Guild Wars 2

• 1) Main Map name: Mount Maelstrom
• 2) Area in Map name: Maelstrom’s Bile
• 3) Timing: Either Night/Dawn/Dusk (can’t remember)
• 4) Any prerequisite or requirement to access the area: Don’t think so

Directions: Take Ashen Waypoint from the Ashen Waste Area and run south up the side of the volcano to the vista. Then jump down from the vista into the volcano and glide down on to any high spot within the volcano.

Hey Folks!
I was thinking of starting a thread where we can share lovely and beautiful areas in Tyria that other players who may not be aware of can go visit!

Will be great if you use the below format when posting.

• 1) Main Map name
• 2) Area in Map name
• 3) Timing Dusk/Day/Night/Dawn (different timings produce different sceneries!)
• 4) Any prerequisite or requirement to access the area (example: requires a certain level of guild hall to activate a certain guild mission. Or requires a certain festival to be active like Halloween or Christmas or SAB)

Malice.8439:

My Asura guardian, Mithras Ramachandra.

http://img.pixady.com/2017/05/292462_mithry.png

The Wizard hat is your best friend. Asuran heavy cultural armour is the bomb. I also adore using Heart of Koda chest/legs, and Inquest boots and gloves.

Nice! I love wizard themed asuras. They look so wizardy.
I got my own wizard themed asura here. Well, actually she is a witch.
<3

https://gw2style.com/look.php?id=11301

mazut.4296:

Sigmoid.7082:

mazut.4296:

EremiteAngel.9765:

I’m guessing the sand theme probably has to do with the new leaked desert related maps.

Then how is Reaper tied to HoT ?!?! Chill and jungle, mhm but anyway, story driven skills sound cool. we had many such skills in gw1.

Well we did have dragon hunter as a name so why not sand as a theme.

I’m ok with sand, but I still cringe when I see Dragon hunter, so unfitting for guardian… There is absolutely nothing dragon in the DH

I agree actually. Guard to DH was…hmm
Necro to Scourge…sounds great…but sand based? Hopefully like the other poster above mentioned, its more like pestilence egyptian style

Jarvis.9540:

The correlation isn’t fully causal. I will say that spamming daily fractals gives you funds to make your characters look a lot better, but that is certainly not the only way make said funds.

I started T4 fractals recently and just doing dailies alone which takes around an hour to complete gives me around 20 odd gold on a good day 0_0

At this rate I could definitely afford the skins that cost a few hundreds of gold.

I’m guessing the sand theme probably has to do with the new leaked desert related maps.

I notice that those players who dress elaborately and dress well are those who play fractals.
Is it because…its easier to get rich playing fractals?

https://gw2style.com/look.php?id=13485

Fallen Angel

https://gw2style.com/look.php?id=13485

my asura guard =D

A dance of madness

https://gw2style.com/look.php?id=12800

Updated and created a separate post for general tips too as the main post was getting too long. Linked in main post.

• General tips

1) Alt F4

2) Use a ranged weapon. And STAND STILL when you fire it! If you stand still it will automatically turn you and activate no matter how many times they get behind you.

3) learn to chain ur dodges, watch ur surroundings, anticipate when they break stealth and dodge the initial blows.

4) Don’t chase them, don’t try to outsustain them or wait out their rotations.

5) they have a block most of them take that has only a 12sec cd or something…so proc ur unblockable if u have one when they put their fists up.

6) Condi, condi and more condi is usually the way to go, with ranged obviously being easier than melee.

7) Just run, by not fighting them you are already a winner.

8) A good way to kill them are bursty builds that have a ranged option to follow up.

9) When a thief backs off, run in the opposite direction so they have to expend initiative or cool downs to re-engage. If you have a non damaging condition on you make sure to cleanse it as it can stop you getting ooc but the thief can get ooc.

10) Anything with good long range pressure… so, basically Druid and DH. We don’t like not being able to kite away from your damage.

11) Condi pretty much kills us. We have pretty lackluster cleanse considering most of us take Pulm instead of cleanse on dodge. Just put a few condis on us, wait for us to pop SoA/Shadowstep, or whatever, and then just save your real condi burst for after that. If they are using cleanse on evade, just…. don’t attack afterwards. I see very few people that actually do this: if you land your condi burst and then STOP attacking, there’s literally nothing I can do about it.

