Guild Wars 2

Fay.2735:

As you can see in my signature I’ve played over 2100 hours. Like you I dislike PvP in other games BUT when about a month ago I actually started to play WvW and sPvP I found I really enjoyed it. As long as you run with an organised guild or play it with friends. I was surprised how much I like it when I usually despise PvP. I would definitely recommend giving it a proper try.

5 months * 30 days (avg) * 24 hours = 3600 hours possible. I’m counting Sept-Jan (since it was released late August and we just began Feb). And you played 2100 hours? I hope that’s a lot of afk time. Idk, I feel like I’m a hardcore gamer (come home at 4-5pm play til 3am) normally except vacations) and I only broke 1100ish the other week. O_O

Doubt it. It doesn’t make sense at all to provide one.

winterlove.6834:

[138 Knowledge Crystals] yea i dont think for the knowledge crystals theres a vender in that line of vendors it must be somewhere else anyone?

There’s a vendor, I believe he’s asuran. If you want to view the exotic armors, go to a different tab.

I’ve ran 40+ quite a few times and it’s better loot chance for sure. Instead of sometimes getting rares, I have gotten 1 exotic every other run.

Faith Draco.8260:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Two things that could have happened.

1) Her inbox was full, but I guess you already verified it wasn’t.
2) Some misclicking or weird design by anet makes new mail directed towards the nearest person. Sometimes creating mail or dropping things in the mail you made will indicate a “new mail” which will over-write what you wrote and replace it with the nearest player. And then if you didn’t double-check it was probably sent to that player. It’s happened to me before with some charged lodes ;_;

Other than that, not sure.

Reminds me of how I accidentally mailed Omnomnom berries to somebody at the bank. Whispered them saying that was a mistake and they were kind enough to send it back (I saw the username at the last second when I clicked “Send”)

I asked the person I sent it to by accident for it back and he said ‘thanks’ and never sent it back…XD gg

Looks like we got a COE runner in here! You can go to LA near ‘Fort…something’ WP (south end) and go to the line of npcs to your left of the waypoint. They sell items for tokens for each dungeon.

Two things that could have happened.

1) Her inbox was full, but I guess you already verified it wasn’t.
2) Some misclicking or weird design by anet makes new mail directed towards the nearest person. Sometimes creating mail or dropping things in the mail you made will indicate a “new mail” which will over-write what you wrote and replace it with the nearest player. And then if you didn’t double-check it was probably sent to that player. It’s happened to me before with some charged lodes ;_;

Other than that, not sure.

I’d say warrior, because if you want to use a shield like a real shield, guardian wouldn’t be the best choice. Shields are a lot more viable for warriors due to the lack of ranged enemy problems (other than fotm). Sword on warriors is pretty decent too. DPS is always favored with warrior. Only play a guard if you want to have support integrated into your playstyle be default.

Hi, not sure if this was covered somewhere but I’ve always wondered—do spells reflect that power/cond dmg buffs you had when you cast it, or is the damage delt dependent on your current stats as it hits? Like if I cast metoer shower with 25 stacks of might, and during the animation it hits my might drops to 5 stacks. Would it hit like it had 25 stacks or correspond to my current power?

Kaleden.9386:

I find conjure weapons to be useful in the right situations. I mostly play WvW so those situations depend on where I am, how many allies are with me, and how many enemies I’m up against. Typically, in WvW, damage isn’t the most important or unique aspect I bring with me to a fight.

For dungeons, I don’t think the conjures provide a lot of defensive abilities, except maybe Lightning Hammer – which includes a knockback, an AoE blind and Blast Finisher on every 3rd auto-attack, Static Field, and a leap finisher which you can use with Static Field (both the one from your staff and the one from the hammer) to daze enemies. If you have other classes putting down fields, you can create a lot of combos with this weapon. That said, the ice bow has its share of defensive skills, but fewer and on longer cooldowns. I also find the effects from blast and leap finishers to be more worthwhile than projectile finishers.

I think you’ve found the issue, though – with staff, you typically don’t need to be close to the enemy unless doing something specific like using Evasive Arcana, combo-ing with your fields, positioning burning retreat under your enemies, trying to land all attacks from Frost Fan (Frost Bow 3), or stacking retaliation against an enemy. All other times, you should stand further away.

