Guild Wars 2

Khisanth.2948:

Also characters created before the trait changes are not affected. They get all the traits unlocked.

?? I have my character since launch (or close, I believe, as the character is at least 2 years old), and I believe there a a couple traits that I still need to unlock. Most traits were unlocked, though. It is just a few of the upper ones (when you invest 6 points in a line), so perhaps I had most of them automatically unlocked? I don’t know how many are supposed to be locked.

Also, it could be because I didn’t have 100% world completion or my personal story completed or something.

So I am going to attempt to make a guardian that is decently powerful (and use burning to accomplish that), but can also support. Obviously the build won’t be as powerful as a more focused build, and I know that I can re-trait if I’m not in the middle of something, but being able to do both at once is the kind of play style that appeals to me.

I don’t have much to say right now but am making the thread to see if anybody has suggestions or criticisms.

What I believe will be a problem is that I will need some support skills, but having support skills means I can’t have as many skills that cause burning. Having multiple skills that cause burning is important for a burn build though, because people remove conditions. I can’t decide how I want to split up my skill bar.

Continuing with discussing skills, It doesn’t seem to me like I will be able to do much with healing (GW2, imo, doesn’t really seem to lend itself to healing), which means my support will need to be boons or condition removal. I plan on having “Stand your ground” for this . I should probably have a second support skill, though, so any suggestions? (Wall of reflection, sanctuary, hold the line…).

Perhaps I can get runes, weapons, or traits that can help me support my party, but I’m not very familiar with what effects are possible. I’ll look into this, but suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, I am planning on using a great sword as my main weapon (it will help cause damage), but am willing to use a 1h sword if it’s better (tbh I’m fond of the great sword though. And it’s powerful. And with stand your ground I can attack quickly). For my alternate weapon I’m not sure, but probably scepter/focus or scepter/torch. I plan on looking into that as well, and suggestions are welcome.

The other issue that has come to mind, and the one that I believe will give me the most trouble, is how I should trait. I want zeal because it gives me power, and kindled zeal or amplified wrath (which tends to be better for doing more damage? I have yet to look at their specific effects) So I will probably put 6 traits in zeal.

I figure the rest of the points should go into radiance and valor. Radiance is good because it helps with burning, and has some nice traits. Is radiant retaliation any good? Seems not too great to me. Shimmering defense and searing flame are, imo, powerful and important for a burning build though.

For valor… I figure I should have it because it seems healing oriented. It doesn’t seem too great to me though. If I want to be decent at support should I put some points into valor?. I’ll use symbols and shouts, so it may come in handy.

I’ll make a prototype build sometime in the coming weeks and put it on gw2skills website and post a link here. For now, I’m looking for suggestions on how to get a good combination of offense and support, with the offense coming from burning. Preferred main weapon is a great sword. The build I figure will be more focused on offense then on support, but I want it to have decent support capability.

Belzebu.3912:

The out of order thing is during the Personal Story.
Living story S1 and S2 are in order and those assume that you finished your PS since both pass after the events in the PS.

So, if you go and finish your PS now, a few things may make no sense near the end but the Living Story will be just fine.

Sorry, I should have been a bit more specific.

If I go on finish my personal story now (I’m on part 7 now, and I’m a sylvari guardian), will it be messed up/bugged (you already answered this but I want to be a bit more clear). I don’t care too much if it is different than before, as long as it makes sense within GW2 and the lore. If It won’t make sense, will it go back to normal after living story season 2 ends? I’m guessing it won’t, since heart of thorns continues living story I believe.

So, related more to what you said (that it won’t make sense). Will it just not make sense to me, or will it not make sense in terms of the GW2 story/lore.

Maybe if I could get an example of how it is messed up I will better understand the changes. What happened to the story to mess it up (if it is messed up).

Hello,

So I just started playing again after not logging in for about a year and a half. I was on part 7 of the storyline when I stopped playing. While I’ve been gone, apparently there has been living world seasons 1 and 2. If I go and finish the storyline now, will things be out of order/ messed up? (I’m a sylvari guardian).

