Guild Wars 2

Thank you both very much! It sure makes me feel happy that I don’t have to grind for gear after being away for so long.

Nice to see Rangers got some love, I might resume leveling mine.
My engineer had a conditions build, so I’ll be reading about that.

I’d be fine just reading about the story so far, and the link provided with updates will sure be helpful concerning game content. I noticed in the main website there’s a page for each Living World content with videos, so that might help with catching up to the story.

Did we have many changes in Traits? I used to theorycraft a lot with my builds, if a lot changed I’d have to rework on all of them again.

Thank you a bunch for all the help provided thus far.

Greetings and salutations, everyone.

I’m afraid I might be repeating a trend in these boards, or might be posting in the wrong place, but alas. The search button has been of no help whatsoever.

Well, straight to the point: I have been away from the game for far, far too long. I do believe the last Living World event I really took part in was the Super Adventure Box, back in April, 2013. It seems so long when I put it that way… But now I would love to get back in the game

Well, what I intend to know is: How much of the game changed? How far behind am I? I used to run an Engineer and a Necromancer, and both were very well equipped for the time, but I wonder how weak I am currently, with all the progress the game has undoubtedly faced.

I would mostly like to know what is the top gear for characters at the moment, how much lore do I have to go after and catch up to, how many balance changes took place (roughly, of course), this kind of thing. I remember people used to complain a lot in the specific class boards in this forum about balance “issues” and so forth. How are things now with the game and the community?

If anyone would be so kind as to tell me these things, I would be very, very happy. if I remember anything from this game it is how much I actually liked the community.

In advance I would like to apologize if my questions were any sort of trouble.

I’m all in favor of more Asura hairstyles, provided they aren’t as hideous as some of our current options are.

Thanks once more!
I’ll keep all of that in mind when I finally reach level 80, then I’ll let you know how good the build is in Dungeons.

I wear it with the t2 gloves. If they could make the sleevs long enough to cover my character’s arm and still get the awesome right-hand glove visual apparent, I’d be in favor of it. And by that I mean getting the sleeve of the right arm to be long enough to hit the glove. But it doesn’t bother me too much.

I myself use the SE helmet, simply because I love the feeling it gives to my Necromancer, and it fits well with my mix of cultural armor.

This link might help you out with picking a helmet to wear/transmute:
http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/asura-light.htm

I think the Axe fits very well. Even more so if you go for a build focused on Chill.

Sovarix.8369:

So what is your complete build? Thanks for the reply, just the answer i was looking for!

My complete build is this one:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mzMzz9Mz0MlovMMlovMax0x0VmobMRq

My gear tries to balance between Precision and Condition Damage as primary stats, with a bit of Power and Vitality thrown in. The focus is mostly what another poster mentioned already: Using critical procs for even more conditions. Incendiary Powder and Sharpshooter work well in that aspect.

As for the one who mentioned Critical Damage and Conditions aren’t that great becaue Conditions don’t crit, well, it’s true they don’t, but keep in mind Firearms tree improves both Precision and Condition Damage equaly, and with the right traits your crits can give more Conditions, which are all efficient ways of increasing your damage output.

The 30 points in Alchemy are mostly because I really like using Elixirs and thanks to them recharching 20% faster, lasting +20%, +30% boon duration from the tree and drinking an Elixir B at 75% health, I can get a quite decent Fury uptime. Besides, the same logic works for stacking Might, which is made quite easy thanks to HGH. Getting a lot of Might stacks by yourself is very cool when you are applying so many conditions in such a short period of time.

As an added bonus, this build can easily be changed to a Flamethrower build for farming events and just having some fun, getting 25 stacks of Might by yourself and changing your play style every now and then when you get bored. You can change it on the spot, no need for reset. Just change some traits and you are good to go.

As for the Elixir Gun in the build, I just really like all the variery it offers. It’s a matter of playstyle, really, but I feel too vulnerable without it. The Healing Field and the backwards leap have saved my life so many times I don’t even know. Also, it offers Weakness, Cripple, Vulnerability in addition to Poison and Bleeding to your condition arsenal. My choice of Elixir R over U is because it has instant cast (Might stacks NOW), has shorter cooldown and the Toolbelt skill is very usefull in dungeons (the thing I do the most at endgame). Also Quickness has recently been nerfed, so there’s that too.

Once again, I hope it helps!