Thanks for the tips!

One last question though, in your opinion what’s the best rune options for ele?

Hanzo.9624:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Bas.7406:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Interesting so dagger 1 isn’t good at all? Is it because it doesn’t scale well? I personally like the idea of healing while doing damage :x

Dagger is great, but it is for power builds. It’s awful if you are a condition damage focus build. If you go power build than Dagger with Warhorn and Wells is a great combination.

Oh, that’s great then! I’m going for a power focused build. The main reason why I opened this topic is whether cond damage is better than power for well necros using staff and dagger/x?

But I guess it seems like power is more useful for wells, I’m at the point to decide on runes, so I wasn’t sure to add more power or cond damage.

Wells are based on power. Well of Corruption’s damage is based on power but when it converts boons to conditions the conditions applied are based on condition damage. Like I said in another thread my personal preference for d/w well builds for runes is thief runes, but I started the build out with Dolyak runes. Without thief runes I only have 44% crit in my power build where as with them I have 51% crit plus extra condition damage to account for the damage done when not in melee range, plus the 10% damage bonus when behind your target pairs well with Fear which obviously turns the opponent away from you.

Oh, I might try that out. I was looking into dolyak as well, since I’m wearing mostly zerk gear, I thought it’d be nice to make up for it somehow without sacrificing traits.

Most people are at work and clicking on builder or an old IE machine won’t show anything lol it’s better to post x/x/x/x/x and list your traits/gear and stuff imo, easier than clicking on a link during work hours.

Bas.7406:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Interesting so dagger 1 isn’t good at all? Is it because it doesn’t scale well? I personally like the idea of healing while doing damage :x

Dagger is great, but it is for power builds. It’s awful if you are a condition damage focus build. If you go power build than Dagger with Warhorn and Wells is a great combination.

Oh, that’s great then! I’m going for a power focused build. The main reason why I opened this topic is whether cond damage is better than power for well necros using staff and dagger/x?

But I guess it seems like power is more useful for wells, I’m at the point to decide on runes, so I wasn’t sure to add more power or cond damage.

I mainly used staff while leveling. I didn’t want to expend on a d/d set even though I’ve heard good reviews. It just isn’t as aesthetically immersive as a staff xD. But my main case is for dungeon runs, I recall any kind of dungeon and I seem to always die due to consistent damage. I can never seem to outheal or outlast enemies at times and need to be ressed by teammates :\.

Thanks for the advice though, I think probably my main issue is being too close to enemies most of the time (usually play guard ><). But a more specific question is are conjure weapons viable? I like the idea of exhausting my fire spells and then conjuring ice bow use all skills, conjure fiery sword and use all skills, pick up the second copy of the conjures and repeat then go back to staff. I find conjure weapons to do quite a bit of damage.

Interesting so dagger 1 isn’t good at all? Is it because it doesn’t scale well? I personally like the idea of healing while doing damage :x

+1 for rangers being fast to respond and very informative!

Thanks for the input guys. But for more info about weapon choice. I use shortbow and sword/axe. I really don’t want to move away from it just for gameplay preference, I like the feel of them so I’m willing to trait/gear up to make them work as besst as possible (even if it’s not the best compared to other weapon setups)

Using wells, staff and d/d is investing in condition damage worthwhile?

Just got to 80 and want to roll with a staff, I was wondering what’s the best way to get high dps but decent enough survivability to last more than like..2-3 hits. In fact, what does the most damage as a staff ele?

Right now I usually use fire attunement mostly and traited for lower cds. Then I throw out conjure ice bow and use the skills, switch to fiery greatsword and use those skills while in fire attunment (traited for +10% damage) and I do decent damage, but I drop like no other.

Basically what I’m asking is what is the backbone of our defense? Do I need gear as well to supplement our light armor base being so low?

Hey guys, I recently got my ranger to 80 and was wondering my options for survivability. I normally play a guardian so it’s a little hard to get used to managing survivability on other characters (no aegis?! jk jk) But basically what I like to do is equip in full zerk gear and then work my way backwards.

Main question is this, should most of my survivability be made up with traits or gear or does it require a mix? You don’t have to put much details I’m just looking at a x/x/x/x/x and maybe some gear type suggestions or utility slot suggestions.