12) Interrupt 5-2 from D/P to leave us with no initiative, dodge the shot from SS and play through blinds, ALWAYS count the cd on Steal! It’s so so essential for us to land it that it can often decide the fight, so dodge it/invuln it, whatever, just make sure we don’t hit it. Count stealth as well, because the backstab nerf means we basically get one attempt to land it everytime we go Stealth so just count 2-3 seconds and then just hit dodge. Stow weapons when you’re not attacking (this goes for full melee builds in particular) instead of hitting AA into thin air because Pulm procs off interrupted AA as well. Make sure you hit your CC skills, bait out the stun breaks and then burst. Every time thief enters stealth, try to anticipate where he’s moving (this is actually easier to do than it sounds). Pressure the kitten out of him because Thieves hate being pressured, we don’t have the defenses to put up with it for long.

13) The thief that takes EA as their major cleanse is a good reason for long condition durations. Land one condi bomb and wait. By the time the durations expire as they try to trigger a cleanse on evade you will have another condi bomb ready.

14) dodge at start of a roll an at end of the roll have .15 seconds of being able to dmg the thief.
so if a thief dodges twice in a row that become .3 of unavoidable dmg try to use 1/2 or 1/4 skills in that time frame for max value.
no matter how strong a thief build himself his core def is from weaken and blinds. if you can deal with that you can crush any thief build.
as a video rephrase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sihmw2bDBY i used a 3/4 skill

15) Weaken would have more of an impact that blind on a teef. Both are still a pain however a teef has many multi attacks or range to see blind as a major hindrance.

16) weaken means alot less (with exception of the endurance regen debuff) vs a condi thief, and good luck getting blind to stick when they run EA.

17) If a Thief goes D/P, they will generally be more vulnerable but more mobile if they take dash. D/P Thieves generally have better damage compared to Staff especially when the Thief takes DA instead of Acro. Even though staff has easier bursts than D/P (vault), it is weaker since it gets to hit less than D/P.
Mind you that staff DDs tend to use staff 3 a lot. Begin autoattack animation → steal → staff 3 → kite is something you will see a lot when dueling staff acro thieves.

18)
- A Thief’s defense is their mobility
- Wasting their Backstab is crucial
- Don’t give them a chance to use Black Powder if they’re near you
- If they blocked an attack at close range with Bandit’s Defense, dodge since they may use a counterattack which can CC you and let them rip off a nice chunk of damage with Vault or other means
- If you’re condi and you deliver a burst, don’t attack them. If you notice their condis completely removed then they may have wasted their Signet of Agility and Shadowstep. With those two gone the Thief is slightly weaker and less agile.
- The most dangerous part of a Thief is when they’re in stealth. If they’re running Basilisk Venom and they steal you, they can interrupt you even if you had 10 stacks of Stability for quite a while so save those stun breaks.

Should unlock all levels and tiers automatically.
I’ve done it with a friend recently but am still locked behind my level 30+ level.
They should unlock every level and tier if you have completed L100 nightmare fractals.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

So far, it feel a bit hopeless to play Tempest in your 2 threads about how to fight Reaper and DD…

That’s where I am hoping more experienced tempests or even thieves who fought good tempests can share their thoughts and hopefully help other tempests.

It is very insightful to learn how other players handle match-ups.
For example, I learned on the necro forum from other more experienced necros that by taking well of corruption, I have a chance to force a berserker on the backfoot and be more aggressive. This has helped me win a lot more. Previously I was just thinking of how many stun-breaks I should slot and was totally defensive minded.

I also learned that a simple chill shout on a reaper that transfers one condi and is instant cast helps turn the fight against a Daredevil in many ways. I can use it to transfer weakness, blind or even fear and open up a lot more chances against a DD when using my Reaper.

Hey all. I created separate posts for each class as the main post was too long. They are all linked in the main post. So keep the tips coming! Much thanks.

• Tempest vs Daredevil tips

1) As an ele i usually rely on using chills, knockdowns, stuns, or other cc that will limit their mobility. Also as ele make sure you have some sort of last resort button/proc ready (like having the trait for arcane shield or using arcane shield, mist form, armor of earth, etc). When they stealth, I feel it is the best if I stay moving and try to time their backstab attempts.

2) Ive beaten more tempest than eles (Earth/Water/Arcane). The AoE from tempest air OL and earth are crucial, however Arcane blasts are BRUTAL. The burst going into Air then arcaning us is lethal.

3)
- Tempest doesn’t scale well against Daredevil. Even by taking Harmonious Conduit, their steals will interrupt the Stability. In theory Tempest is good because it supplies AoEs which should counter a Thief, but unlike Dragonhunter, Overloads are really long channels which basically tell a Thief, “Interrupt me!”
- I tried running Fresh Air Tempest but it does not work. Fresh Air core ele is the best you can take.
- Your main attack will come from Air. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Scepter 2 is generally what will do the big damage. Phoenix from Fire works pretty good too, just make sure your Phoenix is aimed at slightly behind your Thief if you can do that, since you may hit the Thief 5+ times with the skill (but it’s unlikely the Thief will take your Phoenix).
- As someone said above, you can use Arcane Blast for huge bursts. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Lightning Strike + Arcane Blast is a deadly combo. It’s easy too.
- Contrary to popular belief, Lightning Flash is not necessary!! This is especially true if dueling a Thief who can teleport to you after wasting your LF. Thieves catch up to you no matter what so it’s best to have a stun breaker instead of LF. I would take Armor of Earth, Mist Form, and Arcane Blast or Arcane Shield.
- When swapping to Air attunement make sure the Thief isn’t dodging or blocking. Your attack will go right down the drain.

