Guild Wars 2

Huh guys you are REALLY welcome now! Just at the right time! I do hope that before the HoT release you can show a rough idea what WvW players want.

Also if you ever ask ANET for a free server-hopping account you surely have our 100% support. Everybody is biased towards the tier they play but you two must stay as objective as possible.

(Finally if I may ask something:

Please do not waste your precious time on future problems like specialisations, the new map or masteries. There are many problems at this very moment what need ANET’s attention.)

Thank you again!

GW2 has one of the best community I’ve ever played in.

Sure in competitive game modes everybody is a bit more aggressive but still not a LoL, WoT, WT or even WoW level. Ask them for help, explain the situation you are in or simply block them.

The people around Tyria are really helpful.
-Simple players giving banners and food on large events.
-Mesmers offering free portals to challenging jumping puzzles.
-Players are moving out from event circles so you can get your reward/daily too.
-If you ask about a POI in map chat you will have half a dozen answers in seconds and one guy will be happy to show you the way directly.
-If you go downed it’s 90% that someone will show up and ress you.
-Random people are mailing you dyes and skins because they don’t need it.
-Other gamers popping swiftness on you while running through each other.
-If you are a new starter random guys going to give you ideas about weapons, levelling, utilities and skills. They might give you bags and food too sometimes even low level weapons/skins.
-Players helping out each other on mapchat and congratulate if you get a rare drop.

I love this community!

Let’s see:

Watchwork mining pick
Copper-Fed Salvage Kit
4 character slots
2 bank tabs
1 collectables expansion
3 finishers (cow, skritt, spectre)
and all together 10 BL keys

About the same amount on my missis’ account.

I’m too lazy to calculate the total amount of pounds spent

Love:

GS: good damage, some mobility and really useful mechanics like pull, whirl finisher and blind
Hammer: Me-smash-u-die weapon with a crapload of utility. 5-6 blast finisher… Awesome! Slow as a glacier but hits for the same amount. Hammer auto3 should be a tiny bit faster so a running opponent gets at least one tick damage. The immob is balanced I think. Bit slow and easy to dodge but in exchange it pierces.

Love/hate:

Scepter: Smite should be a Symbol even if the CD doubles. In HoT it would make a fearsome combo with Zeal and Longbow. Auto is meh but at least it has a good damage.

Sword: Auto3… projectile… seriously? And what is the reason I cannot move while reflecting projectiles? Any time you pop this you give that pewpewranger a second and some to gain distance… Makes no sense. If I want protection against ranged enemies the last thing I want during this is standing still…

Focus: utility and defence all in one. Bit long CD on the RoJ but this is only my opinion. The shield is fine. Nice damage and blocks and a blast finisher. I doubt anybody in combat uses it for a blast but if it happens… Every little helps.

Torch: Good-good but suicide. Nice damage but close to zero utility for yourself. Unless you running a hybrid or condi. Again, ask me again after the HoT release.

Hate:

Mace: weak heal and utility but some very nice party support. Auto is faster then the Hammer’s but it has no short-range gapcloser. I feel it does a good damage I just cannot apply this to my foes. The only one-handed with a symbol so I use it in symbol-bunker builds.

Shield: it’s… just not making it. Long CD and thousand times cursed mechanics, But we will see this in HoT.

Staff: it has it’s uses but I hate this weapon because it’s not made for my playstyle. Lootstick, symbol, heal, might, ward and orb… I just hate this weapon (possible for no reason but the question was subjective anyway…) It would be much better if I could cast Empower while moving… Maybe…

My two coppers…

Do not worry: the new achievement in the HoT will be like this:

Kill the Wyvern 10000 times while naked… 10 achievement points.

For sure.

