Guild Wars 2

I’ve explained more in details in a different thread a few days ago but overall, the gap closers we have are deficient. RS2 is ok for short range gap closer. GS5 is too unreliable as well as Spectral Grasp.

It already sucks to be ’’forced’’ to give up a utility skill to take Spectra Grasp but having it unreliable on top of it is just really bad. A simple roll, a block or stability negates our ways to close a gap. Necro is the only class that gets screwed over this bad with gap closers. Thief, Guardian and Revenant all can teleport on top of their target. Warrior runs faster, had charges and whirlwinds as well as jumps to catch up (ele at the limit also has much better mobility if you were to consider the D/D spec to be melee).

The main problems are:

1-It’s unreliable because of the terrain. Often times, it just doesn’t work and throws the person onto the ground for one second and you can’t even close the gap.

2-It’s unreliable because of rolls/blocks/stability. This is a HUGE issue because if someone gets stability (for example, my warrior was in berserker mode most of the time with the new specialization and he had constant stability from it), you have no way to close the gap. You have to eat all the damage to the face while waiting on it to end or try to go back and hide behind a pillar and wait it out. Say the melee builds that teleport have their attack blocked or anything, they still end up teleporting onto the person or very close to their target. If someone dodges or blocks a warrior charge or whirlwind (or leap), the warrior still closed the gap or at good part of it at least. If someone messes up the Necro’s gap closer, the Necro doesn’t close the gap AT ALL. This is a major issue when we already don’t hit fast with the GS and have trouble landing the hits even when we get in melee range.

Finally, GS4 also is problematic (as well as GS1). GS1 takes too long to do the chain, I could almost never land the 3rd hit for the chill. GS4 needs to either move with you (it’s what I’d prefer) have a cast range like a well. As it stands, I have to cast it before using GS5, GS5 is unreliable and if it does work, since the range isn’t that great, most of the time I can’t even pull the enemy into GS4. GS4 also snares (cripple) but you need GS5 to pull enemies in it and GS5 snares with chill.

Overall, the pulls need to be reliable and unaffected by blocks at the very least (should also be unaffected by stability or rolls in my opinion). Then if GS4 could follow you around, you’d have the option to activate it if you do reach the enemy and be able to stick to them a little better for a few seconds. There are still many ways to clear conditions or get speed buffs (now there’s also super speed) while you can’t really negate a teleport, a charge or a leap (root at the limit but if I pull someone to myself while I’m rooted, I probably won’t be able to stick onto him either anyways). Necro would still be at a severe disadvantage on that level but it would already work better.

nearlight.3064:

NeoSoul.4198:

I got back about 3 weeks ago from almost 3 years break myself :P (only played core beta and a 1-2 weeks after release). Overall, it seems like most people agree that Ele is the strongest (it doesn’t many many weaknesses) with D/D. Ranger would be the weakest.

Then thief seems mandatory in the tournament games I’ve seen. Mesmer and Necro seem good, perhaps Engineer (Necro with a spec to throw conditions back at people since this meta seems heavy on conditions). Bunker guardian. I still see a warrior here and there but it might not be in the best spot.

The expansion might shuffle it around though. So far, from testing with the beta, if the game was to release in the current state, I would expect D/D ele to still be the strongest spec along with the new Mesmer (Chronomancer) and the Revenant. Ranger and Engineer elite specs aren’t out yet though so I can’t tell for these 2 classes. You might want to check out the beta stuff to make your mind since the expansion is around the corner.

Its interesting that you said that revenant would be one of the strongest. Why do you say that?

I’m not 100% sure about the Revenant because it’s too new and I obviously didn’t fully understand it by just playing it a few hours during the beta weekend. I said this because looking at the skills and abilities, it seems to be able to deal with almost any type of build. For example, one of the builds seems like it might be a good counter to D/D ele with conditions. I played a burst spec that had good mobility, ranged jumps and attacks that won’t miss so it’s definitely a reliable class for gap closing (that was with Assassin). I played with the Dwarf stance as 2nd one which gave me a lot of survivability that I could switch into mid fight. Overall, the main reason why I’m saying this is that it seems to have a lot of tools in its kit, be a reliable melee character, has a high skill cap, can use 2 ults back to back, it has group buffs and so on. It’d be hard for me to believe that it couldn’t find a spot in the top classes with everything it currently has and how good it can adapt in a fight with 2 legendary stances and 2 weapon sets along with group buffs.

As for the Mesmer… well it just basically almost felt like the current one but nearly 2x stronger.

I got back about 3 weeks ago from almost 3 years break myself :P (only played core beta and a 1-2 weeks after release). Overall, it seems like most people agree that Ele is the strongest (it doesn’t many many weaknesses) with D/D. Ranger would be the weakest.

Then thief seems mandatory in the tournament games I’ve seen. Mesmer and Necro seem good, perhaps Engineer (Necro with a spec to throw conditions back at people since this meta seems heavy on conditions). Bunker guardian. I still see a warrior here and there but it might not be in the best spot.

The expansion might shuffle it around though. So far, from testing with the beta, if the game was to release in the current state, I would expect D/D ele to still be the strongest spec along with the new Mesmer (Chronomancer) and the Revenant. Ranger and Engineer elite specs aren’t out yet though so I can’t tell for these 2 classes. You might want to check out the beta stuff to make your mind since the expansion is around the corner.

