Guild Wars 2

I’ve been reading a few things, one of which said death perception is pointless and you should go with dhuumfire inside. So i tried dhuumfire and it certainly does seem to do a heck of a lot more damage. Another person said precision is pointless for reaper and after seein dhuumfire i’d be inclined to agree. I didn’t have decimate defenses traited either. I’m also readin gthat Blood Magic is apparently way better than Soul Reaping, which is just going against everything i’ve ever known.

I’m asking for PvE mainly but i’d like feedback for PvP too. Is it actually better to ditch the crit stuff for the HP and LF valk can give? Also the whole blood magic better than soul reaping thing. Yay or nay?

It’s funny that you mention that because not 5mins ago i realised i was blowing all my initiative and i’m looking for ways to sustain without taking trickery now. Roll for Initiative seems pretty nice.

EDIT: Yeah i can’t seem to get a nice flow going without trickery giving me multiple ways to regen initiative…

Hi, thanks for the reply! I did try having a P/D as my second set at one point, but it felt kinda…clunky? To elaborate, i would be in close range with the D/D and then if things got a bit rough i would P3 to shadowstep back. From here the damage felt very small and i couldn’t find something to do when the enemy came towards me except use P3 again, which would use the initiative i was trying to regen in time for the weapon swap cooldown. Any tips?

Ah i haven’t unlocked the whole DD traitline yet so i never saw the condi cleanse. That sounds pretty cool. Any suggestions on the other sources of cleanse? And by Signet of Precision do you mean Signet of Agility?

Thoughts on venoms? I currently have spider, skale and basilisk equipped.

As for stealth, backstabs do feel great, but I think i like the utility and luxury of it more than i would like to build around it. I can imagine backstabs are quite hard to land in PvP. The main thing i’d want stealth for is an escape i reckon.

What i’m looking for here is to say what i like about the Thief, what feels good to me, and see if anybody here can form a viable build for it that i can enjoy. I appreciate all input.

I’ve levelled a Thief to around 40 in the past but never really took it further. After playing Daredevil in the preview weekend and seeing the upcoming Deadeye spec i couldn’t not just boost to 80 because it’s a kitten tonne of fun. Working through HoT right now. Very squishy but from my understanding it’s all about the evades and stealth. All i really want is a viable build that i feel comfortable with (doesn’t need to be meta).

So weapon-wise i’m really liking the D/D. I’ve read that this isn’t as good as D/P for PvP (not sure about PvE). D/D as far as i can tell is a condi set. I’m also quite enjoying the venoms. It’s satisying applying the venoms and then doing a dagger 2/3 and watching the health melt off the enemy. Are venoms actually worth using though? You get one damage burst before a lengthy cooldown. What sold me on the PoF preview weekend was the Daredevil spec, not because of the staff, but mainly the way you turn you evades into attacks! I don’t really care much for the staff play but the traitline itself looks useful. So i’d really if possible like to be a D/D Condi Daredevil i guess? No idea what the offhand should be, at the minute it’s the shortbow. I’ve got Deadly Arts specced in to make poison stronger because i saw that on a YouTube video somewhere. I’m struggling to figure out the best 3rd traitline though. Shadow Arts was cool for the venom cooldown and stealthing, but Trickery seems great for the extra base damage and initiative. I’m actually currently specced into Crit Strikes though, and while it doesn’t really synergise i think i’m noticing a damage increase and No Quarter is quite fun to try and upkeep. I’ve taken Haste alongside my venoms to trigger fury.

Now that build i have right now seems obviously flawed. There’ no condi removal unless i take Withdraw, and frankly i’d much rather take the stealth heal or DD heal. I’m also aware that i’m speaking from a very naive viewpoint as i really don’ tknow what makes the Thief good in any way and i’ve probably just listed the worst trailines to put together.

So a D/D + X condi Daredevil that likes venoms, doesn’t like the staff, has some condi removal and at least one stealth access? Anything like that around? Cheers!

If there even is such a thing as a power reaper. Would Soul Reaping and Spite still be the optimal lines to go with? I feel so lost!

kurtosis.9526:

Agree with Chaba, take your time and level your Engi up the normal way. Maybe use a Level 20 birthday boost if you have one, but Engi is worth learning the first time bit-by-bit.

You’ll also need a ton of Hero Points to unlock two Elite Specs, so just level by getting every Waypoint and HP in every map. That will get you to 80 without having to bother with tedious Hearts.

That said, if you really want to boost, here’s the current best guide on how to play Engi without Elite specs at 80: http://qtfy.eu/build/engineer#condi_engie

Cheers for the info. Which do you find more satisfying to play: Power or Condi?

