Guild Wars 2

You can’t go wrong with thief. They cover ground the fastest. They kill enemies quickly. They have stealth. For solo work against champions they have access to solid condi cleanse, CC, and self-healing.

The only downside is they have low base health. To mitigate this I recommend marauder stats. As long as you can take a hit, your evasion and heals on offense should allow you to heal to full and continue the fight.

TheSwede.9512:

Hate to break it to you, but a PvE “Tank” won’t really work as intended, because enemies have extremely varying Aggro parameters and triggers. Only a few select ones actually go with Toughness as the determining factor. Visibility, DPS and Vicinity typically factors in greatly.

There’s also the fact that Mobs try to split their aggro either evenly or randomly between all players within their Aggro range, so even when you’re the first to lay down the hurt you can’t gaurantee that all enemies will shoot for you.

The only Surefire way to get enemy attention is through Taunt, which only works on Non-defiant enemies. A Revenant with Jalis and Improved Aggression can theoretically keep Taunt up 80%-100% on a Single Target with some Expertize and a Sigil of Malice, but they’ll quickly go through their Energy at that rate. And even then, it’s no more effective than any other form of CC, such as Stun or Knockdown which completely neutralize the target for a short time.

Overall, you can build for sustain in Open World PvE, ain’t nobody gonna get on your case for that because it’s just open world PvE, very few actual DPS checks to be had and a bumload of AoEs thrown around everywhere so you can’t effectively dodge all of it.

But don’t kid yourself, or anyone else for that matter, that you’re actively “Tanking” in any way, form or function. You can easily make yourself unkillable, but that won’t help in keeping allies alive. Keep enemies CC’d and Conditioned while buffing allies with Boons and Healing if you wanna help them stay alive.

Pretty much this. ^

That’s why I replied with a solo PvE survival build. It’s something I find kind of lacking in the advice you’ll typically find on the forums for this reason. Aside from solo open world PvE survival and certain raid encounters, there is no “tanking” in the traditional sense. And that’s by design.

circuitnerd.5863:

In your opinion which class do you find to be the most balanced as far as damage, survivability, utility, etc. Basically the average Joe character.

Depends a lot on the game mode. For instance, thief is great in open world. You move faster than anyone, deal awesome damage, and have great CC, self-healing, and damage avoidance. But because they offer very little group utility, they don’t compare well in group content to classes like elementalist that bring a ton of group utility on top of dealing excellent damage.

Also, consider that balance patches happen all the time. A must-have class for a specific game mode might become bottom-tier overnight. I hear this happened to revenant, which used to be a must-have raid class.

DoctorDing.5890:

One of the things I’m not keen on in modern gaming is the expectation that everyone will be using google, wiki and youtube to figure out what to do in the game. It’s fine to have that option but it should be possible to work out almost everything in the game without resorting to that stuff. There could be NPCs in each zone who can give you the lowdown if you ask them: what, where, when, who? It’s not just HoT stuff either. The first time I had a world boss on my daily list I zoned in to the map and, um, no clue. Those timer sites should be unnecessary.

You have it all wrong. You want to know how events work and when they begin without learning it yourself. For that, you go to outside websites. You always have the alternative option of simply playing the game and figuring it out as you go. Nobody is forcing you to come and ask on the forums or go to outside websites. But if the expectation is that everything should happen when you have a mind to participate and it should all be obvious, I think you need to temper your expectations.

Djinn.9245:

ProtoGunner.4953:

Are people really that helpless or are they too clouded to open the wiki or google it? It’s more work to begin a new thread than google it to find out within about 1 or 2 minutes how this map works.

There are a number of people who have very limited time to play, and many MMOs that you CAN just get in and play without having to consult outside sources. If you only have 1 hour to play you want to spend that time playing the game, not reading about playing the game. And additionally there are probably people who will go to an empty DS and simply conclude that it is just not popular or not working. Why would they even think that they have to look it up online to “find out how it works”. Shouldn’t it just work or be made clear from within the game?

If you only have an hour to play it wouldn’t matter anyway. DS takes longer than that. Play on a day when you have more time.

Nikal.4921:

Quite honestly, I put off buying the HoT expansion for months because of what I read and saw about the zones. And it was all spot on- I hate these zones and only begrudgingly spend time in them to get Hero and Mastery Points and some of the gear. I broke down and purchased the expac because I wanted the elite skills, and I am so glad I was able to get it on sale, because the zones did nothing to enhance the game for me. I can’t stand when a game uses the environment against the players, and all the HoT zones are, are mazes. I spend as little time as I have to in such zones. I can’t wait to move on to zones more like the core Tyria zones.

Well, you got your wish. All 3 of the newest HoT maps related to LS3 are relatively easy to navigate and have metas that require little organization beyond simply showing up. One more and you’ll have an even spread.

@Healix, I also wish things were more accessible. However, as this thread makes clear there are vastly different tastes in this game. How do you reconcile players like myself who love the vertical, maze-like maps, higher enemy difficulty/density, and organized meta events with players who prefer Queensdale? It’s a tall order!

