Guild Wars 2

Cool idea, great way to be in the spirit of the season!

I’ll take number 66.

StinVec.3621:

Clear the game cache

Thanks!! This worked perfect for me. Couldn’t get in for a few days, cleared the cache following your instructions and poof, open for business. Thanks again!

Oh, wow, I completely misunderstood the skill. I though it refreshed the attunement, not just shortened the CD of the switch…. hmmmm, seems less cool now.

Just wanted to see if anyone else was having an issue with Fresh Air not working (at all, not just the cool down)?

I noticed this the first time I tried a fresh air build, I’d be out killing stuff in Air and didn’t see my lightening bolt or speed or fury, but thought I might have something screwed up. Now I just went out and tested it as a fully geared 80 with loads of crits and still nothing. Stay in air, give it 10 secs, pop back into a group of mobs critting like mad and still no boons or bolts.

Curious if this was just me or an issue with the trait.

Ezrael.6859:

- Make the skill cleanse 1 condition from yourself and allies at the start of the channel.

Agreed. This makes no sense to me. I love the torch, any excuse to light stuff on blue flame, but have found it’s really weird that the condition cleanse doesn’t affect self and is only other allies (usually allies includes self).

I’m gonna give it a 10. A 10! (said in the voice of Billy Bob from Varsity Blues)

Did I get everything on my wishlist, no. But we got a new dungeon, some cheevos a free epic, lots of balance fixes (some screw ups there as well), but overall a 10.

I EXPECT:
1) Spiteful vigor now grants VIGOR… on crit (no heal)
2) Minions attack as soon as I attack with any weapon or skill
2.1) NO pathing issues
2.2) Increase in base damage, HP and Toughness for Minions
3) DS # 5 = Spiteful Spirit from GW1
3.1) DS #3 now works the same on ground as under water = Cone Fear
4) Reduced cooldowns on warhorn
5) Faster cast skills/animations for everything
6) Hmmmmm…. maybe a new toy, like 2 handed hammer (think Guard, except wells instead of symbols)
7) Purchasable skills for minions… bought with extra skillpoints…
8) A trait that makes the worm mobile
9) OH YEAH, my elite can finally swim

That would be a good start

Changed my build, got 4 of the 6 necessary runes and ran two paths of AC yesterday (to work on getting my last two Monk runes). Gotta say, Had a blast and felt like a beast Didn’t have any trouble going toe to toe with the bosses.

Looking forward to Reset so I can run a couple more AC paths and get my last runes and really see this in action.

I’d love it if the range of Staff was changed to at least 900 (maybe w/ a tighter focused cone), or if the scepter moved a little faster… BUT, the best thing for me is traiting/gearing for up close and beating the heck out of everything…. and setting it all on blue fire

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

A really good tip for any character is to make sure and buy your gear off the tp. You can get the best equipment you’re looking for at a fairly cheap price. This will allow you to max your stats out. Make sure to “refresh” your equipment every so often while leveling.

Was just about to say this. If you wait for drops on armor/weapons, you may fall behind and get discouraged. You can basically “rent” green armor and weapons from the TP (you buy for like 1-2 copper more than you can resell to a vendor). Good luck, the Guard is a BEAST once you get it figured out.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

5 points in virtues provides a lot of boons whenever you trigger a virtue. Even better (at least in PvE), grab 5 in virtues and 15 in radiance: you can now spam an AoE blind and hand out 3 stacks of might to 5 party members (5 boons, for a grand total of 1065 hp returned on every kill).

Wait a minute! What are you doing advocating the AH build I just switched from to try our your Boonway build

KA’s right though, AH with 5V/15R is GREAT in PVE. Spam F1 every time it’s off CD and watch the mobs catch fire (and go blind/stack vulnerability/grant might to the good guys). I don’t think I could run a build w/o the 5/15 in it, too much fun setting everything on blue fire.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

As far as my stats, in the end when running the Soldier’s set with celestial trinkets I end up with around 30% crit chance, boosted to 50% 1/3 of the time via Save Yourselves. Extra precision would certainly not hurt, especially with the amount of crit damage around. In general, though, I’d be very cautious about going below 14k-ish health. We have a lot of condition removal, and quite a bit of toughness depending on gear, but our low healthpool makes us prime fodder for one-shot attacks and condition-based enemies.

Good call, I keep forgetting about the Fury from SY. That should make a huge difference. Hmmmm… decisions decisions… My health would be pretty low with knights, so maybe I’ll go with Soldiers to start off and when I get around to it Craft a Berserker set (or Knights…). That way I can play it safe when necessary (dungeons/WvW) and see lots of big red numbers when just running through maps. Thanks for the advice!

