Guild Wars 2

Here’s a good rune alternative: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Flame_Legion
Burning duration doesn’t help you that much (especially if you’re running fresh air), but as long as someone in your squad is applying burning you’ll get a 7% damage boost— not as great as the 10% from scholar, but might be more damage for a beginner since you don’t lose it when your health drops.

More money saving tips:
Craft your seaweed salad and eventual scholar runes if you can— much cheaper than the trading post. Learn to gather your own seaweed, too — you can sell what you don’t need. Start with a major sigil of force and maybe a superior sigil of accuracy. When you do buy meta sigils, look them up on the wiki to see if you can save gold by salvaging them off a weapon instead of buying them outright. Check out the druid or daredevil staff collections if you don’t have an ascended weapon yet, and make sure you have ascended trinkets (guild commendations is by far the cheapest way to buy earrings).

New raider tips:
Most importantly, find a nice group ready to have fun and be forgiving of mistakes and imperfect gear. Listen, do your best, and remember to enjoy the game mode even if you don’t get a kill as soon as you were hoping.
Staff ele is much easier to start with than fresh air, and it’s what people will expect you to bring to the vale guard and gorseval anyway. Stay clumped up with the group, and generally run towards the boss (or your healer) if you’re dying. If you have non-raiding time to kill, do some other content that challenges you in your glassy raid gear (I did DS tower bosses a lot — cliffside fractal is a good idea, too). Get used to surviving on your own elsewhere, and raids will feel fantastic — someone is healing you!

Speaking of healing, if you are at all interested, ele healer is a lot of fun. It’s a bit unconventional (and very different from dps), so make sure it’s okay with your group. Gear is cheap if you like dungeons (or pvp reward tracks) — just get a set of AC magi gear with monk runes. Honestly, this build pumps out so much healing don’t worry about having an ascended weapon or sigil of transference right away (I don’t yet :P)
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4jz625/tempest_raid_healer_a_build_that_makes_raid/
Buildkonstructor: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWn0XC9XiNYCWYCcYilXAjYAEA+hFVgDwDw9peV/qA-TxxGQBDZ/BPqEsWK/AwFAgcPAg2oDQRq/IKA/C-e
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXrXkbM-MQ

Bumping this for others, like me, who are late to the class and wondering what they’re doing… This, like the guardian guide, is very clear and helpful and I repeat the request for a sticky!

I started playing after living world ended, and never had much reason to go to Dry Top. Now I’m looking for more Tyrian mastery points and would like to do the Ambrite weapons collection. I’ve run through Dry Top, unlocked the waypoints, seen a pattern of events and sandstorm, but can’t figure out the best way to spend my time. I seem to get very few geodes, and zepherite keys look overpriced. What should I be doing to work on the collection? (I know there’s a PvP reward track, and I’ll probably be relying on that, but I generally prefer PvE and I’d like to learn the map)

TL;DR: What do I do in Dry Top to get geodes and insects for Ambrite weapons?

60LI = 60 Legendary Insights, which you earn by defeating bosses. The group only wanted people who knew what they were doing, and had killed raid bosses at least 60 times before. The tonic is another proof of raiding experience, related to the legendary armor collection. Don’t try to start raiding in PUG’s if you don’t know what you’re doing — find a nice guild that does teaching runs to introduce you to raiding. There’s a ‘Looking For…’ section at the bottom of the forums.

Nope, fractals and raids are very different! Fractals are for parties of 5, all reached by the gate in the southern part of Lions Arch. There are multiple fractals with different stories and mechanics, repeated to make a total of 100 ‘scales’ or levels. Each fractal is available at several different scales – the higher the scale, the harder the fractal is. Eventually you will need ascended gear with agony resistance to survive, but below scale 20 you don’t need any special gear and it’s pretty easy to get started.

Raids are for 10 person squads, and are designed to be the hardest content in the game. A boss may have a six minute timer, but squads could easily take many hours of practice before they kill it once. Raids are only available if you own Heart of Thorns.

Another possibility to make distribution go faster is converting the 2nd prize gems to gem store items instead of gold. Afaik there’s no limit on the amount of gifts you can buy with gems in a week, though you can’t give people character slots or other account upgrades, and you’d have to sort out with the winner what they wanted (if they didn’t prefer gold). It might be too much hassle. Just a thought.

I believe I got the first tier leveling my guardian, but I was mainly focused on xp and the achievement progress was an afterthought, so I wasn’t focusing on it much, just using the torch when I could.

I’m working on something! What day is the deadline now?

As a buyer, go for the cheaper set; they’re essentially the same. The crafted set is probably more expensive mostly because it has ‘berserker’ in the name and shows up when you search for the word.

If this is your first set though, consider whether you want to spend the money for a zerker set immediately. It might be a good idea to mix cheaper, tankier gear until you’re more confident. (However, as an ele player, equipping full glass and learning things the hard way forced me to rethink my keybinds and generally become a much more alert. This was not my first character though, and I died a lot before I really felt confident)

Also, have you looked into alternate methods of getting exotic armor? The usual suggestion is temple armor bought for karma in Orr (obligatory warning: can’t be salvaged so don’t put valuable upgrades in it), and I’ve geared up several characters with dungeon armor earned from PvP as well as playing the actual dungeons.

^Sorry if this is stuff you’ve already heard ^ Just trying to be helpful

I’m unlikely to earn legendary armor myself (not for a while, at least), but I don’t want this become a trend for asura and charr armor. Part of the reason I play asura is to avoid skimpy female options I don’t like, and to just see completely different options when I open the wardrobe tab. This armor looks particularly odd considering asura/charr anatomy. I vote to change it to the male model, though if the toggle Ephemeral Wallaby suggests above is a possibility, that would be a terrific solution.

