Guild Wars 2

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

Dalent.9358:

I can see why they set it to 30 and not 0 for everyone. Those who have done the 30+ content are being forced to do it again to essentially playtest the new Fractal Instabilities. Am I saying this is exactly fair to those people? No. But it makes sense. Going by their presumptions of a pretty-vague preview, all you 50+ people would be DESTROYED in fractals 50, and would probably start over anyways. And I’m not talking just because of new agony scaling.

Now, keep in mind, ANet has been silent on people wanting compensation. I can understand why they want it, I bet ANet can too. Now what’s one thing any of forum goers know about Devs and posting (in this game and others)? They try to avoid posting misleading information. For all we know, they are working on a compensation, and don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up until they have something figured out.

And personally, for all those saying “we just want our difficulty back” for the 50+: you don’t know what the Instabilities have to offer. That may be your difficulty/challenge, and then a bag of chips.

But does it make sence to start a competition? no it doesn’t? it just doesn’t why would you start a competition when there are ppl already more than half way through ? If they want it to be a skill competition they should let you choose the difficulty you want and when you complete it you get it so easy.. if it’s a who is first competition I already won I’m first so I can Keep my 81 .. if it’s a competition since new content they still Need to let everyone start on equal footage.. it’s just not fair and bad design anyway

if they are thinking about a current solution to the Problems ?
why they think it is ok to take away my hard work?

They could do so much to not get the community fractured and still they do nothing than maybe laughing silently. Yeah and remove the thread from a place where it was more popular than they’re CDI.

Just because there are leaderboards doesn’t make it a competition. Are achievements a competition? We have a leaderboard for that. It’s merely a leaderboard. You get no prize for getting to 50 first, second, or last. Now, is it necessary to even have a Fractal leaderboard? I personally think not. But for all those complaining about pugs, it could be a good tool to find others on your level.

Fafnir.5124:

Ice of Dragons.1637:

It would be nice to get more new skins and armour

Be nice if they dropped as ascended weapons or could be upgrade into them. Anet why teq got exclusive ascended skins before fotm ill never know.

Get your Ascended Shield. Put your Fractal Shield skin on it. GG? Why’s everything gotta be handed out in full?

laharl.8435:

Dalent.9358:

Because reading is exactly like doing.

The guide would be a good supplement at least. The guide shows newbs how the content works and even fractal pros can learn good strategies.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guardian-Video-Guide-for-Fractals-Shown-at-48

You’re absolutely correct, and in retrospect I see how mean my post sounded. Wasn’t meant to sound mean, just encourage people to not only look at that.

phys.7689:

Lunar Sunset.8742:

People on lvl 30 scale aren’t as skilled as people at lvl 40-50. It’s gonna be a kitten storm of bad pugs which is mainly why I’m annoyed by this update. I feel for the people who lost a lot more progress than me (I have 1 lvl 48, 4 lvl 38s).

bad pugs isnt a legitimate concern though, you can party up with whoever you want, if you dont want random public players… dont randomly play with public players?

This. I am only Fractal level 27, but I can tell the difference when I go into lower tiers, or when people have never actually encountered fractals. But over the course of pugging, and playing with my guild, I have a decent roster of people I can call on for fractals at almost any time. Very rarely do I go into a Fractal without at least one person from my go-tos, but if I do, I know the risk I am taking, and the patience I may need. Don’t expect the worst from pugs, because they may surprise you by being skilled. But don’t be surprised if they need some guidance.

I can see why they set it to 30 and not 0 for everyone. Those who have done the 30+ content are being forced to do it again to essentially playtest the new Fractal Instabilities. Am I saying this is exactly fair to those people? No. But it makes sense. Going by their presumptions of a pretty-vague preview, all you 50+ people would be DESTROYED in fractals 50, and would probably start over anyways. And I’m not talking just because of new agony scaling.

Now, keep in mind, ANet has been silent on people wanting compensation. I can understand why they want it, I bet ANet can too. Now what’s one thing any of forum goers know about Devs and posting (in this game and others)? They try to avoid posting misleading information. For all we know, they are working on a compensation, and don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up until they have something figured out.

And personally, for all those saying “we just want our difficulty back” for the 50+: you don’t know what the Instabilities have to offer. That may be your difficulty/challenge, and then a bag of chips.

