Guild Wars 2

So it’s said that we start using magic during childhood, where Humans and Norn typically learning to cast their first magics in the Home, under the tutelage of their parents.

my question is, at what age/stage of life does a Person figure out, decide, or determine what “Style” of magic (assuming that all Professions are just different styles of Magic Usage)they are best/strongest at?

and is it more of a training thing, or is it a case of a person discovering that they are more naturally gifted at a specific style of magic?

Naturally, I think we can exclude Sylvari from this discussion, as it seems pretty obvuous that they are given their magical affinities in The Dream, and are awakened with the basic knowledge already given.

but what about everyone else?

Perhaps pure Warriors are just weaker at external magic (i.e. Magic you can see and feel) than others?

so their usage of it is more limited?

thanks for the responses, I’ll do a more thorough job of exploring the Home Instance when I log in again in a bit.

I don’t see how having a small 3-slot Consumable bar would ruin the game.

all for it.

compared to the other race home instances?

the others are like a neighborhood in the city, the Sylvari one is like a single house.

am i missing something here?

no matter what the PVP structure is, the majority of PVP players will make their balance complaints based on 1vs1. always. even if 5vs5, 10vs10, or WvW Zerg is Officially declared as the only mode that the Devs balance around, nearly every complaint and request for balancing will be made based on a 1vs1 focus.

because that’s just how MMO players have always been, and always will be.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thermaine

there is the whole conversation. but reading it doesn’t really do it justice, as Thermaine’s voice actor is fantastic.

as long as there is an option to auto-decline.

i hate running through a city and getting bombarded with random duel challenges that I have no interest in or time for.

however, I wouldn’t hate on a duel option. more options are always good, and never hurt, imo.

you have to realize that when people say “new content”, what they really mean is “progression raids and raid tiers” and “yearly expansions”.

GW2 gets new content every Living Story update. it’s just not Raid Content with several large scale Progression Raids or it is not part of a massive boxed expansion, so the Raiders who came to this game expecting a standard MMO with an innovative twist on Raiding don’t consider Living Story to be “content”.

the only “Content” that counts is Progression Raiding and expansions, because that is the “Content” that everyone is conditioned for based on the common tropes of MMO endgames.

some players have discovered, by playing this game, that they honestly prefer waiting 8 months to a year for one massive dump of “Content” (keep in mind, that means Progession Raids, in an Expansion), rather than frequent incremental content dumps like Living Story updates.

meanwhile in other MMO forums, the complaints are “it’s taking too long to release the expansion, what am I supposed to do while I wait for the next 8 months?”

What do you think are the most interesting?

one of the most interesting that I’ve seen, is the conversation between two Sylvari in Brisban Wildlands, Thermaine and Brenalynn.

They are both found at the Watchful Source Waypoint in Brisban Wildlands, inside one of the buildings. Brenalynn is trying to understand Thermaine’s choice of becoming a Warrior and his passion for fighting, as she is a peaceful Sylvari ( i think she’s a gardener of some sort, i’ll need to go back and listen to the conversation again), and Thermaine’s explanation contains some of the coolest NPC lines I’ve heard in the game.

some of his quotes (not in order):

“I fight like a Sylvari. My blade flows and cuts like a cold wind in the forest.”
“I am no placid gardener, no gentle guardian. Thorns bite, vines choke, and I kill.”
“The singing of a sword is like a breeze through the trees.”
“I am a Warrior. Nature reveals the arts of war to me.”

another good one, is the Sylvari adventurer in The Grove who just came back from exploring the other Cities, and dislikes Hoelbrak because it is too kitten cold.

so…aren’t we doing the wrong thing by killing them?

are we sentencing ourselves to magic-overload blowing up Tyria in the distant future, in our quest for Phat Loots and Heroic Tales?

shouldn’t we, instead, just be trying to put them back to sleep?

the world of Tyria would be Dhuumed. DHUUUUUUUUUUMED!

obviously.

saved from what?

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

LunarNacht.8913:

Don’t know what you are talking about. GS was a good option since release. Of course not for all content. In dungeons it sucks because most of the time you don’t range enemies there.

Aren’t you talking about scepter?

