Guild Wars 2

Hi.

I main a Thief and I’d like to learn how to play better.

I can handle constructive criticism.

NA servers.

I’ve leveled Thief & Ranger to 80 and spent a fair amount of time with each, mostly PvE but a little WvW. Wiser with Age’s answer is solid.

If you like doing massive DPS in melee and you’re prepared to do a lot of dodging and escaping you’ll have fun with a thief.

If you prefer staying out of melee and attriting from extreme range you’ll enjoy Ranger. Much tankier with lower DPS.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Thieves seem to have an edge over Rangers in terms of social status.

Rangers have a lot of support skills, but other players won’t realize you’re helping them unless they’re really paying attention.

Thieves’ Shadow Refuge skill can give an entire party stealth and healing, and when they use it, the animation is really distinct and obvious; and then the payoff is the party can bypass something time-consuming or dangerous.

A lot of times people in a group will be like, “Yeah, we need a Thief for this.” No one ever says that about Ranger.

Whether that matters to you is your call.

Personally I enjoy both for different reasons.

Thanks a lot for the help, guys. I knew going in the Thieves are squishy.

I guess I need to practice more and work on my SA and dodging.

My advice is don’t worry about it. While leveling, Just use whatever gear comes your way. There’s really no need to worry to much about gear until you reach level 80.

However, if you just really want better gear before 80, instead of buying it on the trading post, do hearts in the highest level region you can handle, and then talk to the heart NPC afterwards. They sell gear for Karma. You rack up Karma pretty quickly doing Dynamic Events. So it’s an easy way to gear up as you level.

But honestly it doesn’t matter that much until you get to level 80.

I have a level 80 Thief running full zerk armor with Scholar’s runes.

I play 90% PvE such as Silverwastes & dungeons, but I’m starting to get into WvW roaming some and I’d like to do more of that in the future.

My problem is I’m getting 1-shotted or 2-shotted way too often.

I know, I know. The real answer is l2p. I’m working on that.

But in the meantime, while I’m still figuring things out, I’m thinking of switching to a different armor set. I’d like to add some survivability without completely sacrificing DPS.

It seems like perhaps Clerics (Healing Power, Power, Toughness) or Magi’s (Healing, Precision, Vitality) might be a good option?

But I’m not clear of which of the three “hang in there” stats — Toughness, Vitality, or Healing — are going to help me the most.

Also wondering whether I should take Power or Precision as a secondary stat.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies Kodiak & Illconceived.

> Silverwastes is probably one of the better ways to make money in pve.

Hmm, ok.

I’ve spent a good amount of time in Silverwastes, defended the outposts, “Thanks for pitching in,” fought the giant monster in the hole in the ground a few times, but never felt like I was coming away that much richer.

But that could just be perception. Or maybe somehow I’m not doing it right.

I’ll do some research and give it another try.

> One round of chest running can net well over the 1-2 gold per hour you currently get running around in orr.

> Silverwastes: chest trains, especially with a good commander (who knows where to pause and when to taxi).

Do you guys think maybe you could give me a little help with this?

I’m not asking for a full, detailed explanation. But do you have a suggestion for a good, clear tutorial? Or even a passable one.

Or just what is “taxiing.”

then take a print of the log and sum the damage and divide by the time to estimate your DPS.

Is there some way to save the log out as text, or do you mean a screen print?

I’m trying to save up gold to buy ingredients for an Ascended Backpiece.

The fastest way I’ve found is to go to Orr, particularly around Meddler’s Waypoint, and run around killing the Risen as fast as I can.

They drop Heavy Moldy Bags, which sell for around 6 to 9 Silver. The Bags are the main money maker, but there’s also the incidental weapons/armor drops you can salvage and other odds and ends. I’ve learned not to bother opening the bags.

I’m on a lvl 80 Thief. I’m traited for basically perma swiftness, so that helps things along.

It seems to help if I eat Zesty Turnip Soup (20% Magic Find). It’s hard to tell for sure if it really makes a difference, though. And the Soup is kind of expensive, so don’t always use it.

I seem to make about 1-2 gold an hour doing that.

And, to my surprise, for me at least, it this Orr mob killing actually works out better than Dungeons, Champs, or even World Bosses.

I’m not the world’s leading expert, though. I’d be curious to know if someone else has a better method and what it is.

