Guild Wars 2

lmperdigao.2567:

Not really! The design of the class indeed asks for swapping the legend every few seconds.

I guess that is what, sadly, ruins the class for me. Such an insane amount of click management that I just don’t dig it. And I feel like I’m always in the “wrong legend” when I want to use an ability from the other one, which is super obnoxious.

I guess this class just isn’t for me. A shame because leveling up it was a ton of fun.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

There are only 2 Jumping Puzzles that award a Mastery Point.

I think I saw at least 3, but that was kinda just an example of content I have zero interest in that holds some pretty important (and scarce/limited) mastery points.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

To find what content awards Mastery Points, just open your Hero Panel, and click on the tabs with red stars for Core Tyria MPs.

I am starting to figure it out, but man it is confusing at first.

The way it will say things like “Soulbind 18 cultural armor pieces” and have a mastery point listed, but then you unlock 18 and it changes to “oh sorry, we mean 36!” and I now understand it will ultimately require even more than that.

I see now that there are internal tiers to these achievements, but wow that is not super clear at first and it really baits you into chasing something that ends up being tons harder than it seems.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You can also consult the Wiki (via the link above) and search: Mastery Point unlocks.

I consulted the wiki a lot, but even that can give mixed messages.

For example, story quests. The Hero page says “Storming the Castle” gives a mastery point. I just completed it on my Ranger and got nothing.

I assume the reason I got nothing is because I did the same level range story quest already for norn, and it probably only gives you the point once. But that is yet another thing that is not made clear on the wiki or in the hero panel.

Not to mention, dang that stinks.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I found the LS S2 episodes relatively easy, but YMMV.

Good luck.

Thanks.

I might go ahead and buy LS S2 if that’s an easy way to get a pile of mastery points.

This is more a problem right now for Tyria than HoT, but it is frustrating in either one.

There are too few ways to earn Mastery Points and they are forcing me to do types of content that I do not enjoy.

For example: I hate jumping puzzles in MMOs with a passion. Controls simply aren’t responsive enough and the combination of latency and character model/environment inaccuracies makes it brutally not fun. I suffer enough just getting all my vistas, but I sure as heck am not going to spend hours upon hours to do a ton of pure jumping puzzles.

Right now my XP bars are maxed for all 3 tracks in Central Tyria, and I only have 3 mastery points. I really want to train 4/5 Pact Commander, but need 2 more points.

I spent ~18 gold on tier 1 cultural armors because the achievement said I only had to unlock 18 skins. As soon as I unlock the 18 skins, it changes to 36 skins! WTF? That’s confusing as hell. The same thing happened when gathering badges in Silverwastes. Why the tease and the false goal?

I tried doing story missions, but I got through level 70 story already on one character (that I stopped playing), so now on my 2 active characters I won’t get any mastery points until I pass the level 70 story missions. So I have to do 10-70 story missions for no mastery points.

Figuring out what is actually going to give me a mastery point can be confusing or frustrating. But worst of all, I can’t just earn them doing the fun things I want to do.

I would love to see them have an additional XP bar option you could switch to that was simply “Fill this bar and get +1 mastery point.” Then you always had something fun to earn with XP and you could earn it however you wanted. Then after getting some points you could switch back to actually progressing a mastery track.

QUESTION: Is the easiest way to get some Tyria mastery points to just buy the Living World Season 2 pack and blast through those story missions?

Are they long/slow or are they relatively quick and easy solo?

Thanks,

I sincerely hope they are not going to ever again make any of these vertical/overlapping maps. They are miserable to play in.

Displays are 2 dimensional, and that is why video games tend to avoid heavy overlapping/vertical space maps. They are just frustrating as heck and not fun.

The painfulness of navigation in HoT just isn’t fun. I much prefer traditional style like the vanilla GW2 world.

Also, in general I dislike the “forced grouping” that dominates HoT.

It really is a shame the names don’t save. It takes a very simple opportunity to have a meaningful, creative connection with the game and throws it in the trash.

I would love this.

I hate having to wait when you know there’s no chance.

Yannir.4132:

Secondly, full berserker gear in the jungle is generally a bad idea. Only thieves can usually get away with it. (Infiltraitors Arrow + Unhindered Combatant) Invest in some Marauder pieces to beef up your Vitality.

My ranger, warrior, and guardian all do fine in full berserker.

Yannir.4132:

Thirdly, mace+axe is a condi set whereas you are running power gear. Hammer works good but you should probably go Sword+Shield and/or Staff. Sword+axe will work too, but axe is a bit redundant with Shiro. If you want to run mace+axe, you should get some condi gear to go with it, and swap Shiro for Mallyx.

I’ve never used mace+axe.

I use sword+axe with hammer on swap right now.

I gotta say that I find the stance swapping to be probably the thing that hurts the fun of playing the class, and it actually got worse once I got herald.

When I ran shiro + mallyx, at least both utility bars had a leap/teleport/mobility skill on the same slot (so I could bind it to a mouse key). Now running herald, I have to rely on Axe 4 which is not only shorter range, but if I switched to sword/shield I’d lose it entirely.

