470,14512,14561,14596,14645,14680,15263,15305,15347,15389,15424,15466,15508,15550,25941,25950,26122,26131,26367,26376,26504,26522,26665,26684,26834,26846,26979,26998,27147,27160,27293,27311,27462,27474,27605,27622,27777,27787,27919,27937,28091,28101,28233,28251,28405,28415,28546,28565,28718,28729,28788,28797

80 Rare Weapons - Explorer
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13891,13926,13975,14010,14421,14471,14513,14562,14597,14646,14681,15264,15306,15348,15390,15425,15467,15509,15551

80 Rare Weapons - Knights
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13894,13929,13978,14013,14437,14474,14516,14565,14600,14649,14684,15267,15309,15351,15393,15428,15470,15512,15554

80 Rare Weapons - Rampager
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13893,13928,13977,14012,14423,14473,14515,14564,14599,14648,14683,15266,15308,15350,15392,15427,15469,15511,15553,25930,25947,26118,26128,26361,26373,26496,26516,26657,26677,26826,26843,26972,26991,27140,27157,27285,27305,27454,27471,27597,27617,27768,27784,27911,27931,28083,28098,28224,28245,28397,28412,28538,28558,28710,28726,28784,28794

80 Rare Weapons - Shaman
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=24995,25035,25075,25115,25155,25195,25235,25275,25315,25355,25395,25435,25475,25515,25555,25595,25635,25675,25715

80 Rare Weapons - Traveler
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=33269,33273,33277,33281,33285,33289,33293,33297,33301,33305,33309,33313,33317,33321,33325,33329,33333,33337,33341,34049,34053,34057,34061,34065,34069,34073,34077,34081,34085,34089,34093,34097,34101,34105,34109,34113,34117,34121

80 Rare Weapons - Valkyrie
http://www.gw2spidy.com/api/v0.9/csv/items/all/1?filter_ids=13895,13930,13979,14014,14439,14475,14517,14566,14601,14650,14685,15268,15310,15352,15394,15429,15471,15513,15555

You can pull these into Excel and do whatever you want!

Guild Wars 2 is Bleeding Out

     There will be no more Orichalcum map updates.  Guild Wars 2 is bleeding out and I'm going to continue transferring to whatever the most populous servers are until I decide to quit the game, which will undoubtedly be very soon.  I've already had Steam fired up, and League of Legends patching, looking for a new game (looking forward to the new Hitman).

     Guild Wars 2 is likely the last MMO I'll ever play.  I feel like MMOs are a genre that is going to die because companies no longer make the time investment feel like it pays off.  They get bogged down in the details of how they're going to milk every last penny out of you through micro-transactions and they forget that they've got to give you something to look forward to to continue playing.   I don't mind spending money but Its really all simple economics.  I expect that for the consumption of entertainment my 1st dollar and my 500th dollar should yield the same utility, if they're encouraging me to spend that 500th dollar.  I didn't spend a fortune on Guild Wars 2, but I probably spent more than most. (maybe $150? I didn't really keep track.)

     What is the build-up in Guild Wars 2?  What is the objective?  Why am I farming?  What good are achievement points?  What am I supposed to be looking forward to?  I feel like this game is an "asian grinder" MMO in disguise.  Grinding isn't a big deal.  I'll farm and grind all day if there is a point... but in asian grinder MMOs the point is the grind... which isn't fun.  In Guild Wars 2 I see no point in continuing... which leaves nothing but the grind.

     None of the issues I have with the game have been addressed, and there has been nothing from Arena Net communicating a direction.  In fact in today's patch, instead of fixing broken class mechanics in WvW they remove orbs from the game completely.  I can't help but be reminded of when Warhammer Online removed Fortresses from the game because they couldn't keep their terrible game engine alive when tons of players actually laid siege to it.  A-net could at least tell us what they're working on and communicate a vision.

     Whatever I'm over it.  Back to fun games.

Henge Of Denravi October 28th Node Locations

Watch them patch as soon as I hit publish.

Only found 4 Orichalcum in Malchor's Leap this time, looked for about an hour.  If anyone knows where it is shoot me a whisper in game.

Appreciate Jerardo once again for helping me with the locations.

Update: big thanks to Eve hooking me up with the last node location.

.

And here is the update map!

Henge Of Denravi October 26th Node Locations

Holy Shit relax on the updates A-net!

(Update: As soon as I published this they patched.  Fuck you Anet.)

Henge Of Denravi October 25th Node Locations

Yup

Henge Of Denravi October 23rd Node Locations (update)

Optional Subscription Service: Banning Bots

     Its pretty easy to figure out botting is a big problem in Guild Wars 2.  Botting has caused A-net to implement diminishing returns on gold farming and karma farming, which makes the process of obtaining the things you want substantially longer.

     Bottom line: Money talks.

     Logic:  Offer money to get what you want (no more botting).

     So I posted this on A-Nets forums even though I'm pretty sure they don't care and this will get nowhere.

