Guild Wars 2

frans.8092:

Wouldn’t shortbow #2 and #4 be better suited to tag enemies for loot bags? But maybe that’s your point :/

Shhh…I can pretend it’s useful…

Well, I use it to tag enemies so I can get more loot bags..

I’m just much too aggressive sometimes…I gotta learn to be patient.

I switched to a s/d offhand for non-kamikaze roaming, and my goodness, I love it. It’ll take me awhile to get the timing down.

To verify, I was practicing in PvP – does the reveal there last an extra second? It feels like my timing is off.

I agree too. I’m waiting to see Rox’s quiver backskin.

Or rather, my hair buns!

What has happened to them?

First picture shows the buns stretching along with the ears, while in a combat stance. The second picture is how they’re normally supposed to look. It’s quite an annoying cosmetic glitch.

It’s not just humans – this goes for every race.

Any advice? None?

Meh.

Anything that ran away when they see me approach?

As everyone said, it’s all practice. There are tricks and habits you have to pick up yourself, and it’s the only way to find out the quirks of a class.

Also, don’t get discouraged. See if you have a friend who’s better than you, and willing to teach you. It took me months to finally beat my mentor. Every defeat was another lesson. Every loss, I learned something new. I learned what my mistakes were, and how to correct my technique. I’m no ‘godly’ thief, but at least I don’t fall flat against everything in WvW.

I play a D/D backstab thief, but my skills could use some polishing. Any advice or tips given by fellow thieves, will be greatly appreciated. I run 0/6/6/2/0, almost full zerker.

1. Positioning. I struggle with it. When roaming out with havoc, I have more targets to CnD and backstab, no problem. But out on solo, I have a very difficult time getting close. The people I practice with are very good at making sure I can’t land a proper backstab. By the time I’m in a position to strike, my stealth is over. There must be something I’m missing, to get behind them in a timely manner. I usually waste my attack into a facestab.

2. Secondary weapon set? SB feels wasted, since I don’t optimize condition damage. Right now I use offhand P/D, and P/D 3 has saved my life more times than I can remember. But it doesn’t do any damage, and just serves as utility. What would you advise for the offhand weapon(s)?

One job as a havoc thief is to run into an enemy group that’s trying to capture a point. I distract and disrupt enough people away from the point, maybe pick of stragglers, and buy time for my group/zerg to get there and wipe them out. It’s kamikaze suicide – I need range, and a quick escape. P/D seems best to fit this need, but it’s not helpful if I go out solo roaming.

3. I’m wondering if there’s any other viable builds for D/D. I like daggers – they’re pretty. That’s the sole reason I picked D/D. But I wouldn’t mind trying out something new.

4. Any changes to options menu, that can assist in gameplay? Already sped up my camera, but I haven’t toyed with other options. What do you guys have it set to?

Greatsword is a ranged weapon, and you do more damage the further away you are. Up close, get the sword.

Clones don’t do great damage by themselves – they’re mostly shatter fodder. Phantasms are the damage dealers of your illusions.

I’d suggest maybe going for a condi-based setup instead of power. Use the staff instead of the greatsword, perhaps?

Crossbow
2 handed axe
Chakram
Claws
Sai – No, the Usoku’s Needle/Spark/Stinger are not sai. Sai aren’t used like daggers.

maha.7902:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTafFOu4jL0

Fail to dodge a kick, 12k damage. Fail to dodge a swipe, 17k damage. Fail to dodge AOE, dead on the spot. Fail to dodge life suck, 16k damage. Fail to dodge life drain, 16k damage.

“no risk” indeed.

Arikyali.5804:

Part of the reason is because we can just evade any incoming damage that would break a glass cannon. Now don’t get me wrong – I love the dodge system. I can never play another game that lacks this mobility. But glass cannons simply don’t get hurt enough.

