Guild Wars 2

You do not -need- exotic gear for dungeoning. I got by on rares and masterworks (which are very cheap) as an ele for quite some time, and by “got by” I mean I soloed group content and outsurvived players who wore full exotics. It helps, yes, and you’ll want to shoot for it if you’re planning on dungeoning regularly, but your build, individual skill, and ability to coordinate with the rest of your party matter a lot more.

Also on the topic of group coordination, many dungeons are hard when you run them with PUGs because many PUGs cannot coordinate their way out of a pocket folder. If you have a good static group of people who know each other, or run with guildmates who also know each other, the dungeon will be drastically easier. Know also that dungeons get a lot easier as you run them more, and that there is no shame in making mistakes as long as you learn from them (contrary to what the elitists say). Don’t be afraid.

About a guild… take a look at https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/recruitment or keep an eye on map chat in Lion’s Arch. I will say that there are good and bad guilds out there, and it can be hard to tell the difference from a recruitment post. It may take several tries to find one of the good ones. Be polite and respectful, and if people berate you for being new, or insist on you running a certain build, or ignore you, drop them and move on. Don’t get disheartened.

If you like, add me in-game and hit me up if you have any other questions.

To elaborate on what Dreamy said, there are no healers in this game in the traditional sense- i.e. can sit and do nothing but heal and keep the party alive on their heals alone. If other players don’t dodge, control, heal themselves, etc, they WILL die no matter how many heals you throw on them. You can still help with your heals, but they must take responsibility for themselves, and focusing solely on healing while ignoring other aspects of your class (notably control/damage) will severely kitten your potential.

I say this as someone who has played an elementalist since launch and focused too much on healing initially. When I started balancing out how I fought and focused more on controlling the enemy with my other attunements to prevent damage in the first place, I became a far more effective player.

tl;dr you can still heal, but don’t expect it to be like traditional trinity MMOs.

MrRuin.9740:

Erika.8256:

Yes. You need to go to the same level or higher if you want to progress.

If I am level2 and do a level5, do I advance to 5? or do I have to do them in sequence?

You will advance one level at a time- e.g. you will advance to 3.

Agony isn’t a blanket mechanic- rather, it’s applied on very specific boss attacks that can be dodged. Even if you do get agony, you can usually heal through it.

In other words, you can run level 10 with no AR and be perfectly fine as long as you keep on your toes.

Don’t worry about forging anything until later levels- specifically, until you can get gear level 68 and above.

The point of forging gears of the same rarity (and sometimes type) is that the MF sometimes returns a piece of gear that’s a higher rarity. There are two applications for this:

-Forging green gear may return a piece of yellow gear. Yellow gear level 68 and above can be salvaged for Globs of Ectoplasm (or ectos), which are needed to craft exotic gear, upgrade certain items, and create legendaries, among other things. Whether you choose to forge your greens or not is up to you- I personally don’t like the chances and prefer to just vendor mine.

-Forging yellow gear may return exotics, and forging yellow gear or exotics may return a precursor weapon. Certain exotic weapons (which are the same as other exotic weapons, but have unique skins) can only be obtained through the MF. Precursor weapons are required to create a legendary and often sell for large amounts of gold.

Keep the armor and run around in Southsun farming events with the zerg (with the 200% MF boost from the settler NPC) until you have enough money to buy another set. If you’re unsure about how well you’ll survive, use some ranged weapons.

EDIT: If you have a lot of karma, consider exotic karma gear as well. If you’re not a fan of farming, you can invest in rare main armor/masterwork accessories and do fine in dungeons.

After you have another set, it’s up to you whether to keep the MF set for (open-world) farming or to salvage it for ectos. If you do salvage it, I’d recommend using the best kits available so you can sell back the runes as well.

I highly recommend you give https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/guilds a lookover. Joining the right guild will help a lot.

kokocabana.8153:

Server populations are based on player accounts on that server and not current online populations.

Evidence says otherwise, actually- a server’s population status (Very High, Full, etc) is based upon the number of players logged in. There is a gap each day where TC is most likely to not be full, which occurs at a time of day fewer players are playing. During the busiest travel day of the year, I logged on and saw that across the board, server populations had dropped.

You can travel to another race’s starting zone right off the bat. Just head into your home city (Divinity’s Reach for you, The Grove for her), look for a circular purple swirl on your map, and head over to it. It marks an asura gate, which you can use for free to get to Lion’s Arch, the hub city.

Once you’re in Lion’s Arch, you’ll be at a dock with four other asura gates. Just find the one guarded by members of the race whose area you want to go to, travel through their gate to their home city, and then travel through their city to their starting area. You can return at any time to your own starting area, and you’re always scaled down to match the level of the area you’re in if you’re a higher level, so don’t worry about missing anything. Overall, you’re free to play in whatever area you want from the start- GW2 doesn’t have a linear quest/leveling path.

You can also accompany each other on personal stories- just be in a party and be in the same area. When one of you enters, the other will be given a prompt to enter as well. Personal stories are separate from each other for the most part- i.e. when one person advances their story, the other person’s story will not advance. However, the exception is if both characters share the same mission- apparently the story will advance for both characters in that case. I soloed most of my missions, so someone else will have to elaborate on this.

