Guild Wars 2

Spectral.1425:

It’s nice to see so many wishes have been granted here! The GW2 community from what I’ve seen so far on the forums and in-game is a lot more helpful and friendly than other games I’ve played, by far.

As for my wish, I’ve been eyeing the Sentinel Outfit for some time now, but I’m just not in a position to get it.

My server is NA!

Someone got me it! Thank you!!!

At this point, disregarding things like the Mad Labyrinth farming method (since that’s about to end), what is the fastest way to level?

Spots stepped forward. “We’re lookin’ for someone… someone that ain’t got a pumpkin on their head, you ain’t gotta worry about us.”

The Pumpkin King stood up from his throne, and descended the steps. “You have not come to harm my people or pumpkins, then?”

Lorro stepped shook his head. “We didn’t even know this… Pumpkin Kingdom existed.”

“This glorious kingdom of orange and green is young, yes, but it shall emerge stronger than any kingdom this world has ever seen! Just you wait and see!”

The entire group was absolutely dumbfounded at what they had found. Here they stood, in a cave filled with pumpkins, and people wearing pumpkins.

“We need to get going. We haven’t come to harm you or anything or anyone here, so we’d like to be on our way.” Avhael explained.

“You stepped into the Land of the Pumpkin without thinking of the consequences! If you wish to leave without the Pumpkin-kin hounding at you, you must earn our favor!”

Spots sighed deeply. “What do ya want us to do…?”

The Pumpkin King cackled. “Good, you are not resisting! It is as it should be! Our tribute of pumpkins and pumpkin seeds is late! You must find the tribute-givers, and ensure our tribute is brought!”

“That… sounds easy enough. What do they look like?” Avhael asked.

“They are clad in silver armor, and carry sharpened weapons and shields! One is a human, one is a plantkin, and one is a norn!”

Nyaranasha cringed at her people being referred to as “plantkin.” Avhael nodded in response to the Pumpkin King’s explanation. “We’ll find them.”

The Pumpkin King nodded, and pointed towards the exit. “Go, then! You shall be watched by the Pumpkin-kin! Do not attempt to betray us!”

The group exited the cave, and looked at each other.

“This is insane.” Nerra bluntly stated.

“I don’t know that these people are quite, um… okay in their heads. Their not-pumpkin-heads.” Sallana said.

“Regardless, if we don’t want another enemy here already, we need to do this for them.” Avhael told the group.

“Let’s get movin’, then.” Spots said.

The group began walking up a nearby hill, in search of the pumpkin tribute…

My story I’ve posted here on the forums, The Neverending Journey, has a lot of chapters to go, and with Halloween here in full swing, I thought I’d let out a sneak peek at a later chapter that has to do with Halloween!

Orr Chapter 1 – Land of the Pumpkin

When the group reached Orr, they traveled for some time in the still death-touched lands that formerly belonged to Zhaitan.

“Do we have any idea what exactly we’re looking for?” Nerra asked. The norn shifted uncomfortably, as did the entire group in this ominous place.

“We look for any sign of – Wait a minute, what’s that over there?” Avhael asked, pointing forward.

In the distance was a strange, bulky figure who seemed to be waving towards the group. Cautiously, the group approached the eerie figure, who, as they got closer, seemed to be quite odd in dress.

From his body stance, he seemed to be a Charr, but his face, indeed his entire head, was covered by a pumpkin. The rest of him was covered in black clothing, save for a long brown trench coat. He carried in his left hand a long pole with yet another pumpkin attached to the front end.

“Who the hell are you? More importantly, what the hell are you?” Spots asked, scratching her head.

“The pumpkins! Do you have our pumpkins!?” The stranger asked angrily.

Nyaranasha raised a leafy eyebrow. “Pumpkins? We don’t have any pumpk-”

“THEN YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE WRONG REALM TO INVADE!” Screamed the obviously insane pumpkin-faced lunatic.

“Hold on,” Avhael said, “Whose ‘realm’ have we invaded?”

“You have stepped foot in the Land of the Pumpkin! You will come with me, and face the judgement of the Pumpkin King!”

Nerra went slightly wide-eyed. “Pumpkin King? Do you think he means… Mad King Thorn? It is that time of year…”

“ENOUGH! YOU WILL FOLLOW ME OR YOU WILL FACE THE WRATH OF THE PUMPKIN!”

Very confused but not wishing for a fight, the group complied and followed the pumpkin fellow.