A lot of times during big events like World Bosses or whatever I’ll see people say “lfg” in chat. Last night someone said, “party up for better loot” during the Grenth event chain.

What’s the deal with that?

Does the game reward people in parties with better drops or something?

Or do people want to be in a group in the hope that someone will rez them when they wipe out?

How do you work your way over to the Temple of Grenth near Cathedral of Silence in Orr if Murdered Dreams Waypoint is contested?

I can’t remember how to get there. Every route seems to be blocked by terrain. I’m just not seeing the way through right now.

Thanks, all. I did it!

Now I feel guilty.

n00b question.

Main hand dagger, 1st attack in chain is Backstab.

The summary says…

Stealth Attack. Attack your foe from the shadows, striking for double damage if you hit from behind.

I tried sneaking up behind some Ogres and attacking with Dagger 1, but just did Double Strike/Wild Strike/Lotus Strike.

So I’m guessing I need to be in stealth in order to Backstab?

What’s a good way to get into stealth, or just how do you Backstab in general?

Deedrick.4372:

Change your RL name to Eethy, then tell them its personal info and needs changed…..

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this. Thanks, Deedrick.

I signed up back in 2013. At the time I didn’t realize how prominent my username would be. It identifies you on the forums and in-game. People call you by it on Teamspeak.

I’ve actually considered buying a new copy of the game (it’s only $20 right now) and starting from scratch.

I only have two characters. I could let go of my level-80 ranger, but I have a thief I really want to develop that I’ve invested about three weeks getting to level 40; so I’d have to do all that again — levels, skill points, and map completion. Ugh.

What do you guys think?

a) Is there some way to change it?

b) Is “Eethy” that terrible, or should I just live with it? I understand that’s subjective and ultimately no one can decide that for me, but I still wouldn’t mind some comments.

I enjoy doing everything possible on the map
I dont leave a place untill im sure there is no little stuff i could have missed inaide ( like harvests or trees ).

Yeah, that’s going to mean you level more slowly.

When I leveled my first character, and I wanted to explore everything and discover all the little hidden gems the devs added. I think that’s a good way to go for your first char or two.

Once you start leveling alts, you’ve seen the scenery a few times & sometimes you may want just to blast through and get to 80.

I haven’t carefully timed it, but based on casually glancing at the time now and then it seems to take me roughly an hour to two hours per level, depending on what I do.

Based on the wiki entry for experience, it appears that completing your personal story and running dungeons gives by far the most experience. Completing a dungeon gives you 70% of the dungeon’s level’s XP.

Renown hearts and skill challenges come in second by a wide margin.

Tomes of Knowledge, grant an increase of one level, although they aren’t easy to acquire.

Just running around the map killing stuff and gathering eats up time and doesn’t buy you much XP.

These things help to greater or lesser degrees…

- Depending on your class, at some point a %15 speed boost skill opens up. Cover ground faster == gain XP faster.

- Grab skill points when convenient. The increase your abilities, which allows you to finish content faster & hence gain XP faster. But don’t waste 45 minutes fighting your way to an inaccessible skill point. Wait until you have a close-by waypoint and you’re advanced enough to just run past the creatures obstructing it.

- Completing dailies/achievements. I’m a little hazy on how this works, but I’m pretty sure it helps somehow. Maybe someone who knows the game better can explain it.

- As Just a flesh wound.3589 mentioned, there are various consumables. Their effect is marginal but they’re quick and easy to acquire.

@Aidyn Thanks so much for the info. I’m returning after a long hiatus & didn’t realize that’s how servers work now. Cool, that’s good to know.

I will definitely check out your guild. It sounds really great.

Hi guys.

I wanted to switch to Tarnished Coast because I’m told it’s the roleplaying server and it hosts tons of guilds (and, incidentally, I’m also looking for a guild).

Sadly, TC is full. At the moment these NA servers are full…

Jade Quarry
Blackgate
Darkhaven
Sea of Sorrows
Tarnished Coast

What would be another good choice?

I’m mostly a PvE player. Competitive play isn’t important to me. I prefer a cooperative, social vibe. I’m interested in trying RPing.

I’m wondering how you get the “daily activity participation” achievement.

What activities do they have in mind?

I guess it isn’t the same thing as “events,” right?

Thanks

See screenshot.

Having trouble finding this one.

It seems to be in Wayfarer Foothills.

