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Map Completion - how to

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

These 2 pages have helped me a lot in map completion:
http://gw2wvw.org/
This maps show you an up to date status of WvW (make sure you put it on your own server) so you can keep an eye on points you still need.
http://gw2.mmorpg-life.com/interactive-maps/
My usual go-to site for difficult Vista’s or even PoIs.
High Mobility with good AoE and overall damage (burst-damage especially in low-levels zones) will always help.
Lastly Ash Legion Spy Kits (and/or Harpy Feathers) can greatly help on Skill Points guarded by strong Veterans/Champions that you don’t need to kill. (Few in Orr spring to mind.) Even if you can solo them, it saves time for a few Karma/Copper. Assuming you can’t give yourself stealth/invul during channels.

Besides that I started with the high level zones and worked down so overall it feels quicker and quicker.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

Trying to play with keyboard only

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

I haven’t played DMC or DW so I sadly can’t relate, however I might be able to provide some input:

You can move with your mouse by pressing the right mouse-button (to move the camera angle) and the left mouse-button at the same time, this will allow your character to move whilst the camera stays behind them, automaticly making them face whatever you face (vital for melee combat, with ranged weapons I recommend taking target (tab) before firing) It is my preferred way of moving in this game (and any MMORPG I’ve played.) Though I still use my keyboard for strafing.

On top of that I have aboutface (turns your character around, can’t be used whilst holding your right mouse-button) and Look Behind assigned to hotkeys (I have them on my mouse, but might need to use your keyboard depending on how many buttons you have available,) which aren’t assigned by by default if I recall correctly. All these options combined should cover most movement/camera desires.

There’re a few skills in this game that need to be ground-targetted, by default these abilities will have a green circle (or arrow, depending on the skill) appear on the ground that can be aimed, if you don’t aim them, they will be cast at your feet which isn’t always optimal. Few examples include: Warrior: Greatsword 3, Longbow F1. Guardian: Scepter 2. Thief: Shortbow 245. Engineer: Everything on Grenadekit. Ranger Longbow 5. Elementalist: Focus Fire 4, Fire Dagger 3. Mesmer: Staff 5. Null Field. Necromancer: Staff 12345. As you can see I mentioned every class and these aren’t all the groundtargetted skills, so I’d make sure you find a way of aiming those without your mouse before deciding to play without one. I don’t know of any other way, then again I never had a reason to look for one. Eventually you’ll want to have them assigned to Instant (or Fast with Range Indicator) in your settings and let them aim where-ever your mouse-button is at to not waste precious time. (Especially in competitive play.) Something you might also want to cover whilst looking for a playstyle without a mouse.

Goodluck

(edited by Esmee.1067)

Are Studded Helm/Shoulders available or not?

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Esmee.1067

Glad they’re working on it, few very nice skins we currently can’t obtain. ^^

Haven't played in a long while

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

For PvE the ‘meta’ woulds be D/D with Sw/P and Shortbow depending on the situation; Shortbow is a must for blasting stealth (in black powder and smokescreen) where-as Sw/P is there for loads of blinds, decent cleave (and weakness) on Trash-mobs.

For PvP Shortbow is more or less a must for every build due to Infiltrator’s Arrow being rather amazing for quickly getting around the map and disengaging. D/P and Sw/D are both considered meta. D/P has high burst, some blinds where-as Sw/D has a lot of evades, dazes. Both bring Boonstripping through traits.

I’d like to recommend: http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki as a start and tweek to your preferance.

Celestial Armor Question

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

I think Sinister stats would be best for PvE if you’re after the ultimate balance between condi and power, right? I run celestial for all modes though.

For teamplay (e.g. Fractals/Dungeons.) Assassin Weapons/Armor with Berserker Trinkets would still be optimal in most team-situations due to many classes applying bleeds involuntary (Warrior, Mesmer, Necromancers can’t go around it due to minor traits and then there’s Frostbow to consider.) Having a combination of those would make your main damaging condition less effective due to the cap on Conditions. Engineers also have a rather poor Critical Chance, so they benefit a lot from the extra precision Assassin offers for ‘proc on crit’ (vulnerability mainly) but only if those crits actually hit for considerable damage, hence Ferocity is a must. Then there’s the build-up damage Conditions have, though that’s more an issue in dungeons, where things die within seconds, than Fractals. Lastly there’re a few bosses Conditions are completely negible on, but they’re far and in between (Mai Trin at 1+ stacks, HotW p1 boss and Golem in all CoE paths.)

Obviously all these points apply to PvE-teamplay only with an aim to be the best you can be. For Solos I’m quite confident Sinister (likely with Giver’s Weapons) will win easily, if your build focuses on Conditions Damage, considering Rabid was already rather good and trading Toughness for Power is an easy choice in PvE.

I’ve yet to encounter something in PvE where I can’t survive with zero defensive stats, I’m not a very good player, so it’s safe to assume you don’t ‘need’ them anywhere, hence I’d recommend against Celestial (if you wish to be optimal) since all that toughness, vitality and healing power could be damage. ^^

(edited by Esmee.1067)

End boss fight is really frustrating

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Esmee.1067

Did it with a friend, but he allowed me to figure out the tactics on my own and do them. I found it very enjoyable. It also doesn’t give the edge to meta-builds for a change, which I think it’s a good thing to do once in a while. (This is coming from someone with every single class in the meta-builds and meta-gear.)

I hope to see more fights like this.

Rampager

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Precision as main stat is incredibly bad for anything that focusses on Condition Damage be it PvE or PvP. It’s true you’ll apply more Bleeding due to the higher Precision however conditions are applied by more than ‘proc on crit’ such as Confusion, which is applied by Prybar/Concussion Bomb and there is such a thing as too much Burning because it stacks in duration, any seconds/minutes leftover when the enemy dies, were useless. These conditions, along with your bleeds, will lose a significant amount of their damage because you don’t use Condition Damage as your mainstat, unlike a set such as Rabids. The added Power won’t increase your damage that much since Power, alongside Precision, doesn’t work well unless there’s an investment in Ferocity aswell. Landing a Critical hit won’t do much if you have no additional Critical Damage (Ferocity.)

All these things combined result in quite a damage-loss a few extra bleeds and power won’t make up. For these reasons I’d recommend to either fully focus on Conditions or on Direct Damage stats (Power, Precision, Ferocity) in any game-mode.

Engineers are likely best off in WvW with a set of Rabids because the extra toughness (alongside our rather good healthpool) will help survivability and the Conditions will do impressive amounts of damage to other players, how-ever it depends on what you face, so go by your own preference.

For PvE you’re always best of using a full set of Berserker/Assassin gear with Berserker Trinkets. In PvE you’ll often be fighting with 5 (or more) people, due to the way Conditions Work; with a cap on intensity conditions such as bleeding, which are easily filled by other classes due to unavoidable minor traits, and the duration stacking on other conditions like burning, along-side most mobs having a low action per minute, rendering confusion near useless in most situations. All these things prevent a Condition spec from performing well in PvE unless you’re always solo.

Continue crafting the Predator or not?

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

To me it sounds you’re burned out on going for a goal that seems rather far away, take a break without harming your current progress and achieve some small goals. You look amazing the way you currently look anyway. (On that note, I was actually considering getting the Predator with a Engineer that looks like a female version of yours and base the colourscheme on it, so you’d still look amazing with the Predator!)

Hence I’d recommend going for character progression (or any other goals) first; Ascended Armor, Weapons etc… Keep the things you’d need for your Legendary (or a Legendary) such as the T6/Gifts/Clovers/Ecto in case you do change your mind (t6 mainly goes up in price anyway,) which is more likely to happen when you get bored of your look than whilst you still love it.

