Guild Wars 2

I love Taimi for so many reasons. She and Braham really show the differences between Asura and Norn, where-as no other part of gw2 I’ve experienced really delved into that much. I admireTaimi’s curiousity, even though it’s dangerous, but honestly Scarlet does have qualities to admire, especially from someone who has to rely on brain over brawl. I also enjoy how she gets protected by everyone, she’s still a child, and the way she deals with it. I like how she feels she needs to experience the outside world to learn and improve rather than sitting in labs, no matter how amazing your teacher is.

But most of all I adore how she works for the things she wants. She wants to get around, she builds Scruffy. She wants to meet her hero, she tries to do so. She wants information, she goes around and asks. She’s not waiting for the world to come to her, she’s doing just fine on her own.

If she doesn’t exist for any story in the game, can she just exist since she brightens up my day?

That and surely her time will come in upcoming living stories.

It seems a lot of the Living Stories have some unique rewards tied to them. Such as:
Armor – Scarlet’s Veil, Wurmslayer’s Armor, etc.
Weapons – Scarlet’s Kiss/Rainbow, Annelid Rifle Skin, etc.
Mini’s – Captain Mangus, Mini Cobalt Wurmhead, etc.
Tonics – Quaggan, Thoughtless/Selfless, etc.

Aswell as some Gemstore ones with it, such as:
Armor- Scarlet’s pauldrons/gloves, Zodiac Armor, etc.
Weapons – Black Lion Ticket Weapons, Kashmeer’s Staff, etc.
Mini’s – Molton Berserker, Mai Trinn, Majory, etc.

I prefer to see the Gemstore as a way to pick whichever reward I want from the gold acquired from playing the game, bit of a bonus. That there’re people that actively invest money into a game I love playing and get a small fashion advantage over me, I can live with that. But maybe I’ve had too many unlucky streaks in getting ‘lucky’ and simple adore the ‘everyone gets rewards, just not all rewards’-mentality. Now if I couldn’t exchange gold to gems, or buy black lion tickets of the Trading Post, it’d be a completely different story.

It’s all a matter of opinion. And this is not saying you’re not entitled to yours, just stating mine and I hope it’s without coming across as some A-net-can’t-do-wrong-fan.

I think the fights are well designed. The red/green/blue knights get a bit boring since all 3 are a bit too similar, but atleast you’re not missing out when people want to kill them without zergs. The hologram is a nice concept aswell, getting to the circles can actually prove annoyingly difficult once in a while due to the laser. Nothing too challanging so people who lag during zergs aren’t completely excluded.

How-ever I, too, am very disappointed with all the bugs. First day overflows (and there were many) couldn’t even do the second bit. From there on drops are bugged (maybe?) So far I’ve got drops from the Knights once (full zerg, from 100%-0% so I do assume I managed to tag it) and I’ve done the Hologram 4 times now and I’ve yet to see a chest I’ve heard so many good things about (once again, I doubt I didn’t manage to tag.) I know drops shouldn’t be the reason to do an event once, but it a reason for me to do it twice.

Lastly, achievements that heavily rely on no-one making mistakes, or are easier when you’re leeching on other people’s effort; No free lunch, if someone pulls before enough people arrive, this achievement is generally gone. In tune and No more tricks Scarlet are way easier to achieve by tagging the boss and then afk in the safe corners. I also disagree with build your own Backbone in combination with Nowhere to Hide since it forces players to build an item they have no interest in if they can’t get on a server succeeding the Hologram-event, but I understand games need moneysinks, so what the heck.

I do wish some of the bits from the fight could be downscaled and made into a Fractal or something. But I have a similar wish every Living Story; that there was some way to replay it, just make the rewards less or RNG-based (maybe achievements only 1-time, when the Living Story is live.) I was very disappointed with the Personal Story, I wouldn’t mind a scrying pool to replay old Living Stories.

Skooma.3459:

Like with the hobo sack overlapping?

A late thank you, but exactly! I’ve been looking for how it goes with the hobosacks for a while now, so thank you so much for posting a screenshot!

Pipra.7580:

Myst Dawnbringer.9138:

I just hate the whole rigid outdated 5 man clusterpuppy trinity dungeon idea.

Which trinity is that? Do you mean the DPS-DPS-DPS one?

Kidding aside, I completely agree. Escape from Lion’s Arch was my favorite event since launch. Kudos to Anet!

Guild Wars 2 Trinity: Vulnerability – Might – Fury, Trinity is Trinity

I love both kinds, really hope they make more and more of these living story updates and let them linger in Dungeon-form/Fractal-form aswell.

Could I kindly request a picture of 2 with kits out?

Nat.4029:

Esmee.1067:

I was looking forward to them a lot, but I feel most are a bit of a joke.

- They have odd purple spirals and different effects added
- They sizes are all messed up, hammer/shield used to be a few of the biggest weapons around, now quite tiny, focus/scepter are now (in my opinion) oversized
- They don’t look as much like a set anymore; some are black/purple and others more grey/purple and only a few have the purple swirls.

But I am proud they listened to their community and added the weapons. I’m not 100% fond of the Black Lion Ticket system but it seems rather effective, there’s always plenty of supply on the Trading Post at relatively reasonable prices (60g/ticket’ish) We all decided to play an MMO without a subscription, those who expect no money-grabbing moves are really beyond me. Guild Wars 2 is made by a company with the goal to make money, not ‘just’ to please you. They gem-gold/gold-gem conversion is brilliant aswell. Anything I want, I can get with ingame money. Those who rather do it the other way around, can chose to do so aswell. I’m not saying Guild Wars is flawless, but I think it’s system is working fine, even if that means not everything I want is handed to me on a silverplatter.