The gameplay I prefer most: front lines as much as possible but when the going gets tough, be able to survive long enough to get out of there and range.

SteepledHat.1345:

For the past week or so, I’ve been working on moving up in fractals. I’m in the mid 20s now, and I have to say I’m not impressed with loot drops. It’s probably just bad luck on my end, but I wanted to check anyway. How good is the loot in higher level fractals. I’m talking 40+. Is it really “raining rares and exotics” as I’ve had one person describe it?

Honestly, I feel like my loot drops were better in the lower levels, but, as I said, it’s probably just my bad luck.

40 is hitting some rares—-it’s not raining. I’ve heard from my friends 50+ you tend to get some exotics and rares a little more frequently.

SteepledHat.1345:

You make them buyable and suddenly every low level fractal player grinds them out. They’d be everywhere.

I agree, fractal weapons IMO was the only high-level skin designed correctly. They drop rarely but not impossibly rare and they are only available for players who dedicate themselves to fractals.

Caleb Sindefy.7803:

Oh, it’s account based? I guess that’s where I was confused. Thank you!

I think you didn’t understand the 3rd point. What the replier meant is that any thing you craft at the highest levels (which ppl care about most) will output as an accountbound item so if say, your mesmer wanted to make a legendary that required a gift belonging to the weaponsmith craft, you can go onto your other char that has it maxed -> make the gift -> put it in bank cause it’s account bound -> other char uses it.

You cannot (for example) have access to 400 weaponsmith on any other character than the one you lvled it up with—you’d have to log out and switch char to craft at lvl400 weaponsmith.

Hey Guys,

I haven’t been into the pvp scene much mostly because I want to get lvl80s for every profession beforehand—but on topic, was it ever explained why they didn’t release a deathmatch game type for pvp?

If you ran it enough, you’d know that this path (p1) is most efficient with high dps—thus you bring zerker warriors. Would they die? Yes if your group didn’t output enough dps because the idea is to kill the boss before you (the warrior) die due to the inability to mitagate damage and recover.

And why so many warriors wanted? Warriors have the highest dps, but a major factor too is the fact that the people who don’t want warriors never post their own group, but would rather complain on forums tbh.

Rufirias.2815:

Kicking ppl during the dungeon have to be fixed ASAP. Maybe ANet should remove kick option when party is already in dungeon? We were able to play gw1 without this option so we wouldn’t be in gw2?

You can’t really remove kicking for the possibility of ppl who grief or go afk inside the dungeon.

Archer.1658:

kidbs.8920:

Ynna.8769:

kidbs.8920:

So basically you’re saying play your best and hope the guardian sucks right? A smart guardian will pace himself as well.

The difference being that a Warrior that paces himself can, when the right opportunity arises, call upon burst that could be enough to end a Guardian, whereas a Guardian who paces himself just dies slowly.

I may not be able to unleash 100b amounts of damage, but I can pop an 8k whirling wrath on someone. It’s not like Guardians don’t output good damage. And trust me when I say you don’t have to be a glass cannon to do the damage that I just described.

Proof of 8k Whirling wrath please. No 25 might stacks, no 25 stacks of blood lust, no upleveled naked people.

And no food buff either right? :P But on a more serious note, glass canon has many different definitions so it’s hard to say what kidbs means. If you put enough in zeal/rad you can output 11k WW on good crits but you give up too many good traits.

IMO, I think a competent AH guard can give a competent warrior a run for his money. I don’t think either class has an advantage over the other, it’s really dependent on player skill in higher level play. What I do believe tho is warriors have a much more efficient setup to get the job done so in most cases. So competent players (not pros per say) can usually show off warriors much easier than guards.

I don’t really think this debate can be ever swayed unless there are options for 1v1 deathmatches. But I’m down for a fightclub with a ‘pro’ warrior anyday. Can’t say I’d win all matches but I’m willing to bet that I’d win 50% of the time.

Vorch.2985:

couldn’t you have done the experiment with a soulbound item on a newly created character?

I think the OP was trying to explain to commenters that this was already a proven ‘trick’ that could be done to remove the soulbound status. I read up on it on reddit or something months ago and actually had a friend that did it. I think the OP just assumed it still worked which lead to bad results due to a stealth nerf on the trick.