Whoa, thanks a lot for the help!
This sure was usefull, thanks again

With the build you suggested, I made one myself. You see, it seems clear to me going 10/30/X/X/X is pretty much a must. However, I ended up focusing more on Virtues because of Supreme Justice trait.

The build in the end is 10/30/10/0/20, here’s a link:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mzcocz0MzmGTFmmGTnmaxa0GMoaqzMR

What I wonder is: Is giving up on Altruistic Healing for going deeper in the Virtues tree worth it? I honestly don’t know.

One doubt that I have: Defender’s Flame (gain a 100% chance to burn attackers when blocking) becomes useless when I don’t have a Shield? proccing it out of Aegis by itself is any good? As it is, I can run either that or Retributive Armor in the build I linked above, instead of Meditation Mastery (picked it because I run 2 meditations). Would using any of these be better?

Thanks once more for your time!

For shoulder with skulls (light armor) that any race can wear, try the one you buy with Karma from Grretergrret in the Straits of Devastation. It only costs 476 Karma and is very neat. It’s called Brassclaw Mantle.

Link to the NPC: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grretergrret

Tehke sounds Asura when you say it out loud, but the writting style doesn’t fit the pattern for Asura male names. Myjja is mor in the criteria, but usually double consonants are for males. Anyway, they both sound very Asura and aesthethics isn’t that important. 9/10

My new male Guardian is named Vekk Mechabones.

My engineer build focuses strongly on Critical chance.

I’d say the best option is Pistol / Pistol because, well, Firearms tree is the one that gives Precision (300 when you invest fully on it) and it improves pistol greatly. Besides, P/P focuses a lot on conditions, so since it also gives +300 Condition Damage,it’s a good way to go. If you want to steer away from Conditions though, then go Rifle. It also works well, but requires that you focus on Power so that your damage output can be decent.

Keep in mind that Arena Net likes us to use Kits, so using at least one Kit is advisable. You can do well without it though, the choice is yours. I’ve seen some builds with P/P that use 3 Elixirs in the Utility slot (mostly B, S and R or U) that do very well in WvW.

Also, don’t worry about experimenting with builds! When you reach level 40 you’ll be required to buy a new manual to unlock a new trait tier, and it will reset all your traits. Same thing when you reach 60. So your build before level 60 most likely won’t be your endgame one, since you won’t have access to the 3 tiers. And even after you hit Level 80, reseting your build is actually very very cheap. So don’t worry, explore!

(As a side note, you can go to the mists, the PvP area and practice with any build you want in the dummies and bots. Reseting there is free, and so are runes. That’s a very good place to practice and see what you like and what you don’t.)

Greetings everyone! I have recently started playing a Guardian as my third alt, and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. However, I have a problem with blunt weapons, and that is, I hate them. They always feel too slow and uninteresting for me.

While I enjoyed GS (and still do) I tried out 1h sword, and I loved it! I’m using it with Torch currently, and I’m having a lot of fun. So I decided that when I finally get to 80 I want to focus my build in this weapons combination (1h sword and torch).

What I want to ask is, does anyone have a good suggestion for a decent build that maximizes the effectiviness of these two weapons? Secondary weapon set is open to anything that works, even though I’d prefer not using blunt weapons (maces, hammers) for the reason stated above. I only do PvE, so it’s pretty much Orr events and dungeons, dungeons and dungeons. I never PvP and very occasionaly try out some WvW.

Thanks for reading!

Nerf Guns isn’t bad. But other classes use guns.

I’d go for Cogs of Progress [CoPs]

I totally understand you point, OP. I myself started the game with an Engineer. After reading all the comments in the forum, I thought that maybe I was indeed a miserable class, but didn’t notice it because I had only played and Engineer and thought that things were just supposed to be like that. Then I decided to roll a Necromancer. Went to the forums and surprise, everyone there says Necromancers are pretty terrible, impossible to use well and so on and so forth. Then I started leveling a Ranger just to look at the forum there and read all the posts in the first page talking about how Ranger is the worst class and how it’s ruined forever and every Ranger is rerolling.

I mean, really. After I got my Necromancer to lvl 80 and equipped him fully with Exotics and Ascended items, I can do as well as anyone in dungeons (which is pretty much all that I do in the endgame), or maybe even better than most. I managed to kick some kitten in WvW even at level 60 against fully geared 80s, and I just have a lot of fun. With my engineer I can do pretty well in Dungeons, and even though I have a rotation that is sometimes intense on my fingers and require much more attention to not get downed than I do in my Necromancer, I blame my Equipment stats.

