Guild Wars 2

You can, I’ve done it myself with an alternate account. Just open the server list on the character select screen (button is in the lower-left) and open the NA world list. Choose the world you want to transfer to, and hit transfer.

Warning: the following post may seem elitist.

I can see where you’re coming from, but it’s really a matter of extent. Just as I do not believe players should force other players to play full zerker warriors for their own purposes, I do not believe anyone should have a say in what builds players must bring, whether those builds are full glass or support.

I will say I believe people should change around utilities when the situation calls, given that it’s extremely easy. For a guardian, it takes only two clicks to swap a signet out for Wall of Reflection, which helps massively in projectile-heavy situations and can save a lot of stress, even if the player in question is not traited for consecrations. It always confuses me when guardians don’t use it because they want to play “their way.”

The same goes for mesmers and Feedback, which again takes only two clicks to swap out. However, while traited focus is extremely nice against ranged enemies, I won’t demand that shatter/any build that doesn’t have 20 Inspiration mesmers go out and spend silver and time changing their entire trait setup just to suit me, an arbitrary stranger, for one run.

As an ele, I can bring a build that stacks tons of might and fury on a party while putting out lots of damage, at the cost of making myself extremely glassy and party-reliant. I run it only with people I know or in multi-path PUG runs where the other members have shown themselves to be competent. As much as I like the build, the blunt fact is that many randoms I run with will be ranging at 1200 and missing out on the stacks, or taking dirt naps because they stood in red circles, leaving me to either rez them (very hard as glass, especially when the downed person doesn’t understand the concept of rallying) or try to solo everything down. In those cases, I bring a balanced, tankier, more self-centered build instead, so I know I can survive rub-rezzing or suddenly having to solo three times the aggro I normally do.

Also, in some cases, the self-centered option is just… the better option. Take guardian’s slot 6 heals. Healing Breeze is very weak, has a relatively long cooldown, and won’t save someone who’s lousy at avoiding damage. Signet of Resolve, however, is an extremely powerful burst heal that also happens to purge conditions every 10 seconds. As a sylvari ele, I could use the racial healing skill that plants a regeneration turret, but this seed breaks in a hit in dungeons and has a much longer cooldown for the heal than Ether Renewal, which heals a generous amount and removes 8 conditions on a short cooldown, possibly saving me from taking a dirt nap and inconveniencing the rest of my party.

tl;dr I can understand your frustration, but realize that some PUGers have reasons for running more self-reliant builds, and it’s kinda wishy-washy to demand that someone change their whole setup for a single run.

Honestly, most people aren’t going to care what class you play as long as you play it well (e.g. for ranger, don’t sit at max range autoattacking with longbow). Try out all the classes, and if it turns out that one of the “hotter” classes is the class of your dreams, play it, and more power to you. But by no means force yourself to play a class you find boring or annoying just because some arbitrary stranger on the Internet said you should. You’ll only make yourself miserable and a poorer player in the end.

I was told many times to play a guardian instead of an ele at launch. I ignored them, and learned to play ele better than anyone else around me. I did things they said eles couldn’t do. I outlived every other class in dungeons and soloed down the bosses of several explorable paths while the rest of my party lay dead on the ground. I found uses and synergies for skills they said were useless, discovered a meta build independently months before anything was written about it.

Eventually, I did get curious and rolled a guardian. I hated it- how slow and dull and lifeless it was- and though I’ve brought myself to understand it somewhat more and found my own take on the class, it’s still my least favorite of my alts and usually collects dust while I play my eles.

I probably could have been a decent guardian, and there were some things it provided that I wish my ele had (party stability, for one). But I was extremely unmotivated to progress beyond “decent” to “great,” to the point that the entire game started feeling dull and I considered a hiatus. Only when I played ele again did I get my energy and love for GW2 back.

tl;dr play a class that you love, that excites you and makes you want to master it. For me, it’s ele. For my best friend, it’s warrior. For some other people, it’s guardian (I won’t claim that because I dislike a class, everyone should dislike it) or engi or mesmer or necro. If none of the classes light a fire, then at least play one that you enjoy enough to play well rather than half-heartedly spamming skills.

I’ve sent you a mail in-game from my character of the same name. Not sure if you can respond yet to it due to anti-spam, but hopefully it cleared things up. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask me.

(Thinking back, I probably should have just posted the explanation here, but ah well.)

Khalith.2987:

Garambola.2461:

Fractals give you Ascended Rings. Either by luck after lvl 10 or by buying with Pristine Fractal Relics.

Ascended Weapons can drop at higher level fractals. I personally know only one person that lucky. They also can drop from the same places the t7 materials do. But the chances are slim. Most Ascended Weapons are crafted and they are account bound when made.

Ascended Armor comes before the end of the year. Time to start hoarding materials.

Ascended Amulets and Trinkets are sold by Laurel Wendors. Rings too, but laurels are valuable so Fractals is the more expedient way.

Thanks for the info, it’s appreciated. So the only way to really gear up is by crafting then? That’s rather annoying. Ascended armor will need to be crafted also and the best way to get the weapons is by hoarding mats and crafting them also while laurels are used for non-set pieces and are obtained by fractals?

Just want to make sure I have it correct.

99.9% of the game can be done in exotics, which can be gotten in a variety of ways- heck, you probably could do a lot of it in rares if you’re skilled enough. Ascended isn’t required unless you’re going high into Fractals, which don’t have any special rewards at 21+. Treat it more as a gradual, opt-in way to round out your character over time rather than an absolute threshold that MUST be met.

Time to give this another bump!

Brother Grimm.5176:

Whoa!!!! I’d be very careful with that suggestion as it has been reported on multiple posts on these forums that a Trans Splitters do NOT return skins (as they are NOT items).

Splittters will only return original ITEMS from the last transmutation process. All the reports I have seen of someone attempting what you are suggestion result in total LOSS of the skin.

From the patch notes: The Transmutation Splitter is now available in the Consumable category for 300 gems each, 5 for 1350 gems, or 25 for 6000 gems. Transmutation Splitters will return the two current source items from any transmuted item and will also return an applied upgrade separately. All items returned from splitting a transmutation are soulbound. *Items using a skin will return a base item with the original appearance. Another Transmutation Stone will be required to reapply the skin.*

What that means is that if you use a splitter on an item with a skin on it, you’ll get back the stat item and a separate, statless item with the skin applied to it. For example, if you used a splitter on a capacitor skinned with the Quaggan Backpack, you’ll get back:
-The capacitor
-A white, statless backpiece with the appearance of the Quaggan Backpack on it.
What this means is that you keep the Quaggan skin, but to put it back on the capacitor or any other backpiece, you need to use a transmutation stone/crystal.