So far, every single tournament team that I’ve watched has a thief on their team. Even last week’s ESL winners that were 4 eles, the 5th player was a Thief. It’s kind of hard to argue that the thief is weak and useless when it seems to have a guaranteed spot in top teams. It’s definitely strong and useful if the player is good at it.

I beat tons of people in 1v1s on my Thief in unranked matches as well so it depends what kind of opponents you’re up against and how good you are at playing the thief. You can surprise people and burst them down very fast, that’s his specialty. If I spot a squishy in a fight who’s around 60% hp, I can teleport onto him and down him before he can actually do anything.

If what you want is the thief to be doing better at duels, the new elite spec from the expansions (I tested it with the beta weekend) makes the thief stronger for that. You might want to look into that elite specialization, it might be better suited for the playstyle you’re looking for. It may not be as good to surprise and down people very fast but it should be stronger in some 1v1 situations.

Cynz.9437:

well every stolen spell supposed to help you to fight class you stole it from…. question is what counters revenants

How does the Ranger tree spell help you in any way to beat a ranger? The Engineer one is also pretty terrible.

Ristillath.6745:

NeoSoul.4198:

but feels at least 30% stronger

Well, its not you give up 20% dmg boost after you used your burst skill since there is no way to take the strength trait line.
You also lose rampage wich is the bread and butter of power dmg warrior for headbut which is decent dmg but hard to hit.

I have Strength and Discipline if I remember well. Headbutt isn’t hard to hit, I just charge them with the sword and use it in melee range. It has 20 sec CD, fills my whole adrenaline bar for berserker. I switch immediately into 100 blades burst followed by the primal burst on top of the headbutt that can crit upwards of 4k. I’ve downed several people with that combo alone. I’m not saying that it’ll work all the time against good players. All I mean is I feel like this is just much more reliable and stronger than the current build but trades Rampage for it. Rampage is amazing for a key moment but once it goes on CD, I feel like Berserker outperforms it by a significant margin.

Yea, I gave up Defense.

I don’t know, I do amazing with Berserker crushing people left and right with it. It’s true that I have to give up Rampage which is very strong but on a long CD. Instead, I attack faster with perma stability and always doing burst, then headbutt for berserker into an other burst and I keep on doing them. I’m just running the regular GS/Hammer build, it’s not very different from what it is right now in terms of playstyle but feels at least 30% stronger and reliable all the time unlike the current build with Rampage. Headbutt is only 20 sec CD.

I play every class except for Ranger and Engineer. Reaper Necro is fun… but no competitive at all. It will only work against bad players. The current Necro builds are more reliable, more tanky and stronger overall than Reaper. The only thing that Reaper has is AOE damage. Reaper has no good gap closer. A block, dodge or roll can 100% negate their mid range gap closer (greatsword 5) or Spectral Grasp (forced to sacrifice a utility only for that). They run slower than about anyone. Reaper Shroud only has 1 short range dash, that’s it. Against anyone with half a brain that knows how to kite, there’s almost nothing you can do. It’s only nice if the enemies bunch up and stay in melee range. There’s also no good condition removals without major sacrifices. Blind destroys it along with most CCs as it hits very slowly for a few big hits (with greatsword). In Reaper Shroud, just put weaken on the necro and he becomes almost useless (that’s if you can’t already just kite him).

Right now in Beta, I’ve tested every elite spec and it really seems like:

1- Mesmer OP
2- Revenant OP
3- Warrior viable
4- Thief viable
5- Guardian fun but not truly viable in competitive PvP
6- Necro fun but not truly viable in competitive PvP
7- Ele completely useless in PvP

Reaper Necro actually needs small buffs for gap closing options, not nerfs. You spend most of the fights walking towards people and taking hits to the face. It’s THE worst possible melee oriented spec in the game (Thief, Revenant and Guardian all have teleports, Warrior has great mobility, same D/D ele that isn’t even truly melee… heck even the Chronomancers have better mobility now).

It’s just annoying to see people who don’t play a class jump to asking for nerfs each time they struggle with something new.

I only played core beta and 1-2 weeks after release. I gave GW2 a second chance 2-3 weeks ago and got back into it. I’m 31 and played a lot of online games and to be honest, GW2 has the best community I’ve seen so far overall. Yea, I’ve seen some jerks in dungeons and dealt with a few so I get what you’re talking about. However, when I asked questions on forums, most people have been very nice and helpful, it was surprising compared to the other games I’m used to.

I don’t know how to call this but the extremely annoying guy (or girl in the Beta map that speaks as if she had her tongue severed and a hot potato in her mouth) that keeps yelling that your base in under attack, that you’ve taken a certain point and so on. I played GW2 core beta and only 1-2 weeks after release before quitting. I got back into this game about 2-3 weeks ago and I enjoy it. I mostly do PvP but these commentators are really getting on my nerves and I don’t see any option to mute them. I understand that for a new player, it can be helpful if they have no map awareness to know what’s going on but once you’re used to these types of games, it’s just plain irritating to have them yell the same thing in your ears nonstop.

English also is my 2nd language and I don’t get why the new commentators on the beta map have to sound so terrible… if you want to make them sound like foreigners, just make them speak words they’re actually capable of pronouncing in a different tongue.

I could be wrong about my testing but here’s the feeling I got roughly when it comes down to sPvP for the new stuff:

A bit OP:

1-Mesmer: I’m bad at Mesmer and this feels like they took all of the difficulty out of the class to ensure that no matter how bad you are, you’ll be a beast in PvP. Your Phantasms stay, you can fight for extended time while throwing all of your spells and get everything back a few seconds later. The clones move super fast when going to explode so no need to position yourself properly for it to work. Basically, it feels like it’s the current Mesmer, just 2x stronger.

