Guild Wars 2

I miss gold league. We lost but at least it was fun and challenging. Yak’s and SBI are just godawful at roaming and PPT play. You really can see the difference in quality of players. I mean repeatedly failing 10+ golem rushes against lightly defended keeps? Really?

This is what I am running with on my celestial engy:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0piYnvy3F1LJyoCdGIF6lfJqQ+95Bb9gQIA-jkBBYjAkIAJfFRjtKsIasqaER1qkYSBo1wI-w

This is a nice general purpose build for WvW. You can run in a zerg as a ranged dpser and solo roam fairly well if you pick your fights.

Kills me not to use pistol/shield because I spent so much time getting Quip, but rifle is just plain better for celestial gearing + might stacking. Long range crits for 2k+ that proc high damage burning and bleeds cant really be matched by pistols very lackluster AA. This build is a bit glassy so stay out of the middle of a zerg (elixir S and rocket boots are there to get you out of the fight if you positioned yourself badly), but if you want to snipe on the side and lay down a barrage of grenade death this build is awesome.

The loss of IP in the next patch is going to hurt this build a bit.

transtemporal.2158:

Lol Mag. The thing is, you’re probably proud of yourselves doing what you’re doing.

BUT YOU’RE STILL LOSING, so the joke’s on you.

Your sweet tears are a better reward than any dolyak finisher.

DKNS.2135:

Dat +10 ppt Magswag…

This will really crush mags will. Everyone knows we are the #1 NA PPT server.

I’ve been running this build lately and I am enjoying it: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0piYnvy3F1LJyoCdGIF6lfJqQ+95Bb9gQIA-jkBBYjBhEJIJfFRjtKsIasqaER1qkYSBo1CA-w

I’m not the greatest player, but I find it decent in zergs, Ok in 1v1 (I lose to a lot of dedicated 1v1 builds though). Being able to easily stack 25 might makes this build shine (hi there 1700 condition damage and 3900 power), as hitting folks for 2k+ autoattack that procs burning and bleeds is pretty nice. A good blunderbuss will do 3.5k-4k on lightly armored opponents + 5-6 stacks of bleed. If you get a net on someone you can also do 7-8k with a grenade barrage pretty easily. Celestial gives you a bit more wiggle room than zerkers or rampagers but you will still go down realtively fast to focus fire so be prepared to gtfo (elixir s really helps with that, if you are a better player you could probably replace that with another utility).

After the patch I will probably replace IP with shrapnel, but I am open to suggestions from folks as to where to go form here.

Funnily enough this is the build that I find does best against mesmers for some reason. I still lose to really good mesmers, but bad mesmers drop like flies. Dire/rabid engineers will totally murder you though.

Why get fancy, with the new food here is a build that will have you rolling in 25 stacks of might consistently with a single keypress (well you have to press it a few times but you get the idea):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQFAUl0piYnvy3F1LJyoCdGIF6lfJqQ+95Bb9gQIA-jkBBYjAkIAJfFRjtKsIasqaER1qkYSBo1EA-w

Bind weapon swap to an easy to reach key and in the middle of battle swap out medkit and back every 6-7 seconds. Each swap will stack 12 might.

Edit: Best part, weapon and utility slots are entirely up to you!

This mornings fight may have been EG!

It wasn’t EG for the one who beat me though, it was a two letter guild tag with the first letter being lowercase however (mZ?). I run a celestial conditions Engy build very similar to the one I fought against and I know I do not put out that much condition pressure so this person must have been running very high condi damage.

I am an average player at best, I switched to a warrior for WvW and the difference in gameplay is literally night and day. I run a variation of the standard melandru/lemongrass defensive shout warrior (GS-S/sh) with a mix of celstial and clerics. I’m very hard to take down. I have been fighting roaming engy’s and feel bad because I remember how disheartening it was to fight sustain warriors and outplay them on every level but be unable to bring them under 75% health. Literally this morning I had a 4-5 minute fight with an SoR engy who played his kitten heart out but was totally unable to bring me less to less than 75% health.

