Guild Wars 2

I should mention that for eles, attunements count as weapon swaps. So you can use a sigil that activates on swap.

There is one swap sigil that doesn’t work for eles, though- I think it’s the Sigil of Doom.

P/V/T armor is not needed for bunker eles in PvE. I use Knight’s (Power/Precision/Toughness) for my main six pieces of armor, Berserker’s for my weapons, and a mix of Cavalier’s (Toughness/Crit Damage/Power) and Berserker’s for accessories. I don’t do as much damage as a glass build, but I do a more reasonable amount nonetheless.

PvP is another story, one I’m not qualified to speak on.

Yesterday, I ran AC exp path 2 with 2 80s, a level 45, and… a random level 30 ele who had never been to the new AC before. We cleared the dungeon in just over an hour with no wipes.

Yes, the fact that one of the 80s was a mesmer, the other a guardian, and the 45 was a mesmer made it easier. However, said guardian also three-manned path 3 with a warrior and a thief. So having a ton of mesmers/guardians isn’t necessary.

For Spider Queen:
-The Queen and all the extra spiders spawn when all the level 2/3 spiders are dead. Therefore, proceed carefully, killing the spiders in the back of the room first without aggroing the ones at the doorway. Once you’ve cleared out as many as possible, along with the gargoyle heads, kill the last lowbie spider to spawn her.
-Anyone with a projectile nullifier (eles with focus air 4 or aurasharing and Magnetic Aura, mesmers, guardians, theives with smokescreen, lucky engis) should slot it. Take turns using the blocks so they don’t all get wasted at once- when one block is about to go down, step in and put another up. Meanwhile, focus down the little spiders one by one.
-When all of the little spiders are gone, go for the Queen. Dodge out of poison the moment it appears- projectile blockers do destroy the poison shots if you can place them. If a melee gets immobilized, jump in and cure them. If you’re uncomfortable going melee, use a ranged weapon.

The hardest part was the troll, though he wasn’t so much dangerous as annoying due to fear and daze spam. His waves can also be blocked like projectiles, or you can hide behind a pillar between attacks. I suspect they can also be dodged with the right timing.

Kholer isn’t an issue if you focus down his adds while keeping an eye on him in case of a pull- he actually pulls less now to make up for the adds. Then again, other groups skip him.

The champion scavenger got nerfed. Its attack no longer hits as hard and can still be dodged if you pay attention.

For Ghost Eater, the entire group charges one trap at a time. One person zaps the Ghost Eater with a beam from afar to spawn globs- this typically doesn’t aggro him. That person then marks one glob, lifts it, and the other four pull it over. Repeat. For the actual fight, projectile blockers once again help a lot, but again aren’t necessary.

tl;dr the new AC isn’t bad with proper coordination. The main issue is that many PUGs won’t slot useful skills to match the situation, or can’t coordinate their way out of a paper bag.

Here you go, attached.

I’m assuming that you have no player mails at all in your box, then. If so, try deleting some of the event (green star) NPC mails. Apparently they sometimes count as player messages.

I have a bunch of tears sitting in my inventory and no use for them, so I will check it out if no one else has a clue.

EDIT: Yes, it does glow. I can link a screenshot if you want to see.

Race is not important.

With elementalist, you have the following weapon choices:

-Dagger (mainhand or offhand): Often referred to as the ele’s melee weapon, though this is partly incorrect- it is actually a short-range (250-400) weapon. Mobility is key to using daggers. Kiting is not only possible with daggers, but very important- you must use the maximum range of your skills while using movement controls (water 3, earth 2) to keep your enemy from reaching you. Daggers also have a good number of movement skills (fire 3, air 4, earth 3) that can be used to catch fleeing enemies or escape to recover.

-Scepter (mainhand only): Mid-ranged weapon (900). In contrast to dagger, scepter lends well to situations with less mobility. In fact, many of scepter’s attacks will not hit if the enemy is moving around. Fire 2, fire 3, water 2, water 3, and earth 3 all have a delay between the time they are cast and the time they activate, with fire 2 and earth 3 being the worst offenders. To make up for lack of mobility, scepter has two blinds (both on a relatively short cooldown) and a defensive boost in earth 2.

-Focus (offhand only): Like scepter, focus lends well to situations with less mobility, though it can also be used effectively on the move as well. Focus is almost purely defensive, with the majority of its skills oriented towards disrupting/slowing the enemy or blocking attacks rather than dealing damage. Notable focus skills are air 4, an AoE projectile blocker that lasts 6 seconds, and earth 5, a three-second invulnerability that does not interrupt you. It is possible to negate almost all of a ranged enemy’s attacks using focus, by cycling through the controls and blocks- however, this requires precise timing and is not as effective on champions and above.