As for the gw1 vets. We played Guild Wars 1 for our enjoyment, not to get some ‘advantage’ in another game. We got our rewards and we should be happy they give us nostalgic moments like these, but every player in the community should be allowed to enjoy it. We’re not special just because we enjoyed a different game aswell.

They need to make their money. That’s fine. I just want to see the game get to a point where the content being added is permanent and doesn’t take a backseat to the Gem Shop.

Then we are in complete agreement, because I’d never say no to new permanent content either. Though that feels more Living Story vs Permenent Content to me. I’m a glass-half-full type, anything we get (especially when requested) is very welcome.

Vol.7601:

blakdoxa.7520:

Vol.7601:

Mishee.5719:

It’s good that they took this into Gw2. But for kittening sake, why are they locking it behind tickets ONCE AGAIN! Are they serious with us! Pomp more money our of us like this. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Get us P2P Instead of this kittening major bullcrap! I will kittening quit this game soon becouse this is inmoral kitten they are doing to their fanbase!

Because ticket sales work? I’m sorry you cannot afford the real $ or the in game gold to afford these weapons. If you want something free, you have you flame sword.

So you’re supposed to be right because you are willing to pay $xxx.xx (yes hundreds) or gold for BLT keys without any guarantee that you are getting what you are paying for?
You and the person you quoted are certainly living under different circumstances, in where you either have the money to blow or have the time to acquire gold in this game and they seem to not have this luxury.

Still doesn’t make it any better to enable or appease pleasures/addictions.
All hail hedonism.

As the link indicated, you can choose to have a guaranteed way to purchase tormented skins. Wait a day and the prices will fall down to 60g across the board.

If you choose to gamble and lose, don’t blame anyone else.

And we’re all forgetting you don’t ‘need’ the weapons to play the game. They’re just a cosmetic item…

I was looking forward to them a lot, but I feel most are a bit of a joke.

- They have odd purple spirals and different effects added
- They sizes are all messed up, hammer/shield used to be a few of the biggest weapons around, now quite tiny, focus/scepter are now (in my opinion) oversized
- They don’t look as much like a set anymore; some are black/purple and others more grey/purple and only a few have the purple swirls.

But I am proud they listened to their community and added the weapons. I’m not 100% fond of the Black Lion Ticket system but it seems rather effective, there’s always plenty of supply on the Trading Post at relatively reasonable prices (60g/ticket’ish) We all decided to play an MMO without a subscription, those who expect no money-grabbing moves are really beyond me. Guild Wars 2 is made by a company with the goal to make money, not ‘just’ to please you. They gem-gold/gold-gem conversion is brilliant aswell. Anything I want, I can get with ingame money. Those who rather do it the other way around, can chose to do so aswell. I’m not saying Guild Wars is flawless, but I think it’s system is working fine, even if that means not everything I want is handed to me on a silverplatter.

As for the gw1 vets. We played Guild Wars 1 for our enjoyment, not to get some ‘advantage’ in another game. We got our rewards and we should be happy they give us nostalgic moments like these, but every player in the community should be allowed to enjoy it. We’re not special just because we enjoyed a different game aswell.

SwiftFishy.2643:

Esmee.1067:

snip

i absolutely love the ascended headwear, but its hard to make and i do like the crucible of eternity aswell as parts of t2….

Glad I gave the link, our tastes are quite different it seems. If you click on the Armor’s names there will usually be a preview code (copy + past into a whisper to yourself) so you can check out how combinations would look on your toon and in the colours you’d like.

Hope that helps, since I don’t know how else to help. Surely more suggestions will come, have a wonderful day.

Nothing you can do besides finding members to talk to. If you did get kicked for no reason, like Astral said; move on, they’re not worthy of having you as their guildmate. It’s a shame something like this happened to you though, any explaination is a sad one; Guildleader got hacked or you got a treatment you didn’t deserve.

I know for sure it rewards Karma, but didn’t check if it was personal level or fractal level, but judging from other rewards and chart I’d say fractal level. It should be affected by boosters since it doesn’t come from a consumeable.

I’d still say it’s only worth it if you need the Agony Resistance slots for Fractals level 40+

I’d also recommend using GW2crafts.net until level 350, then refine Mithril (will need it for Deldrimor Ingots) and at 400 refine Orichalcum or Gossemar or Ancient Wood since it sells slightly below it’s non-refined counterpart (gw2crafts.net calculates the cheapest and then generates the sell-back) until 425. Then you’re stuck to some normal level until 450. From there on I refined the materials I needed for the Ascended gear and daily for a bit of profit, now all I have left is 475-500, which I’ll do once the Berserker changes are here and I’ve decided between Mesmer, Elementalist or Guardian for main. It hardly cost me any money just to level the craft, simply patience.

The only Angelic bits I’ve seen so far is bits of the Cultural T2 (bulky) and T3. Caudecus’s Manor helmet looks Angelic in my nieces option, so she forces me to write it down. Zodiac and Phalanx get a special mention, first one since some might find it Angelic with the right pieces to go with it and Phalanx because I think it dyes lovely in Celestial, fits the t3 human shoulders (second most Angelic piece for heavy, imo) and the Dwanya backpiece (most Angelic piece in the game, imo.) Phalanx goes for female only, maybe.

This might help:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human_female_heavy_armor
Since opinions differ, I had the same plan for Guardian (Genesis + Angelic look) and ended up with: Halo, hidden Helmet, T3 Shoulders, Phalanx Chest/Leggings, T3 Boots (unsure about those) and I’ve yet to decide on gloves, currently HotW one. Would go for the Dwanya backpiece, but it can’t be infused, which I find an issue.

