Guild Wars 2

killermanjaro.5670:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

The Glider masteries panel is still confusing to me, since it says I am at 62% on Glider Basics and it states the requirements as 3 points. I’d interpret that as not having Glider Basics, but I guess it is intended to mean I have some Glider Basics*.

Can you upload a screenshot of your mastery panel on the gliding tracks?

Glider Basics does only need 1 mastery point, are you sure 62% doesn’t just mean you’ve trained 62% of the track toward being able to spend the point on Glider Basics?

I think you are right – I think that is what means. Its just not a very clear UI design, at least to me.

Djinn.9245:

You could still try it as the final post states that they have found it works in a number of situations. Couldn’t hurt.

Well, I knew you must be wrong, but to be fair I had to try it before I came back here to say so….but sure enough…you were right!

After:
1) quitting the chapter (Establishing a Foothold)
2) waypointing to Brisban
3) continuing the chapter again
4) waypointing to Silverwastes and running to the VB portal
My hero panel has been updated and I can now get through portal to Verdant Brink!!!!

Yea! In case anyone has the same issue, here is that bug reference again:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3rt6eo/establishing_a_foothold_bug/

The Glider masteries panel is still confusing to me, since it says I am at 62% on Glider Basics and it states the requirements as 3 points. I’d interpret that as not having Glider Basics, but I guess it is intended to mean I have some Glider Basics*.

Djinn.9245:

Try this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3rt6eo/establishing_a_foothold_bug/

Alas, that bug is only if you have already achieved the Glider Basics mastery and cannot progress. In my case, I am still two points short of achieving it.

Jasstfel.3845:

You can’t get Maguuma masteries outside the HoT maps or the new ones that follow after.
You should get access to Verdant after the https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prologue:_Rally_to_Maguuma story then do https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Torn_from_the_Sky ,its only after that you need masteries and the gliding.

I completed both of those chapters, and now at Establishing a Foothold. It is telling me to earn Glider Basics in order to continue.

I do have the option to replay those 2 chapters I completed. Would that get me the points?

I’m back after a long absence, and now trying to do the HoT story.

I have gone to the Silverwastes and completed the story steps (edit: both Prologue & Torn from the Sky).

It (edit:Establishing a Foothold) directs me to the portal to go to Verdant Brink, but the portal is marked as blocked.

I understand that I need to get Glider basics trained to allow me to go thru the portal.

I need 2 HoT points more for Glider basics.

I keep reading threads that I just need to do events and stuff in order to get those points.

1) Do Silverwastes events & XP count? I’ve been there hours and hours, but no additional points show up. If Silverwastes counts, how many hours of events should it take?

2) Many threads say “do events in Heart of Maguuma zones”. But if I am denied access thru the portal, then how can I get to these zones? It’s circular: I can’t go to the zones without the points, and I can’t get the points until I go to these zones. WTF. Since I have been away a long time I am not a member of a guild, so I can’t use a guild portal, right?

How do I get these kitten points?

Corrosive Poison Shroud – Your deathshroud is now a cool green color and all your skills are reduced by 33% while shrouded.

laokoko.7403:

If anyone didn’t know, a huge percentage of GW2 players never made to level80, they barely played a few hours.
-snip-

How do you know this? Link?

Considering quitting GW2. Between the necro changes and the leveling changes, I just feel like I’m dealing with a company who’s vision and interpretation of the game is confused at best, and dismissive at worst.

layzoe.6035:

Solitaire.3680:

I would hazard to guess there are more new generation players that want things spoon fed rather then the old schoolers.. and I know plenty of over 40 players who have only gotten better at games and don’t mind the work to figure stuff out.

That’s not really true. The younger generation can pick up a game instantly and speed through impressively. I know because most of my gamer friends fit into that age range. It is the older player base that needs the spoon feeding and hand holding.

Most e-sport pros retire in their later 20’s because their reflexes and decision making ability diminish around that time. My six year old can pick up a game without any tutorial, gaming is definitely for the younger generation. I am just trying to live out my glory days still.

I believe gw2 is pandering to the older generation with the money? Because there is no hard mode in this game. Been a gamer all my life, grew up with four brothers. Played console and various mmo. Even playing moba which is the most competitive, the hardest part of this game for me is movement control and skipping Arah trash mob.

Bwaahaahaaa!!! We older folks past the half-century mark have been playing video games since Pong was first introduced. We’ve learned more and seen more change and adapted more longer than kids today have been alive.

These patch changes are a direct insult to our decades of experience as gamers. This patch doesn’t cater to old folks, that’s for kitten sure.

