Guild Wars 2

frans.8092:

No, thief, ranger and guardian do not damage foes when falling on them, or near them.

Guardians drop a Symbol of Protection when using the falling damage reduction trait. It ticks 3/4 times (depending on other traits) granting protection to allies and dealing damage to enemies. Its the same as the symbol on the 3rd hammer swing.

So only thieves and rangers do no damage when falling

The order weapons and armor are just for looks. They are rare quality and cost too much to be used as a stepping stone to exotics. The weapons especially. 5g+ for a rare 2-hand weapon when a crafted exotic is 3g-4g.

That being said, most of my characters are using order equipment (mostly Priory weapons) that have been transmuted on top of exotic equipment.

I always take “Save Yourselves!” because it also acts as a stun break. Having just “Stand Your Ground!” often isn’t enough. I use “Retreat!”, “Stand Your Ground!”, and “Save Yourselves!” when getting from point A to point B, then flip “Retreat!” with “Hold the Line!” when getting ready to go into battle.

benda.4893:

If you arn’t confident enough watch 1 or 2 videos on youtube.

This right here it is sound advice. I’d never been in Arah, watched a couple different Lupi fights on YouTube, and had no problems whatsoever with my first battle. In fact, every group I’ve been in has done better with the fight than the groups I watched

Back on topic, I just finished a run with the OP this evening. Great run and everything went flawless. Now I can join the ranks of “experienced” path 3 runners :P

I got my first exotic drop after 500 hours. It came from a champ mob in Orr that me and another player duoed (we weren’t in a party, just happened to be in the same place at the same time). 0% MF. I got a second exotic that same night, but I’m not sure where from exactly. It was in Orr, that’s for certain, but I didn’t notice it until I was cleaning my bags out afterward.

No exotics in the last 100 hours.

I always advertise on map chat “LFM AC exp all paths, I don’t care what level you are :P” and I usually get a complete party in under two minutes. Even faster if I post on GW2LFG.

Do the runs take a little longer than an all 80 group. Yeah, I won’t lie, it takes longer. Do they often fail? Not at all. I can count on one hand the number of times I been in a group that just couldn’t finish a path, and I’ve done AC enough times to fully gear 3 level 80s. Sometimes I’m the only one still standing after Kholer’s pull, but I rez people and get back to fighting. By the time we get to path three, it’s only the odd missed dodge that requires a rez

I think that having the risen stand a little closer to one another would help a lot of the problems people are having. As it is now, it’s like the risen are trying to stand as far away from one another as possible. Group ’em up a bit and let us have a little breathing room when running across the map. Then again, not having all the WPs contested all the time would eliminate the need to be constantly running across the map…

I also feel that the timers on events should scale with player numbers. I was trying one of the group events to capture the outpost before Arah (Shank Anchorage?) and we only had 12 minutes before failure. There were 4 players including me and there was just no way to take out the cauldrons and kill the resulting champs before the timer was up.

As for the respawn rate, I typically do open world PvE as a full zerk DPS guardian (making risen melt like butter in a sauna) and I’ve noticed the critters standing around SPs coming back before I’ve finished channeling it. It doesn’t happen all the time, but there are definitely places or situations where things just won’t stop popping up.

I would love to see a 45 second retreat. If you devote your runes and build to boon duration, then I see no problem with achieving perma-swiftness. I’ve found myself using “Save Yourselves” just for the speed boost to cover the gaps in duration.

I hate using the staff for swiftness for a couple of reasons. First, if an enemy touches the symbol, you are put into combat and your speed is slowed drastically. If you’re running persistent or larger symbols this happens even more frequently. Second, I find the staff all but worthless for my play style. There is no mitigation or CC beyond staff 5. I’d much rather have a scepter and focus for my secondary weapons. At least that way I can hit peeps on walls and chain of light retreating foes.

While I never thought the loot was as bad as people make it out to be, I will say that after playing 500 hours I got my first exotic drop on Saturday. I got my second this morning, along with 6 rares over the same time period. Could be luck, could be a change, we’ll see

This annoys me as well. I have a habit of attacking indiscriminates (white critters) as I pass them to rack up kills for the weapon master achievements. When I pop a sparkfly with scepter 1, I drag a chain of light for 100 yards and my characters twists around into a position that looks most uncomfortable.