The thief’s niche in WvW is a narrow one, though, mainly aimed at roaming and yak sniping. If he’s interested in zerging, havok groups, sieges, or other wider-scale group fights (which are what really determine PPT), there are classes that are just as good (if not better than) the thief. It should also be noted that elementalists are still viable roamers (just harder to play now), as well as mesmers- I suspect any good player can make any class shine in roaming.

Also, there are many counters to thieves, the primary one being a good player- it’s often the thieves who rely on stealth and omgbackstabs who are easiest to kill once you know what you’re doing. A good thief will give any player a run for his/her money, but it’s not a godly class that will win every time against equally skilled players.

In other words, thief shines in WvW, but not so much that all other classes are inviable.

EDIT: Overall message, though, is to play a class you really like, not one you’re told to because it’s the most efficient.

Different strokes for different folks. I personally got bored on ranger, but have played ele since launch and love it to death.

The best option really is to test both classes yourself, but if time is an issue…

(reserved just in case)

(reserved for WvW)

-General MMO abbreviations:
AoE: Area of effect- either a spell that heals multiple friendlies or damages multiple enemies.

Aggro: Refers to the likelihood that an enemy will attack a given target. To “get aggro” is to become the focus of enemy attacks; to aggro an enemy is to induce them to start attacking. Mechanics of GW2 aggro can be found here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

BiS: Best in Slot

BRB: Be right back

BRT: Be right there

C/O: Current offer (for an auction)

DC: Disconnect

DoT: Damage over time

DPS: Damage per second- also refers to any class whose main purpose is dealing damage.

ETA: Estimated time of arrival

Gank: To get overwhelmed and killed by a large group of enemies or an exceptionally powerful enemy

G2G: Good to go/Got to go

HoT: Heal over time

LFG/LFP: Looking for group/party

LFM: Looking for more- sometimes with the specific number needed, i.e. LF1M, LF2M, etc

Mobs: Random monsters

Nerf: When the game developer makes a given aspect of a game weaker in power with the intent to balance gameplay.

PvE: Player vs. Environment. Refers to game activities that don’t involve fighting other players- e.g. killing monsters, running dungeons, general questing, etc.

PvP: Player vs. Player. Refers to activities which involve fighting other players- e.g. sPvP, WvWvW.

PUG: Pick-up group- refers to random parties formed with players you don’t know, often assembled through map chat.

QQ: Crying/complaining/whining

SMH: Shake my head/So much hate

Tank: The party member who absorbs the attacks of enemies, leaving other, squishier members free to attack without harm. Part of the “Trinity” of healer/tank/DPS used in most other MMOs, but not in GW2- though there are “tanky” classes and builds, there is no true tank. Can also be seen as a verb, in which “to tank” refers to catching enemy aggro and enduring it while the rest of the group gets a breather.

WC: Wrong chat

WTB: Want to buy- also can be phrased as WTB

WTS: Want to sell- sometimes WTS

WTT: Want to trade

(continued)

HotW: Honor of the Waves. Level 76 dungeon (80 for explorable), located in Frostgorge Sound, a level 70-80 area.

Jormag: Breaking the Claw of Jormag. An event chain in Frostgorge Sound (level 70-80 area) that has a chance of dropping precursor weapons.

JP: Jumping puzzles, open-world minidungeons that involve precise, platformeresque jumping and reward a chest at the end. May involve other elements such as time limits, traps, and hostile enemies.

LA: Lion’s Arch, the hub city of the game, which connects to all five racial cities.

MF: Magic Find, an attribute that boosts the chances of receiving better drops from monster kills. OR Mystic Forge, a special device used to craft items, located in Lion’s Arch, the Heart of the Mists, and certain keeps in WvW.

Plinx: An event chain in Cursed Shore (level 80 area in Orr) that was once widely farmed for gold and karma. Now occurs less frequently as of a recent update.

Penitent/Shelter: An event chain in Cursed Shore (level 80 area in Orr) that is often farmed and best done in parties.

POI: Point of Interest, special places discovered in exploration and required for map completion.

SE: Sorrow’s Embrace. Level 60 dungeon (65 for explorable), located in the Dredgehaunt Cliffs, a level 40-50 area.

SM/story: Story mode of a dungeon. These introduce the story behind a dungeon while progressing the Destiny’s Edge plotline, and can be repeated. Finishing story mode awards a significant amount of experience and karma, and allows your character to lead an explorable mode party for that dungeon- however, you can still enter explorable mode without completing story mode, as long as someone else leads your group. (Note: this means something different in WvW)

SP: Skill point or skill challenge, a task in the open world that awards players skill points, used to buy slot skills. May also refer to the actual points awarded.

sPvP: Structured PvP, the arena-like form of PvP. Players in sPvP are automatically leveled to 80, have all their skills and traits unlocked, and are given access to the same gear as other players. Team compete to take and hold control points, which award points- the first team to 500 points wins a match.

TA: Twilight Arbor. Level 50 dungeon (55 for explorable), located in Caledon Forest, the Sylvari starting area.

(Temple of) Balthazar/Lyssa/Dwayna/Grenth/Melandru: Large event chains in the Orr region that unlock exotic karma gear vendors, uncontest waypoints, and disable statues of the respective god in the region, which inflict negative effects on nearby players when active.