Astralporing.1957:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Spoiler: there was always a rare chance to get them in the 10-20ish. The only change we made was to make them skins so you can apply them without spending a transmutation stone.

read OP , then read this. Then close thread. Seems some people didn’t realize that they could get those skins at 10 and they are still making posts thinking they can’t.

Have you ever heard of anyone that got a fractal skin at level 10? No? I thought so. If there really was a chance, it was so low to make precursor drops seem like an everyday occurence.

My rotting Fractal Mace would like to have a talk with you concerning his origins.

Because reading is exactly like doing.

Like Panzer, I am willing to go into lower fractals and help teach. I just require some form of voice chat (TS Pref), and if not, lots of patience as I type stuff out.

I feel they’re just gonna do a sweep on all (Infused) items and give them the sockets and whatnot.

Aye.8392:

Will infusions be tradeable or will each player have to level artificer to be able to combine infusions themselves?

Does Magic Find effect infusion drops?

I assume not tradeable, but only need a 100 Artificer to combine them. So assuming account-bound, as the are now

ZudetGambeous.9573:

There are only 2 patches left before the end of the year. We are still missing the following that was supposed to be implemented before the end of the year:

1. New traits
2. New skills
3. Crafting to 500 for armor
4. Ascended armor
5. Precursor crafting
6. New legendary weapons
7. New PvP game modes
8. Legendary weapons in PvP

I can’t image all these things dropping in the same patch. Where is the info on these? What patch are they coming in?

1. December 10th patch
2. Healing Toxin Mist thingy
3. I’m betting December
4. See #3
5. Have they even determined how we’ll craft them? Because specific mystic forge recipes are still considered crafting IMO.
6. No new precursors, so no new legendaries. Simple enough.
7. Don’t recall this
8. Really don’t recall this

Your #3-6 could all be in one patch very easily. I’m ignoring 7 and 8 because, as I said, I don’t recall that being mentioned (I will look and edit this post if needed). We technically already did get #2, even though it was massively underwhelming, and we will be getting #1 indirectly, again, massively underwhelming.

I think that’s a bit excessive. If people quit so many casual things because of a wrong choice, then no one would ever do anything. Personally, I like how the Soulbound system works. Even though I have moments of “kitten , I wish I could do [X], and I could if Soulbind didn’t exist”, I do think it’s nessecary. Items typically only soulbind when you use them anyways.

This idea sits badly in my mind. I don’t really like any of it. Wish I could give you a better reasoning; I simply did not like any of the ideas as I was reading through.

It seems too forced, and less like a Ranger more like a Survivalist. It also gives the Ranger two class mechanics, as they’d still have the permanent pet. It also feels too much like Ele.

Monoman.2068:

Why is soul bound even a thing? […]
[…]
The only benefit I see to karma armor being soul bound is it will force people to explore areas they already traversed extensively in under powered gear to create the illusion that people actually play in those areas.

This right here is why Soulbound is a thing. It’s a gimmick to get people to play more. Though it’s normally a sub-based game thing, so people keep paying to keep playing to do the same stuff. Since ANet doesn’t actually benefit from people playing every month, I don’t see why they need subscription based gimmicks.

I would say guild halls. I’d like both, but I can hear massive QQ about housing if people only have a few places to choose from. Guild Halls would be the same internally, and thus each capital could have a gate/door leading to the guild hall.

Taking from what others in the thread have said, guild halls could have:
-Permanent Buff Banners (limited to an amount)
-Crafting Stations
-Mini Games
-Various Merchants
-Trading Post(?)

Each thing would have to be unlocked. Like to get a Permaent Karma Banner in the Guild Hall, you would also need to have already unlocked the current Karma Banner and the guild-wide Karma boost. And it could be limited to 2-4 banners in the hall at a time. Heroes banner should not ever be an option for that.
Each crafting station would have to be unlocked seperately, but all become available at the same time and have the same cost.
Mini Games, the only thing I can think of is Belcher’s Bluff (as another poster mentioned) and RC Golem Chess, but I’m sure more can be thought of.
There could be each kind of merchant to unlock (Karma, Laurel, WvW, Gold, Guild, Etc.). No Black Lion Merchants. And we would be able to upgrade the stock of these merchants as well (ones like the WvW and Laurel merchants would come fully stocked, but Karma/Guild/Gold merchants could get more items as upgrades)
Iffy on having a Trading Post in the hall. I’d probably say no, and let guild members use the Trading Post Express or just go out the hall.
Can’t have everything in one place, ya know?