I was planning on playing Revenant through PoF but after seeing Holosmith i couldn’t resist. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally make an Asura. So i’ve boosted my Engi to check out the traits (not commited to the boost yet) and it’s frankly overwhelming. I need a crash course on the Engi’s place in the game and effective builds. I’ll likely switch to Scrapper because i liked the look of the hammer gameplay. So what’s a great build to solo HoT content pre and post-Scrapper? Thanks in advance!

@Matt Cole and Temihal, that is extremely helpful information. Thankyou so much! I’m glad staff isn’t manadatory, besides, when running in a group there’s going to be a bunch of people doing CC anyway!

Do you both run the Dev and invok trees too?

I’m trying to learn how to Herald. I’ve not unlocked all the Facets yet, but i have Light, Might and Elements, so i’m trying to plan a build in advance. As somebody who’s come from a pretty straight forward power Reaper build that involves tonnes of AoE and power/defense buffs when running in headfirst and attacking groups, plus having a whole second health bar, i’m finding Herald super hard to get to grips with. Fecking pocket raptors are kicking my butt! What’s a good stepping stone build for me that’s useful?

At the moment i like the shield and reeaaally want to unlock Glints Bastion because it lookd dope! I see a lot of people say to take staff as the second set because of skill 5, but the weapon seems so incredibly boring and surely you can decimate breakbars with other skills? I noticed Jalis’ Forced Engagement took off half of the vampire broodmother HP in Verdant Brink (or w/e the monster was called). I find i’m extremely squishy right now and i tend to just stay out of fights, but the hammer’s pretty kitten boring and i want to get in there and stab things in the face without dying! I was running S/A before unlocking the shield and i do really miss the axe 4 for gap closing, but i feel like hammer makes more sense for a second set so i have range.

I really enjoyed Mallyx when levelling because while i don’t like going full condi i do like having things ticking away on enemies for a bit of “insurance”. Plus Unyielding Anguish and the elite were great, though i think the elite may not be as great as i thought. “Condition effect ignored” – Well i ran into wyvern fire with it active and it still killed me, so i think it must not be all conditions. Considering the obvious traitlines to take are Dev, Invok and Herald there’s not much point in Mallyx…or is there? Shiro i want to love but it just kills your energy unless you’re just using it for dodges…Jalis seems to pair up best overall i think, probably beause the hammers give me that little bit of sustain that serves my need to run into groups like an idiot.

So the general consensus seem sto be that Glint is mandatory then?

I’m new to this class, currently at lvl63, but i’d like advice on what i should really spec into. At the moment i’ve narrowed things down to Shiro/Mallyx as i want to be a damage dealer, and i’m actually enjoying mace skills for the first time ever! Thing is i’ve heard Mallyx is a complete writeoff? Have to say the torment damage looks pretty great and i love using Unyielding Anguish (wish my necro could get something similar…), but should i just quit the Mallyx line and swap it out for Glint when i get it? Thoughts?

Edit: I PvE and PvP. Never really done WvW.

It’s happening all over the game. We got DC’d on Tequatl 4 times and the fight restarted again after each DC.

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up

Ok thanks. I think i’ve decided i’m just going to try going zerker and figure out damage mitigations through skill slots and traits.

Since Rise isn’t granting protection does that mean it will stack on top of spectral armor to give -66% damage reduction?

I started crafting my first ascendeds (Zojja’s) but i’m starting to wonder if zerker is the right path to go down. I quite enjoy having the toughness stat up a bit. My build at the moment focus on might stacking and using blighters boon and chilling victory to sustain.

Ossa’s armor sounds quite appealing…

+54 Power
+54 Toughness
+30 Ferocity
+30 Healing Power

Would the healing power improve blighters boon?

Considering i’m focused on might stacking i figured strength runes would be best.

Any suggestions?

Ok thanks for the help!

My coins appear to be bugged. I checked the achievements list and it says i still had #12 and #21 to collect, so i checked the Dulfy guide and visited both locations. No coins are there.

I’ve been using Death Perception for a while but i wanted to see if i could substitute it for Unyielding Blast/Decimate Defenses so i could take Foot in the Grave. However as i’m hitting the enemy with Shroud1 i’m looking at the crit chance % on the hero panel and it’s not changing at all.