TP: Trading Post

Vet: Veteran, the second (arguably third) tier of enemy, distinguished by the prefix “Veteran” and a golden border around their portraits. They are tougher than normal mobs, but still soloable.

WP: Waypoint, devices placed at certain points of the map that can be teleported to for a small fee.

WvW: World versus World or World versus World versus World (WvWvW), a form of PvP in which three servers battle each other for control of territory.

I made a thread for this a while ago, but the “white wall” forum bug that prevents edits hasn’t gone away. So I’ll take the liberty of making a new thread.

That being said, here goes!

-Other lists:
For those new to MMOs: General MMO Abbreviations and Terms

-General GW2 Abbreviations:
AC: Ascalonian Catacombs. Level 30 dungeon (35 for explorable) located in the Plains of Ashford, the Charr starting area.

Arah: The Ruined City of Arah. Level 80 dungeon for both story and explorable. Located in the Cursed Shore, a level 80 area in Orr.

Champ: Champion, the third (arguably fourth) tier of enemy, usually distinguished by the prefix “Champion” and a large golden border with crossed swords around their portrait. These are even tougher than veteran mobs and have a boon that makes them resistant or immune to control effects.

CM: Caudecus’s Manor. Level 40 dungeon (45 for explorable), located in Queensdale, the Human starting area.

CoE: Crucible of Eternity. Level 78 dungeon (80 for explorable), located in Mount Maelstrom, a level 60-70 area.

CoF: Citadel of Flame. Level 70 dungeon (75 for explorable), located in Fireheart Rise, a level 60-70 area.

DE: Dynamic Event, one sort of quest in GW2. These occur randomly and require you to fight off invading enemies, protect NPCs, and so on, and are marked by large orange circles on your map.

DR: Divinity’s Reach, the human racial city. OR diminishing returns, a code that decreases rewards if a player does the same event over and over for a significant amount of time.

Ectos: Globs of Ectoplasm, a material gained from salvaging level 68+ rares and exotics. Used to craft many things, most notably exotic gear and legendary weapons.

Explorable/explore/exp: Explorable mode of a dungeon. These take place after story mode and can be accessed at a higher level. They are typically harder than story mode, have different paths that can be taken, and award tokens upon completion that can be traded in for gear.

FotM/FM/Fractals: Fractals of the Mists. A new dungeon located in the hub city of Lion’s Arch that is available to any level (recommended level: 80). This dungeon is composed of nine mini-dungeons that the group encounters in sets of three- after completing a set, the dungeon becomes harder. Teamwork and coordination are extremely important.

Heart: Renown Heart, another variant of questing in GW2. You do a variety of tasks, such as killing monsters, talking to NPCs, and fetching items, to fill a meter that appears when you enter an area.

It depends on the skill level of each player and which target you get. Some targets, like Devious Teesa, can be taken down with six players- others, like Bwikki, are harder due to condition/AoE spam. At the very least, your members must know how to move and dodge to avoid damage.

If you could PM me in-game with your server, I might be able to let you come along on our next bounty to see what it’s like.

Take a look at heart vendors in the level 15-25 areas.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_hearts_in_Diessa_Plateau
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_hearts_in_Kessex_Hills
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_hearts_in_Brisban_Wildlands
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_hearts_in_Snowden_Drifts

Also take a gander at http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tiga_Fierceblade (all level 15 armor).

I’ve completed Queensdale four times now on a variety of classes, and to my knowledge there’s only two spots where bandit numbers become overwhelming- the camp north of the Bar Curtis Ranch and the camp in the cave east of the graveyard.

From what I’ve seen, the ranch camp seems to be meant as a sort of group activity- I’ll usually see a lot of players gather up for the ranch event and then chase the remaining bandits back to their camp, where they spend a merry few minutes wiping everything before moving on. The cave is more questionable, given that there’s nothing to lead groups of players there. In either case, neither camp is needed for map completion and can be ignored if that’s what you’re after.

Both camps can be soloed if you move carefully. Bring projectile-blocking skills and focus down ranged bandits first while moving to avoid melee bandits. Control skills are a great help as well. If you don’t want to go in solo and you have difficulty finding people, consider guesting on a server with a high population. In both cases, again, both camps can be ignored in general leveling.

Also, in regards to the endgame, remember that Orr’s mob population was nerfed very heavily. There are some absolutely ridiculous champions, but for the most part, you’ll only die if you’re not careful, or don’t pay attention/try to facetank everything.

Unless things have changed recently, server population in GW2 is based on number of people online. During Christmas, on the busiest travel day of the year, server populations fell from High/Very High/Full to Medium/Low across the table, then surged back up at the end of the day.

There are guilds created specifically for helping people in small guilds or no guild get commendations, with no rep rules or any other kind of obligation. Are you on a NA or EU server?

I believe the OP is looking for vistas that will show his/her character in detail in the actual vista itself.

To the OP: Regions vary within themselves, soo you have any preferences regarding the vista? Cityscape, forest, hills, etc.