Unlimited Gathering items are Account-Bound now. Which is great.

Removing Soulbound from the game is a bad idea from a marketing standpoint. Sure, some people will play more if they could reuse old gear sets, but I think that number is very small compared to the amount of people who don’t care. At that point, why not just let you swap your profession/race once you hit 80 at any time?

Want mounts? Go play WoW/Rift/Terra.

Except it’s not sorted. Are you telling me that, if I’m fighting Jormag, and a pre-event for Fire Ele pops up, and Jormag dies within the last minute of Fire Ele, by the time I get there (meaning Fire Ele will have spawned and might be down a bit, depending on time of day), I should get no loot?

Familiarity. Alts exist. I can’t tell you the times I stumble between classes. Attempt to Blink on my Warrior. Attempt to Death Shroud on my Ranger. Etc.

If we allowed weapons to have a similar base mechanic, not only would this make it easier to jump between classes (not saying it’s difficult by any means), but could allow for more “effects.” As it stands, Legendaries have the only real weapon effects. Footfalls, changing spells, character auras. Fractal Weapons are the only other weapons that come to mind that have an effect like this, and it’s a trail.
Now, don’t take that as me saying all weapons should have effects. But I think certain named ones should have more. Like Foefire and Mjolnir for example. Mjolnir could literally just spark with every hit it made and I think that would be just. It’s not a Legendary, it doesn’t need more than that.

I think I answered both your questions there at once, if I didn’t let me know and I’ll try again. But now I’d like to hear your answer to your own question.

The game does not let you sell for less than the vendor price when at the Trading Post, so the fact people can place buy orders for it is just dumb. Either stop people from placing buy orders that low (and remove the current ones that low), or allow us to make the mistake of doing that.

I felt that way for awhile. While I’m not sure your progression in the game so far, or your style, I’ll tell you what I did personally.

I started as an Ele, and being new to the GW universe, I had no idea what I was doing. Couldn’t get help for the life of me. Tried to learn on my own, and failed. Rage quit. Two weeks later, I come back, and make a Necro. And, despite not having learned I thing, I kept at it. I was determined that, even if it meant I’d despise Necromancer at the end of the day, i’d hit level cap and understand the game. I turned out to love Necromancer. TL;DR – Force yourself to do something, and you might realize you like it. Idea: Try Fractals of the Mist, even if you’re not big into dungeons. Try WvW if you’re not into PvP. And so on. Break your own mold.

What I do with friends who have a similar problem now, is first help them find a profession they like. What I did with my fiance, and what I am doing with a friend tomorrow actually, is going into sPvP on various professions, and having them just mess around with weapons on the NPCs. We didn’t talk traits. We didn’t talk sigils, stats, runes. Nothing but learning each weapon and the class mechanic to see what they preferred. At some point they feel they like a profession, and I tell them to remember it, but I make them try at least 5 of them anyways. My fiance loved Warrior at the start, but liked that ranged ability of a Ranger and was interested in Necro after watching me, but she settled on Guardian. And Gaurdian was the first one she tried and hated initially.

Try that, and don’t be scared to contact me in-game if you want.

On top of that, make it so that you just have to -use- the weapon, not get the killing blow. Shield Mastery anyone?

I sorta like this idea, but my idea was a twist on it. Instead of your suggestion, I was thinking more along the lines of all “styles” of abilities.

Example:
Greatsword1 is always a direct strike. For a Guardian, it would pierce in it’s strike. A Warrior would do more damage with the same swing-speed. A Ranger would add vulnerability. Etc. But when it came down to it, they’re all a strike.
Greatsword2 could be a gap-closer. This would be like Binding Blade for Guardian. For a Mesmer it could do what Sword3 does on live. Ranger/Warrior would have their leaps.

And so on. So the generic theme of the weapon is the same, but the actual implementation is different. Meaning you’d still have a different style of play on a different profession with the same weapon, but all-in-all it would have the same root.

