Guild Wars 2

What’s the best way to farm gold at this time? I was told Frostgorge sound (think that’s the name of Jormags map) and just follow champ train. Despite various difficulties, this got me a few things in a week that I really wanted. I was wondering if there was a quicker method?

The other thing I need help with is picking a main class. I am looking for a very FAST class. So far, it seems my choices are stuck between Mesmer, Elementalist, and Thief since they have very fast combat. I was hoping to have help picking between them or another option with an explanation… By fast I mean very quickly queued skills and action pace, efficiency isn’t as important since I can work around that…

Hopefully I get a response on this thread- I have dropped a few threads with no answers.

Invasions? I mainly use a fire/earth fire ele there, using AOE’s on the staff, 20-30 boxes and bags full/over-full by the end. Follow a commander tag/s or get one yourself. I’ve run most of the classes there (have them all at 80), personally get the most with a fire ele. A weapon that bounces at multiple mobs seems to do 2nd best for me, such as a thief SB and has AOE’s, keep moving/orbiting.

Temples and world bosses. Temples good to have 100+ MF, lots of minions, zerker gear may not be best. World bosses, use a web site timer, though rare prices are slowly going down on the TP again. But no need for MF on world bosses.

Class depends what you are doing. I don’t think cool downs matter so much. Thief is the fastest, but you’ll run out of initiative if not paced. The rest you just trait the weapon you mainly use for faster cool downs.

Farming gold is all dependant on time. If you have only about an hour or so, run dungeons. If you have all day, run dungeons then farm in Frostgorge/Queensdale. ALso, do world events whenever you can, as they will always have a rare/exotic.

If you want a fast class, go naked, zerker Thief. But really, I’d say all classes but maybe Ranger are in your definition fast, dependant on the build. But with Elementalist and Mesmer, each skill must be used at the right moment or you can take a lot of damage. With those two its all about timing. Thief is a class where I have no experience in, and can’t help much. The only thing I do know is that it is the second fastest class in the game.

Only thing I use ranger for is world bosses such as the golem where you will have the best range. Otherwise ranger need not apply for most groups, especially in dungeon PUG’s. Maybe champ farming, move fast and single targets at range. If you want to do dungeons with a ranger, best to find a guild, but even then your ranger might be left out time and again, or they will suggest you switch to an alt. It’s more of a soloers choice and choice of node bots. People will defend the ranger, but they still get left out of groups.

If focusing on dungeons/fractals, best to roll a warrior. If not a warrior, a guard. Or a mesmer or lastly a thief due to burst DPS and stealth. The rest are secondary choices, though water ele in some content can be the most useful of the other choices. Fire ele can fit in too. Most/all classes can do it if built for it, just some are more desirable than others, especially in decent PUG’s. Guilds, people play together often, so it becomes more of a unit, you’ll see more variety that works in that case. Gear is cheaper now, get a couple sets at least. I pref zerker and soldier sets for my warrior I most dungeon/fractal with. Guard good with like knight to start. Toughness vs melee, vitality vs. CD.

My opinion is, just play the game, you’ll get gold. Unless you are doing something silly like map completion for a weapon that just looks flashy. When you are running around in transmuted cultural armor, more rare weapons, crazy expensive dyes, multiple commander tags, pirate costume brawl suits lol, imo a legendary just has no real appeal to me other than showing you are a dedicated farmer and missed most of the content in this game beyond hearts.

Rangers are stigmatized because they are too often played by poor players. If you’re not doing absolute min/max speedruns, you’ll be fine going as a ranger as long as you build and play properly- i.e. don’t sit at max range autoattacking with a longbow and a bear that’s dead because you never swap or manage pets, hitting Point Blank Shot whenever it goes off cooldown (and knocking mobs away from the warrior right as he starts Hundred Blades), and dying whenever something aggros you because you’ve never learned to dodge or move when something looks at you hungrily. An offensive sword/warhorn ranger with Spotter and Frost Spirit in particular hits hard while increasing the damage everyone else does in a party.

You can complete dungeons in good time with any class as long as everyone knows their classes well and plays well. Warriors are just wanted because it’s harder to screw up playing a warrior as opposed to a S/D-LH ele or S/W-Spotter-Frost Spirit ranger, and because many PUGs don’t get the point of quickly stacking lots of vulnerability or sacrificing a little personal DPS to boost the DPS of everyone else in the group.