Goodluck and make sure to post a picture in the Guardian Screenshot bit when you’re done!

Haven’t been playing for as long as you’ve been gone so I can’t give exact details (the update notes on the forums can, but that’s quite a read) I think the most vital ones are:

PvE/WvW
- Ascended Weapons and Armors are craftable (many guides/wiki-page available)
- New WvW map; Edge of the Mist (wiki-page availabe)
- Vigil Keep is the new Lion Arch, temporarity, lacks a few services such as Laurel Vendor and Crafting Stations without a pass, but racial-cities still have them.
- Soon to be: Berserker-nerf, just a warning in case you’re about to re-gear, in that case I’d wait out the nerf (affects any gear with Critical Chance/Damage if I recall correctly.)

PvP
- Glory is (soon to be?) removed, but I don’t PvP in this game so can’t help you out there.

Not too much I can think of, most updates revolve around Scarlet and the Living Story, you can read up about it, but sadly can’t replay chapters. I recommend just logging in and read up as specific questions arise.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Prysin.8542:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Another idea would be to change Healing Power to Boon Power. Basically every boon would be affected by it. So if you want strong mightstacks or strong protection, you would have to invest points into Boon Power.

bad idea, it would hurt builds/skills that benefit stronly from healing power, such as most healing skills, Guard shout on rangers, traited shouts on warriors, water attunement on ele and so on.

Bad idea, bad bad idea

Why should it hurt healingpower builds? o.O
Healingpower would be the only boon which doesn’t get hit by this change.

It’s a risky concept though. Boons have a maximum amount of stacks. Right now if a pugs goes over 25 might/Vulnerability and has Perma Fury, smart people will swap out a certain weapon or utility for something else, generally a high damage ability (e.g. Warrior dropping FGJ for Frenzy/Signet or S/D Elementalist swap to D/F or Staff,) and stay effective, how-ever if you build yourself and your gear around stacking strong protection/might and you run into PuGs that did the same, you’re becoming way less effective. (Condition-specs anyone?)

For orginized groups, yes, I don’t see an issue if it’s worked out well (I couldn’t quite understand your reply to Prysin’s concerns) but for PuGs this can be a painful option.

A-net wanted a game where people didn’t need certain builds/classes to get PvE-content done, it’s the communities ‘fault’ we decide we want to get content done as quickly as we can. Kind of an obvious result though, I’ve yet to encounter an MMO where people prefer getting things done slowly.

Ironicly from what I’ve heard about gw1 PvE in the end they almost had it spot on there. You needed a healer? Well usually someone in your group could change builds a bit to still be a decent healer (Necromancer, Elementalist, Monks, Ritualist definitly, to some extend Dervishes and Mesmer and even Paragons could do quite well, leaving only Warriors as a non-healing/protecting class.) Ofcourse certain combinations were optimal, but you’ll always run into that issue.

I’d pick your server based on their World vs World because it’s the only thing you can’t guest. Guesting allows for the same experience as when playing on your own server. (European servers can only guest to European servers and up to 2 servers in a 24h period, but besides that there’s no issue.)

I can say I very much enjoy SFR’s WvW, but due to the server restriction I can’t compare it to anything else. Desolation is my usual go-to server when I do anything Open-World related, this started because a friend played there, but it always gave me a warm and welcome feeling so it turned into a habbit.

You must have run into some kind of bug. It’s actually the other way around; 2 of the same Sigils don’t stack (on kill Sigils being the exception and I’ve heard Force is bugged.) So your Sigil of Strenght should have applied the Might-stacks, I have no idea why it didn’t.

Siamak.8126:

But in your experience would you say Guardian’s GS is all around better or Warrior’s GS? also same question applies to Sword and Shield as this is the main combination i’ll be using for my character.

In the current meta-builds both Warrior and Guardian use Greatswords. Sword is a popular choice for the Guardian, where-as a Warrior usually runs Axe with their Greatsword since Greatsword is a Power-based weapon and Sword more Condition-based (for non PvE-situations, they’re both amazing mobility and thus sometimes used together.) For both of them Shield are currently in a rather weak position and aren’t used as much. How-ever all this is meta, if you want to use Sword/Shield, find a way to make it work for you.

Siamak.8126:

Despite the fact that Guardian has lower health, can they build to be durable and also do decent damage in Dungeons and Open world PVE??

Both can be build defensive with their traits/gear, the only difference is that Warrior’s durability mainly comes from Passive effects, such as Healing Signets regen and relying on a great healthpool/armor. Their active defence is Whirling (Greatsword 3) if there’s a wall present or you’re low on endurance, it’s basicly another dodge with a bit of damage. Guardian’s survivability can be build for passive, but mainly comes from active abilities. This through either stacking Protection (Hammer can keep it up permanent) and Regeneration or (in PvE) even better Aegis and Blinds.

In short, a bad Warrior is more survivable than a bad Guardian, how-ever a good Guardian will have more tools available than a good Warrior, given them an edge. A Guardian applies the active survivability party-wide how-ever, meaning a Warrior with a decent Guardian will be once again, more survivable. But all in all, the difference isn’t too big.

Agree with Koki, but slightly more elaborated:
Warrior is relatively forgiving by having the highest base-HP and base-Armor, making it easy to play aggressive and dealing damage without having to worry as much about survivibility. This also result to them being easy/fast to level (only second to Ranger in my case) And in teams (PvE) people expect offensive support from you and that you do DPS, which is generally easier when learning fights (to buff your teams damage is the same every fight, to keep them alive tends to be a different story.)