Hey, as another player who likes soloing champs, I know how much risk one hit can take. But that was Lupicus – this is a solo fight. Zerker or not, there was risk. I’m not talking about that – there’s ‘no-risk’ going zerker in WvW, PvE, etc. It all comes down to how much DPS can one player dish out.

Whenever someone wants to try something new, general attitude is ‘shoot it down and bury the idea’. Anything not following the zerker meta, is dubbed a troll build, or ineffective. But there’s a reason why it is.

Zerker is the automatic answer to everything. “I want to use this weapon set” – go zerker. “I want to farm dungeons” – go zerker. “I want to roam in WvW” – go zerker. “I want to survive in PvE” – kill everything before it hits you. Go zerker. “I want to watch my enemies burn” – oh. Ok, go condi.

There’s nothing that can be done to change this. The game promotes movement, quick response, and positioning. And hey, that’s great, it’s one thing I like in this game. But if you don’t get hit, why bother using any other setup that doesn’t contribute to damage?

I would like to see more variety other than ‘all zerker’. A zerker should be ‘high risk, high reward’ gameplay, but there’s not enough risk to compensate the reward.

out in PvP and WvW, you can easily predict whatever your opponent is running. Yes, I know some traits and weapons are best suited to this one setup, but that’s the issue. There’s only one setup. There’s no guessing, no hidden weapon, and no surprise attack. There’s very little variety. It’s all ‘damage, damage, and more damage.’

Part of the reason is because we can just evade any incoming damage that would break a glass cannon. Now don’t get me wrong – I love the dodge system. I can never play another game that lacks this mobility. But glass cannons simply don’t get hurt enough.

I miss playing tank classes from trinity-based games. I got PTV gear for my mesmer – used for soloing champ fights, because I find that fun. But I would not use it for WvW, PvE, or dungeon farming, simply because it’s ineffective.

Valkyrie gear is ‘okay’ to start with, then you can slowly swap out to full zerker. It gives a rookie a little more survival to gauge fights, but doesn’t do the damage output you’d desire. Just use them as training wheels.

Yasha.5963:

Arikyali.5804:

There’s WvW. That’s….sort of…dueling in PvE?

Can you fight people on your own team in WvW?

Nope, you can’t. But sPvP isn’t much of a hassle to move in and out of. You click one button, and you’re in the Mists (PvP area). Click another, you’re back out.

I think you can also set up your own, permanent, PvP arena, and just duel when you wish. I never actually set one up myself, but it should only take a few minutes. After it’s set up, just hop in there whenever you want.

There’s WvW. That’s….sort of…dueling in PvE?

I’m looking to make my guardian a ridiculously tanky, unkillable commander. I want a build that can make me survive the longest possible in zerg fights, but is still viable for havoc groups.

Take into consideration that I have never played guardian before. My guardian is level 65, but she got there with leveling tomes and crafting experience. I’m taking time to learn this class before I get the tag. I’m also not from a server that has 100+ zergfests that can steamroll a map. Average zerg size is 25-50 people, 60-75 would be considered large.

1. What weapons, traits, armor, runes, and sigils would best help? I already have two cleric ascended rings, so I kind of want to build around that. I’d prefer to keep it simple and take one setup for both havoc and commanding, but if they’re too different, I’ll focus on commanding.

2. What WvW skills (ram mastery, etc) is best suited for a guardian commander?

3. I don’t want to just be unkillable, I want to keep other people alive. I don’t care too much about my own damage output – that’s the zerg’s job. Or should I care? Should I at least have some kind of ‘supportive damage’? Can a guardian do this effectively, and how?

4. How effective is the healing power stat for a guardian? I’m very tempted to have Giver’s stats on armor, weapons, and trinkets, but I don’t know if that’s a smart choice.

Thanks for any input and advice! I’ll appreciate it.

In general, d/d is stronger in havoc teams, where d/p is stronger in soloing. For d/d, you have more targets to CnD when facing off havocs, and (my) playstyle with d/d is focusing the biggest threat off my havoc team, distracting them, pressuring or bursting them down one at a time, before slipping away again.