I believe it’s due to two things-

-The instance is meant for one person to do. Therefore, it would logically follow that two people would be able to kill the Eye in half the time, with significantly less trouble. I would also wager that your friend is geared in full exotics, has a lot of experience playing, and is possibly a high-damaging class, warrior in particular. Those little details will make a big difference, as I highly doubt story quests were designed with full-exotic characters in mind.

Even if the quest does scale, the presence of one extra person makes any content much, much easier. I say this as someone who has both soloed and duoed AC story- even though I was on a non-80 for the duo, the duo was far easier than the solo.

-People whined about it being hard and taking too long. So Anet made it easier.

How are you fighting these enemies? They have different attacks now that punish standing still- if you’re just trying to burst them down before they kill you, it won’t work too well.

I am one of those rare players who clicks skills, but I do pretty well (and I play D/D ele, a class that demands a lot of movement and skill usage). It’s pretty much a matter of alternating between moving the camera and clicking skills, while using all of your strafe keys to stay mobile in combat.

Hard to explain, but if you’d like, I could meet you in-game or send you one of my videos so you can see it for yourself.

That list only shows you the hearts in that precise map- it says nothing about hearts in other maps. I believe what they are saying is that you are missing an entire map, like Queensdale or Kessex Hills.

This will be a bit tedious, but could you check to make sure you have all of the following maps?

-Harathi Hinterlands
-Brisban Wildlands
-Dredgehaunt Cliffs
-Fields of Ruin
-Lornar’s Pass
-Snowden Drifts
-Blazeridge Steppes
-Diessa Plateau
-Iron Marches
-Fireheart Rise
-Mount Maelstrom

Those are the maps that can most easily be missed.

EDIT: I think you may be missing Fields of Ruin or Iron Marches. Both have precisely 13 hearts.

Hello, legion.

The first thing to remember is that there are no dedicated tanks or healers in GW2. Thus, you won’t be able to “tank” in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, as a guardian, you’ll focus on supporting the party by providing damage-mitigating boons such as protection, regeneration, and aegis while controlling the enemy by using knockbacks, immobilizes, and blinds to keep the enemy from landing attacks.

Secondly, yes, you cannot eat hits no matter your class. Always stay moving in combat and dodge out of red circles and other major attacks. GW2 is about avoiding damage, not outhealing it. You’ll be able to stand still for weaker enemies, but certainly not for many dungeon enemies, especially Subject Alpha.

You do not need to always use a scepter in dungeons. I say this as a melee elementalist who has run with melee guardians. If you get good at avoiding damage, melee is perfectly fine- if you’re traited for heals other than your number 6, you’ll can gradually recover your health as you avoid further attacks. Again, it’s all about avoiding damage in the first place.

Crucible of Eternity is the absolute worst dungeon to run for people who don’t move or dodge, as Subject Alpha fights are all about movement, coordination, or timing. It’s personally one of my favorite dungeons, though, and I’ve run it in the past with no deaths. Those perfect runs, however, were with guildmates who knew the fights- I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it with a PUG.

Finally, about PUGs in general- to be blunt, many of them just suck. The people you run with do make a huge difference in how well the dungeon goes, as no amount of gear can carry a player in GW2. I would highly recommend finding friends to make a static group or joining a good guild.

Also, it’s been a while since I’ve done Shatterer, but I remember meleeing him in a hit-and-run way.

Gilamar.8974:

Astral Projections.7320:

Gilamar.8974:

I was wondering is there a way to change it? This used to be my older brothers account which he handed down to me since he stopped playing the game. Well if anyone can shed some light that would be great! ^.^

Pretty sure ANet frowns on selling/giving away/using other people accounts. I don’t think I would bring it to their attention to much. ^^

Even if it’s a sibling that no longer plays? That is kinda dumb. :s

I am pretty sure members of the same household are permitted to share accounts. There was something in one of the legal documents about it. Or at least I could have sworn it used to be in there.

As someone who has soloed multiple champions, solo completed Cursed Shore, and soloed a dungeon on an elementalist, I will tell you that they are not squishy at all when played right. The main thing to remember is that, unlike a guardian, you cannot stand still and eat hits.

As D/D, you must stay moving at all times- not just dodging, but circling the enemy as you attack and using your skills to slow down their movement or escape their attacks. Scepter, especially with focus, requires less movement, but you must be good at timing your blinds and shields to minimize incoming damage. Staff, though a primarily group-oriented weapon, requires you to get good at placing controls like chill and immobilize on enemies to keep them away.

The drawback, if you build all-out bunker, is that your base damage will take a hit and it will take you longer than a warrior, ranger, or thief to kill things. But nothing will kill you if you stay alert and play right.

As for enjoyment, it’s really a personal thing. It took me a long, long time to adjust to playing my alts after D/D ele- it’s a very fast and mobile class that requires quick reflexes, lots of practice, and lots of memorization. A steep learning curve, but worth it in my opinion.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/the-commander/first#post1800384

Falunel.7645:

bcd.4352:

The commander tag is intended for a quick map glance of where WvW leaders are. It’s amazing for knowing where you should be, and where to stack.

Please don’t use it like 75% of the commanders, who use it as some sort of badge in PvE to show off that they had 100g. If you’re not in WvW, and even if you are but you’re not leading a group, turn that tag off.

Being a good commander is hard. Know strategy, know your guild, be in voice chat, and kitten kitten up.

