Guild Wars 2

I really wish they’ll take the time to give us an option other than sword, where you don’t get that nagging feeling you -should- be using something else. It’s cool and all but variety is the spice of life.

Magitech as Metashift said but if you are looking for skirts I would also check the Viper one out as Arikyali says, they are a bit different but as skirts are rare for medium, and both are from the gemstore you might as well

I use kasmeer’s staff skin for the staff. The Lovestruck/tormented weapon skins are both amazing for mesmer, at least if you like purple. Tormented torch has a purple flame <3

I use the plum dye mixed with abyss for one set, and evening wine/plum for another. I was curious about those metallic dyes in the purple spectrum but they weren’t working that well with my choice outfits.

Bah, I should have red through Esplen’s post with less fast eyes and not make duplicate suggestions Anyway i would love for it to see some small tweaks to make it more viable!

I don’t think Marjory feels bad about her family meeting Kasmeer because she’s a woman, but if so only because she is born into nobility which seems to be a pretty impopular thing in the Delaqua family. :P In reality though I think Marjory is just being stubborn and a solitary soul in the face of trouble, and it was a convenient reason. I’m sure we’ll know more about it in the future regardless, speculation aside!

Whenever i play P/P I feel like #2 and #4 should be the same ability somehow, and that there should be an additional ability to help the set stand out. Dunno if that makes any sense. I really like the feel but it feels kind of weird with 3 utilities of which 2 feel very samey.

That’s from the perspective of somebody that only plays around for fun on a thief alt though.

For sure, there is nothing wrong with the premise of the class or some of its mechanics. I’d just secretly sit and hope that phantasms were made more fun (or that shattering them didn’t feel iffy).

Looks like midnight yew or something like that, dull dark green. But, a lot of that is probably the silvari pattern that glows specific times in the day; my sylvari had a purple glow like that as well. It transfers to the cultural armours.

I’m also unsure if you’re not just being misled by a tooltip update (they can be low priority…) because the skill feels as it always has for me.

I do wish we’d see more class balancing going on but I suppose with the game pricing model they have to make content choices.

It frustrates me a bit, I realllly love everything about the mesmer theme but it’s getting increasingly hard to match that view with actually playing the class. What’s worse is it’s really hard to pinpoint if it’s specific mechanics or what.

To make an example, I did the new living story with my mesmer and ranger earlier, and I just feel a bit frustrated in the fights with my mesmer. A feeling sort of like that one where you can’t find a build that fits you but you keep trying, cause you know you -can- love it.

Thinking on it, maybe it’s the phantasms. Maybe I feel like they are a bit too much passive pets and too little bending reality.

Scary and mysterious, perhaps soon with a legend?

As for my contributions, I’ll just go through mine… I love Norn too much.

Ylva Katlasdottir, fiery guardian.
Aysrana Windclaw, friend of beasts and a ranger.
Saeunn Hildrsdottir, the scarred warrior.
Aevane Nightwhisper, tracker and scout.
A mesmer, whose legend is modestly hidden behind the name of the poster.

Whew!

Thanks for the great guides, and the often optimistic fresh takes on things was definitely inspiring thus far.

If you mainly played consoles before, you have -so- many games you should look up on the PC that you may have missed! It’s actually what i do between inspirations to hop into GW2. Like Fay said above the wonderful thing with sub-less is you feel much more free about it – when I play a sub mmo I feel this need to at least make something out of the time I paid.

Anyway, have fun

Nice tips!

The weapon/skill swap thing is pretty neat in effect but it sure is awkward to do it on a regular basis due to the interface awkwardness. Wouldn’t be super sad to see it go, but I’d instead love if there were more ways to ensure a phantasm, like signet of the ether.

iLeap is so sensitive to terrain that this bug felt like a mitigating factor for when it failed. not sure what to feel about that. :P

I love bursting with point blank shot! … /hide

Seriously though, I definitely agree in that ranger should never be equalized to an archer in design, but rather an outdoorsperson of whatever flavour you’re going for. I totally think, if they can use bows, that they should be as good at them as other weapons they can use, though.

I’m sorry, I should have clarified I meant in terms of weapon; I think trait builds are diverse and you can usually use several weapons to for example PU in WvW or such. I really like that about mesmer and GW2 for most classes.

But, PvE just is the mode where all that is thrown out of the window more or less, weaponwise. I do find that as a longterm design problem, since it just needlessly sees many weapons unused. Maybe they’ll have a solution for it down the line, like bringing ranged closer or offering unique mechanics. Or offering us another melee weapon. Just, anything for weapon diversity.

Well, I would still agree with Arcanis, in that it is sad that we are in this seat weaponwise. If ranged is always going to be the worst weapons for PvE, there should at least be more than 1 melee weapon for each class to choose between, or some mechanic like attunements with Ele for variety.