2-Revenant: This class seems to have tools to counter almost anything. I haven’t tested it in-depth but it really looks like someone skilled at the class will be able to deal with about anything. The class looks too versatile and I’m trying to understand what weakness it has. Maybe just because it’s new and I don’t fully understand the class yet.

Viable:

3-Warrior: It feels similar to the current builds but maybe with a small buff to it. You can go berserk and burst a few more times while having extra buffs (like stability the whole time). I haven’t really tried the Torch for condition builds so I don’t know how good those will be but it seems to me like it could work in PvP.

4-Thief: Some of the staff moves feel clunky. Some of the utility ones are hard to land but still. Some of it is good, the dodge rolls need improvement but can be useful for sure. The new ultimate has some potential. It can use some work but I can see some of it being useful in PvP.

Fun but maybe not so good against skilled players:

5-Necromancer: I really enjoy the spec. I think that Necro is my favorite character right now and overall, my favorite or one of them for the expansion as well. The Greatsword and Reaper Shroud aren’t useless. I can make it work in unranked arena but I really think that any skilled player will kite the Reaper easily. It’s lacking mobility and the gap closer options to draw enemies to you are unreliable (and just plain don’t work against block or stability or even a roll). If that misses, you can’t get in melee range unlike every other single melee build in the game pretty much. I’m afraid that this new elite spec will not be competitive at all for PvP and that the current builds will remain the only options in a competitive environment.

6-Guardian: It’s fun. Number 2 can hit hard with the Longbow. The spear from F1 looks cool. The traps can be fun when defending a point. A bit like the Necro though, I’m not too convinced that it can be viable in a competitive environment either. It might be fun to mess around with, maybe in some situations in PvE or WvW if you can’t get close. It isn’t bad but isn’t great either. As I expected, it also seems to have very little synergy with the current tools the Guardian has.

Builds that seem to be nearly useless in PvP:

7-Elementalist: Perhaps I built it wrong but the Tempest just doesn’t seem to fit PvP at all. It’s very weak to say the least. It feels as if this elite spec wants you to commit to one or two elements which I do like (I like to feel like I’m an Air elementalist for example rather than a bit of every element) but it just doesn’t work. The damage isn’t impressive at all and you are quite vulnerable with this type of spec. You have to go throw yourself at melee range if you want to deal damage with Fire or Air overload… which just gets you killed every time even with the -40% damage reduction. The least that could be done about it would be to give these spells some cast range (it still would be weak but it’d be a start). The new ult feels like it follows the trend of ele having awful ultimates. The shouts seem soso. I’m not too sure about the war horn. Overall, it really seems like it could be fun for PvE and mostly useful for a PvE water build (the water overload seems to be the best one out of the 4) but completely useless in competitive PvP. Not that Elementalists can complain much with the state of their D/D builds but it still sucks for them to get nothing new and fun to use in PvP.

To add to the point I made concerning PvP and gap closer options earlier, I’m now checking the warrior (I tested Necro, Guardian and Thief) and I see that Warrior in Berserker mode can have stability nonstop… (and Riffle seems to be a thing) which is exactly the type of thing that makes the entire Necro spec not work if our gap closers are negated by this. Spectral Grasp and Greatsword 5 NEED to be reliable, it’s our only way to get close to our enemies in PvP. If I teleport onto my target with my Guardian or my Thief, even if they block or whatever, worst case scenario, my attack could miss but I’ve closed the gap and I’m now close to them. With the Necro, if they dodge or block or have stability, you’re still far away and have no way to catch up to them to put up a fight. It’s terrible design for a game that has PvP tournaments and is an Esport. I got the expansion for the PvP, I couldn’t care less about the PvE repetitive scripted mobs (I’ll do it once just to see the landscapes and dungeons but that’s about it). If the expansions don’t bring anything new that is truly viable for PvP, I don’t see much point and most likely will not be buying any further GW2 expansions (I had all of the GW1 campaigns and played it for years and the new stuff that was added each time had some new interesting and useful PvP abilities back then).

I love the spec but it has some core issues for PvP.

1- The skills 1 and 2 take too long to land (especially skill 1 since it’s the AA, Skill 2 I could understand at the limit). As someone said, I can pull someone successfully with Skill 5 (already not always that easy to do) and still be unable to land skill 2.

2- Stability or block is a huge issue. The greatsword and elite spec rely mostly on pulling the enemy (Greatsword skill 5 or the other utility pull I forget the name, I think Grasping Death) to you since you have almost no mobility nor gap closer. You have number 2 in Reaper Shroud but it’s just a mini dash, it doesn’t cut it against a ranged class. If they have anything that blocks or gives them stability, you have no way to close the gap and just get killed from range. Necro doesn’t really have hard hitting abilities from long range to compensate. You can use a staff but it doesn’t deal a lot of damage while the other weapons are short or melee range.

I like it a lot, I’ll play it for sure but I fear that after a few weeks, I’ll have to go back to the current builds if I want to PvP because they are just way more effective than this. Signet and Power necro builds are reliable. This one doesn’t seem very solid if you’re against good players.

