Guild Wars 2

Sword period feels pretty inferior to the other choices, IMO – with dagger offering great evasion, high burst, conditions, and the awesome backstab, dual pistols offering 10 stacks of vulnerability, good sustained dmg, and shortbow offering rare combo fields and a lot of aoe at range. However, it does have its perks:

Some perks I found while using it:
Good amount of AoE in Chain attack
Only source of boon removal
Backstabbing without the need for Stealth
Okay evasion
Shadowstep on low CD
Condition Removal on Low CD

Overall, these strengths led me to believe its quite strong in PvP, or in zergs. In PvE, I really dont like the strengths, as it has 0 ways of taking advantage of combo fields, and brings no conditions to the table. (although offhand adds some of that) This is the only weapon I don’t even generally like to keep as a backup anymore. However, I’d probably prefer this to daggers in a PvP situation.

They are equal to other exotics of the same level… But for the AC and CM exotics, they are statistically inferior… So they’re just skins and runes.

Hope to see Scythe added in an expansion!

Blah, I hate swords, they bring so little to the table.

Dungeons require mastery of the basics from every player on the team. Everyone should have a skill to save themselves, as well as a teammate.

Some tips to make your dungeon crawling life easier (I’ve completed many AC, CM, TA explore runs so far)

1. Get some Toughness and Vitality – The only thing that can make your life impossible is getting 1 shot. If you can survive a hit or two, you’re in the game. More? You’re gonna carry.

2. Bring combo fields – These can literally double your effectiveness. That fire skill doing nice damage? Okay, now use a leap finisher and apply AoE burning. Water field? AoE healing. Light Field? AoE condition removal. Bring as many as you can, so your teammates can take advantage.

3. USE your teammate’s combo fields. /wiki combo to figure out the EXTREMELY powerful stacks you can get using these. Ever wonder how you managed to do double dmg on a boss? Probably had to do with combo fields. When you learn these, you’re going to love this game.

4. Save up your resources and CD’s for when you need them. Always have a snare/blind/daze/whatever your class has ready. This will save lives. You’ll also start to discern between what needs to be dodged, and what you just dodge because you don’t know better.

5. When you’ve used all your endurace, run away! Theres no penalty for hiding, do it, and save yourself a lot of repair money.

Honestly, with the importance of levels and gear somewhat diminished (still helps though) it’s absolutely clear how much skill matters in this part of the game. I think it’s an excellent primer for tournament-level PvP.

Sorry, skins and runes.

Yep. These are just skins. By the time you earn the required tokens, you’re going to have better or very similar gear.

I had the same initial experience with dungeons. I would say AC Story mode needs slight nerfs, but CM story is so cake, it’s silly. Story should be tuned somewhere between the two, with each subsequent dungeon getting mildly tougher.

I feel explore is fine, as it’s supposed to be the ultimate PvE challenge; I can already do AC and CM without dying, and am working on TA. When you master these runs, they take about 40 minutes, and provide huge profits. It’s worth it if you invest the time and money to learn it. However, they should explain that exploration mode is intended for hardcore PvE’rs.

The problem, as I’ve seen it, is players are spoiled by the huge amount of zerg going on in the outdoor zones. They never learn to play their class correctly. The basics should be mastered before doing dungeons. That means, learning to dodge big monster attacks, learning all your combo fields and finishers, and creating a balanced build. The first time, I went in with my pure glass thief and ended up zerging until we just gave up. I came back with a little toughness & vit, read my skills in depth, understood combo field/finisher, coordinated with the team a lil, and completed it with maybe 5 deaths. It just got better from there. Eventually, I bet food buffs & even sigils will become important. I really compare this to the raiding culture in traditional MMOs.