Guild Wars 2

For a less mind numbing experience, daily fractals with the mastery for more money from cracked encryptions provides a decent amount of gold. This plus the 2g from normal daily achievements.

It’s more fun than farming AB tbh and easy to fit into a normal working day.

I hope things like Demolisher and Destroyer make it to wvw/pve, either in LS3 or the next expansion.

Get the tuning forks out!

Aurene training was great and fun.

Bitterfrost Frontier is a beautiful map and fun to play in.

However I must be honest – the story and missions in Bitterfrost Frontier were in my opinion quite boring and uneventful. I felt like I was simply doing fetch quests for most of this episode until accessing the Bitter Cold and then finding Braham and Rox. Not as exciting as I had hoped.

Thankfully some Taimi witticism gems kept me smiling. As long as Anet make sure to keep paying her voice actor for every episode then I’m happy!

I’m looking forward to playing the festive pvp “capture the gift” minigame. I absolutely love playing that and it’s a shame it’s only available for such a short time every year.

Yeah the scenery is indeed stunning.

Skritt tonic like this would be awesome.

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

I enjoyed it. I didn’t feel it broke with immersion. I wondered if women would like it more than men… maybe I am being a tad sexist in thinking women would like it because it felt nurturing.

Perhaps, although I’m male and enjoyed it.

I personally enjoyed it.

The light hearted, witty, tongue in cheek tone of GW2 story is what gives it its charm and appeal for me (for example the asura personal storyline).

I like having missions like this in amongst the usual “end of the world” stuff.

I’d make sure to have enough of the account bound mats for crafting crystalline ingots before playing only in bloodstone fen or ember bay.

Unless you already have enough fulgurite.

I’d also suggest to build your own itx machine.

I personally downsized from matx to itx last Spring and love the smaller footprint.

But one thing – you have to make sure you plan components, cables and airflow carefully to ensure good heat management. For example my case is a Fractal Node 202 and it’s got a pretty stupid design for the graphics card compartment as there is no direct aide exhaust for the heat – so it all rises into the upper chamber. However I have managed this with some compromises and so far over the last 7 months or so it has worked nicely.

I like hybrid damage for staff – viper gear and cele trinkets.

If you also play wvw and use wvw infusions on ascended gear I have found that an efficient way to setup without needing two entire duplicate sets of ascended gear is:

Weapons – wvw infusions
Head/Breather – wvw infusion

1. Shoulders/Chest/Gloves/Legs/Boots – wvw infusions
2. Shoulders/Chest/Gloves/Legs/Boots – 5 x +10 AR infusions (= +50 AR)

1. Amulet/Rings/Accessories – wvw infusions
2. Amulet/Rings/Accessories – 10 x +10 AR infusions (= +100 AR)

This is of course assuming two sets of attuned/infused rings and infused backpiece.

This way I only need 10 inventory slots for duplicate gear and can leave weapons and headpiece equipped.

Of course this only works if your gear stats and armour runes are suitable for use in both game modes – otherwise it is better to duplicate everything for a completely different set of stats. It just so happens for me that the stats I use are also ok for T4 fractals.

Spartacus.3192:

Curunen.8729:

I find it changes the way I play wvw – for the short time of 8-10 hours I do this I am solely focused on participation and reward point ticks – often disregarding objectives, enemy players and so on entirely. Once I have my participation up I am simply tagging sentries to keep it up and waypointing to a safe zone to afk for 10 minutes.

For the record this is from the perspective of someone who loves pvp and wvw, fighting other players, and finds pve combat a boring chore.

If you really loved WvW and fighting players then your behavior would not change as you described above. You would go about doing what you always do and the reward track would eventually get done.

You see the problem is legendary weapons require a grind mindset – otherwise you will never get them done.

GoB is nothing compared to the insane pve grind necessary.

But when I’m in pve grinding mindset I tend to play badly because it’s so repetitive and reward driven, hence I stay out of wvw until this grind is done and I can return and enjoy.

I have only ever made one legendary and I will be honest I didn’t enjoy the process – but I am happy to have the skin and weapon. I’m only making a second because I really like the skin a lot – and it happens to be a HoT legendary so even more grind…

Unfortuntalely I am a kind of player that fixates until something is complete – so I tend to play another game at the same time as making something like a legendary, because during this time GW2 is not fun for me.

I even am at the extent of only logging in for log in rewards, quick daily run and log out.

Therefore getting something like the GoB within this process is not simply playing wvw normally for me – because my mind is preoccupied with the huge checklist of stuff for a legendary. Once it is done then I relax and play as normal.