I love the sword but it still gets tiring sometimes, even if ranged weapons sometimes come close or are on par or even better situationally. There really is a big lack of choice.

On the topic here, isn’t the very reason we see these threads all the time, an indicator that there is a problem with variety in itself? :P I doubt that people championing other weapons want to do bad dps. They just want to use another weapon, and therein lies the dilemma.

I’d say that was more than the proverbial 2c frifox, great post.

Like you Lexxy I also wanted a lot more focus on condi than I currently do in PvE, but I have kind of succumbed to shifting my hybrid-ism from that to the balance between me and phantasms/sharper images. I can recommend the hybrid trait setup listed above heartily, especially if you also want to use reflects since it conveniently lets you pick up that trait for the focus in Inspiration.

A final point is that it is also much easier to swap around traits now given the reset anytime feature. Definitely helps with trying quirkier stuff when you do your own thing solo or whatever. I have a rampager/celestial set I sometimes use for that, just for feels. Here’s hoping it’ll be a more permanent set to be worn sometime in the future.

My favourite thing about PS is definitely that you do not require fire fields to provide a lot of might.

Got to agree with Archon regarding the open world case with zerker gear. I would say zerker gear is a detriment if you plan on soloing tough fights, but of course it’s always a balancing act. As long as you can kill stuff with zerker without dying, it’s obviously going to be a great contender.

So get more than one set, but start somewhere. :P The stuff you (OP) got at the temples is a solid core for WvW and open world pve, with the power/vit/toughness pieces. I think i would get zerker trinkets if i was just starting out, so that you can use them both for your current armour and that future zerker set without overspending. Then you can go from there.

I think the mobility section was better an interpretation than i would have expected. It is 100% true in my mind that our weakness in mobility is not the actual mobility itself but a way to progress forward faster, like keeping up with your team. You can’t throw your portal ahead of you. You’ve only got blink and you need to use a specific weapon to gain a tiny bit of swiftness, for the most part. I feel like both Mesmer and Guardian has this problem.

Speed to better keep up with your team should be a possibility to attain, without radically altering the theme of a class.

As for Aoe, I really think we need some tinkers there… Sword is okay, but it shouldn’t just be sword. GS would be a bit better at it if they widened the beam. What about if the GS auto damage was the same at all ranges, but instead the range determines how the beam is shaped?

At close range: The beam is a cone, naturally piercing up to 5 targets.
At mid range: The beam is a trident shape, piercing.
At long range: Same as now, a piercing single beam.

Not only would it make sure Mesmer doesn’t Aoe quite as well at Ele range, it would also make it feel like you are bending reality. :P You could also drop the mid range if it gets too complicated. Either way there is many ways you can add aoe to mesmer, such as the Glamour stuff some have suggested, kind of like how the Necro aoes.

I feel that several of them are good to very good (Power block, BD, triumphant distortion, maim) but are either placed wrong in the trait line or else is extremely hard to pick due to build synergy or other choices in the GM tier. It’s rather unfortunate.

Examples; Triumphant Distortion is a neat effect but it cannot really compete with the other choices, and since it’s a GM trait it has only 1 possible slot. Bountiful Disillusionment is very nice but it has the unfortunate placement of only being usable in the slot that already has a build-creating trait for 2+ other strong builds (Interrupt build, PU).

I feel like they are mostly held back because of 1. GM traits only having 1 possible slot and 2. placement in the trait line. As for Disruptor’s Sustainment, it isn’t even that bad on paper, but I think mesmer has too little opportunity to make the most out of it.

They would have to reduce some other skills I think. Wells, epidemic, shroud etc, has the potential to put out a lot of damage, so if you also had a high cleave weapon the necro would probably be the best Aoe class in the game by a mile. So I’m pretty torn

I love both the idea of a cleave and the idea of having actually hurty use skills for AoE. Just seems really hard to balance vs other classes.

I only get miffed at it when trying to cleave. so I bring a GS with me if I intend to, but yes it still can be a little annoying – otherwise I think it’s a quirky weapon that is a lot of fun to use.

I think a lot of the dislike for the weapon stems from it both needing creativity and lots of familiarity to make you feel like it isn’t causing your fails/deaths. Definitely one of the hardest weapons in the game to master, despite it being an autoattack dps weapon.

Oh! I almost forgot to add, I would love a dagger mainhand. Or, like with mesmer, if the ranger spear worked on land.

Both fit very well on the spiritual side of the race. However, most vocations are entirely possible in a socieity of individuals, particularly considering the mingling of races in the lore now of late.