Falunel.7645:

Rangers are stigmatized because they are too often played by poor players. If you’re not doing absolute min/max speedruns,

See? people will defend them, but still the class gets left out, bottom line, even from casual pugs. Nothing to do with the above. Now someone will tell me I don’t know how to play ranger etc etc etc.

Warrior you will find better PUG’s the fastest with, ranger the slowest. Not even speaking of speed runs. But since you are after gold, you don’t want to limit your availability. If you are already doing champ zergs, then you will probably gravitate to a class that can do speed runs when you feel like it. But like I said, there are also temples, world bosses and invasions. Universally I’d go with warrior or thief, myself. Though my thief is more retired to just WvW and guild missions, while I use my warrior and fire ele the most in pve.

Daywolf.2630:

Falunel.7645:

Rangers are stigmatized because they are too often played by poor players. If you’re not doing absolute min/max speedruns,

See? people will defend them, but still the class gets left out, bottom line, even from casual pugs. Nothing to do with the above. Now someone will tell me I don’t know how to play ranger etc etc etc.

I’d hardly say that “absolute min/max speedruns” are “casual PUG” material, given that many of the PUGs I run with spend a generous amount of time dirtnapping because they stood in red circles. It’s not a very efficient run if your DPS is dead.

Yes, as a ranger, you face a stigma created by bad players. But playing a ranger doesn’t mean you’re some lazy autoattacker who may as well not be there, or that a run will take hours longer because you’re there. You can be effective in runs and contribute if you play well. If ranger is your class, if it fits you like a glove and you feel driven to master it and play it well, then play it.

EDIT: Directing you here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1o80i5/should_i_reroll_from_ranger/ and to this post in particular.

Rangers rulez!
It was the same way in EQ1, everybody played ranger, including myself (apart from my very wanted cleric), but were the armpit of the classes. It went through nerfs and buff though, but at the height of EQ1 (first number of years) they were nearly trash apart form being overly used for solo play. Rangers are not rangers here, it’s a pet class here, and with really pathetic AI. There is no playing a ranger “good”, broken class, it’s about playing around the broken parts of a pet class. You would be ignored and even kicked. For making gold, your best bet is to get into good groups quickly and not be a drag on them at any point, even casual players don’t want to be held up. That’s all I have to say on the issue.

Daywolf.2630:

For making gold, your best bet is to get into good groups quickly and not be a drag on them at any point, even casual players don’t want to be held up. That’s all I have to say on the issue.

and as I have said (and other players who are better than both you and I have also said and posted videos on, that I have linked), a good ranger is hard to play but hardly a drag or a hold-up.

Falunel.7645:

Daywolf.2630:

For making gold, your best bet is to get into good groups quickly and not be a drag on them at any point, even casual players don’t want to be held up. That’s all I have to say on the issue.

and as I have said (and other players who are better than both you and I have also said and posted videos on, that I have linked), a good ranger is hard to play but hardly a drag or a hold-up.

trolling me back? Your answer is you assume I do not play a ranger well. Speak for yourself. Well or not well, changes nothing, they get passed over. OP is asking about a class for making gold, not off the beaten path struggle to get into groups class.

Daywolf.2630:

trolling me back? Your answer is you assume I do not play a ranger well. Speak for yourself.

An opinion that does not agree with yours =/= trolling.

I am still in the process of leveling my own ranger, but I linked videos made by a skilled player and theorycrafter who demonstrates that ranger can be effective when played right. I said myself that rangers were stigmatized- what I was arguing against was the idea that they’re useless and not even a guild group will want them. That [DnT] member said himself that the same run with a warrior in place of the ranger would have gone slower, as the ranger provided group DPS buffs another warrior could not have. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Daywolf.2630:

OP is asking about a class for making gold, not off the beaten path struggle to get into groups class.

Actually, this is what he wrote:

I am looking for a very FAST class. So far, it seems my choices are stuck between Mesmer, Elementalist, and Thief since they have very fast combat. I was hoping to have help picking between them or another option with an explanation… By fast I mean very quickly queued skills and action pace, efficiency isn’t as important since I can work around that…

Playing ranger well is challenging because you have to time your sword autoattack and evades well or risk being unable to dodge at vital movements. At the same time, you have to pay attention to your pet and manage it with swapping, using the F2 skill, and callbacks. It requires a lot of multitasking. Whether this is the sort of challenge he wants or not is up to him, since I know a lot of people find it frustrating. But if he enjoys the experience of playing one and wants to master it, then he should by all means play it. If not, and he likes another class, be it warrior or elementalist, he should by all means play that. But he shouldn’t give a class up just because people are narrow-minded- hell, if that was the case, there would have been no eles playing past launch.

