Guild Wars 2

My fractal weapons:
1) Torch
2) Pistol
3) Focus
4) Sword
5) Scepter
6) Axe
7) Axe
8) Axe
9) Axe
10) Axe
11) Axe
12) Axe

I actually don’t mind the chance of getting a skin, since it seems to be around 10% at level 48 (those of you who do lower levels and hope so skins, the chances are truly terrible, I strongly suggest you consider doing 48 runs instead).

But a system that doesn’t allow for 7/12 skins to be the same skin would be nice. Fractal skins wouldn’t be any more rare if they could be traded 1:1, and that way people could have the skins they want.

I run a 48 every night, and have 12 skins so far (5 axes, bleh)- and I’ll continue to run 48 until I have every last skin I want.

It’s important to me that fractal skins remain a mark of fractal prowess, which is to say I’d hate it if you could buy them on the tp. I know it’s not perfect since somebody could just run their very first 20 and get a great skin (I even saw this happen once), but on average, I do think that having lots of fractal skins equipped is a sign of an avid fractal runner.

That said, I wouldn’t mind at all if they started handing out fractal skins for free to anyone who so much as laid a foot in the fractal lobby… IF they offered an alternative way to show off fractal-ness. Like a title for getting to personal level 50, or a title to go with running 500 fractals, etc.

I only recently remembered that these things exist. Heck, it’s even one of the buttons at the top of the screen- hints you’ve unlocked.

Right now it seems to be basically a set of tutorial elements, using pop ups to describe basic things like ‘what is an event’ and add the information to the hint log book.

But wouldn’t it make sense to add new hints for new content, seeing as the new content often brings information that everyone should know?

For example: lots of people have been burned by ascended items, not realizing that they shouldn’t buy two of the same ring because the rings are unique. If there was a hint triggered by acquiring your first ascended item, which introduces the concept of a ‘unique’ quality item, then virtually nobody would end up in that situation. And when they did we could just blame them, instead of thinking that it’s not a great system that makes it so easy to never learn that little fact.

Or another fractal-related one is that so many players new to fractals are just totally lost about how the personal level and reward system works. If there was a set of hints explaining this- some triggering upon first fractal, others triggering when you reach personal level 10 and can start getting rings and pristines- people wouldn’t be forced to come to the forums/reddit/wiki just to get a basic understanding of fractals.

Since there’s already a system in the game to teach people things like this, why not keep making use of it? There are certain things that experienced players should be told too, at least where new content is concerned.

So from what I’ve seen, Nemesis’s ultimate damage hybrid build (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OCcT7iJUrA) is the last word in hybrid builds for necro. And I really want to try a hybrid build next, and already have saved up all the dungeon tokens / fractal relics / gold / guild commendations / laurels needed to instantly acquire all the best-in-slot items he recommends there.

However, I have always understood the reasoning behind builds, and am really hesitant to commit all my wealth to a gear set that I simply don’t understand. It occurs to me that there are quite a few necromancers here who use that hybrid build, and also quite a few people here who can theorycraft and know all the sneaky details of optimal build making.

So I was hoping, somebody might be able to shed some light on the eclectic mix of gears that combines to make the hybrid build?

Rampager armor: this is easy to understand. Precision bolsters condition damage and power-based damage, all around it’s a clear choice for a hybrid.

Celestial accessories: why? Are these recommended just because at the time of that video, rampager ascended didn’t exist (they do now)? An alternative theory is that only 50% crit chance is really needed, so rampager accessories was a bit redundant and not as good a choice as celestial. But I really can’t say, and I’d hate to buy a full complement of ascended celestial stuff, including putting 250 ectos into a backpiece, only to find out later that rampagers would’ve been a better way to go.

Runes: It seems clear that there will be some bleed duration here. But 30%, or 45%? If 30%, should the remaining two runes be coral orbs (precision) or something for condition damage, because precision is already high enough? Why not runes of divinity? Again, some discussion on the pros and cons of these different options would be really helpful.