This. Believe me when I say you won’t get respect for flaunting a commander icon without the actions or knowledge to back it up. Quite the opposite, really.

To add to that, I have also seen the tag put to good use in PvE by guild leaders who lead organized map completion zergs (i.e. 30+ people, often guild members but open to anyone who feels like joining in). But the basic premise is the same- the commander tag is meant as a leadership tool, not a merit badge.

Kerin.9125:

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

This game’s combat system doesn’t have Tanks/Support/Healers/DPS/Tanks roles of any kind. By choosing a role, you are gimping yourself and your potentials of combat.

SO basically if I like playing healers in normal MMOs, GW2 isn’t for me?

Certainly seems that way if my experience doing the zone boss in Harathi HInterlands last night is anything to go by, my Elementalist running around in Water Attunement got kitten to bronze rewards because she spent her time healing/reviving/debuffing rather than selfishly pew-pewing and letting others die; for which she’s have gold gold without a doubt.

You cannot be a pure healer in GW2. Even if you traited all the way into healing, it would not be enough to save an idiot player who tries to facetank a dangerous enemy and doesn’t move/dodge/block/make any attempt to avoid damage themself.

GW2 is very heavy on personal responsibility in combat. All players are responsible for avoiding/reducing damage- that’s why every class has a heal skill and the ability to move/dodge while fighting. Instead of a DPS/Tank/Healer trinity, GW2 is built around damage/control/support, which is a broader form of the traditional trinity; i.e. tanking is a type of control, and healing is a type of support. Instead of focusing aggro on one person, you make it harder for an enemy to damage anyone- instead of healing damage, you make it so others don’t take damage, or the amount they take is lessened enough for them to heal it themselves.

What other types of control and support are there?
-An elementalist can control the enemy by using skills such as Frozen Ground and Unsteady Ground to slow down an enemy chasing another player, thus preventing damage- if an enemy is chasing someone, they can’t attack. With blinding skills like Blinding Flash, you can make the enemy’s next attack completely miss. You can also use Gust to a) knock the enemy away from a wounded player and b) interrupt a dangerous attack, which also helps keep that person alive. I have used the dagger’s AoE knockout many times in WvW to knock away enemies trying to finish a downed ally. While they tried to recover, I rezzed that person all the way back up. It’s not healing, but it saves lives regardless.
-On the topic of support- support can come in offensive and defensive variants. I support offensively by stacking might boons on my party, allowing them to do more damage. I also put down fire fields they can use in their combos. Defensively, I can apply the protection boon on others, which reduces the damage they take by a third- a sizable amount in dungeons, where an enemy can rip away over half your health in a blink. I also strip conditions from my allies and, with aurasharing, can apply my auras (which reduce damage and disable enemies who attack) to everyone. I also can block projectile attacks with Swirling Winds, giving anyone in the area six seconds of breathing room for attack or recovery. Other classes can support in other ways- a guardian can grant Aegis, which blocks the next attack, and shield allies, for example.

As Dreamy wrote in his guide, and as my example shows, damage, control, and support are not roles. Each class can contribute in each factor, though some classes are more bent towards a certain field. For example, a guardian is primarily support and secondarily damage and control. A thief is primarily damage and less so (though still capable of) support and control. As such, in order to be most effective, it is best to utilize all three aspects when you play. Believe me when I say that keeping an enemy from hitting someone will do a lot more good than trying to heal the damage.

Finally, do not equate downed with dead. Downed is not meant to guarantee death, especially in group situations, nor is it something that is rare. If a player goes down, anyone can try to rez or rally them, though at high risk to themselves- overall, it is better to not go down in the first place, which will be the case with good players, who will avoid damage instead of depending on another person to take care of them. It is not selfish if another player dies because they stand still and think they’re pure DPS- it’s part of the learning process for them.

Hard to get used to, but you’ll find that juggling support/damage/control is helluva lot of fun once you get the hang of it. I also recommend that if you like supporting other players, you try a guardian. If you stay as an elementalist, I will warn you as a fellow ele that staying in water attunement and focusing on healing alone will kitten you- it is far more effective, as I said, to use controls and damage-mitigating support to prevent the enemy from hurting other players in the first place.

Nilkemia.8507:

You do realize that during all that, the Ghost Eater is constantly attacking you with wells that can drop you in seconds, right?

In addition to this, depending on the amount of oozes around, and their proximity to the traps and the Ghost Eater trying to kill you unless it bugs out for a moment, this requires coordination that simply isn’t possible with the in-game chat system.

Actually, only once have I had the Ghost Eater attack my group when we were charging traps, and it was remedied by simply running out of the room. Many other times, we cleared it flawlessly with no voice communication or the like. You just have to stand as far away as possible and use the gun to milk him, not your attacks.

If he continues to be a problem, slot projectile blockers/reflects. His wells start off as projectiles that can be blocked before they land.

bcd.4352:

The commander tag is intended for a quick map glance of where WvW leaders are. It’s amazing for knowing where you should be, and where to stack.

Please don’t use it like 75% of the commanders, who use it as some sort of badge in PvE to show off that they had 100g. If you’re not in WvW, and even if you are but you’re not leading a group, turn that tag off.