For this build’s intended purpose (solo PvE play), the only thing I would really criticize is the lack of a stun break or some form of stability. There are a lot of mobs (Centaurs and Risen come to mind) that love to knock down and/or pull you around. You’ll be spending a lot of time on your back while fighting these mobs.

Signet of Mercy seems very weak to me, only giving + 90 healing power at level 80 (+ 0.9 hp on AH procs) and having a rez that only works on downed (not defeated) allies. Since you are playing solo, the need to use this signet as a rez is virtually nil, and you won’t notice the loss of healing power. I would replace it with “Stand Your Ground!” or “Save Yourselves”. The former can be used more often as a stun break and stability, the later gives addition boons (and AH procs) but does not offer stability (just a stun break).

Signet of Judgement is a solid choice. 10% less incoming damage is roughly 10% more HP (since it doesn’t effect condition damage). In addition, the math I’ve seen (to lazy to do my own) shows that it works in a similar fashion to “Hold the Line” as far as party-wide damage reduction should you find yourself in a group situation.

I’ve never been a fan of Bane Signet, as 90 power (while noticeable) isn’t as useful to me as other utilities. If you need to swap a skill out for specific areas (say “Retreat!” for running across maps or Smite Condition if fighting groups of krait or hylek), then this is the skill to change. Otherwise, don’t be afraid to activate this signet often as the knockdown is a potent form of damage mitigation, especially if you use it to interrupt big hits.

Just my two copper :P

I find this problem most annoying in Orr. It’s nearly impossible to take down a trebuchet with melee attacks. Same goes for Centaur catapults too. At least #2 on the Guardian scepter seems to hit things okay…

For those having trouble in AC, try standing on top of the burrow. I have a much higher hit chance when doing so.

Very annoying on Cliffside too. Gone over the edge twice because of this >_>

This has happened to me three times on three separate days. I’ll be working on map completion when suddenly I’m kicked with a “Connection to the server has been lost” message. In these situations the kick is sudden and without warning. This is odd becuase usually when I get DC’d there’s a period of time where nothing works: skills won’t fire, mobs won’t move, etc.

Then, when I log back in, I’m placed into an overflow for the map I was just on and the last five minutes of progress have been erased. This was readily apparent this last time because I had completed a skill point and moved on to a heart quest which I completed approximately half way. Boom, disconnect, and when I log back in (in overflow) I’m standing infront of the skill point activator with it not completed and my progress on the heart erased.

This has happened twice while in Lornar’s Pass and once in Snowden Drifts on the Sorrow’s Furnace server. When I ask in map chat after these disconnects, I find that the same has happened to others.

What’s going on?

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

I gotta go with Magister Sieran. She’s just cherry!

My guard uses a AH crithammer build and I always, without exception, use berserker stats on my weapons for the increased 10% (or 9%) damage on crit. Much like you, my armor is all P/V/T with berserker trinkets. The only difference I can see is that I use Valkyrie jewels in said trinkets.

In any dungeon situation (tradition dungeons or fractals) I always use scepter / focus for my second weapon set. When the target isn’t moving, the scepter is one of the highest DPS weapons available, and unless there are a lot of melee types in need of protection, I’ll always swap to the scepter for boss battles.

If your concern is only DPS, then the torch may be a better choice than focus for offhand. Throwing the flame from the #4 skill always provides a solid hit, and the #5 skill, with a crit rate as high as yours, and can be as damaging as scepter 2. I prefer the focus for the added survivability, though. The blind is all but useless on bosses, but I have a lot of fun with the #5 skill. I like to pop it, swap to melee until it either breaks or explodes, then roll back out and switch back to scepter.

The focus can also be used to avoid a lot of traps and other annoyances in dungeons. My favorite use is on that stupid staircase in the Uncategorized fractal. The focus 5 blocks hits from the energy beams that come down the stairs, and it along with popping Renewed Focus means I can get up the stairs without even needing to dodge.

As for sigils, I use a Sigil of Accuracy and a Sigil of Perception for the increased precision. I’m sure there are better choices, especially now that vigorous precision doesn’t proc on every crit, but I haven’t taken the time to look into it yet.

Even the NPCs think the waypoint cost is too high. Why else do you think there are so many “escort me and my dolyak” dynamic events :P

Some of this could be specifically a CoF issue too. There’s a part during path 2 when many parties kite and tank while waiting for the Asura to put his kabloomium on the door instead of batteling the mobs the way nature intended. Warriors and guards have a definate advantage during this part of the dungeon.