• Daredevil vs Daredevil tips

1) your steal gives you that stealth skill. That is often game changing so don’t waste it. Hard to say, but it often comes down to who wastes more stuff and leaves themselves open to a counterattack. This is especially evident if say, they waste their vault recklessly.

2) Its usually a matter on who gets the jump first. Steal works through Stun/Daze (although its not a breaker) so save it. Our stolen items can and will make or break the fight. Its a matter on who screws up first and gets caught. When 1 teef stealth from BP, count to 2 then stealth yourself. Remember tho that Backstab has a CD now to time it right.

3) Just whoever lands the first Steal + SS usually wins unless someone kittens up. ALL about the opening. Land your steal, dodge theirs, Pulm any heal/stealth attempts, done.

• Scrapper vs Daredevil tips

1) You can turn the tables on them with sneak gyro. If they try to kill it, that’s your cue to use the reveal ability.
Condis are better vs thieves as it is difficult for you to really pursue them at all. Most scrapper builds taken out of a hat will generally stalemate a thief at worst. I prefer to use elixir gun and acid bomb so I can at least breakaway if other unsolicited people come in.

2) Condi cheese build hurts. For DPS, Hammer is the way to go. Damage blocks and reflects are crucial. Sneak gyro is also important as is Elixirs S. Thunderclap + rocket Charge (if hits) will almost down almost any of us not running dire/TB gear. If you use rifle, dont waste that leap thingy as that hurts us bad as well.

• Druid vs Daredevil tips

1) Roll druid with a staff/lbow smokescale/wolf setup.

2) As one of the few classes whose mobility can rival them, you have a lot more control over the fight as a result. tl;dr let them come to you. If things go south, use the celestial shadow to make a clean getaway. Don’t just stand there and shoot them point blank though.

3) We HATE pewpew. 1500 range means even if we run you have the advantage so our best bet is to fight up close. If you have needle trap and/or wolf even better. Taunt is important but keep in mind if you root us, you gave us an opportunity for a max stealth off of BP. WH hawks are also a pain in our butts and with CA form, you guys became harder for us to kill.

• Reaper vs Daredevil tips

1) make sure you are using Spectral Armor

2) Dodge two Vaults, assuming they are using staff, and then understand that they used 12 Initiative.

3) a simple chill shout on a reaper that transfers one condi and is instant cast helps turn the fight against a Daredevil in many ways. I can use it to transfer weakness, blind or even fear and open up a lot more chances against a DD when using my Reaper.

4) Only true fire way to beat us is that 30 stack bleed in under 3s combo you condi builds use. Some of us will overextend as necros are typically easy targets. Anything that can hinder our speed is also an asset to you.

5)
1.) Play power GS + A/D with Suffer in Spite/SR/R. You’ll need Speed of Shadows.
2.) Read Shadow Shot’s animation and dodge.
3.) When they steal combo you just cast Suffer to return weakness cutting their crits and dodge refill rate + applying chill, then Shroud -> 3 -> 4 -> 3 while they’re in melee to force Shadowstep and BP or they die.
4.) Slight chase to keep them willing to attack you and then nuke the hell out of them post-Shadowstep via Axe 2. Most will try to escape via BP -> CV and will likely be too slow and get nuked from the Spinal Shivers proc at half which will corrupt their ToTC boons as well.
5.) They’ll panic-re-engage or try to stack stealth in BP + HS to flee so swap GS and 4 -> 5 -> Shroud 5 -> Shroud 4. GS4 will trap HtC in Acro, so Charge into Scythe if you need to. Lay on the heat.