Granted, I haven’t been to the bug forums, so it could be that the splitters are actually malfunctioning and not returning the statless skinned piece at all. But wanted to put this out here in case there was a misconception.

It still works, yes. It has also been improved on in that you can use Transmutation Splitters to restore the legendary back to full legendary status.

1. Transmute legendary to white item
2. Move white item to appropriate character
3. Use Transmutation Splitter on transmuted legendary to get back a soulbound but untransmuted legendary.

The catch, of course, is the price of the Transmutation Splitters, which are 300 gems each.

I leveled a mesmer and a guardian to 80 at about the same time and stressed a lot about getting them both exotics and runes. Eventually, I just made myself stop fretting and put them in rares. I’ll get them exotics when I finish my legendary, and only then- right now, despite not being maxed out, they’re doing just fine.

I’d suggest avoiding alts if you’re the sort to stress about doing everything at once and min-maxing everything once you hit 80. It’s a matter of knowing how to prioritize. I’ll also second Mystic and recommend getting well-grounded in your main class before playing alts.

Contiguous.1345:

Falunel.7645:

Because there are thousands of players playing for thousands of hours, so even if exotics don’t drop for you, they’ll drop for someone. Chances are that someone will already have their exotics through one of the numerous guaranteed ways to get them, so they’ll put them up for sale instead of using them, especially if it’s a less desired stat combo.

Now wait a minute – that doesn’t make sense.

We’v already established that exotics are a ‘rare drop’. Most players don’t see one in months of play. The chances of getting one out of the mystic toilet are equally slender.
In those months of play, each player will need probably a dozen or so exotics, which he/she will probably buy of the TP. Nobody simply gears up their one character and then sits on it for months playing the same rerun over-and-over.
How many exotics have you bought this year? How many sold?

Per player, that’s one or less in and a dozen or so out. The math doesn’t stack up.

One might almost begin to believe in the spontaneous creation of matter if it weren’t for such a thing being impossible. (note: tongue-in-cheek)
It’s a game, a make-believe world with a smoke-and-mirrors economy.

Most players get their exotics by crafting them, trading them for badges, trading in karma, or trading in dungeon tokens- through the guaranteed ways. Very, very few players gear up using random drops, which are usually for the wrong class or have the wrong stats to begin with. The players who salvage exotics for ectos or dark matter are relatively few and likely running dungeons for tokens to buy them with or just salvaging the exotics they had to craft to level up to 500. As far as I’ve seen, you buy dropped or MF’ed exotics for the looks, and there’s not a very high demand for the looks. So low demand = lower prices.

Also:
How many exotics have I bought? Minus the crafted pieces for my first ele, none. I crafted all of my armor and weapons for my other characters or used dungeons/badges/karma. For accessories, I skipped directly to Ascended.
How many have I sold? One or two.

Contiguous.1345:

Hmmmm…

Anyone care to explain why it is that everyone says that exotic drops are as rare as hen’s teeth and yet the TP is stuffed with exotics for sale.

I’ve never had an exotic drop in about a year of playing but I have no difficulty in finding any exotic I need on the TP (at quite reasonable price too).

Smells fishy to me.

Because there are thousands of players playing for thousands of hours, so even if exotics don’t drop for you, they’ll drop for someone. Chances are that someone will already have their exotics through one of the numerous guaranteed ways to get them, so they’ll put them up for sale instead of using them, especially if it’s a less desired stat combo.

@OP: Random chance is exactly that- randomness. If something has a .01% chance of happening, that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to get it after 10000 tries, it just means that on each of those 10000 tries, you have a .01% chance of getting it- and on the flip side, a 99.99% chance of NOT getting it. Every try is the same as each other= trying longer does not guarantee success. The first try is the same as the last try- the 10000th try is still a 99.99% chance of the event NOT happening.

There are numerous guaranteed ways to get exotics of practically every stat combo. Instead of sitting around wishing for things to fall into your hands, try one of the suggestions that has already been made.

Apologies for the delay.

I have done level 30+ Fractals with a skilled thief. She knew how to use Black Powder to blind enemies when we pulled them in, placed Shadow Refuge on switch operators in the dredge fractal (who need to use an object for ~6 seconds to open a door, amidst tons of enemies), stealthed us for bombing runs by using shortbow 2 on Smoke Screen followed by Shadow Refuge, stealthed people who were low health or downed to get attention off them, and ripped boons off bosses to make them easier to kill, among other things. It’s a less obvious method of support than a guardian’s “stand in my circles for HAPPY,” but the runs were always smooth and wipe-free.

The unfortunate thing is that many thieves don’t understand how to make the most out of stealth, blind, etc, and die quickly because they haven’t learned to move and dodge. But I personally would be glad to take a good thief with me on any run- their skill floor is just higher.

Turn down post-processing if you anticipate a big fight. It’s the option that controls bloom and such, and I’ve found that having it off meant less brightness and flash.

Mesmer is quite good at support, actually. They can do an AoE field that removes conditions from allies and boons from enemies and an AoE reflect (or more, if you trait focus). They also have some niche abilities such as the ability to stealth allies, portal allies across an area, and increase the attack speed of all allies in an area. If your party is well-versed in combos, their ethereal fields are excellent for providing Chaos Armor to anyone who knows how to use them. They already can remove conditions from allies by shattering and, according to the devs, will be able to apply stability and remove more conditions in groups with mantras.

That being said, Guardian is the quintessential support class, with access to as many/more antiprojectile defenses as mesmer, healing (nothing on the level of a dedicated healer, though), every defensive boon in the game, and a variety of condition removers. An elementalist can also support- though staff is the strongest group support weapon, eles using other weaponsets can support via boonsharing on attunement and healing/condition removal. Bottom line is that pretty much every class has a way of supporting- it’s just a matter of finding one whose playstyle you like.

From a post I made to another topic with a similar subject.

Stop and think about why you want Twilight, and what you plan on doing after it.