-Staff (two-handed): The longest-ranged weapon, at 1200. It possesses many large, ground-targeted AoEs- AoE damage, yes, but also AoE healing and AoE controls. It also has the greatest variety of combo fields. For this reason, staff is arguably the best weapon for group support, and is invaluable in WvW keep defense/assault. It is possible to solo with staff, but difficult due to a lower damage output and longer cooldowns.

Due to having attunements, elementalists cannot weapon swap. As a result, you’re stuck in one optimal range until you leave combat. Keep that in mind when you’re choosing a set to focus on. Another difference is that, without a pet or heavy armor, you’ll have to learn how to avoid damage and stay mobile from the onset.

Finally, in order to be effective, elementalists must use ALL attunements regardless of their traits. Attunement swapping will both maximize your damage and keep you alive. For the easier encounters, it is all right to stay in one or two attunements, but in the harder content, you will find yourself needing all four.

jknrich.1549:

Try it and just seems like it can’t any damage. Seems very soft. Or should I work on that harder.

Ele in early PvE is very hard on new players. It can’t stand and take hits like warrior or guardian, so you must stay mobile, learning how to use controls to keep the enemy away while dodging at the right times. Combine this with attunement swap and you have a very difficult class.

Once you do learn how to survive and use attunements, though, it becomes one of the toughest classes in the game. I died quite a bit when starting out, but several months later I can solo champions and AC story (first dungeon).

Overall, what kind of playstyle do you like? I will warn that if you choose to go the nigh-unkillable bunker route on ele, you won’t hit nearly as hard as other classes.

Regardless of what class you choose, make an effort to learn how to dodge, use controls, etc. Later in the game, there will be situations where you MUST dodge at the right time to avoid being killed, regardless of what gear you have or what class you play. Other classes (notably elementalist and thief) force you into learning this early, with little room for error- ranger, warrior, and guardian are more forgiving in that you can take more hits at first, but don’t let it become a crutch.

Warrior suffers from lack of sustained healing in endgame- to succeed as a endgame warrior, you must be very good at evading. Ranger suffers in endgame PvE due to problems with pet AI and lack of support options. Guardian is strong throughout and can afford to be less mobile (but not immobile) than the other classes thanks to protective boons and strong self-healing, but lacks a strong ranged option.

All classes are capable of soloing and surviving well with the right build. To cite an extreme case, a warrior, a ranger, and an elementalist have each soloed the entirety of AC story (the first dungeon), and I feel it’s only a matter of time before a guardian does it.

As an ele, I consider my conjures fair game for other players to use and even feel a bit flattered when I see other people picking them up. It’s better than them timing out.

In the very, very rare cases I want to use the other weapon myself, I say so politely before I summon. If it gets used anyway, eh, no big deal. That ele was simply throwing a tantrum over people not being able to read his mind.

I’m assuming this was the one that was linked?

I also compiled a list of GW2 abbreviations, but it’s outdated due to the forum software bugging whenever I try to update it.

Also, if you’re interested in RP, Tarnished Coast is the unofficial RP server, and is very populated as well as being in the second tier of WvW. There are issues regarding abuses of the guesting system, in which people jump server to server to farm events, which causes lag and pushes players into overflows, but it’s only encountered on certain maps and is starting to be remedied with the changes to event chest loot.

Basically, only WvW and guild upgrades will be affected by the server you choose, as you can only WvW on your home server and guild upgrades are split up by server. It is possible to guest to others for all other content, so you can also guest to TC if you ever want to visit friends or RP.

The primary issue with gw2lfg is that a good 75+% of the site consists of LEVEL 80 ONLY, KNOW THE DUNGEON SPEED RUN SKIP EVERYTHING, NO RANGERS NO ENGINEERS ZERKER WARRIORS AND MESMERS ONLY, HAVE FULL EXOTICS, MAX EFFICIENCY, NOOBS WILL BE KICKED, kthxbai.

A bit intimidating to new players, to say the least. Judging from the prevalence of the sort of post I mentioned, and the fact that there are rarely any story requests aside from Arah and AC, I’d say most (though not all) of the posters there aren’t the sort who want to teach others or look to be taught. Call it unfair on my part, but that’s the general vibe I get, especially after a guildie assembled a group there, only to have one quit right off the bat because there was a ranger and the rest try to facetank everything, then whine and ragequit after inevitably dying.

Anyway, though Roz offered already, I’m also willing to lend a hand with AC story should I be free. I’ll be available late tonight, and possibly on the weekends.

Very nice! Way to shut up the elitists.