Elementalist, Tempest – 1/11/2017

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYncMA9XitMAOYCcYilGAz9y2ZHtCFgAwHcYFUCChA-TxRGABgs/w/PAgHV/JPlg0pHAgTAQUK/IFgfKjA-e

This is my own build which I use for the purposes of SOLO PVE. Please don’t attempt to use it for organized group play! However, if you’re feeling squishy in open world HoT content, this might give you some ideas on how to feel more invincible.

D/X – I use dagger purely for fun, but use focus for better defense or warhorn for better damage/utility

Celestial stats – Marauder, soldier/berserker, celestial/berserker are likely good alternatives

Tempest – 3-3-3 (1-3-3 for extra stun defense)
Air – 1-2-2
Earth – 3-1-1

Build Features:
100% uptime on swiftness and fury
High protection uptime
Easily stack 25 might on yourself and allies
Stability (and stun break) on demand with overload
Solid healing outside of water attunement from auras and signet

With all the auras you’ll be throwing around you gain 40% damage reduction via protection nearly 100% of the time in combat. You can add another 10% now and then with frost aura from water attunement and elemental bastion. With nearly 20k health and 2600 armor, get out of jail free card (rebound) and ability to heal from low to full in water attunement, you become very difficult to kill.

Power takes a big hit with this build, but with easy access to 25 stack might you can still deal plenty of damage for solo play. The extra condition damage helps to recover a bit of what you lose in power, but you won’t compare to berserker builds. This is why I don’t recommend this build for organized group play as you won’t fill the damage role well and your heals aren’t strong enough for that purpose either.

Edit: Condi cleanse and reflects are also a bit light on this build. Using a different off-hand than dagger will help with the reflects and swapping out earth for water can help if you need stronger condi cleanse.

Baldrick.8967:

My staff ele can manage just fine on most things, it just takes longer than most of my other toons to kill things.

The annoying things are the numerous gates and not being able to access large parts of the maps at various times.

They don’t appeal as anywhere I’d actually go back to.

That’s odd, since DS is the only HoT map that features large areas that are inaccessible outside of the meta. AB has a few small areas that are part of events and are blocked by vine walls. TD and VB have no such restrictions.

Are we playing the same game?

Einlanzer.1627:

AliamRationem.5172:

Einlanzer.1627:

I agree as well. The HOT maps are too much of a chore. It’s okay to have a map like that every once in a while, it’s not okay when it dominates the end-game. Which, thankfully, it really doesn’t anymore. But I think it’s a mistake that they made all four new maps work that way in HOT. It would have been better to have four or five “normal” maps and one or two HOT style maps. This would also have been better from a sustainability perspective. Now, too many map metas are competing each other, leaving too many of them underplayed. I’m still trying to get my Mistward Helm because I stopped bothering trying to beat the Chak gerent event as it’s largely abandoned.

The open world is generally not the place to try to have a lot of real challenge or complicated navigation. For the most part, challenging content should be separated out into dungeons and raids, because they facilitate the organization needed to properly deal with challenging content. The open world is too disorganized and zergy. Again, it’s okay to do occasional maps that are done in HoT style, but it should be the exception and not the norm. I’m hoping they will have learned this lesson for the next expansion.

Honestly, it seems to be working fine. I didn’t like it at first because I felt you shouldn’t have to play the LFG game to find an organized map. But I don’t see how else you can have organized meta events without them being on a timer and players using LFG to organize. You see the same thing with world bosses in core Tyria. Why is this any different?

Chak gerent is getting completed every day at all hours. I often do it first thing in the morning before work. I did one last night that went so well we knocked out the chak gerent on Nuhoch lane before it even made it to the last burrowing phase!

If it’s time for the meta and you’re finding yourself on maps that give you the “Volunteer to change maps?” dialogue, it’s because other players are abandoning your map for a map that is organizing via LFG.

Note that the chak gerent spawns every 2 hours on the half hour mark. Check LFG around 15 minutes before the meta begins and you should start to see groups listed there.

I don’t agree that it’s working fine. Events fail way more often than they succeed on most of those maps, and it’s not something you as a player have much control over. Either there are plenty of people and a good commander around, and the event is steamrolled, or there aren’t and it fails immediately.

I’ll repeat what I said above – it’s okay to have some complex metas with hordes of difficult mobs on maps occasionally, but it shouldn’t be the norm. Most maps should be casual friendly.

I disagree. We already have core Tyria and now we have 3 out of 7 HoT maps that are like this. It’s time for more of the original style HoT maps, in my opinion.

DoctorDing.5890:

“It’s just not fun” sums up exactly how I feel about those 4 HoT maps. I don’t think Anet realised just how many players run around casually and “mostly solo”. Anyhow, the good news is that the maps after HoT, the ones in living story 3, are much more friendly to us casuals, with space to breathe and explore and enjoy without being constantly wiped out by a house plant or knocked down by a short guy dressed as a mushroom.
The bad news is that to get there and to get the most out of the maps you do need to acquire a few masteries like gliding and updrafts.