In my past 4 weeks of roaming on my warrior I have been beaten by an engineer once. An SoR engy in a green outfit/gas mask (I think he has some videos out but I can’t remember his name for the life of me). He just flat out outplayed me on every level and it still took him a minute or two to bring me down, he totally desroyed me though, mad props to this guy because he was awesome.

How he did it: He was running nades/EG/rocket boots. HEAVY condition damage and duration, probably at least 70-100% duration with 2.5k condition damage. he was fastidious about applying poisons to me to make sure my sustain was impaired (rotated pistol 2, fumigate and poison nades). He was great at kiting and keeping distance.

Summary: stack 2.5k+ condition damage and 70-100% duration, keep poison up. Dodge specials that allow condition cleanse.

Seriously though, if it takes that level of play to take down a scrub like me playing a warrior there is some serious game imbalance.

I have a full ascended celestial set (noble runes, rune of battle + perception) and I have tried to make FT builds work but I always end up speccing back to nades because the dps is just so much better at all ranges. Even short range I will out DPS FT with grenade 1, even when the FT build I am using stacks 25 might regularly. It’s a bit sad.

Edit: Build I use for maximal might-stacking: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0pyanvy3F1LJyoCdGIFA2dJSR+1YfUwWPIA-jECBYjChUEgkIBJ5rIasVhFRjVVjIqWlEzImIqWIgFTAA-w

I’m running under a few assumptions:

1. While I appreciate the responsiveness of the Devs in this thread and the quality of discussion by a few big name engineers these changes are baked into the cake. IP nerf is going to happen but commensurate changes in #1 skills and kit scaling will not because there is not time for adequate testing.

2. Assuming we are only going to get a few minor changes at this point we need to accept this as the new meta.

3. Right now I am having a hard time seeing a build other than a grenade (bombs) or berserker SD rifle that is viable in PvE and/or WvW. I appreciate Poe’s points regarding FT, but I just do not think that even with the indirect buffs FT will be a viable primary damage kit do to the very poor damage and scaling of FT#1. Pistol builds are going to be very problematic from both an offensive and defensive standpoint now because it will require much larger investment in explosives to be viable, really hurting its utility.

Am I missing a new build that is going to rise according to this meta?

JonPeters.5630:

For condition engineers we have left Shrapnel intact here as the alternative. For power engineers we have left Empowering Adrenaline intact here as the alternative. No need to argue that these traits are worse than IP, we know that, this is why IP was moved. The real question is why are these not Adept tier worthy, which we think they are…

Shrapnel is only useful for grenade and bomb engineers and those in the know with those builds are going to take shrapnel over IP as it stands now, other condition builds are out in the cold. If you were to expand the definition of explosive to pistol auto-attack and FT 1 then maybe we would be cooking with gas! Empowering adrenaline is such a minor boost especially in light of the recent vigor nerf that I’m not sure it is anything other than a last resort talent, it certainly doesn’t compare to Shrapnel for explosive users.

Edit: I just wanted you to know that I am really excited that you are responding in this thread Jon, and I think all of us are thrilled you are engaging in this dialogue and everyone is doing there best to contribute positively and be respectful!

JonPeters.5630:

If all we do is take the worst traits and buff them, then every patch everything gets stronger and eventually the game is broken. The word balance literally means reaching an equilibrium which is in between two end points. This means that in order to reach it things must assuredly go up and down.

Fair enough, and I think you see a common theme among most of the thoughtful posters in this thread: We understand IP needs to be nerfed, but the reason why IP is so ubiquitous in almost every build is the extremely poor scaling/damage of the autoattack traits on almost all of our weapons and kits (save bombs and grenades). Indeed bomb and grenade builds are one of the few builds that can entirely forego IP, which is ironic because that trait rests in the explosive line!