The core game won’t change after you get Twilight. You’re not going to get access to top-tier raids or dungeons or PvP, unlike other games after grinding for a certain piece of gear. Neither are you going to have mass admiration or fame. Nor will you become a more powerful player. A legendary is a skin and a personal goal, not a game-changer. You get one because you like how it looks (as in, even if it was common as a blue drop, you would get it because you like how it looks) and then you continue playing the game as always.

With that in mind, is it worth getting the skin if you just burn out and blow past content you want to enjoy? My friend has multiple legendaries (all of which he made himself) and 100% map completion on five characters. As soon as he decided he wanted a certain legendary or map completion, he went after it hammer and tongs whenever he was in-game and didn’t stop unless someone needed his help. Yet the work hardly bothered him- rather, he enjoyed the feeling of making progress towards his personal goal, and after finishing those goals, just played the game as always.

However, I on the other hand don’t go after things so fervently. I like doing things on a whim and will usually drop everything if someone calls in with a question or even just wants to chat. I have my legendary’s precursor, WvW map completion, and more than enough clovers, so all elements of chance are out and the only thing that keeps me from finishing my legendary is straightforward work. Still, I spend most of my time online not actively working, but just doing things I like to do. When I explore, I pick an interesting direction and just walk and see what I find.

My way of doing things is much slower than my friend’s, but we both enjoy the game and progress without burning out or getting bored, and neither of us feel forced to work. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing. Make sure you’re getting the legendary because you want to, not because you feel you have to or that it’ll earn you admiration or make you a better player. And when you do the work required, try to do it in a way where you’ll enjoy it. Your legendary’s not going away, and there’s hardly any point in getting it if the process leaves you burnt out on the game itself.

I personally have been working on my legendary since April. I have the precursor, am 80% done with T6 materials (completely done with bloods, venoms, totems, scales, and one stack of dusts), have 80 clovers, 460 of the dungeon tokens I need, every aspect of the Gift of Mastery except the Gift of Exploration, and four PvE maps left to complete (WvW being completely done). I have never played the TP, turned gems into gold for my own use, or done intensive farming.

What I do instead is simply set microgoals. I pick a T6 material to work on, and whenever I have enough gold to buy 20 of that particular material, I do so until I’m reduced to carrying only 2g on my entire account. I do not let myself buy anything else. When I finish a stack, I let myself spend gold on one non-legendary item and then it’s on to the next stack. You’ll be surprised at the amount of gold that can stack up if you don’t spend.

I also do not work alone. A good friend of mine who I’ve known from another game is working on the scepter. We trade materials to each other- my charged cores for her gossamer. I also have an excellent group who I like to dungeon with semi-regularly, which gets me gold and tokens while doing an activity I like with people I like.

It’s a slower process than farming 24/7 or playing the TP, but I’m personally very happy with the progress and am in no rush. The Minstrel will come together in due time, and until then, I’ll be enjoying the game just as I will after I get it.

Weindrasi.3805:

cranked.3812:

Weindrasi.3805:

This has happened to me too! I was at 99% map completion on a character for MONTHS, even though I had completed the whole dang map. Eventually, I went to a section of the map and found that a number of waypoints I had already discovered were fogged and undiscovered all over again. This was a zone I had finished and gotten the reward chest for, that for no reason at all, I lost exploration on. When I re-explored the waypoints, I got my 100%

They do add new areas and wp’s to the map when they add guild challenges and jumping puzzles or other things. That is totally different from what the OP is referring to.

No. This has nothing to do with the added areas—those aren’t what prevented my map completion. An area that has existed since launch, that I discovered, fogged up again after I discovered it.
Furthermore the map area that re-fogged, the Cursed Shore, has received no additions due to guild challenge or living story stuff.

Cursed Shore had one or two extra WPs added.

Ended up being too long for the forum to handle, so I wrote it up in Google Docs.

The basic idea is that the other events in the area (escorting quaggans, clearing the tunnel of Risen, defending the lab from krait) would have an impact on the Tequatl fight. The unfortunate thing is that this sort of thing would be very difficult to balance- ideally, it would be a cool addition that makes the fight a bit more breathable for small groups who are coordinated but simply lack numbers, but doesn’t trivialize the fight by making it possible for groups with no coordination to simply zerg Tequatl. In essence, completing the events would play off coordination rather than replace it- it should be possible to defeat Tequatl without the events, and very possible to fail with the events.

Hard to implement, yes, but if someone can figure out how to do this, either for Tequatl or future, similar events, I feel it would be a cool addition.

Regarding necromancer- I have next to no experience with necros, either playing or running with them, but they seem like a solid class. They are masters of attrition, having extremely high HP and the most power over condition of the classes. The only issue I see is condition capping- stacking conditions cap at 25 per enemy, so if there are too many condition damage players in a group, some of their conditions will be lost, resulting in lower damage for everyone. This is also an issue in large open-world bosses, where many, many players will be attacking the same enemy and all conditions will be capped at 25. However, necromancers can easily run non-condition builds- I’ve heard a lot of praise for power builds. If you do decide to run conditions, they are good in solo PvE and static dungeoning groups.

Regarding mesmer- mesmers can put out decent damage while having access to a good amount of support in groups. They can reflect projectiles, purge conditions, and rip boons off enemies. They have some more unique support abilities as well- they can stealth allies (available only to thieves and possibly engineers), use AoE haste to allow everyone to attack faster, set down chaos fields, and teleport allies across short parts of the map. They are frailer than other classes and rely on illusions, chaos armor, and/or evasion skills to defend themselves. They have a steep learning curve and are said to be very difficult to level up, but very fun and versatile at 80.

And finally… elementalist. Elementalists have the lowest armor and the lowest health pool in the game. They do not have weapon swap, but instead have four attunements for each weaponset- each attunement is like a different weaponset, giving elementalists twenty weapon skills to manage at a time. They are heavily reliant on active play to survive, even in open world content- a good elementalist must constantly move in combat, know when to dodge, and know how to combo skills and cycle attunements constantly. They have an extremely steep learning curve and are considered the least newbie-friendly class, next to mesmers.