It appears that the auto-DS change is part of a wider mindset change by ANet to turn GW2 into a spoonfed handholding babysitting MMO:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/This-IS-insulting

Lily.1935:

Hmm. if you are correct about this then the system it self is seriously flawed. For example, You shouldn’t have to replace the engine of a car because the heater goes out. under the same system, I can believe. It makes sense. But changing one part of how a few NPCs working and having that effect all of them? That’s a bit hard to swallow.

Agreed. Especially something like AI should be modular in design.

I run a Power & Support build for open-world PVE. See the link in my signature.

As Bhawb said, it may be an unnecessary role in PVE, and as necros, we are not the best at such roles. However, I enjoy it.

The site is now up!

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

I’ve been having sporadic lag issues since last nite (EDT).

Using Resource Monitor, connections to GW2 servers currently have been bouncing between 300-2000ms., making it now essentially unplayable.

FYI, Pingplotter freeware [http://www.pingplotter.com/] or just running tracert.exe will help you confirm where the delay is occurring (i.e., if its your ISP or not).

Same here. “Target closest” seems to randomly choose a distant, often out-of-range target. Lame coding.

Erhnam.5732:

Is berserker only enough to survive? Or is it worth to invest in some Soldier or Knight pieces?

There are three things that always generate controversy in this world: religion, politics, and builds.

Many prefer to maximize their DPS (damage-per-second) output, especially if dungeon-running, and for a power build Berserker is best.

Personally, I prefer a tankier build, which necessarily loses DPS output as a tradeoff. See the build in my signature.

It’s all up to you, and the content you want to participate in.

This page is very useful for determining types of gear and how/where they can be obtained:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats

As for which type of gear to use, it all depends on the kind of build you want (condition, power, minion, hybrid, etc.). See the stickied thread on builds at the top for some ideas.

Unfortunately, the most popular build editor site [http://en.gw2skills.net/] is down at the moment, but is supposed to be up within a few days.

If you don’t have alot of gold, you can buy greens/blues to test out different gear combination, before you commit to exotic.

The video (necro changes start about 2/3 way through):
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/563145049

A text version of the changes:
http://dulfy.net/2014/08/29/gw2-upcoming-guardian-and-necromancer-class-changes/

I agree with changes #1 & 2.

I think if those were the only changes made, then the offsetting reductions in #4&5 would not be needed.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

You forgot “make the passive ICD per-attacker” and “make the passive a siphon.”

Yeah, this buff doesn’t actually exist because the only time the signet gets used are during world boss fights. In those circumstances, the entire debuff is consumed within 1 second anyway, so making the max duration 6 seconds instead of 5 is pointless.

I go back and forth between using CC and SoV, and I agree that this change is pointless.

Removing the passive ICD would make so much more sense to allow the heal benefit to scale with the number of attacks received. Maybe they drop the per-hit passive heal amount slightly to compensate for only 1-2 attackers, but Anet seems to have a schizophrenic view of necro: on the one hand they think we should use DS for defense but at the same time we should rely on these meager siphon skills, which don’t work in DS.

Overall, necro really needs 1) healing in DS and 2) abilities that scale better w/# of enemies.

List of the changes on Dulfy:

http://dulfy.net/2014/08/29/gw2-upcoming-guardian-and-necromancer-class-changes/

Link, anyone?

/15char

Thanks for explaining this trait – I never knew that it worked that way.

However, it is still a poor trait as it stands, since it requires that I must sustain against many more additional hits after already being depleted to under 25%.

A better version would be to immediately trigger all 25 stacks for 7-10sec upon reaching 25%, with an ICD of ~40-60 sec. That may give the necessary “burst” to make it worthwhile.

Or, just change the trait completely.
(Maybe: x% of Power is added to the Life force pool)

If they were going to change Lich or other elites they would have said so, like they did for Elementalist. I think the only changes that will occur are those as indicated here:

Our focus for necromancers in this balance update has been on improving their survivability through utilities and traits as well as improving the overall effectiveness of their melee and skirmishing weapons. You’ll see that the dagger auto-attack will now hit two targets, while the axe’s animations have been tuned to be more fluid. Along with weapon skill updates, your utility skills have been updated to provide more survivability over time.

So, the changes parse as:

Goals:

• Improving their survivability through utilities
• Improving the overall effectiveness of their melee and skirmishing weapons

Methods:

• Dagger auto-attack will now hit two targets
• Axe’s animations have been tuned to be more fluid
• Utility skills have been updated to provide more survivability over time
• Some traits have been updated to provide more survivability over time

I take it that “more fluid” axe animations = faster axe animations (at least for #1 & #3)

So, to me the only open questions really come down to the point about survivability buffs via utilities and traits.