On top of that, certain weapons would have added cosmetic effects. Nothing as drastic as a Legendary bonus, but to use current abilities as an example, Greatsword3 for a Mesmer does the illusion spike from the ground. With Foefire (I think that’s the sword?), it would be a blue burst of flame. No damage or effects added. just visual. The Legendary weapons would be the ones to get the bonus effects. Twilight could cause a Dark Field surrounding the impact, Sunrise could Blind, Eternity could do both.

Leamas.5803:

Rukh.9287:

Why not have three sigils?

But seriously. 2h weapons are currently balanced around the # of sigils, so it’s not that it’s unfair that 2h weapons only have 1 sigil.

No, not really, if I’m using a superior sigil of corruption on all my weapons, I can build my corruption stack twice as fast two handed than with the staff.

If you expect to go down often (such as PvP or WvW), then i could see why you’d want to build stacks faster. But in PvE, I don’t see the benefit. Killing 25 things goes by rather quickly.

I should have said my reasoning is mainly cosmetic. The second part is the whole reason I even wanted to do this.

As for not being able to remove stealth, the second part could merely force the user out of stealth. Or make it do minor (like, 1 point?) of damage to force it. Hell, I’d even say weaken the burn duration a but and give it direct damage as well.

My one suggestion to change to the #4 ability on Mesmer Torch is mostly cosmetic.

Currently, it’s called The Prestige, which is the final part of a magic trick. It stealths you for 3 seconds (4 if traited) while blinding all surrounding foes, and when you come out, you burn enemies around you.

One part of my suggested change is to make the second part of this skill (the re-appearance) at our control. Let us come out any time within the time limit of our choosing, for the same effect. If the full time passes, it’ll act as it does now.

The second part is merely a name change. Change the name to “The Turn,” and then change the command to re-appear to “The Prestige.” That way it’s more in-line with magician terms, and gives Mesmers another little gimmick.

I’d even be okay with not having the burning effect if the time runs out.

Mungrul.9358:

Oh, and another thing, and this has affected anyone who has ever played with a non-standard build:
When ArenaNet change traits or skills without warning, your build is no longer viable and you HAVE to spend a lot of money and time re-gearing.

I understand that this would be a major change, but my point is, this is a far better, fairer, more balanced system, and the benefits would outweigh the negatives.
In addition, it would be an incredibly brave move for an MMO developer and really would set the game apart, where at the moment it’s beginning to taste like every other crappy WoW clone out there.

And to re-iterate, this would bring the system more in line with the original Guild Wars system. That also required tweaking over time, and the introduction of insignias and inscriptions was a massive sea change to that system, as big as this.
And it only improved the game.

I play non-standard builds. I never have to spend gold or time to regear. In fact, most of my builds just required moving a few Major Traits, if even that. And the ones that did require regearing? It was minor, not “drop all my gold on this gearset” horrible. Not even remotely painful. I made the gold back in less than one day, and I’m casual with my gold making.

This is “fairer” and “better” in your opinion. In my opinion, it’s lazy and game breaking. You want new gear. Buy/craft it. Need the gold? Sell something. Need something to sell? Farm it. It is an MMO. No matter how you twist it, unless they make everything in this game account-bound and remove that auction system, it’s how the MMO world will work. It’s a mental/physical trap to get you to play more/longer. As an avid WoW player, I can tell you this is no WoW clone. Does WoW have a thing or two I’d want to see implemented in a GW2 style? Probably (none come to mind immediately). Does GW2 do things I’d like to see WoW do? Yes.

Their intent, as far as I have read, is not to make this a Guild Wars 1 expansion. It is a new game. The base lore is the same. There are a few mechanics/names that are similar. They still semi-support GW1. Even if they changed it so vastly in a way that would still make the game even look like GW2, it would take a year at least. Because anything else would be too drastic and too fast.

Raine Akrune.8416:

I have a solution to your problem: play sPvP

A great solution.

Mungrul.9358:

Dalent, did you miss the part where I said I’m making these suggestions in the hope they’re implemented so that I might actually enjoy playing again?