The other melee specs have stuff like Teleport (Thief, Guardian and Revenant) that are efficient at closing a gap for example. Warrior runs fast and has charges, whirlwind and so on. Even dagger ele can move around very fast with lightning and fire. Greatsword Necro just has nothing at all. You’re basically forced to sacrifice a utility skill for a mandatory long range pull and it’s not even reliable. Number 5 is short range and not always that easy to throw. The other classes don’t get screwed over on their mobility and gap closer if the enemy has a certain buff on them. Necro loses his entire gap closer with stability (and it’s already not that great and not always reliable even without stability because of terrain compared to the other gap closer options from other classes).

Because of copy rights. As you can see with my beta Thief (Super Mario Brox), the new playstyle is all about jumping on people’s head with Staff number 5 and jumping on people’s head with vault. They just couldn’t call it the Mario Bros spec because Nintendo had the copyrights already for that.

I crit harder with the jump (number 5) AOE with the staff than I do with a Backstab (it costs 6 initiative if I’m not mistaken, no CD). I’ve crit people 7-8k+ with it. It does decent dmg and has number 3 for a very fast evasion ability. I can’t tell how great it’ll be in PvP but I think it has some potential. As for PvE, it definitely seems more fun and to open interesting alternatives.

I think it’s great. Number 3 is super fast with an evasion. Number 2 feels fine to me, yea it goes in a straight line but so does a lot of charge abilities in this game. Number 5 is amazing, I’ve crit people 7-8k with it… it hits harder than a backstab, is AOE and a gap closer. Number 5 might not be the fastest ability but it doesn’t seem any slower than Warrior Hammer finisher with F1, it’s fine.

The only thing I truly have an issue with are the dodges. They’re too slow and take too long, it feels like I’m gimping myself. The normal rolls are short and fast and I expected this spec to be amazing with 3 bars and special effects added. The AOE burst one takes way too long, the longer dash is better but also too long and sends me too far away from my target if I just want to evade an attack. I’m not sure about staff skill number 1 yet (I need to test further), same goes with the finisher. I would say that number 2-3-4-5 on staff are all fine at least.

Oh, that’s nice if I can infuse one and use both for now then. Thanks for the answers. I don’t think they’d give my laurels back because I bought one yesterday and happened to get the same item with an RNG chest, that’s just how the game is :P

Yea I knew that I couldn’t use Ring of Red Death x2, that’s why I was asking if it was possible to change it (so I could change my 2nd one to Crystalline Band for example).

You mean that you can’t have 2 ascended Berserker rings?

I did it last night with one of my celestial chest piece. Now, I just got a Ring of Red Death (berserker, just what I’d want) from PvP… but I just bought that ring yesterday and I can’t have 2 of the same at once. Is there a way for me to change it to the other berserker ring using the Mystic Forge or is it useless and I can only salvage it or use it on a different character?

Ok, thanks for the replies, I did it and it worked. Is it normal though that my stats on my Ascended Chest are lower than the ones on my Ascended Amulet? At lvl 80 exotic, the chest has more stats than the amulet does.

Ah, I just assumed that I needed ascended one for ascended gear but you might be right. Only 6g, I’ll get that for now and lvl crafting after the Beta weekend to make sure what class I’m set on (I like Guardian, Warrior, Thief and Necro most ATM so I don’t want to level something to 500 and then realize that I should have leveled a different profession instead).

I briefly played during the core GW2 beta and only 1-2 weeks after release before quitting. I gave the game a second chance 2-3 weeks ago and am enjoying it so far. I mostly prefer PvP (rank 48) and got 3 characters to lvl 80. I think that I prefer my Necro a bit and I got a box that allowed me to pick any ascended piece of armor. I picked the chest piece (some people told me that light chest piece was the most expansive one to craft). The only issue is that the stats are Celestial.

I’ve been told that I can change the stats at the Mystic Forge (I never used it). I looked up GW2 Wiki, I can easily buy the component with shards and I have more than 5 globes of ectoplasm but I’m missing the Insignia. It isn’t very clear to me. Do I need to have an ascended quality Berserker Insignia or can a lower quality one work?

If I do need the ascended quality one, it seems to cost 57g on the Trade Post. I haven’t messed with crafting yet and I have tons and tons of materials (especially lvl 80) from the various classes at different levels that I’ve played in PvP (I have over 1.1k of an ascended material that is account bound). Would I be able to use my mats and save a lot of money by crafting it myself or will I most likely still have to end up paying a lot of money to make it (on top of going through the trouble of lvling the crafting to 500)?

I just really hate crafting but at the same time, my bank is full with these mats, I need to make room and it’d be better for my wallet if I were to craft it than go with the easy solution buying gems to turn it into gold. Any tips are welcome.

Ok, that’s what I thought. Thanks. I had no clue you could change the stats with the mystic forge. I haven’t really looked into crafting and didn’t check the forge at all yet. I only played the GW2 core beta and 1-2 weeks after release before quitting. I just started back 2 weeks ago and have 3 80s now (mostly from pvp tomes, I’m not a big fan of PvE). I do think that I might like my Necro best so light chest could be a possibility for me.

I mostly do PvP and I got a box the other day that lets me pick any ascended armor piece but the stats are celestial…

I think that most PvE builds go with Berserker. The only thing close to celestial that I think of is ele but that’s the D/D PvP build. I’m just wondering if I pick whichever piece is a nicer transmog (none I truly want) and salvage it or if it can actually be worth something for a specific class.