What I mean is: play whatever you identify the most with. As long as you feel you are doing well, everything is ok. If you ever feel handicaped, then maybe it’s time to rethink your class choices. Some classes have a different learning curve and a different playstyle, and some people don’t adapt that well to them. Not saying this is always the case, but I’m sure it influences a lot many of the posts we see around here. Sometimes people just don’t adapt and then assume the issue is with the class. I for one know I’m a terribly lame Thief. Don’t run a Warrior and spam GS #2 forever if you don’t feel like it. The whole goal of the game is to be fun and entertaining. If you are doing what you want to do with the class you want to do, there’s nothing to worry about.

I have now started to level a Guardian, one of the classes usually mentioned as extremely good at support and really versatile. So let’s see how that plays out, but I can guarantee I’m not going to leave my Engineer nor my Necromancer in the backburner.

I use Axe as my primary weapon. My build is focused on Power and DS, and I mostly do dungeons. So the idea is stacking as much Vunerability with its autoattack, focus #4 and Well of Suffering as possible. When Axe #2 is out of the cooldown I use it do boost my DPS, and #3 is good for when fighting many trash mobs.

With all of this and Superior Sigil of Peril it’s not hard to keep 25 stacks on bosses all by myself. Paired with my high Power and Axe #2, I can do enough damage to not fall behind and also aid the group greatly. Bosses with 25 stacks of Vulnerability go down much faster than they normaly do.

Would I like it if it had more damage? Sure, why not? But it’s not something that bothers me too much. Moving Axe Mastery to a lower tier would be awesome though.

Alsyoni.5920:

Did I forget anything?

Yes, you forgot the most important thing: The goggles get all the ladies.

.. what makes Toxic Landing trait pretty much useless.

What could make everything better is getting the next expansion to be fully (or almost fully) underwater. This way we’d have a reason for making use of underwater combat and actually have a lot of fun. Imagine fighting a dragon underwater!

I myself hate Corrosive Poison Cloud mostly because of the Asura racial skill Radition Field, which is pretty much better in every way, from not apllying weakness to you, to having a larger range and also taking a lot less time to cast. Only thing it has that is worse is +20 seconds on cooldown, but I see no reason not to run it over Corrosive Poison Cloud everytime.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrosive_Poison_Cloud
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Radiation_Field

Evidence Reclaimer didn’t fit, sadly.
kitten Pistolmancer is awesome!
I created him already and went with Ideasnatcher, but Pistolmancer might just make me delete himjust for the new name.

Thanks all!

Male or female, that is one extremely creepy asura that will surely haunt my dreams from now on.

Embolism.8106:

The Plagiarist.

Now this is on the right track!

… why is she naked?

That sounds much more Hobbit than Asura.
Not that I dislike it, though.

Only if I could sit in a rotating chair and say “I have been expecting you”, while stroking a cat, of course.

Hey all!

So, here’s the deal: I tend to use failry short Asura names on my characters (such as Vekk) and so I always need to accompany that with a Title. I like making up funny titles that sound made-up but carry some meanning for my Asura, such my warrior that is called “Vekk Mechabones”.

However, I can’t come up with such a title for an Asura Thief. My plan is making one focused on using dual Pistols and attacking from range. I tried to think of some wacky technical title, but can’t think about anything that I like.

So, long story short; any suggestions?

Well, I can’t really say much about Humans, since I don’t have any.
What I CAN do, however, is show you my Asura Engineer.

I’d say warrior just because the heavy Cultural Tier 3 looks extremely awesome.
However, as it has been said, both work just as well.

I’d just like to point out that last time I checked, Asura dodging in a Thief didn’t give that really nice shadow effect that other races have. While Asura dodging is very cool indeed, the Thief dodging is, well, exclusive to Thieves, and so I think that being a Thief of another race would be cooler. An Asura warrior will have the same super awesome asura dodge animation, but as a Thief you are missing a nice animation exclusive to the class.

Still up in Sea of Sorrows, checked just now!

OP is not talking about staff efficiency, damage, skills, anything like that. He merely cares about how the skills LOOK LIKE, not what they actually do. While I can somewhat agree that marks get boring pretty fast, I don’t consider it a priority to change their appearance. Also, too many visual effects wouldn’t fit the necromancer well, at least in my opinion. Only thing I don’t really like it when you drain life force with DS #4, that looks very weird.