They were led into a cavern, which seemed to be very expansive in room, as there were what appeared to be pumpkin patches nearly everywhere tended by dozens of pumpkin-headed individuals of different races, and to the group’s amazement, even in this dark and sunless place, these pumpkins seemed to grow perfectly fine.

Finally, they came to a sort of hallway, the end of which was a dead end, but held a rock throne, upon which sat what appeared to be another Charr with a pumpkin over it’s head. This Charr, however, had a makeshift coral crown on top of his pumpkin head, and wore white robes.

“You have entered the Land of the Pumpkin, and you stand before the Pumpkin King, now!” The crown-topped Charr exclaimed.

“The… Pumpkin King?” Sallana asked, incredibly confused.

“Indeed, you stand before he of the first Pumpkin Dynasty. Why have you come here, strangers?”

So basically, Scarlet Briar caused every bad thing that happened after Zhaitan died.

(Direct)
Scarlet’s War
Battle of Lion’s Arch (Causing hundreds of deaths)
Mordremoth waking up

(Indirect)
Pact Fleet being decimated (Causing countless deaths)
Sylvari being possessed
Faolain dying
Eir dying
Trahearne dying
Pale Tree being dazed
Mordremoth dying (Technically bad, wakes up other Elder Dragons)
Destiny’s Edge disbanding
Primordus waking up (Via ley energy sent out from Mordremoth dying)
Jormag waking up
(Maybe) Kralkatorrik waking up
(Maybe) Deep Sea Dragon waking up

(Possible Future, indirect)
Countless deaths caused either directly or indirectly by the remaining Elder Dragons
Each Elder Dragon dying (Each death gives another more power)

Probably more than that even. So yeah, it’s all Scarlet’s fault, either directly or indirectly.

(SUPER FUN GOOD THING SCARLET INDIRECTLY MAY HAVE CAUSED)
All Elder Dragons dying (-ALL-)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12206941/1/The-Neverending-Journey

This is a fanfiction I’ve begun writing, about several of my characters in GW2. I thought I’d share it with everyone!

Two of my short story characters I’ve already posted in this forum about make appearances in the story – Reeshiika “Spots” Wollrane and Wolvigar.

Wolvigar was born into the Blood Legion, but after losing his warband at age 28, he became a gladium, shunned by his fellow Charr.

While wandering in northern Ascalon, he encountered a Flame Legion caravan that he surrendered to, and was offered a choice: Join the Flame Legion, or die.

Though most Charr outside of the Flame Legion would see joining them as stupidity, Wolvigar was enthralled by their offer. He quickly accepted, and once more he had a home and friends – family, even, now.

Four years after his induction into the Flame Legion, Wolvigar had taken a mate, and had a child on the way. He was happier than he had been in his entire life, but did not realize that this happiness was soon to end.

The Citadel of Flame was raided while he was away, and he returned to find conquerors in place of comrades. He barely escaped being captured or killed himself, and mourned what he believed to be the death of his mate and unborn child.

He swore revenge. When the Molten Alliance formed, he readily offered himself, and when Scarlet Briar ordered an attack on Lion’s Arch, he was among those who assaulted the city.

What he found in that battle would haunt him. He found his mate, hiding in a house – She had been freed by the Pact, and came to live in Lion’s Arch, where she had their child. He had been abandoned again, and bitterly left the home his mate resided in.

While fighting, he was struck, and though he killed his enemy, his wounds were too great. Soon, he would succumb to death. A bitter shame, he thought, as he would not be able to enact vengeance.

He sought to leave no body behind for anyone to find, and crawled his way to the mist portal a short ways away. He entered into it, and found himself in a dream. He had visions of the past, present, and possibly the future. He saw buildings burned to the ground by flame, and a figure standing in an ever-burning fire.

And then he awoke. Ironically, he found himself in an icy wasteland, but noticed that he now seemed to be rejuvenated – the mists had taken him, and it’s energy filled and restored him.

This was fate. His revenge was not yet complete… but now, it soon would be.

People always ask me if my name is actually Spots. Well, no, it’s not. It’s more my name now than it used to be though.

I was born Iron Legion, and I remember my fahrar was brought up in a section of old Ascalon, it was some tiny village called Wollrane. The Charr in charge of my fahrar thought it was a perfect sized place for us to live in while we trained, and it really was.