AC story mode with 3 people is entirely possible, even if one of them is level 30. Two players can cheese the bosses with rocks while the third attacks. The only tricky part is the hallway after the opening room when you face three ghosts at a time.

GS is definitely viable. I use a fairly standard 0|10|30|30|0 AH crit build for dungeons. If there are a lot of melee players in the group, I go with the hammer for group protection. If there aren’t many melee players, or if I’m in open world PvE, then I use the GS for the mobility and mob gathering capabilities.

Nope (15 characters)

I’ve noticed this happens with all shouts, not just retreat. I find it very annoying too. I have no idea why a shout targets a hostile critter, especially since none of our shouts can be used offensively.

They never said they were going to fix it. They never acknowledged that it was a problem. All they promised was that they would “look into it”.

I completed CoF after the patch without any problems (I run CoF daily and noticed no changes from previous runs). The crystals have always given him stacks of regeneration. Was there healing on top of that?

Grazingcattle.1627:

What nerf to gaurdian AH? I dont see it

Vigorous Precision only procs every 5 seconds now

I’m loving the detail on these patch notes, as well as them being posted in a timely manner. Now I can read them while the update downloads

Hate the nerf to AH on my guard, though, but I’ll get over it…

Came to complain about the error(s), but now I’m actually downloading, and at full speed to boot. Happy Wintersday!

Snowy.9580:

Never heard a bot using it…EVER! And not to many bots stand about in the TP or LA. But sure, keep on judging others by your standards and upsetting people just because your annoyed. How dare they!

I think the OP is equating macro usage to botting. Not a comparison I would make, but valid none the less.

I’m actually surprised that there’s not rampant skill usage in cities. I see a lot of swiftness / mobility skills being used, but seldom see idiots casting ground-target spells all over the place.

Among other changes to the way fractal levels are implemented, I would love to see the level be account bound. As an altaholic, and with the current bugs and disconnect issues, I really don’t want to have to grind though fractals again for each character.

I have good vision, but I have a hard time telling the difference between friendly and hostile Necro wells. Yeah, the hostile wells have a thin, red ring (much narrower than other rings), but it’s hard to see under the well’s border effects.

I also have a problem, and my guild makes fun of me for this, telling friendly and hostile fire elementalist AoEs apart (especially Lava Font). I’m always dodg rolling out of friendly spells :P

LordNat.4963:

I always walk to places I want to go in GW2 (outside of a fast port here and there to fight a dragon), saves me a bunch of gold and lets me see things I’d not always see. Interesting little events, NPC conversations, random other players doing stuff, etc. It just makes the game more fun and interesting. Half the fun of going somewhere is getting there, using the WP system robs you of that.

You enjoy the journey, I enjoy the destination. Two different ways to play the same game. Reducing the waypoint costs wouldn’t impact the way you choose to play in the slightest.

It doesn’t matter what the time is chaged to, you still wouldn’t be able to finish. It’s still 24 hours from reset to reset, so moving the time to midnight isn’t going to magically give you more time to play.

I would like to see the waypoint costs for the zone you’re currently in be reduced to zero. I hate being on the other side of the map when a Champion event comes up, and having to decide if it’s worth it to port over and help. I don’t mind paying to port to other zones.

I wholeheartedly agree with any cost change that cuts down on the number of loading screens I sit through, and your suggestion makes a lot of sense.

cesmode.4257:

Eh still dont see it, so I cannot rejoice with you.

Just go to the class forums (Elementalist and Mesmer had the most) and look for posts with the red icon next to them…

And Jon (and others), the communication today was much appreciated

I think part of the problem is the active nature of combat and the fast respawn rates. In GW1 I could chat while in combat without too much difficulty, and once an engagement was over, I could chat for as long as I wanted without another battle taking place. In GW2, it’s kitten near impossible to chat while fighting, and if you chat when the mobs are dead, they’ve likely respawned before you can get three sentences out.

FalconDance.1637:

In the first screenshot, you haven’t completed the quest in that you haven’t dispatched the Patriarch. He is/was to be killed before the end boss. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascalonian_Catacombs_

You do realize that “Search the Catacombs for the Patriarch” is supposed to be updated when you enter the final area, right? The quest not advancing past this point is definitely a bug. They have killed the “Patriarch” (Howling King), but since the quest hadn’t advanced to that stage, nothing happened.