Witcher: I do not want to be a troll but I call anti-meta build that if someone modifies his build to be effective against a very likely enemy. Like taking Wall of Reflection or Sword against a double ranger team. You only GUESS if they are LB or not. But since LB-GS is the meta ranger build your chances are high to destroy them. If the two rangers are spirit and sword-torch you are screwed

I modify my build every single match depending on my and the enemy’s team composition… As I said a sword, an ice bow or a doom sigil does make a difference.

So my build would be considered anti-meta in that particular situation and team setup meanwhile it would be a piece of poop in any other scenario.

I never heard somebody complaining about my WoR against a double ranger team… Or about my IceBow when our team had two thiefs. Or my Mesmer having Portal.

I’m pretty sure you understand my point.

These builds are not meta builds they are suboptimal but I as a player felt and feel that in that situation these builds help me to achieve my goal easier.

And to be sure: I’m not against the metabattle if you feel so. I think everybody should (or even must) follow it, check it or adapt for it for a certain time. And then use the most effective build compositor… The brain!

EDIT: after reading this again I realised it sounds like I wanna be a unique snowflake…
Not. I just think that making some loose-and-gain decision does improve my chance to win.

Saiyan: ofc the thief has an upper hand except the guardian is fighting for or on a point. The best thing they can do: get in let the guardian waste some CD and retreat. Get back in about 15 seconds. That means full ini for the thief and at least one wasted CD like Hammer4 or 5 or scepter 5 for the guardian. In this situation the thief wins. If some reinforcement arrives… This is a 2v1 already

The guardian is really weak against poke(fake) attacks since they usually burn all their abilities trying to kill their enemies.

shadaux.5192:

Erm I eat meta builds for breakfast on a regular basis it’s just it gets boring after a while cos once I beat them once in a match they all start running away from me unless it’s 2v1 or greater, fgs such skill yea. Keep telling yourselves ur good players not at all being carried by passive easy to play builds.

Oh for Narnia’s sake man!

The OP going to start with a metabattle build then s/he is likely to realise that the beat from an anti-meta build is inevitable. So s/he is likely to start an anti-meta build like you did. So s/he is going to follow YOUR build which is an anti-meta build.

The fact that your build is made to beat meta-builds does not reduces their impact. You did a great job realising how to beat a meta build! Hands down!

But your anti-meta build is also a meta-meta-build

(if I write the word “meta” one more times my head going to explode!)

And if your build is made specifically to beat meta builds you have no right to call yourself any better since you abuse the weakness of the other builds you know well. You are built to expose the weaknesses of any metabattle build.

Sounds even for me…

witcher:

Sometimes I take IceBow as my third utility. Or ArcaneWave.
Sometimes I use Rage runes over Traveller.
Sometimes I slot double Doom sigil instead of Air.
Sometimes I use Sword over Scepter and traited PurgingFlames over SmiteCondition.
Hell sometimes I even slot ResoluteHealer! Blasphemy I know!

These little things help me to get better understanding of the PvP game AND abuse the weakness of the other professions. And these are not mentioned on the metabattle homepage.

But I fully understand what you mean.
Can you please try to understand me?

I see your point. Please get it like this:

Metabattle is NOT a full collection of the builds or tactics. It is a good starting point for a beginner to understand the concept of some professions and also ease the learning curve.

You can find some very unique, well thought and entertaining build options on
forum-en.guildwars2.com

:D

(Anyways I think if somebody completely copy a metabattle build has no imagination or unique playstyle. But this is a completely another topic and should not be mentioned here)

Why? What’s your problem with the Metabattle? It has some very nice guidelines and useful information.

Also an ANET employee suggesting outer source of information of their own game tells that they aware of the existence of these and they sort of respect the work invested.

A much bigger MMORPG’s admin would never mention curse.com or askmrrobot for instance.

Hi there!

I would like to share this with you:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/257oay/did_you_know_thief_shadows_edition/

Look at the comments too there are some incredible useful information.

I started to play serious PvP since a month and as a meditation guardian I can tell you that a thief is a gamble for me. Fighting on a point: sure I can chase them off or kill them but if they catch me unaware or without cooldowns I’m as good as dead.