Ok, thanks for the answers. The vendor indeed does not sell that one (he sells every other) until I have completed that part it seems. I think that I prefer the Trickster transmog for pants/chest for the transmog I want to do if ever I have to buy gems in this case.

Ah ok, I didn’t even know that it was in the personal quests. It’s locked though and every parts has to be bought for 200 gems or am I missing something? I got the chest box, gloves box in the Silverwastes and once got the gloves box out of a PvP track (not sure how, probably low random chances in a Maguuma pvp track). So the pants are the only ones where I need to buy a chapter to unlock? If it’s all I care for, I could buy only chapter 7 alone? I can see all the items to buy except for the pants.

Thanks for the help. I’ll see if I can find the vendor (although i have a bit less than 500 crests ATM) but I thought I read that you need to complete the Seeds of Truth first. As for the Seeds of Truth, that’s what I don’t quite understand how to do. Am I supposed to do parts 1-6 first? I’m just pretty lost with that.

I bought GW2 when it was in beta and only played about 1-2 weeks after release before quitting. I got back into it 2 weeks ago and mostly enjoy PvP. I mostly do PvE just to see it occasionally and for transmogs. I’m done with several transmogs but there’s one piece I want for my Necro which are the Carapace pants.

I looked up GW2 wiki and it seems very unclear to me as what I’m supposed to do to get the box. I went to the Silverwastes. I killed the big purple flower boss twice (it seems to be the same event that keeps repeating itself). I went to clear the bandits to open the Skritt tunnels twice. I’m supposed to talk to 3 NPCs inside Camp Resolve but I could only find the Seraph Master (which also doesn’t tell me much). I went to the Far North Silverwastes with the tunnel and all I could find were some mobs. I just can’t figure out how to trigger the event or where to go.

Is it complicated? Can I do it solo or do I need a large group for it? Can I stick around the zone and it’ll eventually loop over this quest chain or is it always going to be the big purple flower quest chain that loops over and over again?

I got back into GW2 last week and done mostly sPvP (which is what I prefer). I liked Thief, Warrior and Guardian the most and got my thief lvl 80 with a pretty nice transmute. My guardian is lvl 42 and I’m still hesitating between him and my warrior as a 2nd lvl 80 for the look of the armors, sPvP and occasional WvW/PvE.

Since I’m new and coming back, I went with the Meta Battle cookie cutter builds. I’ve played the Medi Guardian a lot and I like it although it feels a bit like a one trick poney and if the enemy is smart, they can ruin your burst pretty easily (Warrior isn’t as bursty but feels more reliable as a DPS in that sense). I tried Bunker Guardian and I also liked it a lot and tried the burning build, it was nice but I felt like I didn’t play it right at all. I felt very squishy and easily kited with the burning build. I also like burst dmg more than condition build but I’ll probably give it a 2nd try at some point as the sustained dmg seemed impressive.

Overall, I love the Feel My Wrath ult and ended up using it with the Medi Guard build as the build seems to revolve around one big burst and that faster attack speed just makes it even quite deadlier. However, I know that the common ult used is Renewed Focus and it also is used in the burn build.

I just don’t quite understand how and when to use Renewed Focus in PvP. I normally don’t want to activate the number 2 and 3 virtues unless I’m in serious trouble and might lose a fight or to gain stability to land a finisher if badly needed (and even then, the CD is so long for it that I’m not always sure if it’s a good thing to do). With Renewed Focus, it felt like I would just use all 3 virtues to get some buffs during a fight when I take a lot of dmg, then activate that ult to buy an other 3 sec of time and if needed, activate the virtues again or just at least have the passives back up? I just don’t get it. It feels to me as if refreshing the virtues isn’t that huge of a deal. They don’t seem to be that powerful in the first place and the first one’s CD isn’t that long.

I also dislike how that thing is a 3 sec channel where I can’t do anything else but run around during it.

Any tips on when or how to use it? Why is it so popular over Feel My Wrath when that other ult provides a massive dmg boost on a super short CD?

I barely played when GW2 came out (only the beta and maybe 2-3 weeks after release). I gave it a 2nd chance last week and enjoy it so far. I always hated crafting in MMOs but now that my Thief is lvl 80 and fully geared with a transmog I like, I was thinking about it for my warrior/guardian. It seems like a mess, I don’t enjoy it and don’t want to spend much on it. I mainly just wanted to have it for more transmog options but I can find these for cheap on the TP while I could make a lot of money selling my mats.

Can I just sell all my mats and buy the few items I want for transmog for cheap or would that be shooting myself in the foot for the long run? I’m just wondering because it seems as if crafting is necessary late game in order to make ascended gear (I saw that you can buy rings and accessories but when it comes down to weapons and armor, all I see are crafting recipes). Am I missing something or is it required for end game WvW and PvE (fractals I guess).

I mostly plan on doing sPvP (I know gear doesn’t matter here) with casual WvW and PvE with friends (a bit of dungeons and fractals but PvE isn’t my cup of tea).

That’s too bad, played the GW2 core beta and when the game just came out for maybe 2-3 weeks before quitting due to many issues I felt the game had for PvP. I came back last week and do enjoy the game. After having played every class in PvP for about a week to try to figure out which one I might like best as a ’’main’’, it was a tough choice between Guardian, Warrior and Thief and I ended up picking Thief. I got him to lvl 80 (with the help of a lot of tomes of knowledge) and got him some really cool transmog. I even spent last night back in GW1 PvE (which I absolutely hate) only to get a few more points with achievements that I was missing to unlock the skin of the daggers I was using on my GW1 assassin (which was my main back then).