EDIT: Apparently the forum dislikes me.

Wethospu.6437:

Falunel.7645:

Elementalist here. Soloed AC story halfway on one occasion, went back and finished the job today.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8K6QmrPvps
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXe6kZc4KwA

They’re not from the same run (I felt it would be redundant to upload the first half of the full run, and it somehow lost the first five minutes anyway), but I do have it recorded and it leaves off at the same point as the video I do have. Hopefully that’s all right.

Might do a continuous, less-mistake-filled run someday, when I’m up to it.

GJ, not going to watch the whole thing though.
If possible, use Windows Movie Maker (or similar) to edit the video.

I wanted people to see how I did it (and all my screwups along the way), but yeah, it’s way too long. >< I’ll edit it later today or tomorrow.

Gryz.8376:

Stooperdale.3560:

A lot of players have had their butts kicked in AC story, their first dungeon, but then have realized just how much more they can get out of their character. I’m guessing you’ll do the same.

A lot of players got their butts kicked in AC story. And in other story-mode dungeons. But then they realized that the dungeons were just not fun. And there was no way they would enjoy dungeons in GW2. And then left the game. I’ll guess the OP will do the same.

I played GW2 at launch. With 3 friends. Nice game. Beautiful graphics. Some of the exploring was fun. Then we tried some dungeons. I was appalled how terrible they were. Then 2-3 weeks after launch, these forums opened. Many many many many players were disappointed in the dungeons too. Lots of threads pointing out what the flaws were. Why the whole pve experience in dungeons was wrong.

Then the main pve guy posted on this forum. “Dungeons in GW1 were even harder. Nobody could finish them ! Our design goal in GW2 is that you’ll like the dungeons even less. And that they are impossible to be finished by an even larger part of our customers”.

I hit level-80. And then stopped playing. So did one of my friends. The other 2 didn’t even get to 80. And from what I’ve seen, lots and lots of other pve players left the game too. I guess for many other reasons too. But the fact that the dungeons are so bad must be a significant reason for many people.

I haven’t played since September. Once a month or so, when I am really really bored, I read these forums. Just for laughs. To see how the pve design team actually made a negative contribution to the overall game, and they are still clueless to what they did.

Of course there are people who keep playing. And there will be a constant influx of new players. (The PayOnce model is attractive to a certain group of players). But I don’t see anywhere on the web people discussing how great a game GW2 is. Because it isn’t. Big thanks to the pve design team.

And yet there are a significant number of people who keep playing, and a surprising number of PUGs who, once they learn to focus fire, avoid attacks, and use controls, find themselves sweeping paths with little to no trouble and look back thinking, “Gee, that wasn’t bad at all.” And a significant number of players who enjoy dungeons enough to volunteer for one for the sake of running one, or attempt four-man, trio, duo, or even solo challenges. I personally prefer the system here to being completely dependent upon a healer/tank, standing in the same spot facerolling keys, carried by a gear crutch I do not have time nor desire to grind. To each their own.

I ran AC story yesterday with a ranger and three thieves. The highest one (aside from myself) was 41, the lowest was 27. We cleared the place with no wipes and in an hour, even though we didn’t spam boulders on the Lovers or Adelbern and had the misfortune to pull extra mobs at times. The ranger, who had gone in previously with a bad group and gotten wiped, said that it wasn’t that bad at all now.

It does suck that they hike the difficulty up so suddenly, but dungeons really aren’t bad at all if you know what to do, pay attention, and use the game’s mechanics to your advantage. Having people throw cripples/immobilize/freeze on Napa while kiting him around is much less painful than trying to facetank his attacks, praying that the elementalist/guardian will outheal it (spoiler: they can’t). On Adelbern, standing in fire pools will get you killed no matter what… but they take so long to activate that as long as you pay attention to the ground and walk out of red circles when they appear, you’ll never get touched. See a warrior raising his sword in the air? That means he’s about to heal- use an interrupt on him and finish him off. See a bunch of ranged mobs? Slot Feedback as a mesmer, reflections/blocks as a guardian, or focus as an ele.

The main issue with dungeons right now is that silver mobs are often harder than the bosses, while giving few rewards- even then, that’s starting to be remedied with the sharp cut to silver HP. Still a ways to go, and there’s quite a few flaws remaining, but overall it’s all about knowing how to run them, coordinating with the group, and using the game’s mechanics to your advantage.

Also, OP: I’m willing to take you through AC story and explain everything, if you’ll give it another shot. I’ll try to get my guild in, so you can see how things work when people are coordinated. You can add/PM me with my account name. I should be free late tonight, probably past 8 central. The same offer is extended to anyone who feels discouraged or anxious. No class requirement, and you can be on-level- just have a good attitude and be willing to learn.