As for brag rights, no-one really cares. Like mentioned above legendaries are so common, they hardly get noticed anymore, if they’re even visable (yay hobo-sacks.) Nor will people be like “oh look, he has a Legendary, he must be really good!” those reactions you get by playing like a beast, be it PvE, PvP or WvW.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

Lets talk about the new Gem conversion [Merged]

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

They simplified the system solely to insult you. All devs are now tweeting around your post to show their success and are tempted to throw a little bash to rub it in even more. -end sarcasm-

The only thing that ever crossed my mind when I saw the new gold -> gem interface was; miauw, I only need 200, followed by thinking it is a clever move from a business perspective because yes, I will just get the 400. Some customers will think twice now about exchanging gold -> gems, but the majority will either just over-purchase gems, be easily tempted into getting something ‘just’ to get rid of their extra gems (because just turning them into gold isn’t as easy anymore either,) few months later, new item gets introduced, rinse and repeat. A bit disappointed at first, but then I realize I’m playing a game, made by a company, for a rather small investment of ~30-50 euros, and they simply made a (probably) smart business move.

It’d never even cross my mind that this system is solely introduced to insult my mental capabilities.

As for their leveling system, I hate it how it is now, but that’s because I experienced a change that doesn’t benefit me. I’ve not heard anyone who purchased the game after it was introduced complaining it was too simplified. Met quite a few people that were completely new to MMOs still being rather confused. So likely, I was wrong, and it was a good change. I can’t even remember the very first time I played games, I must have been so clueless.

Lunatic Inquisition Problem?

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Got a whole team where everyone is in their normal set-up except for me. Makes it completely impossible for the survivors or normal courtiers to do anything.

Best PVE Class - 1 January 2014

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

necro

Smells like Thread-Necro-Trolling. :o

Returning Player

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Not too many changes indeed, Ranger has got a nice buff on their Longbow so their Rapid Shot hits fast and hard, how-ever luckily 99% of the Ranger I encounter either;
1. Shoot straight into Reflects.
2. Don’t CC before using Rapid Fire so the whole thing gets dodged.
3. Don’t actually know what to press when Longbow 2 is on cooldown.
4. Don’t swap to Greatsword when you’re in their face.
The other 1% really hurt though and bring multiple CC’s (Entangle, Dog-KD, Dog-Fear, Spider-Immobilize, Knock-back) and spike you down before you can say “Oh miauw!”

I haven’t played long enough to really know what’s changed over-time, but I’d say the most popular roaming builds currently would be;
Elementalist...Mainly use D/D for Roaming. If you see one wielding a Staff, it's usually looking for it's zerg. D/D is excellent for roaming due to it's escapeability, camp-clearing potential and 1 v 1 ability. It tends to run defensive traits, allowing multiple cleanses and vigor, but still packs quite a punch due to Might-stacking and Fury. Apply enough pressure/conditions on them whilst they're out of Water (Chill is amazing aswell, it more or less increases their weapon-swap cooldown) and they're going to struggle surviving.
Mesmer...Tend to be either Shatter or PU Conditions, Shatter can use a variety of weapons; Sword/any, Greatsword, Staff, but they all work the same, summon clones/phantasms and burst their opponent down before they catch them, Blink, Decoy along with any other utility to survive. When played poorly, you simply have to dodge when the clones run to you and you should be ok, a more experienced Mesmer takes a lot of practice to beat. PU plays more or less in the opposite way, they generally use Scepter/Torch along with Staff, their Clones apply conditions when you destroy them and they gain boons when they're in stealth, along with a lot of stealth this spec and slowly wear you down, luckily, you can also walk away from it very easily.
Necromancer...Roaming Necromancers are like meeting a celebrity, it's unlikely to happen. Either it's looking for it's zerg and is a Well using Powermancer made for ripping through an enemy zerg instead of solo'ing or it's the rare sight of a Conditionmancer roaming! If you're a Condition-spec yourself, I'd turn around, they just throw your Conditions back at you (Staff 4 transfers 3 Conditions and Dagger off-hand does about the same. Their trait + utilities can take care of boons quite effectively aswell (if the Necromancer turns black and throws a hand at you, dodge the hand if you value your boons.) They also apply fear in numberous ways, Death Shroud 3, Staff 5, sometimes in their Runes or Utilities, can be quite a pain to fight. Luckily, you can simply walk away from them if you want to.


generally play Conditions, though not exclusively. Toolkit is more or less a must for any spec; it has a pull (see a white electrical animation, dodge) and then smack you with a Pry Bar applying 5 stacks of confusion! With that kit most Engineers run either Bomb or Grenade Kit, Grenade Kit stacks a lot of bleeding easily, where-as Bombs pack a Knockback, some Confusion and overall damage, but with a delay, be careful to not get pulled into them. Shield adds some Daze and Runes of Perplexity (not the only viable rune, but the most dangerous 1 v 1 rune) adds even more confusion, be careful. 1-2 Knockbacks are also mandatory, don’t get lured/pulled to edges of Cliffs.


Berserker Gear, Sigil of Fire and Air, along with a skill that fires multiple arrows, inflict vulnerability and projectile finisher at 1200 range (more if specced) yet that hurts a lot when you don’t counter it. But enough has been mentioned about these above.


mainly run D/P though not exclusively. High burst, excellent mobility, nice blinds, multiple Shadow Steps, Boon-removal + Basilisk Venom. Strong build, but doubt it’s any different than when you last played. Don’t stand in blind fields, learn to predict their backstab and hurt them, but don’t expect a kill, they tend to escape.


tend to run Mediations for both offensive (Fury) as defensive purposes. Greatsword + Sw/Focus allows for high damage and decent survivability (for a mainly berserker equiped 10k base hp-class atleast.) Make sure you dodge their Whirling Wrath and don’t waste too many big hits on blinds and you should be alright.


Greatsword + Stun weapon (Axe/Shield or Hammer) to burst down unsuspecting foes extremely quick. Survivability comes from their utilities and high base-hp/toughness, allowing for (near) full Berserker gear for offense. Learn the animation of their stuns, if you manage to dodge those, Greatsword becomes a rather weak weapon.

Edit: No idea what I messed up with the spoilers.

Should I be a warrior or ranger?

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

If you enjoy both equally, Warrior does make a solid first/only level 80. They’re in meta in almost every aspect of the game; in PvE almost any group will want atleast 1 Warrior since Banner of Discipline and Strenght add a lot of dps to the group. In WvW they’re an amazing Frontline class because they can use a lot of AoE Crowd Control along with needing little survivability in gear, allowing for more DPS-stats and lastly in tPvP they’re a few solid builds that can make a Warrior a good asset to the team, such as team-fight potentional in Hambow (again for the Crowd Control) or a good roamer in Sword/Axe + LB Hybrid builds. Lastly they’re most likely the best class for solo, especially harder content due to being relatively self-sufficient buff-wise (high Might, (almost) perma-Fury and Vulnerability) and survivability-wise (healing signet, high hp, high toughness, access to blocks/survivability utilities)

Ranger isn’t a bad choice either though. They’re excellent in tPvP as either teamsupport/close-point holder in a Spirit set-up aswell as strong in their burst in a LB + GS zerker set-up, allowing for some variety role-wise aswell. Warriors need to be in melee for their full potentional, where-as, in PvP, a Ranger can be devastating at range. In PvE they also increase a teams dps through Spotter and Frost Spirit, though almost any highly organized group would most likely pick a Warrior over a Ranger, but a Warrior along with a Ranger would be the better option than taking two Warriors. Where Ranger falls short how-ever is the Zerg WvW Meta, they don’t bring anything as significant as what a Warrior brings, but they can still deal DPS like any other class in a zerg.

Significant play-style difference would be that a Warrior is much more survivable and often swaps between weapons to reach their maximum potentional. A Ranger spends most of the fight in one set (Sw/any for PvE and PvP depends on the build) but can be more difficult to handle due to lower base-survivability and managing of the pet. Sword can also be nasty on Ranger since the auto-attack chain can’t get interrupted as easily for a dodge, but learning how to handle that is well worth it.

I personally don’t enjoy Warrior much since I didn’t find them too challanging. But like that there’re plenty of people out there that feel the same about Ranger.