Reading all of these posts from people who have been playing for a long time isn’t very encouraging. However, I’d have to say that when I check other class forums or when I asked them questions, a lot of them seemed to pretend that their class was about to go extinct as well. It seems like most people agree that Ele is in a great spot right now (and the D/D is just so strong that Tempest may not be terrible but it’s just that nothing can compete with D/D) and Ranger is the worst (I’m talking for PvP).

When I was hestitating between Guardian or Warrior DPS, a lot of people said that they expect a nerf to Rampage (again) and that once it hits, warrior will be obsolete and useless for his role. Guardian DPS doesn’t seem to be working or working too well at high level, they seem to be forced to go Bunker specs (which is fine and they’re very strong with that spec still). A lot of people seemed to think that Thief is doing fine.

Overall, I do hope that the thief gets some things to rework it. I find it a bit boring how I feel forced into one weapon set (especially when the offhand weapon is just utility rather than something else to use for combat) while I have many viable options on the other classes I play. I enjoy most classes and could switch if needed but I really would want to stick to my thief to main him and master him better (I’m doing pretty good already but I still have so much to learn and improve).

Here’s an example of what I was saying taken from a Mesmer post (Necros do seem to have at least 2-3 viable options unless I’m mistaken):

’’great for mesmers, good job.

Can necros get some of the same attention.

Seriously, we want to be viable as well.’’

Ok, so I should invest extra gold to get berserker daggers to replace the assassin’s ones in that case I guess? They cost about 4g each but berserker ones were 8g each. I also didn’t mess with crafting, do I have to level it up to make anything that’s worth something or I should just forget about it?

I only played GW2 in Beta and for about 2-3 weeks after release. I picked it back up last week, played every class in PvP and finally decided that Thief would be my main (mostly for lvling and getting nicer looking armor since I prefer PvP).

I hit 80 today thanks to having 45 tomes of knowledge accumulated from PvP in bank (PvE’s not my cup of tea, especially on the Thief). I however still do plan on playing some PvE and doing some dungeons with RL friends. I looked up the ideal stats and builds for PvE Thief. I fully geared myself in mostly berserker armor, (some of it lvl 78 exotic since it was a lot cheaper for not missing out on too many stats) and got ok exotic weapons (assassin’s daggers though, not berserker). I didn’t mess with sigils and runes yet but I read that Scholar’s is ideal.

I mostly got gear for transmog and went from 55g down to 8g. Now, I’m just wondering if I can expect to find specific or stronger gear in dungeons (or other PvE means) or if what I bought off the Trade Post is about as good or stronger than what I can get by doing PvE content myself. Should I just try to farm money and buy the best items I can or is it better to do dungeons to get better gear?

If PvE farming is better, is there any item or dungeon that I should focus on more than an other?

I played GW1, GW2 beta and a bit when it came out but quit shortly after release. I picked the game back up last week and am enjoying it quite a lot. I have a very hard time deciding between Thief, Warrior and Guardian as a main (I can play all of them but I want one to lvl to 80 and get nicer armor, focus on, etc.).

I’m doing good with the Thief so far with the cookie cutter build from meta battle (with dagger/pistol). However, I have a few questions, some things I obviously am doing wrong and I couldn’t find answers or a guide to it.

1- It feels very easy and natural for my to swap weapons on every class I play (I’ve tried them all) especially on Warrior or Guardian where I use some skills from both sets into my rotations and such. However, I find myself hardly ever using the Short bow for the Thief. There just doesn’t seem to be any synergy really. It can be nice occasionally to help killing a downed foe from far with poison or to teleport once or twice when the gates open for better mobility but that’s about it. When do you use the bow and how? I’m always afraid of using it because it costs so much initiative to use the teleport that I don’t want to use it to enter a fight and can’t use it often to escape either. I don’t want to mess up my combos just for that or the poison cloud.

2- Do you have any particular way to open onto people? I’m guessing Shadow Step is ideal but I often end up opening with Steal+basilisk poison into a backstab and then a heart seeker (works well vs squishies). I know that I should probably save steal for mid fight though since it heals me a bit.

3- I haven’t really played with Sword/dagger but I know that one of the best Thieves (the one that won the recent championship) uses sword/dagger instead of dagger/pistol. It feels to me like backstab is my main source of damage and I would miss it a lot if I were to go with Sword in MH. What advantage does Sword MH have over Dagger MH? It’s all about having more control at the cost of burst? I can’t seem to be able to fight for long without having to retreat with the Thief so I’m a bit confused over this one.

4- Also, one of my main problems I have when playing Thief is that I can put squishies into a downstate pretty fast and efficiently but once they are in the downed state, I’m so fragile that I feel like I can rarely stick around to finish them off (sometimes I can use Shadow Refuge for it but it’s a long CD and I don’t have stability in my build I believe). Do you have any Tricks for that?

5- Finally, do you have any sort of ‘’ideal rotation’‘. I know that it varies depending on what you’re fighting and the situation but just to get an idea aside from going back stealth to do more backstabs and heart seekers (sometimes I’ll do 3 from pistol into 5 and then 2 for heartseeker and go back invis for an other backstab but I don’t know if it’s optimal or not).

