Guild Wars 2

Another 1 handed main hand weapon.
A pet that provides AoE stability.

32k DPS sounds extremely viable to me?

Click on your hero panel and start training the Tyrian masteries. You don’t have to do anything in the HoT story, you just have to be level 80.

Just tossing in a plus 1 here. It got smiter’s booned. A single corrupt that is going to happen and the elite is now a burden (and a nasty one at that, remember stab converts to fear.)

Very weird and brutal nerf; you’re nuts if you take this skill now.

Agent Mulder.4531:

Honestly, this game just isn’t fun anymore with all these nerfs. We have a very limited set of skills and only 3-4 viable builds. Idk I’m just not having any fun when I spent 2 months farming vipers armor after work everyday and now Condi Ranger loses 4k dps.

My advice is don’t bother with vipers. Do fun stuff till expac drops in a few months and everything changes. I’ve basically stopped “playing” and am saving mats for new legendaries.

We don’t even know if the next espec will be condi or power, or what kind of environments we’ll be using it in (i.e. triple trouble wurm type open bosses or etc.)

Holland.9351:

Strider’s Defense and Light on Your Feet are interesting changes, but will they be good enough to use? I’m not sure.

If you’re running WvW melee ranger and if you’re using quickdraw, strider’s defense is the obvious choice. It’s up against spotter and hidden barbs.

Since a lot of melee roamers use boon duration gear, that’s a really powerful trait now. Might even lure some away from nature magic.

Also writing all this out, I can’t even begin to imagine where anet pictured people using this new trait. Surely they didn’t make it specifically for solo WvW roaming, which is the only place you’d want to take it.

Elenire.7306:

Strider’s Defense: This trait no longer has a chance to destroy projectiles on melee attack. It has gained new functionality: when you evade an attack, gain quickness for 3 seconds.

This could be kinda fun with greatsword evade auto-attack. Don’t think it will be very effective though.

The change they have listed isn’t written right, it only works while holding a 1-handed sword.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

If this is as bad as it looks, I’m done with the game now. Absolutely ridiculous. This patch pretty much killed my shout, healing, smokescale build.

And all based around PvP . . . again.

I seriously don’t know what they’re thinking anymore.

Fluffball.8307:

Wow, a few brutal nerfs there. I kind of suspect this is in prep for the next expac bringing a bunch of new stuff that they’ll want us to use instead of the old staples.

I suspect you’re right, but this patch is just overkill.

Those shout and healing nerfs are for PvP only (sounds like you’re talking about WvW roaming?) The SotP change I’m not even sure what to make of it. It makes the skill utterly useless against thieves, mesmers and necros. But thieves and necros we basically hardcounter 1v1 anyway.

Wow, a few brutal nerfs there. I kind of suspect this is in prep for the next expac bringing a bunch of new stuff that they’ll want us to use instead of the old staples.

Strider’s defense looks very interesting though. Going to start seeing even more melee rangers than we already do in WvW.

I dunno what server your on, but FA and it whatever its matched with I see literally zero hostile players in team chat ever.

WvW players are generally pretty easy going since the only reason to play the game mode is for fun.

That’s pretty usual money for gathering, or other acquisition of crafting mats like map rewards. Just hitting a few rich ore nodes will quickly get you a gold or 2 or 3, even copper. You can always check gw2efficiency.com to see which mat is currently spiked due to the latest legendary or what not.

Daddicus.6128:

How does it compare to Ad Infinitum? I earned one of those a while back (but, it didn’t trigger the achievement, which is for weapons).

If you only want it for the achievement, I suppose you could just pick the cheapest one. Some legendaries are WAY more expensive than the backpiece, and some are actually cheaper.

https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/legendaries

EnderzShadow.2506:

Can anyone explain why the leap isn’t just one easy long swoop? IE- why does it do that stupid crap at the end?

The mechanics have changed in important ways. It used to be 2 leaps (instead of one move and one leap), and it the evade portion has been moved. I don’t know if it’s related but it got nerfed when the engi triple leap came out on hammer.

I would argue all core professions have it equally good. Core guardian is pretty darn good in all 3 modes. Core ele is. You can get stuff done. Ya especs are OP, that’s to be expected. To argue rangers are the best around is 1) kittening kittened 2) intentionally ignorant of non-raiding game modes 3) totally pointless and 4) obviously a non-ranger main trying to light fires.

Edit: Also warrior. PS war could be a staple of this fabled 4th mode of the game raids.

Edit 2: Actually condi engi in all 3 modes. The whole kitten argument is just stupid. “Strongest profession”. Dumb. Cuz WvW GvG is so similar to open world PvE and fractal builds are so similar to organized PvP.

The argument is stupid to begin with, but raids or even raids and fractals are a pretty one-sided view of GW2. That’s not even a full mode of the 3 modes of the game.