Hey, build looks really fun, been running AH, but going to give this a go tonight. Love the idea of the long uptime on boons and not being tied to the staff for a decent travel speed (my Chardian feels sooooo slow w/o a 25% run speed signet and when Swiftness is down).

Question about the armor selection. You’re running all Soldier gear now right? Did you do that primarily for the high-end Factuals, or do you need all that vitality for regular dungeons too? Did you find your Crits going down significantly?

I was thinking going mostly Knights (4-piece), to help boost my Crit Chance (and maybe even the Rampager 2-piece from AC w/Monk Runes). Not doing factuals yet and really just working on my AC tears… but I also don’t want to buy/craft a bunch of Knights if it’s better in the long run to just go the Melendru temple and get Soldiers (if it wasn’t perma-bugged on TC).

I’d like an all-around set that will last me a while, as I finish clearing all the PVE Maps, tackle dungeons with friends and start doing some WVW.

I hope they fix this sometime soon. Screws you up in the water, when you use Plague (only elite available – also dumb, can’t the Fleshie swim like the rest???), and if you happen to come upon a random chest and the Skritt Thief/Bugler pops out (he uses transforms)… it’s hard to kill that little bugger in time when you loose all our minion damage.

Rennoko.5731:

Dragons are basically buildings. They don’t trigger the marks. And in fact none of those big world bosses will trigger marks. They act like a weapon rack.

Geeze, that’s horrible… I suspected it, but man, that’s ridiculous…. so, I guess 1111111DS111111DS then. Thanks for the heads up… freakin’ ridiculous.

Hey Everyone, Did a quick search and didn’t see the answer to this question out there. When you’re fighting a dragon, where do you place your marks (and I’m assuming that dragons to trigger marks, maybe that should have been the first question)? I don’t usually play conditions, so staff is my go-to for range when fighting (obv I use DS as well, but don’t necessarily want to get into stabin’ range) and I’ll be wailing away on the dragon (meaning auto-attack #1) dropping marks at the dragons feet and i’m just not sure if they’re even getting triggered. So, what do you do – drop the marks at the feet, aim for the ground center of mass, other??

having the same issue… GW2 says it’s my firewall, but got kicked in the middle of the game (no FW changes)…

Try this guys hybrid beastmaster GS/SB build. It’s great for PVE. I’ve been running it for the past wee or so and am lovin’ it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Hybrid-BeastMaster-GS-SB-build-guide/first#post1670628

Starting out/leveling, my brown bear “Thunderbutt” never left my side. Bears ability to take the pain and clean my conditions were super helpful. Now at 80, I primarily am PVE right now, I tend to go with Jag (for dishing the pain)/other. Mostly “other” is my wolf “Lucky Dogg”, but if I’m clearing low-level areas then I just like to play around for variety. Under water I’m all about my shark “Mr Finns” and red jelly “Fat Boy”.

OP, just wanted to jump on and say thanks for sharing the build. I’ve been trying it out for the past couple of days and having a blast with it. Struggles a bit on conditions (as been stated – not too much of a problem with the health regen and spring), but I may go for the melendru temple armor to compensate. Other than that, it’s quick and efficient. I mainly PVE, so I swapped out sig of wild for quickness (love the machine-gun short bow and the ever-evade GS). I also don’t need a stun breaker too often so will drop in fire trap just for some extra aoe condition and combo fields… but I’m sure if I WVW with it I’d go back to the original spec. Anyway, just wanted to share that this is a really good build and for those hating on Ranger, may change some minds. PS, if we do get a GS buff on the 26th, that can only make this more fun.

Harbinger.8637:

DarkHeart.1760:

Harbinger.8637:

I also noticed when you go down you create a Death Nova also. Which is pretty cool.

Really? That would be cool. You’re not by any chance using 6 “Superior Rune of the Afflicted” are you? Be cause they also create a nova when downed.

No, using Lich. I thought at first maybe it was my minions, but this is happening when they’re all on CD too.

VERY cool then. It’s like the Mes trait that lets you shatter yourself!

Harbinger.8637:

I also noticed when you go down you create a Death Nova also. Which is pretty cool.

Really? That would be cool. You’re not by any chance using 6 “Superior Rune of the Afflicted” are you? Be cause they also create a nova when downed.

Bhawb.7408:

I just tested it (I wasn’t sure about actives), it doesn’t work on actives but does work on summon skills.

OK, thanks! Good to know… seems like it should work on actives though. Would be nice to have haunt and charge on a shorter CD.