Another option you might like to try is flow’s Staff+Corruption build:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption/1773894

I’d take WoS over Signet of Spite. I also prefer scepter instead of dagger for leveling, since it keeps me out of melee range.

As you acquire trait points, things will get better.

Erhnam.5732:

Mmm I tried pets but they seem a bit lackluster, nothing compared with ranger pet. I will make sure to give them another try tho Thanks!

They will be a bit lackluster until you are at a level so that you have enough traits to make them more useful. What level are you now?

Here’s what I’m using in Orr:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/PVE-Power-and-Support-build/first#post4284140

OP: it would help if you posted your current build and tactics.

I could see having LB be capable of being altered for condi builds. It could be built into the now-lame Withering Precision GM trait:

“Apply Weakness on critical hits, and xx% of Malice is converted to Power for Life Blast and Plague Blast.”

Bhawb.7408:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

In a build with high healing power, I’d almost certainly use it as a utility. It offers more damage mitigation than protection in alot of cases.

It only offers more than protection if the hit is less than 1400 damage, and you get hit at most once a second, with 1400 healing power.

At 900HP (for example), the passive heal would be 415 (325 + HP * 0.1). A hit of 1000 (for example) would be mitigated 33% by protection down to 666, whereas the same 1000 hit offset by a 415 heal is 41.5% mitigation.

Its context dependent, so the 1 sec ICD must be figured in along with the average dmg per hit in order to determine which is better mitigation in a given circumstance.

I used SoV for the first time last night and was quite impressed by how well it worked for me in PVE.

In a build with high healing power, I’d almost certainly use it as a utility. It offers more damage mitigation than protection in alot of cases.

Based on the wiki formula and Power of 2332 in your original build, you would inflict 373 dmg for each hit you take.

So, retaliation could possibly boost your total DPS by approx 5-20%, depending on what you think you could output for DPS, and how often you get hit.

So I look at it that the build offers some (variable) DPS boost, and perhaps that is the difference between winning and losing some fights?

Just musing out loud…

Since you asked about a PVE support build, here is what I’m using:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/PVE-Power-and-Support-build/4280529

(Note that by “PVE” I mean open world PVE, not dungeon PVE.)

Holl.3109:

Gnome it’s a nice build but necro really isn’t the best choice for support. It’s nice and offers some things to the group but guardians can do te same. If I run a support build it’s probably a 6/2/00/6 so I can kill kitten ASAP.
Jk… I like to go 0/3/5/0/6 so I can stay in DS more while giving almost perma 25 stacks of vuln with LB, focus, well and vuln in DS. While I do this i do decent damage with ~2000 power. But really, I feel more usefull with my zerker gear on.

Yep, I agree that necro isn’t the best for support, but I thought it’d make an interesting challenge for myself.

Your DS/vuln build is certainly an option, although I often find vuln in the same boat as bleeds: the mob is already at or near 25 stacks, so its back to the condi cap issue.

It brings up the question: what does “support” mean?

If the best support a necro can offer is full-tilt DPS, then a necro isn’t much good since we are weak in that department (according to about half the threads on this forum).

If support is debuffs, then we also fall short, not so much due to our class but due to the condi cap.

If support is AoE buffs to teammates, then we are apparently weaker than most (or all?) other classes.

But I think we can bring some mixture of these things to the abilities to the fight. It’s just that hybridizing like that inevitably results in being sub-optimal in multiple abilities (otherwise, we’d be OP).

Yea, my build isn’t anything supreme or earth-shattering, but I like the flexibility to be able to hang back and offer regen, rezzing and protection where/when needed, or to run into the middle of the pack and soak up aggro and damage. Keeps things interesting.

Well, I just posted this build. I think its pretty darn good and I’ve been using it, but the community hasn’t weighed in yet:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/PVE-Power-and-Support-build/first#post4280529

Alternate Build#2 (current):

• gw2skills.net
• intothemists.com

Alternate Build #1:

• gw2skills.net

Original Build:

• gw2skills.net

I like to do PVE events, mostly in Orr, and as much as it can sometimes be a race to burn down one champ so the zerg can move to the next, its also nice to see the teamwork and camaraderie that does often occur. So, this build tries to straddle the selfishness of the necro with offering some team help with regen, protection, ability to tank, and assist with rezzes. It is also inexpensive.