6)
If you’re a condi reaper, put geomancy and hydromancy on your weapons and hit shroud as soon as he engages. Very difficult to avoid, you’ll have 6-9 stacks of bleeding on him just from that, and you’ll have broken basilisk venom with foot in the grave. I used to do the same thing on condi engi vs thieves: geomancy and intelligence with incendiary powder and plex runes. Swap on their engage, heal and pull for the finish.
Watch your life force and health, spam staff 2 where you’re stood to force him to waste dodges. Place staff 3 and 5 on the shadowstep return point if he uses it for distance.
Avoid spamming scepter auto. Thieves specced for interrupt damage will tear you a new one if you do, and you don’t need many condis to put serious pressure on once agility signet and shadowstep are on cooldown. If you land a blind, that’s when you can use elite shout etc to avoid being interrupt bait.
That, and always have full life force if possible. If I can waste it or chew through it with attacks too easily, that’s when necro becomes an easy kill. I probably can’t one shot you so if you force me to trade blows when I engage I will almost certainly come off worse.

7)
Video on how to fight condi-cleanse on evade Daredevils as a hybrid/condi reaper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atlmCR6r7wA

• Berserker vs Daredevil tips

1) shield bash, head butt, lb F1, collect bag.

2) Your way to win is how every berserker wins every fight (regardless of class,lol)..that or play gunshot/gunflame and 1 shot the DD even when he is going stealthed.

• Chrono vs Daredevil tips

1) I dont mess with them solo. I play a PU mesmer, and I can disappear to.

2) Power chrono will have a harder time with a good teef compared to kitten cheese condi one. Evades on shatter, reflect on manipulation skills will help greatly. Don’t waste your stealth (when we stealth on BP, count to 5 then stealth yourself). Save blink for when we are in your face beating you down (or drop a portal before the fight if you run it). Also your condi build can destroy us (torment and confustion…teefs 2 favorite condis)…and tanky to boot.

3) Condi is the way to go.

4) Hybrid meta Chrono probably has better killing potential against a Thief because there’s more burst. Other condi builds not running Chaos will have a tough time without any protection. So hybrid Chrono is the way to go in my opinion.

• Revenant vs Daredevil tips

1) Condi revenant: the amount of burn, confusion, torment, and poison you can pump out (using krait runes with mallyx). Wait for them to stealth, wait a second than bam hit elite and dump a ton of condis on them. Usually forces them to run.
Axe offhand is your best friend besides shield when fighting them. Temporal Rift is a one second pull that if timed correctly can disrupt a thief hard. Plus the torment will mess em up when they try to kite you.

2) Power Spec:
1:Fighting a D/P: If you can see them use blackpowder, wait a second than use staff 5 in direction they most likely are coming from. (most thieves I’ve noticed when fighting a rev will just attack from the front thinking we are easy kills). If you see yourself go into combat (if not already in it) you legend swap, hit them for the hydromancy burst with the staff 5. You than start kiting around until they are not in stealth. (against common d/p thieves that combo usually one hit kills them.)
2: Warding rift is your best friend. If timed correctly you can negate a burst. But do not spam this skill.
3: If you are willing to take a hit, you can bait a thief (and they will take it unless they know your tag) while in sword, let them hit (usually they are in your character model) hit precision strike, elemental blast at same time. (swap to staff if you want for bigger burst with leeching/hydromancy). This can take a big chunk of their health.
4: As a power spec, its all comes down to luck sometimes, and hoping the thief just thinks of you as a free kill and overcommits.

3) I really don’t know. I just use whatever skill 2 is and pray.

4) Staff and hammer can save you. Both can block those that constantly “headshot” which burns initiative fast, or those who use P/P “Unload” (this burns fast). You also have a reveal trick on hammer. Also Mallyx is deadly to a class that has good mobiliy. Also shiro has stun and a teleport that goes through walls.

• Dragonhunter vs Daredevil tips

1) bleed out as many of their utilities as possible by auto-attacking and using low CD skills. From there, lay on the burst after you count 3 to 4 dodges in a short time period (2 to 4 seconds). Save your JI until later in the battle when they try to shadowstep away and keep them in bow auto-attack range as often as possible.

2) play dumb and then bomb hard. Start it in sword/x (preferably traited shield so you can absorb more damage off the initial burst) and pretend to not notice them go stealth. The moment you hear noise/see daze or stun effect on your screen, you know that the auto stunbreak trait will proc and negate basi venom so immediately use sword 3, target them, ToF and smite condition bomb. F1 to try to catch them after a panic dodge and pull them back through ToF. If they start running, switch to LB and chase them with JI and auto attacks.

3) Throw your spear at them and don’t pull. Most thieves already can recite a contingency plan for the infamous cast tons of traps-pull plan in their sleep. And then the DH realizes that they just burned their cooldowns to get the DD down to 26% but absolutely no way of finishing.
A lot of less good thieves will start to panic and hit all the buttons or outright break off. Sometimes the glassier ones will start to slowly burn down. At this point a lot of them will break off and the next time you come in when you actually do it. Also remember that smite condition does good damage so using your heal skill can be part of the final burst.

4) burn guardian with carrion stats and scepter/focus and sword/torch.