Thanks

When I first purchased the game, I chose EB without looking into it much. I kind of wish I’d done more research first.

Later, I heard good things about Tarnished Coast so I started guesting there and really liked it, a lot more than EB.

I mainly play on TC now as a guest. It’s a slight hassle — you have to go through a few additional mouse clicks when you log in, but generally it’s no big deal.

However, as others have noted, if you can only do WvW on your home server. So I’m actually thinking about paying for the transfer to TC so I can play WvW with the friends I’m making there.

Ok, yeah. That’s probably it. Thanks.

At some point I put a few armor/weapon drops in my bank. I’m referring to the bank you can access at crafting stations (see attached screenshot).

I’d like to remove those items and salvage them. But when I drag them over to my container, the slot is highlighted in red and the item won’t move over.

The only available options seem to be to right-click on them and preview them or destroy them.

Any way I can salvage them?

Alright, thanks, guys. A few coppers poorer & lesson learned.

I have a lvl 80 Ranger and I wanted to re-allocate my trait points.

I bought a Grandmaster’s Manual from a trainer. It’s in my inventory.

I thought you could just double-click it and then you’d be able to go into your Hero panel and redo your traits.

I tried double-clicking and also right-clicking and selecting “use”. Nothing happens. In my Hero panel the trait points are all still allocated and locked.

What am I missing?

Thanks for the build. Looks great. Yes, I like the greatsword as well and sometimes use that in favor of the axe/torch.

I’d like to come up with a lvl 80 build for maximum survivability — toughness, vitality, condition removal.

I guess what I’m after is what people call a “bunker build” right?

So what are the weapons, armor, trinkets, upgrades, and consumables that optimize for survivability protecting from both direct damage and conditions.

My theory here is that any outgoing damage is better than what you’ll be doing if you’re down or running back from a waypoint, right?

My favored weapons are longbow (keep enemies at a distance or knock them back) and axe/torch or axe/warhorn.

I tend to like spiders and devourers with their ranged and AOE attacks, although lately I’ve learned to appreciate the damage output of the raven and owls. So maybe a small concession to some DPS there with the birds.

The one other wrinkle is movement speed. I really, really appreciate being able to get around the map faster.

A guildie gave me a tip the other night — a full set of Rune of the Traveller gives you 25% increased speed, so perhaps I’ll make that one of the cornerstones of this build. Any other hints there? Any way to get a movement speed buff even higher than 25%?

So tl;dr most survivable Ranger that can move fast.

Thanks! And I welcome all suggestions

I like that website. Really nice.

I’m planning to cache the data in a DB (PostgreSQL) and search against that.

I need to figure out a strategy to keep the data current.

In this post referring to event names, Cliff Spradlin says you only need to update your data after a patch.

I’m not sure whether that’s also true of items.

I’m working on a sort of item database app.

My notion is to get the item IDs from https://api.guildwars2.com/v1/items.json and then request each item individually to refresh my data.

I’m trying to cache all the item data in order to implement some searching and sorting.

Is that alright?

Do that, say, every five minutes would that be ok?

Thanks

I got the skill point

Thanks a lot for the help, guys.

I’m having trouble discovering the route to this skill point.

Thanks in advance

Eethy

Ok, cool. Now I get it. Thanks for the help.

Hey guys. I just need a little help interpreting how armor stats work.

In the attached photo I’ve got a piece of armor. And below the main stats it says…

“Major Rune of the Soldier (5/4)”

What do the numerals “5” and “4” above signify?

Also it says…

(1): +15 Vitality
(2): +10 Toughness
(3): +35 Vitality
(4): +25 Toughness

It sounds like they’re saying these will be the effects if you apply the Rune multiple times. Is that the deal? Like if you had 4 of them and you applied them all you’d get +25 toughness?

Or is it something else?

Thanks for the help. I’m definitely open to trying other weapons — so far I’ve put at least a few hours of playing most of the available ones.

I’ve used the axe with the torch a fair amount. That’s probably a more practical choice, but the greatsword just feels more “epic” somehow

Which armor/upgrades/trinkets would provide that vitality/toughness that you mentioned? (I’m just not sure what to search for.)

Hi all. I’m a noob, looking for a little help with my Ranger.

I’d like to create a build with a balance of defense and lethality, perhaps favoring offense somewhat.

I’m feeling like my guy could be doing more damage and dispatching enemies quicker if I just understood how to set him up better.