However, when played and built right, an elementalist can easily be as tough as a warrior or guardian. They have strong AoE capabilities, both in damage and in control- good elementalists excel at slowing down groups of enemies and raining AoEs upon them while keeping just out of reach, never getting hit. Every weaponset ele has is ranged, including D/D- it is short-ranged, not melee, and it is not only possible to kite with daggers, but necessary. Elementalists also are very mobile and have access to invulnerabilities, anti-projectile defenses, defensive boons, blinds, and lots of burst healing and condition removals.

In groups, elementalists can stack large amounts of might and fury on their parties and/or support defensively by sharing defensive boons and AoE healing/condition cleansing. They have many damage-multiplying traits and can trait to do extremely high damage, though often at the cost of becoming very frail. They can summon conjure weapons and use them in conjunction with allies to put out massive AoE damage- in fact, Frost Bow and Fiery Greatsword are instrumental in bursting down a difficult world boss. Elementalists are also very strong soloists, being capable of soloing many group events and champions, dungeon bosses, and even some entire dungeons.

I just now remembered you were also interested in thief… but I’ll have to add that in yet another post. Hopefully these walls of text helped.

Welcome back, Serbstriker! Hoped to catch you in-game, but you weren’t online at the time.

Of the classes you listed, I have a level 80 guardian, a level 22 warrior, a level 80 mesmer, and three elementalists, two of which are fully geared level 80s, with the other being a rising level 25. Elementalist is my main and favorite class (clearly), and I have played my first ele since three days past launch. I am considerably less knowledgable about my mesmer, warrior, and guardian, as I’ve only leveled/created them in the last few months, so take what I say about those three classes with a grain of salt.

Regarding guardian, you are correct in that they excel in group content and defensive support. They are also one of the tankiest classes- though they have the lowest base HP in the game (tied with elementalist), they easily make up for it with a ton of active defenses, including blinds, blocks, reflecting shields, large amounts of self-healing and condition cleanses, and constant access to defensive boons such as protection, aegis, and regeneration. Of all the classes in GW2, the guardian is the one that can get away with being the least mobile (though a good guardian will continue to move and dodge in battle, and not moving/dodging still gets you killed- you just last longer than other classes). The main downside is that they lack a strong ranged option- scepter, the only 1200 ranged weapon, is paradoxically most effective in close-range and lacks support. They have less mobility than other classes as well. And as mentioned earlier, some people find them very boring, though that is a personal thing.

I don’t have much experience with warrior firsthand, but I will say my best friend and constant dungeon/WvW/achievement hunting/exploration/GW2-in-general partner is a warrior, and an extremely good one at that. He’s also played his class since launch and does a lot of theorycrafting- we’ve duoed a number of dungeons and group events together. So passing on what I do know and what I’ve learned from him:

Warriors have the highest amount of health in the game along with the highest armor, making them one of the most forgiving classes for newcomers. However, unlike guardian, they have less self-recovery. Their burst heals have long cooldowns, and though they have decent regeneration capabilities, their regeneration is very little next to the amount of damage you can take in harder content. A single attack can, in the blink of an eye, reduce you to half health or less- if health was in liquid form, each attack knocks off a gallon of HP, while your regen fills it up by tablespoons. They also do not have access to the wide variety of active defenses (anti-projectile walls, defensive boons, invulnerability, etc) that other classes have. A good warrior must be highly mobile and skilled at dodging, and know how to combo weapon skills and weapon swap.

What warriors bring to the table is high damage- they have the highest direct damage in the game. They also have the most weapon sets in the game, though they can only use two in combat at a time like other classes. They have less support than guardians, but can offensively support with group damage boosts and light regeneration. A lot of people find it boring, but like guardian, that is a personal thing. I will say, from my experiences with other warriors, that a lot of people don’t push it to its limits and really try to master it like my friend does.

(cont)

I cannot answer 1 or 3, but Tarnished Coast is the unofficial RP server for NA, and is very populated. I don’t recall if the server is full or not, though.

Some links that may be of use:
GW2 Roleplay Hub: http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/
TC Server Forums: http://tcgw2.com/forums/index.php

Hello, Jazzy, and welcome!

Thief and mesmer are more advanced classes, yes. However, if they interest you, by all means give them a try. Don’t listen to people saying they’re too hard for newcomers- jump in and find out how they suit you. For my first class, I mained elementalist, a class many people say has the steepest learning curve and is least newbie-friendly. It was rough at first, but I fell utterly in love with it. I still main it to this day and I feel I became a better player overall by starting with a difficult class.

If you have lots of difficulty and get stressed out, warrior, guardian, and ranger are the most forgiving newcomer classes. You can play them for a while to get the hang of the game before moving to other classes. Or if you like them, you can main them. What’s important is that you find a class you love.

As for RP, Tarnished Coast is the unofficial North American RP server, and Piken Square is its EU counterpart.

EDIT: Here are some helpful links:
GW2 Roleplay Hub: http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/
TC Server Forums (mainly used by WvWers, but anyone is welcome, even non-TCers. They’re lovely people): http://tcgw2.com/forums/index.php

When built and played right, an ele can be as tough as nails and capable of soloing a lot of group content, from open-world champions to dungeons. If you’re worried about being squishy, hopefully that clarifies a bit. They are also capable of stacking massive amounts of might and fury on allies while putting out high damage.

That being said, don’t ever force yourself to play a class you don’t like- you’ll just wind up miserable in the long run. If you have room, you can leave the ele and play something else in the meantime, and return to the ele if you ever feel like it. I had to do that myself with my mesmer. I wanted to like mesmer very badly and put a lot of work into mine, but it never clicked and I often got frustrated. The knowledge of playing mesmer had to trickle in bit by bit, as I would play it and then leave it for long stretches- eventually, though, it finally clicked, and now it’s my second favorite class.

BlueSoda.6297:

You’re not being a jerk,lol. And you have a point, if I don’t like it, I don’t have to play it. But my point is that when anet adds more content that is suppose to be more challenging, it also needs to be more fun. They have made a habit out of this, so just asking if anyone else agrees/disagrees…

And please, as long as you’re respectful, feel free to have the opposite opinion of me XD It’s important that anet hears what everyone has to say about every subject so that the majority can get what they want.

Firstly, kudos on your second paragraph.

Secondly, different strokes for different folks. I haven’t killed Teq, but I find the fight a LOT of fun. It feels epic, massive, exactly like what fighting a dragon should be like, and the possibility of failure adds to it. Even if I don’t get material rewards for it, I’d still show up for the fight and give it what I can. I just did the fight on my home server, and people seem to agree with me- everyone was excited even though we failed, thanking the turret gunners, talking strategy about the next go-around, and yelling light-hearted threats at Tequatl.

