Guild Wars 2

Is it worth soloing as Druid? Looks like all Druid is made to do is heal your party, what happened to “If you aren’t doing damage, you aren’t contributing”?

Hey everyone, I’m returning to the game in anticipation of the new expansion. I want to play something like a Bard (poet/musician with magic and combat abilities). I’m wondering which class would best exemplify this. I’m thinking Mesmer, but it doesn’t seem quite right. Can anyone give me some pointers?

Thank you.

Hey everyone, I’m looking to do an Alchemy heavy Healing Engineer. I know DPS is king, but I think for really hard fights, a dedicated healer would be useful. Elixer Gun is already in mind, but would Med Kit or Healing Turret be better? Would it be better to invest in turrets or Devices? I figure Firearms would be best as Condi Dmg for soloing and DPS assisst would be a must. Stats wise, Vitality, Condi Dmg, Healing Power?

Let me know your advice please, I know this probably isn’t what most people would think of as a “strong” spec, but I really enjoy supporting my team and making sure people stay up to keep fighting. Thanks for any help.

Just stick to hanging out with Norn when not with other kittens. We have more in common with you whisker faces anyway. ;-)

Ignore the hate. People are stuck in what was instead of adapting and trying to do better with what is. Play what you enjoy, I deleted a Guard and a Ranger (both at 80) before settling into this Warrior, and I am having a blast. I also have an 80 Engie and Necro, my GF plays an 80 Elementalist. It’s about what you enjoy, the rest (DPS, utility, etc) is just extras.

I see A LOT of warriors on Fergusons Crossing. Warriors in PvE are just fine. My DPS is on par with equally geared classes and my Banners offer decent buffs, especially when no Guard is around. In the end, play what you like. Thief is a PvP king, same with Mesmer, yet I can’t seem to level either without getting bored.

Thanks guys, I’ll reconsider GS, even though I love AA.

Hey all, I’m still fairly new to level 80 in GW2 as a warrior and play mostly PvE. I’ve been doing a lot of Explorable Instances and am wondering, would it be better to go Knights gear with ax/shield to be more tanky, or stay in Zerkers with my dual wield (yeah, yeah, GS is king DPS, whatevs, I like a/a)? I like my DPS, but wonder if it would be better to be more tanky to help the group as a whole.

Thanks for any help.

Lagg.3960:

Back in old GW1 you could have up to four weapon sets, but some people here are clearly too young to remember that…

It has nothing to do with age. I chose not to play GW1, and still have no interest to this day. I’ve been playing online games since dial up. I also remember my first Atari 2400 and Comador 64.

Age has nothing to do with taste.

I’ll admit, I did some explorable paths last night with a guardian in the party. Warrior/Guard team is amazing. I prefer Warrior, but a Guardian in a party is pretty fun to team with.

This is stupid. You want to remove survivability, mobility, and versatility. So you want to make it a class that walks in and gets killed over and over with no hope of success. THAT IS NOT THE WARRIOR WAY AT ALL!

Soldiers on D-Day went in knowing the odds were stacked against them, but fought hard not to just sacrifice themselves, but to try and achieve a goal. They used mobility (ships, ground movement skills), Versatility (various weapons) and survivability (med packs, communications equipment) to attain a victory.

Warriors in the Norse tradition used specialized ships, stealth, and tactics to move through enemy lands (mobility); Various weapons like bows and light hammers/axes to engage the enemy (versatility); Salted meats, skins of mead and purified water, and spare cloth for bandages (Survivability) to achieve victories.

A warrior is not just a mindless machine sent in to do some damage and die as you would suggest. A warrior uses evasion, strength, and every skill he/she can to defeat their enemy. Patton said “An army does not win by dieing for its country, but by making the other army die for their country.”

Warriors are not and never have been martyrs simply set out to die. You want that, make a healing Guardian with no armor or trinkets.

Which is better to stack for a group, might or vulnerability?