Oh and one more suggestion: do not play hotjoin! Play unranked instead!

And find some friends/guilds. A good thief in a coordinated team has no counter…

I think the biggest question is:

Can we buy the HoT from the gem store or not?

If the answer is yes than everybody has access to it so we cannot even talk about the P2W situation. In the case the answer is actually no… It’s a different story.

Honestly I wouldn’t even mind if it was a grandmaster major trait in any trait line. Just let me use different runes please!

I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be a cleaver melee weapon (obvious is obvious). Leap, and maybe some sort of hard CC aswell like pull or stun. A short CD blast finisher…..

Maybe with a name something like Corpseflayer!

That would be bad-kitty

It’s good to know. Thanks guys.

Instead of a sword I might craft a mace then

(my LB is already crafted)

It is ground targeted with about 360 240 radius. So you can heal an ally and damage/immobilize an opponent. Good gapcloser/support/peel ability 3in1.

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/657277834

8:25

22:10 (the adept trait)

EDIT: the radius is 240 in the tooltip.

“You lay down a trap which creates a symbol of ANET if an enemy triggers it…”

“Your traps have 1200 range…”

“If you hit an enemy with your trap it also apply Immobilise (1sec)

“You shoot a piercing arrow from your bow what deals more damage the closer your foes are…”

“Your virtues keep the passive effect after activating…”

“Your traps have a 66% chance to apply Torment for 3 sec…”

“When you use your a trap it also apply Taunt (2sec 600 range)”

We have no idea how it’s gonna work!

Calm down!

If the damage of the LB is not affected by the distance from the enemy it can be a good weapon even in PvE. If the traps can be traited to give support or extra damage for party members and can be thrown it’s a different story in PvE. Extra dodges and damage mitigation by Virtues are also good in PvE…

Just. Wait. A. Bit.

These are the “young, cub, hatchling, juvenile, etc…” creatures. They are interrupted by any hit. I don’t think this is a bug.

Anything but only Dungeon / Fractal runners will shout not bringing berserker gear…

Berserker is only needed in speedruns… that’s it. He’s BALANCED cleric/zerker/knight gear can be usefull everywhere else…

EDIT: i can’t speak english…

Hi fellow Guardian!

A few pieces of Cleric gear can make your life much easier. If you learn fractals or doing Silverwastes it is a godsend indeed.

Try something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQJARSlsApZotCxUI8DRR8gk14qCg5zuXfM2NA-TVCBABPqEEjjAAPqwImyPJuEAA8AAKa/h80Foj6DkCIilRA-w

You will have OKish damage, perma swiftness, support and some nice heal/second.

Not optimal but your group will love you

Yes it can be distracting or annoying..

But:

GSwarri: “hey you have no chance to get me…”
Me: “no I have not.. but we killed you guildmate…”
Me: “fancy a 2v2?”

Halven hour later:
GSwarri: “Yes”

it was a great 2v2 then 3v3 then 5v5 what lasted for a good 2 hours.

Then the blobs arrived…

Tldr: if someone is a thwat just block… But you do not know where the good fights are coming from..

Hehe

This OP made me laugh! +1 and thank you!

can someone give me a link so I can watch the full version?

I don’t know what you are on mate….

our single target DPS is all right.
our single target burst is also all right (mostly for meditation)
our AoE DPS is a bit of mess since we do it with cleave AND symbols so there is a chance you screw up some fire/water field. But it’s still OK.
survivability? seriously… you are talking about one of the most durable profession in the game. It counters other zerkers for a reason.
Condition: we can only apply one condition (the most damaging one) but can do it very often. So cleanse won’t help too much against it. True: pure condi builds are not possible yet.
Health… You want more health? Really? If guardians got like 3000 HP more baseline they would be an unstoppable force you know…

Please put that knife down!