Hey there A-Net,
I just wanted to throw an idea your way. I’d like an optional subscription service of 10$ – 15$ a month that would go toward paying 1 or 2 dev’s per server to sit online and ban bots all day. (Hire an intern or something and tell them it beats working at McDonalds). 

Whatever method you’re using currently to ban bots is severely inadequate. This would also allow you to remove all that stupid Diminishing Returns garbage on Karma and legit players legit farming gold for things they legit need. 

Some people would cry if you made the subscription service mandatory for everyone, but there are a lot of us adults who have jobs and don’t mind paying for this kind of thing to improve your game.
Thanks,

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/suggestions/Optional-Subscription-Service-Banning-Bots

Photoshop maps for you!

     I decided to post the maps I use in Photoshop for creating the maps I do for you guys.  Anyone can create the maps.  I'll keep doing them, I'm just giving you the option.  The legend/signature on each maps is just a layer that can be deleted if you want to put your own stuff on there.

Frostgorge Sound

Malchor's Leap

Cursed Shore

     There is also a new site someone put up to do this yourself.  http://www.orrmaps.com/
At the moment its not as nice because some of the nodes don't show up very well, like wood, and you can't include omnomberries, but I'm sure it will get there.  I'll still add it to my Essential Sites post because I think its great even though I wouldn't use it just yet.

Cheers

Henge Of Denravi October 18th Node Locations

Finally done!

Big thanks to Jerado helping me look for this stuff.

Review: Just about over Guild Wars 2

     Some issues that are currently (10/17) killing the game for me...

• Free server transfers
• There is no server community or culture evolving because so many people are jumping from server to server.  A servers identity is composed of its cornerstone guilds and local personalities (like a good pub or bar).
• Not only are so many guilds moving servers, but there isn't really anything that allows a guild to stand out on a server (even if they stayed) other than spamming chat about what they're doing.
• It's been a constant source of exploitation... whether it be people spam transferring for 100% world completion, or transferring repeatedly to farm ore (no longer possible).
• Henge of Denravi is a perfect example.  Ranked #1 in WvW servers until a few key guilds left. Bandwagoners flooded the gates jumping ship to other high ranking WvW servers.  WvW on Henge of Denravi is a ghost town.  The naturally slow decline of a server that would occur with people choosing to reroll at different times didn't happen because they could all just leave immediately.
• World vs. World is in a sad state.
• It's more beneficial to let objectives flip back and forth in a zone rather than holding objectives.
• Individual player names aren't shown from opposition servers... so its a constantly anonymous foe.  Rivalries can't be cultivated against anonymous foes.  I want to see a name from a server rivalry and recognize that name from a previous encounter.
• The disparity between the effectiveness of melee vs. ranged is staggering.  You can't tell the warriors from the rangers from the thieves because everyone has a bow/gun.

• PvE is pathetic.
• 5 man dungeons are a great precursor to larger raids, but when this is given as the end game it gets boring.  You have no reason to run a dungeon more than ~9 times.  (clearing each "wing" and possibly gathering marks for gear/legendary @ 60 marks a run assuming you clear a wing only once a day).
• Doesn't feel like groups actually have to work together to coordinate and accomplish anything.  It always feels like 5 individuals... and there is rarely such a thing as a wipe... you just get to respawn and run right back in.  It's like an instant respawn FPS... against NPCs.
• The Zaithan fight in Arah is some of the saddest most underwhelming shit I've ever seen in MMO PvE.
• The hardest thing in terms of PvE in this game is trying to walk across Cursed Shore or Malchor's Leap where every mob has a stun, a root, a slow, or a pull.  This isn't that annoying when its once in a while but its every... fucking... mob... in... the... zone.  Its just annoying.
• Zombies?  Really?  As if this hasn't been done to death you fill every zone in Orr with zombies. Now, I'm fully aware of the story line and why these zombies exist... but you also had creative control over the story line... and you went with Zombies?  Just... wow...
• Diminishing Returns
• These are intended to make botting less practical, but in reality it only hurts legit players.
• You have to be a piece of shit to farm karma at any reasonable pace... letting the bots and other legit players do the work of actually starting and completing events that you can spend 10 seconds participating in to receive full credit.
• Bots
• Holy shit... ban these?
• sPvP isn't attractive.  ...and I feel no incentive to participate.
• Skins are the only "reward" really?  Why have a high rank?
• No "Guild vs Guild" mode in GUILD WARS?
• No ranking system other than straight grind.  Sad news kids, your Rank doesn't matter.
• I know its Guild Wars' "thing" but I don't like the fact that anyone can roll any class at any time (especially swapping in the middle of a tournament).  sPvP is nothing but learning the fotm spec, learning the current builds, and playing on the most op shit on the right map.
• I think that sPvP being so segregated from everything else in the game detracts from Character Development, which is really a deal-breaker for me in an MMO.
• Crowd Control abilities are too abundant.  Instead of having to tactically use certain abilities at certain times (except for say, interrupting a stomp or applying stability, or fearing) everyone basically spams every root/slow/push/knockdown/grab they have... and there are no diminishing returns on anything.  Unless you build yourself for a constant stream of cleanses you're fucked.  This is not an attractive meta to me.
• Debuffs are applied too liberally, and only one class in the game can capitalize on this (necro).  Most classes breath in a given direction and apply numerous debuffs (bleeds, burning, vulnerability).  Calm this shit down and let people fight?
• Bugs bugs and more bugs.
• Whether its major game breaking Mesmer bugs in WvW/sPvP (ninja keeps? ... ninja lord?)  or minor bugs that prevent you from doing an activity (skill point, jump puzzle)... there are a ton of annoying bugs.