With d/p, it gives more survival. You can draw out fights if you’re in a bad matchup. But if you really want to have the skill for d/p, and not take the ‘cheesy’ method, don’t rely too much on stealth. D/P is easy to pick up, but a WvW vet can counter any rookie. A decent d/p thief still needs to assert aggression and use the other tactics available.

1. It’s proven lorefact that dragons do consume magic.

2. For all the love of Sylvari, please – no more ‘Sylvari are dragon minions’. I can accept theories that Scarlet was influenced by a dragon, or maybe even nightmares in the dream are dragon corruptions. But not that all Sylvari are directly bred to be dragon minions.

Nearly all the dragon minions we’ve seen, are mindless, kill-happy, corruptions. Icebrood, branded, and undead. The Sylvari are intelligent, philosophical, and in most cases, very peaceful.

Freeelancer.2860:

splitting up the zerg - Blasphemy.

Hah, that cracked me up.

But, what if I like blasphemy? Events are better with blasphemy. Everything is better with blasphemy. We should all embrace blasphemy!

Before playing GW2, I had very nice prestige from another game. High leveled character, lovely weapons and gear, event limited items, titles, plenty gold. And then I quit, because the pedestal of ‘prestige’ was getting harder to get to – and I was not willing to drop more time and money to get to it.

Prestige is a fun thing to aim for, but there’s a limit of how much people will want to invest for it. The way GW2 set it up, it’s so you can still earn the prestige, but there is no pressure that you must do it. There is no underlying deterrent of not participating, nor any backlash when real life takes over.

Alright, so I’m getting better at my Liadri fights. Closest I got was getting her to quarter health left – before a rift pulled me into an aoe. Ugh.

I need more advice:

What heal is optimal? Started with mirror, doesn’t heal enough. The signet took too long of a cooldown. Ether feast seems to be the best, if I can just keep illusions up. but I also have issues with its cooldown.

Which ultimate skill would you advise? Take root doesn’t help enough in the 2nd phase – it holds you down too long, and only helpful if comboed with portal (which I stopped doing. Was fun, but the rifts messed up the timings anyway). I cannot seem to use TW effectively, so I’ll try MI next time around. I want to hear what others used.

In the 2nd phase, I only keep to the GS, but I feel like I don’t do enough dps on her. Too busy running for my life to do anything but spawn illusions. I need to kill her fast – the rifts give me a lot of trouble.

Run clockwise, or counterclockwise?

I play really risky – sometimes too risky. What’s the safe distance to spam skills before the shadows get too close?

Having another teleport is very tempting. Can switching to a staff do efficient damage on Liadri? I am a zerker mesmer, so I don’t optimize condition damage. My gears are zerker focused.

I’m struggling tanking her with full zerker in the first phase, since I don’t have my favored zerker trait/skill setups. I’m usually at very risky low health by the 3rd crystal throw. I have a 2nd armor set for survivability, but it’s strictly for my PvE soloist. While it makes me ridiculously tanky, I know it won’t allow me to do enough damage on Liadri within the time limit.

I don’t mind advertising – just use another method. Maybe if it was kept short and sweet, (not taking 3 lines in the chatbox, and one long line ingame) it wouldn’t have bugged me so much. But it really was a tacky choice, and reminded me too much of f2p advertisement.

I’m just…gonna sit back and watch this thread. Yeah.

Anyone want popcorn?

I only saw it happen once. Hopefully, it’s just a test to see how people would respond, and not be done a second time.

Wait, this was bugged?

….Oh my goodness gracious, would that have affected a fight against Liadri?

I think my main struggle is grabbing the crystal when it’s surrounded by shadows. The first and second are no problem, but the third is usually dropped where I can’t retrieve it. What kind of skills can help me grab the crystal, and avoid the shadows? I tried clone once, but somehow still died.

