Guild Wars 2

Where can you see how many dishonorable stacks you have?

Thanks,
-Amaethon

I just feel that mixing Vitality and Healing gear (both have Power and Toughness on them) increases my survivability more than going for all Vitality (PTV) gear. Not that it’s not also a good idea to have a set of Knight’s/Berserker jewelry to use when you feel your survivability is more than enough.

In my experience, after a point, having a higher maximum health doesn’t really increase your survivability that much — however, having additional Healing Power will help you regain your health more effectively after you lose it, allowing you to take more damage over a period of time.

Also, I feel that a lot of the reason people say Healing Power is bad is because of how it scales with Staff weapon skills. As someone who uses D/D (and occasionally S/D), however, I think it’s not nearly as bad as people seem to think.

haviz.1340:

If you try to build ele for damage you lose healing power which is bad anyway

Why does everyone say that healing power is bad for Elementalist? It scales 100% with your healing slot (which is huge if you count the regeneration when using Glyph of Elemental Harmony in Water Attunement) and with Cleansing Wave (which also means it scales 100% with Evasive Arcana). The only thing it doesn’t scale well with using D/D is Cone of Cold, and that’s still 32% which isn’t awful.

IIRC, Cone of Cold used to scale 100% before it was nerfed, but I don’t think that’s significant enough to justify disregarding Healing Power altogether.

It also scales 100% with Water Trident (Scepter #3). I’m fairly certain that it does scale horribly with Staff weapon skills, however saying that it’s bad for Elementalist as an entire profession seems like too much of a generalization to me.

Of course, I always like learning new things. So if I got anything wrong, or if I missed anything, please let me know. Also, if anyone could shed any light on why everyone has been saying that healing power scales badly with our profession, please do.

P.S. I can certainly see why someone would prefer using Knight’s jewelry (or Berserker jewelry, since jewelry is the best place to get critical damage %) if they rarely find themselves getting downed and want to trade survivability for additional damage. I am simply wondering why the Healing Power stat has come to be considered inferior to other stats.

Yeah, that too. All plants have genders (even if they are both genders). For example, some plants must be separated by gender so that the males don’t pollinate the females and impregnate the buds, creating seeds. Likewise, some plants require a male to be grown in close proximity in order to achieve pollination when it is desired.

I use PTV (Power Toughness Vitality) Armor and Weapons from AC (Ascalonian Catacombs). I put boon duration runes (major water, superior water, and superior monk) on my armor, and Bloodlust and Battle on my weapon/offhand. I use D/D, sometimes switching to S/D for ranged fights. I also use Cleric’s accessories and Soldier’s Spineguard rare back piece with an Exquisite Sapphire jewel in it.

My traits are as follows: 0/10/0/30/30 (10 Air, 30 Water, 30 Arcana). I use Air: I (Zephyr’s Boon. Water: III (Soothing Disruption), IX (Cantrip Mastery), and XI (Cleansing Water). Arcana: V (Elemental Attunement), VI (Renewing Stamina), and XI (Evasive Arcana). This maximizes survivability and condition removal.

Sometimes I switch out Water: IX (Cantrip Mastery) and XI (Cleansing Water) for Water: V (Cleansing Wave) and XII (Powerful Aura) for some extra group support [aura sharing not only shares the aura itself, but also the fury and swiftness that come with it due to the Air: I (Zephyr’s Boon) trait]. This is optimal with a D/D weapon set, because it gives you access to 3 different auras (Air #3, Water #4, and Earth #3 inside a fire field, such as Fire #4). I wouldn’t even bother with this if you are going to use Staff (or Scepter since it has no auras), because 1 of the 2 auras that Staff has access to ALREADY affects nearby allies.

