Guild Wars 2

I used to guest to TC to RP, but that’s out. :/

So, while Megaservers do have their good points, guild missions are kinda screwed right now.

My guild used to meet at Minister Wi’s mansion so we could get an idea of how many people we had in attendance. We can’t really do that anymore because out of our 100+ people doing missions, none of them end up in the same instance.

Now we spend 20 minutes at each mission location taxiing people into our instance so we can do a mission. Then we complete that one and start the process all over again. I know we’re SUPPOSED to be placed in instances that our guildmates are in, but that just doesn’t seem to be working.

So, fellow guild leaders, what are you doing to help facilitate easier missions? I’d love to hear your ideas, because I haven’t come up with any viable ones yet.

Thanks for the comments.

I still consider my build a hybrid, because even though it uses DS more than other hybrid builds, it has strong condition damage and can adapt to various situations easily. You are taking some of the best parts of a condition build (epidemic, condition transferring) and combining them with the great power build abilities (100% crit chance, might spam). Thus, hybrid.

The rotation, as I said, was a BASELINE, not the law. People may like other things and that is okay. Axe 1 does decent damage off the bat and I found that trait procs all the time, so I max out LF pretty quickly.

With 25 stacks of might, my bleeds tick for ~2.3k and my LB hits for 10-12k. I’d record some gameplay videos to post here that are specific to this build, but I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it anymore.

Your suggestion to remove all points from Soul Reaping is talking about a completely different build and doesn’t really contribute to this thread at all.

Yula’s Hybrid Reaper Build:

(Permanent Link to GW2 Forum post)

http://ow.ly/vU1EQ

This space is reserved.

Rotation

Again, this is only a baseline. The rotation can be tweaked depending on your situation/weapon choices.

ST: Blood is Power → Ghastly Claws (Axe 2) → Spam Axe 1 for life force → Death Shroud → Tainted Shackles (DS 5) → Life Blast until no more DS → Blood is Power → Lich Form → Spam 1

AoE: Well of Suffering → Enfeebling Blood (Dagger 5) → Grasping Dead (Scepter 2) → Epidemic → Feast of Corruption (Scepter 3) → Swap Weapons → (If Warhorn, use Warhorn 5) → Death Shroud → Tainted Shackles (DS 5) → Life Transfer → Drop DS and repeat in case enemies are somehow still living at this point.

General Tips

• Constantly move.
• Avoid being father than 600 feet away or you start to lose DPS sharply.
• Always use your axe when you enter Death Shroud. DS will use the stats and sigils off your weapons, as well as benefit from Axe Training.
• Don’t ignore the usefulness of the DS teleport. It can move you out of a bad position in a jiffy, as long as you are obeying the distance rule above.
• Flesh Golem is amazing, because its charge ability can be exploited in certain situations. If used on an immobile enemy or object, it will hit for 10-20k. You may have seen this in sPvP when a necro one-shots you with it. It can be used to knock the gate control in CoF p1 to 70% as soon as you enter the room. Any fight that involves cornering a boss is a great time to summon your golem.
• You will have 90%+ crit chance in Death Shroud (I have 103%). I hope you like doing damage!

Weapons

Axe/Focus (or warhorn, personal preference) – Zerker stats. Should ALWAYS be the weapons you wield when you enter Death Shroud. Primary single target, Lich Form, and DS damage.

Superior Sigil of Strength (or Battle) and Superior Sigil of Torment

Scepter/Dagger – Rampager stats. Use to drop AoE condition spam (Use 5 and then 2 in quick succession to cut your animation time in half) + Epidemic for group murderfication. Scepter 3 for burst on the toughest/most annoying enemy in the group. Will be your primary AoE damage unless you use Axe/Warhorn, then use Warhorn 5 before swapping to Scepter/Dagger and dropping AoEs.

Superior Sigil of Bloodlust and Superior Sigil of Frailty (Replace with Generosity if you have it)

Gear

You have several options here. While I was saving up to buy Celestial gear, I carried both Rampager and Beserker armor. I’d run in Rampager for trash and swap to Zerker for bosses/ST fights. Ruby Orbs or Scholar Runes both work.

Now that Celestial Armor is enjoying a lovely boost, I use Celestial Armor +Scholar Runes, and Zerker trinkets. I still carry my zerker armor just in case I feel I might need it.

