Guild Wars 2

Condition builds were nearly impossible to pull off and pretty much a meme for the whole duration core GW2

“Condition Builds has ruined this game for me”

PyrateSilly.4710:

I ‘farm’ the whole game. Which ever map I go to is where I kill and collect things. No telling what may drop from even trash mobs. I have gotten precursors and other things from trash mobs.

That’s nice, but not the way I play the game nor really an answer to what I asked.

Edit: I’m just looking for information and not a lecture on how I should be playing the game. I can empathize a bit and see this as a backlash against meta players. However, by telling me how I should play the game you’re becoming just as bad as the forceful meta players you’re trying to reject. I never told a casual player they should change how they played the game. I’ve either toughed it out or politely left without berating them. I wished the casual community did the same.

I’ve returned from a rather long break. Not really because GW2 got boring, but because some other games were looking interesting at the time. I was thinking of adding another legendary to my collection (The trinket Aurora). While the exploration is enjoyable, I know from experience that I’m going to have to deal with the gold cost portion of the crafting eventually. So my question is what are the current farms people are doing?

The last farm I did was the AB meta event farm. I think I witness some sort of farm in Lake Doric while doing LS and collections. Not really sure if any of the older farms are still being done or if they’ve been nerfed. Not sure where the newer ones are and how they work. Some guidance would be appreciated.

I realized my irl job could solve this gold issue easily. However, grinding numbs my mind and saves me a lot of money on alcohol at the end of the month.

I don’t mind small guilds, I actually prefer it that way. The way you describe them makes them seem like a perfect fit. I’m on pacific time zone. I generally get on around reset time and have around 6+ hours of flexible time each day.

Still looking for a guild

Still searching

bump, still looking

Yeah, I can’t find the cat either. It’s the only one I’m missing.

CptAurellian.9537:

zealex.9410:

Social is fine you can simply stop moving and dps at max aa range if you are using some meta food like seaweed salad just move back and forth facing the boss so you dont hit your allies or if you can stay ranged do that

‘sigh’ Now go and preach that to all those randumbs out there.

Solution really is to stop carrying bad players or calling them out on their mistakes. Sounds a bit toxic, but it’s end game content and if someone is literally killing your squad you should be able to tell them.

Two days ago I had a engie that literally akitten for everything technical like switches, wisp, and so on. During combat his rotations was near just straight autos and I saw him constantly going down. That probably deserved a kick, but pug squad stayed quiet because they didn’t want to add to the drama. Groups need to be more stricter in their T4 runs honestly.

However, some mistakes can be fixed with just a few lines. I just ping the social awkwardness instability and ask them to stop killing me. Usually every time I do that, they seem to be significantly more aware of their positioning.

Bump, still looking

Duo Necro if your goal is just to survive through content

Druid/Warrior will probably be best if played to maximum efficiency as they’re the classes with the most offensive boons.

I’m usually a solo player, but that life style is getting a bit harder to keep up. Pugging T4s is very random experience, but I enjoy running them daily. However, I’m noticing a lot of inexperienced players joining in hopes to get a free ride, which is not cool with me. Raids are enjoyable, but I personally deal with anxiety while running them with people I don’t know. I’m also finding it harder to find pugs that I can get into.

I’m looking for a guild that does both contents regularly. The atmosphere is also important for me. I’d prefer a laid back guild that’s willing to forgive hiccups every now and then, but still serious enough makes an honest effort and strives to do better. My raiding experience is also limited to wing 1, so I’m hopeful said guild could help talk me through the rest.

I don’t expect to join for free, I’ve got stuff to offer as well. I have at least 1 level 80 copy of each class. While I can’t play them all to amazing levels, I know generally what each class does and general builds available to them. These characters are also fairly well geared as well. I’ve got 1 set of ascended heavy armor, 2 sets of medium, 2 sets of light armor, and an kitten nal of ascended/legendary weapons . I mostly play Necromancer, Warrior, and Elementalist. However, I’m always looking to gear and try other classes out. I’m very willing to help other players as well be it through verbal advice or a run through content. I’m open to voice chat apps like Discord and TS.