5) You guys have a lot of blocks, both active and passive and the scare-the-poop-out-of-anything spear of justice (whether or not you pull) and can stack on some wicked burn, which even if not traited, still does good damage to us. Traps will hurt us, especially if they hold us (we have little to no stability) and LB will help.

6) just play DH with Longbow and traps and you can literally roll your face across the keyboard and still win.

https://gw2style.com/look.php?id=13315

Follower of Anubis – Grave Keeper

hi all, just wondering as the fractal scepter doesn’t have a misty trail effect like the other fractal skins.
Is this a bug or intended?
Why does it not have a misty trail effect?

What are your predictions for the sandshroud skills (1-5) and Torch skills (1-3, assuming mainhand weapon)?

My prediction:

• Sandshroud

1) Life Blast changed to Sand Blast
A 600 frontal cone shaped sand wave attack, something similar in design to the Guardian’s torch 5 skill, that applies bleed and cripple on hit

2) Dark Path changed to Sand Burrow
A 900 range traveling skill that allows you to burrow underground, granting invulnerability for the duration of the travel. Can be interrupted though during the burrowing phase. Does 180 radius AOE blind while burrowing, and a 180 radius AOE blind again when coming out of the ground. Similar to the scorpion siege in EOTM workshop.

3) Doom changed to Sand Cage
A versatile skill that has a double cast, similar to current Reaper Shroud 3. First cast grants the user a Sand Cage armor that applies protection boon and bleeds enemies who attacks you while the armor is active. Second cast transfers the Sand Cage armor to the opponent and becomes a 600 range 300 AOE prison for 4 seconds that an opponent will need stability to get out of, something similar to the DH’s Longbow 5 or hammer 5. Opponents take bleed and burning damage per pulse if they remain in the AOE prison.

4) Life transfer change to Sand Storm
Transform into a spinning sand storm nightmare. Grants stability for the duration of the storm. Opponents are crippled and bled per hit from the sand storm.

5) Tainted Shackles change to Sand Tomb
Opponents hit by this skill are encased in a sand tomb, stun duration of 2 seconds, bleed and poison stacks on hit.

• Torch (assuming mainhand weapon)

1) Soul-fire link
A 900 range channeled continuous attack that hits by pulses, similar to the druid staff 1 or mesmer GS 1. Causes a flaming link animation that does burning damage per pulse.

2) Soul-fire chains
A 600 range 300 radius AOE immobilize skill that causes chains to erupt from the ground, tying the enemies down and setting them on fire. Causes burning and immobilize on hit.

3) Soul-fire thirst
Set yourself alight with your torch, doing 180 radius aoe burns per pulse, consume 1 condition and heal per pulse.

Hi guys.
I recently did a thread on how to fight a Reaper in WvW and I thought it was quite helpful to many roamers out there.
I’m hoping to hear from Daredevils and other classes on how to fight different Daredevil builds in such a large WvW roaming setting where the world is free for a Daredevil to roam and usually a Daredevil can only be killed if he over commits or gets chased by another Daredevil.

Tips on what to look out for, what to dodge or defend against, what are the windows to land a burst, what utilities to use, what traits etc.

I’ll compile the tips for each class on how to fight a Daredevil in this main thread here. Thanks in advance!

The main post was getting too long so I created separate posts for each class. All linked below – just click to go to the class you want to see!

• Chrono vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583207

• Berserker vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583209

• Reaper vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583210

• Druid vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583212

• Revenant vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583193

• Scrapper vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583213

• Dragonhunter vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583190

• Daredevil vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583214

• Tempest vs Daredevil tips

See here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6583216

• General tips

See here 1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/page/2#post6584331

See here 2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/page/2#post6594858

Sigmoid.7082:

Regular Fractal Torch

Very bright blue flame and its not small.

Same! I was thinking of pairing this with the fractal dagger.
Plus the ghostly infusion, that would be so cool.

Also just a reminder to everyone when thinking of investing in a torch skin now, torch might be on the main hand if the leaked picture is accurate.
So you should be pairing it with an off hand, not another mainhand weapon.

For example, scepter is main hand so it may not be able to be wielded with torch which might also be main hand.

Actually, I concur with Zero.
In open field, a druid who is intend on kiting you to death will give you very little chances of winning.
Especially if he is running quickdraw trait. I understand from other druids though that it is not a trait that is used much these days.

My video showed a duel that took place in a sizeable area but it wasn’t really open field as I could predict some of the druid’s kiting movements due to the ‘arena’ setting.