P.S. If you like playing Staff, you can use the same exact build and just replace Arcana: VI (Renewing Stamina) with Arcana: VIII (Blasting Staff). You might also want to replace Air: I (Zephyr’s Boon) with Air: III (Quick Glyphs) if you don’t find yourself using auras very often (Staff only has access to 2 auras; Earth #3, and Earth #2 inside of an Ice Field such as Water #4). Quick Glyphs is good because it reduces the cooldown of all your Glyph skills by 20% (making Glyph of Elemental Harmony a 20 second cooldown, and Glyph of Elementals a 96 second cooldown).

P.P.S. I use Glyph of Elemental Harmony for my healing slot, Lightning Flash/Mist Form/Armor of Earth for my utility slots, and Glyph of Elementals for my elite slot.

P.P.P.S. If you find yourself running dungeons a lot, remember to use an Omnomberry Bar for an extra 40% Gold Find (and 30% Magic Find). It pays for itself as long as you kill and loot at least one boss (due to the extra silver you get). This is especially important if you do AC Exp gold farming runs (killing all bosses and gold-dropping champion mobs).

They are made in the image of humans. Humans have genders. Thus, Sylvari also have genders. (They also behave in a similar fashion; eating, drinking, having sex, etc…)

I use PTV armor and weapons, with Cleric accessories. I also run D/D Aura Sharing 0/10/0/30/30 build with Boon Duration runes (and Glyph of Elemental Harmony). I feel the extra Healing Power gives me some extra survivability (and a bit more group healing), without sacrificing much because it still has Power and Toughness on it. Sure, I could have a bit more Vitality, and a higher maximum health, but I wouldn’t be able to top myself off quite as easily when I take damage, (and I’m constantly topping myself off). I still have ~17k max health, so I can take a heavy hit without getting one-shot. Personally, I wouldn’t go all vitality or all healing power; I prefer to go for a mix in order to maximize long-term survivability.

I would take a good Ele over a good Warrior any day. Although, a bad Warrior will generally do better than a bad Ele. Personally, I feel like I bring a lot more to a group when I go on my Ele than my Warrior (and it’s a lot more fun!).

I’m glad it is starting to work out for you. I can definitely say that it gets easier with time, and at higher levels. Once you are able to put more points into Arcana (and Water), you’ll notice a big improvement. Also putting 10 in air can be nice if you use D/D because your auras (you have 3 on relatively low cooldowns) grant swiftness and fury (trait I). At level 80 I usually just use D/D in Dungeons and I find that I have very good survivability. Lots of healing, dodging, loads of boons, decent damage, and able to maintain 20+ stacks of might at all times.

P.S. Here’s a tip: get the Conjure Frost Bow utility skill, because it is extremely useful for certain fights in the first dungeon (AC; Ascalonian Catacombs; level 30/35 for story/explorable). I wouldn’t bother using it while out leveling in Tyria though. I usually use Lightning Flash, Mist Form (or Signet of Air; swap for Conjure Frost Bow on certain fights), and Armor of Earth. I also use Glyph of Elemental Harmony for my healing slot, and Glyph of Elementals for my elite slot.

P.P.S. The build I mentioned (0/10/0/30/30) can also work for S/D and/or Staff. You can just change a couple traits without having to retrain, so you can even carry different weapon sets in your bags. Air: I [Zephyr’s Boon] or III [Quick Glyphs] —- Water: III [Soothing Disruption], V [Cleansing Wave] or IX [Cantrip Mastery], and XI [Cleansing Water] or XII [Powerful Aura] —- Arcana V [Elemental Attunement], VI [Renewing Stamina] or VII [Vigorous Scepter] or VIII [Blasting Staff], and XI [Evasive Arcana].

Zephyr’s Boon is really good for D/D since you have 3 auras, especially if you use Powerful Aura (shares your auras and the swiftness/fury from Zephyr’s Boon with nearby allies), which can be good in dungeons. For soloing I would typically use Cantrip Mastery and Cleansing Water (can also be good if you need extra condition removal or survivability). And if you use S/D or Staff, since you don’t have quite as many auras, you may want to swap out Zephyr’s Boon for Quick Glyphs.