Setius doesn’t check the forums very often either! I just got a response from her on reddit. Pretty busy irl, but might work on commissions at a slower pace. There’s price info on her DA page, I think she said somewhere that $10=100g

You already wrote a theme for my character Rosja, if you want to avoid writing more than one for the same person
Sorchja, sylvari elementalist (a very clumsy one, prone to set things on fire accidentally!)
Cycle of noon, Order of Whispers initiate

Some people have a talent for appearing calm and collected when they have no idea what they’re doing, for putting on a bold face and pretending they have a plan as their hopes crumble around them. Sorchja’s demeanor is completely opposite. Under pressure, she always panics, often cries, and usually knows exactly what she will do. To those who don’t know her well, she seems to alternate between only two emotional states: despondent panic and buoyant joy. But under this turbulence she is incredibly stubborn and confident in her own ideas. Fear might make her cry, but it will never make her change her mind.
She has an interest in almost everything, but confidence and talent in almost nothing. She can remember faces and names (usually right if often unsure), but can’t seem to leave the grove without getting lost, or even cross a room without stumbling. She’s the clumsiest agent the Order has ever seen, helpful to them undercover as a cheerful fool no one would suspect, but a miserable failure if she has to fight or hide. She’d be friends with everyone she meets if she could, though many find her enthusiasm annoying.
She wishes she could be more helpful, and keeps trying new things, hoping to find some hidden talent. And, Mother, could she have a Wyld Hunt? Being a valiant would make life so much simpler. She could know what she was meant to do, and just do it!

The norn is very recent. She was with a pact squad who left her behind at their camp because she was ill. Her comrades were defeated, turned into risen, and came back and killed her. I remember I’ve encountered her twice, but I have no idea what map she’s on, and without a name or anything I can’t find her on the wiki. I think I ran into her on the way to a greatest fear story step, so maybe Mt. Maelstrom? Sparkfly Fen?

Ran around a little trying to find her, and it was a bit surreal to stumble on this event for the first time! http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Solve_the_mystery_of_the_haunted_marsh

Probably not something you should worry about unless you are getting a lot of bags, but this website calculates what levels it is currently most profitable to open bags on: http://silverwastes.loltools.net/

Congrats on the milestone — that’s impressive! I just discovered your story and haven’t had time to read very far, but I’ve started a similar project and was wondering if you had any tips on writing something over such a long period of time. How much do you plan ahead? Do you tend to post on a fairly regular basis, or as you finish chapters?

Contains spoilers for the last two chapters of the HoT story (Bitter Harvest and Hearts and Minds).
Wow, that took much longer than I thought it would. Got busy, and it was tricky to figure out how to end this episode. Feel free to comment (or here); writing for practice and a couple guildies, but it would be encouraging to hear someone else is enjoying this!

The sylvari took the climb slowly, wearily working her way up the crumbling stone. A Pale Reaver, apparently, but not one Taana had met. Certainly not one of their agents. And all by herself – might be a very good or a very bad sign. Kean’s corpse behind them boded ill.
That had been an unpleasant business, though the agent had seemed to be dying anyway. And Tacita… well, that had certainly surprised her. She’d have to keep a sharp eye on her until she came to her senses. Hopefully Trahearne would come up with some reasonable solution, and Taana wouldn’t have to intervene. The things she’d done for that bothersome human…
Taana stood so the sylvari would see her, “News from the front?”
She looked up and nodded, then kept climbing. Well, Taana wasn’t about to wait for her to climb all the way up, not at that pace. They were wasting too much time as it was. Portal, blink, portal. Fast enough. The sylvari took the sudden jump well, though she seemed too tired for much to phase her.
“Thank you,” she gasped. She frowned and leaned back against the wall of the cavern, eyes closed, still breathing heavily. She wasn’t as colorful as many sylvari, resting like an old tree with weathered bark and dry red leaves.
Taana offered her flask of water. “Well?”
“Mordremoth is dead.” Just a statement, tired and cheerless. Powdered bark crumbled off her hands as she took the flask. A normal feature of wooden skin, or the sylvari equivalent of blisters?
“That was fast. You sure?”
“Yes. Marshal Trahearne is dead, too.”
Perfect. Exactly what the Pact didn’t need. Things were a mess already, without having to find a leader they could agree on all over again.
“How?” Tacita spoke for the first time.
“I don’t know.” She paused, looking at neither of them, but the pulsing lines of ley energy above their heads. The blue light made strange shadows on her face, almost skull-like. “They say he died a hero.”
Of course he did, he’s Trahearne. Maybe that would be enough to fix the ugly rumors that had been circulating. Though he in person would’ve been far better. “Who’s in charge until we find a new marshal?” Another important consideration, but the sylvari flinched at the question. Well, sorry, I didn’t know him personally. I need to know where my orders are coming from.
“Laranthir.”
Vigil. Brilliant. It was Vigil logic that had them all stranded in the jungle. Sure, let’s go blast the jungle with our big guns… And was another sylvari really the best choice under the circumstances?
The sylvari handed the flask back to Taana. “I’m returning to Tarir with a full report.”
“What? No, you’re obviously exhausted. How long have you been running?” And why aren’t you an agent? For some reason, Zildi and the others hadn’t made sure the first messenger back was a member of the Order.
“Since midnight. I’ll be fine.”
Midnight. You must be Vigil. “No, you won’t. At least eat something. Tacita, we’re camping here. No time to accomplish everything in a day, anyway.” And apparently it’s up to me to insure the Order knows the full story.