Falunel.7645:

An opinion that does not agree with yours =/= trol

“players that are better than you and I”
And a bad trolling at that. Speak for yourself, you don’t hnow jack about me!
You havent even leveled a ranger yet for kittens sake! geez

Daywolf.2630:

Falunel.7645:

An opinion that does not agree with yours =/= trol

“players that are better than you and I”
And a bad trolling at that. Speak for yourself, you don’t hnow jack about me!
You havent even leveled a ranger yet for kittens sake! geez

The guy whose videos I linked is an experienced player and dungeon soloist who is part of a well-known hardcore/minmax/theorycrafting guild, who happens to have leveled a ranger and a warrior and compared them side by side. I don’t think it’s trolling to say that he’s more knowledgable than -both- of us.

Falunel.7645:

Daywolf.2630:

Falunel.7645:

An opinion that does not agree with yours =/= trol

“players that are better than you and I”
And a bad trolling at that. Speak for yourself, you don’t hnow jack about me!
You havent even leveled a ranger yet for kittens sake! geez

The guy whose videos I linked is an experienced player and dungeon soloist who is part of a well-known hardcore/minmax/theorycrafting guild, who happens to have leveled a ranger and a warrior and compared them side by side. I don’t think it’s trolling to say that he’s more knowledgable than -both- of us.

By both you mean you. You dont even have a ranger. LOL
side-by-side two classes… 2 is greater than 8? Like I said in a previous post, I leveled all the classes. All my characters are alts and I play them all too. All played, all studied, all having multiple sets of gear (exo and ascended). But you already know this about me, right?…

Tonight I watched a ranger start a group with the lfg tool for AC. Ten minutes passed, many other groups were formed and filled, dozens, but no one would join the rangers party. Finally he canceled. A minute later, I saw a guard start a group and the ranger joined his lvl80 group. Five minutes passes, a dozen groups formed and quickly filled up, but that group still only had a guard and a ranger. After another five minutes, they had a group full for AC, 1 guard and… 4 rangers! No kidding. 20 minutes to get started, about the time it takes to run a path in AC. Yeah, learn to solo dungeon that ranger.

Daywolf.2630:

Falunel.7645:

Daywolf.2630:

Falunel.7645:

An opinion that does not agree with yours =/= trol

“players that are better than you and I”
And a bad trolling at that. Speak for yourself, you don’t hnow jack about me!
You havent even leveled a ranger yet for kittens sake! geez

The guy whose videos I linked is an experienced player and dungeon soloist who is part of a well-known hardcore/minmax/theorycrafting guild, who happens to have leveled a ranger and a warrior and compared them side by side. I don’t think it’s trolling to say that he’s more knowledgable than -both- of us.

By both you mean you. You dont even have a ranger. LOL
side-by-side two classes… 2 is greater than 8? Like I said in a previous post, I leveled all the classes. All my characters are alts and I play them all too. All played, all studied, all having multiple sets of gear (exo and ascended). But you already know this about me, right?…

Tonight I watched a ranger start a group with the lfg tool for AC. Ten minutes passed, many other groups were formed and filled, dozens, but no one would join the rangers party. Finally he canceled. A minute later, I saw a guard start a group and the ranger joined his lvl80 group. Five minutes passes, a dozen groups formed and quickly filled up, but that group still only had a guard and a ranger. After another five minutes, they had a group full for AC, 1 guard and… 4 rangers! No kidding. 20 minutes to get started, about the time it takes to run a path in AC. Yeah, learn to solo dungeon that ranger.

On the flip side, I’ve seen rangers get taken the moment they make their LFG. That, and if you want to farm dungeons for gold, a static group is the best option.

There’s a shift in terminology lately when it comes to people complaining about rangers- instead of “I hate rangers,” it’s “I hate bearbow rangers.” More and more people are realizing that rangers do just fine if they’re played right, i.e. not autoattacking with a longbow and bear. The 4 warrior/1 mesmer meta is out of date- people are finding ways to play every class effectively.