Elementalist here. Soloed AC story halfway on one occasion, went back and finished the job today.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8K6QmrPvps
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXe6kZc4KwA

They’re not from the same run (I felt it would be redundant to upload the first half of the full run, and it somehow lost the first five minutes anyway), but I do have it recorded and it leaves off at the same point as the video I do have. Hopefully that’s all right.

Might do a continuous, less-mistake-filled run someday, when I’m up to it.

alfista.6094:

So, for example, i’m thinking of switching my home world and don’t actually know anyone on other servers. I have no chance of checking out a server before investing quite a large amount of money for the transfer?

While i understand why you’re suggesting this, the solution you provided would be a bad one. You should discourage people from doing this, not outright forbid it.

I know for certain that Tarnished Coast at least would start up something to get in touch with interested players on other servers. I for one would gladly host a few newcomers and show them around the server, and I figure some guilds would do likewise. It would also be possible to request an invite on overflow or on the forums. Not knowing people doesn’t mean you will always not know people.

Yeah, it sucks that this has to happen. But simply telling people not to do this would do nothing- if that worked, we would have no trolls. Directly discouraging hopping by limiting chest rewards across the board punishes all players- likewise, limiting chest rewards only for guesters punishes legitimate guesters, who actually want to play with people on the servers. It also does nothing to stem the flow of people coming just to troll (which yes, it does happen).

I would welcome a better solution, but at the moment, this is the best.

In light of a recent thread, made here and reposted on Reddit, I’ve decided to make a formal thread for a suggestion one person posed: In order to guest onto a server, a guester must be invited by a native player on that server.

The reasons for doing so have already been posted by my fellow Coasters, but I will take the liberty of highlighting a few.

I am not opposed to the concept of guesting or the spirit of being able to for free visit a server, see what it’s like, play with a friend who is in another time zone and/or guild who you might not otherwise be with all the time. I personally have a good friend who might have been in that situation, rolled on another server in another guild, but wanted to guest with me on occasion. There might be people who don’t want to live on an RP server but want to see what it’s like before transferring.

This is not however the spirit of guesting that we are experiencing. What we are experiencing is an influx of people exploiting the system, bouncing from event to event. Some will argue that it’s not exploitation because it can be done and the game permits it, I’m pretty sure that it’s not within the spirit of guesting as implemented.

I would support Cross’s suggestion- that the only way to guest on another server would be being invited by someone. Guesting was, after all, meant as a way for friends on different servers to still play with each other- this would fulfill that original purpose while cutting down on the coattail-ers.

I do like hopping to other servers just to check out the communities there, and for convenience if, say, Balthazar is derped, but at this rate, the problems solved by implementing restrictions would be worth any inconveniences. Yeah, I know there will be people who will still coordinate to smuggle in troll squads and event hoppers, but the average troll/hopper won’t bother to organize that, and will likely just be lazy and stay on their own servers. It will be harder for people to just drop in if they’re interested in the personality of a server, but again… it won’t be much different (better even) than before paid transfers, when many servers were full. And I’m sure people could arrange something to help interested players over.

But seriously ANet. Those of us who are on the server or have paid for transfers to the server are the ones entitled to experience non-overflow content on the server. Those of us who built the community and who are the community. As Kumu stated, we made the bed. If they liked the bed so much, why do they just want to visit? Have their cake and eat it too? Then transfer.

Guests should receive services as available, not at the expense of natives. Community is built by those present all the time. When you say ‘if it’s too laggy guest elsewhere’ you’re basically saying guests’ privileges are more important than the hosting server population native rights, and I just won’t agree to that.

Come to TC, enjoy your 1-5 fps and crashes during dragon events because of all the other guesters.

The dragon events are becoming almost unplayable for me because of the lag and crashes I get due to all the people, plus the extreme culling problems. I don’t want to have to guest on another server, this is my home. It feels like a bunch of entitled strangers are tromping in, breaking my furniture, eating all my food, then flipping me off on the way out.

Speaking of which, I’ve definitely noticed a huge influx of map chat trolls lately.

If you’re friendly and considerate, I really don’t care. But we definitely have a slew of guesters who don’t give a kitten about the native population, and certainly some who are just plain unpleasant, selfish, and downright hateful. Go home, please. Why would you guest on a server where the lag is so bad you can hardly get anything done, and you clearly hate the people there? I don’t get it.