I agree once again with Koki that it’s the best to play around with builds yourself, but to start of with Warrior equip Signets (passive increase to either damage or survivility) and the Arms-trait to give yourself more percision per signet equiped. Early on this scales extremely well giving you an easy start. Do experiment with builds when you feel comfortable to do so, since this set-up is not made for level 80s that team up.

As for gear:
Greatsword is an amazing all round weapon due to it’s mobility (3 + 5 do turn Auto-targetting off) and high Damage, combined with a second set with X/Warhorn for some Swiftness and AoE-weakness (to make open-world mobs hit even less.) Stat-wise either go Power / Percision to kill faster or Toughness/Vitality to survive longer. I personally always level in Power/Percision since I rather kill before I get killed, but I know some people prefer Toughness/Vitality.

OldSomalia.6180:

FateOmega.9601:

Staff guardian makes tagging mob for loot very easy.

Staff guardian makes getting kicked from a dungeon very easy

If you recommend Guardian as main toon ‘just’ for it’s tagging potentional in Open World / WvW Zerg-farming, I’m worried.

I agree with Khisanth

I personally open all non-exotic boxes at level ~20-60 (if I have a toon at that level-range) since from my experience it’s more profitable. The materials (common and rare) around that level-range from salvaging tend to be a lot higher than the level 80 materials (market prices on the gear follows the material prices) think; Iron Ore, Cotton Scraps, Linen Scraps (leather items I generally sell.) but also lower tiers of the Lodestone families and I’ve been told the changes to get t6 materials is way lower than from an exotic box, but I’ve never seen proof, I believe it to be true how-ever from experience.

In the end it all depends on luck though I assume. Real life luck, Magic Find doesn’t affect boxes.

Thank you for your replies, I honestly think the group I was with ment it, since it was AC path 3, not exactly a dungeon worth kicking people for to sell. It just got me curious, this is the first game I ever paid attention to it (likely since it’s talked over a lot more since Anet actually uses the ban-hammer once in a while) when it’s outside odd things like people being able to leave gates early in PvP or just fly all over the screen. And the famous GW1 bots (not just GW1, but once again, more discusses than in any other game I’ve played.) About everything else I just tended to see as designers flaw, time to fix.

Just to sum it all up:
- Mesmer, even if build for it, have some uptime to push out AoE, likely not fast enough to tag as much as say an Engineer/Necromancer. (My level 16 and 2 Engineer and Necromancer tag just as easily if not easier at that level than my Mesmer does at 80)
- Mobility is a similar story, though with short distances Blink and Curtain aren’t bad.
- He was most likely in a group for easier kill credit
- He likely used every buff available; Halloween Food, Nourishment, XP Boosters (some stack) Laurel Booster, Guildbuff, Banners etc.
- He might have tagged prioritized tagging events over simple kills (this greatly set me appart from some friends.)
- He might have had instances with more people zerging (there’re were more people zerging the first few days) making the events spawn harder (longer time to tag) but also more mobs (especially if you get a lucky moment the Miasma spawns in the Bank)

Bonus-guesses
- Maybe he crafted a bit along aswell and didn’t tell you.
- Access to odd upscaled tag-beast skills (my Engi got upscaled in such an odd way her bombs dealt similar damage to level 80 zerk Ele’s abilities whilst Grenades hit like a wet-noodle)

If you did everything in this list (what’s possible) he might just have gone zombie for a few days playing 24/7 (take that with a grain of salt)

Nice catch on the non-informative brag-post in the middle.

It’s logical you can’t really pick. Both look the same, both have plenty of weaponchoices, both are well beloved and well-rounded classes, both use the greatsword you love so much in meta-builds and both do around the same DPS (in group-situations.) What sets them appart the most in my opinion:

Warrior is mainly offensive support, which means that for almost every fight you’ll be using the same utilities, swapping out maybe your off-hand weapon. Warrior also has one of the best, if not best, mobility in game. Guardian is the defensive support counterpart. Every fight requires different defenses (do you need Stability, Condition Removal, Reflects or just some Regen/Protection, you’ve got it) and thus different utilities. On top of that you bring tons of party survival (in DPS and supportbuilds alike) through Blind (Sword 2, Greatsword 3, F1 if traited) and Aegis (Retreat, F3) which is likely why Guardians are a bit squishier (solo active defenses make up for it, but in a team you’re simply a bit squishier.)

I can’t tell you which one you’ll enjoy more, but hopefully the way they differ to me can help you make your choice. I favor my Guardian over my Warrior since I like adjusting to the needs of every fight and enjoy the challange of landing blinds and Aegis at the right times, compared to that Warrior feels a bit simple and too forgiving to be fun.

Today I got kicked out of a group for using Fiercy Greatsword 4 vs a wall for the reason ’it’s an exploit we don’t want to get banned’ no biggy, but it made me incredibly curious. What is considered an exploit and what’s considered smart use of the game mechanics and is up to the developers to change? Most notable:

- Fiercy Greatsword and the likes (Whilrwind, dodging etc.) vs a wall
- Dungeon buying (if the seller used exploits)
- Solo’ing a Dungeon with exploits without selling
- Using ports and portals for non-profit (such as the Dredge Fractals old Mesmer Blink/Portal ‘skip’ which is fixed I believe (ty devs!))
- Reaching area’s that aren’t usually accessable through normal (spacebar) jumping (such as the portals in Fort Trinity)
- The above but as a way to make a boss not much of a threat

These are all things people have yelled ‘exploit’ at in my presence and I wonder what is and what isn’t an exploit. I must admit before gw2 I thought exploits only excisted in PvP and the rest was considered being smart/creative, so my apologies if this is something that should be obvious.