The food was terrible, of course – not something the Exalted had been particularly helpful with – but at least she got the sylvari talking. Rosia, her name was.
She told a strange story of Mordrem champions who returned multiple times after they’d been killed, a long twisting dragon, and islands floating in the sky. A soldier’s front-line perspective; not what would be in the official report, but perhaps more useful in the long run. Observations about ‘ley-islands,’ for example, would be more telling than Laranthir’s assumptions. Then the dragon’s death, and the unexpected reappearance of the Commander’s squad, bearing Trahearne’s corpse. There was something more about that, but Rosia avoided even guesses as to what had happened. Either she really knew nothing, or she had instructions not to say more.
Well, the talking seemed to do her good. She had a definite tendency to clam up, and Taana had to keep prompting her, at least at first. In some kind of shock, apparently, not that surprising, but definitely annoying.
Tacita seemed a bit uneasy – sitting too close to a sylvari, perhaps? It always took time to figure out Tacita’s motives, and she seemed especially stubborn since the accident. A little gratitude might be appropriate, but the poor creature had a general distrust for kindness. Perhaps a reasonable attitude, given her upbringing, but you’d think she’d have learned better by now. Her brother’s transformation had been much quicker, and more permanent.
“Tacita, right?” Rosia turned to the human. “You’re not the Tacita who was onboard the Delora’s Fortune, by any chance?”
Tacita just nodded. A fine taciturn pair those two made. But Taana heard something in the pause – the shadow of a distant echo. Not that the other two would hear anything for a while, small-ears.
“I was a teacher for several years in the grove – Keavy and Ailin were students of mine.” She extended her hand, but Tacita hesitated a moment before touching it.
Oh Tacita, did you really spend four years learning to trust people only to go back to suspicion now? We can’t have you slipping back. You were happy, weren’t you? Why do you have to mess everything up again?
“I found your crash site. Did anyone else—?”
“No.” Tacita cut her off. “I’m the only one left.”
Well, as far as we can ascertain. Taana pulled out her scepter and twirled it a little, as if absentmindedly. A clone crept silently around a corner and deeper into a cavern. She would go herself and leave an illusion behind, but leaving Tacita alone with a sylvari was a risk she’d rather not take.
“Then,” Rosia produced a pistol, “you should probably have this. Found it in the rubble.”
Well, she might have to confiscate it later, but some kind of memento might be helpful.
As Tacita leaned forward to take the weapon, Taana saw blood on her knee.
“Hold on. You’re leaking.”
Alchemy, Tacita. This is a test. You’re supposed to say something if you have a problem.
“Is she alright?”
“Fine, fine, the just need to make a new adjustments.”
The sylvari stared in surprise as Taana found a hidden catch in the metal bands around Tacita calf and opened a small glowing control panel.
“We pulled her out of a blighting pod – most of her, anyway. Got her walking again.” Tacita might have explained in her own way, but Taana didn’t have the attention to listen to her. Always took more effort to listen than to speak, and speaking had the advantage of knowing exactly what was said. She still had a clone to keep track of, and Tacita’s prosthetic was proving frustrating. It couldn’t possibly be running out of power so soon?
“And you’ve recovered.”
Yes, talk to Tacita. That was fine.
“Technology still fascinates me. We can hope Logan Thackery will recover as easily.”
“Logan?” No, Taana had to keep listening. This was important.
“He still hasn’t woken.”
“Woken from what? You said you’d found Trahearne, but you didn’t mention the others.”
Sparks! Three things at once shouldn’t be causing this much of a problem. But the clone had been standing stupidly by itself, and Tacita’s problem still wasn’t making sense.
“You didn’t get the first messengers? Three sylvari and a norn?”
“We—”
Not now, Tacita. You really want to bring it up?
“What data did we forfeit?”
Blast. The clone had disappeared. Forget about them, and they would do that, but Taana hadn’t had that problem for years. Too many things to worry about. Whatever the mysterious creature was, it had been moving quickly, she’d been able to tell that much. Almost as if it knew exactly where they were…
“Zojja and Logan were rescued from blighting pods and still recovering. You were to prepare Tarir for their arrival. We also asked for reinforcements if you could spare them.” The sylvari looked distracted, too. Obviously the messengers meant more to her than the message. “Are you sure you haven’t found any sign of the messengers? I would stay to search, if I could, but I must get to Tarir. Perhaps they’ll make their way there eventually. It’s much safer now.”
Well, mordrem do seem to have subsided, but don’t underestimate these chak. Should she warn them about the intruder? No, better to surprise it.
It was another sylvari that came barreling towards them, though not at them. She looked past them to continue down the tunnel, but yelped when she saw them, and turned to run back the way she’d come.
“Lily! Lillianeth!” Rosia grabbed her hand. The new sylvari stopped, but she was shaking uncontrollably.
Taana leapt up the passage, a clone on either side, ready to stop whatever pursuit.
“There’s probably nothing there; I’ve seen this before. Even after the dragon’s death.” Lily was crying on her shoulder now. “So many terrible memories…”
Tacita. Where was Tacita? She shouldn’t be running around with that panel open.
“Lily, Lily. It’s alright. The dragon’s dead now. We’re safe. Free.”
No, there she was, right where she’d been sitting. Well, you might have given everyone stealth.
The second sylvari gradually calmed down, sobs ceasing but still clinging to Rosia. Lillianeth was a brilliant green, a bright contrast to the blues and grays of the cave system. Why had she been so difficult to spot? Taana’s skill with clones wasn’t that rusty, was it? She may have been stealthed, which might indicate she wasn’t as out of sorts as she seemed. Then again, Taana knew from personal experience it was surprisingly easy to cast stealth if you were panicked enough.
“Now, I need you to tell me what happened.”
Lily was silent.
A kind attempt, but probably too kind. Does she think she can be sister and commanding officer at once?
“Lily, what happened to Sorcha and Kean and Hinrik?”
“We…it was…blood…screams…they broke his hammer.”
“Hinrik is dead?”
She nodded.
“And the others? Sorcha and Kean?”
“Both dead,” interrupted Taana. “Kean’s body isn’t far, if you’d like to see it.”
Behind Rosia’s back, Tacita was glaring at Taana. Well, your version of the story probably stretches the truth, too. You couldn’t spend too much time worrying about friends who were probably dead. Sad, but practical.
“No,” Rosia answered quietly. “I don’t need to see any more corpses. I’ll take Lily with me to Tarir.”
“Not before nightfall. You two both need rest.” It meant Taana would have to keep watch, but she had a saturated control panel to fix anyway. And the problem with Tacita’s prosthetic to figure out. Sparks. It would be a long night.
They must still be getting some light from the surface, as the cavern grew darker at night, bluer in ley-line-light. As the shadows grew, the glow of the two sylvari became more prominent; Lilly a light purple, Rosia a deep red. The colors of Mordremoth and the Inquest, respectively, mused Taana. Not like they can help it.
Tacita lay still, her breathing slow, apparently fast asleep, but Taana knew better. The closest thing that thief came to deep sleep was if someone managed to knock her out cold. Otherwise, she’d wake up if someone dropped a dry leaf on her. She really should have sent the girl back to Tarir for whatever disciplinary hearing was proper, but sending her with the sylvari would’ve been idiotic. What a mess. Insane, paranoid, or just plain tired, they were still fighting Mordremoth. Killing him had been a solid start, but rebuilding what he’d destroyed was going to be an undertaking.

