Guild Wars 2

I agree Vincent that increased drop rates will negatively effect the market by saturating it with rares. but I completely disagree on most of your other points.

For one thing, yes magic find is useful for getting loot, but if I find out somebody is using magic find gear in my 35 fractals group I would ask him to put another set on or get kicked for not contributing to the group and expecting to be carried through difficult content and essential leeching off the group. You lose so many stat points when using it than any other set basically gimping your group. Magic find is a selfish stat and should be left at super easy dungeons and open world pve.

As for loot that comes from mobs, a lot of my runs in 30+ fractals have yielded only 1-2 rares INCULDING mob drops. The mob drop table does not appear to be that much better than other dungeons and definitely don’t get better with level, the only difference is that are so much more of them and they hit harder. The only profitable fractal where mobs consistently drop better loot appears to be the dredge where they have a chance at dropping miner’s bags, maw for venom, and harpies for blood. None of them have a better drop of rares/exotics that I know about. And it’s so much easier to do a dungeon, get money and buy the mats than having a small chance at them in fractals.

I love fractals because they are fun if you have a good group. however i’m tired of spending over an hour doing something and end up with a net increase in 30s from all my efforts. The only form of reward that my guild are going for are the relics for their backpiecs. after that, they will probably not run them anymore. Fractal rewards are terribly broken right now and are much too RNG dependent (account bound/random stat exotics are just cruel, how often have you gotten excited seeing the orange just to be let down by something you can’t use or sell). Even the factual weapon drops can be made so much better by implementing a fractal weapon token so you aren’t being dumped weapons you already have or weapons you can’t use.

1. i personally prefer knight’s gear over berserker. the reasons being: more toughness = more crit = more support plus, more toughness means you’re more likely to draw aggro, keeping the more squishing classes out of harm’s way. Although as a DPS/support, i went with knights armer and berserker accessories to balance damage with support.
2. I love might ad a buff so i went with the 2fire/2hoebrak/2strength. These runes also works really well with the great sword auto attack chain that gives you might as well as your might on crit trait and sigil should you take that route. Boon duration is also useful if you are running full shouts, but if you’re like me and often switch out shouts for other utilities depending on situations, the boon duration becomes less useful.
3. Strength sigil works really well with your build because you get decent damage boost from the might and it also heals you through AH. I would also experiment with blood or fire if you enjoy the on crit effects. As for staff, because it is ver weak as a damage weapon you do not want to be using it for long when you switch to it. Therefore, accuracy will loses its value. Because it is a weapon you switch to for situations where you might need to escape you can put in an energy sigil to give you some extra endurance when you swap. Or if you want more power a sigil of battle works as well. Just remember your staff is NOT a dips weapon.
4. All abilities are situational. Whirling wrath is great in that it hits more targets than your autoattack and combos nicely with fields. like gaudrath mentioned
5. 0/15/30/20/5 build is what I used to run and it is very good in terms of damage. The blind is very useful as a defence tool except against dredge and bosses. However I switched to the 0/0/30/30/10 build not for 2h mastery ( I use hammer so this skill is less important compared to a great sword) but for purity of voice for the condition removal which gives me the condition removal powers of a god. However it is personal taste, I just have a phobia of conditions. As for the 10 points at the end, they are for the cooldown on consecrations, more specifically wall of reflection (make sure you have this on your bar when faced with projectiles, is is arguably the guardian’s most useful utility) and sometimes hallowed ground, but these skills are still wonderful without it so it isn’t essential. I run high level fractals where reflection means life and death (my life, their death) so having the increased uptime on wall is important for me. Again, those points are up to what you want to do with your build.

Edit. I just like to stress that although staff is pathetic at dealing damage I believe it’s really useful as a support weapon but never use it for more than necessary. Swap staff, get out of harms way, heal up, empower, switch to great sword and get back in there is what I say. If you want a weapon to deal damage from a distance, use a sceptre. Just a note, make sure you have all possible weapons (especially a sceptre) in your bag to swap out depending on situations. Different fights will ultimately require a different set of skills and you have to adapt accordingly.