Also, the build I’m using if anyone is interested. It is kind of a hybridish build leaning towards condi damage but not having to use any condi duration food and still achieving 82% bleed 92% chill. The food choice throws off some of my opponents when they think they are fighting a power reaper =3

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAnYWnc0Al3gd2A+2A0biliBjaIMFKCx9whYSMKA8tKAA-TFSAQBA4JAEQ9ByUJ4DV/xH7PESlOfUZkFOFAZGGAGCRAc3d31qqIChAYPGA-w

What would be your torch skin of choice for a necromancer? Discuss!

That would actually be very very appealing. Torch main hand. dagger offhand.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Is this based on leaks? Maybe you should have your title and post under a spoiler if it is.

I’m not sure if it was a leak but I first read it here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/sand-shroud-hype

I was just wondering why I’m paying coins to use the waypoints around the world and who am I paying the coins to and who is maintaining the waypoints in Tyria.

If I can be told who, perhaps I can go ask them to make me an honorary waypoint user and give me a free pass around all the world’s waypoints.

I think it is silly that I’m paying coins to use waypoints and no idea where my coins go to.

I saw many posts on Reaper’s new spec being a sandshroud themed concept.
Was just wondering if it would be something like the manga/anime Naruto’s Gaara who was the Sand Kage and could wield sand as a form of defense and attack. The sand also usually hovers and shrouds around him in combat.
That would be so cool.

What is a sacrificer?
A sacrificer is someone who sacrifices.
Are you a sacrficer?
If you sacrifice one or more of the below items, then you are a sacrificer.
Of course, the list is not exhaustive and more suggestions are welcome.

• Loot.
  If you play a utility healer in your zerg group, i greatly admire your willingness to sacrifice your loot gains for the victory of your group.

• Pugs.
  Yes, you actually sacrifice the players around you. If you are a commander and sacrifice certain pugs following your zerg in order to out-maneuver and gain an advantage against the enemy zerg by using them as bait, I admire your ability to make tough decisions for the greater good.

• Objectives.
  If you sacrifice defending your T3 keep to take down the enemy’s T3 keep, I admire your determination to inflict pain on the enemy. Of course, some commanders give up defending their T3 keep because they were more interested in fights happening elsewhere. Your loyalty to the server is well noted.

• Commander.
  This usually happens when there is a mutiny. The commander shouts ‘Charge!’ and leads head first into the enemy zerg, only to realize that he was the only one who charged. I suppose the zerg did a mutiny and left their commander to die.

Clownmug.8357:

EremiteAngel.9765:

By the way, does anyone know how the Druid was blocking during the fight? I was re-watching the fights and noticed he blocked my attacks at odd intervals.

Aegis from Rune of the Defender bonus #4.

seems like you are right! I never thought this rune would see much use. Is it the current rune meta for druids?

By the way, does anyone know how the Druid was blocking during the fight? I was re-watching the fights and noticed he blocked my attacks at odd intervals.

I like pretty much most of what you have posted except for the skirmish rewards. Rewarding the better scoring party seems fair and right except that it might make people flock to stronger servers with better coverage etc. and make the current imbalance even worse.

Continue updating though – all of the rest looks great!

After teaching you all how to fight Reapers, I thought I would help show Reapers a trick to give yourself a fighting chance against Druids when you meet them in WvW open field.

I’ll be showing you in this video how to prevent the dreaded Druid’s longbow knockback + root combo as a Reaper.
I had quite a bit of lag with the video taking program on, but when you try this with your decent connection, it works. Just a bit of practice, a lot of concentration and your finger on the shroud button helps you prevent that dreaded knockback. Knowing that the knockback animation is a small white twirl helps too.

Longbow + staff druids are the hardest as they kite pretty hard. But I’ve killed my fair share of them too with this shroud to stunbreak + dash trick. I tried to make a video against a very good quickdraw LB + staff druid but he was very good, some alex guy from Mag and I was lagging too much to react to his knockback from invis due to the video program.
Not to take away anything from him, he was a class stronger than me. But without the lag, I would have given him a closer fight =) he won like 8 out of 10 fights in the end.

Fast fingers, decent connection and a lot of concentration. Plus some practice.

Offair.2563:

As for druid, stunbreakers/stability does nothing to immobilize as its a condition, just saying.

I meant for the stunbreak to occur at the point while the knockback is in process. Not when the knockback has ended and you get shot and rooted.
Its possible to enter shroud while you are mid-way flying back and breaking the knockback half way, thus preventing the root that follows when the ranger tries to shoot you after to trigger the root.
I’ve done it many times. It works.

It is similar to how thieves break a guardian’s F1 pull by shadow stepping away immediately or during the animation of the pull, thus negating the pull.

Actually, if you run around with a ‘fixed’ build in WvW, you are doing it wrong. It is what so many opponents think they can do when they fight a reaper and don’t even change one utility when they have time. Like I mentioned in the main post above, people use physical defense utilities against condi Reaper!