I ask because there was another thread saying that some things were out of order and that people perhaps should wait a bit for a fix before completing part 5. I’m already past part 5, but since I completed it a while ago I don’t know if my storyline is affected or not.

Thanks.

Has anyone done this event? Do you get anything for it (achievement, good loot, etc.), or is just like any other event? I’m asking because the way you go about starting the event is interesting (throw the heart of fire, fragment of earth, etc into the lava). I don’t want to get together people to do the event if it is not worth it.

Ehra.5240:

I did acknowledge them. When I disagreed with them and explained how I didn’t agree they were significant advantages. They’re only an advantage if the best gear in the game is difficult to earn. Exotics are anything but and Ascended gear acquisition is in flux. Like I said, I’m not seeing it. That doesn’t mean I’m saying you didn’t try to convince me.

Exotics are easy, and yes, ascended gear acquisition is in flux. If Ascended gear acquisition is difficult, then legendaries will give people an advantage. If Ascended aren’t, then maybe some other items they introduce later may be. And keep in mind, there is a possibility of legendary armor, so it wouldn’t be limited to just weapons (assuming the armor is made in a manner similar to that of the weapons).

And just another thing to think about. Say Anet decides they want to implement some epic quest to get some nice weapon. They will never be able to introduce a weapon that is better (in terms of stats) then the legendaries, not even in an expansion. While that might not be a problem to some people, in my opinion it limits what Anet can do in the future, which isn’t good for a game like this.

And just to make sure I’m clear, I’m not saying there shouldn’t be legendaries. I’m saying that Anet could’ve implemented them in a much better way.

critickitten.1498:

GW1 did horizontal progression far, far better than GW2 did, and there’s nothing wrong with asking to take a few steps back towards that formula.

I’m off topic here and may get an infraction, but I gotta say one reason why I loved GW1 was because I didn’t play for a couple years, and when I came back my monk could still compete with other people in PVP (granted, I didn’t know most of what was going on anymore).

To get this on topic… @Fox. The point isn’t the time it takes to get the legendary, the point is that it the way they implemented legendaries is frowned upon by many (at least from those that I see posting on the forums) players (and also goes against what the devs said about the game, in a way).

Booler.6598:

What gets me the most is ppl.saying it requires no skill, while it requires less skill than what anet outlined by no means does it require 0 skills. Unless ofcs you flip and buy it. For anyone that has recently purchased the game may seem impossible. from launch I worked on mine . Lodestones were cheap yellows dropped a lot and ectos were easily obtainable , lucky for me I acquired alot early using something called time management which is a “skill” if I didn’ I may not have it today. Dungeons had little or no tactics so we had to really slug them out . There were no easymode crafting guides. There was no jugs of karma or dungeon karma. Many aspects of it could be multi tasked just a little forward thinking could achieve this again a little bit of “skill”. People that had a legendary within two weeks of launch however did seem very suspicious. So yes aspects of legendaries were much cheaper bit you still needed skill for other aspects.

“Most people buy them” yes I’m sure kudzu will look great pirched infront of the tp all day what use will flippers have with leg’s nothing but more meat to flip. And if someone has the ability to flip up to 2k + gold that’s
Pretty legendary to me (I’m not one of them).

So please before you make claims about people having not even tryed to build a legendary think twice because a lot of us have worked kitten hard for them and not because we were worried about your opinions on them.

Okay, how many people do you think worked as hard as you for their legendary though? Probably quite a few, but out of everyone that has one, a significant percentage probably did not work that hard for theirs.

That aside, congrats to you for your hard work.

Ehra.5240:

Kusiobache.7203:

Ehra.5240:

critickitten.1498:

Legendaries are not purely aesthetic items.

Yes they are. Their stats will be exactly the same as Ascended weapons when they release, which means the only reason to get a Legendary over an Ascended weapon is because of its aesthetic.

But if I get legendary now, I don’t need an Ascended weapon. It has nothing to do with the skin; Legendaries are clearly the best weapons.