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

So if you are leveling up for WvW go with warrior since mobility is king and guardian sucks at it

but for pvp in the future go with guardian since Warrior is nothing but a Rampage bot and once that gets the nerf bat we all expect, warrior will become obsolete for the dps role

just know that both classes are easy to kite and wear down outside their cooldowns for your average mesmers, eles and engineers which are quite popular

I thought Rampage got nerfed already last patch

Nier.8741:

DPS Warrior is THE better class for when you are good at the game in Conquest. Guardian is just low skill floor low skill cap, there’s not much to learn. Warrior mobility and damage has out-play potential though.

That’s what it feels like so far but I just want to confirm this first before I switch character (I leveled Guardian to 39 and I’d have to start back from scratch with Warrior). I enjoy both but it feels like Guardian is better for lower skill capped players while Warrior can outperform it if you pull it off (I’m talking about DPS spec only though, I haven’t tried Bunker Guardian).

I don’t know, it feels to me like Guardian DPS build (at least, the GS/Scepter one) is a noob stomper but won’t work vs good players. I chain the shield from focus+whirlwind from GS and teleport+ burn for massive burst (I often root them +vulnerability on top of it before and use the burst ult for quickness). If the player is any good, all he has to do is like 1 knockback or endure pain from warrior or something like that to negate almost if not all of my burst and then I just have mediocre dmg and weak heals waiting for the combo to go back up. I could space the CDs out some more but if I do, then it feels like the warrior outperforms the guardian by far.

Long story short, I played GW1, GW2 beta and for a few weeks when it came out but quit shortly after. I just gave GW2 a second chance last week and am enjoying it a lot so far with some of the changes that they’ve made since I last played. I’m normally rather skilled at PvP in the games I play (around top 5-10% at least, not the very best but above average for sure).

I tried every class and I want to focus on one in particular to lvl to 80 and get nice armor transmogs. It’s a tough choice as they’re all a lot of fun. Thief, Warrior and Guardian might stand out a bit for me.

I mostly played Guardian DPS in sPvP and lvled him to 39 and decided to give Warrior a 2nd try (I was terrible at it when I first tried it) and it feels like the warrior DPS might actually be quite stronger overall (I use the cookie cutter builds from meta battle since I’m still a noob).

After having watched some recent tournament games, some teams had a Warrior and some had 1 or 2 Guardian(s) but the Guardians are normally bunker builds I think (with the staff) which I haven’t tried yet but I don’t think I’d enjoy a low DPS support build as much in terms of playstyle. So here are my questions:

1- I’m wondering, is Guardian DPS build more of a build for fun vs noobs or can it actually work vs good players as well? It feels to me like it has very good burst potential but that it might be very easy to shut it down for a skilled player and then just keep a bit of pressure on the DPS Guardian for him to go through his small heals and die.

2-How would you compare it with Warrior DPS build (say GS/Hammer)? Are both (Guardian and Warrior) about as viable as each other?

3-What would you say are the strengths and weaknesses of DPS Warrior compared to DPS Guardian? I know that the Guardian has some blocking, retaliation and more heals but the Warrior has about 40% flat more health, better base run speed, endure pain to tank no dmg while attacking and an ‘’I win’’ button ult if the other ppl don’t disengage.

4-Overall, I’m wondering if Bunker Guardian is the only truly viable competitive build vs skilled players while Warrior can go DPS build vs skilled player in competitive games or if DPS Guardian can have about the same potential.

I just pre-purchased the standard edition for the expansion. It says that if you have had an account prior to a certain date, you get an extra character slot (I’ve had my account since Alpha or Beta of the core game, I forget but it’s been long enough).

I restarted the game and see 4 new slots that are for Beta characters only. Looking it up, all I could find was this:

‘’The process of delivering your additional character slot will take us some time, but rest assured we will get it to you as soon as possible. We’ll provide more details about the specific timing soon. ’’

Does anyone know if this means that it just takes a bit of time for each individual account to receive their character slot? Does it mean that they will hand them all out at once at some point in the future? I’m just a bit confused about it.

Well, my main worry with this is class homogenization like I’ve seen in many games. I like how in GW2, the classes feel like they have their own strengths and weaknesses. I know that the Longbow adds more utility to the Guardian but if you take a moment to read what the new spells do and the spec traits, it seems to have very little synergy and use with the other weapons. You won’t make a build revolving around the ranged weapons, it just isn’t good for that class just like you won’t go GS+Staff on a Ranger, most of his kit isn’t suited for being a melee fighter.

So with the Guardian, the Bow could replace the scepter if you’re being kited or need some ranged dmg which might be nice but at the cost of a whole spec line that offers almost nothing for your build. Laying down traps where you are with 1 sec cast time will not synergize well with a class that is slow and has to chase after targets and it won’t be able to compete at range with a true ranged class. I understand that it’s nice to get different options but it just doesn’t fit the class, doesn’t synergize at all with it and will be a weaker choice in the end. It’s a bit how my Norn has access to Bear form and Wolf form transformations in PvE. It’s cool, adds flavor and is fun but even if I could pick that in sPvP, I probably wouldn’t use it.

Ok, thanks that’s not as bad as I thought then. As for: ‘’Elite specs are supposed to change the way a class is played. Why is it not fitting to give a melee class an elite spec more focussed on range then?’’ well… if I wanted to play a class that specializes at range with physical weapons, I would be playing a Ranger or an Engineer. To me, it’s kind of as if Warrior’s Elite Spec turned him from a melee fighter into a spell caster. It sounds as if the ‘’Elite Spec’’ would be the one very special and powerful spec and then the spec doesn’t match or fit the core of the class, that’s what I meant (at least for Guardian). It’s probably just me that thought that because of the name they gave it (I wouldn’t have had that original feeling if they called it ‘’Alternative Specialization’’ perhaps).

