Guild Wars 2

Hi all. This is a sad post because I am feeling sad. Guildwars2 became my MMO after City Of Heroes was killed. I loved this game because, even though I am the biggest clutz of them all, I could still happily dash about doing map completion, and I did get my map completion..don’t ask me though about how many times I fell off of Viser’s Tower

I do not do Dungeons, or Fracs because that would be punishment to four other players, but I was gleefully happy in the open World because I could do it.

Then came the new areas which were harder….and then came the beast, HoT.

I…get killed there. For sure I cannot get gliding mastery there, nor can I get the Reaper or the Dragon Hunter, or the Berserker…

My fault for not being a young whippersnapper with young whippersnapper reflexes…and I suffered a bit of brain damage which is why my hand eye coordination is not up to Jumping Puzzle specs

So, I continued to play open world PVE, and tried not to think about my not being able to get the elites….I know there is a Hero Point train in HoT but one of the requirements to go along on this train is gliding..which I cannot get.

This evening my world crumbled.

I was trying to get to the Demon’s Maw Vista, slipping and sliding, and trying over and over again….when it happened.

Two girls, girl characters at least, glided over the part which was giving me problems.

It was as easy as peach pie for them.

I did finally make it…but after seeing how easily these girls glided over the hard part, I did not feel very happy about it…it was a hollow victory.

Anet, please, please, please give us players who play solo open world a way of earning gliding in the open world. Restrict the ability to gain mastery points for open world gliding to the owners of HoT, but, please, think about it.

I love this game and do not want to quit.

Lisa.

I kinda missed the part where you explained, why you can’t get glinding. Is it because you died in Verdant Brink?

If thats the case, let me give you some tips: Once you’ve got gliding unlocked, it’s unlocked for all your characters. So you only need the initial 500.00 EP (hope that’s correct). To do that, you have to do some events in Verdant Brink – so take a friend or two and ask them to help you OR (since all VB maps share the same event cycle) join the Map right after “Daybreak” (xx.30). If you do that you will find a questline starting south of the very first WP where you can participate and gain EP. (maybe you have to wait a bit until a few players show up, but you won’t be alone)

TheMSR, thank you. I don’t join teams because I tend to drag down the other four, and when you don’t team, you don’t make friends.

Last time I did an event in HoT I got squashed.

Gosh, where is my fighting spirit….I need to go to this HoT again and give it another whirl…on my day off I will do just that

Thanks for the encouragement.

Lisa.

How do you know when daybreak is?? Is it on a set schedule?

Julischka Bean.7491:

How do you know when daybreak is?? Is it on a set schedule?

Yes. All the new maps have set schedules. Really, they aren’t that bad if you go with at least one other person. Join up with a friend or guildie and you’ll be surprised how much better that makes it.

Here are the timers: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers

Aww, Julischka. I know we never ended up getting together for HP gathering (though I still will gladly aid you in that) but for events I will happily lead you about and rez you if you fall. I promise I am very patient. When is your day off? (And I believe you are NA, right?) I am generally available starting early afternoon Eastern time each day, with occasional evening cutoffs — always gone Tuesday and Sunday evening, and every second or third Wednesday.

Also I strongly suggest that your first elite you go for be Reaper. That thing is tough. You’ll have a much easier time surviving with it.

Julischka Bean.7491:

[…]
This evening my world crumbled.

I was trying to get to the Demon’s Maw Vista, slipping and sliding, and trying over and over again….when it happened.

Two girls, girl characters at least, glided over the part which was giving me problems.

It was as easy as peach pie for them.

I did finally make it…but after seeing how easily these girls glided over the hard part, I did not feel very happy about it…it was a hollow victory.
[…]

This does not seem hollow to me. You have succeeded without using the glider crutch. Think instead on your perseverance, how they have missed the challenge, the exultation of finally beating the JP.

I was recently working on an alternate character and using the glider to bypass a large portion of a mini-jp. Yes, it is faster, but it seems anti-climactic, especially as I have done it the hard way.

Julischka Bean.7491:

My fault for not being a young whippersnapper with young whippersnapper reflexes…

Yeah, tell me about it..

I understand how you feel and I pretty much hate every map in HoT for same reasons. However, I have managed to all my elite specs unlocked and raised all HoT masteries to one level before max.

So, maybe you want to try out WvW map for some Mastery Points. Even if you are not into WvW, there is EotM. Its boring as hell but if you manage to get into train there, it is easy xp and every time you gain WvW level you also gain items that allow you to finish MP in HoT without even going there. I have characters that finished ALL HoT mastery insights before entering first HoT map.