At the risk of sounding abrasive, your opinion is not universal, and the devs are not required to tailor all content to your personal preferences. Again, I don’t say that to be trollish- it’s just the best way I can word it, sorry.

That must be why everything in the game is timed, and why I get kicked if I afk for two minutes! Luckily my tinfoil hat will protect me!

Mirta.5029:

Falunel.7645:

Exactly this. Casual players can contribute to this event easily- it doesn’t take long at all to pick up on using/defending turrets.

Being a casual player is not an excuse for playing lazily and expecting the same rewards, and tbh I find it insulting towards the general casual playerbase when people say it. Just like not all hardcore players are elitist jerks, not all casuals are incompetent. And just as some hardcore players need to stop making other hardcore players look like jerks, some casual players need to stop making other casuals look incompetent.

The original quote:

butch.8136:

Coordinate and win. Get 40 people organised and go to an overflow after it finished.
I think this boss is easy if organised well.

If they nerf this, it’ll be the ultimate stamp on gw2 “casual game”.

Essentially if you’re not in a big guild and are not organizing with them some people think that you’re not entitled to ever beating it.

You do not need to be in a big guild to coordinate with others. Take stock of the situation and pitch in where needed.

I circle around the turrets and move over them to see their health. If I notice one’s dented, I grab a hammer and do repairs. If a gunner is low on health, I drop heals on them. If I see adds coming in, I run out to kill them and defend the turrets. If everything’s all right by the turrets, I run out to the boss and attack, while paying attention to chat and glancing at the turrets time to time to make sure everything’s all right. I do all this without being in a guild or even a preassigned group. It’s all about personal initiative.

Miragee.3604:

Mirta.5029:

I thought that GW2 is a casual game and that world bosses are accessible to the masses and not only to the top elite.

I thought casual isn’t the same as being stupid.

Exactly this. Casual players can contribute to this event easily- it doesn’t take long at all to pick up on using/defending turrets.

Being a casual player is not an excuse for playing lazily and expecting the same rewards, and tbh I find it insulting towards the general casual playerbase when people say it. Just like not all hardcore players are elitist jerks, not all casuals are incompetent. And just as some hardcore players need to stop making other hardcore players look like jerks, some casual players need to stop making other casuals look incompetent.

I see we have similar ideas, though you posted first, lol.

1.) Place a timer on how long one player can be on a cannon.
2.) Give players a “turret cooldown” so they can’t immediately jump back on the turret.

The reasoning behind this:
-Placing a timer on how long one player can be on a turret prevents people from going afk on them and locking them up, while giving enough time for contributing players to fire off skills.
-While I have nothing against newbies, this also prevents an uninformed player from taking a cannon and using the whole fight to shoot krait.
-Implementing a turret use cooldown prevents players from trolling by staying perpetually on a cannon. Once their time is up, they can’t use it again for a certain time, allowing other players to jump on.
-Assuming that turret CDs are NOT shared across players, this would encourage rapid passing of the cannon from player to player. Each player could use the skills, which could be faster than one person waiting on cooldowns. This is, again, assuming that turret skill CDs are NOT shared and there are enough people around/the turret CD is low enough to make rapid switching worthwhile.

Possible issues and things to consider:
-Length of the turret use duration and cooldown. Shorter cooldowns and longer use durations make trolling/akitteng easier, but longer cooldowns and shorter use durations make it difficult to use turrets in situations with fewer people.
-Tag-team trolling. Highly unlikely (many trolls are just too lazy), but would be offset with long cooldowns and short use durations. However, this results in the aforementioned issue with fewer people by the cannons.
-How important will skill 1 be?
-Players will have to pay extra attention to turrets to see if they are vacant/occupied- maybe make a clearer mark to show status?

As it stands now:
-It is actually pretty hard to hoard a turret for the entire duration of the fight. While controlling a turret, I got smashed from behind by an abomination and drenched in poison (twice- the first time, I panicked and forgot I couldn’t dodge while using a turret, and the second time, I dropped the turret ASAP and got out). Whether this changes when people coordinate better (no one was defending the turrets in my overflow) remains to be seen.

For Ascended gear: upgrading a piece of Ascended gear via the MF (backpieces, rings) will make it account bound. This applies ONLY to upgrades made via the MF- infusing an item by putting an infusion into an infusion slot will not unbind it.

For legendaries: they can be moved from character through a roundabout way that requires gems.

1.) Transmute legendary onto a white item, keeping the stats of the white item and the skin of the legendary. Do NOT buy a white item from an NPC weaponsmith, as those whites are soulbound. Buy one from the TP.
2.) The transmuted legendary should now be account bound. Move it to the character you want to transfer it to through the bank.
3.) Use a transmutation splitter (300 gems per) on the transmuted item. It will give you back your legendary (now soulbound to the character you used the splitter with), the white item, and the sigil.

Can you post a screenshot? Also, check your chat tabs- you might have accidentally made an empty tab.

Drop that guild and find a new one. If I personally saw a guildmate abusing another person like that, I would be sure to raise hell about it in the guild. Either they get kicked, or I drop all of them. There are very good guilds out there, but usually they’re the quieter, smaller ones who are more selective about how and who they recruit.

Also, DPS in this game is not as straightforward as WoW- you have to take into account damage multipliers, boons, conditions, and self-defense (dodging, saving skills for counters, swapping into more defensive weaponsets or skills). Building pure damage, in not just gear, but traits, weapon skills, and utilities, is highly risky and puts you at the mercy of your group’s competence and luck, since there are neither healers nor tanks. Aiming for balance (forgoing an offensive utility in favor of a projectile reflector or condition remover, for instance) can over the long run be more effective than trying to min/max everything.

I’ll warn also that if you want to be top of the top in DPS, you’ll likely have to melee. Being melee in GW2 carries with it a higher risk, so it pays off by doing more damage. Ranger in particular has a very good damage/offensive support build that incorporates the Spotter trait, traited Frost Spirit, and sword/warhorn.