I’m highly interested in knowing that as well, I need the karma shoulders that are only sold there.

I’m willing to take part in the event, just let me know any server in which it’s avaible.

I like the Ascalon Catacombs weapons a lot in my necromancer.
That is, if you are going for the spectral/ghost look.

Vekk the Famine has finally reached level 80, and with it glorious gear!

I have turned it on months ago and used it ever since.
As others said, it’s just a matter of getting used to it.

These titles apply well for Humans, no doubt, but they strongly lack the Asura feel. Asura titles usually sound overly complicated and made up. As in something you would name yourself after your very own area of expertise, which your Asura surelly believes to (and probably is) a genius at. Also, as a quick note, Alchemist is not that great because it’s more of an Engineer thing. They use Elixirs and have a trait line called Alchemy, so it would be better fit for that.

My suggestions would be joining the college of Synergetics, because it allows you to experiment and study the tethers that link all things in the Eternal Alchemy, and would explain your relation with your pet and your will to explore and know more places and things (which is something I related to Rangers). As for titles, something like:
- Wildpostulant
- Macropioneer
- Pathresearcher
- Turftester
- Zooprober

you get the spirit

Another voice for Supply Crate. You should use it 99% of the time when youn’t goofing around.

When you want to have fun, use Elixir X. When you are in a situation in which you need a field for pushing back enemy projectiles, go for D-Golem. When you are fighting a boss and it’d destroy all your turrents from Crate in a second, use attacking Golem since it hits from a distance.

Never use the armor unless you are roleplaying.

Black Frog.9274:

BoyLer.9732:

From GW2 Wiki:

An asura’s name usually consists of a short, sharp first name with one or two syllables. Feminine asura names typically end in -i or -a vowel sounds, and the masculine in a consonant sound. Any asura whose name does not follow these rules may risk ridicule during childhood. Both male and female Asuras typically have two of the same letter in a row somewhere in their name. Asura do not have a last name, instead opting to use job titles, a krewe name, or honorifics to differentiate themselves. Those who choose to take a last name of a style similar to humans are rare and are considered eccentrics, though their surname is often ignored by other asura

read first, post later. Go back through the OP and read carefully.

It still applies. OP wants suggestion for his Asura name, being it that he has more or less decided on the title. The wiki information helps him decide the kind of name he wants to create for the title to come after (or before).

I myself prefered Astromagus, but Astromancer sounds very neat too.
In the link by the end of the post you can see the name of all known planets outside of the solar system. I’d pick one of them and “asura” it.

For example:
OGLE-05-390L b becomes Oggle The Astromagus
CoRoT-5 b becomes Corott Astromancer
WASP-44 b becomes Waspp The Astromagus
and so on

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/#tc

Of course that’s not a bug. It’s right there in skill description.
The thing is that Lich Form triples your Power and doubles your Precision and Vitality. Also the skills are very strong. That’s a very big boost. In order to balance it out, you lose the ability to weapon swap and lose your utility skills. Your minions are summoned by Utility Skills. If you could keep them while in Lich Form it’d be the same as, say, being in Lich Form and having wells and signets and whatnot. It’d be too strong.

You know what rocks in WvW? Spectral Grasp. You gain a lot of Lifeforce, Chill them so they can’t get away and pull them from their comfort zone right into your zerg. They die and don’t even understand what’s going on! Also the cooldown is very short.

Grenade Kit is supposed to be “the AoE kit”. The fact that its single-target damage exceeds other kits is a different issue.

The main issue with adding autoattack to Grenade Kit is that the projectiles have a traveling time, so if you auto attack a target and it moves, you are most likely going to miss. Sure, being forced to click for AoE at each attack can be a pain, but having an enemy (npc or not) running towards you and missing all your autoattacks would be even worse. The fact that it works underwater is strongly based on the fact that things underwater move slower, so the grenades manage to hit them. Even if the target moves, you are able to hit it with at least 1 grenade.

My suggestion is to select the option auto AoE in the options menu. This way, when you hit Grenade #1 (or any other for that matter) the grenade will be thrown where your mouse cursor is pointing. It’s still not as easy as an autoattack, but it makes the whole process easier on your fingers. Just get used to positioning your cursor and have fun.