They are tied for best weapon. If you want to go through the effort of getting a Legendary then you don’t ever have to worry about replacing it. If you don’t want to then you can get whatever else is the best weapon and not be at any disadvantage. If you don’t want to do THAT then why do you feel you deserve to have the best stuff? Eventually you have to ask yourself why you even want the item, because it was a reward for playing a game you enjoy or because you like seeing your digital numbers go up.

The fact is, I just want to play a fair game. I don’t see the game as fair the way it is now, since if I don’t have a legendary I am at a disadvantage.

What if I’m playing this game 5 years? I’ll almost surely have the chance to get a legendary eventually: If I do, I save myself a lot of effort, but then I won’t have much do look forward to from expansions. I can do the new content, gain the new levels, but any equipment will be useless to me. If I don’t get a legendary, I’ll likely end up putting in more work to get higher level equipment with every expansion, which I don’t mind. I play the game so I have something to do. However, despite how much effort I put in, I will not have the best weapon (a legendary), unless I go out of my way to get one. Sure, I could do both, but that would make little sense.

The legendaries just don’t make sense the way they are implemented.

There’s also what booler said – the work he put in to get a legendary is different than the work people put in now. That just shows that the way the legendaries aren’t well-implemented and that their implementation wasn’t/isn’t fair.

All I’m saying – and I think the OP and critickitten are trying to say as well – is that the system is flawed. They could have taken more time to implement legendaries and made a better system. I know my complaining is useless – all I can do is live with the system as it is – but I don’t need people telling me it’s fair when it isn’t. There’s also the fact that the Devs said things like “no-grind” and then made a system that requires grinding. They shouldn’t have made statements and then not followed them.

Ehra.5240:

critickitten.1498:

Legendaries are not purely aesthetic items.

Yes they are. Their stats will be exactly the same as Ascended weapons when they release, which means the only reason to get a Legendary over an Ascended weapon is because of its aesthetic.

But if I get legendary now, I don’t need an Ascended weapon. It has nothing to do with the skin; Legendaries are clearly the best weapons.

And please don’t tell me to get a legendary, then. I wouldn’t mind having a legendary, but I don’t want it so badly that I’d grind for it. And it will take me a while to afford it (I can get 3-4sh gold an hour or two from AC exp, but if I play two hours a day I’d need 5ish months to get one that way). I don’t like to re-sell stuff on the trading post since I find that boring (even in WoW with Auctioneer I didn’t like re-selling things). So No legendary for me, at least not now.

People keep saying “just get an ascended when they come out if you don’t want a legendary”. What if an ascended costs too much to get, or takes hundreds of hours to get? What should I do? Well, I should have gotten a legendary, probably.

That’s the problem with the legendaries (in my opinion). They are valuable and, in a way, overpowered as well. Truth be told, though, I could’ve dealt with that – I don’t mind legendaries being powerful. I mind being told that I would not have to grind for the best weapon, though, and then having to grind (or spend a lot of time getting gold) to get the best weapon. I also mind such a valuable item being so available to the people who have the gold (whether they earned it or use RL cash), because I see too many people with legendaries. Weapons that good should not be that accessible, unless they are accessible in a way to all types of people (including people who don’t have time to grind, or don’t play TP), or they should truly be just a skin, like they were in GW1.

Minion of Vey.4398:

Most things ARE unrewarding. Strong things don’t have proportionately good drops, so your best bet seems to just be killing a whole bunch of weak stuff.

I’ve found that it’s possible to make a surprising amount of gold that way.

There was some group event in whitland flats where a huge mark II golem needed to be killed, and it’s pretty interesting to solo because the golem does a lot less damage if you get close to him, so I soloed it. Got the standard karma, experience, silver as a reward. Not bad, but I feel like, if you kill something that’s like 20 times you size, you should at least be able to get a drop. Not even an improved drop, but a drop nonetheless.

yes, I know, the event is meant to be done as a group, should not take long, etc etc. Sometime’s it’s hard to get a group together though, or it just isn’t worth it (why get a group together for a little karma, some silver, and the exp is decent, but still…).

Basically, while there are good ways to get cash/items, I think it encourages people to do certain content over others, leaving a lot of areas underpopulated, and event go undone. Maybe it isn’t so in more populated servers than mine, though.