We get that IP has become a balance problem and may need to be moved, but if the stated purpose is to “increase build diversity” that is not what this move will accomplish in the absence of properly scaling the autoattack skills previously mentioned. Now, we also understand that re-doing autoattack skills is a huge balance change that may require testing beyond what your resources allow for this patch, so instead of instituting a change that will globally kill a lot of builds why not just put us on notice for a bit and do it in a release that addresses those issues?

coglin.1867:

I cannot agree with what your saying Unhinged Carrot. One thing this game is good at is having a counter for everything. If your taking too much retaliation damage use something other then the FT auto attack on the FT till the retaliation buff drops.

And as far as grenades go, it is a 1500 range AoE. That in itself is a strong benefit. If they have retaliation up, apply common sense and stop hitting them. Engineers can stack retaliation as well, use it back at them.

Grenade retaliation is Ok because of the great range allows more tactical awareness and gives you time to respond. FT retaliation is the pits because you take more damage than grenades on a short range weapon that does less DPS than grenades.

Grenade and bomb specs are in a decent place right now and will be after the nerf. Everything else is going to be hit hard.

To re-echo a lot of the sentiments here if you are going to nerf IP, could you please take a look at the attack 1 skill for most of our kits/weapons (with the exception of grenades and bombs).

1) Flamethrower is just absolutely atrocious for being the longest channeled autoattack in the game, with the added benefit of being the most efficient weapon in self-slaughter to retaliation.
2) Pistol and rifle 1 are lackluster, pistol one especially with its incredibly short duration bleed. Compare to warrior sword 1 where they get an 8 second bleed with an adept trait that can increase it to 12 seconds. If there any reason at all now to play a condition based engi over a sword/bow warrior?
3) EG 1 has always been terrible, again a look at weakness and bleed duration may be appropriate here.
4) TK 1 is just bad for a melee attack.

Almost every build centered on those weapons requires IP right now to put out any damage pressure whatsoever. (Ironically Bombs and Grenades rely a lot less on IP but now are the only builds that can reasonably take it!) If those skills were buffed slightly the IP change would hurt a lot less.

If you want to nerf IP, fine, but then please, please, please take a look at pistol 1 and EG 1 and FT 1, the autoattack damage of these skills is just so horrible that they are barely worth using, even in full damage builds. IP was the saving grace of all of these skills and now that its moved up a tier you have basically forced all WvW engineers into a cookie cutter grenade spec so they can be moderately useful as a poor-mans staff ele without the utility.

Edit funny story: As I was typing this up my wife was looking over my shoulder and commented “wow that’s a lot of walls of text.” I responded that Engineers were pretty upset at the new round of nerfs. Not missing a beat she said “What, all five of you?”

This is my current loadout for WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0piYnvy3F1LJy4DdGYBiUkfW2nHs1DChA-jECBYjBEbBhiAkEBI5rIasVhFRjVVjIqWlETIgFTAA-w

It works very well in zerg, small group and 1v1 situations.

How does this build work? Might stacking. in combat you gain 9 stacks of might every time you switch to medkit every 10 seconds. Super easy to maintain 18-21 stacks of might without the annoyances of HGH. If you are running 20+ stacks of might and do a grenade barrage while under fury folks are often taken totally by surprise by how much damage you dish out. In those situations you will be hitting for 600-750 with your pistol autoattack, not even counting the condition pressure you are putting out.

Why celestial? 88% the damage of zerkers with a lot more survivability. Hybrid build provides decent condition and power based pressure so its pretty versatile.

Zerg play: run around tossing grenades. Keep elixir S and rocket boots up for whenever you make a dumb mistake and get out of position. Rake in loot bags.

Small group: Stay in pistol until you or someone else locks someone down and then release hell with grenades.

1v1: If you are god with grenades go for it, if not you will be using p/shield most of the fight until you get in close for a grenade barrage. Only classes that will give you trouble are annoying sustain/stun warriors and p/d thieves, but both of those are easy to just run away from. Edit: and dire necros.