I hope that explains it for you.

I only have one problem with the GoB reward track – it encourages “grinding” wvw.

What I mean is normally I don’t care for the reward point ticks or participation – which allows for more sensible gameplay and a focus on fighting, attacking/defending an objective, and so on…

However now I am in the process of making gifts for a legendary and am halfway through the GoB track I find it changes the way I play wvw – for the short time of 8-10 hours I do this I am solely focused on participation and reward point ticks – often disregarding objectives, enemy players and so on entirely. Once I have my participation up I am simply tagging sentries to keep it up and waypointing to a safe zone to afk for 10 minutes.

This is stupid gameplay. I am not enjoying wvw for this short period of getting the GoB and am most likely not helping my server in the process while filling a player slot.

For the record this is from the perspective of someone who loves pvp and wvw, fighting other players, and finds pve combat a boring chore.

The trouble is Legendary gear is a grind from start to finish – which fits with a grindy game mode in pve where the rewards are so much greater than the enjoyment of gameplay. But wvw should be about enjoyment of gameplay, not grind so while I agree pve exclusive players should have to venture into other game modes to deserve a legendary, I don’t think Anet have it right with the current system.

This is something that has bothered me for a long time but being relatively minor it has been coped with.

I have a full invisible bag for all the ascended weapons I use. Say for example I have a mainhand and offhand weapon equipped and swap it in the hero panel for a two handed weapon – one of the single handed weapons will be sent to the lowest available slot, usually in a junk bag.

Or the other way around – say the two single handed weapons are in the invisible bag and you swap a two handed weapon for them – it will leave one empty slot due to the two handed weapon only taking up one slot – which means junk or other rubbish usually fills it and then when you swap the two single handed weapons back one will be sent to the bottom as previously…

A solution could be to make two handed weapons take up two inventory slots – positives are fixing this problem and of course more money for Anet through players maybe needing more inventory space. Negatives obviously losing inventory space.

A second solution could be to have the option of flagging specific inventory slots for specific items (ie weapons) that can then not be filled by anything other than that item. Positives = more flexible. Negatives = still losing inventory space as above.

I personally would be willing to sacrifice a tiny bit of inventory space for two handed weapons taking up two inventory slots, which would make swapping in and out weapons a lot easier to manage.

OriOri.8724:

Hahaha! That stomp at 1:47 though. I didn’t even know you could use Staff 2 without interrupting stomp, genius.

Phase retreat + blink is a good way to avoid certain pbaoe interrupts and knockbacks (ie guardian) while also saving F4 and occasionally helping to follow a thief or ele during a stomp. You can even do wacky positional combinations with F5, although sometimes it is buggy and doesn’t return you to the original location if you do several ports while in Split.

What is unusual here is the good fortune of the enemy porting directly behind you thus not requiring to blink after phase retreat to reach your target – the odds of this are very low. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a straight phase retreat only stomp before.

Great video overall anyway.

As said – max height asura with smallest head size and they are then large enough to be noticed while well proportioned by our human standards.

I’ve had a number of comments/whispers on cuteness and even with max fov and maximum zoom out of camera I can still see the key skins that define ny character’s look.

Blackari.2051:

This itteration of the #3 is awesome in comparison to what it was before just be sure you are close enough

I agree – especially having the ability to port up/down terrain to chase targets.

Yeah – with alacrity and Illusions traitline, the cooldown is very low and can be used for burst combos.

Not to mention that F5 → Blink → Mirror Images+shatter is great at catching people off guard.

Oh my god, that editing…! :o

kitten awesome video.

Normal ones are really easy to buy once you unlock the vendor. Just 2 days worth of dailies for the pristine relics.

Golden ones can take some time though and a gold cost. Also if you want golden ones it’s a good idea to use the mystic forge recipe using a normal silver skin (so don’t apply them – use a transmutation charge in wardrobe!) instead of buying the chest while ecto prices are lower than stabilising matrices. You can save yourself a bit of gold doing so.

Lexander.4579:

Carighan.6758:

Fay.2357:

Ah, it must be that time of year again when the thieves come to the mesmer forum and complain to cover up their own inadequacies.

But Fay! If half of my skills are brokenly weak and abandoned, then it’s only fair that half of yours should be, too!

yeah its totes okay when one utility skill is about as good as all 3 utility skills + elite combined

lol

Same for infusions.