P.P.S. You may notice that with D/D you really only have 2 auras (Shocking Aura; Air #3, and Frost Aura; Water #4) on your weapon skill bars. The reason I say that you have 3 is because when you use Ring of Fire and switch to Earth Attunement, then use Magnetic Grasp (#3), which is a Leap Finisher (combo finisher), it grants you Fire Aura.

P.P.P.S. One last tip. You may already know this, but using a Blast Finisher in a Fire Combo Field grants area Might (3 stacks that last 20 seconds, or longer with boon duration runes / points in arcana) to you and your nearby allies. Elementalist is the best at this because we have two great Fire Field skills (Ring of Fire; Dagger Fire #4 / Lava Font; Staff Fire #2). Although, with Staff you will mainly rely on your allies to use blast finishers in it (you can use Eruption; Staff Earth #2, and then switch to Fire and use Lava Font; Staff Fire #2 right on top of it, then when Eruption finally triggers it will Blast Finish inside the Fire Field — and of course Arcane Wave if you use that utility skill; I swap out Mist Form or Lightning Flash for it sometimes). With D/D though, and especially S/D, you have several Blast Finishers that you can use. My typically might stacking combo with D/D is Ring of Earth, Earth Attunement, Magnetic Grasp, [Arcane Wave], Earthquake, Churning Earth. And with S/D it’s the same except I use Dragon’s Tooth before Ring of Fire, then use Ring of Fire where the tooth is about to land, and use Phoenix in the Ring of Fire before switching to Earth (and of course, not use Magnetic Grasp since that’s a Main Hand Dagger weapon skill). Oh, and Arcane Wave doesn’t trigger a global cooldown, so you can use it at the same time as another skill. Also, it only matters that you begin casting/channeling Churning Earth in the Fire Field (Ring of Fire). In fact, the Fire Field will usually disappear before you finish casting Churning Earth, but you will get the Might stacks anyway.

Anyway, good luck, and I hope you love the Elementalist profession as much as I do!

Mesmer is always a good choice if you really want a long range class with heavy burst damage. Probably something along the lines of a Greatsword / Staff shatter build (20/20/0/0/30). I personally play my Elementalist as more of a support role in dungeons. I feel like I help the party a lot with tons of boons, might stacking, AoE healing, and some control abilities. I’m also pretty survivable despite the fact that I primarily play in short range (D/D).

Ranger is certainly fitting. Personally, however, I prefer Elementalist (and Mesmer) for Sylvari. They also seem very fitting to me, as Sylvari tend to be more magic-oriented.

Also the types of magic seem to fit well with the race too. Elementalist tends to be more about the four elements, all of which are necessary for forests and nature to thrive. And Mesmer, being all about illusion and imagery, seems fitting as well since Sylvari first start their journey within a shared dream experience.

An official response to this question would be wonderful. Even if they didn’t give us an ETA, just to know if it is something they plan to implement in the future, or are even considering as a future gem store item, would be extremely helpful.

LOL. Well if you’re counting group survival, I’ve gotten to 100% several times in groups just by killing things as they spawn (and in the right order). If you’re talking about solo survival (as in, I am the 1 in the 1-2-2) then I’ve gotten higher than 50% by myself [as the first person in], but always end up messing up eventually, and have never really kept track of my best record.

Weindrasi.3805:

Amaethon.8710:

I definitely like it more than the female Sylvari voice (bleh). And the female Human voice is just… boring. Same with female Norn. But anyway, who am I to complain – my main is a Human female.

I think the human female voice is ok (but yeah, kind of bland), but I hate the human female attitude. Every time she accomplishes something, she makes arrogant comments about how awesome she is. That and her confident-flirty idle animation. Haha it’s very at odds with how I envisioned my character.