If you are not facing any enemies that will knock you down, pop SYG and SY whenever it’s up. Save Hold the Line always when you are your teammates are below 75% hp or so. If you have enemies that will knock you down, I’d save SYG and maybe SY if they do it often cause our cds are ridic sometimes.

To be more specific about SY, pop it if the enemies does a lot of conditional damage when your teammates seem boggled by conditions. If the enemy doesn’t drop many conditions use it when your main offensive skills are off cd. SY is your only source of fury so you want to make as much use of the burst as you can. Also, make sure you dodge frequently even if it’s not to actually evade, you’ll heal and vigor will bump your end up really fast.

Zinkey.6983:

Rising Dusk.2408:

This sort of thing, unlike say, buying 2000 21 karma cultural weapons, is much more difficult to quantify the guilt of, and I think ANet recognizes that and doesn’t want to act on it. The best thing they can do, and have been doing, is close the exploits as fast as they can so that people cannot take advantage of them. I applaud them for not recklessly banning players for it.

You raise some good points, but to be honest the cheating mindset in this game is atrocious, and that wont be fixed by closing the bugs. A exploit gets fixed and then everyone just swarms over a new one. It just makes me sad to go into a dungeon and people expect everyone to bug out bosses, skip bosses, glitch through walls to get multiple paths done in one.

I think the point Renegade is trying to raise here is that this cheating mindset is detrimental to the game, and no matter how many bug/exploits Anet fix, until there is a consequence people will continue to look to break the game devaluing all the PvE rewards. Its such a shame to see people in this game with really cool bits of gear and not be able to honestly say “That player earned it.” because in truth, most of them probably exploited their way to the reward.

Sometimes I don’t think punishments will even do any good to the problem. They’ll either quit, or do it again. I think a better solution is integrating a LFG system in-game that is detailed enough to know what kind of people you are running with or more social hubs in game. A lot of ‘bad experiences’ starts with 1 or more members who just do not agree with the way the party is playing. There are people who refuse to do these ‘tricks’ so to speak obviously—-otherwise we wouldn’t have so many hate threads on it. Find those people, party up. It’s more of a you have to find your kind of group problem than a in-game issue. You can’t change random people, but you can find like-minded players.

Also I find that most people complain because these ‘tricks’ do not seem fun to them. Which from my experiences is usually caused by the people who do these ‘tricks’ are actually bad at them and try to rush the team through the dungeon. And here’s how I assume it works usually with these discoveries.

Group finds trick.
Group lets friends/guild members know about trick but only competent runners.
Competent runners are missing a frequent and have to pug—teaches pug new trick.
Pug shares it with his friends.
And down we go until it hits newbies who enforce it and act like it’s the only way to do the dungeon but actually have little experience in the dungeon other than using the trick—-they die a lot and mess up the supposedly smooth flow of using the trick and annoy people who just want to do it the right way.
People post in forums about how annoying it is.

That’s usually what happens and can be prevented by
1) Don’t spread the tricks.
2) PUG and inform group about what you intend to do before starting.
3) Join group and ask what their plans are. If you don’t like them—“Sorry, I don’t want to use that trick to complete this dungeon”

PUGs will always be pugs. But not everyone is the same. We just need better systems to facilitate like-minded interests.

1) To people who dislike ‘tricks’, do your job to make sure you don’t join one who is going to do one. You will have a bad time.
2) To people who use ‘tricks’, do your job to make sure your whole party knows what you guys are going to do and leave some breathing room for people to back out if they feel uncomfortable.

EDIT: But I guess I do have to say, I don’t mind removing the tricks or whatnot. I just think it’s a much easier solution to report the bug and join like-minded groups and move along.

I actually like fighting stealthed players. It makes it interesting and exciting.

Scootabuser.4915:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Scootabuser.4915:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

This doesn’t sound like a beginner’s guide. Just a tutorial. And I feel like most of these are a given for people who do them. It’s not that hard to get down, a better guide would be how other non-dps dependent classes approach it imo.

It’s a beginners guide to CoF P1 Farming.
Not CoF Path 1

If you want this guide to include other classes the petition AN to buff their damage.