I agree that the staff by itself is a useless weapon. And i would never suggest using a staff by itself or as a main weapon. What I want to understand is the way that it can work with other weapons. Too many people forget that weapon swap is an active and important aspect of the game.

For example, yes I do what you do as well, I put up fire fields (or get an ele to do that for me in an organized group) and so I get 9-12 stacks of might with traits. But if I had started out with staff, hit empower (with the shortened cast time this is looking more promising) switched over to hammer and then did that combo and empowering might, my entire group now sits at 25 stacks of might for a good 8-10 seconds which is perfect now for a time warp to burn everything down. Now that sounds so much better than relying on hammer alone.

Edit: I can’t think of any other class that can stack so much might in such a small period of time by himself. It takes 4 warriors spamming for great justice and a Mesmer with the signet that transfers boons to do compete against that.

I just obtained my dungeon master title a few days ago and I have to say I love most of the dungeons in this game. I have familiarized myself with every dungeon in this game and am currently helping the rest of my guild through them. I am a firm believer that if you learn the mechanics, listen to instructions and work with your party you start to find dungeons to be fun.

Take the arah explorable dungeon for example. People say that it’s the hardest dungeon in the game and going through it the first time, I agree. After spending an hour on lupi my first group gave up and it was no fun. And I understand that’s where a lot of people who don’t like dungeons are. Hell, I avoided arah like the plague for months. But I found myself people who knew how to run the dungeon, learned the mechanics and listened to the strategies, and I beat the dungeon. And then I convinced some guild mates to come with me next time and I taught them everything I learned and now they love it and we have arah on farm mode.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that everybody gets frustrated at these dungeons at first, but if you find fun people to play with, strategize with them, and learn the fights, learn your class and most importantly, remember that you work for the benefit of your team, not just yourself, you will breeze through these dungeons and most likely enjoy them much more. Also it is important that you try different strategies when you are having trouble. What didn’t work before most likely will not work again, and it is amazing how a change in weapon/utility or even positioning can turn a fight in your favour.

Note: I do agree that many trash mobs hit too hard/too often and have too much health and anet will have to rebalance that. And I know sometimes its frustrating dealing with l33t players who have no patience in helping others, but there are people who will help you. You just have to play the game and seek them out.

Since the buff to staff in the recent patch I’ve been playing with it more in dungeons. With the few tweaks, it has become so much more viable. I’m finding that it is replacing my scepter + focus/shield more and more in dungeons.

It works amazing when skipping trash. Speed buff AND line of warding while running? Yes please! Its uses have extended beyond running really fast to spending significant amount of time on my bar in battle. In fights where 1200 range is not required, I have been using it as filler between melee sessions on my AH hammer build. The stacks of might on everybody works amazing in almost any situation, it heals everybody AND it will bring your health up from half without any healing power. Its perfect when you need to leave melee to heal up + give ridiculous buffs for your next round of smashing not to mention to give a little more escaping power using the speed buff and line of warding to avoid being hit.

The only problem is that it is still very kitten beyond the 600 range auto-attack. The 2 skill and the 3 skill can be used at 1200 range but you just lose too much damage for it to be a viable range weapon. You also lose the defensive utility that is offered by the shield and focus 5 skills that are such important staples in guardian survivability.

These are just my feelings on the staff while in my dungeon runs (I’ve run staff in all dungeons including arah exp and fotm 30-35) and I am in no way suggesting what I said are the absolute truth. I want to know what other people are thinking about these changes and whether they believe that staves have a more prominent role in dungeons (and not just to skip trash). I also want to know because I’m working towards my second legendary (juggernaut was my first) and now I’m on the fence between flameseeker’s and bifrost because I’m beginning to love my staff more.

Hey I’m close to forging my juggernaut. My main is a female sylvari guardian however I’m curious as to how the juggernaut’s quicksilver effects look on the sylvari cultral armor (T3 and T2 as I’m considering either) I’m not sure whether metal leaves will look decent. If anybody has any screenshots for me to see that’d be great. Also I’m comparing it to the looks on human T3 and norn T3 as well so if anybody has comparisons that would be appreciated.