Awesome.6120:

Kusiobache.7203:

wait, alt-shift-combinations? Can you map skills to multiple keys? (I’d try it but I’ve had my share of GW2 for the day).

yes. my heal is shift+q.

My problems are solved! Thank you.

notebene.3190:

1. Hmm, I do the reverse. I hold right click to look around. Assuming I understand your second point, I’d then tap the left mouse button once to turn my character that way, though I usually just use WASD to take off at that point.

2. Actually, the way I do it is using the turn keys (A and D) while holding the mouse button down. Then if you need to do a quick evade in that direction you can just double tap what you are already holding. Assuming you didn’t turn it off because you consider it ‘suicide mode’ in jumping puzzles. I heard that one the other day, thought it was funny.

I still like to have the target on for area effects, but tapping once gives you the target, and tapping a second time fires the spell off, so a double tap on any area number gets it off quick if you know where your mouse is. If you don’t, as in the middle of circle strafing, you can hit it once, and if it’s too close or far from you, you can just tilt the mouse up or down before pressing the attack button again to get it where you want it.

I still use WASD to move and I still find a use for Q and E as strafe in some situations, mostly because I’m so used to it. I know there are folks that used protractors and an old HP 12 calculator their grandpa had around to figure out they could save 0.0000325 seconds by remapping lots of the movement keys, but I don’t enjoy that myself.

I just added a few to get quicker access to 6-10 without having to move my left hand, using some alt- shift- combinations.

But I have no sPvP accolades or Call of Modern Monkey Commander NASCAR 5000 achievements, so take that all with a grain of salt.

wait, alt-shift-combinations? Can you map skills to multiple keys? (I’d try it but I’ve had my share of GW2 for the day).

Garambola.2461:

Kusiobache.7203:

Evalia.7103:

I got it when i started to power-craft…
Lame achievement.

It’s very possible to get it without crafting.

It is, but not being able to go to another area makes it harder that it should be. If you wait until lvl 80 and just run the Cursed Shore events, it is a piece of cake, but if you try to do it in a low level zone, prepare to play for a long time.

I have yet to do the cursed shore events; the way I got tier one and almost tier two (admittedly, I got bored), is just go around and complete an area. You have to be pretty high level (60’s level area would probably work, but if not 70’s should definitely work). Do the events around the area too, and you can definitely do it.

Again, I haven’t done cursed shore yet, but perhaps that is better way than my suggestion. I was just pointing out that it is not necessarily a “crafting achievement”.

Mystic Starfish.2586:

This is a mechanic of all veteran imps. I see it more commonly on Frost Imps, so just heads up for any veteran imps

I think the only other veteran imp I encountered was a veteran shadow imp, and I don’t recall there being a totem. It was a while back though, so perhaps I just forgot, or maybe I killed it on accident.

Just a heads up for anyone that tries to kill this guy, it seems like you need to take out the totem by him to make him not “invulnerable”. It isn’t such a big deal, but it can respawn while fighting him, so be aware.

Mirta.5029:

Arnath.2319:

The only people who have legendary weapons are bots, gold buyers/farmers, Trading Post terrorists, and people who have lots of real life money to spend on gems.

If you consider that a good thing then im shocked.

Legendaries should be hard to get, but they should require skill, not big wallets and exploits.

Actually the correct group of people with them is what YOU might call a “no-lifer” because NONE of those demographics fit.

For one thing, what does buying gems have to do with this? Seriously, Legendaries take forever to get but you don’t have to be mega rich to get one.

Arnath.2319:

The current process in making legendary weapons is a insult to true gamers.

I love this line in particular, you seem like you’re trying to set yourself up as the leader of some master race. The rest of your post was “Even if everyone likes it, I still don’t” and frankly we don’t care about that.

critickitten.1498:

There is no hard work involved in crafting a Legendary.

I’m sorry that you disagree with me, but I would point out that if someone as unskilled as myself is already well on my way towards a Legendary, then it’s rather obvious that there’s not much skill involved.