The new maps have some great scenery and time and space to look at it. And Bloodstone Fen has so many updrafts that you can just glide around forever without needing to train or consult a Dulfy guide. Imagine that – actually being able to play the game without a guide! (/sarcasm)

When Anet finally kill off the Auric Basin multiloot thing I’ll have no reason at all to go to any of those 4 awful HoT maps. I sometimes wonder if those maps were sponsored by the unofficial websites that you need to use just to play the meta. What on earth were they thinking when they designed them???

To each their own. I find core Tyria bland and boring. HoT is where I like to be. Like you, I’m the sort of player that plays mostly solo. I enjoy the exploration challenge these maps present and the enemy density/difficulty is more my speed. I get nothing out of fighting one enemy at a time. I’d rather be taking on an army of chak or mordrem or battling some champion.

etienne.1039:

Is there EVER some action on Dragon’s Stand? All the time I come there the map is deserted. So when is the best time to come there?

The best time to show up in DS is just before the map closes. Either use LFG or you can often just let the dragon clear the map and players will start filtering in to begin the event cycle. I think this is because there is so little reason to be on a DS map instance by yourself the next organized group has only your map to choose from when they begin. But LFG would be the surefire way.

What you don’t want to do is try and join a DS map in progress halfway through. Chances are you will be unable to zone in to the map because it’s already filled.

Einlanzer.1627:

I agree as well. The HOT maps are too much of a chore. It’s okay to have a map like that every once in a while, it’s not okay when it dominates the end-game. Which, thankfully, it really doesn’t anymore. But I think it’s a mistake that they made all four new maps work that way in HOT. It would have been better to have four or five “normal” maps and one or two HOT style maps. This would also have been better from a sustainability perspective. Now, too many map metas are competing each other, leaving too many of them underplayed. I’m still trying to get my Mistward Helm because I stopped bothering trying to beat the Chak gerent event as it’s largely abandoned.

The open world is generally not the place to try to have a lot of real challenge or complicated navigation. For the most part, challenging content should be separated out into dungeons and raids, because they facilitate the organization needed to properly deal with challenging content. The open world is too disorganized and zergy. Again, it’s okay to do occasional maps that are done in HoT style, but it should be the exception and not the norm. I’m hoping they will have learned this lesson for the next expansion.

Honestly, it seems to be working fine. I didn’t like it at first because I felt you shouldn’t have to play the LFG game to find an organized map. But I don’t see how else you can have organized meta events without them being on a timer and players using LFG to organize. You see the same thing with world bosses in core Tyria. Why is this any different?

Chak gerent is getting completed every day at all hours. I often do it first thing in the morning before work. I did one last night that went so well we knocked out the chak gerent on Nuhoch lane before it even made it to the last burrowing phase!

If it’s time for the meta and you’re finding yourself on maps that give you the “Volunteer to change maps?” dialogue, it’s because other players are abandoning your map for a map that is organizing via LFG.

Note that the chak gerent spawns every 2 hours on the half hour mark. Check LFG around 15 minutes before the meta begins and you should start to see groups listed there.

Yrch.5491:

I enjoy GW2. I think the base game (before HoT) is a lot of fun. As a casual player, I can’t stand HoT. It is too difficult. I am in a pretty good guild that when I need someone they will generally come help and I have joined HoT map trains once or twice, but most of my play time is solo, where I like to log in and run around and do stuff by myself.

It probably hasn’t helped that I am a squishy ele, but HoT is really tough to log in for some casual game play. I find the maps hard and confusing, different events shut down parts of the map that one minute ago were open, but now are blocked. I frequently die to mobs that in my opinion hit way too hard. It’s just not fun.

I know there are plenty of you out there that love HoT and have no problems with it, but I do and it makes me not want to play.

Although I truly enjoy HoT, I do find it challenging. Like you, I tend to do a lot of solo play in open world. I’ve found that being “squishy” isn’t inherent to the class so much as the preferred builds for group play, which aren’t necessarily the best choice for solo players like us.

If you’re using all or mostly offensive stats, try moving toward a more defensive setup. Marauder, berserker/soldier, or even celestial are all good options, although there are plenty of other stat combinations elementalist can make use of.

Next, take a look at your traits. The elite tempest specialization is a real game changer. Overloads allow you to deal impressive damage to large areas, even if you use a close-range weapon set like dagger/x. In addition, they can function as a highly effective counter to the frequent stuns you’ll encounter in HoT. And they grant access to many useful boons.

If you want even more survivability, pair tempest a defensive trait line. My current build runs dagger/dagger, celestial gear, with tempest/air/earth and can take on just about anything HoT throws at me.

Feel free to message me in game if you want to talk builds or run around the jungle and try things out some time.

Hey! You leave emo Broham alone! His mommy died and it’s all your fault, okay?

EvilReaperZ.7920:

Maybe Legendary Sigil soon? Unlock or collect all sigils like achievement to get it lol

Oh, I like the idea of a legendary sigil!

They would definitely be a lot more attractive if they somehow allowed you to switch back to any sigils you have previously placed on the weapon.

rotag.5921:

I play games fairly casually. Can I be average at this game doing that, or should i not even bother? I am totally serious here, when I quit playing mmos several years ago all the mods and keybindings were just starting to totally take over the game, i have the itch again…sooo whatcha think,yay or nay?

