Guild Wars 2

If you’re talking about PvP as in sPvP, you already have the best gear on all your characters (unless you want to play one of two sets which require gold to unlock).

If you’re talking about PvP as in WvW, your gear won’t make a significant difference unless you’re in small/guild/solo/duo roaming.

For PvE Dungeons, play what you want for enjoyment, play whatever looks more fun.

If you care at all about the current in-game Dungeon meta (which is liable to change at any given patch, with or without forewarning), classes with their respective group attributes are as follows:

All classes assumed to be running full Berserker (or Assassin’s, if applicable):
Warrior: Easy damage. Not particularly the best, but definitely easy-mode to play. High health pool, moderate damage. Easy playstyle. Lots of mobility and evades, when necessary. For party play, can provide near 25 stacks of might (25 is possible) for the entire party, in addition to providing things such as ~300 Power, and 150 Precision/Ferocity to the group.

Mesmer: has the potential to be very strong, however is very, very weak. In the best scenario’s the DPS is phenomenal, rivaling the current top-DPS professions. However, the majority of fights will not be that scenario, due to enemies being capable of hitting things. The playstyle is extremely reactive. It’s extremely skill-intense due to being forced to watch and react according to enemy animations. Memorization and reactive response are necessary. Note: This is not mechanically intense, this is skill intense. Does not provide anything unique to a speedrun group except Time Warp.

Guardian: is a very strong “support”. Capable of providing Reflects, Projectile Destruction (weaker than Mesmer, but more reliable), Aegis, Blinds (weaker than Thief) and some Healing.

I’d go through the rest, but I just wanted to give you an idea.

For quick bio’s of the other professions:

Thief: One of the highest DPS in the game, also provides mass stealth. Also has easy access to blasts, allowing for mass Healing, Might stacks, Stealth and more.
Elementalist: One of the highest DPS in the game, also provides Elemental Weapons to boost ally DPS in addition to being capable of providing ~18 Might and Permanent Fury to the party. 25 Might is possible both in and out of combat with the proper setup.
Necromancer: Extremely greedy, can only provide high DPS and some Vulnerability.
Engineer: Decent stealth, good blasting (can provide roughly 18 Might or 14s of Stealth), can apply 25 stacks of Vulnerability in addition to having good DPS.
Ranger: Can provide Spotter (Precision), Frost Spirit (7% party-wide damage boost), and decent DPS. Also has a blast with an AoE Buff skill.

So in a group, you will want:
Warrior for Banners (one or two), Phalanx Strength and Empower Ally (PS and EA are optional, although EA is highly recommended).
Elementalist for Elemental Weapons and good Might/Fury blasting. (Hence why PS is not necessary. EA is hard to grab without sacrificing Warrior DPS, although it’s a worthy trade, in my opinion.)
Engineer for Vulnerability stacking (25 Vulnerability is a 25% damage increase). Additional blasts can speed up a run.
Thief for high DPS, stealth and other field blasts.
Ranger for Frost Spirit and Spotter.

However, with a team like that, each profession will easily have access to at least one blast, meaning you can skip trash extremely fast with Lightning Field blast (Swiftness) followed by Smoke Field blast (Stealth).

Depending on the dungeon, you may opt to get a Guardian or Mesmer for their Projectile manipulation abilities (Reflection and Destruction).

The Thief may not be necessary due to Engineer also having access to a Smoke Field combined with lots of blasts (both by the Engineer and combined with everyone else in the group).

The Elementalist may not be necessary due to all the blasts readily available along with Fire Fields (Ranger, Engineer, and Warrior have Fire Fields).

Of course, this is simply speedrun theorycrafting (and my opinion, at that). Guardians are typically always brought to round off a team and ensure people don’t die. Also, the average player is under the fallacy that heavy armor makes a significant difference in the game.

This image is from over a year ago. The picture is from roughly 15 months ago.

Esplen.3940:

Now the real challenge: Map completion.

LumAnth.5124:

Ahhhh! CongRats!

Now you can try and get to 80 only from the Tutorial
Make me proud!

But I do believe that you do deserve a title for such a challenge.

You mean like this? (I have an Experience Scroll, but I will not use it on this character.)

Keep in mind, this is before Tomes of Experience were a thing, but after Scrolls of Experience were.

I got the Necromancer to level 6, then accidentally left Defense of Shaemoor due to a map bug/exploit.

Because it doesn’t update unless you reload the page.

There’s no auto-refresh and there’s no refresh button. The 40-50 listings below you were all bought out.