Why this build sucks: Better players could probably ditch Elixir S and find a better utility for this slot, I admittedly use it as a crutch. This build doesn’t have that great condition removal (but the backpack regenerator and rocket boots to remove slows and immobilizes helps). The last 10 points in alchemy (and 5 points in tools) could probably be put into something more useful but I am not smart enough to figure out what! I’m open to suggestions from the engineer gods.

You know what also sucks for this event? Underwater missile reflect that is extremely hard to see for classes that only have missile weapons.

Troll off: Altogether it’s been a pretty fun match-up. Highlights the severe oceanic coverage problems that mag has, but the NA fights have been quite fun all around.

Troll on: LOL, never in my life have I seen such an ocean of baddie key-board turners depositing their loot bags into our waiting arms. I had to upgrade my bags repeatedly for fear of losing loot on the fly, you cost me hundreds of gems JQ!

WildMonkey.6927:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fEkWH8DB7b0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfEkWH8DB yawn well… that was easy. Not to mention ur post was all kinds of corny lol. NEXT!!!

I just mentioned it because we Magummans care deeply about the physical health and mental-well being of our opponents. For example, we consulted a physician who recommends that JQ players apply a thin layer of gauze bandages to their index and ring fingers. This helps ease some of the repetitive stress caused by keyboard turning.

WildMonkey.6927:

But really tho, finally I get to see the maguuma forum dwellers that i’ve heard sooo much about haha. Honestly I thought I’d get a challenge here..but nope it’s just a bunch of pride of being amazing “PvFers”, like that’s…something to brag about? lolz, hilarious.

O yea and 4 replies by Maguuma for my ONE simple comment, that’s amazing. LMFAO Honestly i think BG has the worst trolls stiill cuz theyre not just a bunch of crybabies and man, they are in blatant denial of everything they do and say JQ does it instead lol (because you know, JQ totally can do a 2v1 last week on the other servers AT THE SAME TIME as when all SoR and BG did was either 1. camp our spawn, or 2. camp bloodlust nodes 24/7). Oh and the claims of HzH hacking LOL because we can do that while an Arenanet employee was in our very zerg + TS oftentimes

There are several varieties of decaffeinated soda that are just as flavorful as the original. You should look into this.

WildMonkey.6927:

amiable.4823:

The most amusing part of this match-up is watching all of the JQ tryhards failing PvF by not understanding they are obviously getting trolled.

Hahaha are ya serious? THIS is why Magumma has such a garbage reputation in the forums. Have more people defending this precious server (WORST out of gold league, btw) in the forums than in the freakin borderlands themselves LMAO. Well u can win this precious “PvF” which really wont matter in a week from now, we will continue kicking ur kitten in WvW. YOU FAIL!!!!!!

We will be running a PvF clinic open to all servers next week. If you want in message Oldsmeller.

The most amusing part of this match-up is watching all of the JQ tryhards failing PvF by not understanding they are obviously getting trolled.

I thought I saw a post a while ago by Devon indicating they may be adding some mechanism for dedicated WvWers to get their ascended back piece. has their been any movement on this or is this still just a pipe dream?

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

“Gold League shouldn’t be balanced further because we’re going to lose anyway, even though I entered Gold Leauge to fight outnumbered.”

Makes sense.

If you want balance may I suggest sPvP? WvW is inherently unbalanced,, instead of being whining-baby-whiners about it why not just accept it and play to have fun?

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

Except everyone does care.

See various threads.

And the proposed changes that balance T1 servers balance the rest of the Gold League servers as well. It doesn’t matter how special we are, or what we deserve. If ANet can make Leagues better for people, then they should. The fact that you’re stuck with us means you actually don’t want the schedule to be made more fair? Petty.

No. We don’t care whether the schedule is fair or not. We don’t care that we are going to lose. We want fights. We are just amused that your dolyak finishing move has engendered so much whining.

Lol sad bandwagoners, I wouldn’t join your server if you paid me. At any moment I can log on, run into WvW and find some fights, it’s absolutely awesome for us! You guys reek of suck even if you do have a higher population.