Once in Verdant Brink, the area of course is completely unsoloable. So, you really want to find commander tag and follow the group doing events. You should be able to do first event chain around Shipwreck Peak Waypoint and also reach Jaka Itzel village in the North for second event chain. Depending what time you play map could be completely empty, if that happens and no players are doing these events, leave and try again later. But there are also maps that have 4 commanders and are actively trying to reach max tier.

I wish I could tell it all gets easy and fun once you level up HoT masteries. Sadly, it doesn’t. Exploring gets faster once you have gliding and jumping mushrooms. Some enemies are easier to kill once you get stealth detection. But its still pretty much same mess through all these maps. Mobs that randomly kill you. Events that are undoable without running in zerg of thousand other players (and getting bored for only using auto-attack).

I’m a City of Heroes refugee myself. Yes, we’re refugee’s now. But I guess I was a bit of a different kind of refugee… When I played CoH, I was theorycrafting full IO sets for all my toons to get soft-capped defenses, and would frequently host trials because I didn’t want to stand around and wait for someone else to host the trial. Some of my funnest moments was when I went and hosted a +4x8 Barracuda Strike Force / Whatever the hero equivalent was (the one with the Reichsman). That, and the first time I soloed an Archvillain.

That all said, this game is not as lenient as City of Heroes, where you could run around with SO enhancements. Heart of Thorns was built assuming that players who walked into the jungle were competent with their toons, as well as fully equipped. It is there to satisfy the yearning of harder overworld content that was created when the NPE nerfed everything.

I myself am not a good player. I am slow, I can’t see half of the time, I am captain fumble fingers, and I cannot break away from mouse-activating skills no matter how much I set my keybinds and practice. And yet, I don’t think there’s anything in the game that I cannot complete. This isn’t Tekken, you don’t need twitch reflexes to compete. This isn’t runescape, you don’t need to dedicate a full time job to grind out all the gear needed to even function. You only need 3 things:

#1: A good build.
#2: Good Gear (exotic level. Probably zerker or sinister/viper).
#3: The knowledge of the tactics and combos that come with that build.

And due to the sheer power that comes with these 3 things, you’ll find that many encounters will melt away with only the barest sense of competence.

It could be that, because you’ve never set foot in dungeons or joined a team, you haven’t received proper feedback or practice with your skills, and haven’t been put into a situation that would require critical thinking to succeed. You’ve got to get over the self conscious thing. To quote Jake the Dog “being terrible at something is just the first step to being kind of good at something”. Yes, you’ll probably drag down a group you join, but so long as you’re kicking those legs you’ll start running with the pack. And that will be necessary, because some of the hero points in HoT are designed specifically for groups.

Maybe if we got a sense of your gear, builds, and tactics we might see what the problem is. I’m not ready to surrender and rewrite the games code just because you have no confidence.

Honestly, they should give gliding to everyone, even people without HoT.
But they won’t because it is the major selling point of the expansion.

Well, i hope they consider your request.

Hey Julischka!

I think that Guild Wars (being an MMORPG) is best enjoyed amongst friends. For me, both Guild Wars games were mostly about friends and community, since I’ve run out of content a dozen times over. There are people and activities that do not make you “drag the other people down” too, it’s not all dungeons and fractals and raids in this game.
I suggest you simply ask for some help – either here or in game, and people who actually feel like it will probably go to you to help you. Or if not, just try and catch me in game if you see me online!

I guarantee, if you state if you are NA or EU, someone reading this thread will happily join you for some xp gain, whether its the initial story instance or open world teaming. And they will happily play at your pace as well.

Hi there Lisa,

I’d also be very happy to guide you around and help you get some hero points and some mastery xp for your gliding. Nothing wrong with slow and steady, I like to take it slow myself and will happily go at your pace.
Mesmer at the ready for any hp’s or points you may need :-)
I am on NA server but since im Aussie im on late at night if you are on Est time. I will usually be on at about 11.30pmEst and earlier on weekends.
If you ever need a hand send me a tell or mail and ill help you out.

I think that’s very sad. Because there’s always that one person that is willing to help. Simply to play together with. And you don’t need 4 other friends all the time either. Just the one to point you in the right direction. And even then, a guild or friend to simply chat to in the game without doing anything special can make all the difference. There are people who do mostly that, while hanging out in Divinity’s Reach or Lion’s Arch.