I agree about the attitude. Although, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the Human Male arrogance/over-confidence. Probably because I’m a male IRL, and I am NOTHING like that. If anything, I’m practically the opposite of that.

I say both. You don’t want to have 0 Vitality from gear and a ton of Healing; likewise, you don’t want to have a ton of Vitality and 0 Healing from gear. Vitality is basically to keep you from getting one shot by hard hitting abilities (in case you eventually fail to dodge), and to give you more time to get out of harm’s way. Healing is about being able to top yourself off after losing a chunk of health. Personally, with ~15-17k health and ~1k+ healing, I am really hard to kill.

I recommend using some Soldier’s (Power, Toughness, Vitality) gear from AC/HotW, and some Cleric’s (Healing, Toughness, Power) gear from crafting. And the good news is that, since all this gear also has Power on it, you’ll be able to kill stuff in addition to having a lot of survivability.

I would love to see a race change feature.

Zeefa.3915:

@Amaethon: because sylvari are walking pieces of art with colorful skin, beautyful patterns and even bright glow at night. Why would you hide all that away? Personally I am sad that it is so difficult to find a good “skimpy” medium set for my sylvari.
With human I wouldn’t really care, they don’t have anything special to show off.
Norn got those awesome tatoos, which gives reason for some more revealing armor.

You make some very good points, and have actually changed my mind.

Asraishalo.8601:

The second picture looks like it’s the very farthest top right body type (make sure you scroll over for more options). That’s the one my Sylvari has, and it looks nice in light armor in my opinion (and I’m sure other armor too, but mine is a light armor class). I wanted a curvier figure rather than super lean, and if that’s the look you’re going for too, I think you’d be happy with that one.

I agree. That’s the body type I use for every single Sylvari character that I make. To me, it’s the only one that looks any good. And it looks good in every armor type too.

From what I hear they have the best racial skills in the game. That being said, 99.9% of the time your profession skills are going to be superior to your racial skills, and so you may not get much of a chance to use them anyway.

That’s just because Sylvari are the coolest race in the game.

Why would you want to put skimpy armor on a Sylvari? This is actually one of the things that discouraged me from rolling a female Sylvari Elementalist (light armor). It seems like half the light armor in the game is very skimpy on females. And while I think it looks good on Human/Norn, I don’t think it looks nearly as good on Sylvari. I honestly couldn’t find one light armor set that really looks good on a Female Sylvari.

Because plants are awesome. And nature is awesome. And they are, in many ways, better than humans (or more accurately; more like how humans should be). They seem to generally be more kind, caring, compassionate, genuine, honest, trusting, friendly, and helpful. And they also seem to lack many human flaws, i.e. greed, hatred, jealousy, etc… Of course, I’m talking about the Sylvari that follow The Tablet and Ventari’s Teachings, not those corrupt Nightmare Court ones.

I think they are my favorite race in concept. However, I couldn’t stand the phony British accent. Of course, it wasn’t until I had already leveled my Human Elementalist main to level 80 that someone pointed out to me that you can change the spoken language from English to French (while still keeping all the text in English). And it’s not like you’re missing anything because, let’s face it, who hasn’t already gotten sick of hearing your character constantly yell things just because you switched attunements, or gained might/fury, etc…

P.S. I just looked it up, and the voice actress for the female Sylvari (player characters) is Jennifer Hale, an American actress [so, obviously not British]. She also did the voice for the Female Trooper in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I also hated. I mean… it sounded fitting for a trooper, but it was just way too butch for me. And she did the voice acting for Leah from Diablo III (which was a surprise to me — I actually liked her work in that game).

Necromancers aren’t evil. And Sylvari, as they have only been around a short while, have not experienced much death from natural causes. As far as I know, the only Sylvari who have died so far have died from sickness, violence, etc…

Add to that fact that they are an EXTREMELY curious race (with tendencies towards magic), and it should comes as no surprise that several of them have devoted their lives to studying death magic.