I’ve had a Guardian at 80 and now play a warrior at 80. Of the 2, I am definitely in support of the Warrior over the Guardian. What you may lack in utility you will make up for in down right destructive power. Some will say I’m wrong, but equally geared, from my experience, Warriors are the best bet.

I was Axe/Mace for stacking Vulnerability and had LB as my ranged weapon. Always have a ranged weapon for leveling.

Oshe, I play axe/axe as well. I don’t get all the “It’s not as powerful as just auto attacking”. I have taken down multiple adversaries in short order using attack #5. A lot faster than simply auto attacking. If you enjoy the style, go full Berzerker gear and don’t let anyone tell you you’re “Doing it wrong”. Have fun.

How is this expansion “Bare bones”? They are rewritting the Mastery system, adding a profession, adding an entire new zone, adding new weapon skills to each prof., bringing in a new mode of travel, new races, new monsters, and Guild Halls. And that’s just the top soil of this fertile new ground. There is nothing “Bare bones” about all this.

$50.00, that’s my guess.

My current Engi is a Melee Wrench/Gadgets build. It works for me. I played Turrets for quite a good amount of time. Even before all the armor plating and extended range. It was a fun build as well.

Here’s the thing, Who cares what you play? I don’t. Play you engineer with Elixer gun, grenades, bombs, and using a single pistol. If that works for you and you’re having fun, more power to you.

I don’t think about how others perceive my playstyle while in game, because it’s what is fun to me, that I care about. So enjoy man, and if people hate on ya, well screw ‘em. They didn’t pay for your game, you did.

Those saying Engie has no range abilities/weapons seem to miss out that the Rifle is a 1200 weapon, the pistols can be traited to about the same range, Elixer gun is 1200, Grenades can be up to about 1500 range. You can (and I have) make a very successful range Engie., especially if you like turrets.

If you like healing, you may also want to go with an Elixer Gun build. Use Carrion gear, take the Vitality bonus to damage, use turrets. Turrets get a lot of hell, but truly I have come to love them. Healing turret + Elixer gun is non-stop healing for you and your party. High mobility, and in most fights, constant damage with turrets of tool belt related skills. Hust my point of view though.

FT is said to have the lowest damage potential. I leveled using turrets and wrench. Wrench is a good melee kit for when baddies get in close, and turrets are just fun. Not to mention wrench attacks heal your turrets. Get Static Discharge and even when not deployed, your turret skills bring good damage abilities.

I currently run Turrets and FT/Elixer gun at level 80.

ellesee.8297:

Hello frands! Vee Wee here, #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

Golly gee willikers my frand Raiff is that the thanks I get for trying to help your clueless bum in that other thread! Vee Wee answered so many of your questions! These questions were extremely basic Engineer questions too! Oh well! A thankless job this is trying to help newbies on this 4um!

PS Turret Engineers are very bad! If you ever face anybody even remotely competent you will get your booty smacked! Bootysmack!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

It was that thread that showed me what kind of person you are. Technical stuff, you’re spot on. But in the opinion arena, you side with the safe crowd. I don’t blame you, that’s probably how you got in the top 10 for PvP, you did what was proven and easy. But that’s not what makes games grow, or promotes change of any kind in this world. Experimentation, imagination, and a willingness to break away from “What is proven to be right” to try and improve other ways., that is what promotes growth.

So sadly Vee Wee, you are par. Not above, not below, but average. no matter how good you do, if you never use your imagination and skills to promote change, you will never be above that.

Also, you suggested against turrets. I did the bomb/grenade walk that you suggested. It was boring, played, and countered. I went turrets, and every match after, my team rocked. So you can see what data I have to suggest you really don’t know more than the basics.

Adios Amigo!

Oh I’m extremely selfish nearlight. I’m so selfish as to want to play a character I spent the time to level and gear, in a game I payed for and support, my way. I seek to enjoy a product I bought for, get this, my enjoyment. If my and others play style meshes, and we melt faces on every front, awesome. If not, oh well, adios. Same logic the elitists and status quo types spout.

oxtred.7658:

Maybe you’re not alone in this thread and I was answering to Raiff. But that’s impossible since you must be the center of the world.