After playing for a few weeks, I’m finding prefer the greatsword and longbow. I don’t know if those are considered the “best” ranger weapons, but they’re the most fun to use for me so I’ll probably stick with them for now.

(I love the “fly to target” option on the greatsword and I’ve made good use of the “barrage” attack and #4 knockback on the long bow" — I’ve saved allies’ butts a few times with that knockback.)

For skills, as it stands I’ve got Healing Spring, Frost Spirit, Muddy Terrain, Signet of the Hunt, and Rampage as One. I tried to include at least a few that would help out other players.

For pets I tend to go with the Drakehound and a Wolf for their howl skills that tie up enemies briefly, which helps out others in my party.

I’d love to get some help figuring out which armor and upgrades, trinkets to get. I’m willing to farm up some gold & buy them on Black Lion, I’m just not sure what to look for as there are so many options.

Also, are there any particular consumables I should stock up on?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

(BTW, my gf & I are looking for a friendly, social guild. We’re on Ehmry Bay but we could migrate if necessary.)

Ok, I guess I’ll just save it. Thanks for the help, guys.

I’ve accumulated about 18,000 karma. I would love to get some new weapons & armor for my level 32 Human Ranger, and some bags with more slots.

I talk to the NPCs after finishing quests and any karma merchants I come across, but they rarely have anything I want.

Can someone offer some guidance on where to find karma merchants that sell nice equips for my level?

What’s an “ecto?”

I’m a noob just leveling up my Ranger, Valden Harkenstorm & his pet raven, Sharlash :|

Alright, cool. Thanks for the info.

Ok, cool. Thanks for the help.

We have “basic” “crude” “masters” etc. salvage kits.

I get that the higher (more expensive) ones have a better chance of recovering upgrades if an item has one.

Intuitively, I suppose that means don’t waste a master salvage kit of a scrap of shredded cloth — use a crude kit for that, and save the master’s kit for some upgraded weapon a monster dropped that my character class can’t use.

I just want to double check on here that I’m understanding this correctly

Thanks!

I have a bunch of “Shattered Lockpicks” that some bandits dropped.

They are a “trophy,” “soulbound,” and worth 18 copper.

What does “trophy” mean in this context?

And salvaging them or selling them on Black Lion doesn’t seem to be an available option, so how can I dispose of them?

For anyone who finds this by searching later and has the same question, after trying a few different ones, I finally found the Sennheiser U 320s and they’re working great.

So problem solved

Ok, great. That explains it. Thanks, all

When I hover over certain weapon skills, a stack of two or three panels appears instead of just one. (Screenshot attached.)

What does that mean in practice?

Thanks a lot everyone for the info. I didn’t know about the portals in Divinity’s Reach. That will be a big help for exploring. Really looking forward to checking that out.

I guess we’ll probably take the advice and try Kessex Hills next.

Ranger Valden Harkenstorm & Necromancer Vysseria. We’re usually playing in the evenings, U.S. Pacific time. Give us a shout if you see us

Thanks, ok that’s one option. Thanks for the recommendation.

Either wired or wireless is ok with me.

Hi all. I’m shopping for a headset. I’ve done a lot of Googling and searching on Amazon, but there are so many options it’s just getting confusing.

I could use some help narrowing it down.

• If you have a recommendation for a specific headset, I’d love to hear it.

But even just general background info on gaming headsets would be helpful.

Some of the stuff I’m trying to figure out:

(I understand what these things are, I just don’t know whether they make a gaming headset better or worse.)

• USB or not.

• 7.1 surround or stereo.

• Open back or closed.

My price range is up to about $160, maybe $180.

I’d really like one that’s Mac-compatible. Even if I play GW2 on Windows, it’s very possible that I’ll play on a Mac some time, so a headset that could work with either Mac or PC would be ideal.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

(BTW, the ones I’ve looked at online include the Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 5 , Razer Kraken Pro, Turtle Beach Ear Force DPX21, and a bunch of others. So many options!)

My gf & I have been playing for a couple weeks and we’re level 15 & 14. We’ve just completed the Queensdale area. (She’s been playing MMOs for years. I just started.)

We like just exploring around and doing quests and gathering loot Occasionally partying with other players who happen to be around.

We’ve poked into a few adjoining areas, but the monsters in them were all ten levels or so above us, so we couldn’t survive in there.

Any suggestions for where to go next?