Weapons: Now here’s a real puzzle. How does one decide whether the scepter/dagger set should be rampagers, rabid, or giver’s? Nemesis recommends a giver’s scepter and either a rabid or rampager dagger, but I don’t understand why. Is there some aspect of weapon stats and the necro that helps illuminate this decision? Not to mention underwater weapons- a trident is a bleed weapon like the scepter, so would a giver’s trident be best? Or rabid, or rampagers? And most importantly, why?

Sigils: This makes sense I think. Applying bleeds on crit is standard here, and the scepter set comes with more condition damage while the axe set comes with more power-based damage. I assume that the trident would also have a sigil of earth, and the spear would also have a sigil of battle.

Now, it’s tempting to think, ‘it doesn’t matter that much. Rabid if you want some better bleeds at the expense of your axe hits. Rampager if otherwise. Giver if you want some more duration.’ But the thing is, I’m under the impression that all these little choices do matter.

My understanding is that when you are dealing with hybrid builds for any class- dealing with more than a simple 3-stat combination- it is important to optimize the bang for you buck. For example, I remember reading a post about crit chance, and how depending on which items you choose to have crit chance, you could sacrifice 10 units of something for 5% crit chance, or 30 units for the same 5% crit chance (made up numbers, but you get the concept). So it does seem that at least for a hybrid build, carefully choosing the exact stats for each different piece of armor and trinkets can be really important.

So yeah. If any of you build-making awesome necro pros can explain a bit how these decisions should be made and what the best up-to-date options are, I’d be eternally grateful.

Thanks,
Achi

I’m a little confused. I didn’t realize so many people had these attitudes about fractals.

I do a fractals 48 every day (because skins), and have done so for about two months now. Never have I encountered the idea that dredge fractal demands certain classes (sometimes people say that about grawl, but dredge???). Sure thief can trivialize some otherwise difficult parts, but that is generally regarded as a bonus than a requirement. In my experience thieves are the most underrepresented class in high fractals, and the majority of the time where a run includes the dredge fractal, the group goes without a thief.

As for being forced to die- it is true that one popular strategy for the beginning is to have people die on the plates, and it’s a pretty easy strategy. That does not mean at all, though, that it is the ONLY strategy, or even the easiest. Personally I find strategies where nobody dies a bit more convenient and quick, not to mention every death is a repair cost.

And most importantly, I’m not a particularly incredible player. And I PUG every night- which means every night is random strangers, it’s not like I’m in some pro group that does dredge better than other people can. And when myself and my random PUG allies load into the dredge fractal, nobody ever says that it’s too hard, or needs a certain class, or it sucks that they are for some reason forced to die. People complain that it takes freaking forever to kill all the mobs before the sub-boss, and the fractal is just too long, but those aren’t really matters of difficulty.

Similar story for cliffside. Sure, people rage if the target dies. Sometimes a particularly inexperienced member might quit if the target dies. But most people at that level are aware that it is perfectly possible (albeit harder) to finish the fractal after the target dies, and moreover that no particular class is needed.

As a see it, some of the attitudes in this thread represent one of the major problems with fractals: people think something can’t be done without a certain circumstance or certain class, or think that it can only be done by pros in a non-PUG group. It’s simply not true. Lots of things are easier- grawl is easier with a guard, Cliffside is easier if nobody kills the target- but to say [harder = impossible] is a nonconstructive and defeatist viewpoint.

So the rule for personal level vs. fractal level is this: choose the lower of the two, and that is the rewards you get.

This means that if you have a personal level of 2 and do fractals 48, you will get the loot and chests of a fractal level 2. When you get the daily chest at the end of maw, it will be the level 1-10 tier chest.

If you have a personal level of 30 and do a fractal 10 run, your loot and chest rewards will be for level 10, and once again the daily chest at the end will be the 1-10 tier chest.