I’m pretty sure he is talking about dungeons. I don’t think anyone cares what you run in PvE in any other context.

right.

thanks for the quick answers folks.

still deciding what I am going to play while the game finishes downloading.

So I quit GW2 almost a year ago cause Life happened. when I left, I seem to recall that Greatsword-using Mesmers were clowned on for being stupid Greatsword-using Noobs.

Did that stop? did ANet make any changes to make GS worth using?

I’m coming back now, and deciding between a Mesmer and a Thief to play. But if GS is horrible, not sure I’ll play Mesmer, cause GS was the only Mesmer weapon I was ever REALLY REALLY interested in. I used other weapons (mostly Sword/Pistol), but I really wanted to use GS without being a terrible player. Always loved the Aesthetic of it.

can I do that now? or am I still a stupid Greatsword-using noob?

Azure Prower.8701:

Champ farming you can drop in and out at your leisure.

Raids you have to schedule your life around it.

this is what it boils down to.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

It has been mentioned before, but if someone who doesn’t discriminate explains it, this might make more sense.

The thing with GW2 is that nearly all of the defense in this game is “active”. What this means is, defending yourself isn’t really about an armor rating, or a HP bar. It is about recognizing enemy tells, blocking and blinding those attacks, maintaining distance, strafing, and dodging. Other MMOs invoke passive defense, where everything is determined by your stats beforehand.

Because of this, the roles played by any character isn’t too limited on their stat distribution. A guardian can reflect and block just as well in full zerker as well as they can in full PVT gear. But rather, the “role” they play is based on the utilities and traits they have at their disposal. This is a bit jarring, since this is different from both other MMOs, and from sPVP/WvW mode in this same game.

As for the reasons why it is different, there are several reasons:

1)In PVP, your opponent will always have relatively high sustained damage, so things such as effective HP and the overall damage to durability ratio come into play. In PVE, enemies have strong but slow and telegraphed moves. This means that in PVP active defense only avoids some damage, whereas in PVE it neutralizes nearly all of it.

A)This is also why healing is more important in PVP. Whereas you can dodge nearly everything in PVE, if you can’t dodge then you’ll never heal the massive amount of damage done. But in PVP, since you can’t dodge everything and damage is sustained, the healing contributes meaningfully to your overall health.

B)This is also why durability is important. With active defense stopping so much less, you’ll rely on your stats a lot more. The sacrifice for greater damage is meaningful, since an opponent can do comparably greater damage to your HP bar than you do to him if built right.

2)PVP objectives aren’t about killing your opponent. In sPVP, it is about point control and secondary scoring mechanics. Sure, killing helps, but it isn’t necessary to progress. In WvW, it is about group movement, siege, and holding towers/keeps (which don’t go by normal combat rules), so again it isn’t necessary to kill your opponents as much as it is to drive them off. But in PVE, it is all about death, killing enemies, and more death. So, offense became the name of the game.

3)You fully heal after fights. In games where you don’t, defensive stats and healing are important for long term sustainability, but in this game you get a clean slate for merely ending the fight. With active defense being important and limited, the faster an enemy goes down, the less damage they do and the quicker you can heal up. Because of this, DPS gear is both offensive and defensive in one.

4)The game is designed with close ratios between offense and durability. In some games, one player can have 10 to 20 times the effective HP of another character, and some characters can have 5 or 10 times the damage. In this game, the scales kitten much smaller (for example, only looking at gear + 300 Power/Prec/Crit damage and ignoring sigils/runes/trait abilities, berserker only does 50% more damage than soldiers), and this allows for players to have diverse builds while still being relatively effective. This diversity doesn’t punish players for any glaring flaws in group composition, so players are free to go full DPS without fear of being completely one shot by everything.

When you add all of these things together, you get a perfect storm that focuses on damage above all else. Ultimately, I would like to see this storm remedied, and this is most easily done by making PVE more like PVP. Put in enemies that have high sustained damage and attack frequently with quick AoEs and cleaves, have objectives that are explicitly not about killing enemies, and you’ll see build diversity become much more useful.

this is by far, the best and most informative post in this entire thread.

thank you, I understand now.

side note: coleys, you should try being informative, rather than arrogant and insulting. you’ll get less argument. you were probably trying to say things along the lines of what this post said, but all anyone sees is “you suck blahblahblah bad blahblahblah i’m looking down my nose at you” and no one gets the information.

colesy.8490:

How is staff ele hard to play? Camp fire attunement and use lava font when off cooldown? That’s about as hard as the guardian DPS rotation of pressing 1 on the 1h sword.

not sure if you are talking to me or not, but I never claimed Staff Ele was hard to play. just that it wasn’t fun to play (to me).