I’ve put thousands of hours into GW2, and even more thousands into GW1.
I’ve put a pretty horrific amount of hours into other MMOs too, and what I have realised through my experience playing these games is that a focus on gear that affects stats is never satisfying.
It dictates that a progression system is pretty much mandatory.
It’s confusing and muddled as the stat bonuses are always fixed, resulting in infexibility.
There are almost ALWAYS stat combinations missing, and in the case of GW2, there’s a ridiculous amount missing or incomplete.
While YOU may use only one set of armour, that’s not to say everyone else does.

Let me explain about gear acquisition, build flexibility and balance:
If gear dictates build and is expensive to get, it discourages build experimentation and encourages cookie cutter builds.
People are too scared to invest in the gear they need to be completely flexible, so the metagame rapidly focuses on one particular build. As this build becomes prevalent, developers only see game feedback from players using this build, which in turn reinforces it.
Players eventually get bored of playing the same way over and over again and eventually stop playing as there’s no build diversity left.
Sound familiar?

If build flexibility is not restricted by expensive gear, people are more willing to experiment with builds.
Bugs or flaws are found faster.
Competitive play becomes more unpredictable and thus more exciting.
And developers receive feedback that allows them to balance for more than just one build, resulting in more satisfying and varied gameplay.

Variety is the spice of life.

I read your post. Did you not read that what you are suggesting will break the game, and require an entire new one? Your hours would be for naught. I completely understand what you are aiming for, and I agree in some facets. But I am still acknowledging as its current limitations are, and to implement more than one of your changes would redesign the whole game, which could be GW3. But we’re in GW2 now, and I accept those limits.

Should they add more stat combos? Absolutely. As far as stat combos go, I think pure gear should be change. Have one offensive and one defensive stat on gear at all times. It would require more strategy for gearing, but would still be simple enough for extreme casuals. But that’s neither here nor there for your arguments, and is for a different discussion entirely.

I understand why people want to have an armor set for every potential build for their profession. And do it across multiple professions. But while I understand the reasoning behind doing that, I don’t see why people feel the -need- for that variety. Being reasonable within the game helps at times. Yes, I am saying I think it is unreasonable to be prepared for every single minuscule possibility on one character.

As far as gear experimentation, why not just use cheap blues or greens? You get the basic concept down, you get raw data, and you can figure it out with a calculator. Out of the theorycrafters I personally know (from GW2 and other MMOs), none of us do all of our number crunching purely in the game screen. Now, for those that do, they probably do deck out in full exotics to test. But I get the data well enough from greens or blues to come to the same results in the same amount of time.
I personally don’t play the game the same way over and over, because I like to create things myself. But that’s me. While it supports your “experimentation,” I do acknowledge not everyone truly experiments.

I’ll reference the above paragraph in saying build experimentation is not restricted by gear. Mental laziness perhaps? Sure. We all have it. And not everyone is a mathematician. Competative play becoming more unpredictable? I don’t see that, as you can generally tell quickly, based on weapons, what a build does. You don’t get a perfect idea, but you get a good educated guess. Staff Mesmer? Probably support. Shortbow Ranger? Probably condition damage. Are any of these absolute? No. And even if you’re right, are you positive what type of support or condi damage they are doing? What about secondary weapons? Maybe I’m giving build diversity too much credit, but you also have to think, in WvW or sPvP, how long to you have to mentally analyze the enemy?

SoPP.7034:

Dalent.9358:

I agree that sPvP is that main bulk of things. As it stands, if you want GvG, you can get a Custom Arena, have your guildies join Red, and another guild join Blue, and duke it out that way. Put up the password so only your two teams/guilds can be in. Bam! Structured GvG.

Want one that’s more like WvW? That would require a large amount of coordination not only on the part of the guilds, but the developers. As it stands, I don’t think GW2 can support a strict GvG area for non-structured PvP. How would you determine what guild you war against? How would you handle guild repping? How would you limit guild members that can enter?

You can’t GvG on the PvP servers, they don’t support the numbers involved, usually 15+ each side.

Yeah, I can see the problem there, as you wouldn’t be able to have a full-on war. But what are wars but a sum of battles in random territories. If they found a way to track something like this in game for the entire guild, I think a 10-person team limit would satisfy the masses

Eti.3028:

On what kind of items? The ones found in Orr? Or any?