I actually agree with the OP. The voice acting for female Charr is actually probably my favorite in the game, but it doesn’t seem all that fitting for the race.

I definitely like it more than the female Sylvari voice (bleh). And the female Human voice is just… boring. Same with female Norn. But anyway, who am I to complain – my main is a Human female.

The only thing that even made me want to roll a Charr was just how awesome the Females look. IMO they look much more feline and agile than the males, who look more like Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

Melchior.2135:

Maybe it’s just me, but Riot Alice in the Human criminal storyline. I’d let her expose my conspiracy theory any time.

Oooh, totally forgot about Riot Alice! She’s a cutie for sure.

Nice innuendo btw (LOL, I can’t even type the word innuendo without thinking of the song ‘Innuendo And Out The Other’ by Cave In).

VOLKON.1290:

Obviously it’s Zojja. Brilliant and attractive enough to make any Asura’s ears tingle.

I don’t know about her appearance… but the voice actress that plays her is Felicia Day <3

But seriously though… I think Countess Anise and Queen Jennah would have to be my top two. I mean, who hasn’t fantasized about being with a Mesmer… think about it, even with just the two of you it’d be like being with several women at once (clones, illusions, etc…)

Actually, I agree with Raideen. There really isn’t enough substantial end-game content to justify rushing through the game. One of the most fun parts is leveling your character and exploring all the zones, working through your personal story, etc… At level 80, I mean sure there’s still WvW and sPvP, but mostly you’ll just be farming gold (running AC 1, 2, 3 / CoF 1, 2) or farming Fractal of the Mists to get ascended gear.

Whatever your goal is at 80, you can be sure it’s going to cost you a lot of gold (Legendary, T3 Cultural Armor, 20 slot bags, dyes, etc… are all about how much gold you’ve accumulated). Either that, or endlessly farming the same dungeon over and over (I’m looking at you Fractal of the Mists).

I’m not saying it’s not worth playing once you hit the level cap, and I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom. But there’s certainly no reason to rush through the game your first time around. I think skipping dozens of levels with crafting is more of an alt thing. Besides, it is far easier to make gold at level 80 than as a lowbie (especially if you’re too low to run AC Explorable), and also by then you’ll have a ton of karma and waypoints / hearts completed all across the map, allowing you to buy some much needed Chef crafting materials (which can only be bought from specific vendors in specific zones after you’ve completed specific hearts with a certain amount of karma). And even though Chef is just one of the 8 crafting professions, it is one of the cheapest if you have access to everything I mentioned before (which you can easily have once your first character gets to the level cap).

When you do finally level yourself some alts, if you decide to level with crafting, I would definitely recommend Artifice and Chef. They are by far the cheapest 2 to level (not that there’s any reason to limit yourself to 2), and I personally max them on all of my alts. The trick to Artifice is to craft potions to gain crafting experience, not weapons. You can then sell the potions back to a vendor for a significant amount of what you paid for the materials.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to go on and on…
TL;DR – No need to rush. Enjoy the game, play through, experience the journey.

And as always, good luck, and may your adventures be epic (and profitable).

I think a better solution is to make waypoint travel to any major city free (because it already is via Heart of the Mists/WvW portal to LA, which has portals to every major city), as this would drastically reduce the amount of loading screens one has to sit through just to go from point A to point B.

Then you could make it so that when taking a waypoint from anywhere in Tyria to anywhere else, it could calculate the shortest distance from any major city to your destination to determine the waypoint cost. That way, traveling from Metrica Province to Plains of Ashford (for example) wouldn’t cost you 4s or more, it would only cost you 1-2s (the price of traveling to Plains of Ashford from the Black Citadel).

I think that this wouldn’t effect inflation very much because so many people already use the portals in Lion’s Arch, and the portal to LA in HotM and WvW. It would, however, make it so that no one would have to sit through 4+ loading screens just to travel to a major city, or to travel across the world for less than 4s.

