Guild Wars 2

I’m a mesmer.

I have full Sentinel armor and weapons (Vitality, Power, Toughness). My trinkets are Condition Damage, Toughness, Vitality, and Precision.

This survivability served me well as a front-line veil whor… um… lady-of-the-night… for zergs.

Now that I have great survivability I want to focus on DPS gear to mix in as needed.

I’ve never optimized for DPS. What should I be looking for?

I hear condition damage is all the rage and it would match my trinkets. Perhaps Rampager/Sinister (Precision, Power, Condition Damage)?

Or maybe Berserker/Assasin (Power, Precision, Ferocity)?

Do some of these DPS stats compliment each other?

My end goal is to join small roaming groups and be able to fight effectively.

The sheer number of chests in this game is overwhelming. From leveling, rank ups (WvW and PvP), dailies, logging in, etc. They all appear at the bottom shaking and glittering and driving me mad!

And then I’ll open a chest which gives me a chest which I open to reveal bags that possibly give me more bags that I have to open to get gear I now have to salvage.

I know the intent is to provide that Christmas feeling of “ZOMG! Presents!” but it’s just pure tedium.

Please streamline this. Or at least make them less intrusive. For example:

- Only make them shake and shine for 5 seconds or so.
- If the player doesn’t open them within that 5 seconds, just stack them up so I can open them when I want to.
- If the player opens a chest with other containers in it, just open those containers automatically.

What about gear and runes?

I’d like to focus on a scouting build for WvW. I’d appreciate any advice on builds, weapons, runes, strategies, etc. I just barely got to level 80 with my thief so I don’t know much about it.

What I think I need:
1. Speed (e.g. would skills such as shortbow 5 be good for this or are there better techniques)
2. Long term stealth (I hear thieves can stay stealthed longer if they hit random mobs)
3. Survivability (in the form of escaping from combat)

What I don’t care about:
1. Killing people.

I’ve been leveling up a thief and recently switched back to my mesmer. My god I forgot how slow they are – even with runes of the centaur.

The predominant experience I have as a mesmer in WvW is one of always being behind.

I love playing my mesmer so I will check back every other month or so with the hope that the profession gets some type of native speed buff.

What are good support roles/skills in WvW?

For example, there are mesmer portals, elementalist shields, and the guardian repulsion field that is good for choke points.

Would you list any professions and their support roles that you can think of?

My primarily WvW-focused guild is transferring to Blackgate over the next several days before the world lock down. I’d like to know more about this world.

Those of you on Blackgate – what is your WvW experience like? How big are the WvW guilds? How are the commanders, both for your guild and PUGs? Do you have strong/weak times or are you represented in WvW all day long?

Opponents of Blackgate -what is your opinion of this server? How have they performed in WvW?

People who have transferred to Blackgate – how does this world compare to your previous world?

People who have left Blackgate – why did you leave?

I notice the prices on the auction house or 5-10x higher than what is listed in this guide. Was there a change recently that would account for this?