Ah…right. I guess what I’m trying to say really is that you are actually really neat in writing a dungeon guide, very comprehensive and clear, but I am just flustered at why out of all the dungeons you choose to write one for, you choose cof path1 because it covers such a small percentage of players. I mean, are there really that many zerk warriors out there that do not know how this works? I feel like (“just follow me and dps!”) is pretty sufficient for this path in particular. Given your technique in explaining, your write-up abilities would be far better useful for something like Arah Seer Path (p4).

Honestly this took me about 2 hours to make, and yes CoF path 1 makes you INSANE amounts of money right now it is INSANELY broken. There are A LOT of players who farm CoF path 1 for this reason. Learning the tips and tricks to turning your 10 minute group into a 5 minute group requires you to either learn it yourself or run in a group that teaches you the techniques. Many players are excluded from CoF farm groups because of inexperience and they never learn how to at least PRETEND to be experience long enough to GET experienced.

Also, if there weren’t already 100 guides for every dungeon path out there on youtube, I’d consider it.

Ah ok, I see your point then. Alright I guess I’ll take some tips while I’m here. what utilities do you suggest the zerk warrior to carry given that someone already has banners covered?

My hope is

1) Better WvW (rankings, lots of more objectives/mechanics)
2) sPvP/tPvP more maps, ladders, game types (deatmatch, etc)
3) For people who don’t like pvp, better living stories, more social hubs, pve competitions, more cosmetics/maps.

Scootabuser.4915:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

This doesn’t sound like a beginner’s guide. Just a tutorial. And I feel like most of these are a given for people who do them. It’s not that hard to get down, a better guide would be how other non-dps dependent classes approach it imo.

It’s a beginners guide to CoF P1 Farming.
Not CoF Path 1

If you want this guide to include other classes the petition AN to buff their damage.

Ah…right. I guess what I’m trying to say really is that you are actually really neat in writing a dungeon guide, very comprehensive and clear, but I am just flustered at why out of all the dungeons you choose to write one for, you choose cof path1 because it covers such a small percentage of players. I mean, are there really that many zerk warriors out there that do not know how this works? I feel like (“just follow me and dps!”) is pretty sufficient for this path in particular. Given your technique in explaining, your write-up abilities would be far better useful for something like Arah Seer Path (p4).

stof.9341:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Well if you do COF at all, before you do party up through LFG, go to Fireheart rise and res some ash legion spys or get them to die 10 times. Then party up. Done.

Artificial and feels like work. This is a bad one. Crafting is kind of the same except it’s REALLY easy to do and, well I got so much of some unrefined mats they don’t fit in the Collection box. Heck, I got too much of some refined mats that don’t fit in collection box either XD

Gathering feels like work but at least there’s some kind of “reward” behind. It’s also much faster to do and more natural.

IMO a good incentive for doing this res daily would be a 1hr buff or something. Maybe 1hour worth of regen (like using a regen booster)

This doesn’t sound like a beginner’s guide. Just a tutorial. And I feel like most of these are a given for people who do them. It’s not that hard to get down, a better guide would be how other non-dps dependent classes approach it imo.

It’s not a matter of roles, it’s a matter of working with whatever class comes your way. Anybody can be anything, but if you understand classes well, you will know how to make use of certain skills for certain situations.

A mesmer can timewarp. They can strip boons from enemies with constant boon uptime.

A guard can reflect projectiles really well and provide the most reliable source of aegis which could most of the time save the team from a 1hitko

etc

If you have alts and some gold, craft 1-400 for weapons or armor and salvage them.

Ruprect.7260:

stof.9341:

I have to go out of my way to get those res done. My daily dungeon runs for sure do NOT provide me with the means, maybe because my groups don’t need rezes that often?

I didn’t do the dailies before the path either because I had to get out of my way to collect mats and it was a bore. As it stands, I find the GW2 daily to be all work and not fun and the new tasks don’t help.

If you only run CoF p1 you are going to have problems with the rez daily.

Well if you do COF at all, before you do party up through LFG, go to Fireheart rise and res some ash legion spys or get them to die 10 times. Then party up. Done.

I think Fireheart Rise aka COF dungeon map is a good res area. Bunch of ash legion spys just dying all over the map.

FYI versatile infusions work on the triforge. Woooo I have one of the first 35AR for awhile :P

I get higher—but I realized why. I use Empowering Might + sigil of strength which gives me might stacks really quick and bump my avg dps.