Nothing is written in stone now (haha). We will see more balances later.

I agree that S,DaR is a kind of lackluster now but it only takes a lil’ bit of adjustment and it will be on par with the others.

This official information wasn’t about the traits individually. It just presented the new system.

Hm, something like a sw/d ranger + sw/f mediguardian lovechild with shout utilities would be absolutely epic!

Leaps, blinds, evades and PBAoE’s all over the place :P

Fadeaway: yes you are right. The trait lines won’t affect your stats anymore.

I don’t mind the stability changes… You just have to work around them. I found another keys worth to use apart of the W and 1… A, D… they all count.

Guardian frontline main.
Staff ele if needed.
Necro if bored.
Teef if roaming.

Oh, two more quick tip:

Turn off autotarget and melee assist. I don’t even know why are these on by default.

yiksing: so true

I was wvw-zerging with a new commander and he asked me for my build. So I told him a few details. Traits, utilities, sigils and the basic tactic of the build. He started to question my choices… His final Q:

“Well I don’t know… It sounds strange. I don’t want you to bring a new build. Did you ever try this? Is this gonna work?”
“Sure! This is the build I got from the metabattle.com. I thought it’s OK…”
“Oh well, yes it is good, you can come…”

Hehe

EDIT: LightningRod ele if not clear for everyone.

If you scroll up a bit you will see I did read this thread.

You can do the entire content of the GW2 in zerker gear and a year experience but please accept that not everyone is able to do this. There are always newcomers and wvw-warriors and players new to a class.

Anyway: you are right! I should not react such. My bad!

So you are level 13! Gratz!

Start doing the map completion. It rewards you with gear and skill points since the skill challenges are the part of the 100% map. If you cannot fiond a place check it on the youtube. You will get 1 skill point each time you level up. Even after you got to level80 you will still earn skill points (the incoming expansion will change this…).

Smite condition is one of the better utility skill for levelling. It does some nice burst and helps you to get rid of the annoying conditions after the fight. Spider’s immobilise or 1 minute of poison and the like. Smite these off and you are out-of-combat again to run faster.

Retreat is also your friend. Faster running means more XP/hour.

Bane signet… more power… yes please!

Try to have 10 skill points when you get to level 30. This is the time to get your elite skill and the cost for the first one is ten.

fracture:

/applause

Be proud mate! Most of us did the same but since there is an OP who was stuck here and found it difficult AND asked for help. We did help without basically calling him kitten or noob. He had problems. We helped him out.

But you my friend you are the only brave hero to be brave enough to point out how easy is that particular situation.

Well done!

Anet gonna undo the nerf soon… “AnetSoon”

eh
waiting for extraction points…

OP please do not get the profession wrong! It does melt faces. The warrior has more HP, the Gua has more “active defence”. You do not soak the damage but avoid it. And since you have the same armour class you can still live through a few hits.

GreatSword is a good example: you can leap in (#3) and start your WhirlingWrath (#2). The mob wants to hit you but it’s Blinded. You lay down the Symbol (with #4) for some AoE damage and retaliation then you swap weapon (available at level 14 I think…). Sword #2 blinds again so the mob going to miss you AGAIN. Then you activate your Focus #5 for 3 blocks or extra damage. The mob will hit you with a huge attack but you still have your dodge and your F3 to mitigate 3 more… At this time the weapon swap is off CD so you can go back for your Greatsword and blind AGAIN

If anything survives this and you still alive then you just have found your learning curve

DO NOT buy any armour or weapon from the trading post before like level 20. There are some folks out there to make profit on the newcomers. Buy white weapons from weapon vendors marked with a sword on the map or armour from the vendor marked with a helmet (you can find these in any capital cities and sometimes along the way…).

Are you playing from the US or EU?