Thank you in advance

The dungeon mentor thing seems amazing to be honest, I’d highly recommend that from reading the links. I was lucky enough a friend showed me end-game until I gathered the courage to pug. (Silly fear of disappointing people.)

Since I didn’t in my post, I like to stress that atleast 50% of the groupfinder parties I see don’t ask specific classes and from experience the ones that do aren’t a safe-bet either so don’t play a class you don’t like for them. If none of the groups are to your liking you can always form your own. Knowing how to deal with mechanics gets dungeons done, anything else gets it done a bit faster.

I like the idea (I could use a toon to actually use the selfless and thoughtless potion on) but I do think it needs a bit of tuning;

The weapons; For a class that works with attunements (like Elementalist) it’s a bit extremely to also have the wide variety of weaponsets of 3 Main-hands, 4 off-hands, 3 2-handed weapons. This might lead to a class being able to fill a lot of roles by a mere weaponswap. Then again 2 ‘attunements’ isn’t much and they have a hefty cooldown.

Angelic Fury, 10s of Quickness, Protection, Regeneration, Might and Fury. This makes it a Time Warp (Elite) http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Time_Warp “Hold the Line” (Utility) http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22Hold_the_Line%22 and “For Great Justice” (Utility) http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/For_Great_Justice in one. Sounds a bit overpowered to me unless you give it such a cooldown it can be used once per instance.

Demonic Posession takes it a step further; 50% chance to deal the damage to your ally instead doesn’t ‘just’ translate in damage, it also translates in extremely strong protection for your own team (50% chance to not get hit for 10s) I think that one needs a rework big-time. On top of the damage coming from brainless PvE monsters can result in making this an extremely high DPS-ability.

For Martyrdom I’d need to know the recharge. In PvE it would mean a more costly Light of the Deliverance http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Light_of_Deliverance since your targets won’t stay invulnerable long unless you have extremely high Vitality and Toughness and the downing will heal them to full (unless they have a ridicilous amount of Vitality.) But having amazing uses in PvP and 3/4th cast allows you to prevent wipes completely (bit like a warrior going Vengeance and dropping a banner when 5 people got downed, except they fully die most fights.)

Sacrificial Punishment has a similar issues to Demonic Possenssion, in PvP people could work with it, making it an amazing defense nonetheless, but in PvE this would once again be an amazing DPS-ability. I’m not too sure how it would work.

It might be worth working a bit more with excisting mechanics such as Torment, Weakness and Confusion (or any other Condition ofcourse) or buffs like Retaliation for the Demonic Abilities. The class idea sounds really fun though, I’d keep working with it. Interested to hear more about it!

Brief version:
Guardian, Warrior, Elementalist, Mesmer.

Long version:
Guardian: Condition Removal, Lots of Blind, Stability, Reflects, Protection, Aegis whilst maintaining high DPS.
Warrior: Banners (Discipline/Strenght) Party-wide Might/Fury, easy to play (thus less chance to get a warrior that drags down the team)
Elementalist: Firefields + Blastfinishers = Loads of group Might(/Fury) = More DPS from everyone, Conjured Weapons (most notabily Fiercy Greatsword)
Mesmer: Reflects, high DPS, some Stability, Condition Removal, Time Wrap, Portal to help bad pugs/skip content/group-wide mobility in certain cases. (Situational. but due to Time Wrap pugs will love you.)

More for orginized groups:
Ranger: Spotter (trait) for precision for the party and Frost Spirit. People are too scared to get a bearbow, making it really tough to pug with a Ranger.
Thief: Stealth to make certain tactical parts a joke (and skipping) perma blind, decent weakness uptime. Less effective if your team doesn’t understand what you can bring to a group. (S/P for trash, D/D or S/P for bosses) Once again have a poor name with PuGs due to people playing them selfishly or simply bad.

Quick google for what I think are up to date guides with builds included:
Guardian: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first
Warrior: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83915-axemace-dps-build-for-dungeons-and-fractals-101513/
Elementalist: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-DPS-Elementalist-for-PvE/first#post3436702
Mesmer: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83936-the-new-mesmer-meta/
Ranger: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/84268-the-perfect-dps-ranger-guide-for-real/
Thief: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/87167-a-guide-to-the-thief-meta/

InBeforeHate: Yes, obviously he should play whatever he want and ofcourse there’re non-zerker, non-stacking groups.

For PvE-only;
Elementalist can provide a lot of fields (for PvE mainly Fire-fields and WvW-zerg a mixture of Fire and Water) and the ability to blast them for party-wide effects. An Elementalist can easily maintain 9-18 stacks of might and permanent fury. Their conjured weapons can also be invaluable in certain places of the game. Elementalist stay effective in different weaponsets and different traits, something other classes don’t always shine in. Something that can be a big turn-off is that they’re possible one of the squishiest classes (low base-HP and armor) and their active defensive capabilities either take up a utility slot or require attunement swapping (which in return can affect what you’re trying to do.)

Guardian can provide a lot of defensive support. If traited they provide a lot of blind through Virtue of Justice on thrash on top of their easy access to party-wide Stability, Conditionremoval, Protection/Aegis and have a high uptime on Reflects. And this is just from a zerkers point of view. To get the fullest out of them you need to know when and where to take certain utilities. Also one of the easier WvW zerg-classes to stay alive with and the stability is invaluable aswell as Tome of Courage. Downside can be (for roaming mainly) that your mobility is heavily dependant on your utilities (Retreat and if desired Save Yourselves.) Little plus side, almost every group will absolutely adore a half competent Guardian. Due to all this, I think if I’d have to pick 1 main, this would be it. (I’m currently maining Guardian, Elementalist and Mesmer.)