I have to roam in herald for the speed buff, which cuts off my access to the mobility teleport of Shiro.

It seems like you basically have to swap stances/legends every few seconds. That strikes me as an enormous amount of painful micromanagement that feels like bad, unfun design.

Am I missing something?

I just started playing GW2 a few weeks ago and assumed this issue was a bug.

The fact that it has lingered this long is pretty demoralizing.

It is one of those bugs/missing features that is extraordinarily embarrassing and unprofessional.

Is it game breaking? Not at all. But it just looks horrendously bad and is a huge downer psychologically. Sometimes those are the types of negative things that are far worse than a more serious bug.

This really should get more priority.

Ok, so there’s not really any sustain. People are just using the term super wrong.

There are blocks and evades, which are MITIGATION/avoidance.

And in order to have this, you need to micromanage 2 weapons and 2 stances, swapping every few seconds.

Do I understand that correctly?

Varezenem.2813:

The sustain that is being referred to comes from blocks and evades. Revenants have in general poor self-healing capabilities to compensate the sustain from active defenses (+damage reductions).

Would you mind being specific what blocks and evades I should be using?

For reference, right now I am:

sword/axe (with hammer on swap for range)
full berserker gear

assassin/herald legends

I’m pretty new to GW2 and really having a blast. My biggest challenge really is picking a main profession (and maybe a main alt as well). Currently I have:

Guardian – 80
Revenant – 80
Ranger – 80
Warrior – 50-something
Elementalist – 50-something

I solo and duo a lot, so I need to be very self sufficient and capable on my own. When I duo it is often with one of my kiddos so I have to carry the group.

I like classes where the mechanics and skill come more from positioning and paying attention to surroundings rather than complicated button combinations/management.

I was very disappointed in dragonhunter. I just didn’t dig the bow abilities and I find traps kinda annoying.

I have enjoyed Revenant but I’m worried the stance dancing might become a little too button-management-ish for long term. Though the theme and style of the class is amazing. I also feel a tad squishier than I’d like.

Ranger has been amazing so far. I keep reading that ranger falls off, that pets suck, etc. but so far it seems really fun and strong. The longbow is excellent and when I swap to greatsword I deal out massive punishment to finish things off. I haven’t even played around with sword/axe that most people say is the “best” melee combo.

Warrior looks cool but when I read specs that depend on managing your endurance bar and keeping it < 100%, that looked really obnoxious.

Elementalist was fun but again, the stance dancing was getting a little too button mashy and I read that eventually you go tempest there’s overloading to do which is even more stance swapping.

Anyway, given what I’ve said about my preferences, what do you all think is a good class choice?

Does ranger stay solid long term or does it become weak like I’ve read so many places?

Thanks!

Blocks? Every guide I read suggests sword/axe as the “best” weapon combo for revenant. What blocks do we have? And mobility is all fine and good but it doesn’t stop most damage from pouring in- especially in HoT.

Also, I don’t consider avoids/damage mitigation to be “sustain.” Sustain means you are getting health back somehow. Mitigation is mitigation and avoidance is avoidance. Those are all fine and good.

But in my opinion and experience, sustain has to mean some kind of healing, regen, life steal, etc. otherwise it isn’t sustain.

I really love my revenant. Leveled him to 80 and have been having a blast. Maxed out herald and I play sword/axe (with hammer on swap for ranged stuff) with a pretty standard invocation/devastation/herald build. Currently using a full set of level 78 berserker exotics (with a few 80s) that I’ll fully upgrade to 80s soon.

I feel kinda squishy – primarily in HoT – but I am always reading that Revenants have great sustain or good defense and great sustain. From where?

Facet of light is pretty weak and I generally never run it for the regen. I just hit it twice for the heal sometimes.

Enchanted daggers seems ok but doesn’t blow me away with its healing.

I typically run Strength + Darkness + Elements. Should I be running Facet of Chaos more consistently?

I’ve even tried swapping hammer and using the 4 ability to lifesteal through it, but that seems to do virtually nothing.

I’m sure I am missing something. Where does the revenant defense/sustain come from?

RoseofGilead.8907:

Yeah, that’s not what’s happening. The main flow of item selling/buying in GW2 is the Trading Post. You have full access to the trading post almost immediately, even on brand new accounts.

Wrong.

I cannot buy items from the TP.

Utterly stupid.

I cannot give items to friends or family.

Abysmally stupid.

Gold sellers have near infinite time and patience. They don’t have their excitement/fun ruined. They just wait out the timer.

Real players simply quit or can’t/won’t recruit friends and family because of these idiotic, anti-fun, policies.

All of the arguments supporting this idiotic policy fail horribly. Why? Because the one thing gold sellers/spammers have more than anything else is TIME.

Time is the stupidest restriction because they have infinite time. They have armies of people who can make accounts, and then wait a week+ for the timer to go away.