Bro, this build’s awesome! I’m actually holding my own soloing HoT hero points and group events. What stat type do you use? I’m assuming not Berserker.

miguelsil.6324:

https://youtu.be/2mj20SB3p7U

Watch my first video and the ones after and see if u like my build. My own creation and i still enjoy it

Oooooh this really interesting! Couple of questions though. I’m tempted to switch out Necromantic Corruption for Deadly Strength, and also Augery of Death for Chilling Nova to aid might stacking. Any thoughts on this? Also Death Perception instead of Foot in the Grave because that would give me 100% crit chance in shroud. I tend to pop shroud3 upon entering which grants stability anyway.

EDIT: I’m starting to see the amazing advantage Augery gives you. My only concern would be that if i’m not fighting a group then the benefits are lackuster, and if i am fighting a group i’m dead anyway (in PvP)

Is WoS at all viable in PvP. I remember a few years running dagger i could use Dark Pact to keep people in place, but without that ability i’m not sure if there’s much point in any wells whatsoever…

Does Death Magic have any viability? I recall there being a trait that increase power based on toughness as well as Unholy Sanctuary for sustain. Or should i not be looking at healing myself and instead at avoiding damage altogether via blinds like GS4 and WoD? Thanks for all the replies so far btw!

I’m not really interested in metas but i would like to get the most use out of what i can. I enjoy my reaper shroud and greatsword and would like to really focus on being able to pop shroud as often as possible, quickly getting life force back in between. I’m going for a power/crit thing. When i enter shroud my crit goes up to 85%, plus i have decimate defenses to add more % with vuln stacks. I did have Unyeilding Blast but i swapped it for Speed of Shadows and took Rending Shroud instead. Vuln stacking the enemy while Might stacking myself is another thing i’m going for. I’ve been trying out Reapers Onslaught but i’ve noticed my survivability drop considerably because i dropped Blighters Boon. I don’t really know if it was a good tradeoff.

I’m also not really sure what my offhand set should be. at the moment i’m using A/F, mainly just to help recharge my life force.

Skill Slot wise for PvE i’ve got WoS, BiP and Suffer for a second condi removal. I’m not sure about BiP (though i like that it’s a AoE boon now!) because i find when in shroud my might stacks fairly quickly anyway. I was thinking for PvP maybe swap WoS for “Nothing Can Save You”, so i can pop it before entering shroud and making me unblockable for a time while boon stripping. Maybe WoD instead of BiP to help prevent retaliation?

For the Elite skill i’ve got “Chilled to the Bone” just becaus i do more damage to frozen enemies.

Bottom line is i’ve no idea what i’m doing anymore

Thanks for the heads up about the LFG system. It’s not something i’ve ever really looked into. I assumed it was just for dungeons etc. I’m glad to see this option though, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I guess i can chill doing some mat farming or something in the later hours then

Been standing at Indigo cave for about 30mins with nobody here. I like this game but i don’t understand how the content can be future-proofed when it’s so group focused. Same with HoT, which i now feel ridiculously pressured to grind through for weeks even though i simply don’t have the time. The amount of people i see saying “GW2 is great because it can be taken casually at your own pace”. Absolute rubbish! If you don’t keep up then you’ll be left with dead areas and lost content. How am i supposed to get the luminescent gear? Is there a peak time on the EU servers? Anybody got any tips at all for how to get around this problem? It’s incredbly frustrating.

Farming for scraps sucks. I’m trying to craft my ascended and Linen is as common as the dodo. What does everyone do to pass the time while they run around in circles hitting the same enemies for hours?

I’m a filthy casual calling all other filthy casuals to tell me what they do to get the most out of this game. I uninstalled it about a year ago because HoT just killed it for me. I was making progress at a snails pace and it was so group focused that i found it hard to quickly jump in and accomplish anything by myself. I also constantly feel like i’m falling behind with the living story. I really deteste the living story and would much rather they released large expansions further apart instead of these “micro-expansions” that add more items i don’t understand and make me constantly feel like i’m behind, but it is what it is so i’ll need to try and get used to it. It’s worse now after quitting for a year. I’ve reinstalled and have no idea what to do with myself.

So what do people who play casually and aren’t aimed at raiding do to get enjoyment out of the game that keeps them playing? I enjoy the character building aspect of the game, and the map completion was fun (the first time). I like that you can build legendaries at your own pace but it looks like such a large and confusing process i wouldn’t even know how to keep track of it or even start it. I was thinking maybe my goal should just be a couple specific things? For example my friend who plays WoW is a mount collector and gold maker and that’s all he does because he’s accepted he’ll never be able to experience every single bit of content in the game. Is anybody similar to this in GW? The fact all the “mounts” and toys appear to be on the cash shop really kills this for me.