The good?

     I enjoyed exploring the world and getting 100% world completion.  There have been times in WvW and sPvP that I have enjoyed myself... so I believe the game has potential.  I'm going to finish farming my Legendary and see what happens.

So I got a Makeover

     Looks like yesterday (10/15) Arena Net was selling a "Total Makeover Kit" on the Black Lion Trading Company (BLTC).  It cost 350 gems.  I bought one and used it... shortly after it was taken down from the BLTC... so I'll share some things about it.

     I was glad to see this become available finally.  Like many, when the game released (pre-released really) I wasted no time reserving my name and starting the leveling process.  Anyone who knows what to expect with an MMO launch knows that timing is everything.  The headstarts really saves you a lot of the headache caused by servers being choked out with thousands of players in the same zone trying to hit level 2.  So I just randomized the selections a few times and took one that didn't look too terrible.

     A couple of questions that are bound to be asked.

• Do you have to log out to change your appearance?
• Nope, its a little popup that looks very similar to the original character creation screen.
• You can cancel the Makeover Kit if you want, and it won't vanish.  Use it when you want.  Take as long as you want.
• You can modify everything from facial features to hair color to skin color to everything else except your race (which doesn't bother me at all).
• No, you currently can't buy the makeover kit on the BLTC.
• No, I have no idea when its gonig to become available again (maybe part of the halloween stuff?)
• Are any new styles available?
• I didn't notice any new styles.  No new hair styles (so far!) for sure.

     If you have any more questions about it let me know and I'll respond.  Until then, check the new look.

 

Old

New

 



 

Henge Of Denravi October 15th Node Locations

Kinda gettin rediculous with the frequency of updates.

Jeeeeez

Frostgorge Sound (only found 1 ancient wood)

 Malchor's Leap (only found 4 wood)

Cursed Shore (only found 3 wood)

 

I appreciate Smljcious and Ondark for hooking me up with a few of these locations.

Guild Wars 2 - Essential Sites

If you haven't already you should check out these sites.

• http://www.guildwars2guru.com/

     Great information source, and forum, but they badly need realm forums.

• http://www.gw2spidy.com/

     Playing the in-game market has never been easier.

• http://gw2cartographers.com/

     Looking for that missing POI?  Can't find the Vista you need?  This site maps it out.

• http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc

     The database itself is rather redundant because of http://wiki.guildwars2.com.  I like the Talent Calculator though.  I wish there were a way to condense the URLs it generates, or create banners or forum signatures.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#6|3|2771|627|3983|1848|4480|0|0|0|0|20|1613|1606|0|10|1645|0|0|10|1684|0|0|30|1838|2250|965|0|0|5|28032|28016|49962|49962|49962|49962|49962|21034|21080|0|0|0|0|

• http://www.guildwars2tradingpost.com/

     This blog is a fantastic guild wars 2 gold guide.

• http://guildwarstemple.com/dragontimer/henge-of-denravi/

     This is a pretty great Dragon Timer for major world events.

• http://www.orrmaps.com/

     Here we have a quick and easy way to generate your own maps of node locations.  The site is still in its infancy but you can tell its going to be good!

Henge Of Denravi October 12th Node Locations

I decided to redo the icons and pretty up the maps a little.

That looks a little better.

Easily make decent gold while you're Karma farming

Quick tips: 

     The biggest thing you've got to grasp is that its the small costs you absorb regularly that chip away at your in-game wealth.  Managing the small transactions will get you richer faster.  The days of massive margins trading on the trading post are over, and there are no more get-rich-quick schemes.

     The second thing is you have to start doing comparisons between vendor prices vs. selling prices on the trading post.  If its not a healthy margin of say, 20ish copper, I vendor it.  You've still got a 5% listing fee on everything you sell.

Basic Salvage Kit

• Use Basic Salvage Kits for salvaging blue and white items.  They're considerably cheaper than the Fine, Journeyman's, and Master's.
• You will still get Orichalcum Ore and Gossamer Scraps regularly.
• Vendor all of the green drops you get. (1 to 2 silver each)
• Vendor most of the junk Sigils you get unless you can quickly sell them on the TP.
• Most you can't because they suck and nobody wants them.
• Use Black Lion Salvage Kits (or Masters Salvage Kits) to salvage rares that drop so you get Globs of Ectoplasm.
• Don't waste your time or gold building a set of Magic Find gear.