This seems like a rather arbitrary limitation. You know you can simply bind strafe left/right to whatever you currently use for turn left/right and unbind turn/left right entirely, right? It would take you a few seconds to do this and I can’t see why you’d ever miss it? To each their own, though.

As for UI mods, this is the game for you! It has that pretty much on lockdown compared to games like WoW which encourage UI modding to the extreme.

You don’t have to be squishy with any class. Use different builds for different purposes. The system is quite flexible. Want an invincible elementalist? Try running celestial gear with earth/air/tempest. Even tough champions like Balthazar or mushroom queen will have a tough time taking you down, whether other players are there to help or not.

For group play, break out the berserker gear and swap some traits around. Your group will thank you for the damage output.

I run a similar build (Earth/Air/Tempest, d/d) for open world, but I use celestial gear. For the most part, you’re practically unkillable. You can solo most champs and even the tough ones like Balthazar or mushroom queen have a hard time killing you. But I’m not sure how much team support a build like this really has, since I mostly use it for solo work.

But hey, if your friends die at least you can take the bosses out yourself!

I like my open world builds to give me enough survivability to solo most champs/group events. So far the only class I’ve found that can really get away with full offensive stats while under those conditions is necromancer. I have builds I like on my thief (marauder) and ele (celestial) that get the job done nicely as well, but they are high damage classes that can afford to sacrifice damage for survival in solo play without feeling slow.

Given this criteria, what would you experienced guardians recommend for a build?

DoctorDing.5890:

Vayne.8563:

And does VB suck too…

Yes, but not as much and for different reasons.

And Vayne, take a step back and listen to yourself for a moment. You’re saying TD is ok once folks have had a couple of training sessions. When training is required for open world PVE you know that the devs got it very, very wrong. I know you love these maps and defend them to the hilt but open your eyes and look around once in a while mate!

Vayne isn’t alone in that. I don’t expect everyone to like TD, but there are a lot of us who consider it the best map in the game for the very reasons others consider it a nightmare.

You have an entire game full of maps that don’t present a real exploration challenge. Let us have this one map and (hopefully) we’ll see at least one more like it in the next expansion. The LS3 map layouts indicate that the devs have heard your side of it. Let us have ours as well.

Hi! Former WoW player here as well. I switched over to GW2 almost a year ago.

There is no gear grind in the WoW sense. The best stats you can get come from ascended/legendary (same stat level), which are slightly better than the readily available and relatively inexpensive exotic level gear.

As a player used to the WoW gear treadmill, this is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you aren’t useless in the current tier if you take some time off. On the other hand, there is no “current tier”!

GW2 has only 1 raid, with three wings. More may be on the way in the next expansion, but as you aren’t using the current tier of raiding to gear up for the next tier (you can, but the gear you earn from raiding is no better than the gear you earn from other activities) you are either playing through the content to experience it (which removes the sense of urgency to replay it that exists in WoW) or you’re going for some secondary goal such as crafting legendary armor – which, again, offers no statistical advantage over the far easier to obtain ascended level gear.

The result, in my opinion, is a game that lacks some of WoW’s failings but feels somewhat aimless as a result. In GW2 I find there is less structure. Certainly there are plenty of achievements and other goals to work toward, but with no gear treadmill I don’t always see the point.

It strikes me that GW2 is better suited to casual players for this reason. True “hardcores” will likely experience the familiar burnout at an accelerated rate here. The only exception I can think of are people who just like to try and complete everything. GW2 doesn’t lack for achievements, collections, and skins to work for.

Having said all that, it has a very enjoyable combat system that doesn’t feel much like WoW. There tends to be far more mobility in combat and without the trinity of tank/heals/dps, there’s a lot more room (outside of organized group content) to come up with odd builds for various purposes. Also, your weapon choices can drastically change your playstyle as each weapon presents the player with a completely different set of skills.

Finally, if I had to identify a strength GW2 has over WoW it would be open world content. The event-based maps, jump puzzles, the seamless cooperation between players without having to form organized groups. It all contributes to a very enjoyable experience in open world that isn’t really there in WoW, which feels like far more of a solo game with dated content and rewards (although I haven’t played the latest expansion).

Khisanth.2948:

MashMash.1645:

And in comparison Verdant Brink is dead as a dodo.

I remember when it came out the map was heaving, and even 6-9 months ago it was regularly organized. Now? I’ve been farming map currency for collection stuff, and it’s just super dead.

I get that everyone is doing mm or the new maps, but the OG HoT maps are just going to die completely. DS is fine because it’s an easy meta, if time consuming. And AB has multimap loot – for now.

But VB and Tangled Depths? They gotta do something. Either nerf the difficulty heavily to make them way easier to do, OR re-incentivise them.

There isn’t much point to do the VB night time meta. You are better off getting crowbars during the day and spend the night using them.

Exactly. How did they think that it was okay to have room after room of exalted chests, including chests with guaranteed rares for completing Tarir, when VB and TD reward basically nothing? You’re far better off simply looting chak caches/airship cargo during the normal event cycle.