Thief can provide Stealth and Ethereal Fields (Chaos Armor + Blasting). Reflects are available through Dagger Storm, albeit as buggy as the Mesmer profession in general.

Ranger and Necromancer can also provide Ethereal Fields, although both don’t have great access to blasts.

Ranger and Thief also have Smoke Fields, which provide stealth (albeit blasting these in Zergs isn’t particularly effective).

Thief is pretty close to that, although the Ethereal Field is obtained by stealing from Engineer’s.

Since the Mesmer is pretty much an amalgamation of every profession in the game (see: Jack of all Trades, Master of None), it’s easy to say that we can do anything anyone else does. Doing it better, of course, is where it becomes painfully hard.

English is extremely confusing to any and all that speak it. Most people who do speak it (and have learned it naturally) do not make any attempt to understand it, however, which is why we run into problems like this.

Other words that are evolving and being misused:
Decimate: To kill 1/10th of. (HE DECIMATED OUR FORCES = 9/10 of our forces remain.)
Slang usage: To destroy most/all. (HE DECIMATED OUR FORCES = we lost the fight badly.)

Swear words: Most, if not all swear words are not actually bad in meaning. Used in slang, they have negative connotations, however they don’t typically make sense if translated literally. There are some exceptions, particularly relating to homosexuals (don’t say the f word to homosexuals, the origin of that slang is horrible).

I would list them, but I don’t think kitten is a word that’s being misused to the point of evolving into slang (outside of ANet forums).

Crysto.7089:

She makes it sound like game employees are so scared of losing their jobs by questioning established process that it wouldn’t be an environment you would want to work in anyway. Surely not everyone in the game’s industry is so spineless? Perhaps the ones that weren’t are now unemployed or running their own company. We see which one she chose.

Well, unless you’re in a relatively small company, your say doesn’t account for much unless it’s being asked specifically for.

It’s not so much about losing your job (unless you somehow keep managing to sneak things into releases that aren’t intended at all), but really there’s only so much that people can do because the company objective keeps changing.

Imagine you work at Gamestop and you had all these great idea’s for how they could improve their customer experience. What do you do about it? You suck it up and keep doing what your boss tells you to do. If you tell your boss, that’s great, he can’t do anything about it, either. This is what happens in lots of jobs.

I wish my Asura had a beard. Every hair/hat removes it.

Ascended Account Bound Foods? Wot?

Only thing I can see doing is having really expensive time gated foods that allow players to craft foods. The foods crafted will be unlimited variants of the foods.

Even then, it’s a lot of effort because what could you craft between 400-500?

If you transmuted your Hero’s Torch it’s fine.

You just can’t use something that’s transmuted into the Hero’s Torch.

If you’re running a killstreak booster, you probably want to stack experience and do:

Killstreak Booster (1 Enchanted Booster)
Experience Booster (1 Enchanted Booster)
Laureate Experience Booster (1 Laurel)
Improved Experience Booster (5 Experience Boosters; NOT 5 Enchanted Boosters)
Heroes/Karma+Experience Banner
Food (Ghosty Variety)
Potion (Any)
Birthday Bonus (Birthday Present)
+5% Experience Bonus (Guild Bonus)

For a grand total of:
+420% experience.

So then you’ll get 5.2x normal mob experience. (Not including Wisdom.)

Type in the price you want instead of clicking?

I hope you realize enemies can’t take your portals.

Togashi Jack.9531:

Yakslapper title says hello.. Didn’t they calculate that to take over 60 years of 8 hour days just killing yaks?

Not 60 years. But my calculations do assume no travel or killing time (although travel time can be considered moot since the respawn timers get staggered, but then you fight yaks in the middle of camps).

Actually Megaserver’s kind of destroy that entire concept of moving servers.

Yeah, that works. I can do that, too. But connection issues with the current system make it more reliable to go with a kitten y group and carry them than to solo and pray I don’t dkittenil someone joins in.

I use what StinVec has all the time.

Actually I use my Block list to do it so I can unblock them easier (I keep it relatively clean).

And then suppression came along.

The Green Light isn’t a problem until it reaches 10+ stacks. The Entities hitting players for 4-8k is the problem. Bad players won’t move or will run into their attacks. The healing acts as a buffer and the MoP gives you your damage, even though it’s not as much as sword auto.

Keeping your group alive/dealing damage will, in turn, cause more damage to the entities than you using a Sword. Also MoP hits 2 more targets.

I think the main problem is that everyone thinks of support as the cookie cutter mmo support role.