In that case, let me respond. I place my enjoyment if the game over others. If an instance isn’t going our way, sure, I’ll respec if it’s needed. I would rather we try other ideas and actually use our brains rather than default to what the status quo says is imperial doctrine on the matter. As for PvP/wvw, games we lost were due to a lot of other factors, my spec being the least of them, heck, even a non-issue. So no worries there.

Why do you feel the need to pit others joy above your own? That’s a big sign of some mental issues. I can never say enough about the pros of good counseling. :-)

I pretty much ignore most of what Vee Wee posts. Mostly because they are a Narcissistic egoist with little to no real opinions, just the opinions of whatever is popular to say. Occasionally they have good advice in the form of raw data, but on opinion questions like this, best to ignore them. They are the status quo.

As to your question, I play turrets in almost every part of the game because I like it. I find it to be flexible and useful for PvP, WvW, Dungeons, and pretty much everything. Throw a few points to SD and you have an attack, even when blowing up turrets.

Is it the highest damage? Probably not. Does it bring tons of utility as compared to say, a Water Elementalist, unlikely. Do I care? Not at all.

I love you have Tool Kit as a Weapon Kit on this build, beyond anything else. Rarely seen, hugely fun. Good on ya for that if nothing else.

Been using Pistol/shield and Turrets as Zardul suggested. It’s worked really well in TPvP, which is what I like best anyway. Don’t know about 1v1, I kinda avoid that kind of PvP as I suck, lol.

Maybe it is my lack of experience, but I do not see the strength of this build. WvW it lacks stun breakers, Codi. Dmg., cleanses, really anything useful. Not even that great of Dps. Could you explain it a bit more for the uneducated?

For PvP I would think Turrets would be a good idea. Especially if you are just defending nodes. Drop Thumper, Net, healing, and Flame and you have an insta-garrison. Granted I’m just theory crafting, so with 2/0/4/6/2 you should have self repairing turrets that take less damage and do more damage, as well as deployable where you like, and explodable to push enemies back.

So where does this theory fall apart? Remember, I’m just asking as a noob to experienced PvPers.

Zardul.3952:

Go 0/2/6/6/0

Experimental turrets and Fortified Turrets.

take Tumper, Flame, Rifle, heaing turrets. and supply crate.

Take pistol shield

= WIN every pvp match ingame.

Why not 0/0/6/6/2 and be able to deploy turrets using ground targeting?

Thank you Starxes, that was helpful information. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions, it was a lot of good info, and I appreciate the time you all took to give comprehensive answers.

Perhaps it’s my own lack of education, but why are passive stats a bad investment? It’s still 2010 plus added to a stat. Investing into power wrench puts a cripple on all attacks and lowers the CD by 20%. If you carry pistols having 4 in pistols would give you another 20% CD and penetrating shots. Luke I said, maybe it’s my lack of education as to why these traits are not important.

Tien.3865:

In WvW, they’re essentially the meatshields of the zerg. If properly specced, warriors have around 30k hp (buffed) and over 3k toughness which, combined with healing signet/adrenal health, gives them massive sustain. Most warriors run with hammer and sword/warhorn. Hammer offers AOE crowd control abilities and sustained cleave damage, while sword/warhorn is a support-based weapon set that provides personal mobility, a blast finisher, perma AOE swiftness, AOE vigor, and AOE condi-clearing. There’s also the option to run healing shouts for even more sustain (and with soldier runes, even more condi clearing). Warriors are also expected to take Battle Standard because of its ability to instantly rally downed allies.

Here’s my WvW zerg build if you’re curious:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNBMhJakpjOPr8wxD6QD8DUov9aoFMFApnitoKA-T1CEABwoWQLq6slSQDOCAMpsh4HAgWKl8QfQS7PAwhA4hTAAZAW2CA-w

I don’t play sPvP much, but the typical builds you’ll see there are Hambow and celestial Axebow. As for PvE… well, the only thing that matters there is DPS.