Omnomberry Tart

• Use Omnomberry Tarts (+30%)
• The Omnomberry Bars are too expensive because Vanilla Beans are hard to find.
• The tarts give the same Magic Find as the bars anyway.
• Use Magic Find Boosters. (+50%)
• You can get 5 from the BLTP for 550 gems (approximately 2.5g) and they last an hour.
• Mine and gather everything (as time permits).  You only need Mithril tools for doing this (another savings over the Orichalcum tools) unless you're gathering from Orrion Saplings and Orichalcum Veins.

     As an Elementalist you can do most of your salvaging/selling while you're killing the Abomination at the end of the Plinx event, or killing Broodmother.  Right click the boss and auto-attack, then sort out your inventory by salvaging/selling.  The point isn't even to make gold if you're Karma farming... but you can easly pull down 2-3+ gold per hour (unless you keep mats needed for crafting).

Elementalist Tagging Tips for efficient Karma farming

     When karma farming you're going to find out really fast that other faceroll classes have an easy time instantly blasting everything down while you're still winding up a cast, or waiting for that Dragon's Tooth to drop.  By the time your spells are about to do some damage, things are either mostly dead or completely dead.  An Elementalist complained to me yesterday about not being very effective at tagging and I kind of explained to him how I was doing it since I don't have much trouble.

• Memorize spawn locations of NPCs in your events so you can pre-cast.
• Use a staff for Lava Font and Fireball (which does AoE damage on impact)
• Also Meteor Shower to a lesser degree but it isn't reliable and takes a long time to cast.
• Utility Skills
• Glyph of Storms (much better coverage and reliability than Meteor Shower)
• Arcane Wave
• Conjure Frost Bow (skill #4 Ice Storm gives you another strong AoE)
• Elite Skill
• Tornado isn't as effective as I thought it would be.  Its more of a crowd control ability... and the radius is small so its not that great as an AoE.
• Conjure Fiery Greatsword is better to use than Glyph of Elementals since your elemental can't do a lot of AoE.
• Learn to not blow every AoE you have, but spread them out over the course of several waves so you can sustain.
• Use Chain Lightning when only a few NPCs spawn in small clumps (3 max).
• Don't loot until the pull chain is finished.

     The point isn't just to make sure you're getting gold karma ratings, but that you're also getting on the loot table of the NPCs you're killing for efficiently farming gold at the same time.

October 7th Orichalcum Locations

Here ya go!  These maps only apply to Henge of Denravi for the patch applied October 7th, 2012.

Frostgorge Sound

Malchor's Leap

Cursed Shore

October 4th Orichalcum Locations

These only apply to Henge of Denravi.

I could only find 4 in Cursed Shore :(

If anyone has any idea where the 5th Orichalcum vein location is let me know in game and I'll put it up here.

/gquit Provoked, and Why?

     It's too bad really.  4+ years of gaming with Provoked has come to a sad end.  It's been winding down tragically over the course of sevearl MMO's now, but I see no change in sight.  So... saturday night I kinda lashed out at one of the main causes behind the guilds current state... the stream.  I knew full well it wasn't going to do much but take it down for a day or so, but I sent the message I wanted to send and had a little fun.  I'll summarize my reasons now and then go into some detail.

• Leadership is no longer interested in leading the guild.
• Recruiting friends-of-friends is out of control, and the guild is 85% trash now.
• Full members continue to (and are permitted to) make the guild shitty.

...and by far the biggest offense...

• Guild Wars 2 wasn't fun in Provoked, and I believe the above 3 items are responsible for this.

     Before I go into the details I want to share what the precious ProvokedGuild stream looked like on Twitch when I got finished removing the nice graphics I prepared for the guild from the site.

Now on to the details....

Leadership

---

     Leadership in any guild is primarily the responsibility of the "Guild Leader" (obviously, but I guess it needs to be stated).  It also falls on the shoulders of those that have authority delegated to them... i.e., the officers.  The most essential functions of leadership are to provide direction, organization, dispute resolution, and then take action that moves the guild toward it's stated goals.  To the extent that actions (or inaction) do not move the guild toward their stated goals, to the extent that organization is lacking, to the extent that disputes go unresolved, and to the extent that no direction is provided, is the extent to which membership frustration will build and the extent to which the guild will be unsuccessful.

Minatoto

---

     Minatoto, the guild leader decided that playing Guild Wars 2 meant doing nothing except running structured pvp tournaments.  For him nothing else in the game mattered.  There was no statement of "ok in GW2 this is all we're going to do" it just seemed to evolve at launch, and then slowly become an unspoken policy that Provoked would do nothing but structured pvp tournaments.  Meanwhile while this unspoken position was being developed... members are working on achievments, the best executed large scale pvp platform in MMOs ever made was waiting for us to place our guilds emblem all over it.  Basically Minatoto treated Guild Wars 2 (an MMO) like League of Legends (a MOBA) and refused to acknowledge activities in PvE and WvW.  Seeing that there weren't enough players in the guild to throw together the five man team he wanted... he recruited shady players from some garbage guild named Condemened (who have no respect for Provoked, and are not in Provoked in any meaningful sense) to run tournaments with all day.  In addition to tournaments the only thing he focused on was building his stream viewership.  I mistakenly assisted him with this, and designed some graphics for the page.  Activities Mina would participate in became a question of "What would attract more viewers?" instead of "What would make Provoked better?" 