Engineer To me personally I feel I’m trying to do an elementalists job, but I’m weaker at it, I also rarely encounter a good Engineer in PvE, so I fear I’m not the right person to advertise this class. They seem extremely versitile though when you see them roaming in WvW and their zerg tagging potentional is amazing. Some groupstealth possibilities, all in all, seen some pretty beast Engi’s rock WvW. Seem ridicilous to master though.

^ This is how I perceive the classes and how I feel they stand out. Not looking for an argument or to be negative about anyone’s favourite class.

I doubt you’re overlooking anything. I’ve looked into it for keyfarming, but so far only account-bound shoes/leggings/gloves/top seem to be available with no level requirement.

If I’m wrong, please someone point it out, it will greatly help my keyfarming. ^^

Whilst still getting used to the game I’d recommend investing in Orbs rather than Runes. Over-all the Orbs tend to be cheaper than runes and add a decent amount of stats, where-as Runes are often picked on a certain effect they have which fits the traits you run, like Soldier’s 6th buff will go to waste if you don’t run shouts (and even then a single condition seems a bit mediocre to me.)

I’d recommend either Beryl Orb (Power, Vitality, Critical damage) or Ruby Orb (Power, Percision, Critical damage) since Knights lacks Critical Damage, which makes the percision you’re stacking less useful. Once you got a feel of endgame you can always override them with a rune fitting your playstyle.

I can only speak for PvE since I didn’t enjoy PvP in this game much. Having both a Guardian and Warrior I can say both are great classes and fun to play, but luckily quite different which should hopefully make the choice easier. Which sets them apart for me;

Guardian
- More engaging playstyle when it comes down to utilities, I change them often depending on my groups needs per fight.
- Excellent defensive support through Projectile defence, blinds, party-wide Condition Removal, Protection, and Stability being very accessible.
- More active than passive survivability
- Below average mobitility
- Very forgiving leveler, (I’m impressed if anything manages to kill you.)
- Very beloved in parties, though usually 1-2.
- Really feels that if I play my Guardian well, I can make a difference in a group that’s struggling.

Warrior
- Often build in a certain way and doesn’t adept once set up (e.g. you don’t often, if at all, swap utilities)
- Unique and excellent offensive party-support through Banners.
- Great mobility, possibly best in the game
- Very beloved in parties and people seem to think you can’t have too many.
- People tend to not expect much more than good DPS from a Warrior, making it an easy class to start with in Dungeons/Fractals.
- Extremely fast leveler due to combination high damage, high health, high armor, high mobility.
- Easy learning curve making it an excellent class to start out with.

If nothing in that list stands out or you simply want what to know what I’d pick. I’d pick Warrior for the following reasons; It’s easy to play well, it doesn’t have much to think about and it levels extremely fast, allowing you to enjoy every aspect of the game in no time. You could always roll a Guardian later or take the leveling slow once you’ve got a toon for engaging in anything you’d like to do, ranging from Dungeons and Fractals to WvW and Guildmissions.

Hopefully some people can give a good insight on WvW and PvP. On that note, remember that PvP can be done with a level 2 character and you’ll be 100% equal to a level 80, might be worth trying the classes out first if you enjoy PvP anyway.

Try out Escape from Lion’s Arch if you can get to the Gerdarran Fields. (South of the Vigil Keep which you can get to by entering Heart of the Mist and going through the old LA-portal.) You’ll get scaled up, you will see plenty of people and if you can tag a bit will get loads of experience. Might be a nice change from the leveling you’ve been doing so far. But ye, low-level maps aren’t too populated, even if there wasn’t a brand new Living Story.

TL;DR at the bottom.
Obviously it differs per aspect of the game, but due to the level 80 part I’m guessing it’s either WvW or PvE. Elementalist main shine in being able to put down long-lasting/low cooldown Fire fields (and for WvW Staff with Waterfields) and the ability blast them along with high DPS (but also low base-armor/low base-HP) but they can do this in multiple weaponsets, not just D/D and Staff. There’s always; D/F, S/D, S/F, all at their max potentional within 600m range (due to the range of party-wide buffs any class applies this goes for any class/weapon) I’d start building a set-up that fits you by picking a weaponset, then matching up the traits and lastly fit the gear with it.

For PvE:
The weapon I think suits your needs most would be; Dagger/Focus. Focus provides long-lasting firefields for offensive support aswell as strong defensive capabilities to keep yourself alive such as; Air-4 for anti-projectile, Air-5 for a knockdown, Earth-4 for Condition Removal, short-anti-projectile and Earth-5 for Invulnerability.

To have access to the survivability from your weapons on-demand I’d recommend going atleast 30 in Air for Fresh Air so it won’t affect your damage as much. Rest would be up to your preferance though I personally am a big fan of 30/30/10/0/0 to provide my group with Fury on top of Might due to Persisting Flames. Due to Persisting Flames I always take Arcane Brilliance as Heal and Arcane Wave in my utilities, the other 2 depend on the fight. Think skills such as Signet of Fire, Arcane Shield, Glyph of Storms (Earth) or Cantrips. Cantrips are likely the best options we have towards survivability since we’re simply a very squishy class.

Lastly you gear, as an Elementalist (and due to the condition cap) it’s usually recommend to go Power-based. I’d recommend a healthy mixture of Berserker/Knight/Soldier/Valkyrie etc. depending on your preferances, obviously Berserker being the highest DPS-option and Soldier the highest Survivability. It’s one of the few places an Elementalist can find some passive survivability (along-side Signet of Earth.)