To be truthful, I don’t like advocating restrictions. I looked forward to guesting. I invited people in hopes that they’d find a home here, and love it so much that they’d begin giving back. I wanted more people to come here and enjoy the community, and leave happier in a way that had nothing to do with loot. Sure, I did realize there would be some trolls, but thought that the majority of people guesting would be good-natured and interested in the server’s community itself… but again, I thought a random commander in Queensdale had his icon on to help people.

Thank you for your time.

Are we partly responsible? Yes. I would even say that I am partly responsible- I’ve told quite a few people who were lonely and wanted a good community to come to TC.

Do I regret it? Not at all. Many people who I directed here fell in love with the server- talked to other players, made friends, joined a guild here, eventually transferred, and are having a blast. TC is an amazing server, and I am not hesitant at all to share it with other people… who really want to experience the community.

That’s the issue. Legitimate guesters are good and peachy- I will still tell people looking for a great community to come here, and should a change be implemented that requires a host, I will be one of the first to step up and start bringing interested guests here. However, I am willing to wager that the current lag and overflow issues are NOT being caused by legitimate visitors, but event hoppers- the ones who swarm the server without a (friendly) word and then depart right away to farm another server. Even if the problems are in part caused by legitimate guesters, they will be much better when restrictions are in place. The rest, I will shrug and accept as the price of calling a great server home.

To be truthful, I don’t like advocating restrictions. I looked forward to guesting. I invited people in hopes that they’d find a home here, and love it so much that they’d begin giving back. I wanted more people to come here and enjoy the community, and leave happier in a way that had nothing to do with loot. Sure, I did realize there would be some trolls, but thought that the majority of people guesting would be good-natured and interested in the server’s community itself… but again, I thought a random commander in Queensdale had his icon on to help people.

Toxyn.9608:

Cross.6437:

Toxyn.9608:

Guesting implies a temporary stay. Guesting to a server should only work for 24 hours as a trial period. After 24 hours, you are locked out of guesting to that world for 30 days.

I mean really, how was this issue not foreseen?

Another alternative might be that to “guest” on a server, you need to be invited by someone who is on that server. After all, there is a different between inviting a guest into your home and a random hobo from off the street who just steps through your door and starts raiding your fridge.

That would not be as effective as a flat limitation, but it would help.

Allow me to share a rather interesting experience I had in Queensdale the other week.

I’d come back to do my daily events, and judging by map chat, the Shadow Behemoth was up- hence the presence of a blue dorito in Godslost Swamp. I wasn’t familiar with the commander, but I figured he had it up to show his guildmates/random lost people where to go. So I paid it no mind and went back to troll/bandit farming.

A short while after it died, someone in map chat said something about commanders, at which point a Coaster piped up and said they were hoping to get a dorito for their guild leader to use in WvW. Which got the reply, “Yes please, more TC commanders to farm for badges!”

It just went downhill from there. That same person (the commander on the map) also said something along the lines of “All of you can shut up and go back to RPing making marshmallows in your keeps,” as well as making other insults about TC’s WvW crew and RP. His flaming caused others to join in… and yes, I know they were guesters because they said things like “I’m from (server name omitted), we play for real and don’t do this kitten **** you all do.” Eventually I had enough of it and told them as politely as I could to get off the server, which they thankfully did (though likely to chase timers and not because of my request).

Really, I have no issues with guesters who come because of our community- and when I say that, I mean they come because they want a mature, active, friendly community and not because they want a bigger audience to troll. I also don’t mind if you’re a hobo off the streets if you’re a nice hobo with some great stories who I can have conversations with regarding pink elephant pants or runaway dragons. But if you not only raid my fridge without a word of thanks, but also curse me out and insult my family… well then. We’re going to have issues.

For this reason, I would support Cross’s suggestion- that the only way to guest on another server would be being invited by someone. Guesting was, after all, meant as a way for friends on different servers to still play with each other- this would fulfill that original purpose while cutting down on the coattail-ers.

I do like hopping to other servers just to check out the communities there, and for convenience if, say, Balthazar is derped, but at this rate, the problems solved by implementing restrictions would be worth any inconveniences. Yeah, I know there will be people who will still coordinate to smuggle in troll squads and event hoppers, but the average troll/hopper won’t bother to organize that, and will likely just be lazy and stay on their own servers. It will be harder for people to just drop in if they’re interested in the personality of a server, but again… it won’t be much different (better even) than before paid transfers, when many servers were full. And I’m sure people could arrange something to help interested players over.

The people who will be hit hardest by this, unfortunately, will be the players in sparsely populated servers… that’s the only thing that gives me pause.

I trioed AC Path 1 and CM Asura path with my warrior friend, the third person being a thief and then another elementalist. Another warrior not too long ago soloed the hardest boss in the game. Neither of them were tank builds, and the latter warrior was full glass.