Krait Runes deserve a mention here as well.

Introduction

This build is the product of over 4 months of planning, tweaking, testing, and limit-pushing. I have run this build in simple things such as CoF speed clears with great success (to the point where even the warriors prefer to have me do the gate control), and mid-level (20-29) fractals, and even a few foolhardy dungeon solo/duo runs.

People like to trash talk necros and say they can’t do great damage or be useful in elite speed clear teams. Well, I don’t delude myself into thinking I can change anyone’s mind on the internet, but I *can*offer everyone the chance to try to prove the naysayers wrong.

The Necromancer is a very strong and diverse class, with the ability to be the burst damage, the condition spammer, the tank, and the healer, sometimes all at once! While I have a few builds I will be posting over the next couple of days, this one is my favorite and the most fun (for me anyway) to play.

The 6 points in Soul Reaping define this build and distinguishes it from the previous hybrid meta. Death Shroud is an important utility and your bolts can hit up to 10-12k each with 25 stacks of might. This can allow you to compete (I did not say beat) with a Warrior in DPS as you have 600 range instead of 120 and can easily avoid melee cleaves and bursts. This build takes a bit of time to ramp up DPS and that is its primary disadvantage.

The Traits

These are a baseline of what I run MOST of the time. This patch allows you to tweak the build on the fly. I am not going to tell you there is only one way to run this build, because this patch allows us to adapt to any situation. You will see in my gameplay videos that I do just that.

Note that you should try to always keep 6 points in Soul Reaping because that is the basis of this build.

Spite (6)

• VI Reaper’s Might
• VIII Axe Training
• XII Close to Death (Dhuumfire and Parasitic Contagion are both good alternatives for this slot if you are in a situation that calls for them)

Curses (2)

• V Reaper’s Precision (or Hemophilia during large group/trash clears, or if you are the only bleeder in the group)

Soul Reaping (6)

• II Vital Persistence (I use Path of Midnight for group fights, more Life Transfer :3)
• VI Unyielding Blast
• XII Death Perception (This is where your 10k bolts come from. It also makes good use of your Sigil of Torment!)

Utility Skills

• Well of Blood
• Well of Power (Heal – Personal preference. I like WoP because my allies benefit from the heal as well)
• Well of Suffering
• Epidemic
• Blood is Power
• Lich Form

Utilities can and should be swapped around based on your situation. Lich Form is typically the best Elite, but Flesh Golem has its uses (see below). Plague gets an honorable mention for being absolutely deadly when you have lots of enemies to fight. Plus, the extra ~10k health helps.

(cont.)

I’m going to add in some quick math I did. In order to get the 250 unid dyes you’d need for Bifrost, you’d need 7,200 gems to get the dye packs. That’s $90 USD or about 468 gold.

Or you could grind out laurels! 125 laurels, to be exact.

I hate this change so much. Unless ANet plans on balancing content to make up for the fact that you don’t have any traits until level 33 (which they probably won’t), leveling is going to be even more of a tedious chore.

Seriously, leave them as drops. Crafting legendaries is super convoluted as it is, and you’ll just make Bifrost even more of a pain to get.

Think of the Bifrost! Poor Bifrost. All it wants is to be a rainbow.

Christina.5103:

There are days that I wake up and I can’t get out of bed. I’m young (in my 20s) and I walk with a cane and have a handicapped tag for my car – and I get nasty looks from people all the time because I’m young and, clearly, I shouldn’t need a cane or a handicapped space.

This is my life, every single day. I completely understand what you are going through. People berate me all the time, and it makes it hard to even leave the house sometimes, even when I am physically well enough to.

I didn’t find out about Taimi until just now. And now I am so happy I could cry.

RIFT actually had the latter rule for just straight-up equipping armor types. Mages got left out, but they had the best armor anyway.

Then finally they made it so you could use any armor type for your wardrobe regardless of class, and suddenly, mages in plate armor everywhere!

I always feel like Edna from the Incredibles when trying to come up with an armor combination for my light armor characters. Much like capes, long, flowing skirts can easily be grabbed or sucked into an airship engine. One minute my Sylvari necro will be fighting Aetherblades in LA, and the next she’ll be getting her skirt stuck in Scarlet’s airship propellers and turned into kindling for karma bonfires.

I know that Tyria has invented pants. I urge everyone to become pro-pants and help put an end to skirt-related deaths today.