Though there are different daily chests for 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, and so on, you won’t be able to get two daily chests if you are below fractals level 10, because no matter how many high fractals you do, once again you will actually only be rewarded with the 1-10 tier chest. If you were fractal level 10 and did a fractal 10 run and then did a fractal 8 run, however, you would get TWO daily chests- one from the 1-10 tier and one from the 11-20 tier.

In general, I would say that it is a good idea to do fractals above your level. Ideally though, you should have at least [non-personal fractal level – 5] AR. So for instance to do fractal level 20, 15 AR would be good to have. This is by no means a hard requirement though, and if you felt like it you could do fractals 48 without a scrap of AR- technically you could just dodge all the AR until maw, which kills everyone anyways. But really, AR is nice to have and many groups will ask that members have appropriate AR.

Another reason to sometimes do a level higher than your own personal level is because it is faster to find a group- levels 8, 18, 28, 38, and 48 are the hotspots, because those higher fractals have better loot chances and those are the highest fractals in their respective daily chest tiers. And of course it’s always good to do a fractal no lower than equal to your personal level, because you want to keep progressing that personal level.

This issue has been bothering me more and more recently. It’s not uncommon in the higher fractals for me to die in situations where, if our downed health weren’t bugged, I would have been fully rezzed in the next second or two.

Rok is incorrect; A-net does take these instances seriously (though a real impediment is that nothing can be done unless you have a screenshot and know their names). Since you do have a screenshot, you can report them.

Err, I actually don’t know where. But I know that you can somewhere, so don’t give up. It falls in the category of scamming players and is a bannable offense, provided there is enough evidence in the chatlog when A-net goes to look.

I have 12 fractal skins, 5 of which are axes. And none of which I use.

I’d even welcome a new mystic forge recipe, 4 fractal weps = random fractal wep.

I run the jumping puzzle in Eternal Battlegrounds every day, and have been heavily considering investing in a mesmer so that I can give back to the guild a bit (portal-ing people up whenever I happen to be at the end).

However, I’m loathe to give up my necromancer’s beloved jumping puzzle skills- a passive 25% speed signet, and spectral walk which gives me a second try when needed at hard jumps (this is a skill that gives swiftness and allows an 8-second period during which I can return to the position of using the skill at using the time, so I can undo a missed jump).

I’m getting better at the jumping puzzle and can probably do without the safeguard of spectral walk, but I’m just not inclined to start doing the puzzle without some sort of constant speed buff- that 25% signet makes a HUGE difference. Every jump might be possible with no speed increase, but it is much easier with one.

I know the mesmer has no passive speed skill, but I thought I’d ask you resident Mesmer mains about how I should go about creating an obsidian sanctum mesmer?

Note that this mesmer would be a very low level, basically the minimum skill points hit to get the portal skill. But it would also always be up-leveled to 80 because of being in a wvwvw zone.

So, given that the low level allows for limited (minor) runes and limited traits, could I realistically create a mesmer with enough swiftness uptime to make the jumping puzzle as easy as it is on my necro? Or would I have to commit to harder jumps and slower runs to the end?

Thanks,
Achi

I am working on legendary pieces like the gift of fortune, but I have no plans to make an existing legendary. I just figure that when a necro-suitable legendary comes out, I’ll be mostly done already.

Not how much they cost for the guild to access them, but how much do they cost (in influence) for each instance of a mission to be started once the guild has that mission type available?

I think bounty is 200 influence, not sure about the others.

Thanks,
Achi

I would love this. I don’t care much about existing minipets but I do a lot of dungeons and would definitely want to collect them all.

Especially fractal pets. I don’t have fractal weapons yet, but when I do, I will certainly want a fractal minipet to go with them. And the wind rider pet doesn’t count, it’s not really from the fractals :P

Maybe we could get some more of them?

Personally, I would really like to have a title (or set of titles) that go with number of fractals completed, as well as a title that is associated with completing a certain number of unique jumping puzzles.