Thanks

So I’m a dungeon runner and I love both Sword/shield and greatsword in terms of gameplay and aesthetics. I keep both weapon sets on me at all times and I spec 0/15/30/20/5 AH/crit build with empower for damage and survivability with any set and have scepter/focus as secondary for ranged and protection.

However, it has come down to deciding which legendary weapon I will choose and I’m torn between sunrise and bolt. I love sunrise and the special effects it has, but I also love bolt and the lightning is awesome (not to mention then I’d be motivated to get the flameseeker prophecies later if I wanted).

I wanted to know other people’s opinions on these weapons to help me decide which one to ultimately aim towards. Thanks

Hey guys, I’m levelling up my thief and I’m wondering which weapon combo is more viable at end game dungeon playing. I hate condition damage so I thought a direct damage power/crit build (not glass canon though) would suit me.

Now I’ve played around with both setups and both have appealing points:
S/D has stealth which is an amazing mechanic as well as a built in evade in the dual skill (really mediocre dmg in that skill though), has a bit of blind if spec’d for blind on stealth but it doesn’t mitigate as much damage as black powder
S/P has mass blind which is amazing when surrounded, and the daze is awesome. Pistol whip is mediocre as well, and there’s no stealth in this combo.

Also any tips on not dying on bosses and champ since blinds are useless.

I realize that the data is going to be super biased so I will soon be closing this thread. I have yet to get my ring on 4th but I will keep trying.

I’m starting to think that its a bug in the RNG that will bias people to either ring or no ring depending on whether they got it in their first daily (ie. if they got one first go, they will keep getting them and vice versa). I’ve started a thread to track whether this is the case in https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/wanna-check-for-bug-with-Fotm-dailies/first#post833502. If it is indeed a bug then it would be nice to have some evidence to show to the developers so that they can get a fix out asap. I need people who have gotten no ring first time but then gotten rings afterwards to prove my theory wrong. If you know people like this please let me know.

Before anybody reads this, I am not complaining, I just want data to confirm or disprove my theory.

So I’ve finished my third daily at 10-14 bracket and I’m still ring-less. Reading another thread about people complaining that they aren’t getting rings while others are getting multiple, and through my own experience from running with people with no rings not getting rings either, I’m wondering if maybe there’s a bug in the RNG. Maybe there is something that biases your RNG on the daily rewards after the first one to whatever you got. I’d like to know if it’s a bug or just my dumb luck.

Of course I by myself don’t have enough data to support anything, I’d like to ask that people contribute. So here’s the format. Give me three things:
1. Whether you got a ring on your first run.
2. How many total daily runs you have had in the 10-19 bracket(including first run).
3. How many rings you have gotten.

So for me it’s:
1. No
2. 3
3. 0

Thanks.

So going up the fractals of the mists I notice that I’m starting to use my scepter more and more in order to either deal with harder hitting mobs/bosses to try and stay alive or mechanics that forces me to go into ranged (dredge fractal final boss). I’m starting to wonder whether higher up in the fractals it might be better to invest in a scepter/spirit weapon build to maximize dps at range or stick it out in melee with my AH/crit build and do for mediocre damage at range for those fights.

Thoughts?

Can I get a source for that? And will they be compensating the rest of us who completed lvl 10 and didn’t get one?

Before I start I would just like to say that I love the fractals. They are so much fun, the designs are innovative and I really enjoy the progression through to higher levels.

However, I just spent the afternoon grinding fractals to level 10 because I was looking forward to obtaining the ascended ring that I was told I’d get for beating it. When we finally cleared the last boss, lo and behold, I get my achievement chest and no ring. At least 2 other people in the group got an ascended ring (didn’t have a chance to ask 1 other) while me and another group member were left baffled as to why we didn’t get one in our achievement chest.