I like CoE because it’s insanely easy but it used to have this reputation for being harder than the rest, so mostly competent old timers run it. Versus something like AC which is actually a more mechanically challenging dungeon but gets all the newbies.

I like helping newbies, but it’s always nice to just have a totally silent 3 path run at like 3 am on a weekend.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Fluffball.8307:

There isn’t and never has been an official GW1 forum.

There was. I reported a few bugs on it, helped a few people. It was shut down sometime near when GW2 was announced or launched (i.e. probably around 2012).

I think probably because GW1’s code is basically set now. They aren’t doing anything more than fixing exploits or the worst possible bugs; an official forum can’t be automated the way the game is.

Wait what? Really? Well then I stand corrected. I was sure they never had one because GW2 having an official forum was a massive deal when it was announced.

No profession can beat a zerker in anything considered a fun amount of time or while having an enjoyable experience.

RabbitUp.8294:

Yeah, poor ranger having to struggle with being the best class in the game

I don’t even know what that means. Best at what compared to what?

Anyway, “fixing” core classes is not at all important to me. Expacs have to sell or we’re all wasting even more time here than we thought we were. As long as druid isn’t obsolete after the next espec comes out, we’re fine.

Every single traitline we currently have is useful for one build or another, and that’s awesome. If you really are dying to play core ranger, you can still more than make it work in all 3 modes. A lot of people here even routinely argue that it’s better than druid, and it is at some things.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Afaik there never has been an official gw1 forum, even when the game was actively supported. It’s been gwguru or (now) Reddit.

There was a much better forum than guru, but I can’t think of the name. It’s where Ruby Bayer came from. GWInc or something? Guru was a mess of childishness that migrated to reddit. Regardless I believe they’re both dead.

There isn’t and never has been an official GW1 forum.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Though I fail to see why gods capable of altering the landscape of Tyria while trapped in the heart of another dimension while imprisoned and weakened, who rule/have influence over the very center of the multiverse, could possibly be afraid of beings only capable of altering the immediate area surrounding themselves and their minions and are very much limited to just Tyria.

The human gods ruling the mists seems a bit far fetched. When you account for all the human propaganda, we don’t actually know that much about the gods. We don’t really know enough about the mists and EA and so on to speculate on how things work; I think that’s what the next expac is going to delve into.

The mursaat probably know 10 times as much about the gods and the mists than we do.

There were no guild wars in the first game either, it’s a reference to a historical period before GW1.

Edit: Also I imagine it’s because it sounds cool.

HoT maps are always going to have metas because they have tons of rewards needed for high end stuff. All you need is ONE meta map to keep everything running smoothly, and there are often multiple meta maps at the moment.

I’ve already saved every thing I could think of that would go into a legendary longbow. Have like 500 of the refined woods and metals and 500 of the unrefined, tons of the time gated ascended things, thousands of ectos… I’m ready anet.

Do people use power DPS druids for raiding? I don’t know if you’d get into a PUG.

DerJoker.9081:

I think its not a problem with stacking sigils in general, but only with the new one. With every other sigil you can swap weapons etc

Ya if there is a problem it’s the new one only. I use stacking sigils on most of my characters and they all work. That’s what worries me about a new one not working. Who knows how long it will be before they figure out what’s wrong with it. Hopefully it’s a quick fix since it’s a cool new sigil.

Anjo.3170:

“There is a new sigil in the latest living world map that gives 15% boon duration as well.”

This sigil is currently bugged. The stacks go away no matter what you do, swap weapons, use siege, disablers, anything that takes away the weapon.

Ugh, that’s unfortunate. Since stacking sigils have been in the game since before launch and this isn’t fixed yet, it could be days or years before they figure this out.

There is a new sigil in the latest living world map that gives 15% boon duration as well. With the two sigils alone you could have 48%, which would really open up your equipment options.

Also, something I’m not at all sure about, but I think superior and major sigils stack. I’ve heard some do, which I would guess is a bug, but it might be worth checking out?

Traps as a mechanic are pretty crappy on all professions. The only thing that makes the ranger build viable is rune of the trapper and massive access to stealth, as much as 6 ways.

The old survival condi build (a/d + s/t or add SB to replace the axe swap) is probably the best one around. It can just be adjusted minorly for druid. As long as you can recharge CA on cooldown you’re golden. Dolyak runes, SotW, regen from somewhere, whatever.

A lot of people on the ranger forum crap on the build, but it’s kitten near indestructible. Gladomer wins outnumbered fights multiple times a stream on it. Ya its movement is not great, but if you’re fighting people who just want to fight and not be little kittenes then it’s a rock solid build. Does excellent pressure damage as well so it’s really good for small team fights. Anyone wasting time attacking the condi druid is letting your allies freecast, and at the same time you can’t just flat out ignore a condi druid burning you to death, no matter how awesome your condi removal is.