I usually have time to change one utility when I roam and see an enemy coming from far.

When I see a: berserker, I change a utility to well of corruption.
Chrono, I change a utility to “Suffer!” shout.
Daredevil, I change a utility to spectral grasp.
Druid, I change a utiility to spectral grasp.
Dragonhunter, I change a utility to “Nothing can save you!” shout.

And so on. You usually have time to change one utility before engaging if you see your enemy from far.
Adapt and learn!

I hope the above helps you fight a Reaper.

• Daredevil
  Now, Daredevils have by and large the easiest time against a condi Reaper. They have the evade sword/pistol build that clears condi on evade, immobilize, daze all packed in one build. They have evade lotus spamming condi builds that wins easily against less skilled or bad connection Reapers. They have the general power D/P build that just needs to learn how to use their headshot to kite and interrupt the Reaper, forcing out their shroud, before bursting when they leave shroud.

I won’t go into teaching a Daredevil how to build or fight because they are the natural predators of condi Reapers, only that they need to be patient, need to know how a spectral wall looks like and not walk or blink into it, and they need to know how to dodge spectral grasp.

• Scrapper
  Sorry, I don’t know much about scrappers, but being a boon reliant class, you don’t stand much chance against a Reaper. At least I’ve not met one who could fight evenly against a condi Reaper. Perhaps a pro Scrapper can share?

• Tempest
  Sorry, but being a boon reliant class, you don’t stand much chance against a Reaper.
  The only 2 builds that gives some trouble to a Reaper is the condi Tempest and the super speed Fresh Air Tempest. For condi Tempest, same as Chrono, load your condis and go invulnerable to prevent transfer, then interrupt the Reaper’s heal. For Fresh Air Tempest, kite kite kite. Use your super speed to make it hard for the Reaper to get close or land his skills accurately.

• Dragonhunter
  Now, dragonhunters need to kite more than ever with their longbow and F2 leap. Use Longbow to knockback the Reaper and F2 leap to re-position when he gets close. Be careful not to use rely on your F3 as a stunbreak + defense though because Reapers can and will engage you with unblockable shout making your F3 redundant. And when they chain lock you while you think you are safe behind your F3 block, you can eat a lot of condition damage without even having a chance to use your elite skill to reset.

Its a personal preference whether you want to drop TOF for COP. TOF that is positioned well can help you kite even better with your longbow and provides more damage. If you are not using longbow though, perhaps COP is better for more survivability and condi clear.

For condi burn Dragonhunters, same as Chrono, load the Reaper with your burns and engage preferably with F3 activated which makes it a lot harder for the Reaper to transfer your burns back to you!

• Revenant
  Sorry, I don’t know much about Revenants. But most I fight don’t have enough condi clear. I did fight one Revenant on Crystal Desert though, who had very good condi clear and could put up a good fight. Perhaps a pro Revenant could share more.

• Reaper
  Please don’t fight among yourselves.

How to fight a Reaper as a:

• Chrono
  Now, a well-played Chrono has by default a huge amount of burst and survivability. Just rotating through his defenses of evade, invis, blink, distortion, blocks can give him a very high window of ‘invulnerability’ while dishing out his damages (condi or power). Some of those are reset-able for a 2nd round of defense if you know how to and build for it. Just by learning this, you already have the upper hand against a Reaper.

Want to do better? When you see a Reaper, use Moa if you are a condi Chrono. Load and Moa. Don’t Moa and then load. Load and use invulnerable, blocks, evades. Prevent his transfers.

Power Chrono, keep Reaper at range especially when he is in Reaper shroud. Kite him. Burst him from invis or blink burst him when he is just out of Reaper shroud. Time your bursts.

• Berserker
  Now, most berserkers I see still go head-on against a Reaper and think they will win easily. Pop berserker stance, go in and smash all your combos and primal burst on a Reaper = default win a bag. Do that now, and you get busted very quickly against a good Reaper.

Bait a Reaper’s well. Don’t fight in it because it is likely going to be a corrupt boon well that will destroy your resistance and stability. Dodge a Reaper’s shroud 2 dash. Very likely the Reaper has that traited to corrupt boons too. Use your greatsword to get out of range before you use your healing signet for goodness sake. This makes it a lot harder for a Reaper to interrupt your healing (resistance) unless he has a staff 5 or GS 5 ready for that. Use your dodges wisely to bait corrupt boon as you get close to the Reaper.

And perhaps when you see a condi Reaper from far and have time to change a utility, drop endure pain for Signet of Stamina!

• Druid
  Oh boy, the perennial long range killers of the slow immobile Reaper. Guess what, now you need to play better.