Next 9/9 patch

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Esmee.1067

There will always be some small updates to classes, but no RPG will ever be 100% balanced in every game-mode, it’s simply near impossible because PvP, WvW and PvE requiring different things to be the ‘top’ class. For example if you boost a Necromancers party-support potentional, you risk making them more survivable in PvP aswell, where-as currently in PvP they’re in a relatively good position.

In the April Patch we got new traits and the Critical Damage change. It didn’t change the meta, but it was quite a big overhaul nonetheless. In the September Patch their most notable change was a nerf to FGS, which made a huge impact because stacking Elementalist in every open spot of the group is no longer a thing, allowing more room for other classes. So I would expect another change ~February next year, I think their focus for now will be; Halloween and Wintersday.

Sylvari Hairstyle Question

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Thank you all, I guess something in my settings is messy, since it never showed up in the preview, put everything on max settings and now I see all of them flow a bit, some more than others. Thank you everyone!

Sylvari Hairstyle Question

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Esmee.1067

Hi,

I recently noticed a Sylvari hairstyle changing colour between day and night due to their glow and in the nighttime it pulsed between bright red and dark red. I wondered if there were other Sylvari Hairstyles that do this (change colour and pulse) or whether it’s unique to this one. If so, which ones? Is there any way to preview it? A make-over kit preview only has max-glow (nighttime) and no glow (daytime.)

Thank you in advance.

Attached a printscreen to be a bit more clear about what I mean, left and middle is during Night-time and Right is the day-time version. As you can see it’s bright red at one point, dark-red at another and black during the day.

Attachments:

What can I do to improve my self combat wise.

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Most non-Defience mobs have a lot of small attacks with small tells and instead of dodging you’re better of dealing with them through Blinds/Weakness and simply killing them quickly, most classes have access to something. Certain attacks (like Ascalonian Catacombs gravelings) have big tells, it tends to mean a big hit or CC is incoming, those you might want to dodge. You’ll take some damage, but aslong as you’re not downed 24/7 it’s not a big deal.


Elementalist: Glyph of Storms in Earth / Lightning Hammer for Blinds, Focus gives a small anti-projectile (Swirling Winds) Reflect (Magnetic Wave) and Immunity (Obsidian Flesh) and for defience mobs; Glyph of Elemental Power in either Earth for perma cripple so you can kite (our ‘max melee’ range is big, even in D/any) or Air for Weakness.)
Mesmers: Not a lot of Blinds, but Blurred Frenzy for Evades and access to Anti-Projectiles/Reflects (Focus Phantasm and Feedback.)
Necromancers: Well of Darkness, Death-shroud Tanking, Traits for Weakness.
Engineer: Smoke Bomb (Bomb Kit,) Flame Turrets activate skill for blinds, some Elixer has a Reflect/Anti-projectile + blind (forgot the name.)
Ranger: Take a pet with Toughness (I’d recommend Drake for survivability vs damage) when solo’ing and send them in first.
Thief: Black Powder (Pistol 5) gives a lot of blinds, Sword Auto-attack inflicts Weakness, also helpful.
Warrior: Healing Signet + High base Toughness should be plenty, if not, check out some defensive Utilities (Endure Pain for example.) Or AoE Stuns (Mace 5 for example.)
Guardian: With the right Traits (Blind on Virtue of Justice, Virtue of Justice Recharges on kill) along with Sword/Greatsword Blinds makes almost any hit miss, along with Aegis (Retreat, Virtue of Courage) and Wall of Reflection for some Reflects, you should be fine.

For every class, you can range and kite almost anything, but that won’t help you improve and is a bit boring in my opinion.

Most mobs with Defiance (Champions, Legendaries) have big tells on their high damage attacks, which is usually all you need to dodge really. They do differ per enemy, but usually it’s either a big movement, some sound or a glowing effect. Even if it’s not obvious at first (like Lupi’s kick is almost impossible to judge from his legs, but you can see it in the way he moves his shoulders) with practice it will become easier. Watching a video on a specific encounter can also help and as last resort you can always ask information on the specific encounter in either the Forums, groups or guild/friends. Attacks with little to no tell generally are counter-able in a different way, be it Condition-Cleanse or Reflects.

The only real exception I can think of is the Champion Icebrood Wolf in CoE, who uses 2 PbAoEs that can easily down anyone in non-defensive gear with just one of them, but they have a long cooldown (~30s) and can be lured out during the pull.

Whilst practicing the encounters it might be worth wearing some more defensive gear, such as Knight’s or Soldier’s and swap in more and more DPS-stats as you’re comfortable with. Downside is that in certain fights that can lead to a lot of aggro and thus making the encounter more difficult, but from what I’m aware only Mai Trin and the Archdiviner would give a lot of issue with that.

For PvP encounters you struggle with I’d recommend to watch some streamers play the class and possibly play it yourself, like that not only the tells become easier, but you’ll often be able to predict when a certain attack is coming and also able to judge what’s worth dodging and what’s better off left alone.

I hope this helps.

Can you make multiple Mawdreys?

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Thank you both for the wonderful answers. Off to calculate total cost assuming infusion. ^^

Can you make multiple Mawdreys?

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Esmee.1067

I was wondering if you can make multiple Mawdreys by playing the Living Story on multiple characters. I read on Dulfy multiple Mawdrey IIs can’t increase the bloodstone eaten per day, giving me the impression it’s possible, yet ingame I was told you can’t make more than one Mawdrey, I’d like to know before going through the scavenger hunt again.

Guild wars 1 during its second anniversary

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Esmee.1067

I know I’m going to get hated for not bashing a game we’ve all decided to spend a lot of time in, but….

Guild Wars 2 has a lot of skip able content, unlike Guild Wars. Just because you chose not to do a certain thing in a game doesn’t mean the game itself really lacks content. I did my own comparison below in case you wish to see why I think so. The only thing I feel it really lacks, is PvP, it can’t hold a candle to Guild Wars PvP when it comes down to variety/content.

This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see more content, who doesn’t? But I don’t agree Guild Wars 2 really lacks content per se, I do think they started too big and it simply gets boring after a certain while.

The way I’d compare them;
Guild Wars started with 6 classes and grew to 10 classes within 2 years, but Guild Wars 2 started off with 8 classes straight away.

Guild Wars had 5 challenging and long end-game areas; Fissure of Woe, the Underworld, Urgoz, the Deep, Domain of Anguish. Each could take an inexperienced group a few hours (and a speedclear group less than half an hour.) Guild Wars 2 has 14 different Fractal Instances, varying in time they need to be completed, 8 dungeons with 3 paths each, some take long than others, but it’s a considerable amount of content nonetheless, even though we chose to avoid any slow/challenging paths on a daily basis, such as TA Aether and Arah p4 and the community has adapted the Speedclear meta much more than in Guild Wars.

Guild Wars had 3-4 Storylines, which didn’t take that long to get through unless you got stuck on a certain mission. Guild Wars 2 only has the personal story, which in a lot of people’s (including me) opinion is a bit lackluster, it’s still quite a long story total (assuming you add up the racial stories.) On top of that there’s Dungeon Stories, which follow the NPCs Story, which is considerably longer than the average Guild Wars mission. Guild Wars 2 also has living story, which is comparable with the Guild Wars annual events (some people chose to farm Vaettir’s all week long, but some events had exclusive quest-chains aswell, similar to living story.) They also had bonus weekends, as simple as it might be, it was motivation enough for most of my friendlist to get out of their usual game-mode, atleast for a few hours. Definitely find it a better idea than Gemstore sales, which is about the only thing I can compare it with.

All in all, Guild Wars 2 might have much more content than you’re realizing since they gave you the option to skip it. Ofcourse you can argue Guild Wars had hours and hours, months and months stowed away in hunting titles, which was true. But all titles were, was playing the same story again, or cleaning a whole area, but this time the mobs hit a bit harder and have more HP. That’s like calling a level 1 Fractal completely different content than a level 50 Fractal, where-as it’s simply a bit more challanging. Guild Wars 2 arguably has this system in the form of Achievements.