My suggestion is to carry Dagger/Warhorn and Axe/Focus when roaming, and having a Staff in your inventory. When you get to defend, switch D/W for the Staff and have fun!

My order for picking Elites was Plague Form, Flesh Golem and Lich Form. Plague Form is, as you noticed, awesomely fun for getting away. It’s yet another “oh kitten” buttom. Flesh Golem works well in solo PvE, even though sometimes it’s frustrating (as in when it attackes stuff out of nowhere, does nothing while you are fighting something or his charge hits a branch on the floor and he doesn’t even get close to the target).

Lich Form can cost 30 skill points, but it’s well worth it. When I’m a Lich I feel invulnerable. Seriously, Lich is awesome. Since I was allowed to get it, I ddn’t spend a single skill point in any other skill and did all Skill Point challenges I found. It didn’t take that long to reach 30 points for it and I don’t regret it at all.

Odds are you were using it and shooting at the same time, so your combo with the projectile removed another condition, and you thought it was all from the skill alone.

nakoda.4213:

linguistically inclined legume

This shall be how I reference the Sylvari from this day forward.

I am in favor of allowing the entrance of other species in our colleges.

My new P.R.O.B.I.N.G. Golem Version 2.4.3b surely could use more experimentation subjects, and I have run tired of the Skritt and their inability to comprehend even the simplest guidances and laws of the Alchemy.

Kimbald.2697:

very stylish coat though… which one is that?

But the fact that order of whispers gear has single shoulder and single glove, is of course essential to the mechanical arm look.
And the coat has no arms so it doesn’t cover it all up too much.
Having one arm undressed helps for seperating the look of the armored arm.
Also that the shoulder has thingamagics on it (daggers but they look mechanical).

It’s from the Noble set, craftable and quite cheap on the trading post. However, I do think it’s quite disappointing in female characters, at least compared to the version in males. The shoulders and boots (and gloves I think), are all from Orr temples. The Coat, Legs and Goggles were transmuted from Noble set, Noble set and starter gear respectively, for trying to achieve a good steampunk feel.

But yes, if I were to try the “mechanical arm” look, I’d have to change shoulders and coat, which would cost me 2 transmutation stones, and, well, honestly, I really like the temple shoulders on my Asura. It makes him look much more respectable and proud, giving him this nice broad-shoulders feel. But this idea is definetly something to keep in mind. I’ll preview it in the Whispers merchant (luckly my engy is a Lightbringer) and see if the mechanical arm look surpasses the broad and reliable shoulders my asura have (I totally don’t have a crush on him).

Now one more screenshot because why not :P

Yes.

But well, that might be decent in 2v2?

Kimbald.2697:

Vekthor.8914:

Kimbald.2697:

My little steampunk Asura, not just with gogles… but with a bionic arm as well

Wiggely Wombat.

How did you get the “bionic arm”? I’m assuming it’s from the Coat. What’s the name of it?

It’s all in the dyes…

Basically I wear almost all Order of whispers gear, except the goggles and the shield.
Those googles and shield give the total picture that push in the steampunk direction.
The daggers etc on the Whispers gear can also be seen as mechanics and valves and all of that, so it fits the big picture.

Now for that arm:

if you color the Whispers gear carefully, you’ll notice that a part of the arm shares color with a part of the chest, some small detail. In the picture: the black in middle of the arm, and a part of the chest design.
Since you only have 1 shoulder piece, you can match that color as well. And the same for the single glove. Those I used the more white-blueish coloring to stand out, but still match the dark I used for middle arm-chest bit.
So I took ‘metallic’ colors for the small chest detail, shoulder and glove. While I took warmer colors for all the rest.

I matched the gogles with the arm for another mechanical touch.

The arm could have even more metallic coloring, but than it doidn’t stand out as much as now, which defeated the purpose. It has to look like a real seperate piece from the rest of the clothes.

Thank you for the detailed reply!

I’m now considering doing that on my engy. I too aimed for a steampunk feel, but my ending result was far different from yours. I focused more on the Victorian theme, and less in mechanical parts. However, the goggles are indeed essential. Here is a screenshot for reference:

Kimbald.2697:

My little steampunk Asura, not just with gogles… but with a bionic arm as well

Wiggely Wombat.

How did you get the “bionic arm”? I’m assuming it’s from the Coat. What’s the name of it?

Vuh.1328:

So i had some fun with poison dart..

Best Screenshot so far.