Pathetic design. Increase these rewards already, guys! You do a disservice to yourselves designing such amazing maps and then pulling a total fail on the rewards in this way!

They’re planning to address AB multi. The reasons are more or less as you say. As players tend to go for maximum reward for minimal effort, AB multi is attractive. Close the loophole and the assault on Tarir is still a relatively rewarding map meta, but will not result in players dropping whatever else they happen to be doing to rush to AB.

That they don’t occur at the same time is only relevant to a point. I’m burning a finite resource (i.e. giving a kitten about farming gold in GW2) here. The existence of a far easier and far more rewarding meta makes the under-rewarded metas that much less attractive to me.

The solution comes in two parts: Closing the AB multi exploit is one, the other is making metas like VB and TD actually worth participating in. They are far more difficult to complete and reward far less than even a single looting of Tarir! That’s just awful design and they really should have addressed it within the first few months of HoT release. Unfortunately, they seem to have a bit of a blind spot toward these things.

Here’s another idea: Change that silly tornado skill and make it a shorter cooldown blast + CC. I know we have other options for CC and blast, but the elite skills for this class are pretty worthless much of the time. At least a CC blast would be useful and could free up the generally more useful regular utility slots that we might otherwise use to add blasts and CCs.

No idea of the balance implications of such a change, however.

Isn’t she cute?

I don’t know much about ele outside of d/d fresh air in open world at this point, so I’m sure I’m missing what some of the complaints are about. However, I don’t think it gets any better than this. Attunement swapping feels fast, fun, and versatile. I enjoy being able to drop huge area damage while also throwing heals, boons, and auras all over the place.

Here’s hoping they keep attunements.

Edit: Feel like I should add a suggestion…

Suggestion: Change conjure weapons so they function similar to attunements. Instant summon, attunement swap cooldown when changing to a different attunement, but with the ability to swap back into the conjured weapon. Modify a trait to facilitate quick-swapping between conjured weapons.

Hi! Welcome to GW2. I’ve played both games, but here I am, too!

I would say for brand new players, GW2’s core leveling experience is better and more forgiving. However, unlike WoW you can’t really outgear the content. So fair warning: When you reach the HoT expansion maps at level 80, expect to be challenged! You can upgrade your gear, but your survival will depend somewhat more heavily on your ability to adapt. In WoW you can always outgear the problem. Not so much in GW2.

Waypoints must be discovered by walking to them first. However, after that you can use them (for a small fee) whenever you are out of combat (and as long as the waypoint isn’t contested by an event – indicated by a crossed swords icon over the waypoint). Be aware that waypoints are per character, so when you try another character you will have to explore the world again in order to use the waypoints.

To try different areas, reroll or roll a new character, choose a different race, and you will begin in their starter city. There are also some Asura portals you can use to get between some cities.

Hi! I also came over from WoW, almost a year ago now. If you won’t miss endlessly upgrading your gear for the next challenge, you may enjoy this game. There are lots of wardrobe unlocks and achievements to keep a solo player busy.

As for which class I’d recommend for solo play? It’s a tough call.

Necromancers are probably the easiest/best solo survival class. The downside is that they aren’t the quickest at getting around.

If you want high mobility, thief is your best option. They can cover ground far more quickly than other classes with access to numerous/frequent teleports and easy access to swiftness. However, thief has low health and very little damage mitigation. They can solo quite capably, but it requires better timing than a safer class like necromancer.

The other classes fall everywhere in between. But honestly, you can build a class to do almost anything you want in solo content. The “meta” is only for group content. So if you find you’re dying too often, chances are you can fix that by changing up your traits, gear, weapon set, runes, and sigils.

There’s no rush to buy HoT. It’s mostly only relevant at level 80. On the other hand, if money is no object and you intend to give this game a thorough chance, why not? Not everyone will agree, but I think HoT is great! The open world maps are like nothing you’ve ever seen in WoW (or core GW2 either!).

Doam.8305:

HoT maps have many more chains due to the lack of hearts

There also gated off as it still irks me that Verdent Brink doesn’t have a single leylines or even updrafts that can reliably and routinely take you to the canopy level without event chains.

HoT gets easier with mastery but mastery is built around altoholics grinding for a single toon is mindnumbliy boring. It should’ve been locked per toon with a reduce exp grind to compensate. HoT is need of a qol patch that it obviously won’t be getting I know people who quit, took a break like myself, or took their one toon through HoT story and never came back.

Are you sure? Perhaps more careful exploration of the area will reveal some things you failed to notice up until this point? Here are a few hints:

From Shrouded Ruins waypoint, head west up the stairs to the top of the plateau. There’s a bounce mushroom seemingly leading to a dead end. Or perhaps it isn’t a dead end after all?

There’s also a wrecked airship next to Mellagan’s Valor waypoint. Have you seen the view from the top of it? No? You might want to use that updraft tucked into the rocks at the top of the trailhead to get over to it and do some more thorough exploration.