I’ve gotten some interesting places with mesmer staff #2. In twilight arbor story I joined Faolain on her platform to watch the final battle, and once got stuck in the ceiling of thaumanova — a bit like falling under the map; the ceiling itself was invisible but I couldn’t get back through it to the regular area.

Something it looks like hasn’t been mentioned yet is level scaling. If you go to a low-level area, your stats and gear will be scaled down to match, and you can still earn xp. This means someone at level cap can immediately play with you when you exit the tutorial, without one-shotting the mobs or getting no reward. It also means that as you level the playable world just keeps getting bigger, because you can always return to places you missed and still benefit.
Also worthy of note is that there’s no kill stealing. Two people hit a mob, both get full credit and loot. More people can only make an event get bigger to match the number of participants — usually a good thing, because all of you will get more loot. You don’t have to race for gathering nodes, either: everyone gets to harvest the ore or wood without removing it for others. Anet has made a game where you should be happy to see other players. Yep, there are ways to troll, but people are generally pretty nice, because you’re rewarded for helping each other.

Just tested this. Haven’t unlocked the whole achievement, but I figured out you can’t count multiple weights of the same tier of armor. So, you need to unlock 18 for each race, and those 18 must be six pieces from each tier. So I can unlock the cheapest set of medium charr armor, and add 6 to the number of skins unlocked towards The Emperor’s New Wardrobe. However, if I start buying tier 1 heavy charr armor, it doesn’t add to the achievement. If you look on the individual racial achievements it lists tier 1 head, shoulders, coat, gloves, pants, boots, then the same for tier 2 and 3 without specifying weight.

EDIT: Oh, I see this is what you were saying, Rose, it just didn’t make sense to me until I tested it. Hopefully together we’ll clear up the confusion…

Can I enter the raffle from NA? I’d choose 96, character name: Sorchja

It seems like a lot of gold sellers have a very similar ‘pitch.’ I wonder if Anet could implement a system to flag accounts who send messages including certain phrases: ‘and we reduced the price!’ ‘selling legendary cheap!’

Vallus was flat-out missing from this instance! I stole the key and opened an empty cage, then snuck through the citadel all by myself to reach the asura gate, and the cut scenes triggered normally (as far as I could tell — haven’t actually played the episode before). During the last fight I tried dropping a healing spring and watching the combat log to see if maybe he was functionally there but invisible to me. No sign of him. The episode ended and my story progressed, but I never saw him once in the instance itself.

Tall Boots
Part 2! Also on Reddit

Tall boots, Tacita told herself again. Just boots up to the knee. But she could feel the metal vibrate beneath her elbow as she knelt to adjust a buckle on her other foot. At least the device was silent. She’d get used to it. Hopefully. It was far better than the alternative. No, don’t think about that either.

“You coming? Wait around too long and those bookahs might change their mind.”

The asuran voice was vaguely familiar. Gods, it wasn’t—

The all-too-familiar figure of Agent Taana stepped around a corner, waving her greatsword like a ridiculously oversized flag. “Hey, Thief. Try to keep up.”

Explorer. Scout. Thief was years ago. She’d given up on ever hearing her name from Taana, but ‘priory’ might be an improvement. Grenth, by now she’d even settle for ‘human.’

She stepped past without making eye contact and heard the illusion shatter behind her. Typical. Taana was the last agent she wanted to work with, but at least she was getting out of Tarir. Staring at shimmering golden walls had started to make her nauseous.

“Listen.” Taana was suddenly standing three feet from her knees. “If Ceera realizes it’s started raining out there she’ll send you back to bed. Additionally, we barely have the necessary time at present.”

She didn’t bother placing the portal a step or two away. No, from Taana’s perspective portals were for placing directly under people’s feet to drop them into unexpected locales. Tacita blinked at the sudden change to shadowed glade. Funny. She’d nearly forgotten she was in the middle of a jungle. So many trees. But caves – that would be interesting.

“You acquainted with the mission?”

Yes, but saying so won’t shut you up.

“Zildi reinstituted Novan security systems, but didn’t stick around to kitten their continuing status. I’ve been entrusted with maintenance and research in the western district. Should be completely routine, but I could use an extra pair of eyes.”

Really. As if an Order of Whispers mesmer needed help staying alert. No, this had nothing to do with being useful, or telling a bossy asura when to dodge. It was a ‘beta test.’ That’s what she was now, an experiment to catapult a struggling inventor to notoriety. Hopefully not Taana. Even Tacita could tell she was an awful golemancer. Well, they’d given her a pistol. That was worth something. She might disappear now, if she had any idea where she was going. Better to wait, and learn what she could.

The rain hadn’t properly started yet, though the sky was dark and swirling, especially to the south. As they climbed to the edge of a mossy bluff, wind cut through Tacita’s coat. For a second she thought her right leg was numb with cold. Tall boots. That was all. Nothing out of the ordinary. Dodging might get nasty. And Death Blossom? That was going to take some practice.

Taana pointed down a large, crumbling hole ahead of them. “There’s our entrance. Gliding might be calamitous, in your condition. If you’d prefer, I’ll—”

Tacita leapt from the edge before Taana could drop her through another portal. It was hard to judge distance in the shadows, and she landed hard. Blood seeped from the top of the device, inking a dark line across her knee. Not ‘programmed’ to take a fall? What did they think she planned on doing with her life, serve tea?