Having a class at 80 does not mean you know it, nor does having all classes at 80 mean you’re an expert at the game. As I said, the person I referenced is a theorycrafter in a guild devoted to elite play (which has studied all eight classes and written min/max guides for all of them), who has written build guides, soloed dungeons, and set record runs. I highly doubt he and his guild are less knowledgeable than you are.

I will end with this:

“Every man mistakes the limits of his vision for the limits of the world.” – Arthur Schoppenhauer

OP: I apologize for derailing your thread. Elementalist and thief are both very fast classes where comboing is important. Elementalist can afford to do some more head-on fighting than thief if built for it- it has better self-recovery and boon defenses. Thief is more hit and run. Mesmer has a more deliberate playstyle that emphasizes being able to counter enemies and knowing when to shatter.

In dungeon speedruns, both thieves and elementalists outdamage warriors (again, when built and played right). In the thief’s case, they are brought for high damage and stealthing the party past mobs. In the ele’s case, they are brought for sheer damage, conjure weapons, or stacking lots of might and fury on the party. Mesmers don’t do as much damage, but provide a number of utilities that make the run faster or easier- portal, Time Warp, and projectile reflections. In non-speedruns, you can build more towards balance and still do fine.

It’ll probably boil down to how you want to support your party, and what kind of build (glassy or balanced) you prefer.

Thanks for all the input, and no worries for the derail. Made me look at ranger. I tried it, but it doesn’t go fast enough. Its a bunch of management, and if you want fast-paced, a lot of pre-planning a fight. I don’t mind it, but it takes forever for a short speed burst =(
Um, I probably should have pointed my question more- sorry.

I like the Thief because it can either instant burst or instant melt a target, but its limited to one and only 1-4 skills that you can use WHILE USING A SKILL ALREADY.

I like the Elementalist because it can do the above, but it doesn’t melt as quickly. I.E= I run d/d ele because it is quick, going 15/15/15/15/10. So, I can be in the middle of fire 3 (d/d still), pop fire 4/arcane wave/ earth attunement at the same time as fire 4 is queueing, then go to do earth 4, then the earth 5+blink combo while queueing up air attunement and shock aura. Lots of skill popping, and very very little downtime.

I like the Mesmer because of Illusionary Persona- can use any of the shatter skills while using a weapon or utility skill. I like it because I can do (no offense to guards) a better boon share than them.

I was hoping for help with figuring that out, or a suggestion. So, which should I pick or another class + build you would suggest? Or is that it, do I have to keep them seperate…? Again, thanks so much for the help!

@falunail Thats still all very noobish, since you havent actually experianced a level 80 ranger. You still know nothing about me to make comparisons to yourself or anyone else. Yes, you derailed the thread with that, and with your accusations against me. Try actually leveling a ranger before trying to talk others into playing the class. And not just level one, but actually play and experiance lvl80 on it.

@OP yes a thief may be a good choice. You will get into groups and quickly build a followers/friends list if played well. It still remains one of the hardest classes to play well, requiring nimble fingers and clear focus, it’s not a class for just auto-attack. But with the thief you can do well with all content in this game, get into any group or even solo pretty well. I call it the class that is more true ranger than ranger is. There a few builds, you may want to try them all and see which best fits you. You get the basic idea by lvl20 or so, but by 80 you will find a good variaty of skills and uses with a thief, its a lot more fun at 80 than at 20, but still fun at 20 and may even seem OP at low levels. But play it to 20 or mid-levels, you will draw your own conclusions to keep on leveling it or not.

Oh and what I said obout now only using my thief (d/d stealth /w shortbow) for wvw and guild missions, it’s just that I’ve played all the content with all the classes and now more so just log in the class/build ideal for what I’m doing at the moment. But easily thief will do well with all content, and if I were limited now to only being able to play one class, for all content and for making gold, thief would be among the leading class choices for me. probably between thief, warrior, guard. But add in fun factor, thief would probably take a shadow step forward to be revealed …and trait blinding everyone of course.

Daywolf.2630:

@falunail Thats still all very noobish, since you havent actually experianced a level 80 ranger. You still know nothing about me to make comparisons to yourself or anyone else. Yes, you derailed the thread with that, and with your accusations against me. Try actually leveling a ranger before trying to talk others into playing the class. And not just level one, but actually play and experiance lvl80 on it.