I can understand putting RNG on chest and boss drops but achievement chests should NOT have an RNG on them. For the same achievement and amount of work they got an awesome ring that will set them through to the higher fractals while we get a rare ring that I just salvaged and will now run around hoping that the bosses don’t notice me with their agony stacks.

Progression for progression’s sake can be fun for a while and I’ve enjoyed it up to now, but there comes a point where you expect some sort of reward and its quite a slap in the face for it to be then handed to the other people and not you. Its like winning a tournament and only random people from the team gets the medal.

Hey, I’m new to arah exp but its really hard to find a pug that is understanding and willing to help you learn the dungeon these days. So I want to gather people who want to farm this dungeon with me but are also patient and willing to help me learn the dungeon.

Currently the classes I play are:
Guardian (Hammer/support/shout)
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mVcM0mMzMmvbNmmvbNm9MxxaoRqcRqc
Warrior (Axe/shield/rifle/banner/shout)
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mVRzco0zMMaRbMMaRbMG0Gx0VaVsVRb
Elementalist (D/D tanky dps)
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mVszz9Mz0MMvbMMMvbMa9MxxocVqVoq

Those are the setups I play most frequently, however I keep a set of all usable weapons in my inventory and will always switch depending on the situation. I am also willing to change the way I play to fit the group should I need to. So please send me a letter in the game (PS. people with vent servers are more than welcome)

Well the way I see it, the damage may be a bit less than my GS, but it hasn’t caused me any problems running exp dungeons, mind you I haven’t checked arah but an arah exp video guide with a rifle war pov was what motivated me to do this in the first place so I’m sure its not a problem there either. However, just looking at raw numbers, the bleed stacks compensate a bit for lack of damage from the autoattack (but yes I agree, its still really low) but if you look at the 3 attack and the burst attack, both have higher damage than any other weapon we have other than hundred blades (although this is probably only due to the channeled time difference and the GS last hit which a lot of times you won’t be able to pull of cus you’re rooted and the mob has lost interest in you, or the boss is about to roflstomp your behind at which point I will be laughing because I just hit him with my full 5k dmg). Coupled with vulnerability, fury and might these two attacks hit like a truck.

As for your comment about melee hitting all round, the only melee weapons that hits for more mobs than me is the GS or hammer, which I will pull out for large aoe battles. The bullet piercing trait is invaluable to my build and with good positioning and melee classes that know how to bunch up mobs, I can hit anywhere between 2-5 mobs at once in a line, the same as any other melee weapon(other than GS and hammer as mentioned before).

Also, high health and armor does not mean you have to be be in front lines, it just means you’ve got a little bit more leeway before the boss rolfstomps you to death. Thieves can play on the front line because they have a plethora of evades/blinds/stealths so they’re perfectly fine in the front line. And its not that I can’t go into the front line, I choose to be in the back because I like the aesthetic of the rifle warrior and I’m bored of the stereotypical Conan the barbarian playstyle offered by melee warriors.

I don’t think you have given enough thought into saying that rifle warriors are bad. Please don’t use stereotypical class archetypes as an arguement because the game can successfully go against them (ie. d/d eles being just as amazing if not more so than staff eles) I am always open to criticism and will adjust accordingly, if you can give me a more thought out argument as to why rifle warriors are bad, then I will gladly make the switch back to melee.

I played around with an unload build in the pvp area and thought it was alright, but I agree, the attacks from the other p/p skills aren’t my style.

Been playing around and the build i settled with is:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.2.8.12.0.0.0.0.0.0.27.39.38.43.52.0.0.0.80.0.0.93.97.0.0.0.0.125.128.132.0.0.0.15.25.0.30.0

I’m running rampager’s gear with knight’s trinkets.
Rampager’s rifle with blood sigil
Berserker’s GS with strength sigil

The build relies heavily on crits and bleeds to do damage. Positioning is super important in order to try and line up as many mobs as you can in a line. Shouts/banners are for support and can be switched in and out depending on situation. I bring GS into groups to clear aoe mobs and for things like burrows/turrets that don’t take condition dmg. I might switch that out to Axe/warhorn or shield for a bit more control.