Anyway, I forget who came up with all of this, but it sounded like a good idea to me and so I thought I would share it with all of you.

P.S. I also like the idea about making waypoint cost relative to the level of the zone you are traveling too (I assume major cities would still be free). I can definitely see why it costs a few silver to travel to Cursed Shore, but nobody is going to want to waypoint over to Metrica Province or Caledon Forest from Lion’s Arch at 80 because you would have to complete roughly half the hearts in the zone to simply cover the waypoint cost. The only exception would be if the player is going for 100% map completion, or if they are an extremely selfless player that doesn’t mind wasting a large portion of the gold they earn to waypoint across the map helping guildies and/or random players with events, skill points, etc…

I support this post. And everything you said is basically why I have no interest in going for a legendary (also because my main character can’t use a greatsword, and let’s face it — there aren’t many other good looking legendaries). In some ways Guild Wars 2 reminds me more of Diablo III than of any other MMO. And I only mean this in the way that it starts to feel like a massive gold grind after you hit the level cap.

It just seems there are so many things that cost so much gold, and the rate you farm it at (~1g per dungeon path) means that even if you farmed dungeons every day for a year you still wouldn’t be able to get everything you want on just one of your characters. But it’s not so much the time it takes, as the fact that you will get bored long before then because… lets face it, how long can you run AC/CoF day after day after day without getting bored of the repetition (grind).

Not to mention that with Diminishing Returns you have to basically schedule your farming around the game’s anti-botting code (which they stated should not effect players; it should only hurt bots). Obviously they need to loosen these restrictions a bit, since I don’t know a single player who doesn’t continually hit their limit and have to wait another two hours before continuing.

It just feels like they release these items that can only be obtained through endless grinding, and then they put code into the game that hinders your ability to earn gold.

You’re right! I must have been thinking of Leeching, which steals ~1k health (deals an extra 1k damage, and heals you for 1k) on your next attack after weapon swap. I’ve heard of some bunker guardians using that in tPvP.

I think the main reason I haven’t done that though (with Force or Restoration) is because I have been gearing up my alts. But with how incredibly easy (and quick) it is to get a character from 1-80, I might just have to get them to 80 and leave them, only gearing up the professions I really want to play. That way I can really focus on my main.

Crafting, if you have the gold.

You’ll want to roll a Warrior.

Intigo.1653:

Amaethon.8710:

I use Superior Bloodlust on MH and Superior Battle on OH and neither of them have ever failed to proc for me. I’m also convinced that if I switched my MH and OH (they’re both daggers) both sigils would continue to work.

You’re right. Your combo is good, but you should pick up a 3rd Sigil for when you reach 25 Stacks. Force is a simple and good choice for solo/small group work, Restoration is great for big group stuff.

Would Restoration on MH work with Battle on OH. I know they both proc on weapon swap (attunement swap), so would that be a problem?

I guess I can always just go to Heart of the Mists and try it out for free. Anyway, I will probably go with Force if I end up doing that; I already have plenty of healing and survivability.

It almost seems more trouble than its worth though, because your stacks will reset if you get downed, and then you’ll have to wait until you’re out of combat to switch back to your Bloodlust dagger. And you’ll have to actually remember to change weapons when you reach 25 stacks/when your stacks reset.

It’s definitely a good idea, and the extra 5% damage will help if you’re really trying to maximize your potential. And if you find yourself consistently sitting at 25 stacks of Bloodlust because you never get downed, then by all means go for it.

Anyway, I suppose it’s just something I will have to consider. Thank you for giving me something to think on (it’s nothing I didn’t already know, but I had previously dismissed it and hadn’t thought about it in months — so thanks for the reminder).

Force is usually better. In some cases, though, Accuracy may be superior. For example, an AH (Altruistic Healing) Guardian heals whenever they apply a boon to themselves or allies, and they apply might every time they crit, and vigor every time they crit (on a 5s cooldown). Therefore, Precision/Critical grants additional survivability (and damage) to that specific Profession/Build.