John Smith.4610:

A very likely possibility.

Unicorn mounts confirmed.

Do you like WvW? Do you like large, thriving communities? Do you love Yak’s Bend too much to leave it for greener pastures? Do you have a vast, and quite frankly, disturbing admiration for yaks?

Well, maybe not that last one.

Anyway, you should join Attack of the Yaks, the new WvW-focused branch of Dolyak Attack [Dyak]!

Led by the glorious Ver Magnusson and his lovely sidekick Aislinn Yula, Attack of the Yaks promises to deliver a professional yet fun WvW experience, now with 600% more EotM karma trains!

Requirements:
- Friendly attitude
- Willingness to use TeamSpeak 3
- Ability to follow directions
- Must rep the guild when doing WvW with us, otherwise no rep requirement
- Do not have to be in our PvE main guild, but you are welcome to join!

If you are interested in joining or have any questions, feel free to contact Vinailt.3248 via mail or whisper.

Feel free to close this. The issue ended up having nothing to do with Guild Wars and everything to do with a defective wi-fi card. Exchanged my new laptop, fired up the GW install, and it worked perfectly.

I am having an issue getting GW2 to install on my brand-new laptop. It’ll get to 1-2% at 2.7mb/s and then suddenly drop to 0 and stay there, refusing to progress past that.

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/nxIJEn7.jpg

I am using a Sony VAIO Fit 15 with the following specs:

Verizon FiOS 25 up/50 down
12gb RAM
Intel Core i7
nVidia M735 / Intel Integrated HD 4000

My Windows 7 desktop runs the game fine on the same network with the same firewall/AV, so I’m at a loss of what is going on here. My laptop downloads, installs, and runs other games perfectly.

Can we please get a response on this? My first character was created within 10 minutes of headstart beginning and I still do not have a gift.

A “we are aware of this issue and this is what will happen” would be nice.

Discordia Gaming Community was founded during the very first days of RIFT, and has gone from a silly guild to a progression guild to a super hardcore raiding guild and finally to a casual guild. We are currently in several games, but RIFT and GW2 are our biggest games right now.

We moved to Yak’s Bend on the 2nd day of headstart and have been here ever since. We aim to be maintain our status as a social/casual guild with little interest in being the largest or the most hardcore. We will do dungeons and WvW and sPvP and map completion, but we’re not going to expect everyone to be in full zerker exotics so we can speed clear all the content.

Where Discordia has always excelled is in welcoming new players and fostering a relationship with the server community at large through organized community events including trivia contests, scavenger hunts, and costume contests. We understand that real-life, work, and family come first, and we have no required activity or attendance quota. If you log off for six months and then stop by to see whats new, you will still have a guild tag. In general we are an easy-going lot, and everyone is expected to have a sense of humor and patience.

If any of this intrigues you, our current guild leadership will be happy to answer any questions you might have in-game. Feel free to contact Vinailt via /w or the website.

http://discordiaguild.enjin.com

Alternative title: “The best Mesmer in the game”

You can skip the the last 40 seconds or so of that video, but it’s truly – forgive me – mesmerizing to watch. This was my TA Story group last night, most of us were new to the dungeon and just figuring out fights without looking them up in guides. We got this boss down to 75% before 4 of us died, and we were talking strategy for a while before we realized the Mesmer was still going. After asking if she should stop, we encouraged her to keep going just to see if she could do it. About 8 minutes later, the boss was dropped and she had officially soloed Brangoire on a Mesmer.

Twilight Arbor is hard, so find a Mesmer to carry you. :D

Disclaimer: I don’t actually think TA is “hard”, just challenging. It’s pretty fun once you understand the mechanics. Though I still think it hates melee too much.

But they won’t be level adjusted. If they would then that would be acceptable, but no, they’re going to bring a level 15 into a level 30 dungeon and still be level 15 while the mobs are 30+. Skill doesn’t even begin to factor into such a large level gap.

…Why do people get really really mad at me when I’m recruiting for AC Story and say level 30+ only?

That was just an example, as it’s happened for other dungeons as well, always with me requesting the minimum level intended for the content. I understand that you can do AC at level 2 if you really wanted to, but that doesn’t mean you should. Getting into content earlier than you are supposed to is an exploit, and not even a useful one as you won’t be level adjusted and the rest of the team will be forced to carry you.