For WvW Zerging
You’ll almost always be stuck in Staff due to the supportive (Waterfields and (near-perma) Firefield, AoE Swiftness for moving around) and AoE capabilities in PTV gear with points into Water-Magic of likely Earth for more survivability and support. I don’t use my Elementalist in WvW anymore so no up to date build.

For Roaming the bursty style of D/D will likely be fantastic, but I prefer roaming with other classes, so someone else can help you out a lot better.

TL;DR: Try out some other weaponsets, my recommendation;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAo9mEEVZAPiBkwDBgBKgRhOQ8wCcAOE-jQxAYLhQiAIVAQXjpcJiqBA-e

I run dungeons almost every day since I’ve been playing (6-8 weeks) and I’ve been kicked once and this wasn’t related to AP (was a 4/5 guildgroup and I got kicked when the last boss was at 30%, no wipes, no deaths, I’m quite sure we can all speculate why.) I’ve also never have to wait long for a dungeon-group if I form one myself, whether I put restrictions on them or not.

There’re plenty of groups in the group finder not asking for certain AP or certain classes or certain gear, join those groups. If you join a 5k+ AP group with <5k AP or a full zerk group in PvT gear or a group asking for class x whilst you’re class y simply don’t even try to join them, because you can expect a kick. If there’re no parties forming, form your own.

I think the Guild Wars 2 groupfinder is a wonderful thing because you can find like-minded people. A groupfinder post can often say enough about what kind of people would join, rather than get the first in line assigned to you. Sometimes I have a few hours to play and I just want to fully zerk my way through a dungeon as quick as possible, I can (try to) get a group dedicated to that and other days I’ve got all the time in the world and can simply join any party that catches my interest. I know the first response is going to be ‘join a guild/kitten elitist’ but I too struggle with my health, I’m a chronic pain-patient, I have nights I can’t sleep and the days make up for that, it’s nice being able to play the way I want to play whenever I want to, which is a bit too much to expect from a guild.

TL;DR: Read the groupfinder descriptions and join groups that you fit. If none are available, make your own groups, it really doesn’t take long whether it’s with or without restrictions.

I’m sad I got it for the following reasons;

- Disappears on transformation
- Can’t be used in Dungeons
- Doesn’t go onto your clones, making it a no-no for Mesmers

And I’m a bit disappointed with the looks in almost every angle except the one the preview picture from the patchnotes came with, but hopefully it only bothers me.

All Scholars/Light Armors (which will have the most mage-like image I’m guessing as a non-WoW-player) have access to the same armor, so wouldn’t base your choice on that. You can PvP as an 80 straight away, might be worth checking all classes that caught your eye out, but like Knifejaw made clear, Elementalist sounds like what you’re looking for.

Edit: Rewards seem to have changed since yesterday ^^
What is it that I’m missing about the Escape from Lion Arch event gold-wise. I farmed a few events on Necro in a zerg with 245% MF and I get;
- ~2 rares
- ~200 Alliance Bags
- ~1-3 Group Effort bags
- ~60 White/Blue/Green

I go on Thief for a mixture of Heirlooms and Citizen saving;
- 40 Heirlooms
- ~60-120 Alliance Bags
- ~2-3 Group Effort bags
- ~20-40 White/Blue/Green

My lowbies following a zerg get similar rewards as my necro, though usually around 150 Alliance bags since I die more often or play safer and tag less, and no rares ofcourse. Along with a sweet 2 levels (without tome of knowledge.)

With the right dungeon paths I get similar amount of White/Blue/Greens and Rares and the guaranteed end-reward of 1-3g in a shorter amount of time and tokens to salvage for Gossemar Insignia’s and such. I heard champ-train is just as profitable as dungeons more or less. I won’t argue the XP you get in LA is amazing, but just gold? Someone reveal the secret to that please.

As for the OP, the usual answers will include;
- TP-flipping
- Worldboss Farm (get a timer such as gw2stuff . com)
- Dungeons (easy paths, AC/TA/SE/CoF tend to be the most active in groupfinder)
- Champtrain in Frostgorge (ask for order/current location in map)

I hope it’s reuseable rather than a stay forever thing. Nabuko, how does the Clockwatch work? Is it a reuseable Tonic that stays accountbound or does it because Soulbound? I’m just guessing it will work the same and my curiousity doesn’t like waiting a whole week.

I’m also having quite some issues that I’ve never seen before, not as bad as yours sound, but being stuck on fully loading for about 30 minutes isn’t too favourable. Also experiencing dc’s (which I’ve not yet had except for 1 or 2 times, but that was my own connection) and lag, even though before I didn’t even experience those in the average WvW zerg. The odd thing is that it’s everywhere, not just LA. Anyone know a idiot-friendly fix?

Gabe.6810:

Mobility and/or Trickiness

- Any class if specced or wielding certain weapons. Best to worst likely being something like; Warrior > Thief / Elementalist / Engineer > Ranger / Mesmer > Necromancer
Here I looked at a combination for perma-swiftness and leaps/teleports.

Gabe.6810:

Smooth Feel

- Almost any class has this, though be wary of; Warrior – Hundered Blades, Ranger – Sword 1 chain and Mesmers Blurred Frenzy (might have missed a few.)

Gabe.6810:

Damage over time and/or giant numbers

- Any class specced and played correctly will do amazing numbers, Engineer is the only class I can really think of having an impressive combination of high numbers and DoT due to Grenades and Elementalist elite Fiercy Greatsword used correctly makes some people kitten their pants.

Gabe.6810:

Preparation

- Mightstacking (or swiftness in WvW whilst moving around in a zerg,) done by any class with blast finishers/fire-field (so, anyone but mesmer could provide a little) but Engineer and Elementalist definitly stand out in this aspect.