Oh my Gosh… wasn’t expecting all the verd kind responses. I logged into this thread before dashing off to work to ask which character I should concentrate on first and it seems my Necromancer is a good choice.

This is the necromancer who got stomped..but before he got totally discouraged and went to Orr to do map completion there, he did open up quite a few waypoints.

He is Berserker traited..including the trinkets. I am not sure why, but in open world I do a lot better with glass cannon traits than I do with some defense. I die less, and my health seems to regenerate faster.

My Superior Runes are Superior Runes Of Speed..the vitality it gives is my only defensive stat..well, my Aquabreather has Soldier’s stats.

I use Superior Sigil Of Force, and, except for my guardians who get Superior Rune Of fire, I use Superior Sigil Of Accuracy in my weapons. I have all professions at 80, and they all follow this formula…and in open world they are all tail kickers.

I guess I need to change things up for HoT. Which stats should I go for to survive HoT on my Necro?? Which Runes and Sigils??

And now I have to scoot my boots to work….thank you all. I will come back to this thread when I get home from work.

Lisa-Full of Gratitude.

I’d be happy to help you get through some of HoT if you’re on a US server. Just message me in game.

I’d also be more than willing to help you with leveling masteries if you’re also on a US server like Vayne said. Feel free to add me to your friendslist in-game and if we’re ever online at the same time I can come help you level masteries to make HoT a little easier for you!

I know HoT can be pretty hard, but the maps are a lot more fun with a friend or two to help you out especially against some of the more annoying new enemies. (I’m talking about you, smokescales.)

Vayne.8563:

I’d be happy to help you get through some of HoT if you’re on a US server. Just message me in game.

Same here just let me know

It’s almost kind of pointless with mega server, but alot of servers still have websites and TeamSpeak still. Doing a search of your server and registering on the site in some cases will grant you the option to join their TS if they have one. The main reason these voice servers still exist is for wvw, however most likely several of them run PVE channels as well. Also, in alot of cases, the websites have suggestions on builds and guides for certain events. Plus, it’s a good place to get to know guilds based on your server with more resources to help out if you need it.

Julischka Bean.7491:

This is the necromancer who got stomped..but before he got totally discouraged and went to Orr to do map completion there, he did open up quite a few waypoints.

Necro is one of the easiest classes to play and I have done a lot HoT exploration on my necro. Yes, even solo. If you want to have laziest build that pretty much allows you to stand there and hit attack skills and never-ever die, its called million minions build.

The basic build uses the idea that you run around with many-many undead minions. Its the Minion traits from Death Magic 1-1-1. Then you add Life Siphon damage from Blood Magic 3-3-3. Third spec is up to you but if you got reaper unlocked, I really recommend Augury Of Death for improved shouts.

Now fill the skill slots with every minion skills. If you got reaper, “Rise” is must, its really-really good and allows you to stand in the middle of enemy groups while adding more and more minions.

Weapons – whatever you like! You will be doing mostly life siphon damage that ignores armor. Staff+ GS is really good. Or Axe+WH. Use what you like most.

Armor – you will be playing as tank, not for damage so stack up on Vit and Toughness. You can use Power for third stat so your attacks hit a bit harder or Condi Damage for that lovely Deathly Chill trait. But mainly its about Vit+Toughness.

Sigils – Leeching and Hydromancy work really well. Just keep swapping wepon. Runes – again, anything that adds Vit and Toughness.

For the mastery XP i personally would suggest simply grinding for it. If you make your way just north of the initial waypoint in verdant brink there’s a river flowing east to west. Along that are yellow mobs that seldom get killed. You can grind these (and go up the ramp by the river as you go down the river) to get a decent XP flow. XP is better if you have a birthday or celebration booster. You get the latter from your daily login reward.

I can certainly relate, Lisa. I too avoid jumping puzzles and even vistas can be frustrating. I finally pushed on and did the first HoT story/mission to get gliding unlocked, only to discover I had to level it up in an HoT zone. So I just wandered around killing things, harvesting, exploring, (avoiding tougher mobs) and got in on a couple of group events. That was enough to get the basic gliding unlocked.

On to Pact (whatever) which gets unlocked in the core maps!

Julischka Bean.7491:

I guess I need to change things up for HoT. Which stats should I go for to survive HoT on my Necro?? Which Runes and Sigils??