Finally, if you were to go to the top of Faren’s Flyer waypoint, you might notice a large vine stretching northward. Why not see where it leads?

Trust me. You can reach every point on that map without using the choppers.

It’s a shame you don’t have any control over this at all.

I’d be glad to help if you still need it. I’ll even hop on my thief and we can compare notes! Feel free to add me to your list and message me in game.

Geiir.7603:

Hi all!

I have returned to the game from a longer pause (left just after Hot launched) and I find myself confused. I have gotten all the DD skills and traits and are using staff, but I am having huge trouble surviving while leveling my masteries in the jungle.

Anyone got any tips or builds that I should be using?

Finally some hard open world content though!

For crazy survivability without going ridiculous (i.e. toughness on your gear), I recommend marauder gear (berserker lite + vitality) and acro/CS/DD build. Make sure to take invigorating precision in crit strikes. It’s a huge amount of healing on offense. Set up your utilities such that you rarely/never find yourself without endurance when a dodge would have saved you (the agility signet and the channeled vigor heal both refill endurance as well as steal, so you have plenty of options).

You should be able to figure out the details from here, but if you’d like to know more feel free to hit me up in game. I don’t do meta builds, but soloing champs and armies of HoT enemies is just my game! And thief is one of the strongest classes for this with the right setup, in my opinion.

Westenev.5289:

As a player myself, I relish the chance to explore more maps like Tangled Depths and Verdent Brink. To begin with, these maps are beyond INFURIATING (more so pre-nerf)! But that’s what friends are for – it’s forced me to communicate with others for advice and help, eventually building up my core level of play. As I did so, I found lots of cool stuff tucked away in little corners that you would never find in linear maps!

Because, at the end of the day, that’s what this game is. A place where people can come together to throw down a massive one-sided beatdown! In this regard, I find the old maps to be both anti-social and frankly kind of boring (since everything with the exception of world bosses can be easily solo’ed).

If these maps were missing from the expansion, and anet continued to deliver more core maps, what reason might I have to spend more time than necessary on them?

I’m the same way. The core maps seem boring to me. They all sort of blend together aside from the change in scenery from map to map. Most of them don’t have enough going on in them and what is available is solo content.

I much prefer HoT maps, where there are always tons of events and plenty of group challenges, many of which can also be done solo but at least present a challenge. The exploration in maps like TD and VB was a really great experience and I’d like to see more of it.

Djinn.9245:

AliamRationem.5172:

Katoomba.6905:

I have not been able to actually play Heart of Thorns properly yet because for the last week I have been stuck in Camp Resolve. Every time I want to make some progress there is poison everywhere and of course die virtually within half a minute.

So why make an expansion and then people cannot even get into it by making a huge area of poison right at the start? It’s like saying come buy a cake, but to eat it you first have to walk through the sewer a few times, but the cake is really nice IF you can get to it lol counting the Dollars for game.

It sounds like you’re imagining an issue where one does not exist. That poison field is only present during part of the event cycle and it only covers the keep itself and a small area outside of it. Your storyline instance entrance is located on the outside of the keep, just a few feet from the edge of the poison field. So why is it taking you half a minute to walk that distance? There are no obstacles. It’s flat ground. Just walk over to the instance marker and click “Yes” to enter. Was that so hard? Or am I missing something here?

Wow, someone says he is having an issue and you say he is imagining it? Just because you don’t have an issue in that situation doesn’t mean no one else does. How rude.

Tell you what. You use the words you want to use and I’ll use the words I want to use. That okay with you, bignose? How rude!

vove.2768:

I am using wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers

But as you can see it is the same. I am also sorry to inform you that you are wrong, because Dragon’s Stand is empty at even start, in the middle and right before it finishes.

Hmm. That’s funny. I haven’t had any issues. Show up as one map meta closes and a new cycle begins. DS is done regularly because lots of people need it and, unlike the other maps, there’s no point in trying to just show up for the boss event. You want to be there for the whole thing right from the start, and everyone (except you) knows it.

The reason you always find yourself on an empty map in the night cycle is because players use LFG to jump to a map that is organizing for the meta. The result for players who don’t know any better is that they find themselves alone while another map fills up and completes the meta.

You can use the boss timers on the gw2 wiki to learn when the bosses spawn and use LFG to jump to an organized map at some time before the boss events begin. If you don’t do this, you’re likely to find yourself on the wrong map most of the time.

For necro open world I think you can do whatever you want. They are quite strong with a power or condi build. Although, I think solo survival-wise the condi build is probably stronger because you can take the trait in curses that restores 10% of your damage as healing. Still, you should do well if you wish to go the power reaper route. If you need more healing, take blood magic as it offers constant healing on top of whatever else you have going on.

Also, make sure to use the “Rise!” shout you learn with the reaper spec. The minions are a great distraction as there are usually many of them, but the real benefit is that they reduce your damage taken by 33% while attacking.

SeranusGaming.7362:

So, I’m about two days into the game now and I thought I had a nice warm fuzzy about my shiny new Necro that I chose to boost until I made the mistake or reading through most of the top threads on each class. Now, I’m not so sure what to think or believe but to be honest, I’m seriously worried if I might have made a mistake.