Well, Taana at least expected her to help kill every last chak they came across. For an Order of Whispers agent, Taana was oddly adverse to the concept of sneaking. No, it was an explosion of illusions and chaos energy and pink butterflies whenever they encountered the smallest threat. Mesmers. Who did they think they were, anyway?

The first control panel was, dead, wet and frigid, with more moisture dripping from the ceiling. A nearby mushroom slumped in a pile of brown sludge

“Melted ice. That’s unexpected.”

Sure, point out the obvious.

“Is…someone there?” a weak voice spoke from the shadows.

“Agent Kean!” Taana suddenly rushed forward.

Tacita drew her gun but stopped seeing Taana bend over a body against the wall.

“Taana…” The sylvari turned his head to face them. His eyes were wide, harrowed. “Sorcha…Mordremoth…couldn’t stop…”

Taana leaned in closer. “What happened, Kean?”

He struggled to sit up, reaching for something on the ground next to him.

The gunshot was doubly loud in the narrow cave. Shooting sylvari was still an odd experience. No blood, just a dark hole, maybe a hint of slow-moving sap.

Taana spun around immediately, clumsy in her surprise. She cast a wave of magic which Tacita easily ducked, then stumbled forward, leaning against her sword as if she were dizzy. Tacita just watched her.

So she didn’t understand yet. Didn’t know what Mordremoth really meant. Lucky.

The asura glared opening and closing her mouth, but silently for once. Finally, she hissed: “You are not fit for duty, Explorer. You can wait out the rest of this mess in Tarir. Pact Marshall Trahearne will decide what to do with your kind.”

“You think any of them are coming back?” Tacita half-laughed, but her ribs hadn’t healed yet. “That the Pact is just going to put itself back together?”

“Even in the Order of Whispers, we don’t shoot a helpless enemy in cold blood.”

“You’d kill a smoldering destroyer. A limping risen—”

“That’s—”

“He was armed.” Tacita motioned to the axe lying next to Kean’s shoulder, but Taana didn’t turn to look.

“Of course he was armed. Anything that’s not armed doesn’t last an hour here.”

Tumbling rocks echoed behind them, and both froze.

“We’re going back.” Taana announced loudly. “Right now.”

Nice try. Tacita kicked a rock through the illusion and slipped off in the direction of the noise. She found Taana ahead of her, crouched at the edge of a crumbling precipice. A solitary figure was climbing towards them, a rifle slung over their back. What light there was revealed hair that was all branches and leaves, and skin that glowed crimson.

“Don’t you dare step out of line,” hissed Taana in Tacita’s ear. “I make the calls this time.”

Also, you have to unlock all of the base profession before you can start unlocking the elite specialization. Saving points won’t help you (though doing lots of hero challenges now will).

Some people might have seen this already — it’s my entry for Kit the Traveler’s story contest. However, I wanted to put it here for those people who don’t do reddit, and announce that there will be more! If all goes well, this will be a first chapter of sorts. Part two below, and on reddit. I’d like to make them fairly stand-alone so you can jump in at any point, but we’ll see how that goes. Enjoy!

Glitches and sparks, they changed the access code.

Blixx glared at the error message blinking on the console. A measly two weeks had gone by, and some idiot had decided to reset lab security. Maybe it was just Neeva changing all the codes to her graduation date again so that she wouldn’t have to memorize them. Let’s see, she joined four years ago, so that would make her…

“What are you doing?”

A sylvari voice. Blixx spun around. He was sure he’d blocked all the exits by now. There she was at the top of the stairs, waving at him idiotically. She certainly wasn’t acting like a minion of Mordremoth. Not yet, at least.

“It looks fascinating. I love all the purple and pink lights.”

What an ignorant bookah. Blixx sighed. “I am recalibrating this gate to take me back to Rata Sum.”

“Oh! This must not be Rata Sum then.”

“Obviously, no. These are the ruins of Rata Novus.”

“Sorry. I’ve never heard of it.”

“I’m not surprised.” Blixx watched warily as the sylvari took a few more steps and sat down, apparently to watch his progress. Apparently too stupid to be a real threat, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. He reached into his pocket to find the rough edges of a crystal housing.
The continuum crystal – one of a pair, his greatest triumph in chronomancy. Retune one, and the other would respond, no matter the distance between them. Theoretically, anyway; he’d been afraid to let either out of his sight. Currently they were rigged as a glorified fuse in case something went wrong, but if he could just get them back to his lab…the possibilities were limitless.

Maybe he just needed a stronger signal to connect with a receiving gate. Increasing the flux ratio might work. He picked up a spanner.

“So, where’s your krewe?”

“What?”

“Asura, don’t they travel in krewes?”

“You make us sound like a flock of moas. They’re dead.”

He should have brought golems. At least they were usually repairable after an encounter with a chak swarm. Blixx frowned. The polarity was still too high. These relay nodules were junk.
“There were five of us, to begin with,” continued the sylvari. “We were wardens and I was just training, but Captain Kean said I was a good mender and the Pact could use me, so we walked all the way to the Silverwastes.”

More sylvari. Not good. One he could keep an eye on, but five?

“Where are the others now?”

“The dragon told me to kill them.” She paused. “I – I ran away.”

After killing them, perhaps? Blixx looked up.

The sylvari sniffled and went on in possibly the most pathetic voice he’d ever heard. “I’ve been all alone for days, and there’s been vinetooths and mordrem and all sorts of awful things.” She took a choking breath and went on, a little louder. “The dragon’s not loud down here, but I’m so cold and there isn’t anything to eat –”

“Eternal Alchemy! Will you cease your whining?”

She immediately dissolved into wailing sobs that echoed throughout the cavern. This was worse than a mordrem. A mordrem would be dead by now.

Blixx saw a flash out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time to watch the tertiary nodule explode in a bright flash. He’d missed the telltale sizzle, of course. At least the sylvari was stunned into silence.

He climbed up and examined the smoking component. The damage wasn’t too bad. The casing wasn’t actually necessary – he just needed to replace the relay spike. Blixx heard a clink and glanced up to see the sylvari looking through the tools on his workbench.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a pistol with you?” He might be able to use the firing pin as a makeshift relay.