However, with the build I run on my Elementalist I don’t use Precision/Critical for anything (I don’t mind it for some extra damage, but I would take Power/Damage over Precision/Critical every time).

So it really depends. Most of the time, though, I would take Force over Accuracy.

I recommend Medievia. It’s not really an MMO, but it is an online multiplayer RPG. It has been around since 1991, has a very friendly player base, a helpful staff, and a very strong anti-trolling policy (basically if you’re found harassing or provoking other players you’ll either be gagged, suspended, or banned).

It is a text-based game (a MUD; Multi-User Dungeon), and can be accessed on their website (medievia.com), although I highly recommend using one of the clients they suggest on their website (Medievia’s MudMaster for windows is awesome).

Anyway, good luck, and I hope you find a game you enjoy!

Character bound dyes makes me a lot less keen on collecting every dye in the game. I may still do that on my main but, I mean… come on anet, throw us a bone! — If I go out and spend 20g on a single dye, it would be nice to be able to use it on my alts too…

This is never going to happen. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a race change option (I wouldn’t personally buy one, I just don’t have a problem with it). If you’re really that concerned with personal story, there are a lot of ways you could get around that.

One example would be, only allow players who have completed their personal story to use this feature (probably an in-game item bought with gems). Then, it could reset their personal story and fix it so they don’t get any completion rewards.

Or it could not require you to have completed your story, but just have it reset it and grant no rewards until you get to an equivalent part as where you were before.

In either case, I don’t see this happening anytime this year. In fact, I think it’s very likely they will never implement something like this. And even if they do change their minds and decide to put a race change into the game, it probably won’t be for a few years anyway, after they’ve already released an expansion or two. I just can’t see this being a very high priority for them, and even though you can get around the whole personal story problem, I’m sure it would require a bit more work to get it working properly.

EDIT: Sorry if my post was a bit confusing. I do understand that the OP was talking about a Profession Change feature. However, I’m certain they will never put such a feature into the game, even for gems. So I decided to talk about something a bit more realistic. Even though they said they’re not going to add a race change feature, I think it is MUCH more plausible than them EVER adding a profession change option.

I would also like to see blueprints become Account Bound. It seems silly to have something like that clutter up your bank when it can only be used by one of your characters. I suppose you could just keep them all in your characters’ inventories, but that just seems like a waste of space. Anyway, I’m sure they won’t get around to this for a long while because it isn’t game-breaking, and they have a million other things they’d probably rather get to first. Still, it’s something I would like to see… eventually.

I usually just level 1-16 on my own, craft 16-36, then switch to my alt for the last boss in AC on every path from 36-60, and then I craft from 60-80.

I always level Chef and Artifice on every alt, as they are by far the cheapest to level. Which crafting disciplines I level from 16-36, and from 60-80, depend on what crafting disciplines I want that alt to end up with at 80. For example, on my Mesmer I wanted her to be Artificer/Tailor at 80, so from 16-36 I leveled Chef and Jeweler, and saved Artificer and Tailoring for 60-80.

Also, as Victor said, you’ll save a lot of gold if you figure out what materials you’re going to need and buy them ahead of time by placing orders on the Trading Post.

P.S. There a few guides I typically follow when leveling crafting on my alts. Three of them can be found on guildwars2crafting.net (Artificer, Chef, and Jeweler). The other five are on gw2wiz.com (Tailor, Huntsman, Leatherworker, Armorsmith, and Weaponsmith).

Anyway, good luck, and happy crafting!

I use Superior Bloodlust on MH and Superior Battle on OH and neither of them have ever failed to proc for me. I’m also convinced that if I switched my MH and OH (they’re both daggers) both sigils would continue to work.