I’m rambling, somebody help!

A build update kicked me out of the jungle and now i’m unable to go back in

Can confirm this is an issue!

Can confirm this same issue!!

Has Blood Magic become any more viable?

Also i trained up all my skills using the hero points, but i still have 205 left? What do i do with them?

EDIT: I also can’t see any indication on the traits page that Spite increases power +300 etc. Do the traits still have this effect?

I’ve come back to the game tonight after a few months break and it seems that a lot of the traits have changed and my build is no more.

From what i remember of my build i was running a Powermancer heavily specced into Spite and Soul Reaping and revolved around stacking vuln and might to do the most damage possible. Unyielding Blast was my goto attack for this but i’ve noticed it no longer stacks might?! Since i’ve forgotten what the old traits i had were i’m finding it increasingly frustrating to figure out a build with this new layout and re-learning every single trait at the same time. Also i have no idea what Training is, but apparently i have 361 Hero Points to spend.

Can somebody give me the new standard power build please so i have a jumping off point?

LittleHorn.6728:

I think if you sacrifice some power for toughness you are getting away from the point of powermancer. Your best defense is an aggressive offense. Making the enemy sweat is how you avoid damage. If they are trying to heal and defend, they probly won’t be hitting yoyou much. By losing power you aren’t putting enough pressure on em, which gives em time to do some damage.

Good answer, i’ve decided to put the 2 points back into the power traitline. Where do you recommend i put the other 2 though? I had them in Death Magic for Ritual of Protection, but i don’t know if that’s the best option.

PvP is mainly what i think about. PvE tends to work for me no matter what build i am. I have Consume Conditions, but yeah nothing else for removal. I tend to switch to DS when things are getting rough as a damage sponge and usually the opponent will either die or run away because my life blast does so much damage

In regards to PvP, I was running a standard 6/2/0/0/6 build but decided to switch out some of my power for some extra toughness, vuln stacking and death shroud support using Death Shiver, Soul Comprehension and Ritual of Protection. Doing this however means i don’t have Close to Death anymore and 100 less power from the traitline. Do you think the traits iv’e got from the Death Magic tree make up for this loss?

I’m using A/W and D/F along with WoS, WoC and WoD. I’m not sure if i want to switch WoD for BiP, i’d get more damage but WoD makes you near invincible for 5secs and on top of that gives me protection from the Ritual of Protect, plus i’ll have the passive vuln stacking from Death Shiver.

I’m in a pickle deciding what to do. The build i was running before worked fine, i was rampaging every match, but i don’t know if that loss of 100 power and Close to Death will hinder my damage too much.

Holl.3109:

Yea just a standaard power build.
Just use WoC and WoS. 3rd is optional. And you might want axe/Warhorn instead of staff…

I absolutely LOVE this build. I haven’t played any other classes to lvl80 but my god this feels borderline OP in PvE. Haven’t tried it in PvP yet. I went with WoS, Signet of Spite and Blood is Power. BiP is great because you can stack your might much higher as well as having instant might when you enter a fight.

My only gripe with it is that my dagger feels like complete trash now because Life Blast is so ridiculously powerful. Heck i think it’s more powerful than Lich forms auto!

Holl.3109:

But nothing explains things better than a vid (:P),
Here I just some random soloQ killing with focus:
http://youtu.be/5JiHJiQMxO4

I really like the look of this build. It’s going to be hard to break away from the survivability WoD and Blood traits give me, but the power of DS looks like it could make up for it. I’m guessing this build works well in PvE as well, just without the Spectral skills?

How viable is D/F in PvE?

Roe.3679:

I still use a focus in pvp if the enemy team has a lot of elementalists and/or engineers because the boon strip and chill really hurts them.

Could you elaborate more on the build you use. Ive been using Well of Corruption for my boon strip and i have chilling darkness which causes chill with Well of Darkness. That plus Locust Swarm and my dagger #3 are good for keeping people in the wells. I could keep WoC with a focus build, but it makes me feel like focus #5 is near useless if I do that.

Completely fogot about #5 procing life siphon…

I think i’m just going to have to face the fact that focus is absolute garbage on a power dagger build.

I’ve been running D/W for months in a Wellomancer build, had huge success in PvP and PvE…but i just hate Warhorns asthetically. I can’t stand them. I’ve recently discovered a focus called “The Anomaly” on the TP, think it looks epic on my toon and decided to try out D/F just because i like the look of it so much. I’ve had some wins in PvP but i feel a lot more vulnerable and slower.