This is the build I use on my necro for running around HoT maps alone: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Offensive_Blood_Support

It is listed as a “raid” build but it is working well for me in the new maps. Pretty much throwing down a well, moving into reaper shroud and pressing 2 and 4 kills most things. The flesh golem is a bit of a tank and adds damage. You bring a lot of cc for break bars, and your wells give you protection and regen. If you absolutely need a ranged option you can use a staff instead of greatsword. I find myself mostly staying in dagger/warhorn anyway- the utility of the weapon set is great for survival.

The stats are berserker-everything with scholar runes and sigil for force and air on weapons. You can also trade well of corruption for the well of power (for stability and stun break). Switch the signet of blood to signet of the locust to move around quickly.

Necro really shines in the new content and there are a number of great builds. It’s all personal preference, so give a few of them a try!

Wow, thanks everyone for all your tips and offers to help.

As soon as I read the builds suggested, I logged into the game to see how my build compared.

I run:

Blood Magic: 2-2-1 Because I run Dagger/Warhorn as one of my weapon changes, and I also use Well Of Suffering

Death Magic: 1,1,1 Need to take care of my minions

Spite: 2-3-3 because Axe/Warhorn is my second weapon swap…I know I am using Warhorn twice, but i love it..especially in Orr.

In my Utilities I have Summon Shadow Fiend, Summon Bone Minion, Well Of Suffering, and Summon Flesh Golem. My Superior Runes of Speed grants me speedy travel time so I can use Well Of Suffering instead of the travel signet.

Ohhhhh, I almost forgot…I have a question. I have Superior Sigil Of Force on my main hands, but on the off hands instead of my usual sigil of Accuracy, I have Superior Sigil Of Bursting.

Sigil Of Force adds 5% Damage,

Sigil Of Bursting adds 6% to current condition damage.

Can these two be used together? I am using them together, and they seem to be working well together..but are they?

I decided upon Bursting over Accuracy because my Stats are all Berserker and wanted a boost to condition damage no matter how small…sort of covering all bases.

And grinding at first in HoT sounds good…it’s like getting my feet wet before taking the plunge…and if I see any events starting I can go ahead and join.

I have to go make breakfast and run errands but I will be back

Lisa-Very inquisitive

Lisa, add me to your friends list. I will be happy to run around the jungle with you and help you out.

The game felt sluggish so I turned down video options to see if that helped, and wouldn’t you know that it’s always been sluggish for me compared to how it runs now, and that affected how well I could navigate jumps. I haven’t had time to try out something challenging like a JP, but hope to fit one in this weekend to see how I do.

Hi Lisa,

Please feel free to add me to your friend’s list as well. I would be very happy to team up with you to work towards getting your gliding and elite specializations anytime that we are both free. I am usually on during the weekday evenings (NA servers).

Julischka Bean.7491:

Wow, thanks everyone for all your tips and offers to help.

As soon as I read the builds suggested, I logged into the game to see how my build compared.

I run:

Blood Magic: 2-2-1 Because I run Dagger/Warhorn as one of my weapon changes, and I also use Well Of Suffering

Death Magic: 1,1,1 Need to take care of my minions

Spite: 2-3-3 because Axe/Warhorn is my second weapon swap…I know I am using Warhorn twice, but i love it..especially in Orr.

In my Utilities I have Summon Shadow Fiend, Summon Bone Minion, Well Of Suffering, and Summon Flesh Golem. My Superior Runes of Speed grants me speedy travel time so I can use Well Of Suffering instead of the travel signet.

Ohhhhh, I almost forgot…I have a question. I have Superior Sigil Of Force on my main hands, but on the off hands instead of my usual sigil of Accuracy, I have Superior Sigil Of Bursting.

Sigil Of Force adds 5% Damage,

Sigil Of Bursting adds 6% to current condition damage.

Can these two be used together? I am using them together, and they seem to be working well together..but are they?

I decided upon Bursting over Accuracy because my Stats are all Berserker and wanted a boost to condition damage no matter how small…sort of covering all bases.

And grinding at first in HoT sounds good…it’s like getting my feet wet before taking the plunge…and if I see any events starting I can go ahead and join.

I have to go make breakfast and run errands but I will be back

Lisa-Very inquisitive

The thing with minions is that they’re very low-utility. Sure, you have a sizable mass that can take a few hits, but find yourself stunned and poisoned and you’ll wishing they did something other than melt to sniper fire.

Personally, pre-reaper, I had the following build:

Gear: Full Berserker
Runes: Scholar
Sigils: Force / Strength.

Weapons: Dagger/Focus, Warhorn
Utilities: Consume Conditions (or Well of Blood), Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption, Well of Darkness/Signet of Spite/Well of Power, Lich form.

