Guild Wars 2

1. Necro
2. Ranger
3. Engineer

Hi Shadowcaster,

If you’re looking for DOT like mechanics akin to WOW’s warlock, try putting trait points into the Curses and Spite trait lines. These will boost your condition damage and duration and give you some trait abilities to play around with.

If it turns out you don’t like those trait lines, you can always reset your traits at the trainer later on for a small fee.

Hope this helps, and welcome to GW2.

I used to look forward to these profession and gear balancing updates. Now they just make me depressed.

I agree with all but two of your suggestions.

1. Dhuumfire: I don’t understand why it’s a problem for condi-mancers to get this along with condition duration since they will have to give up stat bonuses somewhere else to get the duration bonus. One could just as easily make the argument that Deathly Perception shouldn’t be in the soul reaping line because power necros get a +50% crit chance in addition to the +30% life force and crit damage without having to take any traits in the curses line for precision.

2. Foot In The Grave: Stability is actually very nice to have in a number of situations and if we didn’t have it, yeah we would be ping pong balls as mentioned previously. Also, death shroud #4 has very little usefulness without this skill. If anything, I think this trait is underpowered relative to Deathly Perception and should be bumped up a second a or two.

I don’t think the season is a failure at all, I’m glad to see more people coming out to play and the achievements make wvw more rewarding.

I think there are plenty of things that could be improved though. A couple of things come to mind:

1. server imbalances
2. relative lack of achievements that incentivise defense and support play.

Ragnar.4257:

Keiel.7489:

I would say the only dishonorable people are the ones who use cheat via exploits, third party programs and/or purpose sabatoge another servers resources (man power, supply, VOIP).

Why?

I mean, if all’s fair in love and war, as people here are saying, why is sabotage or hacking any less honourable than ganking a lone guy with 20?

Because it’s against the rules? That’s not honour, that’s just looking after yourself. That’s like saying the reason you don’t burn babies alive is because you might go to prison.

Because those are not part of the intended mechanics of the game/simulation and might also be a violation of the EULA, (not to mention illegal in some cases). For the record, I would also consider realm spying to be cheating as well for the same reasons.

Ganking, taunts, camping, etc. All those are part of the simulated war as anet as designed it, and fair game regardless of what I personally think of those actions.

OP, not all builds are designed for 1v1 duels. I don’t think you can reasonably begrudge (or label as “dishonorable”) someone who plays a support oriented build from running from a 1v1.

At the end of the day though, it is simulated warfare so really anything goes. To play devil’s advocate for a moment, even the in game taunts could be considered psychological warfare, and therefore a valid extension of conventional tactics.

Thanks for posting this build and video. I’ve been wondering about celestial gear for a hybrid build, maybe I will try it now.

JonPeters.5630:

I hope this helps direct discussion a bit, and thanks for your patience,

Jon

Thank you Jon for posting those very in depth thoughts on the design rationale for upcoming and possible future changes to our favorite class’s traits (and on the weekend at that!)

Although class changes can disorienting for me at times, I feel like the future of the Necromancer is in good hands ^^.

PVE:
1. More variety in armor skins
2. Easier ways to “re-spec” armor stats to match character trait builds.
3. New, permanent, explorable mode dungeons.

All of us on high pop servers are in the same boat right now but try to be patient, the event’s not going anywhere.

The real problem is that anet didn’t implement a plan to handle the load balancing/scaling issues of the event; not guests from low pop servers.

WingzofIsis.4809:

Four brave souls trying to take on Teq in Ferguson’s Crossing. At the 4 minute mark we had no turrets and everyone was dead.

OMG! Bless your hearts <3

So I just recently made another attempt to complete one of the portal invasions so that I can hopefully get to the playhouse and re-open the pavilion instance so I can make some purchases from the vendors there before the September 3 deadline.

I didn’t get credit for the event, even though I participated through the entire event including the fight with Scarlett and killed a good mix of her minions and allies to boot. Event so, I can probably still finish all of this stuff by the deadline.

In the Real World, I work a demanding job. It’s a lot like the Living World actually. I have deadlines to meet. Lots of them in fact – just like in the Living World.

I don’t like deadlines in the Real World. They stress me out, and make me generally irritable. But I have to meet them if I want to eat. Eating is fun.

I don’t like the Living World’s deadlines either. They make me swear and smash my keyboard – especially when the events dont give credit because of a programming error. But that’s okay because I love paying money on the gemstore so that I can beta test this game. In any case I have to meet these deadlines if I want to progress my character and get the shinies. Getting shinies is fun.