Disregarding that, there are a few examples in game as well as some logical connections to be made in the case of norn magic users, whether they are reaching into the mists or just generally pay homage a particular spirit; mesmer for example makes a lot of sense for a snow leopard shaman, and necro for a raven shaman, but that’s just one choice – there’s a raven shaman mesmer ingame, for example, and I don’t think all norn magic users are formally titled as shaman.

I’ve written it in another thread but my main motivation for my norn mesmer from a ‘reason’ standpoint is that she was fascinated by the reflection of light and the manipulation of it, and mirages and snowblinds from the snowy environs. If all else fails, I suppose there could always be some kind of reason to be found in the bottom of a drinking horn…

I dunno if I’m doing it wrong, but when I solo I am running a set with a bit of cavalier smattered into the zerker, and on that set I have rune of the pack. I find it great for fury uptime without necessarily needing full fury utilities, and the precision really mitigates cavalier stats a good deal. It’s working great for me!

Otherwise awesome guide, it helped me get my warrior on track a bit even though the main spec kind of comes natural once you’ve tried stuff (for pve damage, anyway). Superhelpful breakdown of utilities.

There is actually a fair bit of magic in the norn society but they just have different beliefs for their sources and applications in many cases. Their shaman use magic, and it’s not limited to just one school of magic or whatever. Raven or snow leopard shaman especially might well use mesmer magic – there are ingame examples, even, like the raven witch in Snowden drifts. If you look closer at the personal story (different paths etc) you’ll note there is almost more caster/bow Norn than there is warriors, oddly.

My own mesmer who is a Norn got the idea from snowblinds/mirages, and how the light can produce different things with perception.

But other than that I think a human mesmer is more -straightforward- as a mesmer would usually be represented. So if you’re after the stylish duellant persona I’d totally see human as more likely for that image. Oh, I totally missed the Guardian choice too – I would say that several shaman and warriors close to the spirits are definitely guardians. I think an important thing to note with Norn is while they are often hunters, wanderers etc they can still do that while being a magic user.

What race? Norn culturals give nice choices for either gender!

Been wondering about this myself but I have so many norns i have little way to compare. GW2 skills is tied a lot more to animations than in other games, I mean you can’t even chat while the gathering animations play, only between them.

Also I get it’s all about personal preference but I couldn’t ever play with melee assist, putting you farther from the enemy for more miss chance vs moving targets and being blocked in narrow spaces. I highly suggest practice without!

Anyway, good to get some clarity from this thread on it!

If you must use a hammer I think guardian does it a lot better for PvE but if it’s just for general smash and not speedstuff dungeons then why not? What maxinion said first is really important if you want to keep your friends, too :P

Another thing you can consider when choosing is what weapon types you like. For example, if your main drive with involving thief is daggers, Necros can really look flairful with daggers as well (in fact i like it better than with thief ). But in the end, if you don’t have time to test I would just go with what interests you most to do. Here’s how i personally see them summed up in very general terms.

Necro – Messing with others through conditions, generally survivable in most game modes, optional minions if you like them, and lots of weird tricks.

Engi – the class often requires a lot of fast thinking, which you do get into after a bit, but at first you can feel overwhelmed. It’s really nice if you like tech though, one of the best engineer classes ever in mmos, in my opinion. It also has good support.

Thief – A speedy class, involving short term stealth, and like engineer you have to do a fair bit of quick thinking in how to spend initiative and swap weapons. Fun to manipulate with the steal skill Like Necro there is a bit more focus on messing with others through Conditions and such rather than Boon support, but some is there.

Elementalist – For sheer variety this class is cool as you have four elements with skills, and up to 4 more bars of skills depending on utilities you pick, so you can have a crazy amount of stuff/playstyles if you choose. It’s also, like engineer, a nice Boon support class.

Personally I like Necro best out of those four, partly out of style, but it wins over thief (my 2nd pick) just because it just feels funnier to play for me, with interesting skills on the weapons and a third bar of skills in death shroud to mix things up.

Spear on land? Rope spear/whip? No? I wish…

Sword/Torch is my favourite setup feelwise but I seldom feel like it’s optimal. Staff is almost always my defensive weapon.

Why would movespeed variance be a concept in a class except for a highly specialized one like an athlete by trade? Guardians don’t automatically wear heavier gear than others, and given how they are a vocation found in battles they will know the value of mobility. In fact, being slow is directly hampering the ability to guard, so it’s a bit ironic that way.

I think there is a lot better flavour battles to be fought than that particular one.

I think it should be traitable to have drain type heals heal you in DS, but not other ones, to keep flavour, but also to improve drains. I love the drains, since if you trait for many you do gain significant regen, but it’s still kind of weird that they are sort of disabled once you go into DS.

As for DS itself I think it’s really nice. Initially I didn’t care for it too much, but really I think it is one of the better class mechanics. Quirky, of course, and not perfect but its design is fairly sound.