Warrior only seems better because you can achieve a similar result with less work. If your average player is somewhat bad, and you’re comparing a bad Warrior with a bad Elementalist, the Warrior will likely do better. However, a good Elementalist can bring just as much, if not more, to the table as a good Warrior (in Dungeon runs, and especially tPvP).

Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer, and 2x Warrior (IMO).

My main is an Elementalist, and my primary alt is a Guardian. And I think that Elementalist is just what you’re looking for. The Elementalist profession brings a lot of support, and decent damage to the table. It has a slightly steeper learning curve than most professions, but once you get the hang of it and find a build/gear setup you really like, it can be very rewarding. All the healing and boons, especially might stacking, are incredibly helpful to any group. And in AC Explorable we are pretty much a necessity for most paths because of Conjure Frost Bow.

I, for one, don’t like the “every man for himself” attitude a lot of you people have (in-game, as well as IRL). Too many people go around taking advantage of other people (and other peoples’ trust and good nature), which just creates more pain and suffering, and makes life a little less worth living for everyone else. It also makes the world a more hostile place to live, and perpetuates more suspicion and paranoia.

Have a little compassion. There is something to be said for being a good person and loving one another. And I’m sure most of you don’t need me to tell you about right from wrong… Perhaps instead of going around trying to harm others to gain something for yourself, you could perform random acts of kindness.

And to the OP, I’m really sorry that happened to you. I’ve personally lost my trust in humanity years ago, and it makes me sad to see the same thing happening to you. My advice to you is, don’t let this experience sour you too much about interacting with others (although it may be a good idea to stay vigilant to prevent being scammed in the future). And don’t become one of those people that say “well, someone did something bad to me, so I’m going to start doing bad things to other people if it could be advantageous to me”. Just continue being kind to others and hope that in some way it comes back to you.

Anyway, just my 2c.

By the way, healing/support in Guild Wars 2 is WAY more fun and fulfilling than playing a typical Healer roll in a traditional MMO. Instead of constantly looking at other players’ health bars and keeping them up, you’ll get to actually fight enemies and help your allies do more damage with boons, as well as dodging out of harms way, etc… It just feels a lot more involved and exiting than typical healing rolls. Not to mention, if they get downed you can always run up to them (or use a gap closer), use a control ability to stun/knockdown the enemies attacking them, start resurrecting them, and either pop some form of stability or invulnerability until they are up again.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, except that I find playing support/healing in Guild Wars 2 much more fun and engaging than in a ‘typical’ MMO.

LOL @ rhodoc. I use D/D almost exclusively in PvE (occasionally I use S/D for certain dungeon fights that require a bit of range). It has very good survivability, mobility, and decent might stacking capability.

Now, in response to the OP; starting out as a low level Ele can be rough. All I can say is, stick with it, it gets much better with practice (and more trait points, etc… at higher levels). I’d also say, any time you start getting low switch to water and heal yourself up (2 & 5), and try to use Glyph of Elemental Harmony while in water attunement for the regeneration. Put 5 points into water ASAP too, for the passive healing in water attunement, and after that keep putting your points into water/arcane, as these will help you stay alive.

Anyway, good luck and stick with it. Believe me, once you get the hang of it it’s an extremely rewarding and fun profession to play. Also, at 80 if you build and gear for it, you will be very survivable, so fear not.

It may not be 100% unlocked yet. It could appear to be unlocked and still require 1 more kill to have access to it, don’t ask me why. If you try that and it doesn’t work, post a reply and perhaps someone else can help you.

Try a Water/Arcane Elementalist. You have a ton of self healing, but also a fair amount of group healing / support. Actually, all of your water weapon skills heal allies as well as yourself, it’s just your healing slot 6 skill that only heals you. Hell, even switching to water attunement heals your allies (and grants regeneration) when built like I mentioned. Not to mention you’ll be sharing lots of boons with your allies, as well as tons of might stacks if you run S/D or even D/D.