Guild Wars 2

Phineas Poe.3018:

So I just wanted to say that playing my Engineer today, I noticed that my Attack value didn’t change swapping between my pistol and my kits.

The Attack value remained the same—3,106—when swapping between my Pistol/Shield and the Flamethrower. Considering that “Attack” is adding your Power and maximum Weapon Strength together, and that kits originally had 969 Strength to the Pistol’s 1,029 … this number shouldn’t stay the same. There was a difference when equipping the rifle or an offhand pistol, though.

Thoughts?

Phineas Poe.3018:

I did this standing in Lion’s Arch.

I also find your response confusing: what do you mean “because” there is no difference? Kits (supposedly) have lower Weapon Strength. The Attack value when wielding a kit should be lower than when you have a Pistol equipped, just as it is when you equip your Rifle.

Are we certain that kits still have 969 Weapon Strength?

For 2-handed weapons, Attack is your weapon’s maximum damage + power.

For two 1-handed weapons, Attack is ((main hand weapon’s damage + offhand weapon’s damage)/2) + power.

Pistol/Shield is therefore:
(1,029+909)/2 = 969

Kits use this particular number for their Attack modifier because it’s equal to the weakest (in terms of direct damage) weapon set engineers have.

With +5 to a stat, +/- 1% damage to/from guards, and able to be placed in any type of infusion slot?

I’m not entirely sure what I’ve created... probably an abomination in the eyes of God... but here’s my attempt at a pure auto-attacking pistol build.

I didn’t want to use Static Discharge or HGH because that would take all the fun out of it.

It’s not very mobile, though, is it? Kind of got off topic...

Edit: Changed Utility Goggles to Elixir B.
Edit 2: Changed the utilities again to Elixir B/Elixir Gun/Rocket Boots. More in line with what Black Cat wanted.

Heh… I just had an idea for a gimmick power build with Coated Bullets. Inspired by the time I gunned down three people trying to rally a fourth with nothing but the exponentially increasing number of explosions.

@MonMalthias:
Between Drop Stimulant and Hidden Flask, I’ll have enough fury to keep my crit chance at 60% the majority of the time. Target the Weak can add another 10% to that, too. They make up for the lack of precision, in my opinion. Power and condition damage are less important, with all that might flying around. I agree about the vitality, though; I’m used to having less health and at least 1500 toughness.

I honestly can’t remember why I picked two Runes of the Monk instead four of Altruism. I wonder what I was thinking.

@Decklan:
You are mistaken in assuming I only use Flamethrower for skill #2. I wasn’t writing an in-depth guide; I was mentioning how good of a skill it is.

I can’t see why pistol/shield wouldn’t work just as well as a rifle. The rifle has its flaws, but I firmly believe it’s not nearly as bad of a weapon as most people seem to think. I’ll probably end up trying both setups.

No Divinity runes, but I’ve come up with what I think is a pretty legit 4-kit build.

That’s right.

Four kits.

It’s a modified version of my old FT/Bomb build that used Knights/Cavalier/Berserker stats and could maintain 24 stacks of might.

Wrap your head around this.

Med Kit: Get in the habit of swapping to Med Kit for a split second before you swap to a different weapon. It’s free might.

Flamethrower: First rule of Flamethrower is: you do not use Flame Jet. Second rule of Flamethrower is: you do not use Flame Jet. Flame Blast is a nuke; use it every 5 seconds.

Bomb Kit: Spam bombs while waiting for your other cooldowns.

Elixir Gun: Situational/support skills, including a stun breaker.

Rifle: For when you want to single-handedly stunlock someone for the remainder of their short life.

Hebee.8460:

Macros.6120:

BillFreist.1527:

• Have kits respect the existing back item flag. If you have a back item and you want to show it, hide the kit. If you don’t have a back item or choose to hide it, always show the kit.

A good start, but I’d want a way to hide all back items, not be forced to use either kits or back items.

Since my earlier idea thread got no replies, I shall shamelessly link it here and now, and hope my violation of forum manners comes across as roguish and affable, rather than seedy and desperate.