I remember way back that (heard not tested) MM didn’t affect summons, hope it’s changed though as that’s the way it SHOULD be. I also thought (way back again) that Nova didn’t work on Putrid explosion. Hope these both work the right way now, could be fun…

So theoretically, you could drop a well of suffering, blow up yer minions get area blindness and poison and have cooldown reduced to 16 seconds (20%). Nice.

Hey all, blowing off the dust on my Necro and had a couple of questions:

Just need a little clarification. Does the Minion Master Trait “Minion skills recharge 20% faster” reduce cooldown on the summon skills (i.e. shorter down time after death) or the active skills (like Haunt)? Ideally it’d be both, but I seem to remember something about this skill being screwed up.

For Death Nova “Whenever a minion dies, it explodes in a cloud of poison that lasts for 3 seconds.”, does this work when you blow up your minions now on purpose or just when they die of natural causes?

Thanks!

Penguin.5197:

The only ones I can think of apart from toymakers are the white ones that come when you purchase quaggan backpacks

WOOT! Penguin, thanks for the idea. Writing to confirm that the char/quaggan packs work for this (or the straps that come w/ them do). It also worked for my Mad Memories pack. So now my Ranger is the proud owner of a Hobo Sack and my new Necro has Mad Mems Thanks again for the advice (now I just need to figure out if any other toons need the sack).

Gotcha, thanks for the help KB and P! Screwed the pooch on that one, added a practically useless red jewel to my toymakers and now that options gone. Live and learn. Maybe I’ll buy a quag pack and see if that work (if so I’ll let ya know). Hobo Packs for EVA!

Penguin.5197:

Took a while for you guys to catch up, my ranger has been playing engineer since…well forever now

Penguin, what bag did you use for this? I can’t find any back items that aren’t bind on acquire or of non-rare type. I’d love to move one of my mad memories bags to a toon I’m still playing and give the eng pack to a my Ranger. Thanks for any input!

Khezekiah Bellamy.5016:

a friend of mine did it with a Toumaker’s Bag(rare) and it made it account bound. also i believe the level 1 white one u get with the backpack skins should work

Did you mean the “Toymaker’s” Bag (I’m guessing just a spelling error)… If so i screwed up and soulbound both of mine on toons I don’t really want to play anymore….. Are there any other back packs/back pieces that aren’t soulbound in the game?

I actually like the “hobo sack” look, but don’t think it transmutes the same as the other starter armor for 1 reason, there aren’t any white backpacks. If you can point me to one, I think my Norn Ranger would look sweet w/ a hobo sack.

Sagramor.7395:

Was gonna type up a response, but instead give this a read.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/72009-a-comprehensive-look-at-the-flamethrower-and-elixir-gun/

Most of the time if I plan on using both EG and FT I’ll build for both and have both of them on my bar. Regarding underwater just suck it up and swap FT for Grenades.

Nice guide, gave me some great ideas as I level my eng. Thanks!

Also, have to agree that grenades are the best thing underwater… our harpoon gun is very lackluster, but the auto target grenade barrage owns.

Kevan.8912:

uhm…quite confusing.
it’s “comparable” or “somewhat less efficient”?

it’s obvious i get awful items from lvl 2 mobs..but exp is enough to justify the time i spend to end quests i did’n’t do in early zones?

The exp and items are actually pretty decently scaled. I was clearing the Char starting area on my Sylvari Thief the other day and got my last 2 levels (78 and 79) done and a number of correct level greens. So I think weapons/armor have a decent chance of being the correct level (hopefully better now after the patch), but the “junk” you receive will all still be low level as will the nodes in the areas.

I have a sylvari thief and I’m a big fan of him, but I’m also working on my 2nd ranger. I know that damage is lacking a bit, but hope in feb/march we’ll get some improvements and be a little more on par (would like our range damage to be closer to Warrior and now with Eng kits/turrets starting to get weapon stats/bonus/boons, maybe ranger pets are next). I also like the pets, collecting them experimenting with them. The AI isn’t the best, but it’s worlds better than Necro minions. I think my new asura ranger will try out a melee trap build, but there’s a lot of versitilty, so who knows. Another point for ranger would be it fits pretty well with the Sylvari nature theme (though again, I have a sylvari thief that rocks too). What’s your GF running, maybe think what would work best in combo with her.

HILARIOUS Nicely done, but as I just re-started leveling my eng I’m really hoping for a brighter future.

Lofat.2406:

You most likely have auto attack enabled. I had to disable it when I used Hidden Thief. It would auto attack and it wouldn’t stealth. So disable your auto attack and you should be fine.

Ah.. yes, yes I do. Didn’t think about that. I’ll give it a shot. Thanks!