After reading today’s threads, I would think that the Necro is all about worthless in WvW, well sub-par in PvP, and only slightly tolerated in end-game PvE. The (power) Ranger, a class/build I played around with a good bit and almost selected before the Necro, is decent in WvW if people carry you, has no place in PvP, and auto-removed from all PvE groups. Oh, and that crazy-fun D/D Ele I played back after beta is about as threatening as a sleeping two-year-old.

So, as you can tell, I’m really confused if I should continue working on my Necro, put some work into the Ranger alt I made, or just say screw-it and roll the meta Warrior/Guard. I love this game but I want to focus on mainly one class and be be best I can be.

I’m afraid of spending my time working one main character only to find out it’s not really that viable or needed.

And advice please? Sorry for the wall of text…

-Sidil

It very much depends on what type of player you are and what sort of guild you’re in. If you’re more on the “hardcore” end of the spectrum, this sort of thing may impact you a great deal. However, if you’re mostly playing by yourself or with a few friends, exploring the open world, messing around in WvW and not so much bleeding edge PvP and serious raiding, this won’t matter at all.

So, my recommendation unless you’re the hardcore type is to enjoy exploring the world on your necromancer. It’s easily one of the strongest solo PvE classes, able to handle pretty much anything the game throws at you. And although this is just my opinion, I find it’s a pretty fun class to play as well.

Katoomba.6905:

I have not been able to actually play Heart of Thorns properly yet because for the last week I have been stuck in Camp Resolve. Every time I want to make some progress there is poison everywhere and of course die virtually within half a minute.

So why make an expansion and then people cannot even get into it by making a huge area of poison right at the start? It’s like saying come buy a cake, but to eat it you first have to walk through the sewer a few times, but the cake is really nice IF you can get to it lol counting the Dollars for game.

It sounds like you’re imagining an issue where one does not exist. That poison field is only present during part of the event cycle and it only covers the keep itself and a small area outside of it. Your storyline instance entrance is located on the outside of the keep, just a few feet from the edge of the poison field. So why is it taking you half a minute to walk that distance? There are no obstacles. It’s flat ground. Just walk over to the instance marker and click “Yes” to enter. Was that so hard? Or am I missing something here?

I recommend necromancer. Maybe something like this for awesome survivability in purely offensive gear:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWnMbCV2gtbCebC0bilgBLKBEAKXTRtdw6KeIuEjiA-TRSFQBlTfAAeAAjUJY9U/JF7P0QlfL4QAUgTAQCOCAkC4RpRA-e

I used cheap runes/sigils but they work out pretty well. With blood magic and parasitic contagion GM trait from the curses line you will constantly heal in combat. Take a damage spike? Hop into reaper shroud and quickly heal from all the condi you’re throwing around. Use “Rise!” to reduce damage taken and distract enemies. Your heal also replenishes up to 20% life force.

You could also do different utilities. I know a lot of necro players like to go heavy on minions while this build only utilizes “Rise!”. With more minions the pressure is taken off of you somewhat. But honestly, with blood magic and parasitic contagion you should be outhealing many enemies, so just wade right in!

I can’t quantify the damage loss, but it is noticeable even outside of groups. However, in exchange full marauder provides somewhere around a 66% boost to your maximum health (from 12-13k up to 19-20k comparing berserker to marauder).

As the others said, there is no need for the extra health in group PvE because you will have healing/mitigation support. Further, the damage boosters you receive will be that much more effective in berserker gear.

However, in solo play where you are your own healer, I feel there’s a distinct offensive advantage to having higher health on a thief. Instead of taking a hit and being forced to take evasive action, you’re much better able to remain on offense. This is especially true if your build takes advantage of traits like invigorating precision and assassin’s reward that heal on offense. Often you can heal back some or all of the damage by playing more aggressively.

It’s hard to quantify that effect, but in practice I find it feels pretty invincible. Especially if you take a somewhat more defensive build (acro/CS/DD power staff, for instance). You can not only take a hit, but heal it back rapidly. Even bosses will have difficulty bringing you down.

First, Bifrost is a pre-HoT legendary. You’ll be after items/challenges in core Tyria to craft it.

Use gw2efficiency.com to track the materials you’ll need. Don’t be surprised! The precursor and the legendary that follows require quite a lot of materials and gold. And all you really get is a skin, so you’d better love it! If stats are what you want, it’s far cheaper to craft ascended.

The wiki should give you most of the information you need to find the various collection items.

fourhim.3584:

loseridoit.2756:

traversing these new maps is really dependent on build and class.

You kinda have to post your build OP

Fair enough. My meat shields like Warrior and Necro don’t have as hard a time as the ones with so little health, like the Thief and Elementalist whom I just got to 80.

Its just that in the Tyria maps, even Orr, you could almost always find a path that would not aggro any mobs. But in HOT and especially these last areas that is just not the case, and when they inflict movement impairing conditions on you as you try to run past, or worse something like immobilize, it just feels like a programmer somewhere being a real jerk.