Stolen credit card numbers, access to 10+ year old accounts, things like that are actually in shorter supply and are far more scarce/limited. Spending money is a far smarter way to gate such access – that’s why every other MMO unlocks all basic features once you spend some nominal amount of money.

But time?

All that does is screw people over during the most important time for possibly committing to an MMO: the BEGINNING – when people are most excited.

You blunt that excitement and you’ll either run people off, or at best deter them strongly from being able to recruit friends or family to the game.

Ultimately, this is an absolutely brain dead idea that does NOTHING to stop gold spammers/sellers who have armies of people making accounts EASILY waiting out the timer.

Only legitimate customers are hurt by this.

If I paid $100 for a game, why should I be LIMITED in my ability to enjoy and play it? That makes no sense.

Trade and commerce are CORE features of an MMO. For many people they are the primary interaction they have with other players – especially if they primarily solo.

There is no excuse for limiting this basic functionality for non-free accounts.

My account is 10+ years old, has all GW1 expansions purchased, and HoT premium purchased.

There is no gold seller/spammer protection from limiting an account like this.

You want to stop gold spam? Give players the ability to put level/age based filters on global chat channels. Easy. Done.

Gold sellers aren’t going to drop $100 on HoT and find multi-year old accounts just so they can gold spam. That’s not feasible.

This is a really stupid, anti-new player idea that ArenaNet should be embarrassed by.

This single “feature” is huge enough that I really have no reason to tell any friends to play this game. I don’t want to have to explain why they can’t engage in commerce.

Kamara.4187:

I have no issue with how the game godz are handling things. If there is anyone to blame its gold sellers and scammers.

The cure is worse than the disease.

So you make your entire game super new player unfriendly?

By the way, I also cannot buy things off the TP.

WHAT THE HELL?

When I start up a new MMO, that is when I have time to play. Not a month from then.

I won’t be able to game much at all in April due to the fact that my company is going to exhibit at PAX East. Right now happens to be when I have a little time to game… not a month from now, maybe not even 1-2 weeks from now.

My playing time is precious and rare. I don’t spend $100 on a game to be crippled and unable to engage in commerce.

STUPID AS HELL. Stopping gold sellers/spammers is not worth screwing over legit players this hard.

Ellieanna.5027:

Since the game was released, there has never been direct trade in this game. Not sure why that feature bothers you.

Did you even read my post?

I don’t give a crap about that specific feature. It’s the fact that there is NO WAY to give/send items and coin to people in a newer account – even when you’ve spent money.

Ellieanna.5027:

New accounts have restrictions. And it’s not 30 days. Anet actually hasn’t listed how long it is. It’s based on play time and what you do.

Well then they need to actually freakin tell you how long it is, because it is utterly stupid to leave it vague.

I bought the premium HoT upgrade. My GW1 part of my account has all expansions bought and is 10+ years old.

And yet I cannot do one of the most basic things in an mmo: engage in direct trade with another player.

I can’t send someone money or items or anything. There’s no traditional trade command. And yet the game blocks me from sending things via mail, and I’m told it is 30 days I have to wait.

WTF?

I understand there are problems with spammers, scammers, gold sellers, etc. but this is an example of the cure being worse than the disease.

That’s an absurdly long time to prevent someone from being able to send items or money to friends, family, etc. This is especially true since I’ve spent money on the game.

I’d like to get my wife and my kids to play, but this right here is a huge barrier. I can’t even send them items or money to help them out? Not until I’ve already played for a month?

I almost bought premium HoT upgrades for my wife and two daughters. But not now. Not if we can’t even send items to each other. That’s $300 down the drain for Arena.net and I have to imagine I’m not the first paying customer to be massively turned off by this.

It’s absolutely absurd.

Ok, thanks for all the info. Much appreciated.

So if I’d rather not do pet stuff, then I probably should stay away from ranger, right? Since I can do ranged stuff on other classes anyway?

That then pushes me more towards warrior and guardian. What’s the difference in playstyle? I have to admit that dragonhunter specialization sounds super cool.

Starting to worry the ranger is less a ranged class and that the pet management will be annoying.

Is it wiser to go guardian and then eventually pick up dragonhunter if I want to do ranged play?

Is warrior→berserker even more fun for pve?

Basically, I am looking for something fun for PvE to get my first character leveled up, range or melee is fine, not obnoxious or super micro to play is good also since I am learning the game.

Hey all, long time MMO fan (started off playing muds, then Anarchy Online & DAoC) and just recently got into GW2.

My work/family schedule is such that my playing time is limited, but when I play I take the game seriously. I don’t know if that’s casual or hardcore or what.

I feel like I need to find a guild to make the most of the game, and would like to find one that is a good fit for the above.

CLASSES:

I’ve spent some time playing warrior and ranger. I generally like tanks and DPS, though I generally find leveling up easier/more fun on DPS. I thought about guardian but was worried it might have the age old “slow leveling tank” problem. But that Dragonhunter specialization looks amazing. I’m leaning toward ranger at the moment but that druid spec doesn’t look as awesome.

Are all the classes pretty well balanced and all good?

Thanks,