I’m using a bear and devourer, both the F2 poison ones.
I’ll probably switch one to a wolf for the Fear howl, when I get around to charming one.
My only real gripe with the Sylvari is the glow effect though. Seems only orange and to a lesser extent red glows really show up in the dark, everything else a tad bit weak.
You’ve tried cranking the glow to max?
I kinda like my subtle Cyan glow… but it’s subtle, even on max.
P.S. The first mask I come across is going to be permanent.
If you wear light armor, make a Mesmer and steal the mask.
If you wear medium armor, make an Engineer and steal the googles.
On the newly created Mesmer/Engineer, use a Transmutation with an unbound white item and the mask/googles, then stick it in your bank. Though it says Soulbound, your other characters will be able to pick it up from the bank.
Voila, no more kitten
Then they should have shrunk them into jackets rather than stretch them into hoopskirts that phase through our tails.
A hearthstone would be awesome, even if it has a ridiculous cooldown.
Elementalist is the most engaging class by far. There’s just no payoff for the effort though, so even if you master all the buttons you’ll still be no better than the Ranger, Warrior, Thief, Mesmer, or whathave you. You just spend a lot more effort to so it.
Fun, but not rewarding.
I don’t recall it taking particularly long, and it doesn’t root you either.
It’s only one or two axe throws at most, since we seem to throw fairly slowly.
Could you confim me that Steady Focus doesn’t apply any increase in your damage stats? I think that tier is bug.
I think people can easily test this, though I’m kind of ignorant. There’s some “steady weapons” or something you can use against golems that don’t fight back? In the Mists or something?
Should file bug reports if they just walk out of it, that’s not what the description says.
It’s a bug that happens if you shrink their pupils. We can make kitten Herbs!
Aww, the name of the silly grey/yellow pony is censored.
My Sylvari is a thief! Why would she smile all the time?
’cause she likes her new shinies?
If the Charr suddenly got discarded from their priorities, that’s a shame. I hadn’t touched GW1 for a while (though I owned the whole thing), and all I remembered were the humans and Charr.
It wasn’t until I went back to GW1 so that my HoM would recognize me that I even remembered the Asura and Norn, and that was only because Brain is mandatory in the EotN and tells me to find the Norn.
You’d think that at least the cultural armor wouldn’t have issues, ugh.
I think you’d be better served to look at the definition of supernatural. Unless you can explain the physical mechanisms for how Tyria’s magic works, then it’s still just magic… and supernatural. Otherwise, what you suggest would mean that the supernatural could only ever exist in stories, as once it becomes it observable in the real world, it would automatically become ‘natural.’
Doesn’t matter, the very first definition: of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
Within the setting, it’s not unexplainable. Just ask the Asura. They appear to apply the scientific method towards magic.
In the real world, supernatural does not exist, no.
Did they fix the size issues yet, though?
An Asura Guardian has a much smaller AoE than a Norn Guardian for their runes and such, last I saw.
Keep in mind that the first Asura I worked with was voiced by Maurice LaMarche (Brain, from Pinky and the Brain).
All I can think of is that Asura are geniuses kittengularly try to take over the world, only to inevitably and hilariously succumb to their own hubris.
Actually, as a ranger I’ve run into this as well. I’m killing quickly, but at a distance – which means I don’t actually walk to where previous kills were for some time. There’s some areas where I’m shooting at something 1200 away, and my first kill respawns in my face.
Don’t remember the areas, but I’ll pay more attention now if they want us to file tickets.
Even the first Unknown Parents human mission as an elementalist is an exercise in frustration. You get ambushed by 2 (or 3?) guys with controls and disables.
^Where is that explained? Just because magic “exists” and many beings make use of it, doesn’t mean it’s no longer magic. In fact, the use of the term magic heavily implies that it’s not natural; that’s kinda what magic typically means. The same goes for ghosts, spirits, and all the rest. Natural means it must adhere to the laws of nature and physics. I haven’t made it all the way through the game, so maybe somewhere a rational explanation is given.
By definition, magic is natural in the setting, not supernatural.
Natural (adjective):
1. existing in or formed by nature ( opposed to artificial): a natural bridge.
2. based on the state of things in nature; constituted by nature: Growth is a natural process.
3. of or pertaining to nature or the universe: natural beauty.
4. of, pertaining to, or occupied with the study of natural science: conducting natural experiments.
5. in a state of nature; uncultivated, as land.
Our “nature” is not their “nature”. Devourers and giant spiders are natural, even though their existence violates the square cubed law in our physics.