Also, you guys need to get it out of your heads that warriors are the only good PvE class, every single class is good apart from necro in dungeons because they lack utility. So if you roll your ranger in a dungeon, as long as you’re not some bearbow scrub but instead you’re using sword/X and you still get booted, then well they’re idiots.

thought we were on “DPS Only”…..utility optional or not needed at all…..?

well, i made this thread because I am leveling up and was trying to use the class forums to find advice, and what i read on those forums made me curious about the overall design of the game.

from the information given and the way this game is said to be designed, I sadly, don’t see the point(in PVE) of all but two classes, the majority of the weapon types, and 90% of the available gear.

everyone should just be Warriors and Thieves in “Zerker” gear.

now i am not saying that this is necessarily the truth. it is just the impression i get from forum posters.

I guess I’ll just move on to WvW as soon as possible and do the personal story sparingly. I can tell that dungeons and high level PVE won’t be for me unless ANet come up with something besides DPS Meter Race for major encounters.

edit it’s not necessarily a matter of me being “bad” or having to be carried or whatever. it’s more, for me, a matter of HAVING to play with a weapon set or playstyle that is not enjoyable to me. for example, I don’t like Staff on Elementalists. I don’t enjoy it. the abilities there aren’t fun to me. I wouldn’t enjoy having to use the Staff if it were that it did the highest dps. I like dual pistols on Thieves. that is what I am leveling with, and I enjoy it immensely. however, in high level pve, I’ll be forced to use whatever the FOTM melee weapon is at the moment, despite the fact that Thief melee is not enjoyable(to me).

Zoltreez.6435:

sadly I feel that only Warriors and Necromancers can get any real use out of Vitality and toughness to be tanky

and Elementalist is the only one that benefits enough from healing power to worth something.

anything else full dps or go home.

disappointing.

I suppose I’ll be a “bad” thief, because the only weapons i find fun to use on them are dual pistols. and from what I hear, they’re bad dps.

guess I’ll end up making a full-dps warrior like everyone else at some point.

Is that how Guild Wars 2 is meant to be played?

No matter what class you play, or what the classes are capable of, or what weapons they can use….

spec and gear for the absolute highest DPS you can get, to the exclusion of any and everything else. and just hit Q before a big attack.

that’s the correct way to play this game?

i honestly think the best thing about Norn armor is that Norns are large enough that you can easily see all the small design details in the armors without having to zoom in.

Their armors look FAN-KITTEN-TASTIC.

seriously.

I wish I could decide on a Class and character concept already.

so here is what I am choosing between:

Greatsword/Longbow (my current set up at level 22)

Sword/Warhorn/Longbow

Sword/Dagger/Longbow

GS/Sword/WH

GS/Sword/Dagger

thoughts?

I’ve determined that I want a melee-centric playstyle primarily. I am debating keeping my Bow just for variety’s sake and for those moments where range is just really necessary.

I like the GS a lot, but WH is awesome too. however, I am not certain I want to give up that ranged option.

this is for PVE and eventually WvW when I get to level 80 finally. I don’t do the Esports chestthump dueling thing.

I wonder…

anyone have any ideas?

They are both found at the Watchful Source Waypoint in Brisban Wildlands.

they have quite frankly one of the best ambient conversations I have witnessed in the game so far. and most of the awesome comes from Thermaine’s voice actor and his lines.

neither of them is of any real importance game-wise. they aren’t merchants or heart/event npcs or anything. they’re just there for ambience, having a conversation about the differences in the path’s they’ve chosen. and it’s great.

Thermaine should be made a more prominent character imo. Perhaps he should join the Vigil.

“I fight like a Sylvari. My blade flows and cuts like a cold wind in the forest.”

“I am no placid gardener, no gentle guardian. Thorns bite, vines choke, and I kill.”

“The singing of a sword is like a breeze through the trees.”