Phule.1968:

I’ve also noticed a big increase in this so called alt +f4 cr*p goin on, guessing it’s due to the new influx of PvE players who can’t stand getting beat up by another player.

Same with the stealthing thing, seems I’ve missed the introduction of stealth to other classes then thief and mesmer.

FYI, Engineers got a reliable group stealth this last patch, so this may be some of what you are seeing.

TC, could you do me a favor? Could you please kill the baddie PvE’ers on our server who clog up our queues and then do nothing but drain garrison supply to fix a wall that you are trebbing? It would be worth it to let you take garrison just to wathc you kill these idiots repeatedly. We will do the same for you, because we are all about the love.

Reverence.6915:

JQ is currently guaranteed – at the very minimum – a second place finish. SoR, BG and TC are fighting for the other spots and SoS and Mag are battling for last and second last spot in the league. That’s not an ideal situation in a competition.

This is correct, but it highlights how meaningless the entire system is and why this complaint is so puerile. Ultimately the “competition” revolves primarily about time-zone coverage and being able to queue every map 24/7. The “competition” aspect of this is utterly devoid of meaning, so it would be much better to focus on having fun, interesting fights and letting the chips fall where they may than caterwauling about schedule discrepancies making it more difficult for certain servers to get their golden buffalo finishing move. Just focus on having fun and don’t worry about the ranking, it’s totally pointless.

deathTouch.9706:

You guys are complaining about hard/fair matches when Mag just pulled all-nighters so that we could have consistently outnumbered fights and avoid seal-clubbing in Silver league?

Man T1 really is full-to-the-brim with bandwagoning scrubs.

This really can’t be repeated enough.

This is the definition of a troll/one-trick pony build, and its not even very good at what it does. It could provide decent support with banners I suppose, but if I wanted a support-oriented warrior I would go for something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR8enkOk8YzDSBxEZAB9QDrCBUVYOSPAgBMNA-jEyAoNBZqBM9JQZxioxWGLiGreBTpSEV7SKiWtMALbB-w

I might sub out one of the shouts for stability but that build is nice because it has 2 stun breakers (one procced, one in your control) a ton of passive healing, practical immunity to movement effects, awesome mobility, condition removal and reduction, and good group buffs and healing. Sub out spiked armor for defy pain to give yourself more insurance against getting run over by a hammer train if you are running in a zerg and have a guardian applying ret to you constantly. You won’t do a lot of damage, but you will take a massive amount of beating and be terrific in small group fights as long as you have someone semi-competent to provide dps.

Edit: If you want something to run around in the zerg solely providing support this build would be funny as well: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR8ejkOxwtQWQ4wBE0DNsK2CVh5I9IMIj1A-jEyAoNBZqBM9JQZxioxWGLiGreBTpSEV7SKiWtMALbB-w

maddoctor.2738:

rjnemer.7816:

What do you guys think of ascended armor being buyable with fractal relics (+ maybe a couple of pristine relics). It would work just like dungeon tokens do now.

Obviously this would just be ONE way of getting the armor. I mean it would be cool to get more then ascended rings and a back piece from the place that you know… ACTUALLY REQUIRES ASCENDED.

Maybe they should first make Ascended Weapons available from something other than Crafting?

Also, I do believe/hope that Ascended Armor will be available through Dungeons -first. We have:
Ascended Accessories -> Guild Missions
Ascended Amulets -> Laurels
Ascended Rings -> Fractals
Ascended Backpiece -> Fractals
Ascended Weapons -> Crafting (Also requiring, World Bosses, Champions, optional WvW)

So I do believe that Ascended Armor should be available through Dungeons in some way or form. Not with tokens obviously, to keep it consistent with the Grind needed for the other Ascended pieces it would require a few milion tokens per piece.

Also, if you check your collectibles bank you can clearly see materials for Jewelry and Armor, they are just not available in-game yet.

I think ascended armor should only be acquirable from WvW, that way every aspect of the game has ascended gear associated with it and it will give folks a real incentive to play in WvW.