Try this build on your thief. I think you’ll find open world much easier.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiaLHHsqrLBCgGYu67+yH-TxRBQBZU5XAV/Je6Guy+DP4iAAgnAgJVCSIABjBA-e

Endless dodge, auto-clear movement impairing effects on dodge, 1s cd condi clear on evade, short cd stun break plus passive stun break so you never get pinned down, nearly 20k health so you can actually take even a big hit from a boss, strong heals on offense, but your burst damage is still high enough to take out groups of enemies in no time. With this build your thief should be able to take on pretty much anything your necro can.

Just a quick note: Use shortbow instead of pistols for moving around. The pistols are for when you need to deal damage but can’t safely stay at melee range (great for soloing some of the more annoying champions out there).

OriOri.8724:

The only change is that it needs to be made tradeable. The 1 a day charging limit is fine, its not fine that this mat is both time gated and account bound.

I’d also be fine with this suggestion. Just so long as there is some reasonable alternative to charging 1 crystal yourself every day for a month just to create a set of exotic armor. It simply isn’t worth it and I expect that’s why so few players use celestial gear (aside from it being unsuitable for most builds).

Justine.6351:

AliamRationem.5172:

Justine.6351:

If you think quartz is “hard” to get now just wait until they remove the time gate on charged quartz. You will be crying about quartz price on TP.

That’s fine. At least it won’t take me a week to craft a single exotic piece.

I second this suggestion. I’d love to try celestial gear on some of my characters, but the time-gating is prohibitive to the point where I have no interest in pursuing it.

Smh…
For berserkers it’s less than 2g per piece of gear in vials of powerful blood,
Even if quartz prices didn’t rise it’s 12.5g per piece of gear in quartz.

Quartz prices will increase if time gate is removed. My guess is as much as 2x, maybe even 3x, the price of ecto.

Yeah, I understand that. The fact is 5 days per piece is a much greater inconvenience to me than paying a bunch of gold or farming the mats myself. So have fun smacking your head, I guess? It isn’t changing my position.

Justine.6351:

If you think quartz is “hard” to get now just wait until they remove the time gate on charged quartz. You will be crying about quartz price on TP.

That’s fine. At least it won’t take me a week to craft a single exotic piece.

I second this suggestion. I’d love to try celestial gear on some of my characters, but the time-gating is prohibitive to the point where I have no interest in pursuing it.

This doesn’t make sense to me. You chose Ember Bay out of all the options as an example of low mob density. Yet it’s clearly among the highest and, unlike the maps that came before it, the fact that it features hearts again means that those mobs don’t disappear when the event is completed as they do in the event-only maps.

Take a closer look and you will see that VB is actually pretty sparsely populated. Many of the mobs that are there 100% of the time are neutral (yellow tag) with only a few enemies here or there. It’s when the events spawn that the place is overrun with enemies.

Or perhaps it simply feels more dense because the mobs are more difficult (e.g. walking into a small space with 3 frog people to fight)? Ember Bay has very high mob density – nearly every major area is covered in Primordus’ minions – but they are (mostly) noticeably easier to defeat than previous maps.

Yes, you earn experience toward HoT masteries only in HoT content.

Your mesmer will be fine. Damage isn’t a problem in open world PvE, as long as you stay alive. Mesmers are good for that.

Unlock gliding, updrafts, and bounce mushrooms before any of the other masteries. They are by far the most useful for navigating HoT maps.

What you do next is up to you. If it were me, I’d have fun exploring the jungle, doing the storyline, upgrading my gear, unlocking my elite spec, and working toward masteries. If you do this you won’t really need a top priority, since you do it all at the same time.

Katoomba.6905:

I find that the whole NPC army around me in the instances is so incredibly weak why bother even having them? I can watch them fighting and they do not make even a dent in the enemy’s health. Are they just there for decoration ?
So as a single person you have to fight like 7 strong enemies and then more come, and more and it is not fun any longer. I only just played the expansion for 8 hours in a row today and really got quite frustrated with everything. (like “gliding”, well, at least no other game will ever be tempted to pinch/copy that system )

They NPCs are basically there for flavor. It’s a solo mission. You’re expected to do the work yourself.

Gliding is an excellent system. It doesn’t offer unrestricted flight, but the developers put those limitations to good use in the new maps. Personally, I think this is one of the greatest additions of the expansion.

Maybe spend more than 8 hours at it? It’s not unusual for first-timers to get wrecked in HoT. The monsters tend to have attacks that you can’t simply rush into without accounting for in some way. But for me and many other players I’ve helped along the way, what at first seems way too difficult is easy once you practice a bit.

Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed the new Svanir in bitterfrost frontier behaving oddly. The chak do this also. You’re fighting them and they just start walking away for no apparent reason. I thought it was because they were low on health or in close proximity to other enemies they could flee to for help. But I’ve seen it happen too many times for no apparent reason for that to be the case.

I would have to say the closest thing to “smart AI” are the shadowleapers in HoT. Since they evade ranged attacks and use only ranged attacks themselves, their frequent backward leaps and stealth teleports work great for them. They’re probably the most dangerous “trash” enemy I can think of as a result.