Orichalcum Ore nodes and Ancient Sapling/Orrian Sappling. They are most common in the Orr zones, Southsun Cove, and Frostgorge Sound.

http://gw2nodes.com is a good site to see an ideal path to farm. Just make sure you pick the right server from the dropdown

Wanze.8410:

I think, when you joined your friend in his home instance a couple of days ago, you farmed his crystal node. As you stated that you didnt even know that you had a quartz crystal node, maybe thats the case.

Just check in your achievement tab, if you finished the meta achievement for the Bazaar of the 4 Winds Living Story.

If you havent, you dont have a quartz node in your home instance and can only farm it, if you join someone who unlocked it in their home instance.

I was unaware you could farm a friend’s node if they entered the instance and you followed.

And to the OP: you may have mined it earlier on another character and not thought twice about it. Happens to me sometimes.

Agreeing with Martellus on the realistic factor. I do semi-competitive weapon combat (fencing, dueling, etc.) and I rarely use my left hand offensively. Maybe for a quick combo, or a disarming parry, but not normally.

On a side note: dual-dagger on an Asuran Necro animates perfectly

EDIT: Added the fact I meant Asuran Necro, not just any Necro

I agree that sPvP is that main bulk of things. As it stands, if you want GvG, you can get a Custom Arena, have your guildies join Red, and another guild join Blue, and duke it out that way. Put up the password so only your two teams/guilds can be in. Bam! Structured GvG.

Want one that’s more like WvW? That would require a large amount of coordination not only on the part of the guilds, but the developers. As it stands, I don’t think GW2 can support a strict GvG area for non-structured PvP. How would you determine what guild you war against? How would you handle guild repping? How would you limit guild members that can enter?

First, if you’re not playing anymore, leave. Your “suggestions” from someone who doesn’t play and thus doesn’t care are not only invalid, but would suggest an entire new game.

The game has plenty of experimentation in it as is. Are there problems in the game? Of course! What game doesn’t have its problems. It’s a matter of do you want to spend the 1-2 hours not only theorizing the build but also testing it properly that makes a difference.

As far as having different sets of gear: why? I have one set of gear for my Necro. His build only supports two gear setups anyways, and they’re redundant. As Olba stated, removing stats purely to trait lines would have the same effect. Removing stats from the lines and putting them into the traits themselves might change things up, but that still leads to potential cookiecutter. You aren’t going to avoid it. Generalzied, cookiecutter builds will exist and theorist will find a way to make it remain so.

Several friends and I have a guild that we’ve recently put some upgrades into, but we want to swap servers. We know guild upgrades are server based, but is there any way to cause those to move to another server as well? Or would we have to start from scratch?

Bammbelbi, I think all of us do play simply to have fun. Okay, some of us number crunchers have fun doing that too. But I digress. I love running fractals and dungeons, and so optimizing my PvE build (the process of which is also fun) enables me to enjoy the content I want, with the build I want. I just have really been unable to do that with my Ranger. That’s where my concerns personally come in.

I’m not saying how are you achieving these numbers, I’m curious is what method you are using to get these numbers. There’s no in-game DPS meter as far as I can tell.

Also, can someone help me find a source that says rangers have lower base damage to accommodate the pet? Friend of mine mains a ranger, and refuses to believe that’s the case. She’s convinces Rangers are a gift to the game.

So, what I’m getting from a mass grab from what I’ve read here, is that in PvE, Rangers are “okay.” And that’s it. They are outperformed in every aspect of the game, especially ones they should perform in. And much of this has to do with the Pet, and the multitude of abilities and traits that interact with said pet. In PvP, rangers are a little more acceptable, but mostly due the fact the pet isn’t as great of a liability. Rangers CAN be good, and can do very well considering, but when you compare their functionality with that of every class, they fall into the middle ground in almost everything, and excel in nothing.

ilr.9675:

I can average 2000 DPS solo but it’s only by completely abandoning the way that Ranger was designed (and is still being designed) to be played by Anet. Some players have video of themselves averaging 4000-5000 DPS on Ranger in Dungeons and beating Speed clear recor.

Can you tell me how you’re coming to these conclusive numbers? I’m not saying I disagree, but obviously my methods and knowledge are limited/wrong.

I never even noticed a chest or anything.