     On multiple occasions when other members would join the group for tournaments... just filling in, all of a sudden after one loss or any small thing that would frustrate them these shady Condemned guys would have something they need to go do... or blatantly just leave the group and form their own little 3 man group by themselves... but Mina allowed this.  In fact, Mina did the same stuff.  All of a sudden he needs to go eat or just tells you he's going to soloqueue for a while.  (Mind you I didn't play many tournaments with these guys, because didn't want to play with Condemened)  These people weren't interested in trying to build a Provoked team.  The absolute worst offenses with regard to this is when Mina decides to post titles on his stream like "Playing with bads" referring to the guildies he doesn't run tournaments with often because nobody else is online or because Condemned are off doing their own thing.  Or when he plays with viewers on his stream and doesn't get frustrated (like he does with guildies) even though they streamers lack just as much experience as guildies.

     One of the more recent things I found offensive.  On his stream he said, "For a game named 'Guild Wars' its funny how little you actually need a guild in this game."  This to me was really the tell-tale of where is head is at in terms of leading guilds in games, and one of the factors that made me get a little honest with myself about how I was enjoying myself in the guild over this last month.

     If you don't want to lead a guild, you shouldn't be a guild leader.

Officers

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     The first person I want to address is Omens.  I used to like Omens.  Omens was the guy that originally invited me to the guild years ago in Warhammer Online.  We have the same attitude toward excessive talking in activities that require focus, and would rather people shut the hell up unless they have something critical to say.  Sadly, Omens remains level 2  in GW2 at the time of this writing... (I have 4/8 of the crafting professions leveled to 400, and I achieved 100% world completion as of yesterday).  When you do nothing but tournaments you're not useful to the guild in any other aspect of the game, and by staying level 2 and not even leveling slowly you're telling the guild you don't give a shit about them (same goes for Mina).  In massive guilds that contain hundreds of members, maybe this type of "Officer" can exist since there are so many types of activities to manage (assuming you manage them).  In a small guild like Provoked, this is inexcusable.

     Not only is Omens useless in activities that require you be level 80 and decently geared to succeed like WvW and PvE (not that Provoked does either of these as a guild anyway), he was also a loaner in tournaments.  Always the first person to get frustrated and quit, and a huge superiority complex.  ...which is funny to have as a hundred blades glass cannon warrior.  The sad part about Omens is that he thinks he's good.  The sad thing about Provoked is that he's still an Officer.  Officer in Provoked really just means "I've been in the guild a long time."

     Volt is the only other official officer.  I commend him for trying to organize some events and kinda do Mina's job for him, but I find him contemptible because he has no spine.  He's more interested in being friends with people than he is being an officer in a high end guild.  Unlike Omens, at least Volt is a great player.  I recall many times in previous MMOs and in League of Legends that the only thing he tries to manage is when players get criticized.  Specifically the bad ones.  If a guild desires to be great, to attract great players, to win at what they do, then bad players have to be criticized and removed.  Players that can't handle criticism (i.e., Eclips) cannot be allowed to remain in the guild where they can troll and argue (predictably and always like clockwork) until they're blue in the face that its everyone elses fault but his.  You have to drop the hammer on fucks like that and boot them.  If you're trying to make a great guild you don't invite players like Cerith to the guild and then subsequently invite all of Ceriths shitty friends to the guild.  Today Provoked is polluted with garbage players primarily because of Volt.

     I honestly can't remember anyone ever being kicked from the guild for anything... and certainly nobody getting booted from the guild for being bad at the game or incapable of handling criticism.

Recruits

---

     Not much to say about this one as I've already touched on why this is a problem.  Provoked wasn't filled with scrubs in the past.  Sure, every guild has its weak links... but if you're trying to build a great guild then half the guild can't be weak links.  What is interesting to me is the build-up to Guild Wars 2.  Failure MMO after failure MMO came and went, but for this one everyone was supposed to be getting serious.  Promises of past members from old MMO's returning to make us an even stronger powerhouse were common.  These players never materialized.

     I think the only reason these garbage players are allowed to stay in the guild is to bump Mina's stream viewer count.  Oh I forgot to mention that its posted in the guild window that you should open up and watch the guild stream to inflate the numbers, since only popular streams get more viewers... this was Mina's attempt to break through some glass ceiling to get his stream off the ground.  Invite shit players to the guild, and make them watch the stream.  Recruit viewers!  Fake internet fame here we come!  Worth it?

Guild Members

---

     To a much lesser degree I left the guild because the community is shitty.  Current members who have been in the guild for multiple MMOs are bad, lazy, dickheads.  These fails couldn't clear Rhianna in Citadel of Flame (couldn't even make it past the first part where you light the torches), and decided to quit because it was "stupid."  What is hilarious is that they still expected help from me, after they bailed on me, and after I left the guild... asking me for Orichalcum farming maps (laughing at you Migs), and to craft things for them.  Although our group in CoF was composed of 3/5 ths shitty recruits because none of the actual members of the guild would run it.  Kind of a "You scratch my back and then you can fuck off" kind of situation.  Yea its a sweet guild.