I hate having to have an entire duplicate set of ascended in order to play fractals because they require AR and my wvw infusions are useless there…

I do use it when pugging fractals as it comes in handy for clutch rezzing.

But otherwise it’s mediocre.

apharma.3741:

There is a build that seems to have been making the rounds in EU WvW where you run blink, decoy and mirror images. FeintFate shows the build off nicely as it’s more about sustained fights than burst and run.

Not seen other people using it the last few weeks though but I see more condi mesmers or thieves tbh.

It’s a nice skill just doesn’t quite compete with decoy because of how strong stealth is.

I use blink, mirror images and decoy in wvw and also in pvp (solo player) and it is quite something having 3 low cooldown stunbreaks as well as the ability for unpredictable burst through this skill. I’ve been using it ever since Inspiration got buffed for so much condi cleanse so running Mantra of Resolve was no longer necessary as well as realising Deceptive evasion was no longer necessary thanks to Chrono.

Before that how many power shatter builds ran Blink/MantraofResolve/Decoy in wvw? Many of them. So personally swapping Mantra for Mirror Images is a great think as it allows for more flexible gameplay. And it’s useful no matter whether power or hybrid.

Tbh I don’t actually play pure condi so yeah I will concede that it’s not as amazing when using two things:
- Shield (because easy phantasm spam)
- Scepter (easy clone spam)

But I suppose anyone using Sword/Torch and Greatsword or Staff, it’s great to have that instantaneous burst available especially when not using Deceptive Evasion.

Sure in a tpvp portal is necessary, and sure signet of illusions or mantra of distraction are good if not better. But Mirror Images allows for a good deal more offense and contributes to gameplay being more offensive/faster and overall more fun.

Finally, Anet reducing the cooldown to 30s has been hugely beneficial for me, especially when traited with IC so it’s on 24 seconds and then alacrity generally means it is back up in under 20 seconds. That is game changing compared to the past – in the past you could use it for burst but the cooldown was prohibitive. Now it is more encouraging to be used for burst given you can have it available much sooner and (Ignoring chrono illusion traits for the moment) almost offsets the loss of illusion generation from DE.

What? :o

Mirror Images is awesome for instant shatter fodder now they reduced it’s base cooldown to 30s – especially when also traited in Illusions and with alacrity, it cools down very fast.

It is useful in power, condi and hybrid builds for either instant/unpredictable burst, cc via F3, or for example fodder to cover F4 into mass invis or similar.

It is especially useful when in combination with F5 as you can execute an F5/blink/Mirror Images/shatter combo extremely fast and surprise enemies.

Not to mention a handy stun break.

Amaimon.7823:

Fractals
They’re shorter than dungeons and scale in difficulty. Dungeons are longer and have a static difficulty.

This. Fractals by far.

Sounds good tbh, I’d be up for it.

Amaimon.7823:

Agreed. The current model of LA looks like its designed by a singular skritt with attention disorder and a fetish for quaggans and other crustaceans. Like a disney waterpark built on a parking lot.

I cant wait for *S*taphylococcus the water elder dragon to wash it off tyria and we can rebuilt it a proper hub of trade again.

LOL!

The mental image of a skritt architect designing it like that has me in stitches!

I seriously hate one thing about cannons…

… – that the red aoe shows up FAR too late and close to impact that it gives you no time to dodge. As soon as you see the red ring you are almost immediately hit.

It’s a stupid design with very little counterplay other than running or LoSing.

I let one of these stupid things kill me on the walls of SM because I thought I could dodge each time upon seeing the aoe and was trying to stay in for dropping a portal. It took dying after repeated hits for me to learn that there’s no time to dodge… I won’t make that mistake again.

It would be cool to see something animated like the head armour on the Horus guards in the original Stargate movie.

Coldtart.4785:

I don’t get why people seem to like foods in wvw so much. They add literally nothing to the gameplay and waste wvwers’ gold.

By the way the bonuses of mussels gnashblade add up to about 565 stat points worth on a frontline rev.

Speak for yourself – the food I use changes the way I play significantly (in combination with the runes I use).

It’s immediately noticeable when playing without it.

Sure some foods are pretty useless (simple stat bonuses) but some foods can make gameplay very different.

Personally the most important thing Chrono offers is the passive 25% movement speed trait, allowing use of runes other than traveler and so on.

And yea both IR sand Cp are attempts to fix the anti-synergy of phantasms and shattering and to reduce reliance on DE – but now we’ve become reliant on these two traits instead!