Are you moving around and actively avoiding damage? Or are you standing still and eating all the hits? Doing the latter gets you killed over and over in GW2.

A lot of people who whine about the 0/10/0/30/30 D/D ele have not played one. The build is near-impossible to kill if played right- in other words, you can’t just roll an ele and do magically well in PvP right off the bat. You actually need skill, knowledge, and practice- lots of it. I say this because I’ve seen a number of D/D eles in WvW who lose their heads and waste all their movement/healing skills at once, and therefore get stomped by whatever they’re fighting.

And yes, even though I have played ele since launch and soloed champions and partially soloed dungeons, I am one of those eles- I can’t kill unless in a group and usually get killed if I’m up alone against two or more people. Rolling an elementalist does not automatically make you the next daphoenix.

Finally, the 0/10/0/30/30 build is survivable at the cost of damage. It doesn’t do much damage at all- players just assume that the annoying ball of lightning jumping all over the screen is the thing that’s killing them, when in fact it’s the thief/ranger/warrior attacking them from behind. An elementalist specced heavily into fire and geared for offense (common and very viable in tower defense/attacks) will hit enemies for several thousand damage per meteor with Meteor Storm- my fireballs hit for 409 damage.

Rant aside, OP, what kind of role do you like? Do you prefer support or more offense, ranged or melee? Do you like to spam skills or take it slower?

Agony is manageable without resistance until the later levels. Only certain bosses, and certain attacks, inflict agony, and those attacks can usually be dodged or the agony healed off.

notebene.3190:

LithePanther.5027:

My guild has AC explorable on farm with ~15-20 minutes per path.

We find CoF to be an easy one as well, although we’re not as quick with that one

I would definetely say to do the explorables instead of stories. In most cases, I’ve found story to be MUCH harder then explorable, or at least harder then 1 or 2 explorable paths. Example? AC story is SOOOOO much harder then all 3 paths in explorable. I would say the same with CM imo

Really? That’s interesting, I just assumed since the story one’s were the introduction and the explore modes were 5 levels higher, they were much harder. Seems counter intuitive. I haven’t done any explorables yet. I guess I ought to hook up and try some P1 and P2 with some folks. Thanks.

It really depends on how you run them- if you use boulders or the door trick to keep Vassar away in the Lovers battle, and cheese Adelbern by keeping him permanently knocked down with boulders (hence preventing him from doing any attacks), AC story is much easier than any of the explorables- the mobs don’t hit as hard and most of the bosses don’t require any special tactics. It takes longer, but you aren’t at a high risk of dying, nor is pinpoint coordination needed.

Compare this to the explorables, where failing to dodge can mean you being swarmed and chain-CC’ed by scavengers (and usually nommed to death in a few seconds, especially with the champion in path 2), one-shot or brought into critical and finished off by bleed from the troll’s AoE, pulled and axed to death by Kholer, shredded by the Howling King or Colossus’s scream, knocked down and left vulnerable by falling boulders during the Colossus fight, getting 9+ stacks of bleed in seconds from being zerged by normal gravelings… Then there’s the coordination needed for the crypt in path 3 (so that the party focuses one burrow at a time and doesn’t scatter and get overwhelmed) and defending Hodgins in the crypt in path 1 (kill the wrong burrow and you’re kittened), defending Detha in the Hall of Champions in path 2 (fail to focus fire and your party gets overwhelmed and wiped). Then at least one person in the group has to be competent enough at kiting/dodging to hold off gravelings in the traps in path 2, the crypt/gathering mission in path 1, and should worst come to worst, the crypt in path 3.

Explorables do take less time than story with a good team, but if a group cannot handle AC story, they certainly will not be able to handle AC exp, where dodging and coordination become more crucial and the enemies hit much, much harder.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

OPs, please don’t delete your posts after we answer your questions… it makes your answerers look weird.

Majority of the Internet says no. Exactly one post said that it worked, but that was during the beta and likely has been closed by now.

If you plan on PvE, he can just guest over to your server instead- you can do everything together but WvW.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Ethics.4519:

My vote would be on theif. Although ele is a great contender, especially since you don’t have to use a utility for 25% (although you can if you’re too lazy to get the 33%).

Can you clarify what you being too lazy to get the 33% max? You mean being too lazy to use the ele skills that give Swiftness?

With enough boon duration and the corresponding traits in Arcana and Air (the one that gives boons on attunement and the one that grants fury and swiftness on aura use), you can cycle Frost Aura, Air Attunement, and Shocking Aura for permanent swiftness and fury.

If you like the appearance. Otherwise, there are better ways to get good weapons.