Skill =/= Work

If you want skill based items, then maybe it would be ascended for you? I’m not sure really but Legendaries are for players that put the effort into acquiring them, not the elite.

Malevil.2104:

HAHA only person completly ignorant is you. Becouse u dont have to do anything from what you listed, you can simply buy 1 finished from TP … Thats it, you dont have to play game outside geting to lvl 80 and playing TP and BOOM! you can have legendary weapon .

Yes, you can buy one from the trade post, from a person that MADE IT BY MEANS THAT CANNOT BE BOUGHT WITH MONEY. Did you purposefully ignore most of the comment? Or could it be that you don’t quite grasp the meaning of the word ‘ignorant’?

Also, you understand HOW MUCH money you’d need? 2000g or thereabouts. Because getting that money is probably only one hour of farming for you isn’t it? Also, don’t give me kitten about buying gems, you’d be spending more than you spend in 3 months on food for it.

---

To add my own thoughts to the mix, I see a lot of whiny children complaining about the term “legendary” when it’s just a label, who cares what it’s called? Call it a “vanity” item if you like, it’s fine.

I see a few people saying “most of us are actively opposed” and what I see is an “us vs them” situation with one side saying “we’re bigger than the other side, so we must be right”. Let’s just say you are the bigger side, which you aren’t, that doesn’t make you more correct and you should just let things go.

TL;DR – If you don’t like Legendaries, move on from them and enjoy what you do. Simple.

Critickitten says this above me, but the problem is that it cannot be called a “vanity item” since it will always be one of the most powerful weapons in the game. From what I understand, if I get an ascended weapon and it rivals a legendary weapon, but then they raise the level cap to 90 or 100, I will need a new ascended weapon, but people with a legendary weapon won’t need to change weapons. You can say that is there reward for the hard work the put in, but ascended weapons probably will not be simple to get either.

Also, the way I see it, if the had a really long storyline required to get a legendary weapon, everyone could still get one, it would not be random, it would still take a long time, and if the put a skill-related event at the end (that is actually well thought out, not something that could be exploited), then there could be legendary weapons going to the people not only with the most time on their hands (it could be done little bit little as well), but also the most skillful.

Also, to the people who say that they have played 1000 hours, or thereabouts for their legendary… I guess it is possible, but you would need to play quite a few hours a day, every day of the week since release. That’s not a simple feat for anyone who works full time or goes to school, or has a family to take care of, or any sort of daily obligation.

DeathMetal.8264:

Sorry to see you go…

I have only three characters leveled to Lv80 and have done 100% Map Completion. PvE in this game is so darn easy.

I mean you have a chance to survive a death? (i.e. downed state). So easy…
No experience loss or item lost on death? So easy…
Everyone else can revive a dead or downed player? So easy…
Dungeons that allows a checkpoint retry instead of full reset? So easy…
Group Event bosses that can be soloed? So easy….
Dynamic Events that can be completed solo? So easy…
Quests that doesnt require running/turning in? So easy…
Going to instance without “entrance items/pre req”? So easy…
Top tier armor achievable by almost everyone except the laziest? So easy…
You have chance to reskill after choosing your traits? So easy…

And more and more and more easy stuffs…like so many WP to avoid mobs. Using items to increase damage or durability.

I play Thief, Mesmer, and Necromancer. Orr is a playground to me. I run Fractals of the Mist in Mid-Tier Lvl in Magic Find gear. I can do Arah, CoF, etc. and survive to tell the tales….

I can do those stuff, because this game has a lot of easy things to do. Maybe not “smooth” because of some annoying bugs, but almost everything can be done solo, or just by 5 people….

I’ve been fine with most of what people have been saying in this thread (although I do think the game needs a lot of tweaks), but group events are soloable? Maybe some of them if you are careful, or are the right class, but most of them aren’t. The giant destroyer troll in timberline falls, you can range solo him, or you can run in circles and kill him eventually, but head on no way. Group events with champions? Maybe you an solo with range, otherwise no. If group events are so easy for you then please share your knowledge.

Evalia.7103:

I got it when i started to power-craft…
Lame achievement.

It’s very possible to get it without crafting.