The only thing I feel it’s really failing on is PvP. Guild Wars 2 PvP doesn’t hold a candle towards Guild Wars PvP. Guild Wars had multiple PvP-options; Guild v Guild, Arenas, Heroes Ascend, Jade Quary, Fort Aspenwood and Alliance Battles, along with a monthly skillbalance, often shaking up the PvP-meta a little. (Frontline builds changed and most of the midline.). Where-as Guild Wars 2 has World vs World with 3 identical Borderlands, Eternal Battlegrounds and Edge of the Mist, along with one sPvP-mode and one only (excluding a hotjoin only map) which is Conquest.

Good servers?

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

I’ve only ever been on Seafarer’s Rest due to the same reason as you have to be on an American server; friends. So I haven’t experienced being part of a different server, how-ever I heard certain servers stand out for certain things when I asked help for a friend.

Seafarer’s Rest is one of the most organized/active WvW servers based on rating.
Desolation/Gandara were ‘the’ servers I was recommended for PvE-players.
Piken Square was recommended for a Roleplayer.

Due to the Megaserver, being on a certain server doesn’t matter too much. Maps will be shared, you can join teammembers on their maps. The only thing that’s still split, for obvious reasons, is World vs World. In these maps you can only play with your server. So I’d highly recommend basing your choices on that if it holds your interest. Consider things like how well they do, but also be wary that a popular WvW server also easily leads to long queues, not to mention a huge transfer fee.

Another way to go is, by looking at the guild recruitment and see if there’s a guild that fits you and join their homeland server. Assuming they have one. Since the most recent feature patch, guilds share everything across worlds aswell, how-ever, it does mean you can hop into WvW with your guildies, by then hopefully your friends, whenever you want.

Don’t stress the choice too much. All my friends are spread out over servers now-a-days and everyone is happy with their server. The only ones who wish for a change are those who want to WvW together.

Leveling

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Esmee.1067

Edge of the Mist is still an incredibly fast way to level. Just follow the Commander and you’ll finish loads of events, keeps give almost half a level, gives reasonable Karma and Champbags aswell, work especially well as Green is my guess, since in that current match-up Green are ‘the best’ servers in their respective leagues.

Also try to do the small things, say you do dungeons, don’t open and ask nicely if you can relog at the end. (Works better if you have friends along with you, just to be sure some watches the video to buy you some time.)

Pop any Tomes of Knowledge you have, maybe the 1y birthday instant level 20 item.

The all-time fastest is ofcourse Crafting, if you want to invest such money. But if you plan on maxing a craft anyway, do it whilst leveling.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

where should I buy armors?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Wonderful, now how do I actually get the gear?
When you just reached level 80, you likely don’t have loads of money to spend yet. I’d recommend starting off with a set of rare (yellow) armor found on the trading post. These armor costs ~40 silver per piece, but once you’re done with it you can salvage (master’s/mystic salvage kit recommended!) for a chance at ectos, to earn back most of the money spend. In rares you’ll be able to do most content comfortably and test if a certain stat-combination works for you, from there on you can start working on exotic pieces (and eventually Ascended, but that’s so complicated and expensive, I wouldn’t think about it yet.)

There’re multiple options to get armor/weapons;
1. World vs World/Edge of the Mist; Badges of Honor can be traded for armor of multiple stats (including the very popular berserker, soldier and rabid armors.) Badges can easily be farmed by following around a blue tag in a EotM or WvW map, especially EotM is quick. This armor also requires a small gold investment and it can’t be salvaged, which means any expensive runes put on it (now or in the future) will be lost if you stop using the armor!

(Note: World vs World also gives a lot of Karma, in the Orr Region there’re temples that once cleared of Zaithan’s corruption will have vendors selling gear for Karma with limited options available (Rabid (condition damage, precision, toughness) Soldier’s (power, precision, ferocity) and Magi’s who’s stats I don’t know by heart.) Which can be an option, these armors can’t be salvaged either, so be careful with expensive runes.)

2. Dungeons, I’m unsure if you’ve done a Dungeon yet, but they are an instance designed for 5 people. In the groupfinder (tab in the contact list) you can find a group, try to find one that fits you (I’d recommend avoiding 5k+ AP, zerk only, exp! or kick groups at first.) Explorable Dungeons end with once a day a reward of 40 tokens + ~1-3g at the end and another unlimited reward of 20 tokens and ~17 silver. These tokens can be exchanged for armors, does take about a week for a set from a single dungeons, not including weapons. Each dungeons has 3 different stats available which can be viewed in Lion Arch (East)

3. Buying it from the Trading Post/Crafting your own. This can be a very expensive option for a fresh level 80.

4. PvP-Reward Tracks. Slowest option by far for armor, you’ll get about 3 weapons and 1 armor per track (and a few tokens to spend on armor or weapons,) but if you enjoy PvP pick a dungeon-reward track with a dungeon that rewards armor/weapons with a stat-combination you like. (Once again, the vendors can be visited in Lion’s Arch, east-section.)

Or ofcourse a combination of the above options works aswell.

All Armors carry the option to have a Rune added to them, these improve your stats and add an effect (such as the Scholar Runes, it provides Power and Ferocity and if you have one on all six pieces you’ll get 10% increased if you’re above 90% hp) these can be very expensive at first, try to search for cheap runes or even orbs (these carry stats only, much like armor, but generally considered inferior) with an ok’ish effect/stats to start off with. Weapons have something similar called a Sigil, they’re effects are rather clear in their descriptions, note that two of the same Sigils don’t stack. Once again, opt for cheaper Sigils or their rare versions to start off with.

Pfff, that’s a lot, anything else? Yes, trinkets
Your character also wears jewelry that improve it’s stats. Exotic Jewelry is quite expensive (~5g a piece) which is a shame since it makes a significant different stat-wise. Each stat-combination has a jewel assigned to them, which I sadly don’t know by heart except for; Ruby (Berserker; Power, Precision, Toughness) and Beryl (Soldier; Power, Toughness, Vitality.)

I’d recommend getting an Ascended Amulet Straight away if you know which stats you want already. They can be purchased for Laurels (you get one per daily and ten for a monthly, you likely saved up a few whilst leveling.) In World vs World maps there’s a vendor offering a combination of Laurels and WvW Badges, since Badges are so easy to obtain (like mentioned in the armor section, farm EotM) I highly recommend this option. Laurels are heavily time-gated and you might come to regret the choice. You might notice each stat-option has 3 amulets, one with a offensive, one with a defensive and one with an utility infusion slot. I’d highly recommend taking the Utility infusion slot, how-ever it’s of no significance yet.

Again, sorry for the huge wall of text and if I went into details too much.

where should I buy armors?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

This post is going to be huge, double-post even, I want to cover any questions you might have. Things you already know? Just skip to the next section.

What do stats mean?
Every piece of level 80 equipment has 3 stats, 1 major stat and 2 minor stats. For example the prefix Berserker gives +Power with lesser amounts of Precision and Ferocity. Each stat helps to improve your characters performance, each stat means the following:

Power – The damage of your direct attacks, the big numbers on your screen.
Precision – Increased your chance to land a critical hit.
Ferocity – Increases the strength of your critical hits.
Condition Damage – Increases the damage done by damaging conditions; Bleeding, Confusion, Poison, Torment and Burning.
Vitality – Increase your total health, so you can endure more hits before you die. It will allow you to live longer, but is high health is also more difficult to replenish.
Toughness – Increases your armor, so you take less damage. Taking less damage scales better with your #6 skills, the downside, however, is that conditions ignore armour.
Healing Power – Increases the effectiveness of your healing, your #6 skill and the applied by you buff Regeneration (on both you and allies.)

Which stats do I want?
Which stats you want is completely up to you, how-ever I assume you’re looking for some guidance. For PvE you generally want as much damage as possible with the survivability you need. For experienced players this means no survivability stats at all but the same thing might not work for you (yet.)