Anyone interested in picking me up?

Edit: It’s worth mentioning I don’t do WvW or PvP outside of dailys and legendary crafting requirements.

I’ve used my spare character slots to make 100 slot banks

My fractal adventures pretty much spat out free 20 slot bags.

I do most of my organized group content through the LFG. My guild is inactive and the few that do log on tend to be on the slightly more casual side. I accept that I’ll run into low skill level groups and generally don’t mind. However, I’ve noticed that whenever I run into a 4 man premade I’m treated rather rudely almost every time. I’m honestly just posting this out of frustration, but would love to hear other peoples experiences.

So I decided to do fractals today because labyrinth was starting to feel stale. I pop open the LFG on my Reaper and decided to join a group that was looking for experienced players to do the lower end of T4 dailies. I didn’t mind the dip reward since I finished all my infinite potions and wanted to have a chill run. Unfortunately it was wrong in my assumptions.

First fractal was snowblind which was rather easy. After the icewall melted I ran towards the ice elemental per usual. However, the whole premade ran to the mistlock singularity. This was odd since I figured an experienced and organized group wouldn’t need it. Of course this usually this isn’t a problem anyways since I’m a slow kitten necro anyways and generally people who go for that singularity usually make it to the elemental fine. Unfortunately they decided to take about a 2 minute break without communicating and I’m just soloing this thing down. I get it down about 10% and they finally start moving and I read something like “ugh pug life”. I figured they’re probably talking smack about me on their discord or something, but I bite my lip and accept that the situation was slightly avoidable on my part even if they should have communicated with me.

Solid ocean is ez pz, hard to kitten this up.

For swamp I had one of those nifty guns picked up early because I assumed I wasn’t going to run since none of them moved or said anything. However, two of them run towards the return site signaling they want me to do it. I am not opposed to the idea and run to my station. When I go to pick up the orb I think my key press lagged and pressed F twice, which picked up the orb and then picked up the gun below me (honest mistake). Then I read “Wow what the hell pug why you drop orb? Stupid necro don’t shroud”. This is the last run for the day so I just stay silent like I usually do, not wanting to start a fight. They send one of their own to take my spot, they fail. I try again and get my orb in first this time. This fact calms me down a bit and I’m chill again.

So mossman blows up as mossman does and we prep for bloom. I put my waypoint down and they cover my waypoint, signaling they don’t trust me and probably talking mad kitten about me right about now. I hold myself back and just play the game. The fight was a clown fiesta. They didn’t want to kill the oakhearts and wanted to focus the boomhunger. I was fine with this as I could dodge most of what was being thrown out. Two of their members couldn’t and repeatedly went down to knockbacks and projectiles. Also during this they seemed allergic to the green pool, causing bloom to be invuln for like half the fight. Surprisingly the orb phase goes well and we finish and we finish.

Back at the mist observatory I read “oh wow, we shaved 10 minutes from yesterday”. I say thank you for the run and leave before I say stuff that’d get me banned. These guys refused to communicate with me, expected me to carry them through most of swamp, and took repeated jabs at me.

I’m fine wiping repeatedly, I understand not everyone is equally as skilled. However, I simply can’t stand jerks. I don’t know why, but I keep finding them in these premade groups that are just looking for a filling. Of course this was probably my worst experience, so I suppose the community as a whole isn’t too terrible.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

But isn’t the Deep Sea Dragon named Steve?

Opportunity for future epic death battle

Can we rename Labyrinthine Horror to Steve? It’s catching on pretty quickly.

Shadowstep.6049:

How is it helping when they write: build X is not viable.

My problem is not what i am reading from it, my problem is that they just so easily label what is useless and not, even though it is far from truth and they are well aware that every raid group will follow that labeling bs causing a lot of griefing. This is toxic.