Being a good commander is hard. Know strategy, know your guild, be in voice chat, and kitten kitten up.

This. Believe me when I say you won’t get respect for flaunting a commander icon without the actions or knowledge to back it up. Quite the opposite, really.

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

• Elementalist – PvE TORTURE kitten you even get two shoted when you’re lvl 80 in lvl 10 zone -.-"

Nope.

On-topic, the answer is: the class you like best. Seemingly generic answer, but every class in GW2 is capable of soloing when used right (note that “when used right”=/=“stand in place and try to facetank everything and then complain about dying”). Your class makes a huge difference in how much you enjoy the game.

If you give us some pointers on what you like, we could probably suggest a few.

Elementalist for certain. We do have melee (or rather, ~400-ranged) capability with dual daggers, and it is a very viable and survivable set, so don’t worry about that.

In order to be effective as a D/D elementalist, you have to move constantly, be good at timing dodges, think of ways to combine skills, be creative in skill usage, and practice a lot. Here’s a video of soloing a veteran and myriad normal Risen in Orr. And here’s a video of the infamously immortal daphoenix. EDIT: For contrast, this is a video that shows what happens if you try to facetank on an ele.

You’ll struggle early on, very likely, but it is a very rewarding class when you make it.

I can sympathize with the OP, actually.

I’ve been playing since launch and have one 80. When I play her, I’m never bored, no matter what I’m doing- exploring PvE, dungeoning, WvWing. However, when I level my alts, I’m deathly bored and wish constantly that I could jump to 80.

The reason lies partly in that I’ve explored the zones many times before, so the charm’s worn off partly. A larger reason, though, is that I enjoy playing the game with a maxed character- all traits and skills unlocked. I love playing with builds, testing what a class can do, and finding all sorts of neat tricks, but before 80, I feel limited. The world is gorgeous, but in the back of my head, I keep thinking that the class is great now, but oh my god it’s going to be even better later on blah this is going so slow only three more bars until I can unlock that trait I’ve been dying to test out

That being said, I do believe that if your only reason for rushing to 80 is to “unlock the game,” or just to be 80, slow down. Especially if its your first character and all the zones are new, with all their secrets undiscovered. Leveling in GW2 is steep initially, but it doesn’t get steeper, unlike other MMOs… last one I played takes a month for 79→80, and that’s only if you grind almost constantly.

I’ll second map completion- it gives a generous amount of exp and keeps you moving so the environment doesn’t get stale. I’ve heard some people hawk WvW, but early on, you’ll get killed a lot, as your traits/gear won’t scale up. Once you’re high enough, you can start hitting dungeons, which give nearly 80% of a level per completion, no matter what level you are.

Also, find a good guild/leveling buddies. It makes it a lot more fun.

Best of luck!

I don’t WvW as much as others here- I mainly keep up with news and strategies via our server forum and donate siege. This is my honest impression of TC, though:

I will start off by saying we aren’t perfect. Just like every other server out there, we have our share of trolls, haters, kittenhats (not the fluffy kind), elitists, chest-thumpers, whiners, armchair commanders, morale gnawers, etc etc, just general facepalm-inducing players overall. We do our best to represent well on the fields and on the forum, but there will always be that one player you just want to nudge and say, “Hey. You aren’t helping. Go do something else for a while- I don’t know, grow a plant or something.”

That being said, the bad apples are happily the exception and not the rule, and the rule here is great. This is the server that raided a keep while dressed as lil princesses, along with the aforementioned naked zerg and dolyak parades. Don’t let the silliness fool you, though- TC is very competitive when it comes down to it. People strive for the best, but they don’t let it poison them like in T1, and they have fun, win or lose. And they never give up… hence our nickname, Zombie Coast.

I should finally mention that our idea of “fun” here is TC is very cheery and cookies-and-rainbows-y. We do our best to represent well, be classy and good-natured, and involve our opponents in the fun. /laughing and /dancing on fallen players is strongly frowned upon; in fact, there are a good number of players here who will /bow after killing an enemy. We also expect our members to respect the RP community here and not grief RPers. Though thinking on it, respect is a major thing here overall- respecting other TCers, but also respecting opponents as well. A person whose idea of “fun” is dancing on enemies/teabagging/chest-thumping/etc will likely not fit in here. Many here hold high standards, behavior-wise.

Overall, if you want a mature and competitive server that is also creative, friendly, humorous, and certainly unique, TC is definitely a good option.

You need to wait for reset. Alternatively, if you haven’t done the other paths, you can do those for the full 60 tokens.

You could save up Laurels to buy an Ascended accessory from the Laurel vendors, and then buy a Simple Infusion from the Fractal Relic merchant. That will give you +5 AR, which actually helps quite a bit. (EDIT: though I read your post again, oops. No, there’s no other way.)

Otherwise, it is very possible to just fight the Maw at level 10 with no AR. You just have to stand somewhere safe in case you get downed and heal yourself as much as possible. That’s the only situation in which Agony is unavoidable- for other bosses, you just have to be good at dodging.

I was able to do this just a while ago, using a level 18 white.

Just two days ago, I was able to soulbreak two Order pieces and a level 76 karma piece (which was either blue or green) using transmutation and whites. So the option is still there, at least in part.