I just don’t understand why I get flamed relentlessly in map chat and whispers whenever I ask for the minimum level of the dungeon. It’s not like I’m telling people to link their gear/builds/completion percentage/sPvP rank/computer specs/shirt color. I just want them to… y’now, not try to PL their alts in my dungeon runs.

Oakenseed is a 7/10. It’s a cool name.

Sylvari names are Gaelic, so I named my first Sylvari “Aoife”, which means “Beautiful, radiant”.

My friend has a Norn named Borr Stormbelch.

Not to be outdone, I have a Norn named Jasna Bearpuncher.

Well, this issue has been open since 8/28, with no response since 9/13 when they just closed my ticket without saying anything. Now support is ignoring me.

Guild Name: Discordia Gaming Community [DGC]
Influence Lost: 2,000
Upgrades lost: Economy Level 1, Politics Level 1, Architecture Level 1 (We’ve since re-earned those, but that brings the influence lost total to 3,500)
Additional info: This influence was lost on the final day of headstart.

*120828-018645*

It’s a Hall of Monuments Reward.

I’ve found putting Power/Vitality on all my gear along with the trait that automatically uses “Shake it off!” keeps me vertical in WvW. I tried a Vitality/Toughness build in WvW but I had to sacrifice too much power to do it. Figuring that most of my damage was indirect (Guardians and Necros, I’m looking at you), I opted for a larger health pool.

My slot skills are typically “Fear Me!”, “For Great Justice!”, Endure Pain, and usually a warbanner for fast rallying, though I tend to swap my elite skill a lot.

I have Shouts Heal, debating if healing banners would be worth it.

YES. I miss both those things. I hope they turn up in an expansion or something. Always felt so accomplished every time my guild bought a new upgrade. Orr-themed guild halls, anyone?

Or a Rata Sum hall.

Oh my, the ideas…

DusK.3849:

I really need to do this one. Props to you for finishing it. Also, yay, a fellow Yak!

Hooray for Yak’s Bend!! \o/

You can usually find me in WvW trying to keep the mood light and attempting to add a little humor to team chat.

It took me about 4 hours to finish this puzzle. With breaks, of course.

WARNING: THIS POST IS SPOILER-HEAVY! I will be discussing open-world locations and puzzles here!

I began my journey back in 2007 or so when I saw a copy of Guild Wars at my friend’s house and asked if I could hop on his account and try it out. A day later, I bought the complete collection. I got every class to 20 (Ritualist was by far my favorite), explored as much as I could, and PvPed my heart out. It was amazing.

I noticed the first obvious sign that ArenaNet (ANet) hated the players pretty early on. As most of you know, GW1 has no jump mechanic. However, there is a “jump” emote. Pretty trolly there, devs. ;)

Aware that I was walking into ANet’s clever trap but loaded with anticipation anyway, I pre-purchased GW2 shortly after it was made available.

I did not expect trolling at this magnitude.

Over the summer, while we were Jepsen-rolling our friends, ANet was designing Metrica Province.

Now, for those who know me, I’ve made it pretty clear that I hate platformers. But still, GW2 is an immense, beautiful game and I wanted to explore every inch of Tyria. Oh boy. And so, I gathered up my courage and decided to do the infamous Metrica Province puzzle.

It was simple enough at first. By “simple” I mean I fell 6 times getting to the first portal. Hey, I mentioned I hated platformers. Don’t judge me.

Yeah, to my horror, it was just the beginning. I decided to make a drinking game out of it, and drink every time I fell.

After the wonderful workers at the Northern Virginia Urgent Care Center pumped my stomach and forced me to sign up for AA meetings, I picked up where I left off and decided to do the rest of the puzzle sober.

Here’s what I learned:

1) Every time a gust of wind knocks you off those stupid vines, two ANet designers high-five each other and laugh maniacally. It’s true, because my hidden cameras in their office confirmed it. You can view this video by mailing 400g to my main character.

2) I continued on to the Stormy section of the puzzle. My first run through, I was so proud of myself for jumping all the stones without being struck by lightning. My pride was rewarded by me slipping on the next part and careening into the abyss below. Somewhere, a dev was laughing.

3) By the next section I was certain the devs were punishing us for all those times we complained about there not being any jumping in the first game. I just want to take a moment, right now, to apologize for all the jokes I made about “Now announcing Guild Wars 2: We figured out what the spacebar is for!” It was very inconsiderate of me, please just let this puzzle be over and I promise I’ll play nice.