Justine.6351:

When is the last time you have seen a competent druid/trapper druid solo roaming in wvw? Is the OP going to be competent enough to play full traps?

I see them pretty frequently. It’s really not a terrible build. AF is easy to get.

Obviously full traps isn’t the best way to go. We told him the downsides and he can change the build if he wants. Stealth is very powerful and we have no idea how competent the OP is.

Revs used to be OP as all hell, now they’re free bags. They’re just awful.

That trapper Justine killed seemed to be glass and pretty incompetent to boot. A dire or apothecary condi druid is going to be nearly unkillable.

If Jesus or Buddah were in my way and it was a situation that called for me killing to achieve the safety of the world I would obviously do it. I am an atheist but I have to imagine a religious person would come to the same conclusion. Or maybe not, religion is pretty irrational. The logical choice would be to save the world.

I played it a lot for winterberries, but after enough time spent there I realized it’s actually a really fun and relaxing “farm” map. The chests are mindless relaxation with no stupid keys required, the champs are plentiful, and every enemy on the map drops UM.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Why are only 6 of the pets viable?
Why are 2 of the pets that much better than the rest?

I had better control over my succubus in WoW when it was released,
T W E L V E Yrs Ago

I could control the attacks.
I could turn certain attacks off.
I could tell the pet to wait in a certain area.

My biggest gripe with pets= the attacks not hitting and the long wind up to the F2.
Its not even that the target has to dodge, the target just has to move or move behind something….it doesn’t even have to be a ranged attack thats missing.

Pathing still sucks.

Pets have their problems but the AI isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Control, skills, and viability are another thing.

Edit: WTH anet? Seriously? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Icy_Roar
1.25 second cast time, 45 second cooldown, 600 range, 3 seconds of chill?

You can kill some of them.

Asura are not particularly ethical though, by human standards, and Zinn was unethical by asuran standards.

Aazo.2841:

We Asuran players should get a cut from all this travel, should we not? <grins>

I should get a cut of anet’s profits because I’m human like they are.

I think it was established before the game was launched that asura maintained them, no?

I have to imagine the percentage of players that actually enjoys exploring and solving these type of puzzles is extremely low, but it doesn’t affect me in any way. I just ignore them and play the content I find enjoyable.

I do wish they would add more medium difficulty and less tedious puzzles though. There have been quite a few easy JPs added to the game, but many are so easy I finish them on the first try, like the one by the golem HP in Auric Basic or the one near the WP in Southsun.

Ideally there would be a middle ground between finishing on the first try or never making it past the starting area.

These are just random thoughts from someone with a mediocre understanding of the lore, if anyone sees holes (and you will) please correct me. Everything is unsubstantiated and wild speculation.

I’m presuming gods leak magic the same way elder dragons do, so they need to distance themselves; the gods leave Tyria and then eventually stop associating with it to avoid leaking their non-Tyrian-origin magic collections to elder dragons and having the them go banana-pants with double magic strength.

Abaddon has a deeper understanding of the process and perhaps is more benevolent. He decides that humanity needs a fighting chance against the upcoming dragon storm. Perhaps he wants to distribute much of the magic and have humanity wind up at similar power levels to the ancient races, who are clearly wildly ahead in terms of personal magic. (Magonites are very powerful? Hard to tell since it’s game mechanics and not “lore”.)

Perhaps true balance is not the ebb and flow of magic into 6 spheres, like stars being born and exploding in a fiery death, but an even distribution for all time.

The Five are like benevolent dictators that dole out wealth during plentiful times but are harsh when times get tough. Abaddon is proposing democracy. They jail him for political reasons; they want to keep their power as much as possible.

Abaddon’s fractal tying into the current plot makes sense in that it’s vaguely related to magic being released and absorbed by entities. We don’t know what exactly is going on so it’s hard to speculate, but I suspect he would have had a line at the end of the fractal giving us a clue “they need magic for the battles to come!” or something less cheesey.

Related unsubstantiated wild speculation: Perhaps Dhuum didn’t want undead and resurrection because he wanted to hold onto all possible magic. Basically he was frugal and wanted to “soul battery” himself.

The original build is very low on condi removal and stun breaks. It could potentially be exploited if someone wants to put the effort in, but you’re so elusive and tanky it’s a borderline troll build.

It depends on what you do with it. If your goal is to set up camp near a keep spawn and harass groups of uncoordinated players trying to get to the zerg (totally valid IMO despite it’s annoyingness), this is a good build. If you want a more general roaming build I would insert some PvP-esque concepts like heavier condi removal and stun breaks, and possibly up your damage with things like a few viper trinkets or etc.