If your weapons and build mention little to no conditions (like burning, poison, bleeding, torment, confusion) you will want to focus on Power, Precision and Ferocity, with as much Toughness and Vitality you need, both have their upsides and downsides as mentioned above. Example prefixes are Berserker (Power, Precision, Ferocity) or a more defensive option such as Knights (Toughness, Power, Precision) or Soldier’s (Power, Toughness, Vitality) and multiple others.

If your favourite weapons and build mention the conditions mention above multiple times you’ll want to get Condition Damage. On top of that if your Traits mention a lot ‘Applies X effect on critical hit’ you will also want to take Precision to increase your change of a critical hit. Conditions themselves can’t crit and thus Ferocity would be a wasted stat, meaning the last stat will be filled by a survivability stat. Example Prefixes are Rabid (Condition Damage, Precision, Toughness) and Dire (Condition Damage, Vitality, Toughness.)

PvE mainly consists out of big hits that need to be dodged because it takes multiple heals to outheal the damage taken if dodge isn’t used properly. Due to that and little to not dedicated healing options, healing power is often avoided completely in PvE.

In World vs World the same rules apply, as much damage as possible, but you need a lot more survivability due to the fights between big groups. If World vs World is what you’re into, I highly recommend becoming part of your server’s community (ask information in any of the Borderlands and Eternal Battlegrounds.) Most communities have a TS or a website with people more than willing to help. For a beginner I’d recommend full Soldier’s gear (Power, Toughness, Vitality) to survive easier. But Berserker Trinkets can be added for more damage. (Celestial is also a popular mentioned option, but due to the difficulty of acquiring Celestial I’d recommend ignoring it for now.)

sPvP (heart of the mist) might show your armor on your character, but it actually has no effect. Your stats and traits are determinded by “PvP-build” at the top of your screen. Most options will automaticly be available, all you have to do is make a selection.

Dark red dye that's good with midnight fire

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Wrath, Heirloom and some blood-dyes (such as oxeblood) spring to mind, but it’s difficult to determine what exactly you’re looking for and what goes well with your armor. For that reason I’d like to recommend giving a quick look through the red hue section on Dulfy; http://dulfy.net/2013/12/24/gw2-dye-gallery/

why all the dislike towards Farming?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

First of all, it’s the internet. People don’t have to fear consequences as much as real life and in some people this brings up the worst in them. Luckily for some other people it simply counters shyness or limitations and they get social and have fun.

If WvW’ers mention a dislike to PvE achievement farmers it’s most likely related to the WvW Fall Tournement. PvE’ers clog up the queues which can mess up raids, especially on highly populated servers. No-one likes to wait in the queue and no Commander likes to be unable to hop to a different borderlands just because his zerg can’t follow. Luckily this achievement is super short, so I doubt it causes that much issues, but in return WvW’ers might feel the PvE’ers don’t deserve the rewards they work for.

Allergy-warning: This section contains some traces of sarcasm.

Anything else than this, is just ungrounded downtalking to feel superior themselves simply since they decided to play a certain aspect of the game, obviously their aspect is better/more challanging/superior in any other way you can think off. Who hasn’t heard people claiming only WvW is challanging, requiring tactic and teamwork, where-as other claim it’s just mindlessly zerging and personal skill makes no difference at all, except for the commander. Or the sPvP’ers telling people if they want a real challange, they should play sPvP, instead fighting a computer over and over. Where-as some PvE’ers might feel the occasions they have a perfect match-up are too rare, they rather work on mastering a difficult PvE-encounter. And in return PvE’ers feel their aspect is superior because… hmm…., well see this, this is my Eternity, so obviously I’m epic, and thus right, so ye. Just take my word for it.

On a more serious note:
People having different taste, believes, methods and goals can sometimes lead to a little clashing. I can’t say I’ve seen much hate myself, but I feel truly sorry if you had a night with so much hate being thrown around.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

Tempered Spinal Blade Backpiece

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Assassin stats are sadly left out on Ascended Trinkets (and I don’t think there’s an Assassin Exotic Backpiece either.) I have both the Tempered Spinal Blades, along with Chaos of Lyssa (and some others like Light of Dwanya) and none carry the option to pick Assassin (I specificly checked for my Mesmer.)

Recently they’ve introduced some Assassin accessories (reward for unlocking all CM and Arah skins) so I do expect them to introduce a full set of trinkets eventually, how-ever I doubt it’s worth waiting just incase it happens and take Berserker for now. The difference is small, especially if you have every other possible piece of Assassin gear.

I want to get Infinite Light but I hate PvE.

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Show some patience and some options to try:
- Play the TP in between queues if you’re able to.
- Do a high-level Dungeontrack, throw the greatswords in the forge and sell the result.
- Trade Tokens for Armors to salvage (or more weapons to gamble…)
- Patience, patience, patience.

It’s the best to just get to your goal by doing things you enjoy doing. Sadly if you don’t have any luck, it will take forever. If there’s any half-decent solo-farms out there, you could do that in between the queue aswell.

and what Rouven said and Esplen, always check if the cheapest way to your goal.

To all that boast about their rating

in PvP

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

I agree with you OP, but isn’t this why we have hotjoins? Not as flawless as a non-rated arena with the rated arena set-up, but I simply think having too many (low-reward generally) options will only cause certain arena’s to be empty.

And if you’re the nice, non-elitist person, do you really care about what others think? You obviously don’t care about your rating, so why do their opinions matter so much? If you have proper arguments based on facts, which you seem very capable of doing, people will take you more seriously than someone along the lines “Hay Frands! Eew Eev here! #1 everything (insert opinions and irrelevant information) Bai Frands!”


I simply wanted to give a recognizable example. Vee Wee is very active in the Engineer forums trying to help other Engineers, and thus I consider him a valuable member of the community.

"farm servers"

in PvP

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Aren’t the hotjoin rewards capped and low to begin with?

I’m not saying it’s ok, but the rewards are mediocre (compared to say, speedclearing the dungeon) and a Dragon Finisher whilst you’re a bad player will instantly tell people that you’re either very dedicated but limited on your skills to improve, or that you farmed hotjoins. I wouldn’t even bother reporting it.

Wouldn’t mind if they do ban it though.

Getting Gold from PvP

in PvP

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

So summarized:
- Play the TP in between queues (takes some practice)
- Do (high level) Dungeon Tracks, think Arah.
- Mystic Forge your weapons for a pre (Greatswords are likely the most expensive pre’s)
- Have fun

Making money with PvP requires luck.
Making money with WvW requires luck.
Making money in PvE requires dedication, luck is a bonus.

Just have fun in the game, you’re likely working a job that makes more Gold/Hour (Cash → Gems → Gold) than any farm. Don’t make your game your job. Nothing wrong with spending your time efficiently though, like (learning to) play the TP whilst waiting in the queue.

Thief, Mesmer or Ranger- Some Advice Please

in PvP

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Tl;DR:
I think Thief fits you the best due to a high skillcap, desirability in PvE and PvP and their elusive, stealthy, high mobility playstyle. I don’t think Ranger fits your needs mainly due to not enjoying the class-mechanic of pets, which are an essential part of your damage and CC and I’ve experienced it as a low skillcap class and have had people share that opinion. Mesmer is a tricky one, definitely fits the elusive, stealthy feel, but for me this class has simply always been straight forward and easy to play. For me to enjoy Mesmer, I need a team that makes full use of a Mesmer potential. If you strip it of it’s unique utility it just feels simple. I absolutely love playing it in organized groups since it greatly helps our survivability and efficiency, but in PuGs I generally have a horrible time, so I wouldn’t want it as a single main, but you’ll have to judge for yourself.