People gave excellent advice above regarding dungeons, but if you are in open world PvE shatter is hardly that bad. I tend to scratch that itch when farming or whatnot.

I forget where the comparison chart is located but there is one if you google, and it seemed pretty right for me. I have both a min and max height Norn and the difference is pretty huge (female) but the minimum is still taller than the humans I’ve met.

I personally think Charak made an awesome suggestion, for a (minor) trait somewhere.

Krait runes are wonderful indeed

Well, the nature of Sword mechanics gives rangers a higher level of effort needed in itself. It’s a really demanding weapon imo but also very good if used right, so if you’re using it there is a pretty high variance of player prowess… there is a bunch of weapons like that for ranger actually, if not on the sword level.

I play six different classes and while I am not the one that pvps everyday, when I do I find it toughest on my ranger (and the ele). Other classes like guardian or mesmer is fun and sometimes challenging but it’s more straightforward in ‘what you have to/should do in situation x’, if that makes sense.

But I also find rangers to be really difficult to face if they are good, though it is more in a WvW roaming perspective, as I do little sPVP. Hard to disengage from, hard to engage as well, most times.

I’m not sure but I feel like guardian is a pretty good support class myself, if you go for that. Good shouts, good traits (for example there is a might-giving trait a bit like the warrior one you linked, not sure if you missed that), good weapons, and great ways to make your team continue to be able to perform like blocks and blinds (this is also a group dps increase if you use it well, since the uptime can be higher). I never feel like my support sucks, only if I do build for pure dps but that’s similiar as most my characters.

But I’ll agree about spirit weapons, I’ve never felt like they were a fully fleshed out line of skills, but more like an afterthought rather than a competitive alternative, most times. I mean, they work, but they sure are selfish and generally a bit low on utility, whether it’s too high cd or just lacking. Would love if they were tinkered with!

I’m pretty sure that most traits has been picked in a specific order multiple times long since… isn’kitten bit silly to argue which one was ‘first’ in a game like this? Instead it’s just nice to see people broadcast builds they find enjoyable. Traits change so much over time, too, etc…

I would like to say condi but I just like power more because you are less at the mercy of the enemy closing with you to do anything. Plus, you can have movement speed runes with more compatible stats.

I find axe to be rather incredible as a backup in open world pve, given axe #3. It helps tackle really tough fights solo. It’s definitely better for tagging than other ranged options, but not as fast as GS if enemies cluster up.

However, on the topic of bows I kind of prefer longbow due to its utility, but it always sucks to keep in mind too-small buff ranges. :/ Wish they’d look at that.

Norn. <3 Mirages in the snow-land!

But seriously it just made a lot of sense for my magic-oriented norn, who has the snow leopard totem.

I think they are pretty cool, myself. Though I’m always open to -more- possibilities rather than taking one away.

I also think it’s okay with the attunement thing, especially since you can get traits that will still affect your conjure depending on attunement.

I think it’s easy to see that those runes are a good alternative to Strength if you’re on a budget especially, for fights where might duration is less useful.

In longer fights I don’t see any opposition though, which is why Strength runes should be changed asap.

I also dodge on a mouse sidebutton! I think doubletap only works well in games with unlimited dodges and no jumping puzzles. :P

Something I find really difficult is to dodge some open world pve bosses, just because there is so much spell effects engulfing the enemy you can’t even see some of their tells behind all of it. Otherwise i think only experience in facing the enemy whether pve or pvp can help you to make dodging calls.

Do you always use empathic bond? It must be so tempting to go poison master instead.

I like this type of build!

I would love something like this.

Falcon (classified as Pet), a ‘critter’ pet to always follow you as long as it is slotted.

Falcon Strike – 60 sec CD activated ability, 1200 range, initial cast blockable but not hits if it lands: The falcon singles out the opponent to strike, inflicting 2 second daze, and hitting the enemy for elite-balanced damage for x seconds. If the enemy is already dazed, it will apply weakness and confusionx5 for 8 seconds.
Passive effect: Periodically inflicts vulnerabilityx2 (5sec) on your last target within 1200 range every 3 seconds but otherwise does no damage, and in addition the falcon will hover around you or land on your shoulder. Fully animated pet, but untargetable/unkillable, and mostly fluff. If pet is toggled passive it will land on your shoulder.

Just a rough idea on values and exact skill effects, but I think it would be really cool to have sort of an extra pet with you that can burst or given the rapid hits, apply bleed stacks depending on your build. It also synergizes with beastmastery a little which could always use a little bit of love. It will also give a nod to GS and shortbow, as well as be amusing with warhorn, but is also team-debuff-friendly.

If you do a lot of open world then Scepter/pistol on the 2nd set is a totally valid choice. Just swap as needed dependent on what you’re doing, imo