Add in other things like superspeed illusions on shatter and the entire line is fixing holes in core mesmer – instead of being an alternative to core mesmer…

Probably (definitely) all been mentioned but to reiterate:

Blood Rubies
Petrified Wood
Reclaimed Metal Plate
Chak Egg
Blade Shards
Doubloons

Others I can kind of live with but these certainly should go in storage asap.

Jaina Ashlynn.1043:

Curunen.8729:

Once was more than enough for me – never want to do it again.

But weirdly for some reason I received 4 gifts of exploration…

Used 1 for crafting Bifrost but the other 3 have been gathering dust in the bank with no desire to craft another first gen legendary.

I’m betting you had another with all of the PvE zones done and it just needed the WvW done to finish world comp when Anet removed the WvW requirement for Gift of Exploration. That is what happened to 8 of my 9 world comps; with no WvW needed, they got world completion.

Strangely no – I have only ever completed all pve zones on one character.

Although yes I did it when wvw was also required and had completed that too.

What happened was I got a random in game mail from Anet about 2 years ago (can’t remember exactly when but a long time) saying there had been some sort of mistake and I was owed 2 gifts of exploration which were in the mail. This wasn’t the result of a support ticket or anything – I had never communicated with support.

Didn’t know what to do so just stuffed them in the bank where they’ve sat ever since. Doubt I’ll ever use the extra two so it’s not much of a freebie or anything.

Once was more than enough for me – never want to do it again.

But weirdly for some reason I received 4 gifts of exploration…

Used 1 for crafting Bifrost but the other 3 have been gathering dust in the bank with no desire to craft another first gen legendary.

I only have one conundrum – begin Astralaria precursor journey now or wait for more details on Mirage and potential generation two Sword and Scepter legendaries in case they end up being cool…

I’ve almost got a gift of maguuma mastery ready – just need half a stack of amalgamated gemstones to complete, and plan on having a mystic tribute ready in the coming months.

Just a matter of waiting for more news.

This might be annoying for you but funnily enough I got it on the first steam mob I killed… :/

I also don’t like Bolt and find Meteorlogicus looks unwieldy so am looking forward to new Sword and Scepter legendaries.

In wvw I’d rather people didn’t know my exact build because there are certain synergies I enjoy which I don’t want to become widespread.

On the other hand it might be nice so as not to be confused with dire/TB/perplex and moaned at incorrectly.

However in pve sure – I don’t care if people see my build/gear. Elitist groups will behave as they want anyway and casual groups won’t care.

Junkpile.7439:

Mesmer is problem not gear. Condi mesmer doesn’t even need defense at all if he isn’t totally braindead player.

If Mesmer itself is a problem, not gear, then both Condi AND power will be nerfed together – because what is currently broken is the sustain from Inspiration and Shield – and this is independent of damage type.

Even Chaos largely is independent of damage type.

Azukas.1426:

Condi scrapper harder than power? Eh maybe.
Revs no
Necro no
Mesmer no
Thief no
Warrior no
Druid eh the class requires such little skill period it’s almost a wash
Guardian I would say even
Ele condi easier.

Classes like ele, druid, DH don’t have the amulet to support the condi builds.

So honestly engineer I would say definitely.

Forgot to add that the PvP team has kept most of the condi builds in check by removal of amulets. That and the fact this is a conquest game is why most condi builds aren’t seeing more play. Take for example condi mesmer before HoT. Completely not viable but infinitely easier than power.

I think there needs to be clarity and a distinction between discussing only top tier meta builds and discussing all other possible builds.

Taking mesmer again as an example (because it is the most familiar for me to comment on) – sure the meta condi Chrono is easier to play and more successful than the “best” power build – largely down to the overpoweredness of Shield and Inspiration (which can also be used in power builds). That is why it is meta.

Below this level though are many shades of grey with some power builds being easier than condi and vice versa.

Coming back to this example – surely you can’t say that a Viper Duelling/Illusions/Chrono GS+Sw/P condirupt build requires less skill than a Marauder/Demolisher Chaos/Inspiration/Chrono GS+Sw/Sh power build? The latter has far more brainless damage mitigation, passive boon procs and sustain whereas the former is 100% glass with barely any condi cleanse. The latter can unload huge burst effortlessly while maintaining that sustain and even keep possession of a node for a while (especially if using staff instead), and while the former can unload a large aoe condi burst that can wreck a teamfight, it requires time to tick and it lacks the brainless sustain to survive while waiting for condis to tick so requires allies to babysit.