To get this straight- did you transmute them to white pieces, put them in the bank, then have another character try to take them out? Describe what happened exactly.

You can get a (somewhat for heavy armor) different model of gear early on by buying or making the crafted low-level gear. I believe it is Embroidered for light, Seeker for heavy, and Chain (not Worn Chain) for heavy. There are also different models available as personal story rewards and at some heart vendors after you complete their hearts.

At level 35, you can wear T1 cultural; at level 60, T2 cultural. At any level, you can buy gear level 79 and lower off the Trading Post and transmute it downward to your level with Transmutation Stones (which are rewarded for map completion). The most variety, of course, comes at 80, which is the level dungeon, exotic karma, and Order gear come in, but there are many more skins outside of those.

Incoherent, but I hope it helped.

Firstly, congratulations.

Secondly, if you really love WvW, keep doing it. WXP sucks (and I agree that it should either have not been added, or at least made account-bound), but in the end, it really doesn’t change much. These sort of things matter only if you let them matter. Think of it just as a side-effect of playing rather than a goal.

I don’t know how you feel about PvE, but if you need a break from WvW, I recommend challenging yourself in dungeons or even difficult open-world content. Try to learn how to solo dungeons on each of your classes, or group with a good friend and duo. You’ll be surprised at what you’re capable of if you keep challenging yourself. Just be prepared to get zapped a lot before you pin down the mechanics of each fight.

Otherwise, I’d second MikeRocks on taking a break. Try to recognize when you get burned out- when you’re playing because you feel you HAVE to play rather than because you want to play. GW2 won’t leave you in the dust- it’ll be right where you left it when you come back.

Olba.5376:

Falunel.7645:

The issue with that playstyle is that, with culling, stealth artificially lasts several extra seconds, giving the thief plenty of time to spam other attacks before stealthing again, and you don’t necessarily have to be inside a zerg for the problem to appear (or rather, not appear). So you could say it’s more of a culling issue rather than a stealth issue, and it might have been wiser for them to simply remove culling and wait to see how it affects thief play rather than removing culling AND nerfing stealth. Which I would have agreed with, seeing that, as you said, actually backstabbing prevents you from chainstealthing.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that the stealth nerf here is a good thing. For one, it makes the Thief fall damage trait much less useful, because you can be forced into Revealed by someone with a knockback off a small cliff. Similarly, there’s a 10 point trait in the Trickery line that gives stealth when you take more than 10% of your maximum HP in damage.

It also makes it much harder for thieves to get away from unfavorable situations, because they won’t be able to restealth by using CnD on a random mob.

That was not an argument against you… merely an agreement and a clarification.

I feel that removing culling is enough of a nerf as is to backstab thieves, one that doesn’t impact thieves who use stealth legitimately, without exploiting culling. I personally would have agreed with them if they had said, “We’re going to remove culling, but we’ll wait and see how that affects thief play before we change the class itself.” I also feel that if the issue was backstab thieves, then it could have been dealt with more effectively by lowering the damage of backstab. That, again, would have solved a balance issue without negatively impacting people who didn’t use that build.

Stealth is annoying. So is an elementalist’s mobility or a warrior’s burst damage. All three are important to their classes and shouldn’t be unduly nerfed. The issue with stealth is that it can be used to exploit culling, which gives an unintended advantage. Thus, removing culling alone should fix things.

My original post meant to highlight that a problem did exist. However, that problem was not stealth, but culling and people who abused it to make themselves uncatchable, to annul the Revealed debuff that results from attacking. Under the cover of culling, they were able to continue attacking until the debuff wore off and they could restealth and backstab again. The best counter to backstabs is to kill or evade the thief while he/she is visible- however, you can imagine how difficult this can be when the thief is never visible. Thus, because this was an unintended advantage (i.e. an exploit) it was never a L2P problem and thus not the fault of the people who got ganked. It was because of the actions of the thieves who abused culling that thieves as a whole will suffer.

I’ve derailed this topic enough, so if you want any further clarifications, PM me.

mobilejunkie.9260:

ooohh which two exotics and which maps?

The exotics are random, unfortunately. The maps are the Orr zones for certain, possibly Mount Maelstrom and Frostgorge Sound as well.

Olba.5376:

Falunel.7645:

That one attack can rip over 60% health off a non-glass, level 80 guardian. Sure, you can heal… then you get hit by it again. And again. And again.

Excuse me, but Cloak and Dagger has a base damage of 504. By your logic, an attack that has more than 252 base damage should be able to rip through 30% of the HP of a Guardian. Well, I still haven’t seen a single Guardian dying to the three-hit auto-attack of Warrior GS, which deals a total of 851 base damage.

The big damage that you’re seeing is Backstab. And that already puts you into Revealed. To further humiliate Thieves, the devs talked about doing something with Mug as well.

Blame the people who reduced thief play to 111115111151111511115, not the uplevels and non-eles they feasted on.

Excuse me, but spamming 1 like that would put you into Revealed as you would be hitting Backstab. That kinda invalidates everything you just said. The CnD spammers would look more like 5, (count to 3), 5, (count to 3), 5…

Also, every single autoattack in the game deals more damage over 3 seconds than CnD would, mostly because to stay stealthed with CnD, you can only use it once every 3 seconds, whereas most auto-attacks will go through 1-3 full cycles in that time.