That is why there should be disclaimer with big letters right in the begin of the post: HELLO THIS IS OPTIMAL BUILDS FOR SPEED ELITIST 6 MAN RUNS. Hello, this build is not the best for speed runs etc. not just: this is not viable. Posts like this pretty much doom any player that is maining class that is currently “not viable” for qT elitist speed runs.

That’s rather rude to assume. I’ve seen plenty of groups take “other” classes with far from meta build. It’s also up to the raid organizer to choose what he/she wants in his/her raid. Sure a few are going to ask for specifics, but that’s up to them to decide. It’s not unreasonable for them to do this as they don’t know you or your skill level, but they can know your gear/build. You’re welcomed to make your own raid as well with your own requirement as well if you don’t agree.

I’m fine with it since it’s a transformation.

Its not like I expect the tentacle to have a gender when I transform using my fractal tonic.

Shadowstep.6049:

I like how they write prof XY is not viable and then post tiny comment to the main post like: "Ok so I want to make something clear. If we say something like: “something something is not viable”, we don’t mean you can’t play this class/build anymore. For us, viable is almost the same as optimal, since we are a hardcore speedclear guild and only look at stuff that will help us getting fast and good kills."

THEN WRITE FLIPPING DISCLAIMER IN BEGIN OF THE POST. There is enough of monkeys blindly following such posts and thinking prof XY can’t be taken in the raid anymore.

This guild is prime example why raid community gets so toxic on first place.

I personally can’t keep up with all the changes so these guides and updates are always enjoyable. I choose to run slightly more off meta builds like the ones Brazil makes which are easier to execute with a slight dip in dps. However, these serve as a great guideline. It’s upsetting whenever someone tries to share something with the community, someone has to feel needless threatened. These guys are far from toxic, but the hate you’re sending their way definitely is.

It’s a holiday activity, usually you want to include as many people as possible in them. I couldn’t imagine the heart break of just starting the game and seeing all the festivities and being unable to partake in them.

Aldath.1275:

KickzNGigglez.4958:

Guardian tends to be highest damage dealer between the two. There’s several builds, but they all do around the same amount of damage. Guardian like its names implies has a lot of defensive utilities to block damage. However, ironically the class also has the lowest hp pool in the game.

Warrior has lower personal damage. However, the class has a significant number offensive utilities and specialized weapon options. The general setup is greatsword for damage and might generation with an alternate weapon dependent on the encounter. The class is also blessed with the highest hp pool in the game.

I think for a newer player I’d suggest warrior. Warrior has a lot more mobility options which is great for soloing through most of the early game. While the guardian excels in long term damage, the warrior can burst harder and clear trash faster. It’s also important to note that if you plan on doing group content in the future warriors will be requested significantly more as guardians are usually seen as a filler class.

There are however some niche situations where guardian comes out on top. For example in halloween labyrinth, the guardian staff auto is ideal to tag monsters while in a large group.

Hmmm… so this would mean the Guardian would have it as hard as a Thief to do Maguuma content? I keep on dying often as a thief, but I haven’t ebeen fully defeated as a Guardian yet. I have to agree, I noticed today how my Necro had a way higher HP pool than Guardian when entering Labyrinth.

Only you can have a say in that honestly. The jump from core to maguma is definitely a noticeable jump in difficulty. Most people have a hard time at first, but majority of people adapt over time. I say most because there’s definitely a vocal minority on the forums that ask to be spoon fed things. The way I would explain it is that the people enjoying the game are busy play.

Theoretically guardian and thief play the same in that they make up for their low hp pools through blocks and dodges. Though I’d argue every other class has to learn this as well, these two classes specialize in it and rely on it more.

My personal advice is to play them all. I personally have 10 maxed leveled and a few geared in full ascended/legendaries. I have 1 of each class and a few dupes for race/gender aesthetics. A lot of people make it out to seem like you need to focus on one class and that’s honestly not the case. Every class has a fun and unique perk to them and it’s a shame really not to experience them all. GW2s gear progression is so low you honestly can do it all. I realize character slots are an issue, but the game allows you to buy cash shop items like character slots through a currency exchange.