Yes, please. Find another way to promote the gem store aside from flashing big yellow text across the screen. It’s what ‘free to play’ games do, and it’s tacky. For all what’s good in this game, don’t resort to this. It sends a bad image all around.

I quit a f2p before joining GW2. I had horrible, horrible flashbacks. Ugh.

Liadri, that is. I will end her.

Please, and advice on how to defeat Liadri will receive much appreciation. I have watched youtube vids and read guides, but I can’t seem to bloody defeat her.

So far, I am using:

Sword/focus and Greatsword
Feedback, blink, alternating signet,
Take Root elite (sylvari racial skill)
Traits vary 0/4-6/x/6/x
Bowls of Orrian and meat stew
Clones coming from dodges

I have tried the confusion route, heavy reflect route, distortion signet route…I’m running out of options.

This is how it usually goes down:

1. Get rid of the first rift
2. Lead the first shadow into the light, throw it on liadri.
3. lead 2nd shadow into the the next light
4. cripple 3rd shadow that appears, then throw the crystal at liadri. At this time the 4th shadow pops up, followed by the 5th usually behind.
5. lead 4th shadow into 3rd light – oh hell, shadows everywhere. I usually can’t grab the crystal. It’s either surrounded by shadows, or in the middle of her aoes. Or both. By the time the 4th crystal appears, I generally won’t have enough time to beat liadri in phase 2. And usually, by the time I get her vulnerable…oh gosh. So many shadows. I can’t CC them in time.

Blurred frenzy is used to dodge the aoes in the first phase (but I can easily dodge-roll too)

Has anyone tried portals? It works surprisingly well when comboed with take root. The pods remove all of her adds, and I become invulnerable from damage. I drop a portal earlier, and when I need an escape, take root, drop the other portal, escape, and continue fighting. And the portal stays up long enough that I can use it again like a thief’s shadowstep.

Advice, please, anything.

As someone who did not join GW2 at release, and has to take haitus during LS content, I am very happy that these items come back. I got my fervid censer, and even if I got it already, I don’t care that others will be able to get their Mask of the Night. I love this game because there’s no underlying ‘I must play, or else I miss out on something forever.’ My life makes me miss out on a bit of the living world content, and I’m really happy they brought these things back. Not just skins, but events too. This is actually my very first Queen Pavillion and Festival of Four Winds event. I love it. I can experience what I didn’t get the chance to before.

I have a friend who only does PvP.
My guildie likes WvW scouting.
I’ve met people who live off of dungeons
Met some really interesting people who prefer casual RP
I’m an explorer, so I go travel the wide world.

We…all play our own way…

Who has no issues with the loot system?

I’ve been taking my alt out for map completion, and to be honest, I got plenty loot to keep myself going. Only a few days ago I dropped nearly all of my personal stock to get two crafting disciplines up to 450. Today, I should have enough mats again soon to get another craft to 450.

What did I do? Mine every node I came across, kill any hostile creature I passed by, participate in every event I saw, and salvaged every single drop. I never bothered with the trains or zergs. When I need gold, I’ll play the market.

Lord Kuru.3685:

• Starter zones are where you are supposed to learn the game.
• The game’s largely a zergfest.
• Thus, having a train in the starter zone is actually good: it teaches players how to properly zerg.

I think they’re trying to avoid that, haha.

…Actually, where else is a zerg needed, aside from WvW?

I’m betting most people don’t care about the actual meta gameplay of a train – it was the reeking negative attitude, and ‘gw2 means zergfest only’ first impression. That’s really bad to have in a new player map.

If the train moves to a higher leveled zone, fine by me. Some events need a lot of people, and it’ll be filled with a playerbase that are more game savvy than newcomers.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Yep Queensdale is going to become the new Metrica Province. A few new players a day with no one there to help them out. “Hey, how do I get this skill point? I need help.” Cricket….Cricket…

With the whole megaserver setup, I really don’t think that’s going to be the case. I’ve been running around with my alts, and there’s still plenty chatter going around in the newbie areas. Just because there won’t be champ trains anymore, doesn’t mean the map will be dead. Not every single player jumps on the train. There’s still players who prefer going around the map at their own pace, and there’s still going to be people who do that.