That argument applies to Backstab, not Cloak and Dagger. I actually lowered the damage estimate from Backstab- the guardian in question is not myself, but a friend who I know isn’t full glass. While exploring WvW, he complained that he had gotten knifed by a thief for 14k. Which… to say the least, he either forgot one of his armor pieces or he overreacted. That being said, I could see Backstab hitting for 14k on upleveled characters.

The issue with that playstyle is that, with culling, stealth artificially lasts several extra seconds, giving the thief plenty of time to spam other attacks before stealthing again, and you don’t necessarily have to be inside a zerg for the problem to appear (or rather, not appear). So you could say it’s more of a culling issue rather than a stealth issue, and it might have been wiser for them to simply remove culling and wait to see how it affects thief play rather than removing culling AND nerfing stealth. Which I would have agreed with, seeing that, as you said, actually backstabbing prevents you from chainstealthing.

Dasorine.1964:

tbh it will mostly hurt cheesers and people that used chain stealths in PvE for certain situations.

No more dredge bomb tunnel goodness because some idiots in WvW got killed by 1 attack every 3 seconds and couldn’t work out that stealth isn’t invincible while stealthed….

That one attack can rip over 60% health off a non-glass, level 80 guardian. Sure, you can heal… then you get hit by it again. And again. And again.

While such thieves are glass and vulnerable to slamming the ground around you with AoE controls (how I shook off such thieves who thought I was an easy meal), not all classes have access to such skills- many, such as mesmer clones, require a target to activate, and stealthing throws off targetting. Even when you do have them, it’s hard to think under OH GOD WHAT JUST ATE NEARLY ALL MY HEALTH UGH

Blame the people who reduced thief play to 111115111151111511115, not the uplevels and non-eles they feasted on.

I don’t know if you’ve seen this link already, but

http://dulfy.net/2013/02/27/gw2-guild-bounty-guide/

Half Baked Komali has a fire shield that makes him extremely resistant to damage and gains 1 stack of might every time someone attack him. To remove this shield, you must do the following: 1) Stop attacking Komali when the shield is up to avoid an increase in stacks of might 2) Use boon removals to stripe both his might stacks and stability. Once his stability is removed, you can use knockbacks to push him out of his circle, which cause him to lose the fire shield. It is very important to stop attacking him when he has the fire shield as not only you do no damage to him, you also cause him to gain might stacks, making removing his stability a pain. (strategy provided by vrava on reddit).

Also note that mesmer is not the only class that strips boons. I believe necromancer focus and certain thief traits will also rip boons, as well as the Sigil of Nullification.

EDIT: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Skills_that_remove_boons
Also, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Related_traits

These are the most noteworthy changes I remember for elementalist:
-Ride the Lightning’s cooldown has been increased to 20 seconds
-Flame Aura now gives might whenever you get attacked
-Frost Aura now reduces damage by 10%
-Renewing Stamina (that one arcana trait that procs vigor on crit) has been changed to have a 100% chance of proccing vigor on crit. Vigor procced lasts 5 seconds and the trait can activate once every 5 seconds.
-Fury and Swiftness applied by Shocking Aura under the Zephyr’s Boon trait no longer last twice as long as other auras.
-Magnetic Grasp (Dagger, Earth 3) has been split into two skills. One immobilizes your target, the second makes you leap to your target.
-Healing done by Evasive Arcana has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
-Evasive Arcana’s effect in earth is now a blast finisher.
-Fixed some bugs involving Mist Form cooldown and being stuck in blank skillbars
-Added fields and combo finishers to certain attacks, namely underwater ones

Nothing major overall, though aurasharing has become more powerful with the added effects on the two auras.

shonn.5037:

Writetyper.1985 go tank Jormag the dragon and tell me how well you dodge out of his attack when your at his feet !

Those two bolded words. That there is your problem.

Firstly, Jormag isn’t meant to be tanked in the traditional sense of the word, not with an event with a hundred-plus people. There is simply no point. Secondly, there is a place for melee in the fight, but it’s not as straightforward as facerolling his legs.

Phase 1- If you like melee, grab bombs and rush to the wall while dodging all the spikes and etc. If not, grab a zooka and stand back. When the ice wall goes down, you can melee him with no danger, but when it goes back up, it’s back to bombs and zookas. I personally get bored with zookas and always run bombs, as an elementalist. So far I have not died once.

Phase 2- Ranged can stand on the cliffs and attack from there. Melee can focus on killing spikes and adds in order to allow the golems to stun the boss. When the boss is stunned, you can melee him- when he’s not, get out of the way and continue killing spikes. Judging by how many ranged players go down during this phase, I’d almost say it’s safer to just use the golems and burst him when he’s stunned. Of course, if you’re extra daring, you can charge in and attack him, then escape to recover from his ice breath while killing spikes and adds, then charge in again, etc. I’ve seen a number of people do it with ease. Again, I melee this phase as well and never get killed.

Yeah, there are some parts which reek “go ranged or you’re kittened.” But overall, melee is a viable and effective option. It’s just that melee =/= stand in one place mashing keys while hoping someone heals you.