I should firstly warn that the combat system is much different here than it is from WoW. There are no dedicated tanks or healers, so focusing on pure DPS will get you killed in PvE and is very situational in WvW.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101/first

DPS-wise, elementalist has the best AoEs (though damage will be low if you spec bunker) and thief has the highest single-target damage.

Also, every class is good in dungeons/WvW/etc if played right- I’d rather take a skilled engineer over a guardian who thinks he can facetank and gets himself killed periodically. A good rule of thumb is this- do you enjoy the class? Then play it, and ignore what other people say.

I main an elementalist and I will say that yeah, the class is squishy at first but evolves as you level. What weapon set are you using? I could probably give some advice regarding skill use- remember that you will need to use skills to control the movement of your enemy. Are you moving around as you fight?

If you enjoy ele, keep playing ele. Don’t change because of what other people say.

I’ve done runs with 3 eles, a necro, and a warrior that went flawlessly. I’ve done runs with two warriors and a guardian that wiped over and over. Class is not the deciding factor in dungeons.

Once it’s missed, it’s missed, I suspect, as they’ll be altering the content as time passes.

Each portion of the Living Story narrative will only be available for a certain period of time, yet it will have repercussions in the world and upon the people living in it.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-living-story-in-guild-wars-2/

The little parts of the story (like helping refugees and the minor events that pop up) may be repeatable as long as their respective arc is in progress, but the overall arcs will not.

Guardian is perhaps the best at defensive support when built for it, and very survivable too. Its main drawbacks are a lack of DPS and poor ranged options. A lot of guardian attacks also involve light and blue fire, so not sure if that would count as shamanistic.

Elementalists can also be fairly good support, though they’re more of a jack-of-all-trades, less group oriented (in the case of a double-dagger elementalist), and more difficult to play than a guardian. Unlike guardian, you will have to switch attunements constantly to be effective and stay moving at all times to stay alive. Eles cannot stand and take hits like a guardian, but are incredibly survivable when built and played right. They make use of the classic four elements (as indicated by the name), so that may be more shamanistic, especially if you go staff.

Press R to autorun.

I just checked, and nope… you cannot transmute accessories aside from backpieces.

Try guesting on Tarnished Coast for a while, and see if it suits you. I do nearly all of my runs with guildmates, but I usually see a number of people asking around for groups. I always see people around, and its a mature, friendly community (barring map chat at times).

Also consider using http://gw2lfg.com/ for dungeon groups.

You’re probably best off sending a ticket directly to support if you don’t get an answer here.

From what I know, macros that basically allow you to carry out full key sequences with a single button are definitely forbidden, as they’ll give you an advantage over other players, ruling out 3 for sure. 2 can already be simulated in-game with autotargeting, and you can rebind Tab to target the nearest enemy. Not sure about the chat macro, but you can work around that by copy/pasting with ctrl+v.

To add on, I’d say as a general rule of thumb, assume all macros are forbidden. There was a mod released a while ago that modified GW2 to act like TERA, combat control-wise, and Anet pretty much said they had no issues with it. But that was a mod rather than a macro.

Jewelry and trinkets, I don’t think so. They don’t appear on your character, visually, and the whole point of transmutation is to get the stats of one item on the skin of another.

Backpieces can be transmuted because some of them show up on your character.

The gear you use in WvW is the same you use in PvE. You will have to find exotics with stat sets that get as close as possible- see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature

Normal accessories have a slot for another gem, which adds more stats. Since Ascended gear has infusion slots and not gem slots, an extra set of attributes is added to make up for them.

And no, I do not believe you have to infuse the accessory to activate the white pat.

To be bluntly honest, if that guild will act like that, they aren’t worth the time. Good guilds don’t insult their members and will take the time to explain things.

Most things in GW2 are best learned through experience, and I can’t give any general advice without specific topics, but feel free to add me in-game and give me a shout if you ever have questions.

Yeah, it didn’t work… you might have bought two of the same manual, or bought the wrong one.

Blueshield.6291:

Aveneo.2068:

I want to make the Goblet of Kings and one of the components is a Bag of Jewels. Unfortunately, the wiki doesn’t provide any information where these bags can be obtained.

Anybody know where I can get these?

Thanks

They consistently drop in dungeon chests – Fractals and others. I’d suggest AC explorable paths, personally – I consistently walk away with several bags of gems after doing all 3 paths.

Huh, that’s new to me. I always thought only Bags of Coins dropped- never had a Bag of Jewels drop for me outside of Fractals.

Soulmyr.8094:

azureai.9764:

Soulmyr.8094:

I have 3 gold, my armor are all blues around level 76 an i have 32% map explored.
….
Where should i go to get gold faster so i can buy better gear?