     The night I decided to gquit I was pretty drunk (smashed actually), and I decided to jump in a channel late at night with Tav to chat a little.  Tav was drunk a few nights before and couldn't seem to talk about anything but dicks and I was curious about why.  I'm not really sure what kind of shitty experiences this guy had in his life, but he's really always been shitty to mostly everyone.  He's cordial with less than a handful of players in the guild.  As I was trying to make small talk with him, ask him about his job etc..., he leaves the channel and goes to the afk channel (while still actively playing) to avoid conversation.  It seems over-the-top for this kind of exchange to occur between two people who have been in the same guild together for close to two years.

     I couldn't even get Mina to run a dungeon with me.  When I was playing Heroes of Newerth and Mina wanted someone to play League of Legends with because the people he was playing with either sucked or weren't online enough... I was opposed to playing the game... but I quit HoN and jumped on a steep learning curve to play with him in League/   ...and he won't run a dungeon or two in this game for me.  Instead he's just going to call me a carebear for helping people in the guild farm quick and easy gold and ask me smart ass shit like, "did you win at PvE yet?"  Fuck you bro.

No Fun

---

     This was really the cumulative effect of all of the above.  Playing with the same people for 4 years watching them give less and less of a shit as time goes by.  I couldn't really deal with that for Guild Wars 2.  I want to enjoy this game.  So I've got to move on.

     You can find them beating bads and losing to pros (like all average players do) here:  http://www.twitch.tv/provokedguild

Guild Wars 2 Open Beta - Elementalist Air Attunement

Air Attunement

  I was skeptical of the Air attunement at first but it ended up being the main attunement of the best beta PvP build I could come up with.  I used Scepter/Dagger.

Build

  The movement speed passives you get by remaining in Air attunement are really useful for positioning and getting around the maps in PvP.  Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave combined with Lightning Strike make for a nice burst of initial damage, and the blindness caused by Elemental Surge buy you some downtime while your next burst charges up.  Ride the lightning compliments your movement speed, so you can position and going in in a very calculated way.  For survivability and escapes you have Updraft which is kind of the GTFO move that knocks enemies away, and of course Mist Form for brief invulnerability.

  This build involves essentially no twisting between attunements, which means it shouldn't be optimal for an Elementalist.  Optimal for an Elementalist ought to entail utilizing multiple attunements to utilize the right tool at the right time... but I had the most success in PvP with this strict Air build.

  The thing that makes me apprehensive about whether this attunement will be viable once the class is reworked is that most of the abilities using most of the weapons don't have much utility attached to them.  With Fire you've got burning that gets applied... with Water you've got slows/heals (although mostly junk)... with Earth you have bleeds and some survivability (although not much) but with Air you've got nothing really.  It's mostly straight damage with one blind/vulnerability debuff max at a time.

  The staff gives you a nice balance of damage and control, between Chain Lightning and Lightning Surge you've got okay damage (while not as high as Fire staff, and no utility).  Between Gust and Static Field you've got some decent control, while its not a root or a polymorph its more of a shove.  Windborne Speed isn't really that impressive of an escape, but its nice to have something to remove impairments.

  When using dagger main hand I can't quite buy into the philosophy behind abilities like Shocking Aura (when you're hit the enemy is stunned).  As a squishy Elementalist I don't want to get hit.  I don't want to be in a situation where I have to rely on taking 4-6k damage to inflict a 1 second stun.  It's not cost effective.  I'm also not on-board with the philosophy behind abilities like Lightning Whip, which is a melee range weapon.  It's pretty simple math to figure out if you're in melee range swapping hits with someone smacking you for 3k and you're only hitting them for 300, you're going to die pretty fast.

  So what does this attunement have to offer a twisting Elementalist build?  Single target burst?  The beta honestly confused me more than anything with these abilities, but I guess you can't exactly get a good grasp on these things in just a few days.

Guild Wars 2 Open Beta - Elementalist Earth Attunement

Earth Attunement

  I had high hopes for this attunement.  It became apparent in the open beta that stacking bleeds was a very good way to do a lot of damage over time.  Commonly when getting killed you would review where the source of most of the damage came from, and often Bleeds would be the highest damage incoming.  The earth attunement has some ways to apply bleeds but what I was hoping for with this attunement was some substantial  survivability.  I mean if we loosely equate attunement to profiles, fire would be your sustain damage profile, water would be your control and healing profile, air is your burst profile, and earth should be a survivability profile... but there isn't a whole lot of uniqueness in Earth right now.  If the concept of the Elementalist is going to be a "twisting" mechanic between attunements to maximize the effectiveness, its important that these attunements bring something useful to the table.  At this time I don't see "a complete package" using any given weapon set among all attunements. (of course its just beta).

