Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, my gf and I stopped playing last year and I played for the first time today and there seem to be a lotttttt of things that I have no idea what they are. If you guys could help with some questions that would be great!

1. Has there been any progression in gear? I had a full berzerkers set and jewelry, and the magic find one also. Is there any way to get more stats? (I love pvp)

2. I will research more about the laurel system later… but if someone is feeling patient, what is the best way to get them and are they important?

3. Is WvW pretty much the same? (Haven’t tried yet)

4. I am thinking of possibly rolling new toons with her. My gf is not a very experienced gamer like me—I think she had a pretty high level guardian. Is guardian an easy class to play in dungeons or endgame pve content, or is there an easier class to pve with? (Warrior maybe?) I have an 80 ranger with the gear mentioned above, what is another class that I could level with her that does well in WvW, if you had to choose between mesmer, necro, ele, and thief?

5. I read a little bit about ascended gears, what do you need to do to farm them?

6. Are there better sigils than there were before?

If you have the time to answer one or all of these questions, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

1) Kinda. There’s Ascended gear, which is essentially exotic gear plus an infusion slot. Infusion slots let you get 5 of a stat and 5 Agony Resistance. Agony resistance is used only in Fractals of the Mists, and directly reduces damage taken by a DoT that bosses can apply. However, full exotics is still the top-end gear available at this time.

2) You get 1 laurel per daily achievement and 10 per monthly achievement you complete. They can be used to get a number of nice things: ascended gear, unidentified dyes, collectible minis, crafting materials, WvW blueprints, and the like. They’re not crucial, but they’re nice.

3) Server matchups are randomized, and your characters now have WvW ranks. When you rank up, you get “WvW skill points” that you can spend in a number of ways to become more effective and specialized. You can increase damage done to guards, decrease damage taken from guards, deal more siege damage, take less siege damage, repair faster, build faster, master particular equipment, and more. However, WvW maps in and of themselves have not changed.

4) Guardian is a wonderful class, and since it’s so defensive it has a lot of leeway room for making mistakes and getting better. Any class can realistically combo with any other class, or even with the same class. Necros are currently flavor-of-the-month tier after getting a number of buffs, but any of the ones you listed would be fine. Thief will have a harder time being useful in PvE, but it’s not a massive deal (especially if you play with someone else).

5) Do fractals of the mists or earn laurels to buy ascended gear. Fractals of level 10+ give you the drops needed to buy the ascended gear, and you can survive without agony resistance in the first few levels so long as you play smartly and dodge.

6) Not really. They’re not that bad…

1. – They added a few exotics with different stats IE Sentinel’s.
– From what I am reading it seems likely ascended armor will be released this year
– They are about to start the process of removing Magic find from gear and integrating it through different account bound stats.
2. – Laurels are extremely important, particularly if you have a lot of characters you won’t be able to get enough. But if you only have a main and one or two extras you will be able to get enough.
3. – They added levelling in WvW that give you stat buffs and titles.
– Each level you get a reward chest (which is ok but not great)
4. – Guardian is really easy to play effectively in dungeons. Takes time to master though.
5. – Laruels, Guild commendations from guild missions, Fractals for rings.
6. – No changes I can think of.

Thanks for the answers!

What weapon/stat set for guardian is most used in dungeons and end game pve?

Disclaimer: I don’t currently play a guardian. I have leveled one up to ~40 and swapped to my engineer instead. I know a bunch about how they work, what their abilities are, and so on, but I haven’t recently played one so I don’t have experience beyond theorycrafting.

I see most guardians using these weapon sets:
-Greatsword for damage
-Mace/shield for defense
-Hammer for defense/control
-Staff for support/utility

In general, I’d advocate GS and Staff as a nice, catch-all choice of two weapons. However, you can more or less pick whatever you’d like.

As far as stats go:
Soldier’s gear is pretty handy, with OK (but not great) damage and pretty good survivability. If you’re really good at dodging and/or avoiding attacks, try out Berserker’s gear; it does crazy damage but is extremely easy to kill. In general:
-Toughness trumps vitality for Guardians, but both are nice.
-Healing Power can range from good to godly, depending on traits.
-Power is always good. Any build can use it.
-Critical damage is only good with significant amounts of critical chance (precision). IMO, your critical damage % should be no greater than your critical hit %. Crit burst builds will have lots of both, while bunker builds will have little of either.
-Condition damage and duration are very sub-par on Guardians. While you can somewhat make use of them through burns, it’s a bad stat for guardians. Avoid them whenever possible, other gear will be better itemized.
-Boon duration is pretty nice to have.

Another thing to mention on the PvE side of things is the current 2 week living story cycles. There is a new event introduced every 2 weeks that you might want to check out.

Right now is the bazaar of the four winds.