Somebody let me know what they thing of my build

I’m wanting to roll a ranged character and can’t decide whether to go for a ranger and go longbow/any other weapon or a thief p/p and shortbow. I think both classes are really cool. I’m looking to do PvE dungeons only and I prefer direct dmg over condition damage. Thx

Hey, I’m coming from a guardian and I had rolled a warrior hoping for a character with viable ranged damage while still being able to apply ample support. I’m wondering whether a rifle damage/shouts warrior is viable in explorable dungeons or will I still be more useful running up and smashing things with my melee weapons?

I’m curious as to whether this armor: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Heavy_Plate_armor
is available in PvE and if so, where do I get it?

I don’t understand why a group finder would ruin social interactions in the game. The most important part of the social interaction in any mmo is playing the game with other people. Is standing around lions arch spamming LFG really what you want to do with your time? What’s social about saying the same thing over and over again? People aren’t going to be like “oh I like the way you spam lfg let’s be friends.” They’ll get to know you through your dungeon experiences. By implementing a dungeon finder you get to meet MORE people in the same amount of time, more opportunities for socializing.

That said, there will always be people who are antisocial when the dungeon finder pops up who are only interested in the goods at the end, well you don’t really want to be friends with them anyways right? Just play your game, get your loot, and better luck next time. You get your rewards and you don’t have to waste your time spamming lfg again to make another attempt.

As for people quitting in the middle of a dungeon, there just needs to be a lockout on the lfg system for people who leave party before the end. It’ll make the time spent braving the rest of the dungeon more welcome than having to wait like an hour to try again. The timer will have to tick in offline time as well in case the person left because they needed to go somewhere in rl, and so they won’t suffer for it when they get back.

Leiloni.7951:

If you’re at 30 Arcane the cooldown is 10 seconds and if you switch between all 4 in order, by the time you get to the fourth attunement the first one is almost off cooldown. So if he wasn’t casting anything then I can see how he was switching quickly. Looking at all the buffs he has up he’s definitely specced for all the boons so it makes sense he’d want to switch to get them. As for the Earth Armor thing, aside from it being a trait like another poster mentioned, it’s just a normal Utility skill. So you can pop that at any time regardless of what attunement you’re in.

Edit: Here I just tested it. I only have 20 points in Arcana and I can get all 4 up at once. Granted they’re only up for a few seconds before I have a 5 second cooldown preventing me from casting another attunement. But at 30 points I can see him doing that, not constantly, but certainly a lot. I’m not sure how effective it would be outside of just being a buff bot, but it’s feasible:

^This.
With an arcane build and a player who switches attunements constantly, you will see a lot of stacked up attunments and their respective bonuses. If they have increased boons I can understand why they might have such strong survivability from boons provided by switching.

Really off topic here, but what armor skin are you using, Leiloni? it looks really cool.

I just tried this build in spvp, 5 wins later (1st or 2nd player every time) I love this build. The balance between survivability and raw dmg is pretty awesome. I’m going to try this in pve now.

I only ran two dungeons today thinking I’d get those 60 tokens for the day. I ran CoF Magg for the first time in 2 days and got 15. Ran cm a few hours later and got 15 as well.

The others in my groups got 60 or 45. I felt horribly ripped off that I put as much work in as everybody else and only got a fraction of the reward. Something needs to be fixed

So here’s a build I have come up with and I was hoping to get people’s opinion of it. The premise behind this build is to be survivable and be able to dish out lots of damage using a greatsword.

Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUAQNAR5elYgyCHFyKEf4ER1j4dP7hVAjXPcIFZIA

The premise of the build is to hit hard with your greatsword, providing healing to yourself while utilizing the shouts to buff allies while also healing yourself. The mace and shield is kind of an emergency break style thing where you knock enemies back to give yourself a chance to recuperate with buffs (4) and symbols (2).

Any advice will be welcome.
PS. I’m not 80 yet so I haven’t had a chance to try this myself, this is just a theory. If anybody tries it out, let me know how it feels. Thanks!