In short: add a new item slot – the Cosmetic Back Slot. Its magical powers could determine the fate of Tyria.

Wouldn’t just a “Back Brace/Spineguard” item take care of not seeing either a back item or hobo sack? No visible back skin by default and if its checked for visual, no hobo sacks?

Yeah, but then I’d have to transmute every back piece I own with a spineguard. And some of them are rare skins that – even though I never see them – I wouldn’t want to permanently destroy.

A Cosmetic Back Slot would allow everyone to use the back item of their choice without permanently destroying rare skins. And if you want to use a particular skin all the time, you don’t need to acquire multiple copies of it if you happen to use multiple builds.

It would mimic the functionality every other profession gets with the normal back slot, but preserve the way kits currently work. Just in case anyone actually likes them.

BillFreist.1527:

• Have kits respect the existing back item flag. If you have a back item and you want to show it, hide the kit. If you don’t have a back item or choose to hide it, always show the kit.

A good start, but I’d want a way to hide all back items, not be forced to use either kits or back items.

Since my earlier idea thread got no replies, I shall shamelessly link it here and now, and hope my violation of forum manners comes across as roguish and affable, rather than seedy and desperate.

In short: add a new item slot – the Cosmetic Back Slot. Its magical powers could determine the fate of Tyria.

Gasp! It’s so obvious now! I didn’t recognize her without her Ringwraith cosplay…

#KielForKemmler’sHeir

To the upleveled Far Shiverpeaks thief solo roaming around the southern area of Gandara Borderland about 30 minutes ago:

You didn’t know it, but my companion and I meant you no harm (he was the big, scary norn warrior, I was the engineer with the gas mask.) We were quite impressed with the way you handled yourself in what was probably the most lethal area you could have chosen to walk around.

When we were fighting those 3 Kodash thieves near the south camp, we temporarily lost track of one of them… only to find you swimming over their lifeless corpse. And when we were killing that necromancer, you made sure you had tagged him – getting perilously close to us in the process. You reminded us of an opportunistic predator following other, more dangerous predators, making sure to pick up any scraps they drop. And we thought that was awesome.

So kudos to you, man.

Fellow Engineers, I have come up with a solution to the Hobo-Sack crisis that:

• Allows the option of turning them off – if you like Hobo-Sacks for some reason, well, you’re creepy. But at least you’ll still have your Hobo-Sacks.
• Can be used by all other professions too! Those ungrateful wretches will get a new feature they totally don’t deserve.

Introducing… the Cosmetic Back Slot!

This will be a brand-spanking new item slot in the [H]ero menu, somewhere next to the normal back slot. It comes with a check-box, too. When the box is checked, the appearance of whatever is in the Cosmetic Back Slot will completely override the normal back slot and any kits.

The key thing is this works even if the Cosmetic Back Slot is completely empty. You could leave the slot unoccupied, but the check-box ticked, and never see a Hobo-Sack again. Or put a ridiculously cute pink Quaggan plushie in the slot, and enjoy it 100% of the time – just like every other profession!

But remember, it’s just cosmetic. Any stats on that item are completely ignored. That’s what the normal back slot is for, which will still function exactly the same way it does now. Which is to say: visible when ticked, but hidden by kits (and the Cosmetic Back Slot.)

Other professions may have a Cosmetic Back Slot, too. If they ask nicely. Thieves will have to ask twice.

Thoughts?

I thought you guys wanted us to flip all your keeps and towers, so you can get your morning wexp? Why else would you leave them all unupgraded and undefended?

No.

I like dailies that reward me for the things I do anyway.

This started happening to me after the January 28th update, too. It occurs maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the time after closing the client. It’s worth noting that multiple instances of the process can appear in the task manager if you keep trying to open the program.

Running Windows 8, 64-bit, non-pro edition.

lulz were had when Piken was sieging the bay in GB, and someone inside decided that was the perfect time to hire a patrol. Not sure if sabotage or just Gandara...

I can’t find any information whatsoever on where these things are located. If anyone knows of a karma merchant/crafting recipe/item on the trading post/enemy or area they drop from, I would greatly appreciate it.