Guardian tends to be highest damage dealer between the two. There’s several builds, but they all do around the same amount of damage. Guardian like its names implies has a lot of defensive utilities to block damage. However, ironically the class also has the lowest hp pool in the game.

Warrior has lower personal damage. However, the class has a significant number offensive utilities and specialized weapon options. The general setup is greatsword for damage and might generation with an alternate weapon dependent on the encounter. The class is also blessed with the highest hp pool in the game.

I think for a newer player I’d suggest warrior. Warrior has a lot more mobility options which is great for soloing through most of the early game. While the guardian excels in long term damage, the warrior can burst harder and clear trash faster. It’s also important to note that if you plan on doing group content in the future warriors will be requested significantly more as guardians are usually seen as a filler class.

There are however some niche situations where guardian comes out on top. For example in halloween labyrinth, the guardian staff auto is ideal to tag monsters while in a large group.

Have you already done one of these dodge roll tutorials on one of your other characters?

I havent gotten any weapons from the regular ToT bags, but they were dropping like candy from the personalized ones I got from ATM farming.

Basically you use it when you have burst available combo ready. So like right after you put your primal burst on CD and your 100 blades are ready. The healing signet only heals more if you’re constantly damaged, there is a thing as over healing. Most damage comes in burst rather than a consistent flow, so the burst heal is usually more valued. Also restorative strength rewards spamming your active heal by giving you and your allies might, while signet generally is kept passive. You could argue that the signet has an active as well on the same cool down. However, the signet has one of the longest activation timer of all warrior heal skills which could get you killed.

Khisanth.2948:

KickzNGigglez.4958:

Would make the fresh air part of fresh air tempest kind of pointless.

weapon swap are a big part of many builds.

Would also mean rework of sigils like geomancy

All on swap sigils already have a 9s cooldown.

True, but you’d be able to activate 2 unique sigils in a quick burst.

Typing this has made me realize that it’s also op on any class with heavy burst skills.

Would make the fresh air part of fresh air tempest kind of pointless.

weapon swap are a big part of many builds.

Would also mean rework of sigils like geomancy

I think it’s fine honestly. We’re talking about a minuscule amount of dps loss for consistency. We’re already seeing fractal groups run suboptimal team comps (reaper only), not surprising raids would open up to the idea a little. Obviously you’re not going to take the build into a speed run, but not every raid clear is a speed run. I honestly think if your raid squad fails w/e dps check, you’ve probably got bigger problems elsewhere.

They’ve already neutered bloomy. Leave the poor oakheart alone.

The fractal tonic dropped for me, so I converted for the potions. I might end up regretting it later, but both currencies have no real lasting value currently. Once you’ve finished golden fractal collection, infinite potions, and fractal tonic I expect us all be to be in the same spot where we were before, just sitting on them and hoping ANET adds in more rewards.

I only have a few core legendary weapons

Eternity
frostfang
howler

and they tend to be rather underwhelming after you spend some time with them. Although I admit bias, I definitely think older legendaries need to be revised rather than releasing newer ones. I understand that creating something new and pushing it is generally the direction games go in, but some minor touches would mean the world for guys like me.

The sunrise and twilight swords are nice, but the upgrade to eternity seems like a punch in the face. You essentially lose one legendary so that your sword can tell time and get a glow at the hilt. I think it was reasonable at release, but the transmute system makes the swap rather meh.

Frostfang has some cool visual features. However, you really have to zoom in to notice them. The effects are also often overshadowed by the environment as there seems to be stuff floating around frequently. The weapon needs some sort of pop.

Howler seemed really cool from the screenshots. However, the duration of the wolf is very short and often missed. The sound, that should be the main selling point is also short and often lost in the noise of combat and environment.

The changes to bow strings makes me hopeful, but that was a very specialized case.