But its not fun being a rat on a treadmill. That’s what it feels more and more like with each passing month. I’m not quite sure how this game that I really enjoyed at launch has turned into this. I used to really like this game a lot. Now I just sit here in my wheel, running along and buying things on the gemstore like a good little rat. I suppose the rational thing to do would be to just quit. But for some reason I find it hard to turn my back on all the stuff I’ve accumulated since launch, and I keep holding out hope that maybe… just maybe.. the next update will be different.

Anyway, I don’t have time to ponder all of this stuff. I have deadlines to meet!

Insignya.8625:

I’d call this game broken. Not because it doesn’t work or because it’s not a fun $60 experience, but because it’s literally head-ramming its design philosophies out the window. Everything that was supposed to be unique about this game is gone. Why should people who don’t like MMOs stay here when, say, Everquest Next releases? You have every single bulletpoint covered – number chasing (achievements), crucial daily events, time-gated content, zero incentive to progress, shallow PvP. So? GW2 is living from its former glory of GOTY 2012, back when it was actually a really good experience.

Best official forum post ever.

Esplen.3940:

Arenanet stated that if you only play 1 hour a day, you’ll get all 13 zones.

I wish I could say I believed them :/

Didn’t get credit in frostgorge sound for this one just a few minutes ago. I wasn’t in overflow.

EDIT:

“Killing Molten Alliance or pirates does not count towards event credit.
Killing spawns from the Clockwork part piles does not count towards event credit.”

Okay, so ignore the pirates and molten alliance. Fair enough, though it does seem kind of odd to me that these don’t give credit…

Only 10% chance to recover rare materials, still costs 3 copper per use, has an annoying robot voice instead of a nifty animation.

Think I’ll save my 800 gems for something else

Dear Anet,

Since we have all of this really cool steam-punk theme gear lately, it would be nice if you could add a back-piece skin in the shape of a wind-up key, so that it makes my character look like a wind-up doll ^^.

PS – I will buy Black Lion keys if necessary to obtain such an item.

PPS – If you could make it spin when I run, that would be friggin awesome and I would <3 your devs always ^^

Thank you Have to say I feel silly for missing it in the gallery now. Maybe it was the outrageous hat that threw me off, lol.

Does anyone recognize the armor this lady is wearing?
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/august-06-2013/#screenshots-10

I’d like to get this look and I’ve searched all over the GW2 armor gallery site and can’t seem to find something that matches, although I feel like I’ve seen the top somewhere before…

Thank you for your help

If somebody in my guild were to be perma-banned, instead of just quitting the game voluntarily, would I be able to tell the difference? For example, does Anet delete the banned player from the guild roster?

The reason I ask is because if one of my guildmates were to be banned I would like to know about it so that we could improve our member selection and retention policies.

@iczek

Often there’s somebody who can give you a port in this JP. Just ask in map chat. If not, then its best to come back later.

I love JPs, and honestly, I actually even love being hunted in a JP provided that it’s possible to still escape and complete it through the highly skilled play. Unfortunately as another poster pointed out, this isn’t possible once you get to to the arena.

My recommendation to you is just check back frequently and ask if somebody is giving ports in map chat.

However, once you realize (as I recently have) that 90% of the challenges of JPs can be circumvented via mes ports, you’ll understand just how meaningless these achievements really are.

I actually like the jp’s quite a bit. They’re a nice break from the usual monster killing. I actually find myself relaxing more when I do them.

Would be nice if they weren’t so easily exploited by mes portals and wvw campers though. That to me is where the jumping puzzles really fall flat (no pun intended).

Oh, I forgot to mention. To the OP and everyone else complaining about how hard JP’s are. It’s really pretty simple. Just get a friend who is a mesmer and good at JP’s to port you to the end of the JP.

After being ganked at least 4 times by a mob of FA people in the coliseum just past the dark room, I got a port to the top from a mesmer. After I got the port, allowing me to skip 90% of the puzzle, I realized what an over rated JP Obsidian Sanctum actually is.

Dear Anet,

If you ever decide to make Skritt a playable race, please pick Charlie Day as the male voice actor for personal story. He’s a very funny actor, and his voice naturally sounds like the kind of voice a skritt would have.

This wonderful video showcases his talent and suitability for the role:

http://youtu.be/wzj6EeFi_7U

Sincerely,

a fan of GW2 and Charlie Day

Will I still be able to to redeem my sclerite weapon claim ticket after the coming introduction of Jade Weapon skins? What about indefinitely in the future after that?

Reason I ask is because I can’t make up my mind what to buy with it and I would hate to find myself in a “use or lose” predicament…

Blood Work mesmer of FA really being a jerk in DBBL.

I understand you’re better at pvp than I am but is dancing on my grave and laughing at me really necessary?

Just remember to be kind and patient with people going forward.

Believe me, I’m all about that, especially since I feel like I’m a perpetual noob in pvp. I would welcome more pve’rs in wvw since honestly I do a lot of dungeon pve, or at least have in the past.