“No, I’m an elementalist.” The explosion must have shocked the distress out of her tiny brain; she sounded quite cheerful now.

“I’m only really good with water though. I keep getting sparks in the wrong places. I set a Lionguard tent on fire once, and this huge charr got really mad—”

“Would you pass me those calipers? Ouch!”

The tool she’d handed him was ice cold, covered in frost.

“Sorry, I thought it was a focus. I lost mine.”

“Don’t touch anything else.”

There was just enough of the relay spike left to crimp the ends together. Now to retighten the resonating bolt, and the field would activate again—

He grabbed the power cell just in time, barely holding it back with two hands. The housing had burned out, and now nothing held it in place. If Blixx let go, the resonating field would send it flying into the ceiling. Even if he was lucky and the roof didn’t collapse, he had no spare.

“Sylvari!”

“Oh, my name’s Sorcha, what’s your name?”

“Sorcha, whatever, turn that purple dial CLOCKWISE.”

“Okay. What’s your name?”

“Blixx. The dial.” He glared at her.

“I’m going!”

She leapt at the console, tripped, and smashed her elbows against the interface, bumping more controls as she scrambled to her feet.

“No! You clumsy bookah! Just the dial. CLOCKWISE!”

The cell dropped back into place. He hastily secured it and jumped down to examine the console. What if she’d retuned the entire matrix? This could set him back days.

“My ears.” Blixx stared at the screen in amazement. “Your stupidity did us some good. You stumbled upon a working access code.”

The polarity was still a tad high, but the connection was stable. He activated the last cell, and watched the familiar pink energy field fill the gate. ‘Sorcha’ gasped.

“So you’ll just walk through and be home again?”

“Theoretically. I’m hijacking the receiving gate, so the connection may not hold.”

She gave him a blank stare. Eternal alchemy, even her bright orange face was irritating. The color clashed not only with her entire outfit, but her ‘hair’ as well.

“I mean, you just walk through and you’re somewhere else?”

“Yes, that’s the idea. Never used a gate before or something?”

“I never had to.”

“Want to go through first?”

“Really? You’d let me try?”

“Certainly. Just come back right away so I know it worked. Ignore any other asura that might be, uh, standing around.”

“Okay!”

She took a deep breath, ran up the ramp, and leapt through the gate, as if she were diving into a pool of water. She ducked through again a moment later, beaming.

“It works! It’s amazing. Come on!”

Without warning, she picked him up and ran for the gate.

“Put me down!”

She dropped him just on the other side, on a grassy hill somewhere.

Blixx looked around, puzzled. He seemed to be in Metrica Province, the Akk Wilds maybe? But Sorcha hadn’t changed the Inquest identity key. The access code was randomly acquired, certainly, but he still should’ve ended up someone’s lab.

“Blixx, what mischief are you up to here?”

Tark’s voice. Tark, who had ruined one of Blixx’s most promising research projects. Not the first asura he wanted to meet.

“And who are you?” Tark looked over his shoulder at Sorcha. “What are you doing following this unfollowable nuisance?”

“Oh, I just found him I guess. Why are you so surprised? I thought asura were good at expecting the unexpected.”

“She’s just a silly sylvari, Tark,” Blixx interrupted. “Keeps running through random gates. I really didn’t want to get involved, but she keeps getting in my way.”

Tark didn’t even look at him.

“We made a gate from Rata Novus!” cried Sorcha.

“Rata what?”

Please don’t believe her, thought Blixx.

“In the middle of Maguuma! Isn’t it amazing?”

Now Tark looked at him. “So, you followed the Pact.”

Time to leave.

“I really don’t have time to debate her absurd notions, I’ve got work to do.” Blixx turned to run back through the gate.

A wall of flame rose suddenly across the ramp.

“Oops!” Sorcha held up Blixx’s spanner. “This must not be a focus either. I just wanted to blow all these dead leaves off the path.”

Blixx heard a click, and didn’t have to turn around to know Tark had a pistol pointed at his back.

“I think the pact has enough to deal with without undercover Inquest agents planning sabotage.”

“That’s preposterous! My krewe was solely engaged in research.”

“We both know what kind of ‘research’ you specialize in, Blixx. Give me a full confession and I’ll turn you in to the Peacekeepers instead of the Order.”

Either way, the Order would have direct access to Rata Novus and the surrounding jungle. Worse, Tark would get the credit for it. Blixx glanced up at the wall of fire blocking the gate. If anything, it was growing taller.

“Fine. We joined a sector of the Priory dedicated to studying the local fauna. Our assignment was –”

Three illusions and Blixx ran four directions. _Always a good idea to teleport in the middle of a sentence. _

He got lucky. Tark shot two and Sorcha, apparently trying to put out the fire, flung ice crystals everywhere, but Blixx made it out of range, then circled back to hide nearby. He’d been right to run instead of fight. Two more agents had appeared out of stealth, one of them managing to withstand Sorcha’s icy gusts long enough to pull the ‘focus’ out of her hands. At least she could hinder both sides.

But it was only a matter of time until they doused the flames and secured the other end of the gate. He couldn’t take on all three, and there would only be more later. Blixx sighed and pulled the continuum crystal from his pocket. He turned it over and twisted a knob on the housing. Leagues away, in Rata Novus, the second crystal activated the emergency turrets he’d placed around the gate. He twisted further. The turrets overloaded.

Blixx watched with growing satisfaction as the Metrica gate lost the Novus connection and deactivated. His continuum crystals would be revolutionary, as soon as he built another. But first, he was going to kill Neeva for changing the access code.

You can hide the helmet, but you can’t replace it with an armor skin. Just go to your regular equipment panel and hide your helmet, and the outfit helmet will be hidden, too.

Maybe mordremoth could make a copy that looked like scarlet?

Thanks, I like it! :-) It was fun to log on this afternoon and find this waiting for me.
Rosja tends to act calm and collected, but she’s no longer as confident as she appears, and then she’s a berserker on the battlefield. You hinted at all three in one piece. And those strings really sound like mental tension, be it Mordremoth’s voice or just disturbing memories.