This build was inspired by Anchoku’s shaman build. But my build has a decent amount of power (2488 w/food buffs), high health (26,472), high healing power (1,117) and high toughness (1,799). Crit chance is what gets sacrificed. So it’s no ZOMGDPS build, but it offers nice support while easily attaining gold in events. Solo, its so tanky it is a bit boring unless you round up at least 3-4 npcs at once.

It is staff & axe/dagger, using Soldier/Cleric stat combos with shaman crests and 2 Runes of Mercy (for extra toughness when rezzing).

Variations/comments:

• I often run CC instead of WoB
• Locust Signet gets swapped out depending on the fight: Epidemic, Pain Inverter (Asuran), Flesh Wurm, Well of Darkness.
• Runes of Mercy & Shaman Crests on armor could be swapped for Exuberance Runes
• Could use Signet Mastery instead of Spiteful Spirit, especially if using Signet of Undeath or Plague.
• I didn’t think Transfusion was worth it (only ~500 heal every 40 sec.), but could swap for Bloodthirst, although Mark of Evasion seems a better choice.
• Could certainly drop Death Into Life minor trait for the GM trait in Death and then take Greater Marks; the Power/Healing tradeoffs are pretty minimal.

Edit 8/13 – Added Alternate Build #1
Edit 8/17 – Added Alternate Build #2

Ravezaar.4951:

I think they give us a cleave on Axe AA now tbh, its our weakest weapon & Nec is one of those classes most ppl think should get attention. (Ranger ofc topping)

If there is a OOC Life Force loss then Power Necro is no more ,not counting the mindless Zerg Wellomancer

Adding cleave or cone to axe 1 would not help much since axe 2 (the primary beneficiary of axe 1) is still single-target. I’d rather see a small LF gain added to axe1.

And yea – OOC LF loss would be horrendous.

Anchoku.8142:

Necro healing support is not particularly good but, with AoE and some tankiness, it is possible to draw aggro and heal at the same time – good for NPC escort and trash mobs. My build is based on shaman’s armor, wells, and transfusion. This works well in Orr; especially on Jonez.

Could you link that build? I’ve tried several times to concoct a build with Shaman’s but it always seemed to come up weak.

mamourrir.9641:

thanks guys. I though necromancers were the best at getting tons of conditions on ennemies. ISnt that the case ?

We’re good at applying conditions…but possibly not the best. Also, the problem with conditions is in group environments where so many other users are applying conditions that the target reaches the 25 stack limit per condition (e.g., on bleeds) and so adding more bleeds just ends up overwriting other bleeds and not adding to total damage.

Condition builds are fine for most targets when running solo. However, even then, trying destroy something passive, like a weapons rack, is frustratingly slow with a condi build.

Why would a condi necro “offend people”?

Brother Grimm.5176:

Do some detailed research first. The crafting level is the least of the issues to make that armor…..You need recipes (not available from NPCs) and materials (limited availability now).

Just checked: I would suggest buying a Recipe for Satchel and Inscription off the TP and you are going to need 3000 watchwork sprockets (ouch!). That’s beside all the normal T6 materials and Ectos for Exotic armor.

Yea…maybe I’ll just stick with the gear I have, then.

Ahhh, ok. Guess that means I might actually have to level my utterly ignored crafting skills after all.

Returning player here. I saw the new Zealot stat combination, and thought it might be interesting for a new build but I didn’t see any on the BLTP. It looks like this is craftable armor (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats), so I was surprised not to see any available for trade.

What’s the deal?

In PVE its great because enemies don’t move out of it, and the poison negates their health regen so that Life Leech is more effective.

To the OP’s specific question:

Yes, I think necros probably are the strongest solo PVE mage class. We can do massive AOE damage in PVE, or very strong single-target damage, and we can do it while facetanking alot of damage.

I suggest:

• Condition damage stacks inflicted beyond the maxstacklimit (usually 25) is converted to direct damage.
• On structures, set the maxstacklimit to 0.

There would be scaling factor(s) involved in the conversion of condition dmg to direct dmg so that, for example, a big 30-sec bleed doesn’t convert into a massive instant damage burst.

a t s e.9614:

Remove it now , thanks.

a t s e.9614:

I’m trying to understand how people are defending dhummfire. So OP.

Such cogent arguments. So persuasive.

Sepreh.5924:

Dietzen.6127:

What build do you use?

Standard 30/10/0/0/30

Spiteful talisman, chill of death, close to death
Weakening shroud
Vital persistence (in anticipation for dec 10), spectral mastery, deathly prescription

Those are some harsh pills

I agree that light armor for male Asura’s is pretty weak. This is what I ended up using. It’s Cabalist coat, Winged legs, cultural helm, and Acolyte(iirc) shoulders. Could also use green necro-y color theme.