The real advantage of medkit is that it allows you to stack “might on heal effects” very efficiently, abrogating the need for a large investment in alchemy….

I’ve had some good and bad experiences over the past week using LFG, in general I found the following to be good rules of thumb (I go on my engineer main with a grenade spec to apply multiple stacks of vulnerability and some group support healing.):

1. If the group has any underlevels ask them if they have an 80 they can bring, if they do not, drop.

2. If thee is not at least one heavy armor class (warrior or guardian), preferably both, drop.

3. More than 1 Necro or ranger, or engineer, drop (and I am saying this as an engineer). I know this sucks but his is entirely ANet’s fault for making condition damage unstackable, you will have a much harder time with several condition appliers. Rangers suffer because pets are dumb, siphoning off a lot of their dps.

4. If folks can’t speak English or are non-responsive when you ask questions or give directions drop.

In general I do not drop if someone is new, everyone needs to learn sometime, but I will leave if folks seem unwilling to learn. A good group of new folks can clear content relatively quickly if they have a modicum of competence.

I always thought it would have made sense to make it like toughness, except for dots (condition damage)…

Obscure One.4357:

Dand.8231:

amiable.4823:

Obscure One.4357:

Just get some macro software and change the number #1 key to repeat while pressed. I know my hand is much happier with me for doing this, and as far as my understanding of the rules and regs on macros goes this is a legal one.

It is not, this post will most likely get deleted and you will get a temp forum ban for mentioning it. I know from experience.

Actually according to ANets definition, it probably is legit. The definition as one of the mods explained on these forums, is “the possibility of providing an unfair advantage.”

Now, if it was the faster you pressed the button, the more DPS you did… then that would be a different story.

But there’s a cast time, and animation; mashing the button only goes so far, and having a script or macro press 1 for you does not confer any advantage.

The macro isn’t doing anything by itself, it requires the user to press the key and only controls that single action which changes it from a press and release to a press and hold. If it were a toggle macro then it would be pressing it without me doing so and would then be a violation, but as it is my manual inputs require the same amount of dedication to the key as someone rapidly tapping the key. The only real difference is my hands don’t ache when I log off, and I’m putting less wear on my computer’s peripherals.

/shrug maybe policy as changed, all I know was that I got a ban earlier this year for suggesting this.

Obscure One.4357:

Just get some macro software and change the number #1 key to repeat while pressed. I know my hand is much happier with me for doing this, and as far as my understanding of the rules and regs on macros goes this is a legal one.

It is not, this post will most likely get deleted and you will get a temp forum ban for mentioning it. I know from experience.

tolunart.2095:

The players are broken, not the market.

I would argue neither is true, markets just fluctuate based on supply and demand. High end prestige items are rare and expensive, just like in real life.

Neriglissar.8730:

kitten , can’t believe I missed something so obvious, precursor prices fluctuating as a dependant of Rare and exotic prices! Guess that’s something else I’d have to pay attention to, cheers!

As a follow up I was able to purchase my chaos gun via buy order for 295, which I think is about 100 gold less than its actual value.

Dueling it is a tough fight, but if I am just roaming around in WvW necro’s aren’t much of a problem because of their abysmal mobility. It is very easy to disengage and force the fight onto friendlier territory or avoid it altogether.

Completely anecdotal: My order for a 295 chaos gun was also filled and I know over the weekend there were 2-4 higher bids than mine. maybe folks had nice drops over the weekend?

John Smith.4610:

Hyper.6374:

tolunart.2095:

Hyper.6374:

TLDR:- is anet manipulating the trading post that’s supposed to be player driven?

No.

Awesome and your source?

No.

This can only mean one thing: they’ve gotten to John too. We are through the looking glass people.

spoj.9672:

All you end up doing is making one person happy or creating a new wall at a much lower price and still not getting yours sold that fast. If you want a fast sale then just sell to the buy order or undercut by a small amount and leave it for a day… There is no reason to undercut by so much because most people dont check and will undercut you buy small amounts each time regardless of price.