Hepatolith.6389:

i’ll just list what i feel is really strong vs ranger:

1. Mace/Shield
2. RR or LS (equally bad)
3. Eternal champion

I haven’t found a way to kill a competent warr who runs all of the above (basically PvP meta). If they run none of the above, you just have to wach out for their CC chains and you should be doable. With every point they check on this list, it’ll get harder for you tho ^^

Ugh just reading this sends me into a frenzy about how dumb roaming wars are. What is the point of me even playing if 100% full glass cannon ascended gear can’t even scratch these things. I just ignore them and they can waste their time chasing me if they feel like it.

The other day I was tagging along with a competent guild group of about 7 and all of us combined couldn’t kill the stupid warrior harassing us.

Every day I wish they had PvP amulets instead of gear for WvW; that would at least be a start.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Basically, something happened to Balthazar, something we do not know, and he lost his godhood. Who “they” refer to we do not know, but Balthazar seems to have fallen from grace the way Abaddon has. Or he was supplanted the way Grenth supplanted Dhuum (leaving the god alive but fallen).

I understood it as he was talking about the dragons. All of the gods lost power at the expense of the dragons. They don’t get to be gods again until the dragons are dead or asleep, and if they have to move worlds again so be it. That may even be how they wound up in Tyria to begin with, the magic struggle with something blew up the planet they were on previously and they brought some of their most faithful followers with them and screw the rest.

alain.1659:

Also, pets still suck. Not as they had before, but they still suck.

Just out of curiosity, what would be your perfect pet AI? I’d like more control over their skills like changing the F2 or having multiple ‘F2s’, but other than that I’m pretty happy with pets and I can’t think of anything I’d like to change.

TenebKel.4756:

I don’t really feel that my dps is non-existant

Sure, I said compared to the meta condi build. Vipers and burning really throw the damage through the roof. Burning is very OP.

Honestly for your themed build, if you really want staff/staff I’d probably stick with condi and try to get some vipers gear in the long run if you want to put in that much effort. Power staff is just hitting 1 and then doing nothing until everything is (eventually) dead. Your build is at least fun.

If there are any other weapons you feel fit your aesthetics of a druid, that would change things though. Staff has very low damage.

anduriell.6280:

Fluffball.8307:

No it’s good stuff, I just wasn’t super interested in the topic.

i see you still are sore. No worries it will cure in time, or do you need to call up big bro again even here?

I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Did we duel or something? I usually ignore your posts so I doubt I would have even noticed if you requested that.

First of all, it sounds like you want to use the ascended cele armor on all 3 characters, but all 3 are different armor weights. If you made ascended heavy celestial armor, you can use it on the guardian, a warrior and a revenant, not the medium (ranger) or light (ele) professions.

Combatter.5123:

One thing I don’t quite understand is whether the fully offensive stat builds (e.g. Berserker, Viper, Sinister, etc) are viable in WvW for players that have mediocre skill levels or whether I should aim for some toughness and vitality in there (such as Celestial, Soldiers and Dire.)

For WvW, berserker is fine on a longbow ranger to an extent; newer players will almost certainly want to round it out with tankier jewelry. For the guardian and ele, cele is actually a really awesome stat set for small group roaming.

For all 3 I’d use berserker in PvE, and either berserker or cele in WvW, so you only need 2 stat sets per character. You can use viper on any of them, but it’s harder to get and I’d only do it if you want to vary up to a condition play style.

Compared to the meta condi ranger your damage is non-existent, it does way more than outperform, made even worse by the fact that staff is a mostly power weapon. However it looks like a cool theme build and if you enjoy it in open world then there is nothing wrong with it. Eventually you may get bored with the slow killing speed and want to swap to some more damaging weapons or swap to a power build.

Two notes:

Sigil of corruption doesn’t need to be on both weapons. Sigil of Earth would be a good alternative.

Since CC is not a big deal in open world, I’d switch shared anguish to refined toxins.

Whatever you do don’t get rid of your celestial, it’s very hard to make and is timegated. You can get soldier’s and dire exotic armor nearly for free and it’s like 2% less stats than ascended.

I’m not sure what profession you play but cele is great for WvW roaming on most of them, and just about anything works in non-crazy-super organized zergs.

For PvE, Silmar is right, it’s just so much easier and more enjoyable in glassier gear. I’d try relearning the game in non-expac areas in berserker (or sinister or whatever you pick) gear. You can get some for karma or dungeon tokens for “free”, or craft or buy it for not much money. Worth a shot anyway.

That’s only about 360 gold right? Most farms are in the vicinity of like 10-20 gold an hour I think. SW, karka shells, and any of the 4 HoT maps should get you something like that mostly via mats, and then you get 2 gold for dailies.

Fractal dailies are time gated but give crazy gold.

Unbound magic to T6 mats is another option, not sure how time efficient it is and you may want the map specific currencies for gear anyway.

I would personally spread it out over like 2 or 3 weeks and do all of the above, but if you were crazy you could find the one that works best for you and just blast it out in a day or 2.