Don’t just spam your longbow knockback at the start of the engage thinking you can root the Reaper there from the get go. Reapers have a trait that gives stun-break + stability on shroud enter at 7 seconds cooldown. A fast fingered decent connection Reaper will stunbreak your knockback easily and get close to you with dash.

Use your longbow invis first which makes it a lot harder for a Reaper to see your knockback coming. Or use your pet to do the knockdown + root trait which is also a good alternative if he got away from your knockback.

Trait for condi clear on Astral form which I think is a must and invis + superspeed on Astral form to re-position! Learn how to staff blast invis your pet’s smoke field. Attacking from invis with your longbow knockback is critical to pulling off the root that kills most Reaper!

And perhaps when you see a condi Reaper from far and have time to change a utility, drop signet of stone for signet of Renewal!

So, Reapers in WvW got a huge buff to their ability to stack bleeds.

This led to Reapers putting up a fight against classes that previously shoved them aside easily and even winning many of those fights.

I noticed 2 groups of player mentality in the aftermath of this change.

• 1) The mentality of adapting and learning, players who don’t complain

• They are skilled, they adapt and they tweak their play-style and build to engage the new Reaper menace. Even if they lose the first engage, they come back with a slightly different build and hunt and fight Reapers. And they win. These players show that when you are willing to learn and change, current Reapers are actually still beatable.

• The only difference is that Reapers are no longer such free kills that they used to be. You need to fight tooth and nail to beat a good one. You need to adapt and think of new ways to engage one.

• 2) The mentality of no change, Reapers should be easy to kill

• These players tend to be less skilled (there are also skilled ones), who have the mentality that Reapers should be easy to kill, as they have been for the past year. When they see a Reaper, they see a walking bag. And they engage as they always used to, spamming their skills and defenses without timing and they want to walk away with a free bag.

• When they lose, they complain and ask for nerfs instead of learning and adapting their play-style and builds. They see a condi Reaper coming, and fight them without changing even one of their utility, like signet of stone (physical defense) or endure pain (again physical defense).

• I don’t know why so much hate against this new Reaper buff when Berserkers, Daredevils, Druids, Chronos have all been able to dish out similarly huge condi burst for a long time. Perhaps because Reapers are supposed to be walking bags?

I would like to thank Anet first for making Reapers competitive in WvW roaming again.
I would like to thank the first group for giving me great fights.
And I’m here to teach the second group of players on how to fight a Reaper.

It all began when my tiny asura was born into a city.
A city called Rata Novus.
He faced a big bad boss and almost died.
He was discouraged and refused to leave the city.
Eventually he friend talked him out of it and he took his first baby step out into the vast world.
The world was as beautiful as it was dangerous.
And years later, my tiny asura has grown into a seasoned adventurer. A hero of sorts.
And as he returns to his Home city where it all began, nostalgia started to creep in.
And he laughed at those beautiful memories.

===========

Do you feel nostalgic when you return to your Home city where it all began? Where your first character started his journey’s very first chapter?

Share your thoughts! or your pictures!

that’s where alternate Free accounts can help actually.
The free account sets up stall and afks.
The main account gets to go shopping looking at each store and what is on offer while finding the best price.

Shopping guys!
Real shopping!

Would it be reasonable to bring back the old Diamond Skin of condi immunity while above 90% HP to provide a form of deterrence against the current condi-heavy meta?

This would give trailblazer/dire sets a natural predator.

Like the old MMOs, where they allow players to set up stall by having an interactable pop-up chat box where I can type for example:

" Selling T6 Mats here "

And the chat box will remain there while I afk so it acts as my trading stall to sell stuff. Players can click my chat box to access a storage trading window where I would have left my stuff to sell with their corresponding prices.

This makes the game more interactive where players really have to run around checking out various stalls to buy the stuff they want.

Also, it makes getting certain items harder and forces players to explore the world to farm their own mats and items.

Trading Post makes things too centralized and easy to obtain. It kills the spirit of MMO world exploration and interaction.

While we are at this, scrap “search for party” functions too. This again centralizes everything and reduces the flavor or world immersion.

Using the same function as above, allow us to set up chat boxes where we can type:

" Join this party to do Tequalt " etc.

This really opens up the game to more immersion and is what MMOs should be like.

So many games are adopting the “convenience” route of having centralized TP and centralized everything that it kills the flavor of MMOs.

that’s where alternate Free accounts can help actually.
The free account sets up stall and afks.
The main account gets to go shopping looking at each store and what is on offer while finding the best price.

Shopping guys!
Real shopping!
Window shopping.

Just a shout out to everyone in case you didn’t see!
Limited time only!
Those skins are awesome!