Thanks for the info. Will probably be axe/bow as hammer feels too slow to me. Thanks again.

Ellesee, I don’t get your builds. Almost no points in Condi. Dmg. Trait line yet you’re using Condi. Dmg. Weapons and kits. You use Tool Kit but no traits in it. Thanks for the advice, it will be a good base to try out in modification.

Foefaller.1082:

Raiff.6742:

Thanks for the reply Starxes, I’m currently on the fence between Bombs/grenades and Tool Kit. So far my spec is a 4/4/0/6/0 with HgH and pistols traited into.

That’s a tough one… I’d say bomb kit, since you won’t be picking up Power Wrench with that build. You might decide you want Tool Kit later to help with chasing once the balance patch comes through and all it’s attacks cripple by default, but until then I think you’d get more out of the control and combo fields you get with bomb kit than you would with Tool kit’s shield, pull and crowbar.

I thought of swapping the bomb trait line for gadgets so as to do a pistols/elixer (HGh) tool kit build. Just not sure which would be better.

Starxes.2760:

What elixirs are you using with HGH then?

Sorry. That wad 4/6/0/4/0. More damage as target has conditions on them.

Thanks for the reply Starxes, I’m currently on the fence between Bombs/grenades and Tool Kit. So far my spec is a 4/4/0/6/0 with HgH and pistols traited into.

Ok, that’s what it felt like, just thought maybe I was missing something. Thanks for the reply.

Level 77. I’ve tried PvP, WvW, and PvE. I just don’t get the point of warrior. Is it really just a “Run in and hit stuff” profession? Banners are nice, but don’t see the point of speccing into them, as they offer little in a “support” role. Everything else is either a mediocre attack ability or minor buff.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to flame the warrior profession or anyone that plays it. I’m trying to understand the role it plays in the game, aside from “I hit stuff”.

Hi guys, tried a search function on this topic and couldn’t find one. Granted, I’m not very bright, and kinda lazy. So it may be out there and I just didn’t see it.

Anywhoo, I’m a long time player of PvE and WvW, but am now taking the plunge into PvP. I’m wondering what a strong spec for Solo and Team PvP play would be. Is flamethrower better than Wrench? What about Pistols vs. Rifle?

I have mostly Condi gear, mixed with some VItality/Toughness gear. So it would be good to build on Condi. Dmg. THanks for any help you Veterans can offer.

I never said I was better than everyone else. Better then a few, sure. But everyone? Not even on everyone elses worst day.

I have only said: New players should not take the “Meta” as gospel for how the game is played. It is not the end all be all. It will likely change a month from now. Play what and how you like. It’s just a game.

Woljnir.7810:

Staff sucks i solo PvE. I’ve been leveling my Ele in the Pavilion and staffing as part of a group is awesome. Bottom line of what I’ve learned leveling (up to 51), staff sucks solo and is awesome in a group. D/D or D/F is where it has been at for me while going solo. I was getting trashed once I left the Pavilion using my staff xD.

See, I’m leveling as well. At 26 I’m doing better with staff solo than with d/d or s/f. Hence my curiosity. :-)

A good synopses. Thanks for the information.

Im leveling an ele now and love staff, I enjoy it’s dps, support, and healing skills. I notice no one suggests it for……anything. is there a reason for this?

Cogbyrn.7283:

The meta is often a very good reference for a new player to get a feel for what sort of cohesive builds exist in a game. Do you want to be a condi Necro? Here’s a few builds that people have run, and why. Do you want to run a Power Necro? Here are a few variations. It can be a very good starting point that you can piggy back on to create your own variation, or it can give you ideas and in general help you learn about the class.

However, I’m also irked by anyone who tries to play The Allmighty and stakes a claim on what should or should not be played, and how. My favorite is when they demonstrate they aren’t good at the game, but still try to tell you how to play.

The truth is that someone playing Zerker Meta in PvE could easily be a trash can who dies on every fight. Even, believe it or not, Condi Thieves or Backstab Thieves can roll the meta build and get trashed in PvP because they don’t know what the opponent can do.