4) Gah – oh, that actually wasn’t so bad. Fight a boss, do a few more jumps, and get a decent item. Oh hey, the view up here is really nice, should take some screenshots before I accidentally press auto-run and fal-

Well, that ended badly.

DISCLAIMER: Despite my beliefs that platformers are the devil’s games, I had a ridiculous amount of fun with not only this puzzle, but all the puzzles I’ve encountered in the game so far. Most of the time, the items in the chest aren’t very useful, but it’s not about the chests. It’s about being able to say, “Yeah, I climbed that, and the view was breathtaking.” It’s easy to see how much care was taken into designing this game.

And yes, I am sure the devs still chuckle a bit when players fall into the abyss.

Okay, I wanted to sit down and actually do one of the dungeons before commenting on these changes. So here is what I have come up with:

1) Difficulty: AC was already stupidly hard (trash mobs are harder than the bosses, really?). CM is now horrible. As a level 72 warrior in very good gear, I was getting chain-launched and stunned and feared. I watched myself take over ten thousand damage before I could so much as get a shout off to try to heal myself. I’d go into a downed state and be dead immediately. I spent about 20 silver on that dungeon just from repairs. I did not earn enough to pay for the repair costs. I understand your desire to make dungeons challenging, but there is a line between challenging and absolutely frustrating. Getting knocked down once in a while is fine. Getting launched repeatedly and being “ganked” is facedesk-inducingly awful and I have no desire to try any of the other dungeons past CM. Period.

2) Rewards: I understand that you do not want dungeons to be the primary mode of leveling, though you said in your OP that you wanted them to be efficient for leveling. That said, how come at level 72, on my first clear of CM of the day, I only earned 5k XP? My XP bar barely even moved. This reward is NOT worth the level of effort required to complete the dungeon. I now have ZERO incentive to help my guildmates and friends clear a dungeon I’ve already done, unless they bribe me with particularly wonderful cookies. I’m not even going to try Explorable Mode until I feel the rewards are worth the effort.

3) Contradictions: In your original post you noted that you wanted to avoid a grind. You have reduced the rewards for all the dungeons while the cost of dungeon gear remains exceptionally high. Think on that a bit.

That’s all I have for now, may add more in a later post.

Contact for recruitment: Renas Vinailt, Tera Cinders, Zehavah (Vinailt.3248)
Website: http://discordiaguild.enjin.com

Discordia is a community that was founded during RIFT Headstart. It began its days as a guild that focuses on the end-game, organizing raids and rocking the progression charts… okay, you asleep yet?

Our focus is the here and now. GW2 is an amazing game, and we want to do it all. Exploring, crafting, dungeons, questing, personal stories, sPvP, WvW… no matter what you want to do, we want to do it too.

We’re not going to force you to apply on our website and wait for admin approval. You want in? Just send a tell to Renas Vinailt, Tera Cinders, or Zehavah, and you’re in. In another guild, too? That’s fine. Want to bring a friend? Cool, everyone can invite. Our goal is to keep the guild aligned with the general “feel” of GW2 – by making it accessible without jumping through hoops.

All that we ask is that you adhere to our code of conduct. It’s all common sense. No hate, no drama. Be mature.

We are LGBT friendly. This does not mean you need to be LGBT to join. You just have to accept those who are. If you’re against that sort of lifestyle and can’t keep it to yourself, then don’t bother joining. We work hard to maintain a safe community for everyone.

We <3 casuals. People have work, kids, other hobbies, etc. We understand that. We have a very generous inactivity policy of 90 days. That means you’re only required to log in once every 90 days to avoid a kick. Active military? There’s no login requirement at all.

That about sums it up. I’ll do my best to answer any questions.

Have fun! :)

Home World: Yak’s Bend
Guild Name: Discordia Gaming Community [DGC]
Guild Website: http://discordiagaming.enjin.com
In-Game Contact: Renas Vinailt, Tera Cinders, Zehavah
Focus: PvX – We do a bit of everything!
Quick Notes: No age requirement, as we’ve replaced it with a maturity requirement. LGBT friendly. Casuals are welcome and won’t be kicked until 90 days inactivity unless they are military (then they won’t be kicked at all).