Ranger
PvE: Good DPS, offensive support (spotter/frost spirit) definitely worth having one in your team. Downside: Used to be in a very bad position, so it might take a while for the community to catch on, considering they’ve been endlessly stacking Warrior for months now even though more than one Warrior is a dps-loss, now more than ever.
WvW: Can roam, but so can any class aslong as you know how to solo with it. Difficult to escape from with decent escape-ability themselves. Offer nothing substantial to a zerg, but you expressed no interest in that playstyle anyway.
sPvP: Currently very hated to be against, the recent personal damage buff has made them pack quite a better punch whilst already being decent. Good position with Spiritbuilds (teamfighter) and Power or even Condition Builds. Power LB + GS likely fits you well.

Mesmer
PvE: Good due to their unique defensive support, ranging from Condition Cleanse, mini-stability, Boon Removal, Reflects, Party-wide Quickness and Portals, the latter is usually only used well in organized groups. This means, assuming you swap your utilities depending on the situation, you can help a team out incredibly well. Their personal DPS isn’t great if there’s nothing to Reflect. You’ve likely already noticed that whilst leveling. (Small tip, level in PvP-specs, the Shatterburst playstyle fits solo content a lot better.)
WvW: Offer unique utility to Zergs, so always welcome. For roaming they’re a variation of builds that work well and are quite annoying to play against. Their access to stealth and blink makes for great escapability, compensating for their not so wonderful mobility.
sPvP: Sadly in arena’s your stuck with 3 utilities, a shame with everything that the Mesmer has to offer. It used to be a bit buggy (the 9/9/14 patch should have fixed most of it) but I find them very fun to play. Most of the challenge will come from being predictable and thus making it challenging to land your shatters vs a good player, but that only makes it more fun! Downside, almost all builds are Shatterbuilds in one way or another with very similar weapon-choices.

Thief
PvE: Invaluable in any Fractal group and can usually be very helpful in Dungeon groups aswell. They offers smokefields to easy give a group stealth (either by popping Black Powder, Pistol #5 and your team blasts it, or you pop Smokescreen and blast it with Clusterbombs, SB #2 and use Shadow Refuge, slower, but ye, you can’t control PuGs. Pack some of the highest DPS and aren’t completely shabby on defensive support through Smokescreen (anti-projectile and blinds) and Black Powder (blinds for trash) alongside with Sword #1 inflicting weakness. For bosses you’ll want D/D however for the highest single-target DPS.
WvW: Don’t Zerg with them, too squishy, but amazing Roamers. Stealth and mobility usually allows you to get the first strike, you can kill quick and efficient and if the fight doesn’t go your way, stealth and be miles away to re-engage when you’re ready.
sPvP: You’ll mainly be roaming, you have the advantage of being able to pick all your fights, so make sure you become an efficient 1 v 1’er. Quickly cap and move on to your next victem. In teamfights you usually can’t do much more than spike down an essential/squishy enemy and run before the enemies do the same. You don’t offer too much support in teamfights anyway, so job done, back to capping sides. The skillcap is quite decent aswell, it’s not too horrible you can’t do anything at first, but you’re not done learning until you can win every 1 v 1 and do it quick and efficient.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

(Suggestion)Auto Partying for Low lv Dungeon

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Tl;DR: The majority of people prefer getting things done quick and efficient, forcing people in random team groupfinders won’t make the problem better, it will make it worse, explanation below.

First of all I haven’t played Tera, but it sounds like your generic groupfinder; you enter a queue (with a certain role in some games) end up with 3-7 other people, do the dungeon, if I’m completely misunderstanding, my apologies and stop reading.

The current groupfinder usually shows a majority of people asking for people who stack, even if non-zerkers are welcome. If you play zerker, you know many non-zerkers still try to get into zerker groups. You know what this means; the majority prefer getting things done quickly and efficiently.

So you introduce your random groupfinder, there will still be a majority of people who will want to stack or follow some kind of tactic to make encounters easier. On top of that you’ll have some people that don’t mind either way (new players for example) and adjust to whatever works best (stacking most likely) and the players who don’t want to stack will stay the minority and will be forced to adjust on their group if they have any sense of democracy.

Before you know it, everyone who completely loathes stacking will stop entering the groupfinder and those who prefer not to, but rather do the dungeon nonetheless will stop trying suggesting other ways and just go to the stacking corner without saying a word.

If you don’t want to stack, make your own post and show some patience. It’s in most people’s nature to want to get things done quickly, even if they do enjoy what they’re doing. But you will find people joining you, new players and level 80s alike and you’ll have a blast. Whenever I’m leveling with a friend (or help them leveling since I’m getting too many duplicate professions for no reason) I make a groupfinder post along the lines: “Warning: new players, anyone welcome” and I add things such as ‘no stacking’ if desired by my friend(s.) It’s not instant like my “Lvl 80, zerker only, class X and Y only” posts, but it does get filled, eventually.

You’d be surprised with the people you meet. I’ve met a lovely fellow who invited us to his TS and started chatting with me and my friends, turned out he was a zerker even though they preferred to play without as stated in our groupfinder, so he and I decided to just take some pieces of armor off to slow down the run for them. (I’m sure if this was after the first feature pack we’d respec aswell.) Met loads of lovely new people who were incredibly happy with all new information my experience provided and loved a little link towards dungeon mentors. Met veteran zerkers who just enjoyed the change of pace and discovered new things aswell, also shocked by the challange it can present.

Karma farming

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Unless any of the most recent updates has changed anything, I’ve always experienced EotM as the fastest karma/hour, but not by too much if you have a decent Fractal group and don’t have to consider a long forming time or bad luck with PuGs that really struggle/don’t do any damage/don’t offer the required support like Reflects.

Even if you have such a group I’d pick based on other rewards and what you’d enjoy doing. For example if you enjoy Fractals, or want a chance at some Fractal Skins, just do your daily Fractal for each good reward level. (21-30, 31-40, 41-50)
If you rather turn your brain off and follow a commander tag whilst watching some TV, or gain some WvW experience, take EotM.

What armor to buy my thief?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Tl;DR: Just a bit more elaborate than Groks answer and be sure to carry Sword/Pistol around aswell or groups will be quite painful.

Berserker, like Grok said. You’ll get a lot of buffs from a group in group-content boosting your Critical Chance to 100% together with a generic Dual Dagger build and for solo it’s not much (if at all) worse than Assassin’s (Precision, Power, Ferocity.)

Nika’s armor is a good example. But be sure to check out if Berserker’s Emblazoned armor isn’t cheaper. If you just want to give the build a try, maybe start of with rare’s only, they’re easily salvaged to make most of their cost back.

Scholar Runes are generally recommended to boost the damage even more. The buff might be a bit difficult to maintain at first, but it should get easier in no-time. I don’t know any cheap alternatives for solo-play thieves.

Sigils of Force combined with Night/Slaying/Energy/Frailty/Strenght, whichever has your preferance.

Just a tiny warning. Double Daggers is the highest dps-option for thieves, hence it’s meta, since meta is dps dps dps, how-ever, be sure to carry around Sword/Pistol for multiple mobs without defience. Sword has a cleave (and a decent weakness uptime) on their auto-attack and Pistol 5 provides Blinds to keep yourself and groups alive. the cleave will also compensate a bit for damage lost. For solo-play D/D will likely be quite annoying vs groups aswell, damage and survivability-wise, so having a sword handy never hurts.

Guys, a little help about pvp?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Living Story changes every ~2 weeks, though we’ve had quite a long break between Chapter 1 (Scarlet) and Chapter 2 (Current) so over-all you likely haven’t missed too much. Make sure you log in every 2 weeks so the story unlocks for free (missed stories can be purchased I believe, but I haven’t had the need myself) They are now part of your Story Journal (questlog) in the Hero-Panel, be sure to check it out!

WvW had a new tournement with exclusive rewards (such as Mistforged Hero Weapons) and has a new one coming up for Autumn, currently nothing new though play-style wise. Unless you missed the Edge of the Mist introduction, which is a map made for in case the queue’s are full (popular place to grind experience/karma so it might not give you the WvW experience Borderlands/EB gives you.)