Advices: complete your starting map! You will find some challenging fights. You need every renown heart unlocked. They are your first source of gear. Do not buy gear with healing power. Your main stat is power. If an item yields more power than the previous one buy it for Karma.
Get harvesting equipment ASAP. Sickle, axe and mining pick. Also buy some Salvage Kit. You can buy them from a merchant in your starting area.
At level 12-ish you may struggle to finish your map or when you head to a new level 15-25 area you might find the first few “quest” hard. Head to an Asura gate in your capital city and start doing a starting map of a different race. The drop scales up to your level. AND the most important thing: the events-hearts-exploration-mining gives exactly the same amount of XP percent if you are level 1 or 80.

Good luck!

EDIT: I saw that you are from US (EU here). Whoever helps you beg for some 8 bags and 100 2copper food It makes your life much easier

EDIT2: one more very important thing! You can enter /wiki on your chat bar then SHIFT+click on an item in your inventory. It will take you straight to the Wiki page with loads of useful informations there.

Hi Metham!

This game unlike some others is full of trait-gear synergy. Check this oit please and you will see:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQJARSlsApaotCxcI8DNRDBlZ8vPmXIDXfgEEAA-TVCIwAAeCAdU/JoSjlKB5pMTwFAIiugCHCAW7PQKAmUGB-w

you can use this builder for trying out new things without actually investing any time or money. Play with the options, sigils, runes, traits, etc…

After you are familiar with your ideas you can check them on the mettabattle.com. Is your idea a “meta” build? Is it a great build? Is it a bad one? This does not mean that a build you want to play is unusable. But maybe the build can be tweaked or is unusable in certain situations. Like for example the build I linked is not unusable in dungeons but it is very-very-very weak. In wvw or in Silverwastes (or even in some Fractals) this build is good. In wvw however it is a solid build.

Another advice: get some friends in game or get into a guild. They can be a vast database of knowledge.

Solo roaming is a PITA with guardian. But if you roam with somebody together it’s a different story.

As Buran said if you roam alone you are somewhat limited to Scepter or you can do gigabursts with for example GS+Hammer+Bane signet but if you don’t oneshot your foe (usually ambushing him/her) they WILL flee. If you roam in pair with somebody who can support you with some CC’s the guardian becomes a freaking’ blast.

And I think this is why we didn’t received any buff to our mobility. If the Guardian was able to keep up with the opponents 1v1 while using GS+Hammer nobody could stop us. At all.

I had an idea a few weeks ago: what if there was another +25% movement speed rune set with more offence than Traveller or Speed. The community tore me apart

If you duo with an ele or mesmer for e.g. you can slot Pack runes and call it a day, movement speed sorted. Or you can still use Pack with staff and swap it for something else before you get to the camp or attack the enemy. I do not like this method that’s why I use Speed runes. 1750 extra HP is not bad. +25% movement and above 60% swiftness uptime in combat just by the rune set itself… Sure you loose some offence but I don’t think the issue with the guardian is the damage. It is the speed. Always was.

Happy guardin’!

WASD movement (strafe)
Q weapon swap
E and shift+E weapon skill 1 and 2
R and shift+R weapon skill 3 and 4
ctrl+R weapon skill 5
shift+SPACE utility 1
ctrl+SPACE utility 2
ctrl+shift+SPACE utility 3
T target
F interact
TAB swap target
mouse thumb buttons:
7, 8, 9 Virtues (you can bind this to 1-4)
10 heal (bind it to C)
6 elite (bind it to B.)
1 look behind
extra left button: dodge (use double tap if you want)

EDIT: as you can see I rely heavily on my left thumb and little finger and on my right thumb. No surprise since the thumb is the second most agile bodypart in the human’s body. My left little finger also has a lots to do: shift, ctrl, ctrl+shift and the Í key for TeamSpeak. This little fellow had so much training and workout in the past 10 years that it could win the Mr. Universe for little fingers

Nope… Strength and Hoelbrak are excellent choices and superior to the Pack if talking about raw damage output/condi duration… But the Pack is the best if you need movement speed (swiftness) too and you want to keep an offensive mindset. And in solo/small scale mobility is king!