Technically meta works fine for that challenge as metas generally are the most effective by definition. The real issue is that the average player doesn’t have the skills to perform at the level some builds require.

This is often brought up by Brazil, the gw2 youtube guy. When he released his take on the reaper fractal run he was original criticized that it wasn’t optimal. While it’s a fair point, the feat wasn’t for optimal play but play many could pull off. Same is happening with his chrono tank build video, the build is tanker than the average chrono so it does less damage. However, the play is significantly easier and lets be honest we weren’t expecting huge deeps from chrono anyways.

Anyways from my personal experience my first attempt at it sucked because my pug didn’t play too well and couldn’t keep their hp up. It took maybe 7 tries. I did the same challenge for a friend with people I knew on meta builds and it went well the first time.

Do you think they’ll have another stat selectable ascended ring and accessory so we can finish our HoT set of accessories without raids? I have enough mag shards, but I don’t raid enough to spend them whenever I feel like it.

currently we’re at
2 back packs
1 ring
1 amulet
1 accessory

I’d be very sad if they decided to troll us and release an amulet and 1 other and still have us at an incomplete set.

We need at least 15 more threads

Maybe now we’ll actually get twitch views lol

Oh man, we’ve got to be a tad skillful in navigating in HoTs content.

I totally didn’t figure this out when I tried running past a pack of pocket raptors the first time.

/sarcasm

I enjoy these littles bumps in my gameplay. It makes me put in a small amount of effort in a game mode that rarely invokes it. I would understand if it was unfair, but you can see the kitten things and can plan ahead by dropping your glider for a few secs.

Pedroso.4603:

Hello everyone!

I’d like to discuss with you an “issue” that i have with main/alt characters:

I main Thief and have something around 2000 hours on it, on the other hand, all my other 7 characters together hardly have 250.

The problem is: i would like to spend time on other toons, specially Elementalist that i really like, however, whenever i log to play with her, i get the feeling that i’m “wasting time that i could be using to do something more productive for my main”, and also there’s gear issue, my Thief is the only one full ascended, and i don’t really want to spend the money/time to craft a second set of ascended armor.

I would like to know if i’m the only one with this “issue” and if there are others, what do you do to mitigate this feeling?

Thanks!!

I used to only play my main and felt the same. My warrior was fully ascended with around 3 legendary weapons, frostfang, sunrise, and ad infinitum. I felt like I invested so much into her and if I played anything else I’d just have to grind back up.

Eventually by the time HoT came out and I had around 400 tomes of knowledges and a significant number of ascended chest from fractals. I felt it was more of a waste to let resources sit in my bank and decided to test out each elite spec.

It was pretty fun actually. I feel like HoTs is more balanced than core tyria was and playing things like necromancer was actually fun. As I dipped into other classes, it was refreshing. I learned some important things about each class, like the optimal place to stand for druid heals.

I haven’t touch my warrior much since. My alts are gradually gaining more play hours. I’ve even started working on legendaries just for them. I’ve got 4 classes fully ascended and working on my 3rd core map completion, 2nd HoT map completion. I regret not exploring other classes more because they aren’t a waste of time. Map completion generates a nice chunk of gold and the class knowledge is great for understanding group play on a higher level. Also the gear progression in GW2 is rather low, so there’s only so many things you can honestly work on that aren’t cosmetic only, so spread the love.

Ashen.2907:

The addition of ascended tier killed the desire to alt for me.

The tier that has been in the game for over 3 years? The one that has been worked on and been significantly made easier to obtain since? The same armor that isn’t soul bound and possible to move between character?

One of gripes of the MM build in pve is the slow CC speed. I feel like every major CC has a large wind up time. It’s generally not an issue, but very noticeable for those break bars that only last 3-5 secs.

The generic viper horror build has

Warhorn 4 Which admittedly is good, but locked out of if you just swapped to dagger recently.
Shroud 3, which requires you to enter shroud and double tap 3.
Shroud 5, which has the most disgusting wind up ever.
Flesh Golem charge, which he takes his time getting ready for.