Depends on the boss. It’s speculated that certain bosses will prefer certain stats over another aka the one with the most vit or toughness on some and maybe the ones with the lowest vit/toughness for another. One common trend is if you try to res someone, the boss will be aggroed towards you.

Nylana Greymoon.9576:

Last night I tried to do the Jumping Puzzle in Borderlands. There was a group of people that seemed to be camping on it because as soon as I went it, they attacked. I tried going in with no armor equipped, waving hi, tried to /say that I was just there to try to do the puzzle, please let me be, but they never responded (so I have no idea if they even knew English) and just kept killing me every time I tried to go.

I did ask on the /team channel for any suggestions, but other than those things I tried (and one response from someone who said to either help kill or stop talking on the /team channel), no one had any good suggestions.

After 6 times, I gave up and went back to exploring PvE.

So I’m looking for suggestions in how to finish my exploration and puzzles?

Just to correct you. There is no exploration POI or JP achievement for the Borderlands puzzle area. But if you want to do it for self-acknowledgement, and badges, sure.

Hm, maybe I’m wrong I’ll double check with myself tonight and if I get the results I expect I’ll post a vid

haviz.1340:

Lerysh.8173:

Exotic Level 80 armor is not the same as, lets say, Soldier armor. Toughness and Vit are for survival. Alpha is not for the ’zerker sets.

I always repeat those holy words, get more tankyness!

Hm, tankiness w/ alpha though prob saves you lasting 1 aoe ‘drop’ from him. Not much of a difference imo. It’d be better to learn how to dodge/why you are getting hit so hard. But tankiness is helpful for slip ups though, which I can understand.

If you want to take advantage of the stealth metagame, roll thief, you can do a lot of fun stuff with them.

If you want to fight more seriously, really invest in some builds for d/d ele and look at videos because they literally can steamroll some classes in PvP due to their many attunements and versatility (let alone escape options—-ride the lightning needs to be nerfed! jk jk) But seriously, in the beginning or end if you do not use the eles in the right matter, they’ll be as good as a glass canon who can’t dodge. But if you really take the time to master the skills (when to use what) and learn how to combo skills from different attunements, you’ll be at the top of the WvW game (at least in small groups). In bigger groups, it’s probably better to go staff and drop some AoEs from behind the front lines. Also, using mistform is so OP when defending. Go outside of keep, wreck some ppl. If you down, mist form into keep then res => rinse => repeat.

Mesmers also do well in WvW, their portals lead to a lot of game changers for groups. But shatters and confusions can really get people who aren’t used to fighting mesmers.

Also stacking near him mitigates damage. If you haven’t realized, a lot of the damage comes from many circles hitting you. When the team stacks near him, only a few land, and it does much less damage. However if you don’t coordinate with your team or some members get scared and dodge/back up anyways, it could cause chaos.

If you are doing AH, get zerkers. DPS is the most important thing to make up with defensive trait builds. And when I say zerk I mean all zerk (including trinkets). Sigils…not sure, I use sigil of strength for GS and then for runes, I use rune of lyssa for the 6th proc on renewed focus. It literally renews everything about you (remove all cond/gain all boons) on elite use.

CRrabbit.1284:

Will take a few SS tonight, but before that, look at those 2 videos on this page, or just simply search guardian videos in yourtube (GS vs Hammer), you will find the result as I described.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

CRrabbit.1284:

70% crit is after SYS, used it everytime before I try WW or MB to test.

Tarsius.3170:

Well, I suppose 30% of your WW hits won’t crit, so you won’t stack up the same kind of numbers as one good Might Blow proc.

( try testing again with “Save Yourselves!” to get some fury )

Also MB is a blast finisher, so I don’t know if you have some extra might stacked on average.

Yeah, 70% is very high for it not to land a crit. I’m still very doubtful that your stats match up to your output. I need an SS or something to go off of because you should be hitting at least 2-3k higher on crits

Hm, I’ll take a look at the video. But I haven’t played hammer enough to know the difference between MB and WW. That’s not the problem I’m trying to figure out I’ll leave that to hammer experts—but I just want to know why your WW is hitting so low. So I’ll wait for the SS to see.