There are plenty of achievements that already exist that could use titles and maybe give us some more variety than combat healer / dungeon master / world completion / pvp and wvw titles.

I’d like to add, this bug has been here since launch day and could quite possibly be around for a looooong time.

Also, after the recent change to the focus 5 skill, the trait is even worse: if you take the trait, you will not get the bonus damage for boons removed.

@Demeron I really don’t think it’s as simple as ‘if you don’t want to farm, then don’t.’ Your average dedicated player values efficiency, and the mere fact that there is an ultra-efficient method gives them a difficult choice: give up on efficiency in the name of enjoyment, or give up enjoyment (assuming this person does not enjoy CoF farming) in the name of efficiency. While this trade-off will always be (and perhaps should always be) present, I feel that it is too much right now. Think about it this way- by doing things that I enjoy instead of CoF, I give up 50 units of gold-earning efficiency. A more appropriate number might be 10 units- CoF is still the most profitable by a good amount, but it doesn’t put all other activities to shame with a mile-long margin.

Also, I am of the belief (though only the devs would have the statistics to confirm or disconfirm) that CoF farming negatively affects people who don’t CoF farm by causing inflation to go faster, raising prices for everybody until the only real way to afford luxuries like precursers/fancy dyes/etc. is to run CoF- and this is indeed a popular opinion here on these forums, and on the gw2 subreddit (not to mention among people I’ve met in game).

@laokoko- that’s just it, I think what you’ve described would actually be a better state of affairs. At least in that case there are three options (Hotw, TA, orr events) instead of just one, which would be a step in the right direction. I don’t think there shouldn’t be profitable activities, I just think there should be more than one profitable activity so that players have some choice in how they want to farm their luxuries. Right now, that choice is so shallow as to be a false choice- you can farm CoF, or you can resign yourself to relative inefficiency.

@Orion It’s true that there will always be something that people flock to because it is the most efficient. However, it wouldn’t really matter so much if that something was only moderately better as opposed to the rest of the game, than extremely better like CoF seems to be.

@Shiren I couldn’t agree more about wishing there were more rewards for playing as opposed to rewards going with gold, making gold trump all else. Currently, I am not making a legendary yet- my goal at the moment is to finish a couple different builds for my character with best-in-slot gear. This means for me, the most efficient way to play is to do dailies and monthlies (get those amulets), do a daily high-level fractal, and then do a run of one of several dungeons for tokens that I can turn into rabid or soldier’s gear. It’s nice, and doesn’t revolve around gold at all- in fact the gold I do make is going towards unrelated things (bank slots and bags). I’m really going to be sad when this phase is over, and the most efficient way for me to reach my next goal is to can all the variation and just run CoF.

@Demeron I actually think the event chest buff was a step in the right direction. At the very least, it added one new activity aside from CoF that has a ridiculously profitable gold/time rate. I’d enjoy seeing dungeon chests buffed in a similar many, not to mention wvwvw loot (and I don’t even play wvwvw myself). Making more things rewarding than just CoF is defintitely a better way to go than making CoF less rewarding, but it also seems to be atypical of A-nets normal behavior (introducing diminishing returns, nerfing Orr farming, etc.)

I’ve assumed for a while now that- given the sorts of changes A-net has implemented in the past- CoF farming is doomed. It may not be tomorrow, it may not be next week, but someday, it will be brought to an end in the harshest possible way. It will be so bad that the CoF farmers will rank the new AC as more farm-able. Aspiring dungeon masters will have to refresh lfg.com for hours just to get a CoF group together. Each trash mob will be replaced with pre-nerf Lupicus. Anyways, you get the picture.

This thread isn’t about the actual likelihood of that happening though, it’s about how people would feel about that happening. Currently, the disparity in profitability of farming CoF P1 and any other activity- in raw gold per hour- is massive. I imagine that a nerf to CoF farming would raise a huge outcry along the lines of what we saw in response to the implementation of diminishing returns, etc: “A-net is forcing us to play the game their way, and we should be able to choose to play it our way.” In this argument, ‘forcing’ is used with the assumption that players want to gain gold as efficiently as possible, and so A-net is able to force players to do or not do things simply by altering what is and is not the most efficient way to make gold.