Does anyone else get the feeling they didn’t even bother to playtest the Charr?
They had to make custom textures/models for armor, but playing for less than one minute would immediately reveal the major clipping issue with tails.
Start as a medium armored class like the engineer, and the moment you have control of your character you notice that your trenchcoat doesn’t account at all for your tail. How could this have been missed? That’s a horrible first impression for anyone choosing to start their GW2 career with a Charr!
I would have thought that your STARTING ARMOR would not have these issues, since the first minute of playtesting would have shown the tails phasing through your coat.
The Heritage armor clips as well, and since they deliberately made them as a reward from the HoM, I would have expected them to check that one.
How can this have gotten past QA?
“Hey guys, why don’t any of the early, easily accessed armor models you made for this tailed race account for their tails?”
What everybody really needs is a Swiftness consumable from all the crafting skills, that work only when out of combat. So much running…
The Charr’s run looks fine if you’re on the lower end of the size scale, because they have to match the animation to your speed. I can’t take the clipping on their tails though, so no Charr ranger for me.
My Sylvari’s grin is adorable, especially when she’s dancing. I can totally hear “Weeeeeeeeee!” just from her facial expression.
Horn Call is awesome when you’ve got other players around, too. Plus the Axe automatically hits multiple enemies, which helps for tagging during chaotic mass enemy/player fights.
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Regards,
Jeff Beefyarms
Sylvari are more like fruit.
Having just read the Sylvari homosexuality thread before this, I couldn’t help snickering.
Somebody complained about instant health regen between encounters, but the alternative is a stupid pointless time-sink with zero benefit. Oh, so you get to sit there for 5 minutes instead of 5 seconds before you move on. Yay, challenge.
I found it hilarious someone said that if the game was more punishing, being high level would be impressive. That’s ridiculous self-delusion. Nobody’s impressed with your “achievement”, everybody just thinks you played a lot longer/more than them.
The only time being high level is impressive is if you’re playing a game with Hardcore mode. Without permadeath, advancement is not a sign of skill, just persistence.
I’m not at home, so I can’t double-check the options, but there should be a “continue auto-attack when switching targets”. Turn that off.
I would have assumed it’s because you can get some of them with Karma, and they don’t like it when we can convert Karma to coin.
I suppose the “all four paws” run is their endurance running technique? Check out videos of marathon runners.
I had no idea atheism accepted the belief in magic, ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural phenomena.
Magic, ghosts, spirits and other phenomena in the game world are not “supernatural” – they’re “natural”. Nature includes sapient plant people.
Supernatural: of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
Within the setting, those things are natural, and the theories and concepts are utilized by many members of the population – mesmers, elementalists, necromancers, etc.
(edited by Dark.6083)
At the same time I will honestly say that I miss my skinning knife from WoW. I know, heresy, but it is true.
We all kill allot if different beasties and some of them do not appear to have a purpose but to be fodder (Rams, Deer, Wild Boars) so why not make them a resource like a node. Kill one, skin it, then refine. That would solve, from my perspective, a shortage in leather. Throw in some biomats (Claws, teeth, bones…) and it plugs some holes that exist.
I see it like this though, they created Ore nodes for mining, they have trees for wood, and plants for foods. But the only way to get a steady supply of leather is luck?
I was very very surprised that the “fodder”, animals you’d intuitively and logically hunt for leather and other animal parts, don’t actually drop any animal parts.
If you’re not paying for and playing an entirely different game, there is no way to get them, and they will always stay greyed out and the panel will feel unfinished.
Isn’t that the point?
Again, Staff truly shines in groups that proc the fields you lay down for them.
Was in a random event with rangers and at least one hammer guardian. Combos firing left right and center from my spreading fields around.
feelsgoodman.jpg
Random comment:
Earth is condition (Bleed), and any build that is good for Earth would mean you should work Fire (Burn) into your rotation anyway.
You can’t just use two elements, because the cooldown is longest on an attunement you just switched out of.
The HoM rewards are all cosmetic – skins for armor and weapons.
Pets are ranger weapons. They haven’t “done something” specifically to rangers.
Poe for my raven.
Hah, I run around with Quoth the raven.
Agreed. This is why I’m so militant about those players here who want to “buff” (aka simplify) the Elementalist class.
This is a false dilemma, a red herring. “Buff” does not mean “simplify”. The vast majority of those calling for a buff enjoy the complexity. The problem is that the complexity has little returns.
I have a Ranger, Warrior, and Elementalist.