  This attunement was the biggest pain to level because it seemed like it was the least useful, most confused, and least thought out.  Stacking bleeds is nice, but survivability has to be there for an Elementalist to bleed an opponent to death.  The closest you get to some good defense is scepter/focus, where you get a little armor from Rock Barrier, and an "oh shit" button in Obsidian Flesh.  The real question is, if Earth attunement is going to be the survivability mode (bear form!) then your other attunements have to not be shit when you're using scepter/focus.

Fire = Scepter isn't bad, Focus isn't optimal.
Water = You get a decent slow/stun combo with Focus, but a weak heal and other throw away abilities with Scepter
Air = Lightning strike is an okay nuke from scepter, and gale isn't bad utility

  So overall the options for Scepter/Focus are "meh."

  Dust Devil (earth) and Blinding Flash (Air) are basically duplicates.
Magnetic Wave (earth) and Swirling Wind (Air) are also redundant.
You probably won't be using Gale when you have Freezing Gust/Comet combo.

  Maybe in situations where you need to mitigate a lot of projectile damage and make your opponent miss the next attack it might be a perfect spec... but you're still left with a junk heal in water...but decent damage in fire.

  Overall I'm not seeing the internal consistency in this class yet.  Maybe next beta weekend Elementalist will get a tweak or maybe I'll see more as I'm playing.

Guild Wars 2 Open Beta - Elementalist Water Attunement

Water Attunement

  The water attunement was really clutch in some of the more difficult story line quests where I had to help a caravan survive or kit 6-7 NPCs around and do damage while healing myself.  Using a Staff with Frozen Ground (ground targeted slow) and Ice Spike (ground targeted delayed aoe) you can deal some consistent damage.  It doesn't offer nearly the damage output that fire does, and isn't particularly bursty.  It gets the job done if you can't kill them faster than they can kill you.  Geyser and Healing Rain are the two healing abilities you get with a staff.  These are great for, again, healing a caravan of NPCs (or group of players).  They're also good for healing yourself as you're kiting NPCs and maybe took a few shots.

  For close quarters slow-based "ice" kiting, dagger/focus is pretty effective.  You get basically a "frost nova" (wow reference) with Frozen Burst except targets you hit are slowed instead of frozen in place.  You can combine that with Freezing Gust to keep an opponent slowed for quite some time.  Using Comet you can follow up those slows with a stun.  To me I felt like this build had the most utility of any setup, because you can also heal allies and damage enemies with cone of cold (frontal cone aoe).  The main auto-attack in this setup applies vulnerability for 6 seconds, which lowers the defense of enemies by 30.  I didn't feel like 30 was enough to really make an impact, this build is all about control.

  Dagger/Dagger gives you a small heal that removes a condition but you have to sacrifice a stun, and a ranged slow vs. a "frost shield" that slows enemies when you get hit.  Dagger in offhand just loses to focus in this attunement.

  Scepter main hand was disappointing.  You get shatterstone with is a lot like Dragon's Tooth but instead of applying a slow it applies vulnerability (only -30 defense).  This really is a drop in the bucket when you consider I had over 800 defense as a squishy Elementalist.  The damage/healing hybrid ability Water Trident functions like most hybrid abilities in that it fails to make a significant impact one way or the other.  It does weak damage and weak healing, and being on a 20 second cooldown it's just not much use.  Ice Shards is the auto attack for Scepter, and it's fairly plain... doesn't apply any kind of effect and does very meager damage.

  I found myself often lost when I was looking through these attunement because I think most of them, like this one are suffering an identity crisis.  Most of these are probably place-holder skills for useful things later... but right now it looks like they're just there to fill a slot because some ability designer ran out of ideas.  If this attunement is supposed to be the "I'm gonna do some control and support with heals" attunement then you can't leave skills like Ice Shards with no kind of effect... and you can't give Water Trident and Cleansing Wave with weak output.  Cleansing Wave should remove all debuffs, not just a single condition.  With a 40 second cooldown and the amount of conditions being thrown around constantly its not unreasonable for this to cure all conditions on nearby allies... I mean with as much spam that's going on those conditions are going to be replaced just as quickly anyway.

Staff = No slows, AoE Healing, Weak Damage
Dagger/Dagger = Debuffs, Slows, Close Quarters, Weak Heal, Weak Cleanse
Dagger/Focus = Debuffs, Slows, No healing, You get an AoE stun
Scepter/Dagger = Weak auto with no debuff, slow ground target aoe (easily avoidable), weak healing
Scepter/Focus = Same shit as with Scepter but you get the nice AoE stun and a slow.

Guild Wars 2 Open Beta - Elementalist Fire Attunement

Fire Attunement

  The fire attunement used with a staff gives a lot of AoE that makes leveling a breeze.  You can take out pretty much anything with AoE.  The NPC's aren't that smart so you can basically kite them in a small circle without too much trouble, throwing AoE down for them to stupidly walk through.  They walk right through your path of fire when you use burning retreat also.  With Meteor Shower and Lava Font and Burning Retreat you can clear 5-6+ NPCs solo without much trouble (taking damage only from ranged archers and casters).