Donari.5237:

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to make an elite weapon, you’ll need max Exalted and Nuhoch Stealth (and language, which you get on the way to Stealth). If you just want maneuverablity, Itzel Poison is your remaining must-have. The Stealth Detection doesn’t see through all stealth, just one specific boss and the treasure mushrooms. Those are good to see, though, since they drop loot and xp (after a long fight) and miiiiight drop invisible shoes that you can sell for thousands of gold.

At least max Exalted costs less mp than max of the others, since they made it required if you make the elite weapons.

An advantage to Nuhoch Language is you get more merchant access in the maps.

Stealth isn’t just treasure mushrooms and axemaster— I can see snipers and Itzel when they stealth, too. Makes a few hero points a bit easier. If you’re going continue with DS for a while, poison might be more useful to you, since it will unlock a few more areas and let you participate in at least one sub event of the meta (scrap metal in the middle path).
If you want to complete the specialization weapon collections, you’ll need both exalted gathering and stealth masteries. Exalted gathering seems a bit pointless otherwise, but these are ascended weapons if you are interested…

It offers the revanent as a ninth class option. It will unlock elite specs (endgame traitlines) in PvP. If you just have the free version of the game, buying the xpac will lift some account restrictions (allow you to travel to PvP and central cities sooner, fully unlock the trading post, give you a little more storage, and give you more freedom mailing and chatting with other players). The rest is all level 80.

If you’re undecided, I’d say wait till you’re closer to the cap to purchase. It might go on sale in the meantime. However, if you’re really excited about the revanent or playing a lot of PvP you could go for it now. If you’re talking about a free account (not what you have, since you’re posting here, but maybe a friend’s?) there’s a lot more reason to buy the full game immediately, but no barrier that seriously blocks progress.

Have you thought about an elementalist? Melee builds have excellent dps but require skill to stay alive since health is so low. Their profession mechanic gives them 20 weapon skills and some nice combo options, so it might share some of the things you liked about the engi (though I haven’t really played engi, so I’m not sure how they compare). I too got bored with guard, and found ele was the support class I was looking for. Good support and damage at the cost of a low health pool — much more interesting to play than blocking and healing everything while waiting for the enemy’s health to go down…

That said, DH gets a nice dps boost and more of a risk/reward feel in the traps. Lots of them this last PvP season because it was fairly easy for new people to pick up. Just drop a bunch of traps and other noobs will walk right into them, though at higher levels people are better at avoiding them and the class becomes more challenging and less common.

Reaper (power/minion build a friend created) is my PvP class right now. Shroud gives some nice survivability, and for PvE it’s a class I would recommend to new players because you basically have a double health bar. However, in PvP this tankiness makes means I’ll take on a 2v1, 1v1 almost anyone, and often rez allies. So I guess I make it harder for myself. People tend to focus necros, too. I’m not a really serious PvPer, but I can’t imagine playing anything but necro right now. I can solo lords in foefire, teleport with fleshworm behind the keep in niflhel, and stomp with pulsing stability in shroud.

I hardly play thief; there’s definitely a high skill bar to reach and I’m not at it! They can be deadly if played well, though usually not against my necro build (unless they have help)…

Haven’t played WoW so I can’t compare for you. Hope this is helpful!

Ascended gear is account bound. However, ascended materials are not and time gated, so there is some potential to make gold there. Not sure what’s profitable now, or even what current prices are, but they generally sell around 10 each.
Deldrimor, spiritwood, elonian leather, and damask bolts are crafted at 450 of the related disciplines

I’ve been working on a story recently, and was trying to figure out how many people would be on an individual Pact airship. That got me wondering how big the Pact is (or was, thinking before Mordremoth), and about populations in general. How many sylvari are in the world? Do Norn outnumber humans? Is one Order smaller than the other two?
I know these are not clear at all ingame, but I was wondering if anyone has tried to calculate some answers.

Yes, even if you have the entire specialization unlocked you can only use a warhorn if you have the traitline equipped in your build.

1: A party consists of 2-5 people, and anyone can start one by inviting another player. You can type in a character name in the party section of the UI (along the left side of the screen), or right click on a character’s name (in the guild panel or friends list as well as in person). If the player is online but on an alt, the alt will automatically get invited instead.

Squads can only be created by someone who has purchased a commander tag. I’m not sure what the max size is (50?). You’ll mainly see them in WvW (tag makes it easy to log on and see what your server’s doing) and massive PvE events that require getting basically the entire map to cooperate. They are also used in raids, endgame instances for ten players. You can join the squad of a player with a tag up by right clicking on their name, or typing /squadjoin [playername] in the chat box.

A group could mean either a squad or a party, but usually means a party. The LFG tab only works for parties atm, not squads.

2: There may be a better way to do this, but you can go to the options panel and set a convenient key for ‘stow weapon.’ That should cancel any skill.

3: I’m not entirely sure — I’ve been told being in a party makes it easier to tag the boss, but I’m usually solo and do just fine. If you are fighting the bosses Tequatl or Triple Trouble, and you see tags, join a squad (especially for TT!). The commander is a great person to ask if you have questions about the fight, and having all players in a squad makes it easy to see how many people you have and where they are. The same is true for HoT meta events if/when you’re there.

This is great! I love the Auric Basin music, and you developed it nicely

I like this one for HoT map timers: http://gw2.ninja/timer

I can’t try this adventure yet as I’m not quite finished with the Exalted Assistance mastery. However, I’ve heard it’s one of the ridiculously hard ones, and I’ll need silver for The North Wind. Any tips or guides for getting this done quickly?

Thank you!
/15chars

For a fresh air DPS dagger/warhorn tempest

Khisanth.2948:

RoseofGilead.8907:

Well, they’ll all be pricey just because of the ascended mats needed. But I would guess that Forgemaster’s would be one of the cheaper options, since it uses Rampager (which needs powerful venom sacs, which are cheap).