But with the current state of things, aren’t players just as ‘forced’ to play a certain way? If high-level fractals suddenly gave 1-3 exotics in the final chest each time, people would complain that A-net was forcing them to run fractals. Anyone not doing fractals would find prices rising faster than they could make money, and so they would not be able to realistically pursue a legendary or other luxuries. CoF doesn’t give 1-3 exotics per run, but you can see the point- CoF farming just shines too much in comparison to other money-making methods.

If I want a legendary- time to invest in a warrior and some berserker gear, and go farm CoF. If I want a luxury item like a black lion training contract- time to CoF. Heck, if I want a fancy dye- time to CoF. It’s so bad that the common consensus on legendaries is that it’s most efficient to buy all the mats, because gold gain through CoF is so much faster.

Would it really be so bad if there were actually some other options? Let’s say you are going to start building a legendary, and you are interested in doing this as efficiently as you possibly can. If you could choose which is most efficient- a variety of world and dungeon activities or running the same dungeon endlessly- which would you choose for yourself?

Now obviously it would be nice if A-net decided to buff other activities to equal the profitability of CoF farming. People that want to CoF farm would be happy, people that don’t want to CoF farm but do enjoy one of the newly buffed activities would be happy. I think we can all agree, however, that this is very unlikely. Much more likely that CoF is just nerfed to oblivion. This would mean that the most efficient way to gain gold post-patch would be significantly less efficient than the method pre-patch. I’m not going to say that that isn’t an upsetting thing.

However, I personally would still be happy about the patch. There will always be one dungeon/event/instance/whatever that is most efficient, but the gap between varied play and optimal play would be significantly smaller than it is right now. I would suddenly possess the freedom to enjoy different world events, dungeons, and activities and know that I was progressing towards an expensive goal in an efficient way, not too far from the optimal way. (Let’s leave the trading post game out of this, that’s an entirely different bag of Charr).

Also consider- true CoF farming is much more than just grinding a certain path in a certain dungeon. It is adopting a single build, for one of two classes. I’m not complaining that people are excluded, because quite honestly it isn’t very hard to acquire a level 80 warrior and berserker gear. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that every player actually has, as one of their characters, a warrior that is properly geared for CoF farming. Ta’da, he’s yours. You can go make money at a decent rate with any class of your chosen build that you enjoy playing with, or you can make money at a wtfbbq rate with your berserker build warrior. What are you going to do, assuming you are, once again, interested in progressing efficiently towards a luxury goal? Which option would you find more fun?

I’m really interested in hearing your answer to two questions:
1) If A-net asked you if they should buff a wide variety of activities in the game to be just as profitable as CoF farming, what would you say?
2) If A-net asked you if they should nerf CoF so that the disparity between the optimal gold farming method and high-but-not-quite-optimal methods was dramatically lessened, what would you say?

Finally, somebody has discovered why my hydromancy sigils keep randomly ceasing to work for a few minutes. I would assume it affects all weapon-swap sigils, then.

Also I have heard that corrupt boon technically creates a kind of projectile, and so is subject to the issues associated with projectiles (meaning you have better success if you are close to and facing your enemy). I can’t confirm this though, just remember reading it somewhere.

I’ve noticed it too, and unlike Wooboost I wouldn’t be so quick to write it off as no big deal. In a lot of dungeon and fractal situations, I find that the ‘g’ button might as well be bound to ‘explode myself like a bone minion.’- a sudden lag immobilization can indeed mean death. This is on a computer that has no fps trouble whatsoever, even on high end settings, as well.