“I am a Warrior. Nature reveals the arts of war to me.”

Nero.8047:

hey Jmad.
I’m Nero of the Seraphim Order [Ankh]
And I’d like to link you our guild recruitment post:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/recruitment/Desolation-Seraphim-Order-Ankh-EU-NA
Now there are a few problems which might cause you to refuse to join.
1. We’re actively inviting players from North American servers, but the [NA] playerbase is not yet what we want it to be.
2. We’re based in the Desolation server, which is a European server.

What I can tell you though, is that we’ve got everything you’re looking for, and that we’re doing all we can to get a wider [NA] playerbase for you and others to enjoy.

Sorry man, I’m really only looking for a US Server guild on Tarnished Coast NA.

Hey all.

So I bought GW2 at release and didn’t play it very long before I moved on to other games.

Back now, and I’m planning on sticking around at least until EQNext comes out(as long as GW2 continues to be fun). So, I need a Guild.

I’m not an Elite Player or a super min/maxer or whatever. I’m not a total scrub either though. and I’m not a super hardcore RPer either. but I do plan out a concept for my characters ankitten ot opposed to doing some RP on a whim. and I’ve been known to write a short story or two.

I’m a laid-back kinda middle of the road type guy. I play for Fun, and having fun is the most important thing for me.

I play on Tarnished Coast, and I’ve got 3 characters thus far, an Engineer in the 30s, a Ranger at level 18, and an Elementalist at 24 and climbing. The Ele will most likely be my main for the forseeable future. my Ele is also a Max-level Chef,( even though crafting is a bore. i just used a guide and did it for the achievement). neither of my other characters has a craft higher than like 50 though.

Mostly, I’m interested in PVE content and eventually I plan to be pretty heavy in WvW when I am appropriately leveled and geared enough(I <3 DAoC and Planetside). The ESports PVP type deal isn’t really my cup of tea, but it’s something I could be convinced to dabble in, just cause.

So I suppose I am looking for a Casual RP Guild on Tarnished Coast that is WvW and PVE friendly.

feel free to look me up for a conversation, or point in in a direction that leads to information what kind of guild you are and what kind of people are in your guild.

Oh yeah, I am on EST, and my playtimes are late night (after 10pm) for the most part, but on my days off from work I may play during the day.

edit One last thing…if your Guild has a stupid and/or pretentious name, I likely won’t join it. that’s just one of my things, sorry.

I’d consider myself a “Tweener” as well, as far as gaming goes.

I play to have fun. not to do .000000005 % more damage than the next guy. doesn’t mean I’m content to be a total scrub. just means I am willing to sacrifice a miniscule amount of efficiency in the name of enjoying myself, so long as I am capable of completing the content and making meaningful contributions towards doing so.

that said, I am sure that at least half of the so-called “elite” players who claim on forums that every piece of content ever created is “too easy” and is a walk in the park and they always farm it with their eyes closed are lying through their teeth anyway. such is the internet.

Reading the class forums, it gives the impression that every single class is the worst, most worthless class in the entire game. well, except Warriors and Guardians I guess.

How can so many classes all be the worst at the same time?

so yeah….bought GW2 at release, didn’t play very long. (highest character is a 30-ish Engineer).

thankfully because of B2P, I can come back to GW2 whenever I want. which I did.

trying out various classes, made a Ranger, tried Mesmer, and now made an Elementalist. Level 20 now and it is pretty fun thus far. problem is, I haven’t the slightest idea about anything regarding Builds and stat focus and such(for any class really)

so far I like:

Dagger/Dagger
Earth Magic (specifically Dagger, awesome)
Fire Magic (Specifically Dagger, not as awesome as Earth, but still pretty awesome)
Conjures (the few I have, Frost Bow is pretty fun)
Glyphs(specifically Glyph of Storms).

Neither Here nor there on:
Water(I’ll use it cause it seems necessary, but not sure I want to focus on it)
Cantrips (the few I have, I suppose they’ll be essential in the future, but I feel “meh” about it thus far)
Arcane Magic

Don’t like:
Air Magic(I don’t like how the Whip obscures my view of my targets, and the other skills seem Meh, except for Updraft’s Knockdown)
Staffs

Haven’t tried:
Scepter (I know you start with one, but I got rid of it for a Staff the instant I finished the Prologue)
Focus

Now I’m not saying what is most effective or whatever, because I don’t know. I’m just saying what I find to be fun and “cool” and what I don’t find fun and cool.

for flavor/theme purposes, my Elementalist is Blood Legion Charr. I’m sure that means absolutely nothing, but I figured I’d mention it anyway.