Guildhead page (contains a 3d model viewer): http://www.guildhead.com/item/32037/valley-harpoongun

Chat link (for previewing in-game): [&AgElfQAA]

Rune of the Centaur

With no points in Arcana, using Glyph of Elemental Harmony in air attunement will give you 24 seconds of swiftness.

• Every 10 points in Arcana increases the duration by 2 seconds
• Quick Glyphs will reduce the recharge of GoEH to 20 seconds
• Elemental Attunement will add at least 6 seconds
• Any other swiftness-causing skills will add to the duration

DesertRose.2031:

And it takes only 50 seconds until you have the 25% speed boost, yeah.

I believe it only takes 30 seconds, because you start with a 10% speed boost thanks to Zephyr’s Speed.

lambda.5324:

Why do people think that condition damage (and hence Carrion gear) is so bad for staff users?

As a staff user, your only real sources of major damage are lava font, flame burst, meteor shower, eruption, and shockwave. All of these do most of their damage as condition damage except for lava font and meteor shower, and the latter is something that’s only useful in special situations. While it’s true that D/D has many more ways to apply conditions, this is only because the staff has so few ways to do damage in general.

I think Carrion gear is pretty solid for staff users as you deal a pretty even mix of both direct damage and condition damage. This is doubly true if you use Evasive Arcana as your attacks in both Fire and Earth attunement do condition damage. The only way I can see you wanting precision instead of condition damage is if you’re a lousy player and you just sit in fire all day casting lava font and autoattacking.

Not to mention that even a “staff user” will occasionally want to swap to D/D or some other weapon set in special situations. If your gear is purely power/precision/toughness, you’re going to need to invest in and carry around a second set of gear to be able to use anything other than a staff properly. With Carrion gear, you’ve got something that works with any weapon combination and against any sort of opponent (as the large amount of vitality keeps you safe from both direct damage and conditions).

Am I missing something?

Nope, that was exactly my reasoning as well.

Critical hits only deal impressive amounts of damage whilst in fire attunement. People saying they’re “fire staff elementalists” are missing the point, and a great deal of their overall damage.

Because I only use the staff in groups, and dual-wield the various combinations of 1-hand weapons in solo PvE, I needed stats that would work with all of them. And no matter what weapon you use, you’re always going to have burning and bleeding.

That mission where you storm the temple of Lyssa in Orr to shutdown the abomination factory.

The final fight is bugged, making the mission impossible to finish. I got to the final room ("Dhuum’s Last Stand" PoI) where you have to break some corrupted urns. Before I finished breaking them all, the boss (Prince Ellasal) and his hoard spawned. A couple seconds later, all the Pact NPCs except Trahearne were dead, and over 9000 risen (or so it seemed) bum rushed and killed me.

After respawning, I run back to the room, expecting to see the boss gloating over the corpse of the marshal they had failed to assassinate so many times. Much to my suprise, Trahearne was holding his own against the boss just fine, giving me time to finish off the rest of the normal risen. By the time I had done so, however, the boss was nowhere to be found, and the mission objective never updated.

I was too busy to pay attention to what Trahearne and the boss were doing. I didn’t even get a chance to see the boss’ health, so I don’t know if Trahearne managed to kill him. It seems unlikely, but that might just be because I’m used to Guild Wars NPCs being utterly useless as anything but meatshields.

I went around and broke the rest of the urns, but I’m still stuck on the "Defeat Prince Ellasal" objective, and it seems likely that I’ll have to restart the mission.

By the way, that champion abomination patrolling the outer rim of the temple is pretty pointless. He’s nigh unkillable, easily slaughters your entire group of NPCs, not involved in any objective, and trivial to avoid. Why bother with him?

I would not want to log on after this update, for fear of the harm my Elementalist would unintentionally cause. Should this come to pass, I suspect my Elementalist would spontaneously explode in a fiery cataclysm that rivals the destruction of Orr. The land beneath their feet - which is usually Lion’s Arch - would be torn asunder, its piratological beauty shattered.

They’re wearing the pirate outfit town clothes, you see. The two energies of "ninja" and "pirate" are incompatible.

And what special characters (symbols), if any, are allowed?