1) DPS stands for damage per sec, which all builds provide in various degrees. The term you’re looking for is power.

2) Patch definitely made it easier for power in terms of how much damage you’re dealing. It’s just the instabilities that make it harder for people who simply can’t position well. People were clearing high fractals before the necro hype, I’m sure those same people can do the same right now as well. The instability has even been significantly nerfed, so yes, it’s a learn to play issue at this point.

3) Most people who have done uncategorized knows that the bunny 1 shots with it’s high jump kick skill. Just dodge it and you should be able to down it before it gets its next one off. The fact that your party wiped to the bunny in the first place sort of says a lot about the skill level of the party.

4) That’s the uncategorized fractal, the bunny is in its natural environment.

I personally think map exploring in core tyria is easier done on a power build because of how quickly things die to direct damage.

As for fractals I wouldn’t go into high end fractals on a half geared condition build because of how important condition duration is to the build. I would suggest just running a standard zerker till you can get the pieces you need.

Dungeons, are easy. However, they tend to have a lot of condition resistant things that make you near useless. It’d honestly be better if you ran power.

While it seems I’m heavily advocating power build, I actually run condition myself. I think condi build is great for heart of thorns content, fractals, and raids. However, condition builds aren’t really something that’s optimal in every situation (things you seem to want to do) and definitely not great while half geared.

I have mixed feelings about this encounter. I personally find the boss to be very easy as the platforms are so slow to disappear. However, yesterday I had same 3 members of my squad wipe before the boss even hit 40% twice. We even tried resing them and they died like 20 secs after being brought back. Then the ele would die from reflect damage and the chip damage from being targeted repeatedly by the lazer. I died to some random knock back on the last 5%. I’m still kicking myself for not having a stun breaker.

I want a breakbar to make the encounter a bit more engaging. At the same time I’m afraid of having the encounter turn into bloom 3.0 and having even more terrible pugs.

It’s personally my favorite minion when I get to use him during fractals. The swap makes for some nice skips.

I’d personally camp glint. Fury is too good to give up for a bit of personal dps, the might is a nice bonus.

Edit: you should technically swap to glint every now and then, but I’ve found fractals really chaotic lately and it’s rare that buffs ever stick. I think if you can stack you should dip into shiro.

yep, sounds like a problem with the wiki rather than a bug

Revan.6259:

Is it 8-15 minutes for the story mode of a dungeon as well?

Tends to vary between dungeons, but yeah.

Revan.6259:

KickzNGigglez.4958:

Dungeons will vary around 8-15 minutes depending on party.

Wow, really? I remember them taking an hour or more….did they nerf the dungeons, or were my groups just terrible back in the day, lol?

Oh those are dungeon paths, not whole dungeons. However I dont think any full dungeon clears take 1 hour anymore. A lot more people are aware what works best in them by now, ascended gear is more available, and more importantly heart of thorns has added some power creep.

from my understanding the omnis were given +9s because of the extra mats used

The offensive/defensive infusions were given +7s since they required less materials.

Dungeons will vary around 8-15 minutes depending on party. The main wait is really just getting a party together. Good news is that they rarely ever fail.

Fractal pugs generally form quickly, near instant around reset time. A full T4 clear takes around 30ish minutes, but that’s assuming things go well. It’s not uncommon to find that one guy who can’t dodge anything and sort of gets carried. Occasionally you’ll even find more than 1 and will have drop progress to find another party because some areas just aren’t soloable.

Raids I can’t speak for as I’ve never done a full wing clear, but I assume fairly long.

Tbh the majority of the necro hype comes from fractals. If you look at necros in other areas of play, they’re not as great. I can’t chase anyone in WvW, dungeons still have condi resistant bosses/doors, pvp is mediocre from what I’ve read. I don’t think it’s fair to nerf a class because it’s safe (not even optimal) in one game area.

But then we look a Rev who gets shafted because of pvp, so I admit there’s room to be wrong.