Slotting Pack runes is one of the best thing you can do with your elementalist… Excellent stats: 175 power, 125 precision, +20% swiftness duration. The +20% swiftness duration means you have permanent swiftness from Air I and Arcane Power VIII. Staff, D/D whatever can have permanent swiftness. The Fury and the Might on hit are only the icing on the cake.

Using Speed or Traveller runes for movement speed (on elementalist) are unnecessary because of this rune set.

What the hell are you talking about?

Ele is not meant to facetank hits…. Nobody is. But with the right skills it can withstand basically infinite amount of beating from a single opponent. Skills including dodge, active and passive defence with healing makes the elementalis one of the tankiest profession out there.

This is not important! He DID it!

Elementalist is a hard-mode indeed! But you LEARN how to play this game properly… You will appreciate this later on… If you learn to play with ele there is nothing what can stop you from being an awesome skilled player! Keep it up and do not give up!

Good luck OP!

I apologise…

I did know that the word “meta” has a lot of meanings but I wasn’t aware it has THAT much. A knew the “part of the game” and the “higher level of theorycrafting” meanings. I was pretty sure that it’s also an artificial acronym of MostEfficientTacticAvailable… In LoL I heard this a lot and I thought it’s a gamer slang…

Well…

The metagame or metabattle words can be translated to any of these without making a huge mistake.

I think…

#EDIT: can somebody explain me what meta means in the metabattle or metagame words please? What do you believe?

#EDIT2: I still think my explanation is far from the most accurate one but describes the builds fairly good…

Ok try this:

02066 D/D

Healing Signet, IceBow, Armour of Earth, Summon lesser elemental, Summon Greater Elemental.

Before you pull: summon the greater elemental in earth attunement than cast IceBow. Use Bow (note you get a second one for later use…) pull with bow#5 an the nearest. Immediately cast Bow#4 on the top. Drop the Bow. Switch to Air attunement than Ride the Lighntning, Updraft, Shocking Aura, Fire#3, Fire#2, Fire#5. Swap earth, use earth#4 than pop Armour of Earth and channel earth#5. Swap to water. Heal yourself with 5 and 2 while running back for the IceBow on the ground. Use 5 and 4 than drop it again. Summon elemental if needed… Repeat…

I hope this helps!!!

The meta builds are coming from the most experienced players at that particular game type. They built this because they found it the most effective in any situation. That’s why it’s called meta… META (most effective tactic available… you know)! OK I stop taking the kitten…

But I think what we talk about now is philosophy

I do know what you mean.

Zelyhn: sorry to say but meta is META… what you wanna say is the FotM. FotM is changing constantly it keeps evolving but there is only one MOST effective tactic available… Most means there is only one…

Example:

three different tasks:

1, cherrypicking
2, lawnmowing
3, truffle harvesting

Castings:

A: the Cherrypicker
B: the Lawnmower
C: the Harvester
D: the guy in a green T-Shirt

situ 1: the A uses ladder because this is the META for picking cherries. D asks some friends to lift him up. A gets more cherries but D is still happy.
situ 2: B gets it right away…. Mowmowmow, D has some fun with the friends picking up flowers and some kind of weed… A has some issues because of the ladder…
situ 3: C runs out with a few tamed dogs and pigs… TruffleTruffleTruffle!
A joins with a ladder… Well played..
D gets his friends again and they are digging in the mud…. No truffle? Still fun!

Meta:

Most Effective Tactic Available

that’s it…

So it is a short term for being the MOST effective…

Meta does not exist… Only situations and META builds for that particular situation…

People still confusing META with FotM (a.k.a. Flavour of the Month). If something is popular does not mean it’s the Most Effective Tactic Available.

So sometimes it is confusing whether the player using “meta” means the effectiveness or the popularity…