Skyve.5943:

At least people were getting their questions answered though

There’s still going to be vet players running around maps who can answer newbie questions.

At least now we won’t have a rage train raining hell on a poor group of newcomers, just because they killed a champ before everyone else got there. Trains gave a bad first impression – as if zerging was all you did in GW2. It gets grind-like eventually, and keeps you away from all the other interesting aspects in this game.

Thank goodness, and good riddance.

Please, use the legitimate nomenclature for such appliances. What self-respecting researcher calls them ‘aetheric-reverberation’ circuits? Such terminology is preposterous, and only used by bookahs – oh wait, that’s exactly what you are.

Well then, maybe I’ll just give up and buy ruby orbs…

The monk’s aegis on elite was pretty tempting. But if healing power is as hopeless as you say it is, then I might as well get back to offensive runes.

Would anyone know if Monk Runes (or any healing runes) increase the healing of Shadow’s Rejuvenation? I couldn’t find any information about it.

Here’s my thief, with the armor set I want all completed.

Here’s my thief (again)

I have my points in acrobatics, since it gives both Fleet Shadow and -50% fall damage. It’s easy to swap them accordingly for WvW.

Fleet Shadow is also great for catching up/running away from people…

Human, because this was going to be the FIRST game I played where I could have a legitamate looking human female thief that was dressed to kill, not dressed for fan service. (Others may like that and they can have that, but I want my thief to look like a thief. And this game actually allowed me to do that)

I don’t want to stealth spam d/p. I use it mainly as a gap closer (my build is pretty unforgiving to the HS spamming) a blind, a quick daze, and I still have mainhand dagger skills. Since taking it to WvW, I think I only used the BP+HS combo once, and that was because I was desperately low on health, with all my escapes on cooldown.

D/D as a main set, and D/P as a swap set (P/D against annoying warriors) It’s awesome, and I can still be classy with wielding the same type of weapon in both hands.

Fact: Thief stated to be OP
Theory: Thief was OP = everyone play thief
Action: Thief was nerfed to balance OPness
Outcome: More challenge in gameplay to be an OP thief
Idea: Warrior vs thief is usually in the warrior’s favor
Thoery 2: Players learn to play warriors to destroy the OP thieves
Conclusion: Warriors are the new OP

Why don’t we give everyone a taste of their own medicine, and go complain on other class threads on how OP they are?

ens.9854:

I still find d/d better in WvW even though I use d/p almost exclusively in spvp. There is such lag in WvW that you can drop a player out of nowhere regardless of which set you use and d/d lets you do it on demand instead with a setup.

This is very true. Advantage of D/D is its stealth without a combo. Against multiple targets, you can CnD off of anything for that lovely BV+backstab combo.

Tao.5096:

piece of advice

Don’t allow other people to tell you what to do with your own life.

And apply that in game societies as well.

So that means I should go, “the kitten with logical meta. I’m going back to D/D because it’s purdy”

o.o

I’ve been training myself to use D/D for WvW, so I’ve taken it against some of the most disadvantaged matchups in PvP duels. Obviously I lose – a lot. But hey, that’s fine; it’s the only way to learn, and I like to believe I still give people a run for their money.

So out of curiosity, I went D/P…

…And it’s adorable-kitten-full-of-cuteness AWESOME. (and I am so ashamed to admit that!)

Stealth whenever I needed, without needing to aim my CnD. Teleport facestab for easy burst. Mix it with D/D and who cares if I lack range? I’m practically leaping back and forth everywhere and destroying everything. Like what the heck? This is so OP!

So…what must I do to keep myself from devolving into the meta D/P nub teef that spam 2+5 and nothing else? I mean, using D/P with strategy isn’t….gimmicky, right? Right?

Please say right.