Unless the bug with aggroing Kohler was introduced in the last patch, I’ve never had that effect any of the paths before.

I’ve noticed this too. The birds (as best I can tell) appear normal in flight, but when perched or walking on the ground, they have an extra set of wings.

The way to cancel this easily is to press and release the key for the direction that you are traveling. teistiz is absolutely correct that it seems like a keyup event is not being handled correctly. Pressing and releasing the key for your current direction of travel resends the keyup, having your character stop.

I don’t think this is being handled correctly on the server, though. If the server thinks you’ve stopped, but the client thinks you’re still moving, you should “rubberband” back to the location the server thinks you are when positions are next updated. Then again, if the sever is trusting the client calculations for location, that explains all the teleporting bots…

I’ve had pretty good luck with Pure of Voice in my builds. I always keep an eye on the party icons, and when I see 3/5 or better with a red box, I shout, and the box goes away. I typically use “Retreat!”, “Stand your Ground!”, and “Hold the Line”. If there is no need for the speed bonus (no graveling mounds to chase after :P) I’ll use “Save Yourselves” instead. I’ve seen all of them remove conditions on myself with Pure of Voice, and most of the time on party members. If a condition wasn’t removed, I assumed it was because they were too far away. I’ve noticed shout range is quite a bit smaller than I would have imagined.

My female Charr guardian has no sound for “Hold the Line!”. Sometimes she’ll say “Armor up!” from getting the protection, but nothing along the lines of “Hold the Line”. I hear her say every other shout, but I’ve never asked if my party members could or not.

I’ve seen this a couple of times myself. Make sure to report it with the ingame /bug too

(The only reason I remember this one is because I had to keep checking how to spell ‘Bleepdoop’ for the bug report :P )

cesmode.4257:

Clearly. haha
Clearly a dead guy has residual memory. Have you ever seen the show The Walking Dead? They are not alive! They have no remorse, no feeling, no memory. No intellect.
Nothing.

This doesn’t seem to be the case in Tyria. There are several death quotes from the risen where they seem happy that you’ve killed them. I think they’re quite aware that they’re undead abominations, but they’re unable to do anything about it.

“Rest…” “So tired…” “At last…” “The light fades…” etc.

I’ve never had much problem with the CC in Orr. I routinely walk into a group of three or four (sometimes plus a veteran), give myself stability, and go to town. I don’t think the mob density is too high, this is Zhaitan’s doorstep afterall, but I agree wholeheartedly that the respawn timer is too quick. Even being able to lolstomp groups of risen, they still respawn before I can finish communing with a skill point.

It could just be luck, but I noticed significantly better drops this morning than I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks. I didn’t get any more green/yellow/golds drops, but I saw a drastic increase in the number of dropped crafting materials. Could just be luck, though.

Also, since they never admitted that the reduced drop rate was a bug in the first place, they’re probably never going to announce when it is fixed. Make sure to look at loot you get an a per-session basis and evaluate if it’s still as bad as it has been. If they did increase the drop rate, and we all still complain about it being bad, we hurt our credibility for detecting changes of this type “moving forward”.

Mareth.8659:

Apparently all my tournament tickets and glory boosters have been wiped out with the patch…
I might have used them sleepwalking tho.
Am I the only one who’s experiencing this issues?

I’ve heard people say that they’ve been placed in the PvP locker. I can’t confirm it myself, but it’s worth a look.

I guess Ring of Warding no longer effects NPC’s that aren’t in combat. It seems people were using Ring of Warding to make piles of merchants in Lion’s Arch.

My only regret is that I missed out on the fun :/

Area of effect heals and boons now prioritize players’ minions and NPCs.

That is either the most misguided update or the funniest typo ever :P

1,300+ files weighing in at 64.38MB for me. I’d say that’s a rather large patch :P

I think what the OP was concerned about were ground-target AoEs, not AoEs in general. In that regard, a D/D Elementalist is perfect.

If you’re seeing the word “invulnerable” while the mob is running away, then you’ve triggered the anti-exploit code. If the mob can’t hit you, then it goes immune and resets. I think this is to stop people from standing on pillars, large rocks, and the like while mowing down mobs from range without fear of being hit. This happens to me all the time when fighting under water, but has happened only once or twice on land.