As much as the meta can be a healthy starting point, it can also be a poisonous element to the community as well. The sheeple masses end up only being able to see or acknowledge the meta. They read about the meta, complain about what is imbalanced given the meta, only roll the meta, and preach the meta’s gospel blindly. That’s where all of my disappointment lies.

My first reaction to all of this Runes of Strength might-stacking business was: “Oh look, maybe it’s an opportunity for a boon stripping Necro to find its way into the meta, since the Necro forums have been alight with claims that Necros are useless currently.” What did I see on the forums?

“Nerf Runes of Strength”
“Might gives too much condition damage”
etc.

Within the bounds of the meta, Runes of Strength became a strong contender, and instead of trying to actually think about the game as a whole, those people who potentially tell others how to build/play based on the meta are trying to get the game balanced around the meta instead of letting it develop.

That was a long sentence, but the point remains.

At the end of the day, I use the meta as a reference point, whether it’s before or after I already created my build. If you want to be entertained, the next time someone tries to tell you how to play, just ask them “Why?”. I bet the majority of the time, the answer will be amusing.

I love this. I can agree that knowing the meta builds can be a good start to learning yhe game. I also warn against using the meta to define the game. I’m glad to see another kindred soul. Thank you for your post.

Bogy.2953:

another unique snowflake trying to reinvent the wheel

the reason meta builds are wanted is because they have been tested over and over and have proven to work, due to certain mechanics in this game some classes are just inferior to others

the meta might change but that’s mostly due to skill updates not because some scrub like you says necros are good in pve srry but just stop posting your garbage

I am a unique snowflake. Believe it or not, we all are. Being rude and condescending doesn’t make you right. As for the “tried and tested” I’ve run with the best guilds in MMO play. It’s bull. Someone in the guild makes a really good spec, and everyone decides that’s the only way that class can be played effectively. I know. I’ve seen it over and over.

So no. The Meta isn’t always “the best” and more often than not is hust a way for internet bullies and snobs like you to ostracize others.

Now, if people in a game that promotes unique builds and play styles decide to goose step to your Meta doctrine, that’s their choice. I’m just laying it out that there is a choice. That this Meta garbage is not the end all be all of the game.

You know, kinda like how you don’t have to be a slave to others opinions, but can live free and do as you like. :-)

So players should only play PvP professions that give YOU entertainment and offer YOU a challenge? Narcissist.

Hey, I find Thief players cheesy and boring, even when they kill me. So Nerf Thieves or heck, better yet, make them all warriors and get read of Thieves. kthxbai.

Dee Jay.2460:

PU Mesmers do well in roaming too but god kills a kitten for every Mesmer that rolls PU. It’s an awfully cheesy, low-risk build to play and I detest anyone that does.

So because something works and is easy for new players to get into PvP and have fun, you dislike it and call it cheesy? Seriously dude, don’t be such a elitist. Hell, if you take that stance, I assume you also say “Anyone who plays a Thief in WvW and PvP is cheesy”.

How do you counter conditions? Cleanse them while power bashing the offender into the digital earth. Conditions take time and fall off quickly when the opponent is dead.

Kamui.4038:

“Any build works.”

That’s terrible advice if you don’t want to be a hindrance on people you play with. Not all builds are created equal (or anything in life for that matter), contrary to your fantasy that they are.

Obviously there are some that are so scattered they dont do anything. But I’ve been told a healing bombs build was weak, then not only out dps’d a thief in Fractals, but kept the party alive doing it. I’ve seen warrior builds that the forums said were terrible, work perfectly in a speed run. So yes, any build can work. It just takes a player who knows the profession and has the gear.

Oh might is the FotM buff? What was it 6 months ago? Oh right, vulnerability. 6 months before that it was retaliation. Before that, it was straight dps. Just stop. This is getting to be B.S. It doesn’t matter if you can stack 25 of x or 15 of y. What matters is taking the bad guys down and keeping the group up. Which Engineers can do both of with ease.