The guy in charge, Gordoon Mithrilshot I still remember was his name, gave each of us a nickname. We had…

Boomstick, who got called that ’cause he was constantly messing with shotguns,

Hairy, who got called that ’cause he had some sort of condition that made his hair (no not fur, HAIR) grow real fast,

Mute-O who got called that ‘cause she didn’t really like talkin’ (she writes her name as Muto now),

Chef, who got called that ’cause he cooked for us every day,

Crowbar, who got called that ’cause she liked using a crowbar as a weapon,

And me, Spots. I got called that ’cause I was the only one with spots on my fur.

That little village might not have been much, but with all of us and Gordoon there, it was our home – our strange little community.

We were all 9 years old when Gordoon said he thought we were ready to be a full-fledged warband. He hadn’t told us to pick a last name yet, so he said the last thing we needed to do was that.

We all talked about it and agreed – went back and told Gordoon we wanted our last name to be Wollrane, after the village. Might’ve been a human village but it was a charr home at that point. Gordoon liked the idea and said yeah.

We all still do stuff, we’re still a warband after all, even nine years after we graduated. Gordoon’s still alive to the best of my knowledge, he’s still teachin’ cubs and stuff. His 40th birthday’s comin’ up, and we all decided we’re gonna figure out where he is and take him back to Wollrane to have a party.

So that’s how I ended up who I am now: Reeshiika “Spots” Wollrane.

Quaggan wants to socialize with you. Quaggan hopes you like it’s page.

https://www.facebook.com/Quaggan-902145603226008/

(This is a facebook fan page where I am going to post in-character as Quaggan.)

Now, before I start this, let me just say that for one, I am a new player. I do not claim to know what’s what in terms of optimal DPS builds, nor do I claim that this could even BE an optimal DPS build. I also do not know if this is already a known potential build, so this is mainly a trial and error feedback thread regarding this potential build.

As I’ve been leveling my Revenant, I’ve noticed as I finish putting points in specializations that there’s a potential DPS build revolving around conditions placed on the enemy.

I got the idea for this build from looking at the traits of all the specializations, going through weapon sigils to see what there was, and drawing parallels between this potential build and my favorite WoW class, Death Knight.

So basically, as I said, the build focuses on dealing condition damage as the main source of damage.

For this build, I’ve decided so far that the three specializations to put into each slot should be:

1. Corruption (Main source of condition damage in the build.)

2. Invocation (For fury to gain extra critical strike, will explain why later.)

3. Devastation (To somewhat make up for regular attacks’ low role in the build.)

So, with that said, let me go through why I’ve chosen these specializations and which traits I’ve picked out for them.

-Corruption-
As I explained shortly earlier, Corruption is vital for this build, as it supplies the condition damage required for this build to even exist. Torment, poison, and burn damage is key for this build, so let me go through the traits I’ve picked for Corruption (Excluding non-optional traits):

1. Venom Enhancement (Also applies poison when torment is applied to the enemy.)

2. Bolstered Anguish (The traits in this tier don’t really apply to condition damage exclusively, but Bolstered Anguish gives some extra damage when you have a condition on you.)

3. Diabolic Inferno (Applies a burn effect to the enemy when using an elite skill, thus supplying yet another form of condition damage.)

-Invocation-
Invocation isn’t mandatory for this build, but in my opinion it does help a good bit. My reasoning for this is that Corruption’s base torment-applying trait procs off of critical strikes, and Invocation’s first non-optional trait gives you a helpful condition that increases critical strike chance. My personal picks for optional traits in Invocation regarding this build are:

1. Fierce Infusion (Helps apply fury to gain increased critical strike when you use a healing ability, basically a for-sure short cooldown way of applying fury on yourself.)

2. Equilibrium (Doesn’t apply to critical strike, but does give an extra source of damage when using the rotation for this build.)

3. Roiling Mists (This does apply to critical strikes, but in the form of having increased damage from them. Helps with non-condition damage greatly, as this build focuses around having high critical strike chance at all times.)

-Devastation-
Devastation doesn’t apply to condition damage or increasing critical strike chance, but helps with dealing non-condition damage after you’ve applied them to the enemy. My preference for non-optional traits for this specialization are:

1. Malicious Reprisal (Gives more successful attacks more often.)

2. Nefarious Momentum (Gives might when using assassin stance skills, which is one of the two stances I prefer for this build.)

3. Swift Termination (Basically a passive execute trait, thus increasing damage to an enemy below 50% health.)

-My Preferred Stances For This Build-
My two preferred stances would have to be Demon and Assassin.