Hey SuperSpankeh. Chill in PVE is something I’ve been wondering about- I haven’t managed to find any conclusive answer on whether or not the skill cooldown increase affects mobs and bosses (even made a thread for that question specifically last week, but nobody knew). Though to be honest, the main reason I’m unhappy with the hydromancy sigil + ice rune combination is because they bug out so often- nor have I been able to find a good way to replicate the hydromancy issues or fix them. Basically sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a dungeon and hydromancy stops proccing until the dungeon is over- meaning that the runes of ice stop being very useful, and the sigils might as well not be there in these situations. Of course, this could be fixed in a patch soon.

For traits, picking up some more precision does seem like a good idea. But the major traits seem underwhelming from that line, not sure which would be best to go with in that case.

PTV (Power, then Toughness and Vitality) has been something of a fad here recently- as far as I know it started with the Juggermancer build by Sheobix.

Nemesis responded with the Abomination build, taking the PTV gear core but retooling the traits/sigils/utilities to accentuate the tankiness of the gear with some tanky lifestealing.

Next was the Deathhammer build by SupahSpankeh, another modified version of the Juggernaut PTV idea- this one focusing on chills and retaliation, and using traits to boost dps over the tanky variants.

I like the idea of a PTV necro, as the bleed cap is rather frustrating and worrying about having multiple condition builds in one dungeon is a hassle. And the designers of these builds have demonstrated that a power necro can be fun and viable. However, each has some shortcomings outside of their target focus. The abomination is incredibly tanky, but I find that the PTV gear core alone is tanky enough, allowing room for damage in traits, sigils, runes, etc. The Deathhammer offers this, but the real arena of that build is wvwvw, where both chill and retaliation are fantastic. Using the build in dungeons, though- while it is still perfectly functional- I feel like chill and retaliation just don’t have as much luster in the PVE setting.

Point is, these all work well in dungeons and fractals, but they aren’t tailored specifically with dungeons in mind. There doesn’t seem to be a power necro equivalent of Lopez’s PVE Conditionmancer guide and accompanying fractals guide, which is designed without pvp in mind.

I’d like to hear the thoughts of the resident necroes on PTV builds optimized for a dungeon- what sorts of traits, runes, sigils, weapons, and utilities should I be considering as a dungeon/fractal player? Has anybody developed a variant that really shines in instances, the way that Deathhammer shines in wvwvw? Any insights you’d like to share on relevant trait synergies, etc. will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Achi

Oops, deleted first post instead of editing it.

Anyways thanks, last I checked was before fractals when searching ‘rabid’ didn’t bring anything up. Suppose I should’ve checked that first, huh.

I’m not sure you understood the question… chill doesn’t stack in intensity, only duration. If a mob is chilled 100% of the time, it just means that chills are being applied fast enough that the chill buff never expires.

And what I’m asking is, if the cooldown increase applies to mobs in pve, or only to other players in pvp.

I’ve found this question asked in different forums in the past, but have never found a definitive answer.

One of the effects of the chill condition is that skill cooldown is increased by 66%. What I want to know is, does this apply to mobs and bosses in pve?

As an example, the mossman boss at the end of the swamp fractal has an invis ability. If I was in a group that kept him chilled 100% of the time, would the times between invis be much longer due to the chill?

Thanks,
Achi

Starting at level 10, yeah- it’s all intended. You will learn to hate those harpies.

After the latest patch, it’s no longer possible to switch weapons while in death shroud. It doesn’t seem like it would to me, but does this affect the build very much? Not sure how important those lost hydromancy procs are.

Also, could you explain a bit more about weapon setup? In the original post you highlight Dagger/Focus and Dagger/Warhorn, but in your last post you recommend Dagger/Dagger (I’m assuming that’s what DD means)- what’s the benefit of an offhand dagger? (My guess is the blind which brings more chills- worth giving up the locust swarm ability though?)

Not to mention, what does SW stand for- scepter warhorn? Why is that better than dagger warhorn in WvW?