Bakitten291:

As much as i wanted to make a burn build, I ran the numbers and it just didnt seem very viable. even at 1000 condition damage your burning only does 700 damage per second. Which might seem like alot but it really is rather slow. The issue with burning is that it only stacks duration and not damage, so no matter what you are always going to be limited to that number per second. granted, it can be higher than that, but also it can not crit, and can also be removed. My personal opinion is that it was added to guardians more as a bit of added damage than a main focus of damage.

If however you are going a burn build, I would have to say stick with fast hitting weapons. scepter,torch,GS,1h sword all have decent fast hitting attacks which lets you activate VoJ faster. Also, make sure you use the 40% condition duration +70 condition damage food. It wont help with the passive VoJ, but every other skill we have it will add on a good chunk of burning duration, and helps with our damage as well.

Yeah, it is more added damage. I’m trying to make a build that fully utilizes that added damage, though. I have a few ideas to try that might work, but I might have to give up a lot in other areas to make it work, which might kill the build. I’ll have to see.

It seems to me like sometimes, when playing keg brawl, people throw the keg when they’re on the ground (after you have knocked them down). Or perhaps they are throwing the keg as you are knocking them down? Either way, is the skill supposed to work that way?

Chi Malady.2015:

Neither. The guardian isn’t built for condition damage.

True, there probably are better options, but people have made it work with condition damage. I’m not aiming for the best build; I just want to make a suitable build for my playstyle, and guardians are best suited for the way I play.

Thanks guys. This helps quite a bit.

I’ve been trying to find a build that fits my playing style, and one thing I know for sure is that burning is going to be an important part of it. One thing I’ve been debating about is whether or not condition damage is better than condition duration for burning.

The GW2 wiki says that burning “stacks duration”, so I figure that condition damage is probably the way to go, because if I apply multiple burns the duration will keep increasing anyway.

A second question as well, this thread says that spirit weapon damage/burning is fixed. If that’s true, I’m guessing a spirit weapon burning build just wouldn’t work, would it?

EDIT: Also, I am going greatsword and scepter/torch for now.

Iristrismegistus.1293:

What if each Pale Tree was part of a larger dragon being that represented the plant/forest aspect the Sylvari represent ? The Pale tree could be champions to this dragon the way the Claw of Jormag , the Shatterer and Zhaitan’s Champions all represented each primordial dragon.

On a seperate ntoe, I’m kind of liking the idea of the plant-based primordial dragon being the opposite of the other primordial dragons. Where each of them represent a destructive force of nature (Undeath, Ice, Fire, Water, Crystal, etc), the plant, or ‘life’ dragon would represent Life, and its minions seek not to destroy the world, but rather, to live and co-habit with them.

Granted its just a theory. Its just as plausible that it could be a representation of Melandru, though, thats human religious propaganda XD

And if a seed is planted in a barren, war-torn land, perhaps it will began to restore the land?

That makes sense. It’s just a bit annoying when I want to do it as a legitimate strategy.

For example, so that I want to fight some champion level monster. lets say a champion ettin or something. As far as I know they are not easily soloable (I am not able to solo them, but I am not that strong right now), and since the levels scale, even if I was level 80 I assume I would still have a hard time since my stats scale down (I guess the good equipment level 80s have would help though. If I try to solo the champion ettin by attacking it from a spot where it cannot get to me, the ettin would just heal and I would never kill it.

Hello,

I’m looking for a guild to join, preferably on Fissure of Woe (I’m willing to switch servers, but not to one that is too populated). I’m semi-active. I usually play on weekends; some weeks I play a lot, some weeks I may not play at all.

I’m up for using vent or some other program for guild chat, although I don’t have a mic right now, but I’ll get one soon enough if need be. I usually just solo, but I figure being in a guild would be nice because then I could do some events and have some people to fight champions with or go through dungeons with.

I’m a level 47 guardian. My character name is Kusiobache.

I am just wondering if it is a bug that, if you maneuver to a spot where whatever you are attacking cannot reach you, it’s health recovers very quickly (often making it impossible to kill it from said spot). I’m guessing this is because it registers as not being in a battle.