So I will admit I am pretty jazzed that TC has done so well this week, but it wasn’t but just a couple of weeks ago that we were really getting hammered and some of the chat on the Mumble server was rather discouraging at times. Anyway I’m just happy that we’ve been able to pull together.

Like any red blooded mist warrior, I greatly prefer winning to losing. But I also think that some of our server’s finest moments as a community have been when the chips were down for us. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I hope we will always maintain a strong sense of solidarity and welcoming attitude to the militia (like me ).

I also hope that we will continue to be a good example of sportsmanlike conduct and be gracious in victory. Sometimes I worry that we might get too competitive and lose sight of just enjoying the game. Life is stressful enough without a game adding to it. Anyway I’m not really sure what I’m saying. Maybe it’s this: “TC, please don’t ever change.”

Zoel.9154:

it drives me nuts to hear people complaining about double teaming. Is one team supposed to sit on their hands while the other two fight it out?

+1 for sound logic.

Mortar girl reporting for duty!

Love starting the morning with a few well placed rounds on an enemy flame ram crew. Hope they had as much of a blast as I did

Here’s Lexi Violet:

Wow, my hat’s off to CLiK then! Thanks for the reply:)

Hi all,

I’m a casual PVPr and frankly not all that competitive but I am kind of interested in getting a neat title from it eventually. Looking at the titles starting with Gladiator and ending with Ascendant, I’m curious to know what is the highest title anyone has achieved.

It seems to me that the exponential rank points curve for titles would make most of them practically impossible for me to get. (Not that I’m complaining, just making an observation.)

Lexi Violet
Profession: Necromancer
Traited: Crit and death shroud build
Experience: Paths 1, 2 and 3
Time: Usually weekend afternoons and some evenings after 9pm or so.
Other: I don’t mind helping newbies as long as they are they are willing to listen. I’m flexible regarding whether or not to skip.

Thanks for the reply. At least now I know I’m not crazy:)

For the second time in two days Ive seen the Hunter (crusher’s friend) in path 3 respawn after being killed. This time he respawned twice. Is this normal behavior? Ive been through path 3 a number of times now and never seen this happen before… Can anyone tell me what is going on?

Any help would be much appreciated:)

OK, that makes sense and confirms what had been by intuition. The person that had told me otherwise seemed so convinced it made me doubt myself

Thank you for those responses!

Sorry if this is a stupid question but does signet of the locust grant a 25% speedup even while in combat?

I know combat speed is slower than out of combat, but it seems like it should still apply. Someone told me that it didn’t last night while I was running Arah, and I haven’t yet had a chance to test this out. (Maybe I’ll get to it tonight).

In the meantime, I was wondering if anyone could verify this? I’ve looked at a couple of other places and neither seems to give an explicit answer:

Movement Speed

Signet of the Locust runspeed buff

I think the dungeons should be hard. I do them partly for the experienced and partly to get distinctive looking gear. I just like for my toon to look different and interesting. If the dungeons were easy, then the gear would no longer be as distinctive since it would be more commonly seen.

So in that sense, Im glad that wp rezzing is gone. And I really hope anet doesn’t nerf Lupi and the other few challenging bosses. It would cheapen what I’ve already earned.

That said, I do think dead players should be given an option to somehow still play the game even though they’re dead and play a very minor role. I realize there aren’t simple solutions to this but I think anything that prevents someone form playing the game (which player death is as currently implemented) is frankly against the spirit of gaming in general.

- Add a timer condition for death. When either the timer expires, or the party leaves combat allow the dead player to res at waypoint. Increase timer duration with additional recent deaths.

- Add an “in combat” icon for party members so everyone knows if someone is in combat without checking map screen and wp icon

- Stop automatic camera drift for dead players so they can at least observe the combat

- Allow dead players to provide a very minor aoe buff or combo field around their corpse. Make it only applicable to other party members so as to not imbalance wvw. This allows dead players to still play the game while they are waiting for a rez.

So last night was my first time to run Arah explorable (or any dungeon) since the update.

I have to admit, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I ran with a pug, as always, and we killed Lupi on our second try. I didn’t die during the second attempt but I did rez a couple of people and it wasn’t that hard to pull off as long as I didn’t have aggro.

I’m still not keen on being forced to do nothing while waiting to either be rezed or for the rest of the party to wipe. IMO, the player should always be allowed to do something.

According to the whatfont plugin for Chrome, it is called “CronosPro”.

Difficulty and rewards seem about right. Fractal dungeons are some of the best content in the game but their level system has terribly fragmented the community.

I’d very much like to participate in some Arah explorable runs. I’m not quite as experienced as many here, but I can follow instructions, and dodge reasonably well.