I would recommend giving melee play a whirl in GW2- I always played ranged classes in other MMOs, but I adore melee combat in GW2 for its activeness. If you don’t enjoy melee, ranged is still a viable option if you’re not worried about min/max. Build and play right and you can put out some decent damage and support. Some other classes that do well with ranged, if you want to try something other than a ranger, are mesmer, engineer, and elementalist.

The Explorer achievement and map completion are two different things. Map completion requires you to get all vistas/PoIs/WPs/SPs, while Explorer achievements require you to unfog every area in a map. Some of those fogged areas don’t have map completion objects, so you can pass them entirely.

I think the area you’re missing is The Artesian Waters in Cursed Shore. It’s hidden behind an underwater tunnel behind the Temple of Melandru. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Artesian_Waters

EDIT: Dungeons are not counted.

Unfortunately, I am inexperienced with both staff ele and power necro. However, I’d like to mention that D/D isn’t single-target- it’s a frontal/close-range AoE weaponset. If being single-target was the only thing that bothered you, I would recommend trying out D/D or D/F (which is less bursty, but brings in the ability to spot control and block projectiles). If I misread what you wrote, feel free to ignore me.

GW2 rewards people who see the experience of doing something as the reward itself. NEVER do PvP just for a material reward- it’s the worst reason to PvP and leads to people trying to cheat through everything or people being forced into PvP just for the reward. Do it to gain a deeper understanding of your class and to test your skills, and see any rewards as nice bonuses. As reviled as shooter games may be, realize that people play them regularly despite not being “rewarded,” because playing the game is the reward itself. If you don’t enjoy PvP, don’t do it.

Dungeons are extremely fun when you run them to learn, in coordinated yet easygoing groups with friends who know their classes and the game. My group in particular likes to mix things up and push stuff to its limits- we’ve trio’ed AC P1 and CM P1. We’ve also duo’ed CoE P2 (had several others come in to activate the switches, but duoed everything else), AC story, CM P3, and TA F/U. In runs with less than five people, you learn to pay extra attention to everything. You notice enemy behaviors that you never noticed before, ways to play your attacks off each other, and you have to approach situations with a puzzle-solving mindset. You’ll make mistakes and get wiped the first time you attempt something, but you brush yourself off and figure out an alternate plan, and it is awesome when you succeed.

About the other stuff that I do in GW2:

I try to master my class, elementalist. It all started with defying some notions about ele’s solo survivability near launch. I went out and soloed a champion, something everyone thought was impossible for an ele. Since then, I’ve made it my GW2 life goal to learn everything possible about the class, and it’s an ongoing process. I’m currently learning how to solo with staff, a weapon I’ve only recently warmed up to. I also set myself to doing solo challenges to test myself- open-world champions and dungeons. I was the first ele to solo AC story (to my knowledge), and I’ve partially soloed the Molten Facility (up until the weapons room) and fully soloed the endbosses of TA F/U and CM P2. Before the champion rewards update, the champion spider in Queensdale was my benchmark- I took my characters to meet it and deemed myself passable at a class only when I could solo it.

I level alts- I plan on having a full 80 of each class, so I can see the game from a variety of perspectives. I also have two geared level 80 elementalists and am working on a third, because you can never have too many eles. (Yes, I border on obsessive at times.)

I explore. I love exploring in GW2. I like to pick a random direction and walk and see what I can find, and I find a lot of hidden caves, wolf dens, secret treasure, waterfalls, etc. I’m thrilled by little sights like a family of wolves hunting a dolyak, or hunters tracking a deer, or a flock of moas running around the fields- that detail is something I’ve never seen in any other MMO. I enjoy stumbling upon jumping puzzles and scaling impossible heights. I stop to watch vistas all the way through. I follow NPCs I see running somewhere and talk to them, and follow their hints to find secret events. After events, I stick with the NPCs and talk to them to see their follow-up conversations. I just chat with all the named NPCs I see.

I work on my legendary. So far, I have the precursor, 3/4 of the Gift of Mastery, 80 clovers, and 250 bloods/scales/venoms. I don’t stress about finishing, but set myself little goals while restricting myself from buying anything other than T6 materials until I reach a threshold, and I just enjoy measuring my progress. I participate in Frostgorge runs, but only if I feel like it, and if the farmers kitten me off, I’m more than glad to drop and do something else. I run dungeons and invasions on a casual basis. Most of my gold comes from gathering, which I enjoy a lot. It’s zen-like.

I socialize. I banter with my friends, who I treasure like real-life friends. We group up in-game and talk about builds and life. We help each other towards goals by trading or donating mats or running a dungeon daily until someone gets the item they need (even if that dungeon happens to be Arah exp). We run Tribulation Mode together and swear and laugh together. I talk to new players in map chat and argue with people over how easy it is to solo stuff as an ele. Sometimes I take newbies on relaxed learning runs in AC with my group. I’m always looking to answer newcomer questions and encourage them to find something that works for them.

There are probably some other things, but those are the main ones.

Ele is actually a very powerful solo class once you build and play it right- I can solo hearts, events, group events, champions, AC story, the endboss of TA F/U, etc without issues. Granted, it requires attention and alertness, but it is very possible to play ele without dying on every other thing you fight.

If you like ranged, engineer is the class with the most ranged options, but it plays much like ele (if you use kits). Mesmer is also a decent ranged/support-capable class.

Deep Cave is included under Treasure Trove permissions.

Skweetis.1590:

Hello, my name is Skweetis, and I am a Guild Wars 2 player.

Overall, I am pretty happy about the game, but here is a problem I am having.

1. I am level 80.
2. I don’t have MEGA AWESOME gear, but I have level 80 gear.
3. When I join someone to play the CM dungeon in newbie land.
4. I get killed rapidly.

I acknowledge that maybe there is some personal skill issue that I need to address, but at the same time, I worked pretty hard to get level 80, and I am still getting stomped. What assurance do I have that if I grind on gear stuff, I won’t get similarly stomped?

To shorten up my question: Or rather, to make a statement: If I spent huge hours getting the best gear, but I get level adjusted to low levels regardless, what’s the point of spending hours getting the best gear?

This really is a newb question. I am not trying to make a point rhetorically. I am just trying to figure out why I should continue to grind out advancement if my effort will be nullified by level adjustment.

Clarify!

Your effectiveness and survival in GW2 is dependent not upon gear or stats, but upon how you play.