I see an equal amount of “Rangers are terrible” an “Rangers are fine” rants around the various sites I go to, as well as in-game. Most people who say they are terrible reference pets and scaling, while those who say they are fine don’t really have anything to add.
I am very aware pets don’t scale with gear, and Rangers have lower skill coefficients to make up for the fact we always have a pet. But I wanted to get in depth opinions, something I haven’t seen much of. Support your claims if you can with numbers and experience. I am also testing my ranger out and gathering what numbers I can and will give my insight once I have it more compiled.

As a minor note: how do people say they do X damage? I know each skill has a coefficient, and skill damage is directly related to that and power, but how do people make a claim of like, a 6000 Damage Ranger? I don’t even see myself getting that much power.

I like it for certain events. Like opening temples. ANet would have to find a way to give you a point system, so when you would get a champ box, you get that many event boxes at the end. And then find a way to balance it in a loss vs win

I could understand making a recipe to sell, but considering the material cost, I am going to assume a bug, Let’s hope ANet sees and will reimburse you.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Has anyone gotten any loot from him? We got him to 90% on an overflow but no loot… waste of time imo, will probably skip it if there isn’t any loot.

So, you want loot for failing? No, you will not get loot unless you win. So, win.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/necromancer#3|3|1201|4322|3918|1199|4693|20|1215|1211|0|20|1239|2324|0|0|0|0|0|30|1580|2397|1581|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|28037|28037|49989|49989|49989|49989|49989|25790|21080|21080|21080|21080|21080|

The above is a link to a build I am toying around with. Dual daggers, Sigil of Blood in both, with full Vampirism Runes (for some reason the build calc didn’t show gloves). All armor is Knight armor, and all accessories are Berserker. Weapons are personal choice, I personally run Valk weapons.
This build has not been tested in WvW or sPvP. I am going to go into both sometime this week. It is easily tweaked for dungeons/fractals and events. The way it shows now is for solo play.

The main focus is for life drains. All your hits drain life. And critical hits just skyrocket it. You move faster thanks to Quickening Thirst, and if your target is ever trying to move away, you have Spectral Grasp to chill them and bring them back. Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering are great on a 1v1 or larger groups. Suffering’s damage and Vuln stacking is great while Darkness’ blind helps you survive.
Consume Conditions was picked for multiple reasons; 1- Survivability against conditions when you can’t rid them with Deathly Swarm, 2-short cooldown for constant usage if under pressure, 3-not reliant on a minion that can die and leave you in a bad spot for a short time. If you’re confident though, you can use Blood Fiend. It has proven me well, and in areas where AoE isn’t a large factor, I prefer Blood Fiend. Up to you.
Flesh Golem Elite was picked due to the short cooldown. Except in dungeons, I only really get to pull up Lich Form (the only other option I pick) sparingly. And even when I do, I rarely get full use out of it. Flesh Golem does fairly solid damage, can take a hit or two, and has a knockdown.
Alternate skillsIn dungeons, I swap Spectral Grasp with Well of Power, Spectral Armor, or Signet of the Locust, depending on the environment and party composition. Also depending on the party I swap to Well of Blood for the healing skill.

Major Traits are picked as follows:
Spiteful Spirit: Just because I couldn’t think of something to pick. Reaper’s Might is also a good choice, but I picked survivability over damage here.
Chill of Death: Been second guessing this one a bit, but I forsee it being helpful in WvW/sPvP
Reaper’s Precision: Higher health leeching from crits you should already be getting. If I’m not mistaken, Bloodthirst makes it 1.5% as well.
Weakening Shroud: Picked typically for AoE need. Double stacking Enfeebling Shroud bleeds is just nice sometimes.
Bloodthirst: You are doing a lot of life draining as is, so best to make it stronger (does not increase Sigil/Rune drains)
Vampiric Precision: Draining. Because drains. Because build.
Quickening Thirst: Good for general travel and movement (or saving a dodge by just moving faster). See good potential in PvP.
Alternate Major TraitsAlmost every trait in Blood Magic is a viable option for groups. I simply picked what I felt benefited me the most. Focused Rituals and Terror are good alternates for Weakening Shroud, depending on personal taste. Contemplating moving all Spite traits into Death Magic to get Ritual of Protection and Death Shiver

As you can probably see, this build has lots of flexibility and options for PvE play. Again, PvP/WvW play will be tested shortly.