Spite: Spiteful Talismen, Chill of Death, Close to death. This is a fairly basic build, set to maximize damage as much as possible.

Curses: Plague Sending, Path of Corruption, Weakening Shroud. This is the part that is critical to the build, because curses gives you furious demise. Otherwise these traits are mostly utility traits.

Blood Magic: Quickening Thirst, Vampiric Presence, Vampiric Rituals. A close competitor with soul reaping, but now that life blast pierces there is not as much reason to go into that build. In group scenarios, go with Ritual of Life instead of Quickening Thirst, as you’ll likely have swiftness on you anyway. Ritual of Life is very underrated.

This is a “shroud flashing” build. The idea of this build is fairly simple: By blinking in and out of death shroud rapidly, you can give yourself a high fury time, as well as inflict weakness to enemies around you. The off-hand weapons are swapped as needed, generally opening with locust swarm then wail of doom, flashing shroud and using tainted shackles, following through with a swap to focus for Reaper’s Touch. With Well of Suffering and Reaper’s Touch, the enemy should have a lot of vulnerability on them. You auto attack with the dagger, unless one of two things happens. First is that one of the wells or reaper’s touch is off CD, which in case you use those. Second, is if you need to disengage, heal, or revive.

The frequency of flashes isn’t set in stone. The other important thing to note is that Shroud works as a second HP bar, so if you fear massive damage from an enemy, you can keep shroud reserved for a bit to absorb the hit. Though this build is deceptively tanky. The wells give protection, the flashing gives weakness, coming to a total damage reduction of 51% (effectively giving you 38k HP). Factor in the life steal and you’ll be surprised how little your HP bar will budge. With that said, the moment you feel safe to flash, do it. That extra fury and weakness mean a lot.

You’re probably wondering about ranged damage. Well, there are two things here. With Death Shroud giving you a lot of HP and the build’s overall tankiness, you really won’t find yourself needing to “range” that much at all. But, should you find yourself in a situation where disengage is necessary, you still have ranged attacks in the form of Lich Form and Life blast. Don’t be afraid to use lich form, because after you’ve dropped your wells it does more damage than the dagger auto. Aside from that, Life Siphon can provide a minor heal an ranged offense while disengaging, and against a group the siphon from transfusion is pretty good, too.

The last utility slot is whatever is needed. Well of suffering is obvious, and well of corruption is a mini WoS that can also strip boons. Well of Darkness is a good choice because it makes anything without a break bar useless for 6 seconds or so. Well of Power is good if you find yourself in a condi/stun heavy area and aren’t running consume conditions, however against stun you’ll usually pop into shroud and counter-doom the enemy who stunned you. Spectral armor is also a good stun breaker, giving more protection while also giving more life force. If nothing catches your fancy and you’re basically fighting against big bags of HP, then Signet of Spite gives a meaningful boost to damage. Blood is Power is also a decent might boost when with a group. The main difference between consume conditions and well of blood is group support.

There are two ways to engage an enemy. Against frail but dangerous enemies, you’ll want to go whole hog and just burst them down as fast as possible. Against vet, you’ll want to keep your wells in check, waiting for their health to hit the half way mark for the 20% damage boost. For Champions and extremely durable enemies, the “whole hog” tactic works again, but reserve lich form for disengage or when they are half health.

With that build, I basically carved through all HoT content to get the reaper. The combination of high durability, high damage, good regen, and constant boon stripping makes this build capable of simply out-lasting groups of enemies with very little “skill” or counterplay needed. Just don’t stand directly in the glowing lines of the snipers and move after a ravager teleports to you, and you should be good.

As for the force/bursting thing, no. A sigil of bursting is wasted on anything that isn’t a pure condi build. In fact, the extra might stacks from a sigil of strength would offer more condi damage than a sigil of bursting would. If you have a dedicated group that is always going to be giving a lot of might, you can swap out strength for accuracy or bloodlust. You would never need traveling runes and quickening thirst at the same time. For a rune set, scholar is good, strength is good, chronomancer is good, eagle is good, heck straight up ruby orbs are still a solid option.

I feel your pain @Julischka Bean. I’m a similar player with equally poor skills/coordination, as well as a former CoH/V player. I don’t enjoy it as much as CoH/V but it is heads and tails above other MMOs I have installed.

All I can suggest is to find a helpful guild or use the LFG tool to find players who are interested in doing the HoT PvE content.