In general the sustain of mesmer boils down to Inspiration and Shield (in wvw though it can also be Chaos/PU), which ought to be carefully rebalanced at the same time as the overpowered sustain of other elite specs.

I agree that both Dire and Trailblazer need looking at.

But Viper Chrono is perfectly fine compared with Marauder/Zerker – in fact I’d say it is more difficult to play because of lacking instant power burst but being equally as glassy. So depending on stats and traitlines (for example Mistrust/Duelling), condition/hybrid play can require more skill than power and have even less survivability (ie if not using Shield).

One side note that might help when fighting Dire/Trailblazer – if they’re running PU then they’re not running Inspiration as there’s no room for it – so they are weak to incoming conditions. If they’re running Inspiration then at least you know where they are most of the time and are able to react/run. For the record I’m not condoning these builds – what I am saying is it is the gear stats causing them to over perform beyond the “normal” powercreep since HoT.

sephiroth.4217:

Mesmer Glamour Bombs.

Mesmer Chaos Storm traits that did 70k damage.

Ooh yeah, both of these.

Chrysotile.1589:

The Thing cannot be described – there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order.
— H. P. Lovecraft – Call of Cthulhu

This is my mesmer/chronomancer who draws heavily on Lovecraftian themes of the Cthulhu mythos.

This is fantastic – very well executed.

kitten now I’m craving pancakes! >:(

ResJudicator.7916:

Azukas.1426:

What condi build is harder to play then a power build for the same class?

If you’re talking about PvP (not WvW):

- Engie (condi is waaaay harder than meta scrapper)
- Rev (post Ret nerfs)
- Meta Mesmer (condi is way easier to pick up, but overall more complex so harder to master, at least according to many ESL mesmer players)
- Mistrust Mesmer (no inspiration, relies largely on landing interrupts for condi spike)

The fact is that many condi builds now run carrion, which is about on par with marauder in terms of survivability (marauder even has more overall stats). Same deal if you compare rabid with demolisher. Both power and condi builds typically rely on the same defensive traits (except power mes also uses stealth).

But with power, your damage is straightforward. With condi, you have to time your bursts around your opponent’s condi cleanse, and interrupt their key cleanse skills (like DH F2, mesmer well, engie heal turret, etc.). As a condi build, letting your opponent get a cleanse skill off is like giving them a 5k+ heal. You don’t have that problem with a power build.

Of course is this completely different in WvW, where stealth-camping condi builds are braindead easy and way more forgiving than power builds. Part of the reason is that you have more gear and food/utility options in WvW, the other part is that you don’t have to worry about capping a point. I know this is a PvP forum, but I noticed that a lot of the people who want to discuss balance here come from WvW.

I agree – it can be much more straightforward to kill people with power builds than condi, and survival is not much different.

For example I consider the GS2/(blink)/F1/MoD/GS3 totally brainless to execute – and it can destroy majority of someone’s health pool – with the only problem being passive survival traits/procs. It is no different to a condi bomb such as F5/(blink)/MirrorImages/F321, and I often see it treated as a mindless rotation rather than using the skills situationally in combination.

Speaking of wvw the only issue I have against condi isn’t the builds as such, it’s the gear – ie Dire and Trailblazer which when used in combination with things like PU make for “broken” builds. Ideally I’d change Dire to Condi/precision/vitality or something (get rid of one defensive stat), and I’d change Trailblazer to Condi/vitality/Precision/toughness with both defensive stats being secondary. Either that or make one defensive stat primary and delete the other.

In pvp there is little difference in sustain from amulet stats between power and condi (ie Marauder and Carrion as mentioned), instead more a reliance on crutch traits and skills which both condi and power builds use.

Azukas.1426:

What condi build is harder to play then a power build for the same class?

Depends on specific options.

Ie, Viper condirupt (Mistrust) mesmer with Duelling/Illusions/Chrono, Sw/F + GS, MoD requires more skill to play than Demolisher power mesmer with Chaos/Inspiration/Chrono, Sw/Sh and so on…

It’s individual weapons, traits and skills that provide the crutches in terms of survivability – for example Shield and Inspiration, which is independent of damage type.

Sure the easiest condi build is in general easier than the easiest power build – hence the current meta condi chrono – but below that there is a whole spectrum of what is more or less easy to be successful with, regardless of power/condi/hybrid.

Ah, wish I had seen this earlier – could have done with a laugh.

I agree OP, it is a shame when there are threads only full of moaning/whining that stay there but to have have a good joke post removed, but I suppose it could have a negative influence on new players (to the game) reading it?