I am open to comments, critiques, and suggestions.

DISCLAIMER: My Ranger is only 44, but I don’t see my concerns getting any better at higher levels.

It seems to me that my Ranger’s damage is split 60/40 with my pet. Now, I understand that as a pet class, my pet has to take away from my damage, but it feel like that’s too much of a split. I feel 80/20 would be more appropriate.

Also, it seems I don’t do steady damage. On my Necro, I can kill a level appropriate creature 1v1 in about half the time my Ranger can do the same. Granted Runes, Sigils, etc. would speed up the process, but I don’t think it would be to that degree.
I know Rangers don’t have strong burst, but unless it’s my playstyle (I run around Longbow/Greatsword or Shortbow/Sword+dagger), I find a problem when I can’t handle more than 2-3 creatures at once.

Can anyone give me an idea? Also, I do PvE. I haven’t gotten into Fractals yet, but I don’t enjoy WvW enough to do it often, and I just don’t currently have an interested in sPvP. So all my decisions are PvE based.

Thanks everyone for your input. I think what I’ve decided to go Berserker Weapons, Knight/Valk trinkets, and Soldier armor until I get a full hang of things. Then Knight/Valk Armor with Berserker Trinkets. Solider weapons as a finisher too. This just seems to be a good mix I think for when I start doing Fractals and more world events.

Thank you all very much for your time and input. I am also now back on the fence of Longbow/Greatsword vs Shortbow/Sword+Dagger. I think I need to go more for COndition damage if I do the latter.

I think when I was told Legendaries, it was because they had Soldier stats. After finding the text doc that I typed when I was chatting with people, these are exactly what they suggested for my Ranger for “Standard” play

Armor: Knights or Cavaliers
Accessories: Valkyrie or Berserker
Weapon: Sentinels or Berserker until Legendary. Solider optional for familiarity.
Runes: 6/6 Eagle, or 5/6 Eagle and 2/6 Mesmer

What I don’t understand, is that does the Rune in the Aqua Breather remain active out of water? And do the stats of Aquatic weapons remain active out of water as well? And when it comes to being submerged, what gear does or does not come into account?

I’ve finally been able to find a Profession I enjoy (Ranger), and have begun to slow process of leveling and obtaining Exotics for when I hit 80. I’ve had several people give me suggestions on how to gear (Full Berserker/Knight/Celestial, etc.). One method that was told to me actually caught my eye a bit:

All armor: Majority Offfense stats
All accessories: Majority defense stats
Weapons: Legendary

I am planning to be Longbow/Greatsword, and so I have a decent idea of what generic gear to look for, and a few ideas for what Runes and Sigils.

But as the topic says, how do you set up your character? Curious as to how the rest of the populace goes.

I came to this thread because I follow you on dA. I was curious if your gold comissions apply only to GW2 content, or if I can pay gold for different art as well.

Onshidesigns.1069:

Catisa.6507:

I get that he wants out of combat, but I still say no for the same reasons, ele can basically swap been 4 weapons in combat (and only has to pay for one weapon set) while other classes get to swap between 2 weapons in combat (and we have to pay for two weapon sets. Elementalists (and engineers) have a very clear in combat advantage. The price to pay for that is really cheap, you only get one weapon slot.

In other words, ele’s already have a built in weapon swap and they didn’t even have to pay for it. What you are asking for is basically a 3rd weapon set that can only be swapped out of combat. This I would agree with … IF and only IF … it was applied to ALL classes.
My mesmer would love to be able to have greatword and scepter/pistol all the time but the reality is I always need to swap focus for pistol otherwise I get left in the dust with no swiftness.

I don’t care if I have to manually swap my weapon in the equipment panel. I just want my exotic equipped. So I don’t have to worry about losing it somehow.

Invisible Bag. ’Nuff said.

Also, it’s not hard to open your bag and equip an item. If you get an invisible Bag (personally I have an 8-slot at the top, and my starter backpack below it), put your weapons at the top. Now they won’t move when you compact, they won’t be accidentally vendored, and they will be up at the top next to your salvage kits and other important stuff.

rhodoc.2381:

+1

I really really really bored changing my weapon set in every 20sec in WvW to deal with different objectives.

Then learn to master your weapon fully? I don’t have the problem with my Ele at all.