Support exists in PvE and it’s used. The reason why there are comps for speedruns is because each profession can bring different support to the fights (bar Necro, sorry!)

They “forgot” to put it on the patch notes for a few hours after the patch hit.

It is because your level is too low.

Desperate Decoy used to be good because it applied a special stealth that would go through while Revealed. However, in some builds it would be deadly.

Now, it’s just another clone.

For you to engage in a fight with the exact same variables one day and the next is highly unlikely.

Without a change in location there are still other factors.

Who hits first, who hits more, who is closer, who crowd controls more (soft and hard), what crowd controls are applied, and more.

When/if Arenanet ever acknowledges that they removed the possibility of obtaining certain armor from the game when the Wardrobe changes hit, then yes.

Else, no.

Malediktus.9250:

Nothing special if you exploit like that

What exploit? Jumping in looks like it was done for fun and for no real reason.

Stacking Might with a field and blasts is unintended?

Using a Reflect/Projectile Destruction to prevent your group from getting hit by projectiles is unintended?

Using Ice Bow’s #5 skill ( Deep Freeze ) to:

Encase your target in a block of solid ice.

while the boss has no Defiance stacks (aka ccing a boss while the boss has no Defiance) is unintended?

Dropping Banner’s to gain bonuses to your parties damage is unintended?

Applying Vulnerability with traited Grenades is unintended?

I don’t see how anything is an exploit in this run, although the Firestorm part was kind of slow.

TKiller.6829:

Esplen.3940:

It’s okay. In Arah P1, I use Giver’s Armor.
Traited for Mantra’s and 3 Illusions (+dmg, -dmg, -mantracd, +toughness mantra charge, mantra heal, +speed). Drop 3 Clones targeting a Drake on the ground (used to use iLeap, now use PRetreat. Aim it so the clone gets LoS’ed.)

Utilities: Signet of the Ether, Stab Mantra, Cond Mantra, Dam Mantra, Time Warp

Spam mantra’s, don’t ever cast signet, use Time Warp when necessary.

Stagger Mantra of Pain charge up to be in between each other Mantra charge up.

Party-wide 1k/s heals. Personal 1.3k/s heals. 30% movespeed. -10% damage taken. +10% damage dealt (deal AoE damage through MoP). Constant +400 Toughness.

And then when all the Champion Entities are done, I swap back to the meta Assassin build.

I, uh… I don’t seem to understand what is all of that for.

Explaining how “meta zerk” isn’t always the best way for groups unless it’s a true speedrun group where everyone knows how to play full-squish.

And Giver’s armor is one of the worst armors in the game, even for Healing Power and/or Boon Duration.

Ashandar.2570:

I usually get one charged per day from the home instance node so I don’t bother with charging.

Best possible loots from the Node are (in one strike):
1 Quartz Crystal
5 Quartz Crystal
1 Charged Quartz Crystal
Watchwork Sprockets (if using Watchwork Mining Pick)

And yes, you can loot all 4 in one strike.

Not available anymore. Currently, the closest armor to represent the Guild Defender series is the Caudecus Manor Dungeon Armor. Sometimes it’s an exact copy (bar the guild symbol, in the cases of chestpieces) and other times it’s slightly different.

Yes

Rule of thumb: Never buy things unless it’s the weekend.

Rule of thumb #2: Never buy things unless they’re time-gated or on sale.

Rule of thumb #3; If you ignore the other 2 rules, you paid the price you paid. Deal with it.

The single wield was added as a last minute for tutorial. All other professions would have access to 3 skills with their one-handed weapon.

Although, initially, you could also loot bags and weapons in the tutorial.

I like the idea of one-handed, but I feel like instead of making it give you kitten skills, you should get a different variety of skills that get replaced with off-hand skills. It would also need a bare-offhand checkbox, though.

Things that I’ll never see.

Electro.4173:

Someone on the Ranger forum once stated that its because Risen, being zombies, are only interested in braaaiiinnns. And pets don’t have any :p

So harsh. Dem pets has no brain.

If he had no grub cap and targeted players in AoE for grub spawn. Mmmm

I think it’s client-side. I don’t run into the problem on my laptop, while I do run into it running off my school desktops.

At first, I thought it had to do with graphics settings, but that shouldn’t affect rounding and calculations, so logically it would have to be something else client-related.

Just some food for thought.

I totally forgot about dinosaurs, I apologize. Closest I remember are Raptors… mmmm raptor farming..

You choose one.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Esplen.3940:

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Dinosaurs! Seriously, how is it that no one else seems bothered by their absence???