Gabe.6810:

Visuals

- Depends on your taste, looks are per armor-class (Light, Medium, Heavy) and animations are once again taste dependant.

Gabe.6810:

Solo/AoE

- Most classes have a healthy mix of single target and AoE damage. Though Mesmer and Thief have their strongpoint in single target (but with a cleave with certain weapons) damage. Mesmer can stack mobs easily when using Focus 4 correctly.

Gabe.6810:

Less switching

- Any class except Elementalist and Engineer. How-ever almost any class, if you want to get the most out of it, will do a healthy mix of weapon-swapping and utility changing depending on the situations. Exceptions to this rule are; Warrior, often stuck to the same utilities since they’re just that good or your build is dependant on it. Necromancer, often specced for certain utilities, how-ever they often do a mix between 2 weapons and death shroud (which has it’s own skill-bar) This doesn’t mean you can’t do things in the game by sticking to the same weaponset and same 3 utilities, it’s just not recommended in most cases.

Just my 2 cents.

Fastest to slowest for me;
- Buying Tomes of Knowledge (if you have the glory already)
- (Crafting)
- Dungeon running (assuming you have people accepting lower levels or let you relog at the end)
- Event-chains with a lot of killing (e.g. Modniir Ulgoth meta-event at 40-60)
- Exploring
- Champtrains

Last time I check ‘fun’ is still based on people’s opinion rather than a fact. Though the qualities might help you determine what you’d like the most;
Warrior
- With a simple respec/gear change able to Roam, Zerg and PvE efficiently.
- Very beloved in parties due to the unique buffing mechanics of Banners.
- Loads of passive survivability (highest base-HP and Armor.)
- Easy learning curve.
- Not too versitile in utilities (in PvE people more or less expect you to run For Great Justice + Banner of Strenght or Discipline all the time.)
- Likely the best mobility in the game with easy access to perma swiftness and movement in weapons (such as Greatsword 3 + 5 and Sword 2.)

Thief
- Stealth whilst Roaming is simply amazing, all in all good roamer and relatively forgiving. (stealth makes you able to escape almost anything)
- Very squishy, making the learning curve more challanging.
- Great incombat mobility and good out of combat mobility.
- Less beloved in PvE-pugs, most of their group utility only shines in a group that understands them and works with them.

These were just the basics that set them appart in my opinion. I personally enjoy playing my thief more than my warrior, but in reality (I exclusively PuG since my friends quit) I only use her to roam in WvW since PuGs hate thieves and she’s not made for zerging.

Nilkemia.8507:

Seeing as they did next to nothing in the fight against Zhaitan or even back when Claw Island and the city got attacked the first time, why would they suddenly show up now?

Destiny’s Edge was working on their own problems whilst you did your personal story and didn’t reunite completely until Arah, even there I’m not sure it was a 1-time thing or permanent. Part of your story (dungeons) is helping them overcome their problems and help you. So expecting the whole of Destiny’s Edge in your Personal Story is a bit odd.

But ye due to the voice-actors, even now we can’t expect them. A shame, but understandable.

Just to not take any risks;

wertyword.7342:

When is patch time?

Main-hand pistol would make me very happy, so I’m not stuck with either Scepter is simply annoying in a phantasm build by only using AA chain 1-2 or a overly situational weapon like Greatsword.

I personally would prefer it if weapons stayed things I’d consider weapons, cards doesn’t quite fit that or the image I have with mesmer, but I’m very alone in that. A bow with illusionary arrows sounds quite attractive like Xaylin suggested. If it’s Cupid-themed I wish I didn’t make my Elementalist so Cupid-like but my mesmer.

But all in all, any variety they add would be welcomed by me. Even more if they come with the whisperblade-like skins. (Cliché, I know, but it’s purple pink and glows, sue me.)

But troll-portals are so much fun! But no, I agree, it could help greatly in envoirments were communication is limited.

I share in Invictus’ opinion. Illusions are exactly the kind of thing I expected reading the name ‘mesmer’ and the blinking and portals add to the feel aswell. Unique? No, but this is more or less what I expected ~6-8 years ago when I got gw1, now I got it. Shame it’s such an opinion thing.

The PU condition build especially stunned me the first time I saw it in action, it’s like all my 15y old imaginations upon reading the mesmers gw1 description.

(This being said, nothing will ever beat the fun of interrupts, shames and diversions, but animation-wise I expected too much in gw1, got it so many years later with a different playstyle, oh well.)

Having 1 set for Fractals and WvW (unless you only roam) will kitten you in either, if not both, envoirments. Your choice if you’d prefer that or prefer having 1 exotic set and 1 ascended set. (Due to Agony Resistance eventually you will need Ascended gear to keep up with the Agony, so I’d prioritize that.)

As for the survivability in Fractals, unless you drop a considerable amount of damage for survivability it won’t make a big difference. If you fail to dodge what you need to dodge you’re pretty much dead anyway, or if you dropped enough damage stats you simply hit like a wet noodle and might survive 1 or 2 hits longers.

Going from Exotic to Ascended isn’t going to be a huge increase in damage or survivability. Biggest reasons to get it is Agony Resistance slots and completionist reasons. In the end it all comes down to your own choice, you can’t have the best of both worlds. I went for 2 different sets (exotic for WvW) and retrait, but that might not be your thing.

You have a good day.

PS: Speculations are going around that zerker will still be the meta in PvE after the zerker nerf, something I believe aswell, but it’s a smart thing to wait and see how it will work out if you’re not in a hurry for Ascended (e.g. you don’t need to Agony Resistance yet.)