All right, imagine I’m not the one saying everything here. Imagine instead that it was Brazil who came in here and said what he said on reddit and elsewhere:

Gameplay with Sword is that farthest thing from boring I could possibly imagine, because you have to queue up attacks ahead of time, know what attacks bosses are going to do, break your autoattack chain if you make a mistake, and do all of that while managing a pet.

It’s not boring, it’s not lazy, it’s very difficult…The downside of the class is that more people can’t play it effectively because of the challenge it brings. I don’t play mine as often anymore because I can’t relax while playing it. It’s difficult and rage inducing when you make a mistake.

Ranger would be good regardless of how fast it could do CoF. The reason there is only one is the same reason there is only one Warrior: unique buffs. One Warrior is able to cover Banner of Strength and Discipline, the Ranger brings Spotter and Frost Spirit. Thieves bring the highest single target DPS in the game, and Mesmer brings utility. Every party in the universe could benefit from having a solid Ranger, but not many people are capable of playing Ranger that well.

and

Ranger is pretty strong, it just takes a strong will to master. Don’t give up :)

That is the message I’m passing on, for him, for other current rangers, and most importantly, for players who have the potential to become great rangers and love every moment of it, but get frightened off by naysayers. I might not have played ranger to that extent, but he has, in groups and tests devoted to picking apart the game. And no amount of ad hominem arguing will change that fact.

Though if you still want to keep arguing along that line, tell me which of these is more plausible:

1) That you are a special snowflake who somehow- despite not having any remarkable feat to your name, despite not having a skilled static group to do highly controlled DPS tests and speedruns with, despite not having written any guides or collected any evidence to support any of your claims- somehow has superior knowledge of the class and all aspects of the game, to the extent that it surpasses actual recorded, controlled, precise tests and records done by a highly experienced group of people who have written numerous meta guides and are still finding ways to push the most out of every class, or

2) That you are simply one of the many players who cannot (or do not want to put in the effort to) play ranger well, and rather than realize that and accept that (like myself and guardian) your strengths may simply lie elsewhere, that the playstyle simply isn’t your thing, you blame the class for your own shortcomings and refuse to acknowledge any evidence to the contrary. As many players have done before you, with every class from guardian to ele.

Linking Brazil’s reddit post again.
Here’s the rest of that reddit thread.
Here’s a guide to min/maxing with ANY class, if you’re really into min/max.
And here’s the guide Brazil wrote over ranger, with videos.

“Every man mistakes the limits of his vision for the limits of the world.” – Arthur Schoppenhauer

And that is the last I will say on this topic.

@OP: Ahh, so that’s what you meant by skill queuing. If that’s what you enjoy, then I would say go for elementalist. Shatters on mesmer have to be more carefully planned and timed, and at least to me don’t feel as swift and spontaneous as an elementalist’s skills. There are some very neat combos that you can do with arcane skills, traited attunements, Lightning Flash, and auras.

Ele isn’t quite as bursty as thief, though- it’s more of a heavy sustained damage class that can build itself up by stacking lots of boons. Bursting as ele takes some planning and precise skill use. I do know that there’s a burst PvP build using scepter/dagger (the weaponset with the strongest single-hit skills and the best might-stacking ability), so if you’re interested in burst, you could play around with S/D.

In addition to the 3 professions you listed, check out Engineer. They have kits, which act as weapon sets, and have no swap cooldowns. This offers you a lot of skills to play with. Engi have a dynamic playstyle and quite a lot of movement abilities.

Falunel.7645:

Daywolf.2630:

For making gold, your best bet is to get into good groups quickly and not be a drag on them at any point, even casual players don’t want to be held up. That’s all I have to say on the issue.

and as I have said (and other players who are better than both you and I have also said and posted videos on, that I have linked), a good ranger is hard to play but hardly a drag or a hold-up.

Problem is, any serious player that is even slightly self-obsessed with the success and efficiency of the “run” (avoiding the L33t word here) is not going to take a chance by accepting an unknown Ranger into their party…..too much of a risk.

If the “run” has places where players have to use intelligence and actively avoid damage (massive single hit Champs, large AoE spells, etc.), Rangers will always be a liability in the party because they will be dragging around a dead pet. No matter how good any single Ranger plays, a dead pet reduces the effectiveness of ALL builds to some extent. If a Ranger specs to minimize “dead pet” effect, they have to sacrifice some “pet alive” power or damage…..the Pet Mechanic in GW2 is simply a burden that Ranger have to bear at this point (I think the next patch is suppose to offer some relief….we’ll see).