Why is it my job in a competitive game (which the TP definitely is, an intellectual form of PvP) to make you happy? Maybe you should look at it as a buying opportunity. If the actual value is 30g, simply purchase the item and re-list it for guaranteed profit. If the actual value is not 30g, well then, it’s not my job to ensure you make profits off an inflated market.

Murdyr.9204:

People are going to buy it no matter if you undercut or not. The only thing you really do is lowering the price of whatever item you are undercutting for everyone.

Honestly I do not have time to monitor the TP a play the 1c undercut game. If there is a large spread between buy and sell price it indicates a market inefficiency which I can take advantage of for a swift sale. I know this screws over the folks playing the TP game, but I’m not playing that game so /shrug.

Interesting build. A couple of points:

1. This seems terrific for small engagements. In larger fights however retaliation is going to destroy you.
2. If you are going to go for mostly smaller engagements I would go for Celestial gear over Dire. FT scales terrifically with power and crit and you gain a lot of that with celestial without losing too much survivability/condition damage. With higher cirt rates you can stack a lot more bleeds using FT1 to cover condition removal by some classes.
3. I would consider subbing out off hand pistol for a shield and then subbing out TK for an EG or another utility with condition removal, this will let you slot medkit easier and make might stacking a lot less hassle. The toolbelt heal is also pretty good as well.

Quick sale, I sometimes undercut by a goodly amount because I know that it will be snapped up quickly instead of languishing on the TP. But I still make more than I would if I sold to folks trying to low-ball buy it.

I really wish that they went the route of Jormag, which after the patch I have nothing but nice things to say about. It is a more difficult fight so you can’t totally faceroll it but the timer is reasonable and you don’t need super coordinated groups to do it. The increase in the rewards make it relatively worthwhile to take a break from champ farming to do it. It’s a nice community event that gives a decent reward and is actually fun.

It’s relatively easy to calculate the rough price a precursor should go for based on the chances of acquiring one via the mystic forge. I will use myself as an example, I am currently trying to acquire a precursor for quip: a chaos gun.

At a 0.2-0.5% rate of creation (let’s assume 0.2% for purposes of this discussion) it will take an average of 500 combinations to result in a precursor. Assuming ~ 25s a rare (and 4 rares for combining = 200 rares) that would be 1 gold per combination. Now since combining is an iterative process whereby every 4 combinations we get 1 additional combination (and we may also generate uniques that can be resold for a profit or recombined) let’s say we will only need 1500 rares on average to generate a chaos gun. 1500 × .25 = 375. The current price to outright by a chaos gun on the AH is around 350, I put in a substantively lower bid because I was making some conservative assumptions (i.e. that the generation rate is on the low end, bad luck, etc)….

Ultimately if I have to pay up to 350-375 for a chaos gun I am not going to be angry, because I think that accurately reflects its value. Do these calculations for yourself when you are pricing a precursor, if the amount cost is double or treble the amount you calculate, you are better of hitting the mystic forge, if it is around the price you calculate (chaos gun is a good example because the pricing tracks very well with the expected value) then paying for it is a better option to avoid the RNG risks. Also note my math here is very rough, I assume the folks playing the precursor market have it down to a real science.

I would say there are real market opportunities right now on the more expensive precursors. The problem is the RNG may completely screw you over after investing thousands of gold.

Rozbuska.5263:

Basicly you have 3 stacks from Sigil, 3 from trait and 3 from runes. Due to 40% might duration you can pretty much do it again before first stack disappear so you can have about 18 stacks just from this. Also you have 3 blast finishers and fire field its another 6 stacks to use.

Alternatively you can simply replace healing turret with a medkit. Remember to switch to medkit every 10 seconds or so while in combat and you can easily maintain 20+ might stacks.

In an utterly shocking turn of events the introduction of a soul-crushing grind has encouraged players to grind, soulcrushingly.

No lie, this is the best thread I have ever read on the WvW forums.