Ah.. yes, yes I do. Didn’t think about that. I’ll give it a shot. Thanks!Though, that seems like a “bug” if it’s the case, because I don’t continue to auto attack if I CnD of heartseeker out of blackpowder. Oh well, I’ll either get used to it or switch to +initiative…

Gwalchgwn.1659:

Do you have mug on steal?
Could be that you gain stealth for 2 seconds before the mug dmg apply, which will then reveal you.

Nope, but that would make sense. I have the boons, clear condition and stealth on steal… it all sounds good on paper, but when you don’t disappear it blows. What’s odd, is sometimes I’ll notice the mob starting to move away from me like I did disappear, but there I am plain as day with my stolen item, boons, but not visible and unable to back-stab. Just weird.

Has anyone else using Hidden Thief noticed it’s flakey application? I’ve been playing with it the past few days and it seems 50/50 as to weather it works or not (and no, it’s not due to Revealed being up). I’ll be wailing away on a mob and go for the quick f1 to steal, apply boons, stealth for a killshot and boom… nothing. There I am as visible as ever.

Just trying to figure out what’s up with this and whether this trait is worth it or not. I might try the +initiative trait in its place, but tend to prefer multiple stealthing tools.

I’ve been leveling with D/P S for a few days now and it’s a lot of fun (PVE). I was looking at the forums yesterday and surprised that there weren’t many posts with people running it. It may not be the “best” build, but I hardly ever die and can pretty much walk through most content solo. I started out mostly as DD/PP (which is probably my favorite combo), but after 60 levels I wanted something new.

With D/P (and I am running about a 0/20+/20/0/15 going to be 0/30/20/0/20 all purpose build when I hit 80) I can use my 3 skill to get in melee distance quickly and then just rock the mob from there. Drop 5 and auto a few attacks, mobs are blind so can’t hurt you, then 2 heartseeker into stealth. Cures my conditions and I get to backstab the mo fo I just like the flow between quick melee and multiple stealths and invulnerability from blind. Throw a steal in there for the buffs and item, but almost don’t need the stealth from it. It’s a good time! Oh, this is roughly what I’m running now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYUQRAoa6alUmiP3cy8E95Ex2jdqTiypwpI1TBZBLA (probaly have to cut/paste to browser).

EDIT: Underlining is unintentional… don’t know why it’s showing up. Also, I like most of the combos a thief can play and would suggest trying them all out when leveling. That’s one reason I like a flexible build, I get bored and will switch up my weapons, or go all range on a big-bad with PP/S.

Yes, it’s pretty easy. Go to your home city and take the Asuran Portal to Lions Arch. All racial home cities have a portal to LA.

+1 Loved the first 2 days. Anxiously awaiting the end of the workday so I can get back in there today and take on whatever Tixx throws at me Thanks ANet!

PS Love the creepy Dolls and the present drops in the “world”, nice to be able to take part w/o camping.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

I will also add that playing a sword ranger with auto attack on is like using training wheels. Once you get the basics down the train wheels just get in the way.

Question for you. Do you press 1 1 1 1 over an over, or did you macro a button to autopress 1 if you hold it down (on your mouse)? Just thinking it may be the best of both worlds, you get the “autoattack” by holding down a macrod button on you mouse and the freedom from not being auto-locked if you don’t hold it down.

Also, I just got the naga-knock off logitech g600 and it’s great for half the price. Took a few hours to get used to it, but I have my 7-0, f1-f4, and four buttons to spare. No going back.

Stop reading the forum for a while and just play. It’s a fun class.

There are a lot of bugs (but there are a lot of bugs in the whole game, some classes more than others) and Rangers may not be OP, but they’re a hell of a lot of fun and very versatile. You can go range or melee and you get a bunch of choice pets to tag along with you.

The forums have their place, mostly to gripe but also to get good hints at better builds, etc. But if you’re new don’t be swayed by all of the outrage in the forums. Rangers are bad kitten

*I mostly PVE now and love clearing maps and exploring, so take this all with a grain of salt. If you want to be OP in PVP I can’t help you but ranger may not be the class for you (though there are a lot of people, if you look hard enough, that post about doing well in PVP and I hope to be one of them some day

Fabled Sheep.4725:

I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, despite what other people say about the class.

This!

Man, the first toon I rolled was my norn ranger, really big bad kitten I leveled him to the 40s in a few days and was having a blast and then I started reading the forums about how awful rangers were (not to mention how awful norns are) so I shelved him for about 2 months and tried out EVERY OTHER CLASS… I was waiting for this big fix that was supposed to equal out the playing field that never came.