I’ve lost a lot of decent stuff my getting rid of the WH:
-swiftness
-#5 for tagging enemies
-#5 for crippling to keep enemies in the wells
-#4 for daze
-#4 for also keeping enemies in wells
-#5 for easy life force

Now is there any way i can make up for this with the Focus? Spinal Shivers is useful for slowing enemies in the wells, but that cast time is…ugh. And Reapers Touch sounds good but is the vulnerability and heal worth a kitten ?

Angelica Dream.7103:

So what does he get out of this behavior. Any Points?
Or just happy to troll?

I’m pretty sure he still gets exp at the end of the game, but only the win/lose exp, no bonus for kills or top player. I’m assuming that’s why he always captures one point before he stops contributing, because you probably need to have contributed something in order to be eligible for the end game exp

Edusd.7893:

auto kick from inactivity for 30secs

They already have an autokick system as far as i’m aware. The guy kept moving his character slightly every now and again to avoid getting kicked. So if you’re sitting there, watching the screen and having to move your character, then why not just play the kitten game.

SpecterMAT.7306:

No account name / nameing anybody on forum.
so please edit out the accname of the person.

I had already done so. I wasn’t aware of the rule.

SpecterMAT.7306:

It’s rude

No, rude is somebody crippling a team and wasting players time. He was happy enough to show in chat he was enjoying it.

Is there anyway i can report a player for afk’ing every Arena game he “plays”?

A user joined my team and a member of the opposite team told us to immediately report him because he had been AFK’ing in their previous game. He did the exact same thing in our game, he would run to a capture point and go AFK. He would then move once every so often so as not to get autokicked but wouldn’t participate in the battle at all.

About an hour later he ended up in our team again and was doing the exact same thing. There’s no report option for this type of behaviour. “Botting” is the closest thing i could report him for. Is this even a reportable offence or are the Devs not bothered about it? Thanks.

EDIT: Edited out the users name, although i think people should know who to avoid…

Is this happening to anybody else? I’m looking through the new bank wardrobe and when i preview a pair of boots, the dye colours i’m currently wearing don’t preview with it. All other parts (head, chest etc) preview with the dyes i’m currently using (blue, black scheme) but when i preview any pair of boots they are orange :S

Bug?

I’m a Necro Female, if that means anything.

@Carpboy: I tried the sword and didn’t find it very fun. I definitely want to stick with the daggers

@S.Paw: Thanks for the info. What i’ve found when using P/D as my secondary is that it makes it feel more awkward using Cloak and Dagger. If i switch to my pistol and use the ability then my only option is to use the much weaker Pistol stealth attack because i’m still waiting on the weapon swap cooldown to end, so i miss a good backstab opportunity. However if i chose D/D i feel like i can engage stealth almost constantly and continually backstab, but at the cost of having absolutely no ranged attacks, which probably isn’t worth it. I can definitely deal out damage faster with D/D i wouldn’t choose them over D/P though as i love the Black Powder/Heartseeker stealth combo.

I did try the shortbow but it didn’t really suit my playstyle. I prefer a more deceptive approach with teleports and stealth. I would hands down choose the the P/D over the D/D if it wasn’t for the fact it felt really awkward. I’m sure i could get used to it though.

EDIT: I think i’ll stick with the P/D as secondary, it’s not worth losing the range. Plus i should be able to get enough stealth from Black Powder and i can save my P/D for those OH kitten moments.

I’m new to the thief (only lvl 10)and i’m unsure which secondary set i should choose. I’m running with D/P as my primary and it’s brilliant but i don’t know wether i should go with D/D or P/D as secondary.

P/D is what i’ve used until now and it’s serving me well defensively. The no.3 attack basically makes you untouchable against melee attackers and having pistol as primary is the only real way you can get damage out of it, off hand it’s just utility. It’s also handy to have a ranged stealth attack. Choosing this would definitely give me more combat variety.

D/D i’ve just started using and all i can say is, Death Blossom seems pretty insane. The bleeds stack easily and enemies health just melts away. So i’d be swapping defense for extra offence if i chose this.

What i’d like to know is if the D/D set is worth it just for Death Blossom? Does the bleed damage cut it at lvl80, or would it be wiser to go with P/D for ranged attacks and survivability?

Bugged on Aurora Glade

06/04/2014

Rocking the Warhorn now, it’s awesome with Banshee’s Wail!

one more question, what should i do for my Elite? I see you’ve said Plague, does that synergize with Target the Weak? I saw a lot of people say that a Power Lich is a complete monster when it comes to damage so i’m still unsure what to choose