What class and build are you? Regardless of what class you are, you should be doing the following:
-Move around constantly while attacking
-Dodge major attacks
-Don’t spam skills- use your skills actively to counter and control enemies.
-Bring skills and traits suited to the situation- in CM, if you’re a mesmer, you should roll Feedback. If you’re a guardian, you should bring Wall of Reflection, the spirit shield, and other anti-projectiles.
-Know your class and build.

It is much more important to avoid damage rather than to heal it.

I’ve ran a mesmer through AC exp and soloed several champions with only rare/yellow gear (all berserker, nonetheless), and survived just fine/better than the others. Prior to that, I did Arah/CoE/AC/CM exp and Fractals 10+ as an ele with rares/masterworks. The thing about top-tier gear is that it makes stuff easier (namely, you kill stuff faster and can take more hits if the cat hits the fan), but it won’t carry you like in other games. It ultimately boils down to how you play.

That being said, if you’re new to dungeons, I would recommend running AC story, and possibly some other stories (Arah, most likely) first. CM is one of the more unforgiving dungeons, in my opinion, since it comes with a lot of high-burst ranged mobs.

Finally, about running glass cannon- having some toughness does make a difference. When running Knight armor/zerker other stuff versus full zerker gear, you do get a hefty boost in survivability with a relatively minor damage drop. Full zerker gear is mainly viable in experienced static groups, and you want to compliment it with some defensive abilities (the aforementioned antiprojectiles, condition cures, etc). Going absolute full glass, where your traits/skills are entirely offensive, is even more risky- not only do you still have to keep on your toes, you’re dependent upon your party to defend you and if you’re caught alone, you’re screwed.

I would recommend starting with a balanced stat spread first- Knight’s armor, Berserker’s trinkets, and Valkyrie’s/Soldier’s weapons. As you get more comfortable and experienced, switch out pieces for offensive gear gradually until you hit a balance you’re comfortable with. Also, it may be worth looking over your traits and balancing them as well.

Take a look at http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/

The only surefire way to know if a profession fits you is to play it.

It’s a personal thing. Elementalist was my first main class (played a mesmer for a few days at launch, but it didn’t click for me and I dropped it) and after the first few levels, I fell in love with it, to the point that I began seeking out (and completing) challenges like soloing champions, just to see how far I could take the class. Over a year later, I am still maining elementalist (and in fact have two fully-geared level 80 eles), and though I dabble into other classes on the side, I always drift back to my eles and can’t bring myself to main anything else.

I do feel like having ele as my first class made me a better player- to this day, I’ve seen and ran with many guardians/warriors/rangers who don’t know how to dodge or counter attacks. With those three classes, you can get away with standing in place and not dodging for much open-world content- however, ele forces you to learn how to evade, watch enemies, apply (not spam) skills, and move in combat from the onset. You get somewhat more leeway at level 80, when you have your traits, but at early levels, playing carelessly will get you killed. (On the flip side, though, the godliest player I know was a warrior from the onset and still wrecks challenges left and right. Individual success is more about how much initiative you have when learning rather than the class itself- it’s just easier to develop bad habits on warrior/guardian/ranger.)

Overall, again, it’s a personal thing. I would recommend playing any class that catches your eye, regardless of what someone says about it. If you find yourself having an unbearably hard time, you can switch to an easier class until you get the hang of basic combat mechanics.

Here are some options:

1- Buyback tab in the merchant’s panel.
2- Harvest a few nodes and sell what you get, then buy some blues off the TP.
3- Find a heart NPC that sells armor for karma and buy some off them.
4- If you still have weapons, kill some mobs for drops and possible armor drops. (Yes, it is possible.)
5- If you have an empty character slot and none of the above are possible, roll an alt and gather materials on them. Lowbie mats are selling well now.

Would it be all right if we talked in-game? This is a pretty long-winded subject and I have some questions I’d like to ask.

Uther Deathhand.1570:

The direct stat increase might not be that big, but the actual weapon damage is increased which will make a difference.

I’ve run many dungeons with lots of people, and to this day, I cannot tell what someone is wearing. Someone could be in all rares or even all masterworks, and as long as they’re playing well, I can’t tell the difference. Similarly, if someone’s playing terribly and dying a lot, it’s more than likely to be the fact that they’re a poor player- I can’t tell whether they’re a poor player in exotics or a poor player in masterworks, but it’s ultimately the same to me.

Also, when I upgraded my amulets to ascended, I couldn’t tell the difference there, either. Stuff still died at the same rate, and stuff that would kill me before still killed me if I didn’t dodge. I expect people to only care about Ascended and such in very-high-level fractals (where AR isn’t nearly as important as the ability to dodge agony-inducing attacks) or tightly organized min/max dungeon speed-blitzing oh-my-god-this-went-two-minutes-over-you-guys-suck groups, both of which are rather niche and neither of which a casual player would play anyway. In any case, you’re not getting left behind or locked out of the game by deciding to stick with exotics.

The difference in stats between ascended and exotic weapons is minuscule, pretty much 9 stat points or so. It’s hardly noticeable and you’ll do just fine with exotics, if not even better than a sucky player in Ascended- you’re not going to get locked out of content. It’s not a requirement, just a way to round out a character over time or something to do for those who like min/maxing. I myself ran difficult dungeons (Fractals 10+, Arah, CoE, TA) in rares/masterworks for the longest time and didn’t have any issues.

Also, the materials needed to craft Ascended items are acquired just by playing the game normally, unlike in other MMOs, where you had to dedicate every evening to raiding. If it’s not your thing, again, stay with exotics and it won’t matter.

My friend and I (warrior and elementalist) duoed the entire path, including the final boss. It’s very hard to describe in writing, but basically, if you run in circles around the tree while all the little spiders chase you, and move at angles, the spiders’ spit attacks will miss you completely. Also, the tree’s immobilize attack comes only when it slams its fists into the ground- if you dodge then, it’ll miss you completely.

The two of us basically killed the tree that way with zero reflects and without having to rush DPS- we ran around and around it, avoiding the spit attacks simply with movement and dodging, dropping ranged AoEs on the tree and gradually burning it down.

nearlight.3064:

I feel kinda pathetic I even posted this. Something so great and valuable should be earned, not handed to. I’m sorry to everyone who rolled their eyes when reading this, its depressingly hard trying to get a legendary, and with the rising T6 mat and precursor prices, I feel like I’ll never get a legendary.