Tyria != Earth.

I… know?

So why are Asura, Norn, Charr, Sylvari, Dredge, Kodan, Risen, Quaggan, Krait, Karka, and more absent from Earth?

Ascended, rare drops (rare drops that are rare items, not just rare items that drop, woo confusing), and a few other special items are account bound.

For example, I have an item called Ominous Egg. If I activate it, I can loot a level 44 Rare Scepter with one of three stat choices. The Scepter is account-bound on acquire, meaning I can use it across multiple characters.

I looted it from a level 80 dungeon.

Additionally, there are crafted items (requiring upwards of 30+ Globs of Ectoplasm per, that ends up being account bound on acquire.

Account bound items are not meant to be obtained and used on your first character (bar ascended/legendary). They are, however, meant to be obtained and passed down to alternate characters.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Dinosaurs! Seriously, how is it that no one else seems bothered by their absence???

Tyria != Earth.

Well, the humans are not originally from Tyria.

Sarevok.2638:

The main thing I miss from GW1 is non-conquest based spvp.

I’m opening that can of worms…

Random Arena limiting both traits and skills.

Yesssssss.

sMihaly.1492:

Esplen.3940:

It’s okay. In Arah P1, I use Giver’s Armor.

Sorry for the off…. but
I want SELECTABLE ARMOR STATS now … already have 3 armor sets on my mesmer… and still a lot more could be useful… but those inventory slots… ._.

1 of my 9 armorsets…

It’s okay. In Arah P1, I use Giver’s Armor.
Traited for Mantra’s and 3 Illusions (+dmg, -dmg, -mantracd, +toughness mantra charge, mantra heal, +speed). Drop 3 Clones targeting a Drake on the ground (used to use iLeap, now use PRetreat. Aim it so the clone gets LoS’ed.)

Utilities: Signet of the Ether, Stab Mantra, Cond Mantra, Dam Mantra, Time Warp

Spam mantra’s, don’t ever cast signet, use Time Warp when necessary.

Stagger Mantra of Pain charge up to be in between each other Mantra charge up.

Party-wide 1k/s heals. Personal 1.3k/s heals. 30% movespeed. -10% damage taken. +10% damage dealt (deal AoE damage through MoP). Constant +400 Toughness.

And then when all the Champion Entities are done, I swap back to the meta Assassin build.

Tao, I understand that you enjoy GW2, but what if GW2 had additional features that did not impair the current gameplay.

You can also just craft a level 78 backpack, slap on the 75 Relic infusion and then wait for a ring drop.

Devata.6589:

Esplen.3940:

Not to mention more data because of files, assets in addition to making them all work with game physics, jumping, clipping, animations, racial animations, idle animations (which also have to be done for character models in addition to mount models), and then there’s other issues such as size. A Norn would not be able to ride something that a Human, Sylvari, or Asura would be able to ride because of weights. A Charr would not be able to ride most things because of their body shapes.

Thats all not lag.

And where, pray tell, did I even mention the slightest reference of lag?

Not to mention more data because of files, assets in addition to making them all work with game physics, jumping, clipping, animations, racial animations, idle animations (which also have to be done for character models in addition to mount models), and then there’s other issues such as size. A Norn would not be able to ride something that a Human, Sylvari, or Asura would be able to ride because of weights. A Charr would not be able to ride most things because of their body shapes.

Whatever is fun.

zenleto.6179:

Gaile Gray.6029:

zenleto.6179:

Torsailr.8456:

Scipio.3204:

Alright, I’ll try.

There is no challenge in anything after two years,

Hmm, hardcore mode? If the character dies, it’s gone for good. Can not WP back to life, can not be rezzed from full dead(dead, not downed). If the character has any rare or better equipment it gets auto-sent to the mail box, otherwise it’s deleted along with the character. Make a new char and start over.

How far can you make it on one life?

Permadeath. I have two character slots for this. Fun times.

How far can you get? ~curious~

So far they’re doing alright but they’re on a second account and I don’t play them as often I’d like. They were two of my testers of the NPE and I haven’t gone easy on them. Only open world, no PvP or WvW. I suspect I’ll find it more difficult with mid level dredge and, if they get that far, high level krait.

I was doing this and I died from falling off a cliff that I thought was shorter.

dagrdagaz.4913:

Eye of the North is not a campaign, its an expansion to any of the 3 campaigns (Prophecies, Faction or Nightfall).
Therefore u cannot create a character in/for Eye of the North.

Technically you can create a character for EotN.