PvP has got quite a few changes. Most notably your PvE armor shows in PvP, how-ever Stat-wise it’s all about the Amulet, to modify your build go to PvP Build at the top of your screen in Heart of the Mist. Here you can select traits and runes/sigils/amulet exclusively for PvP.

They also added Reward Tracks. Dungeon Reward Tracks rotate weekly, unless you meet a certain requirement to permanently unlock them (usually doing the Story-mode of that Dungeon in PvE) There’s the unique Reward Track for the Balthazar Backpiece (unique to PvP) and Region Reward Tracks, new Regions unlock as you finish up the old Tracks. If you like certain skins, make sure you select the right reward track.

Not new but possibly helpful:
Hotjoins are the most casual form of PvP, you can pick your own server (or randomly join any server) and you can join/leave matches whenever, making it a more relaxed envoirment over-all, great for practice. (I won’t promise there won’t be some elitist here and there, and be careful of the so-called FARM-maps, they just want to grind the reward track, instead of actually PvP)

Arena’s tend to be a bit more serious since rating is attached. Solo Arena you get matched up with 4 other people against 5 completely at random, based on Rating. If you win you gain rating, if you lose, you lose some rating in an attempt to keep the matches as fair as possible. Be sure to not leave these matches, even a dc, if it happens too regular there’s a hefty dishonour debuff preventing you from entering PvP for a while.

Maps are mainly based around capturing points, often referred to as home/close (nearest to your spawn-point) mid (middle of the map) and far (nearest to the opponents spawn-point.) With a goal of keeping 2 out of 3 and scoring more points than the opponent (you gain points through kills, holding/capturing nodes and map objectives such as killing a Guildlord or channeling certain buffs.) I’d recommend wiki if you need more informations or just practice in hotjoins.

If you’re completely confused about which build to run I’d recommend looking at Dante’s Tournement build-list to get your started, but make sure to adjust them to your playstyle. I’m not sure how updated the list is, since I generally just watch what other people play and read the patch notes, but Dante’s lists got me started when I was new.

Goodluck!

Fractal weapon skins

in PvP

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Even though I’m completely burned out on Fractals trying to obtain certain skins and love a different way of obtaining them, it just seems like a bad idea to me. Fractal skins belong in Fractals, just like they should make more (they’re introducing armor I’ve heard?) PvP-only rewards, besides the Finishers. (Same for WvW ofcourse, though Mistforged is a step in the right direction, especially since the new tournement sounds less ‘tag rewards and get out’)

I feel they’re finally on the right track making exclusive rewards.

On the other hand, if they really have to, I hope they consider requirements such a suggested by Orangensaft and Clip other posters above.

Elemental damage

in Elementalist

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Though I get it adds to a roleplay kind of feel, just like I love you can’t blind the already blind Dredge or burn the already burning Destroyers, I wouldn’t like to see it in gw2.

In Guild Wars 1 an Elementalist build around one, at the most two different Elements, due to XX-Attunement and Skillpoints greatly enhancing the power of a type of Spell (Air, Fire, Earth, Water specificly, Energy Storage hardly focussed around damage, rather Energy-management,) so if I were to encounter Destroyer, I’d make sure I was running a Water-focussed build, where-as otherwise I might chose to run a Fire-based build, I got rewarded for changing my build and my skillsets. Which was great, but I don’t see the same work for Guild Wars 2.

In Guild Wars 2 each Element brings something to the build and are usually optimally used in combination in PvE (which is where you’d encounter Destroyers etc.) You master and combine each Element to get a desired effect. If suddently certain Elements would be near useless against a certain type of mob it’d mean I’d lose a big chunk of the skills available to me, potentionally ruining why I enjoy playing Elementalist in the first place. Add a ‘super effective’ kind of effect and you’d be best of sticking to 1 single Element for an encounter. No, thank you. If that’s what I’d wanted I’d play Staff 24/7, sitting in Fire pressing Lava Font on recharge. ._.

Also, if I recall correctly, PvE had a huge problem with Elemental Damage and mobs resistance to it compared to unmitigatable damage didn’kitten Especially when balancing Hard Mode and Normal Mode. For about 6 years Elementalist complained they couldn’t put a dent in a mob, many of my few PvE-friends changed their main-class due to it. I might be wrong since I didn’t experience it first-hand, I saw GW1 as a PvP-only game, where-as in GW2 I mainly enjoy the PvE, but it seems like a dangerous thing to burn yourself with twice.

TL;DR:
I like the idea, but I think it’d take away much of the fun and engaging play-style an Elementalist has to offer.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

100% Crit LH build?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Tl;DR: For Teamsituations a 100% critical chance (without any team-buffs) is a serious loss the second the party applies Fury (20% crit chance) Banner of Discipline (170 Precision ~12% crit chance) and/or Spotter (150 Precision ~10% crit chance) For Solo-play I’d use Persisting Flames to give yourself 20% extra critical chance to allow for more Power/Precision in your gear.

The long version
In any Teamsituation it’d be a horrible dps-loss. You miss out on quite a bit of Power for a critical chance you don’t need (any half-decent group has Banner of Discipline (~12% crit chance, for thieves atleast, not 100% sure for Elementalist) and perma-fury (20%, which as an Elementalist is easily kept up 100%) and considering going over 100% has no use, it’d have a lot of wasted Precision that could have been Power. In rare team-situations there could be Spotter aswell, but Warriors (with Banner of Discipline) are a lot more common than Rangers with Spotter in groups (since they also have the ability to add Banner of Strenght, Empower Allies and are overall more common than meta-rangers, in my experience.)

For Soloplay I’m guessing you’d be better off with a 6/x/x/x/x build, giving yourself permanent Fury (20% critical chance) allow you to take atleast Berserker Trinkets/Weapons and still get close to the desired 100% critical chance, like a 6 (II-V-XI) / 6 (VI-X-XII) / 2 (VI) / 0 / 0 set-up (high single target damage through attunement dancing in LH) which with Berserker Weapons, Trinkets, Sharpening Stone along with Assassin Armor and Bowl of Curry Butternut Squash soup still reach the desired 100% critical chance.

Lastly, Rampagers trinkets are a big waste, you apply burning but that’s about it, not worth losing the Ferocity for (especially in a set-up build around 100% crit chance) if you insist on Precision main-stat, go exotic Assassins, how-ever, I’d once again recommend giving yourself 100% fury uptime (it’s not that difficult) and use Berserker Trinkets.

For Maths:
I’m not a math-guru myself, however DEKeys from DnT is. Surely if you ask her for the math calculations, she’d be more than happy to share them. Though her math is generally based on team-situations. In her stickied guide in these forums, she bolded the best armor options per build and for as far as I’m aware she did a lot of testing and calculations.

Tl;DR on DEKeys guide Berserker everything for Scepter + LH for builds with atleast 5 in air, Assassin armor with Berserker Trinkets/Weapons for anything with less than 5 in air. Assuming Ascended Armor, for Exotic, it’s berserker > anything.

(edited by Esmee.1067)

Are keys worth your game time?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

@kokiman

the same logic would also apply to simply working and buying the gems with the money you earned. even at minimum wage it would be a whole lot higher than what you can farm in game.

nailed it, do what you enjoy doing. If somehow you really detest every single way of making gold ingame, apply for a job and buy gems for highest Gold/Hour, though then obviously the game isn’t for you.

Although there are a lot of other factors that should be considered.

For example you will need to travel to get to a job, which will take more time and (unless you’re walking) take away some of the money you earned.

Also in most minimum wage jobs the shortest shift you’ll typically get is 4 hours, once a week. (Even if it’s a zero hour contract meaning they’re not obligated to give you anything they’re unlikely to call you in for an hour at a time.)

And you can’t pick and choose when you do shifts, you do them when they’re assigned to you. Which (if you’re only working that job to get money for gems) may not be when you want it.