Near-simultaneously landing Eruption, Lava Font, Static Field, Frozen Ground, and Ice Spike requires 8 button presses, but has roughly the same results as my ranger using Barrage (if solo) and then switching weapons. That’s not right.
Why people get offended when said “l2p noob”?
I understand that the nature of the words may sound a bit offensive..but think about it, don’t you feel great when somebody say “wow dude what’s your build?”, likewise whan somebody tell you :" l2p noob" you should simply accept it as an indication that you need to improve.
It’s inherently worthless.
It’s like someone saying “Lurn2drive, noob” in response to “This car sucks, it always takes several tries to start”. Useless – they can’t even articulate what’s wrong, so there isn’t even any credibility to that accusation that you’re doing it wrong.
This concludes my theorycrafting session for now; my next project is to level a ranger and compare their damage output to ours, since people say our dps is low.
On a single target, it doesn’t compare. My polar bear (just a quick hop to the Norn capital, southern shore of the western lake) holds aggro fine, allowing me to stack Bleed with shortbow’s auto-attack. If I get aggro, cripple (4) buys the bear time to regain threat. Then there’s always the quick stun/daze (5) on hand… and if they make it to your face, there’s always the dodge/swiftness attack (3).
Never was well geared, never had a problem, and usually didn’t even need to dodge before they’d die.
(…kind of amusing how simple the chain is, compared to all the talk about combos and different spells. Ranger just auto-attacks, and occasionally pushes a button.)
@Ryld:
I, for one, would like to hear your build.
I intend to max Arcane, but I can’t decide which element to pick up. Air is so tempting just for the movement speed bonus, but there’s always a signet for that, and Earth would let me spam signets while keeping the passive…
In Chinese, Earth (the planet) is literally “land ball” (two words). That same word for land would be used for something like “I own that plot of land”. The word for dirt/earth is something different entirely.
It’s not so much that I want my game to be hard, but that my Warrior and Ranger are pretty boring.
For example, my Ranger on the shortbow has shoot stuff (1), shoot a group of things (2), evade if they’re in your face (3), cripple to keep them away (4), and interrupt (5). She mainly opens with 5/4 and then just kills things with autofire. 3 is reactive, and 2 is fairly pointless (as I’d switch to axe/horn shortly after when dealing with a group).
My Elementalist takes more effort to accomplish the same thing, but it’s more fun cycling through elements and casting various spells. Still, I’d expect that if I’m rotating 10-20 skills instead of just using autofire, I’d be able to go through content faster… but she actually goes slower than my Ranger just using autofire, so that’s kind of disappointing.
Thieves and Rangers seem to be the only people who seem to actually enjoy their classes to some extent.
Rangers have issues with their pets. The class mechanic is iffy (F2), and they’re dumb as rocks – if you jump down a cliff, the pet runs around the long way to you, dragging a chain of mobs.
In most cases, an elementalist will do three times the ‘work’ of other classes to achieve the same, or slightly lesser results. By work I mean both keypresses and decisionmaking.
I read the entire thread, and that’s pretty much what I took from it – Elementalists give insufficient ROI.
A doctor makes more money than a dishwasher. It’s a more difficult job, so it gives better rewards. No matter how awesome the dishwasher is at washing dishes, he won’t make more than the doctor. A higher skill floor should come with a higher reward ceiling.
It doesn’t matter how astounding a fighter pilot’s reflexes are, they’re limited by the capabilities of the jet they’re flying. No matter how skilled someone is at playing a particular class, they eventually run into the limitations of that class.
The Elementalist one of the more difficult classes to play, with 20 weapon skills (4×5) versus the 10 weapon skills (2×5) most other classes have. A player perfectly using 20 abilities should be able to achieve things that a player perfectly using 10 abilities cannot.
You take falling damage too, as I sadly discovered.
Having played Guild Wars 1, I was surprised that we even got a few non-supermodel choices, heh.
Awesome read. I don’t plan to follow any of the specific builds, but the advice and rundown on various traits, abilities, and how they work together is very helpful.
However, you’re right. Double-posting bugs has been happening a lot, and it only complicates the thread. It’s actually a bit unfortunate that Jon Peters owns the thread, as a user can’t manually keep the OP updated with the most recent bug list.
Yeah, this thread is horribly organized/presented compared to the Elementalist, Guardian, or Ranger one.
Noob question : How do I name my pet? I looked in the pet interface, but missed it…
There’s a little pencil on a box next to their current name, within the pet interface.