  Using scepter/dagger was just as effective with Dragon's Tooth (targeted delayed aoe), Phoenix (linear aoe + burst), and Fire Grab (frontal cone aoe).  The only real difference is that when you're using a staff you can be farther away, which I prefer only because of the "oh shit" situations where things don't go as planned.  Scepter/Dagger and Dagger/Dagger or Dagger/Focus or Scepter/Focus don't give you the elbow room in some situations.

  The main mechanic in the Fire Attunement is a condition called burning.  Burning isn't quite as good as Bleeding because Bleeding can stack on top of itself.  Burning stacks in duration.  This makes sustain important in a PvP situation where you're utilizing burning as a source of damage because you have to be able to outlast while your opponent slowly dies.  This is much more effective of a condition to rely on for Guardians than for the Elementalist.

  Balancing this is going to be tricky because as is, fire isn't bursty enough in my opinion.  The attunement with the most burst potential is Air/Arcane with Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave in your 678 slots.  If fire is going to represent the "consistent sustained damage" attunement it needs some kind of utility, preferably a stun of some kind.  If fire is going to represent the "own your face with an explosion" attunement it needs its damaged buffed.

  Abilities like Fire Shield should mitigate some damage, or at least return as much damage as the caster takes to add some survivability.  Taking 300 burning damage when you have 20k hp isn't a sufficient deterrent to stop those melee rangers from smacking you in the face for 6k.  (Rangers wielding two handed melee weapons were extremely overpowered in the open beta).

Staff = Ground targeted AoE, no real nukes aside from Meteor Shower (which isn't guaranteed hits)
Dagger/Dagger = Close quarters frontal cone aoe, no stuns, very vulnerable, leap, Dragon's Claw does not apply burning.
Dagger/Focus = Close quarters frontal cone aoe, hard to place flamewall (easy to avoid), fire shield that does very little damage and adds no EHP.
Scepter/Dagger = Contradiction between distance casting (scepter) and close quarters burst (Fire Grab).  It's easy to apply burning, but to take advantage of the burst in Fire Grab you've got to put yourself in a bad position.
Scepter/Focus = Again, Flamewall and Fire shield are junk, but the first three abilities from Scepter are good.

Guild Wars 2 Open Beta Weekend 4/28/2012

  So I lost a lot of sleep over the weekend playing the first open beta event.  It started Friday night and I played all the way through Sunday night (with a little nap and a shower).  When release hits I'll be playing an Elementalist so I went ahead and previewed the class by leveling and doing some PvP.

Leveling 1-20

  I stopped leveling at 20 because the main quest line that tells your characters personal story ended with a big "to be continued in release" message.  After 20 I PvP'd the rest of the way.  It took me about 24 hours to make it to 20, but I was going through and reading some of the story line and quest text and taking my time.  This was my first beta event also, so that will make you slower when you're learning the game and setting up your key binds.

  Leveling as an Elementalist is pretty easy.  I was level 16 kiting level 21 veterans (lowest level elites) with no problems other than it taking an extremely long time to kill them.  You get a pretty decent tool-set to handle doing damage in a lot of circumstances, and most of your abilities can be used while running.  I think I spent more time taking trips back to the main city to empty my bags and craft than I did leveling.  You can get a nice set of 8 slot bags without much effort as a blacksmith, tailor, or leather worker.

  The quests are entertaining I think, and very non-traditional event oriented.  Think Rift, but better.  You don't have to spend a lot of time hunting exclamation points for finding quests at linear hubs along the way.  Things happen on the map, you hear and see announcements, and you go to those events and investigate... then you participate and get XP.  It's really a refreshing approach I think.  It's definitely 100 times better than killing another set of 10 wolves for meager XP.  You basically hang out in an area design for your level (or in my case several levels above most of the time) and you do stuff in that area and you level.

  As I leveled I used a given weapon/attunement arrangement just long enough to level skills and then I would switch weapons or switch my attunement so I could unlock all of the skills.  It took me about 16 levels of focusing on that to unlock every Elementalist skill (including underwater).

  I'm going to write separate articles about Elementalist skills, but overall I was very pleased with the Beta weekend.

Streaming on Twitch.tv

  So I've decided to stream, and chose Twitch.tv to do it.  I'm not looking to monetize.  I don't plan on becoming one of those people that sits at his computer and talks to his fans, but if you're interested in what I'm doing right now... the video is below.

  Be warned that the language occasionally used is offensive to most people.  Think of it like watching any extremely vulgar comedian (except group of people).  Most of the time we're just having fun and the shit we say should not be taken seriously.


  Watch live video from lucr3tius on www.twitch.tv

  To accomplish the stream I purchased Xsplit Broadcaster, and I think its well worth the money simply because it makes it so easy to setup.  I was actually so pleased with how easy it was I purchased Xsplit when it was still in beta (and could be used for free).  They recently released version 1.0, and development is pretty active.

  Hardcore streaming nerds will cry about it not being the absolute best most efficient bandwidth cost-effective solution, but fuck them.  8)