If I knew how to delete this thread I would, but I do not know how to.

Work on what you can. Set little goals. It’ll trickle in bit by bit as long as you stick to them.

I worked on getting the RNG aspect out of the way first. I finished my clovers, then WvW exploration. I was one of the few lucky enough to land my precursor (The Bard), but long before that, I decided I would either save up the gold or wait for craftable pres- in either case, it would eventually come and I made my peace with it.

I did little steps- when I ran into hearts while getting from point A to B, I finished them. I also grabbed vistas and PoIs. That gave me less to do when I did systematic map completion. I made it a point to get the boring or difficult maps (Orr, the Kryta areas in my opinion) out of the way first so I could save my favorites (Ascalon) for last. If I realized I was burning out on a map, I switched off my world completion icons and just went exploring rather than completing- I got a lot done while having more fun, and it wasn’t a hassle to go back and pick up the last bits. I saved up my karma and always used boosts before drinking them, and didn’t spend my karma on anything if I could help it. I also stopped selling T6 materials and ectos and shelved my Ascended backpiece goals for later.

Regarding T6 materials for Gift of Fortune, I set a goal for myself. I aim to buy 20 Powerful Bloods every day, and I don’t let myself purchase anything else until I do so. Once I finish Bloods, I’ll move to the second most expensive T6, and so on. I do a variety of activities- some Pavilion farming, some invasions, but if I get tired, I rest. I make sure I have time to do the things I like in the game so I don’t burn out, and always keep in mind that it’s just a skin in the end. I go to my bank often to look at my steadily growing stack of T6, and often the sight alone is enough to make me feel encouraged. I remind myself that as long as I keep buying bloods, even if the price increases, I’ll get there.

However, I think the most important thing is that I’m not doing any of this alone. I explore maps with other people, newbies and friends, whenever the opportunity presents itself- it’s much more enjoyable than doing it solo. I have a great friend who I chat with over voice while I play and who I spamlink my T6 stacks to daily (and who keeps encouraging me along). We do dailies/LS achievements together, and run dungeons with other close friends in a semi-static group, and breeze through them with ease- even putting our own twist on them by duoing and trioing paths in less time than a full five-man group. Or sometimes we take newbies along and teach them in a friendly environment.

Overall, I take a relaxed approach to things- not actively farming, but doing a variety of things I like in a way I like, and just letting stuff come in at a slow but even pace while saving up and splitting things into small goals. Taking a “it will come” view. Again, though, it’s a much easier and enjoyable process with company. Maybe you can find other people working on a legendary and collaborate- form a static group to do regular runs, chat during map completion, and so on.

Pretty much every single MMO out there requires you to pay money in order to transfer characters from one server to another.

Solutions have already been suggested- guest, or delete your characters and transfer (that’s not a troll suggestion- it actually works). Explanations can also be offered- everyone’s out farming the invasion events, the Pavilion, dungeons, or champ trains in Frostgorge/Orr, and if you show up on those maps, you’ll see dozens (hundreds for the invasions) of people running around. You might/will even get pushed into an overflow with more hundreds of players.

Clearly, you just want to complain about things not being handed to you, though, rather than solving the problem, so I’ll leave you to it with this piece of advice from a similar thread:

OP. So far everyone on here has been doing their best to answer your original question- Am I Screwed?

Overwhelmingly the answer was no, and many people took the time to explain things that you can do in game in order to keep using your fancy new skin. Clearly though this is just another rant thread. You are not interested in solutions, only to complain. Next time feel free to indicate that in you original post, it would have saved these people’s time.

Many thanks,

Gamewolf.9375:

For one reason or another, when I first purchased this game, I decided to play an Asuran Elementalist. I had since not had time to play the game, but have decided to pick it back up again. Playing some of the random events and quests in the starter area, I find that I am quite weak, and have trouble defeating even NPCs that are near my own level. Is this a bad combo from the start, or am I just missing something key in playing this game?

Elementalist is one of the hardest classes in the game. It has the lowest base HP pool and the lowest base armor. Its survival is dependent upon active defenses- kiting, dodging, active recovery abilities. Later in the game, at high levels and once you’ve learned them, they can put out some of the highest damage in the game or be built to be nearly impossible to kill, but they’re a brutal first class.

The main thing I have to ask is if you’re moving around in combat and switching attunements often. Every class should move while fighting, but ele especially needs it- while warriors, guardians, and rangers can get away with being immobile in most open-world PvE, elementalists will quickly get overwhelmed if they allow the enemy to catch up to them. In addition, you have to shift through your attunements constantly to keep the enemy under control and do damage. Here’s an old video of myself playing my D/D ele against a bunch of mobs, to better illustrate the point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMec3mSGPzg&feature=youtu.be

As someone who leveled an ele from launch, I can say I went through the same troubles as you did. The full story being here. Now, I can’t imagine myself maining any other class, but it was rough early on.

If you still want to learn your ele, I’ll gladly help you out. I’ll answer any questions you have to the best of my ability, and run with you if you’re on a NA server. Just PM me in-game anytime or send me a mail there or on the forums.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Is-it-easier-to-buy-of-craft/first#post2627189

Falunel.7645:

Tallying up the costs of everything you can buy to make a legendary (precursor and all gifts save Mastery)… crafting Twilight, if you bought all the materials but made Gift of Mastery yourself, would cost approximately 1404.64g. Twilight is currently being sold for 1777.77g. In other words, if you buy the legendary directly, you’re paying a markup of ~374g.

Just throwing that out there in case anyone finds it interesting. I will say that the crafting price varies depending on your luck with clovers, the market, and how many mats you have saved up/get dropped. Also, I did that calculation on paper (no calculator) and with plenty of rounding, so it may be off here or there.

It will always be more expensive to buy a legendary than to craft it. The only reason you would buy a legendary directly would be to avoid making Gift of Mastery (which cannot be bought with gold).

Thrash Wolf.7892:

Doubt it would work with armour, but when I played around transmuting cultural weapons a while back it removed the racial constraint too.

The original question was in regards to level restrictions, not race. Also, cultural weapons are not race-restricted.

OP: I transmuted a full set of T2 onto my sylvari at level 5… so unless I was unknowingly exploiting, it works. If you’re short on the basic transmutation stones, consider making alts to run map completion for a city over and over.