I realise it’s highly unlikely anyone ever suggests this as a serious option, but I still feel it’s worth pointing out that it’s not really a practical option. If you happen to have a job where you can work an extra hour as and when you feel like it (instead of when there’s extra work that needs doing) and be paid for it then that might be worth considering, but in my experience jobs like that are rare.

I’d make more money babysitting, walking dogs, etc. than a do per hour ingame (excluding really luck drops ofcourse.) Which is something anyone can do (well in all fairness I can’t walk dogs due to my disability, but I’m certain that’s a rather rare case.)

How-ever I only made the point to make clear that if you feel you need to grind something that gives you no enjoyment what-so-ever to be able to enjoy this game, you really shouldn’t be playing it. Not to say I don’t get any enjoyment from my jobs, but I have done jobs, especially as teenager, I’d did really only for the money and experience and I know not a single minute spend in game should be like that.

Same if X method gives you only 3g an hour, but you enjoy it vs Y method that gives 5g an hour, you should simply consider what’s worth your time more. ^^

Guild Bank and Servers

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

The megaservers are still a work in progress and currently a load of features are being worked on and thus can be a bit difficult to work with.

Guilds are still very much world-tied. Influence is earned per world and upgrades are done per world. (E.g. Guildbank, but also 10% increased anything-buffs.) As for guesting, you can simply team up with your friends and the game will put you in maps together (and if they don’t you can click their portret and click “join in XX” Do take note that you to need to guest to the Guild’s world for guildmissions or you won’t get the reward This is quite important to remember and tends to go wrong often for a lot of guilds. Also re-guest after a dc if you’re doing guildmissions.

Eventually the megaservers should share everything except World vs World (for obvious reasons) so I’d personally hold of on transferring unless you enjoy WvW together, but it can take a while for everything to be working flawlessly.

Official gw2 post to confirm what I’m claiming here. Megaservers, guilds and the future

(edited by Esmee.1067)

Fastest way to level up?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

As for point 2. EotM gives ~4-6 levels depending on the skill of the Commander, the amount of zergs you wipe, or wipe you and the amount of Arrowcarts the opponent throws around. It’s a solid way of leveling (especially if you’re on a Green server from what I’ve heard) due to the sheer experience gained, but also the amount of Karma, Badges and Championbags thrown around, each helping your toon once they hit level 80 (badges can be used for your first set of exotics for a relatively cheap price, Champion bags offer plenty of Scrolls of skillpoint for triats and utilities.)

Definitly get the Waypoints to important places. You might not get any gold for it, but you’ll get experience for it whilst it’s still valuable to you and a lot aswell. Later-on it’s only a nice bonus having the map open for you. Ofcourse it depends on what your toon is going to do, my WvW-only toons haven’t got more than 4 Waypoints on the non-WvW maps each, 1 in Queensdale and 3 in Divinity.

Fastest way to level up?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Fastests ways I know of:

Edge of the Mist, works especially well if you’re Green. Follow a Commander around and get ~4-6 levels an hour depending on whether keeps are defended, which is highly unlikely. All events give good experience and unlike the Borderlands and EB, there’s not much WvW going on in Edge of the Mist.
Gold Pavilion, tag, tag, tag, afk and wait for the 80s to hit Gold and get experience fast, downside, getting a gold map can take a while (need a taxi and then a spot on the server.) Any tokens you get should be traded for Tomes of Knowledge for the best results. (Note: Only 2 days left, likely not worth bothering with)
Crafting, almost always worth crafting a few levels, cooking tends to be ~5g max, Artifice/Jeweler about 10g, 7 levels each. up to date guides
Quick Dungeonpaths, only really reliable if you have friends that can clear dungeons with you quickly, ~75% of a level as endreward. You can relog at the end whilst someone watches the video (make sure someone is watching it and you didn’t open) when your lowbie can’t do dungeons yet. Only as effective as your run-times, not worth it with if you have to PuG (imo)

Are keys worth your game time?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

@kokiman

the same logic would also apply to simply working and buying the gems with the money you earned. even at minimum wage it would be a whole lot higher than what you can farm in game.

nailed it, do what you enjoy doing. If somehow you really detest every single way of making gold ingame, apply for a job and buy gems for highest Gold/Hour, though then obviously the game isn’t for you.

Beginner PvP Tips

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

@Esmee- My Mesmer ~~~~http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRnsISha2oGeqBzaGp1gQ9WqSPJXAKbDqGA-TpRAwAgOCAAuAAIOEAeeAAO3fQdZAA

I haven’t really Engineered but it looks like ~~~~ http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpmq1WxyKseNSiBNqDE6A8iCI6OMu8C-TJRBwAiLDAb/BAXAgEPAAA ~~kind of. It varies a bunch, but that was one I couldn’t do a thing to move. Aggravating to the extreme.

Mesmer build looks interesting, going to try it out! And the Engineer-build is indeed something I encountered and struggled with, seeing it in it’s whole now I think I might just try to avoid it on certain classes.

Dishonered In Solo Arena after DC...

in PvP

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

The Wiki and this thread might help any questions you have.

Tl;DR:
From what I gather you get a 72h ban once you’ve left a match 3 times within 3 days (or smaller) period, dc or not. Each leave gives you a single 24h debuff and it takes effect once you’ve got 3 stacks (so you can dc about 2 times every 3 days.) I’ve yet to get dishonourable in gw2 so can’t be for sure, 72h sounds extremely drastic.

I don’t think this system will ever change since anyone could easily disconnect their PC or laptop when they want to leave a match to avoid any penalty if it’d be any different. My advice is to keep track of your dc’s and gives the stacks time to disappear before risking a 72h (queue)-ban.

In gw1 Reports also counted, I’m unsure how this goes in gw2, but I doubt such a strict ban will count reports as heavily as gw1 did (gw1 had a 4 stack system, 1-2 for leaving, 1 per report, 30m dishonourable debuff.)

Beginner PvP Tips

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Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

I’d just like to say, good questions. I can’t wait for more experienced people to answer them for you better than I can.

@ Serious Thought, mind sharing your Mesmer’s build and the Bunker-Turret Engineer you’ve mentioned? I’m still trying to figure out what everyone is throwing at me!

Is is safe to infuse LoD/CoL/SoG?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

Thank you for your reply. The stories were mainly in map-chats so not too believeable. Would still be a bummer to spend 250 ecto and an Ascended Backpiece to them lose it. ^^ Maybe I confused it with a transmuted skin being lost, but it was after the Wardrope update. I’ll try it soon.

Turn FoTM weapons into skins

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

O.o, 173 Pristine Relics from 49, 37, 30 and 20 Fractals and I’m still sitting on Rifle, Longbow, Shortbow, Shield only. I’m envying that inventory. ^^

Thief or warrior

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Esmee.1067

Esmee.1067

How squishy are thieves compared to an engineer? I’m fine with the survivability my engi has.
Or maybe is it closer to an ele?

In PvE I find the Thieves survivability is closer to an Elementalist due to having the same hp-pool (~11k.) On trash (or any mob without Defiance) Thieves are incredibly survivable due to their high blind-uptime, but on anything with Defience (Champions, Dungeon Bosses, Fractal Bosses) they are closer to an Elementalist having a similar HP-pool and only slightly higher Armor. I feel the extra 4k hp (at 80) on Engineer makes them quite a bit bulkier, where-as a Thief and Ele might get 1-shot, the 15k and 18k hp classes can usually take a second hit.

I can’t judge for PvP situations, Thief is by far the squishiest class I play, but I can pick my fights and either burst them down or escape. On top of that I play Elementalist with Celestial Amulet (I don’t roam with her) and Engineer in Rabid, making them more survivable just due to the gearchoice.

I do think how-ever you can easily level a Thief and work on getting used to the Boss-mechanics to survive, you can also chose to go high into Shadow Arts whilst practicing for an incredible survivability boost. (It’s what I did when I was still very inexperienced) so if Thief sounds a lot better to you than Warrior, go for it. You won’t improve unless you try.