Came back to my Ranger this weekend after deciding that I just didn’t find any other class that I wanted to “main” (I really love my asura necro too, but the pet AI there is a million times worse than ranger and what’s a necro w/o minions??). I have been having a blast. It’s such a fun a versatile class. You can go melee and range and neither option seems boring (unless you just 11111111111….). The pets are fun, you can tell them what to attack and they actually do it (unlike minions). Traps are fun, signets are ok, RaO is a great elite. I’m still figuring it all out, but I’m looking forward to testing the rest of the utilities out too.

Hit 60 this morning and I’m working on my own “all purpose” build, because I carry about all our weapons and I like to vary it up between LB, SB, S/WH, GS, etc. Sure, I can’t kill as fast as my Warrior or go solo as easy as with my Guard… but I don’t have to , because Thunderbutt my trusty bear is usually fighting by my side

NickDollahZ.5348:

yes, the math has been posted already. Flamethrower is the worse of the kits when it comes to scaling.

Man this is disappointing… Love this game and but really wish that ANet could get some of these bugs worked out. NOTHING looks quite as cool as an eng mowing down the masses with a flamethrower, but grenades it is.

Mister Mustard.7203:

I found GS + Staff to be my personal comfort zone while leveling. GS does great, but as you’ve already noticed, it’s amazing how little dmg it does when a mob is in your face. As it’s somewhat difficult to keep mobs off you, I found the ‘tankiness’ of the staff to be the best choice as a second weapon.

My general rotation is [GS] autoattack (to ensure los) > Mirror > Zerker. Zerker helps a lot as he will often draw aggro, else he at least cripples. I then switch to staff > Warlock > Phase Retreat > autoattack till a shatter will kill the mob.

For Traits, imo the first 5 go into illusions no matter what. After that I did Dueling for Deceptive Evasion & the other very useful passives; then I started up Chaos for some survival.

This is just what I found works for me, I’m sure some hate this style. It’s probably a little slower killing than other weapons, but I can take a beating pretty well and still kill fast enough.

Great, thanks! I’ve liked the staff a lot as well, just find the auto attack to be a little slow (better than scepter though w/ the bouncy boons). The rest of the skills are really great though – AOE conditions+protection, chaos bubble and the get out of jail free phase retreat. I’ll throw it into my second slot and give it another run tonight!

Thanks for the trait tips too. What are your go-to utilities? I picked decoy first for an all purpose oh-kitten button, but I’d be interested to hear about other top choices for early leveling (not necessarily the end game shatter-builds, read those guides).

Also, what about heal-slot? I’m a not-quite-elf-vegetable (a.k.a Sylvari) and the healing seed almost looks like BIS, but maybe I’m missing something. Otherwise Mes heals seem pretty weak.

I just started leveling my Mes this week as well, and it’s a lot less easy than most of the other profs (leveled all but ele and eng to 40+). W/O a real “dedicated” AOE weapon, you have to kite a lot and can be more of a challenge especially with a mix of ranged and melee mobs.

I feel like the GS is the best range option at this point, but love switching to sword when the mobs are in my face. Haven’t decided on an off hand yet, but will probably be either sword for awesomeness factor (looks + nice block/2nd clone) or focus for the speed buff out of combat (and the cool synergy of the AOE phantasm + pull ability in combat). I want to like the pistol, but just not quite there for me.

So i’m still very new at this prof though, so any tips or best practices would be appreciated. Also planning to level tailoring and jewels as I go most likely.

Palinois.1064:

I used it just a few minutes ago, wasn’t bugged for me. How did they say it was bugged?

I THINK that the bug is supposed to be that you don’t get as much damage as the skills is supposed to be doing… at least that’s what I read some place. That being said, I still really like it for my S/A warrior. It’s great for AOE tags and building up adrenalin. Plus my asura warrior looks AWEsome floating, spinning and then looking all dizzy when its done

1) They just feel faster, even the walk seems faster than on the larger toons.
2) Animations are awesome, there tends to be a lot of jumping involved in everything.
3) Story lines are really good, and Felicia Day does the voice of Zoja.

Ynna.8769:

Zsymon.8457:

It’d be nice if they removed scepter from guardian weapons, and replaced it with a longbow.

Or, you know, just make the Scepter into a decent weapon.

YUP! Now when’s this beast of a patch gonna drop? I’m stuck at work, but I’d like to be able to analyze/obsess over the patch notes until I get off

Drgori.5724:

Doesn’t matter what race you pick, the best elite skill is Renewed Focus anyway…LOL, pick the race you like it best for looks.

THIS, really, for all classes. Just go with what you can stand to look at for a long time, what you think you’ll like in the armor you want. The racials are fun, but they are intentionally weak compared to the standard skills.