I played GW1, GW2 beta and when it came out but I quit the game shortly after release. I only started playing again last week giving it a second chance and I like it so far. I’ve done quite a bit of sPvP and leveled more than I previously had in PvE as well. I ended up picking a Guardian as my main character to focus on for now after trying almost every class again in PvP. I’m just hoping that I won’t regret that choice with the expansions and Elite Specializations.

So if I understand it right, with the Elite specialization, you are forced to use the associated weapon, utility spells, elite spell and trait that comes with it? You go from a lot of options to almost none? I don’t quite understand in this case why classes like Guardians that is a melee class gets an elite spec that turns him into some sort of weaker version of a Ranger (not to mention that the Guardian has the lowest health pool with the Thief on top of not having a pet). I guess it might be ok for PvE or WvW (I haven’t tried WvW yet) but sounds bad for sPvP which is what I like best.

Is this how Elite Specializations work or I’m wrong about it?

So you mean that your armor goes from pitch black to almost white as you move across different places on the map? I was standing in light in different places and they had different colors but maybe it happens with all armors in this game. As for the RL thing… I’ve never seen my clothes go from fully black to light silver as I walk down the street, I would recommend you go see an eye doctor if that’s what you see.

BTW, just take a look at the screenshots I posted, look at picture one and picture 3. I understand lighting could affect it but not to that point (picture 3 is during the day under light, not at night, not under a shadow). It’s most certainly a bug with this armor in particular because if I take off the outfit, my regular armor stays black, it doesn’t turn light silver when I go to different areas.

And here’s when it appears as the right color (it’s the same map as the 2nd picture, just further up the road)

Here’s the same armor, same black dye (shadow blue) but different places on maps (here are 2 when it appears as light silver):

Okay, for some reason, the bug is on and off depending on the zone I’m in. It’s definitely not just the lighting. Sometimes it’ll be pure silver and sometimes it’ll work and be black (shadow blue). For example, walking down in Kessex Hills towards the Wizard’s Fief, my armor was silver and now that I’m over there, it turned truly black (the color it’s supposed to be) again. The shade difference is too big for it to just be different lighting from one place to an other.

So far, I’ve noticed that the bug occurs in Lion’s Arch and Caledon Forest for sure. The armor is normally the right color in the Norn city (I forget the name). Otherwise, it depends where I am in the world on and off, it’s really weird. Then, once outside that town in Kessex Hills (for example Sojourner’s Way), the armor is back to light silver.

Wow… so many people fail to make any logical argument here, it’s scary. Maybe it’s more obvious to me cause it’s what I teach but still. GW1 being cheaper now has nothing to do with GW2 being the currently played game and FREE. It’s not a bargain, most games are free to play right now with micro transactions. WoW is about the only one that still has a sub and they allow people to cover it with in-game gold.

I’m not asking for a cheaper cost because I have barely played the game as it came out in really bad shape at first and didn’t come to look back at it for a long time. I’m just saying that it makes sense to make it cheaper but making it free is a slap in the face to those who bought it and just want to upgrade. The ’’bargain’’ most people here are talking about comparing to other games doesn’t hold. Most games being free to play nowaday, it would have cost me zero or maybe 15$ in micro transactions back then.

However, the info wasn’t very clear and thanks to Zalladi for pointing out that link for an extra slot for those who had purchased the game before. It might not be that useful to me for now but if I do get to play the game some more, it might come handy at one point. All I meant was that anything, even just a free character slot made more sense for those who upgrade otherwise, the message that is sent is that those that aren’t sure if they want to play GW2 or not should wait until the next expansion after that since they’ll get everything for free with the upcoming expansions.

I pre-ordered the original GW2 after having played GW1 and PvP in several other MMOs and I was hyped for it at that time. When GW2 went live, me and my friends quit after maybe 2 weeks. There were many issues with PvP. I knew there was an expansion coming soon and decided to give GW2 a second chance this week. So I started playing again this week. Many things have been fixed and I do enjoy the game so far. I went and looked up for the expansion prices and saw the same thing many people before me have probably mentioned… 50$ original game included, no cheaper price, no new slot, etc.

While I understand that GW2 has no monthly fee which is awesome (would have been if I had played for those 2 years), for someone who just came back like me, it’s just a slap in the face and I’m actually not so sure if I want to buy it or not now. I understand the 50$ for the expansion thing and incentive to attract new players but I just feel really insulted as a customer. This basically means that the money I spent on the original game was almost 100% wasted, I could very well never have bought it and gotten it for free right now.

There should have been at least a small discount for players who already have an account or at the VERY LEAST ONE free character slot. Add all the micro transactions… normally games are EITHER pay to play based OR heavy onto micro transactions, not both. The esteem I had for A.net just went down quite a bit :/

I bought Shadow Blue color and I had the same problem. I noticed the issue when I went from the Myst to Lion’s Arch and then to Caledon Forest (first zone for the Sylvari). I went back to the Norn main city cause I remembered the color being fine over there and it somehow fixed it. I went back to Caledon Forest to compare if it was just the lighting that had such a huge impact making it look almost black to almost white and it seems to be resolved as of now.