Hronk’s(Magi’s) is cheaper than Rampager’s.

I don’t know about insignia, but I recently crafted a weapon — the cheapest inscription is Hronk’s. GW2 efficiency has a great tool for calculating how much it would cost to craft specific items

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFUQJBIhdSfJ0fJ2gJYhJwhJWEBMiOQC4A42Wjr51hAwAIBC-TxiEABXfCAGSJGT7PQlSBCUCqkyC80CQj6PAYiLhHAgd6AEFgfB-e

I’m too poor for zealot’s or more ascended gear than I have here, so I’ve tried to build a bit defensively, making sure I’ve got plenty of healing capability before worrying about dps. But I don’t want to be useless when it comes to damage, either. I’ve also noticed running around with these traits and skills that immobilizes get really annoying. I almost want to equip eye of the storm or something for the stun break, but that loses an aura. Any advice?

I know the pants come from the living story (which I haven’t played), but the other pieces can be picked up playing in the Silverwastes. The coat is an RNG drop, the rest is purchased with bandit crests.

A friend very kindly loaned me 50 gold so I could exchange for gems and have just enough to unlock a new character slot. He was sure I’d love the reaper, and he was right! I haven’t had the gold to pay him back yet, though, and now both of us are working on ascended crafting so that we can work towards playing raids together. A little extra gold would be a big help to both of us. We’re on NA servers.

EDIT: I can hardly believe I just found 80 gold in my mailbox! Thank you, nagr

All classes/races have the same access to jump height and gliding (which is only max level with HoT). Teleports (usually) don’t allow you to go places you couldn’t walk anyway. The exception is the mesmer portal, which can port other players places the mesmer has already been (mesmers often port others to hard-to-reach areas).

Rangers, necromancers, elementalists, and thieves can unlock a skill that gives a passive 25% run speed boost at level 13. Of these, all but thief also have a skill that gives a brief speed boost available when using a particular weapon (staff or dagger for ele, warhorn for necro and ranger). This unlocks at level 7 or 10.

I’d recommend a ranger. The pet can distract enemies, and the longbow has the longest range available, making it easy to stay out of danger.

Necromancer would be my second choice for you. They have a second health pool, making it really easy to survive, but this requires a little more management to turn it on when you need it. Minions can serve a similar function as pets, but are not immediately available.

Thief and elementalist have low health and a more active playstyle, so I wouldn’t recommend them.

Race mostly doesn’t matter in this game. However, if you are trying to take screenshots, you might prefer an asura. They are much smaller than other races if you don’t want your character taking up much of the screen. Also, there is an option to ‘adjust camera to character height.’ The default height matches the taller races, so if you are an asura, that gives you a distinct camera height option. (This has basically no effect if you are zoomed all the way out, though).

This game really is gorgeous. Enjoy taking those screenshots!

EDIT: I see a lot of warrior suggestions, and that’s not a bad idea. You’d just have to wait till a higher level to unlock the passive run speed, since it’s a trait.

Nice work! I think Alchemical Ego is my favorite so far.
I guess I’ll be the first sylvari post since Mordremoth…

Rosja dreamt of pain and death. In the dream she saw Rhiannoc fall and heard Snaff’s screams. She awoke, not with an inclination to the Nightmare Court, but a certainty that her Wyld Hunt was to die valiantly. Having seen death, and expecting death, she understands but does not fear it. She became a warrior and joined the Vigil. She is strong in battle, shouting across the chaos to encourage her allies, first in the charge, last in the retreat, and going to extraordinary lengths to rescue prisoners. But in peace she is quiet, a little surprised, perhaps, that she is still alive, solitary and slow to laugh. Among my alts she’s been a mentor of sorts, keeping close watch on her few friends and always ready with sound advice and a hot meal (she’s a cook).

But Mordremoth has shaken her. She could face a dark world with the Pale Tree at her back, but Mordremoth in her head? Watching allies die or turn to obey the dragon, the last hope she had to cling to was that maybe this was her race’s purpose in Tyria – to be the dragon minions that turned on their master, and die to weaken his hold on the world. She became reckless, wielding fire heedless of her own danger, hardly speaking, hardly sleeping. Now the dragon is dead, and she is not. Some of her closest friends are gone. She’s not ready to return to the grove – to speak with other sylvari. She’s afraid to admit how close she came to answering the call, and to describe the sylvari that did. And her Wyld Hunt? Did it ever mean anything? But she will stay with the Pact because they need her, even more now. She will do her duty, and complain to no one. She will volunteer for the dangerous missions. If someone is going to die, it might as well be her.

Aw, entries have slowed down and this is on the second page now…
I think we need a bump :-)
Still plenty of time, everyone, and I want to read more stories!

I agree — and not just about balancing. I’d definitely be willing to wait longer for more polished updates. There seems to be so much to do in this game right now it’s not like I’d get bored waiting. (Though tbh I do want to see the new longbow legendary, terrific warrior PvP builds, season 3, and an underwater combat rework NOW :-) )
We’re an impatient group… but slowing down is probably to our benefit.

pixie.5940:

:) That is great~!!!!
Now spread the word be free.
I will note I’ll be adding in some side rewards to folks also.
I sold my laptop to get bunch of goodies.

This is very generous, thanks for doing this!

I found time to write something. Tbh I’ve never written anything like this before. It was fun! https://www.reddit.com/r/GuildWars2Community/comments/41btje/contest_entry_by_teaniel9052_just_a_silly_sylvari/
Sorchja is one of my characters. Tark is an NPC, near Dr. Bleent’s camp in Metrica. Blixx was invented just for this story, along with LOTS of technobabble (anyone know what a flux ratio is?).

HoT hero challenges are worth 10 hero points each, so those will probably go faster. Many are champs and you’ll want help (but so do others, so ask on map chat), but some are communes. You’ll need at least gliding mastery and probably bouncing mushrooms and updrafts to get around easily, though.
It looks like dulfy has some nice guides: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/25/gw2-verdant-brinks-hero-points-guide/
Maybe I should look at those…