Demon Stance, while about half of it’s skills don’t apply to damage, it’s heal ability helps trigger fury from Invocation, and it’s elite transformation skill pulses torment and also gives a quickly-applied burn.

Assassin Stance is complimented by Devastation and vice versa in this build, giving better non-condition damage after your conditions are applied.

-Usage of Abilities-
For this, I’ll assume the stances used for this build are the two I listed above.

Firstly, Demon Stance’s Empowering Misery heal ability should be used when fury isn’t already applied to you (assuming you don’t need to use it sooner for it’s actual heal effect.) It’s elite transformation skill, Embrace the Darkness, should be used to apply burn mostly, but it’s handy to keep active until you get to around 15-20% energy, to ensure you’re able to continue using abilities all-around.

Second, Assassin Stance’s Enchanted Daggers heal ability should be used the same way Demon’s heal is for this build’s ability usage. Impossible Odds, the Quickness applying ability, is very useful for faster hits while Assassin Stance is active. Phase Traversal, the Unblockable applying ability, is useful for ensuring your next few attacks aren’t blocked, to ensure more damage goes out.

A vital part of ability usage, though, is switching between stances to keep fury applied as often as possible. I will admit that there is a problem with this to a degree, as you would have to switch stances as soon as you possibly can to keep fury applied, thus giving you less time to use each stance’s abilities.

So there are two ways I see of dealing with this problem:

1. Don’t switch stances constantly. This means fury is applied less often, but allows the usage of your current preferred stance’s abilities more often.

2. Make use of the short period of time given between being able to switch stances by prioritizing certain abilities over others.

So, for option one, the way to counteract it’s negative effect in less-applied fury is to prioritize stacking precision over condition damage as your preferred secondary stat, to ensure torment and poison are applied as often as possible.

For option two, it’s the reverse. You prioritize condition damage to keep more stable damage to make up for less-used stance abilities.

Option one allows you to use your preferred stance more often, and thus have access to that stance’s abilities.

Option two is more difficult to manage in my opinion, and is quite possibly less effective than option one, though I haven’t field tested it yet.

-Option One and Two’s Exclusive Usage of Abilities-
Again, I’ll assume the two stances I mentioned earlier are what’s taken for this build.

Option one’s execution revolves around the freedom to use your preferred stance. Now, while you do have a choice in which stance you primarily use, for this I’d prioritize Demon Stance over Assassin Stance, primarily for Embrace the Darkness to pulse torment, apply burn, and increase your stats until you end it.

Demon Stance in option one’s execution would be to activate Embrace the Darkness immediately for the reasons I listed directly above, and from there you have the freedom to use other abilities of your choice or just do basic attacks.

Assassin Stance in option one’s execution would be to activate Impossible Odds immediately for the Quickness condition, and you again have freedom like in Demon Stance’s execution.

Option two’s execution revolves around prioritizing abilities.

When you switch into Demon Stance, you should activate Embrace the Darkness immediately to pulse torment and apply burn. In the short time before you switch into Assassin Stance, you have two paths to choose from: Use Empowering Misery’s heal to activate fury if for some reason it’s fallen off of

you, or use Unyielding Anguish’s leap damage for a small bit of extra damage.

For Assassin Stance in option two’s execution, you should activate Impossible Odds immediately for Quickness, and in the short time left before switching to Demon Stance, you use Phase Traversal and

then just use regular attacks.

-Which Weapon Type to Use-
You have almost complete freedom, in my opinion, to use whichever weapons you prefer for this build.

However, I will make a suggestion in using a hammer in one of your weapon slots, to have ranged capability if it’s needed.

EDIT: I overlooked some of the abilities certain weapons have, and I have to say there is an optimal weapon choice, which is mace main hand and axe off-hand, as they inflict condition damage.

-Ending Thoughts-
I don’t know if this is a viable build. It seems like it would be, but as I’m a new player, I’m not sure. It’s interesting in my opinion, and seems like it could provide stable long-term damage.

If anyone has any suggestions to improve this possible build, I encourage you to list them. I would greatly appreciate it.

Major Edit: I feel very, very dumb right now. As I stated above in an earlier edit, using a mace and axe gives abilities that apply torment, poison, and burn. This completely negates the need for complicated application of such conditions. I will say that if you don’t want to use a mace and axe, what I explained can be a work-around for not using mace/axe.