There’s a lot more to do when you’re level 80 than you might think. Someone earlier correctly pointed you to the “I’m Level 80…now what?” thread stickied at the top of this forum.

Level 76 blues are fine for exploring (which it seems you still have a good amount left to do! ), but I’d be wary of that equipment for higher level dungeons and definitely shy from Fractals wearing that (unless you’re with good-natured friends). If you’re looking to purchase gear, your Order from your story (Priory, Whispers or Vigil) sells some very nice high level stuff in their home instance.

But Gold isn’t the only way to get great armor. Crafting is actually the best way to make the weapons and armor you want. If you’re not level 400 in a crafting profession, you should definitely get there (or make a friend you can keep supplied…haha). Also: Karma vendors in Orr, the Mystic Forge and doing a few low level dungeon crawls can get you quickly into some superior armor and weapons.

Yes, many people say crafting is the best way but i noticed that no matter how much materials i get during exploration i always run out of them. I loot everything and gather all resources i come across but it just doesn’t cut it. The only way to get enough is to buy them and that’s quite expensive for me. I sold the materials i didn’t use for my crafting profession but i don’t know if that’s a smart thing to do…. The fact both of my crafting professions require the same materials makes everything even harder.
Anyway thanks everyone for responses.

Crafting is the cheapest way if you can gather all the materials yourself, or have enough gold to make the 1-400 investment. I personally found it easier to do a few dungeon/Fractal runs for gold (while geared in rares/masterworks), and then buy my gear from the Trading Post. It depends on personal preference and market prices, I guess.

You could also grind dungeons for tokens which you can trade for level 80 exotic gear- check this page for which stat sets are available at what dungeons: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature Again, though, it’s personal preference.

I’ve seen them drop from chests below level 10, but I don’t recall what level exactly.

To explain the process:

You use the Mystic Forge by putting in four certain items and receiving another certain item back- hence, it’s a recipe. Basically, what you’re doing here is putting in four components to make another component, then using the component you get from the forge in another recipe with three other items. You keep doing this until you finally have the three gifts and The Legend precursor, which you put in the forge to get Bifrost.

For example, to get the Gift of The Bifrost, you would put into the Forge:
-250 Piles of Crystalline Dust, 250 Piles of Incandescent Dust, 250 Piles of Luminous Dust, and 250 Piles of Radiant Dust to get the Gift of Energy
-250 Unidentified Dyes, 250 Piles of Crystalline Dust, 100 Opal Orbs, and 1 Gift of Zhaitan to get the Gift of Color
Then you would put the Gift of Color and the Gift of Energy along with a Superior Sigil of Nullification and 100 Icy Runestones into the Forge to get the Gift of The Bifrost. That’s pretty much the pattern along which all the gifts run- check the wiki list to see the ingredients needed for each gift.

I should finally mention that legendaries are meant to be long-term goals, obtainable by playing the game relatively normally- they’re meant to take at least a year to get, with the people who grind hardcore for theirs being anomalies. Don’t stress or assume you’ll be done with the weapon quickly.

If you take a screenshot of your trait panel, I probably could let you know if it worked.

Soulmyr.8094:

So what is the most common thing to do when you hit level 80?
I have 3 gold, my armor are all blues around level 76 an i have 32% map explored.
Am I allowed to do any dungeon now?
Do i need better gear for fractals?
Where should i go to get gold faster so i can buy better gear?
Should i just continue exploring the map?

-Do whatever you enjoy most: my friend does WvW, I wander the open-world and do dungeons for fun, another friend works on Fractals, another friend works on a legendary.
-Yes, you should fit the level requirement for any dungeon now- however, I recommend starting with Ascalonian Catacombs story mode, the first dungeon, located in the charr starting area, as dungeons take some getting used to.
-I’d suggest getting at least level 80 masterworks, but what really matters in Fractals is being aware of your surroundings and being able to coordinate well as a group. Level 10+ is where agony starts kicking in and the mobs hit much harder.
-Dungeons or farming Orr give a lot of money.
-If you want to.

Melis.9687:

It’s fun right away! I don’t want to leave Queensdale because so many things are happening there. Also there are many players, only problem is everyone is like a mime who doesn’t say anything. I want to talk to people …

Come guest on Tarnished Coast. /cough

Map chat’s fairly questionable (especially since it seems all the trolls are guesting to our server to have a larger audience), but there’s quite a number of decent individuals. I’d also recommend looking into a guild.

All sigils with internal cooldowns share those cooldowns- hence, the activation of one will prevent the other from activating.

More info: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

EDIT: Er, please don’t delete your original posts after I answer them…