That would be best, then I could use the equipment box as a white/blue box if other colors were bypassing it into fractal boxes.

Do you have both boxes and that’s what happens? Or can anyone else confirm?

I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer to this question:

Let’s say I have some 20-slot bags. My top bag is a basic 20-slot with no special properties, my second bag is a crafted ‘Equipment Box’ that will prioritize armor and weapons of any kind, and my third bag is an’Uncommon Fractal Equipment Box’ I bought from the fractals dungeon- this will prioritize any green-quality items.

Now, I singlehandedly slay the uncommon champion of uncommonness, and he drops a green weapon. Which bag will it go into?

I doubt it will go into the first bag. But will the second bag grab it because it is a weapon, or will the third bag grab it because it is green?

Hey, is this build a bit outdated (in terms of what the best available gear is?)

It seems to me that Thakeray’s Family Crest is a superior PTV amulet, but I might be missing something. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thackeray_Family_Crest

So far it seems to be removed from the game. The only way to see it in game is due to a bug in the pvp locker.

Just watch out for people telling you it’s in diessa plateau (that’s shadow armor, completely different) or that you can get it from a karma vendor in orr (that’s sheltered armor, completely different).

Hey, thanks for putting the time and effort into such a comprehensive guide.

Do you mind saying which sigils you’re going with now, if the on-crit ones don’t work well together due to the cooldowns?

I noticed that when I kill people while in death shroud as a necromancer, the achievement that tracks sword kills goes up. I have over 500 kills with a sword now, despite necromancers not being able to hold them.

@Xyi I farmed a Nightmare Mantle with your build, thanks so much for taking the time to actually explain the decisions you made.

However, I’ve been wondering about the 10 points in spite for the might. I don’t use life blast much- maybe a couple blasts before I can go out of shroud and switch weapons again- so how significant are those couple stacks of might to condition damage?

Just watched a wave of people trying to get to the big boss event (me included) wipe on an invisible wall. It was hilarious, until I got the repair bill :/

I just want to throw this idea out there to see how people respond- I haven’t seen this suggestion anywhere else.

I think it’d be great to see different 4-skill death shroud sets. We’d be able to change death shrouds much like we change utility skills, and each would have a different icon occupying the current F1 icon next to our health orb. I wouldn’t mind having to unlock them with skill points, either.

The sets could be balanced a lot like the weapons are- different builds benefit more from different weapons, depending on the skills they afford. Likewsie, I’d love to see a death shroud that complements a condition build (for example).

I think it would go a long ways towards giving necromancers more viable builds. New death shroud sets wouldn’t be any more powerful than the current one; they’d just be different. Different sets would be suited to different situations and different builds.

We already have a separate 4-skill set for underwater combat- let us have separate sets that go well with conditions, or life siphoning, or boon management, and so on. Right now the four skills I’m stuck with feel slow, boring, and seem to lack synergy with the rest of my skills, stats, and traits. I haven’t taken any power, so why am I saddled with the power-fueled life blast?

It’s ambitious and frankly I don’t expect to ever see such a feature in the game. On the other hand… the devs are looking for ways to promote a greater range of viable builds for the necromancer, and I feel like such a system could go a long way towards that end.

I know that there IS a way to do it, but I can’t recall the exact steps and can’t guarantee that it isn’t a bug.

It involved transmuting the mask onto a low level basic head item, and the item becoming account-bound instead of character-bound. I wouldn’t try it unless you can find the full list of steps, though.

Edit: Here is a post about the thief starter hood that seems to work: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/58988-thief-hood-sollution/#entry1881316

I suggest you follow a guide that takes you through each tier with the absolute minimum of materials required. (About 1/6 of the materials that you’d use if you just discovered everything you could.)

The artificing guide below works wonders, but you have to be careful about following each step. If you do even one item out of order, you’ll fall a few points short of the next tier and have to waste some more materials.

https://sites.google.com/site/guildwars2crafting/home/artificer-1-400