So, with that said. I need some help figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing here.

I’m not asking someone to hand me a build or anything, I just want to read some philosophy on the pros/cons of certain trait lines, trait combos, and stats, based on my Like/dislike list above.

so….halp plz?

what’s funny is that when(if) they add all that stuff, all most people who are supposed to be interested in this sort of thing are gonna do is continue to sit in a Tavern and type paragraph-long Emotes, rather than actually partake in the Game’s Content.

“Tavern RP” sucks.

/endthreadderailingrant

so…suppose I want to be a more “Critty” type ranger. I guess I would focus on Power and Crit? Does that necessarily take Shortbow out of the equation for me? If I use a SB on a Power/Crit build, would I be missing out on anything?

I’m not sure exactly the basics of how Ranger Builds work, especially weapon-wise. But I figure going for Power and Crit with the Greatsword is a viable option?

Shemsu.8721:

JMadFour.9730:

Shemsu.8721:

As far as I can see, the main point of this thread is blatantly false. crafting is not required for ascended OR legendaries. Ascended jewelry can be obtained via laurels, badges, drops in fractals, drops in wvw chests, guild commendations. no shortage of ways to aquire them, ascended weapons can be found already made on any champion, any world chest, camp supervisors, all champs in towers/keeps/sm, it can be found as drops in fractals as well, no shortage of places to aquire it. Legendaries can be purchased on the TP, and since it seems you dont want to earn it, you can even buy gems via RMT and trade them for gold to get your legendary. You dont have to craft, you dont even have to earn it, quit the QQ fest

I was under the impression that obtaining a Legendary required an Account-bound component that could only be created through level 400 Crafting.

am I mistaken in this?

Yep, all thats required is a fat wallet (irl or in game) and the abillity to type the name of the legendary you want into the TP window (assuming its not listed on the left side already)

My complaint is not about not wanting to “earn it”. I’ll gladly partake in any game activity to “earn” what I need, as long as it is not Crafting. because Crafting is boring and tedious. If it were not so, I’d do Crafting as well.

I don’t partake in game activities that aren’t enjoyable to me. that is the basis of my complaint.

If I am mistaken and I don’’t have to partake in crafting to obtain these things, and I can “earn” them through other game activities, then that is fine and I apologize for my mistake and this thread has no purpose.

Shemsu.8721:

As far as I can see, the main point of this thread is blatantly false. crafting is not required for ascended OR legendaries. Ascended jewelry can be obtained via laurels, badges, drops in fractals, drops in wvw chests, guild commendations. no shortage of ways to aquire them, ascended weapons can be found already made on any champion, any world chest, camp supervisors, all champs in towers/keeps/sm, it can be found as drops in fractals as well, no shortage of places to aquire it. Legendaries can be purchased on the TP, and since it seems you dont want to earn it, you can even buy gems via RMT and trade them for gold to get your legendary. You dont have to craft, you dont even have to earn it, quit the QQ fest

I was under the impression that obtaining a Legendary required an Account-bound component that could only be created through level 400 Crafting.

am I mistaken in this?

I don’t really have “a build” yet. I’m not that far along yet. still working things out, using what I feel is fun at the moment, and unlocking skills still.

not entirely sure what kind of build works with Greatswords tbh, I’m kinda just using skills randomly as I level up still.

Ashen.2907:

The complaint is not that crafting needs to be easier, but rather that it is not enjoyable.

Yes, exactly.

but it isn’t a matter of being a Casual Player. i don’t consider myself to be a casual player. not 10-hour a day Hardcore, but not casual either.

I just don’t like Crafting as an ingame activity. in ANY MMO, not just this one. I NEVER craft, I always just take whatever gathering professions there are and do those. I can do those while I am playing the game normally, rather than having to sit at a craft station for hours on end doing nothing but watching the progress bar.

I’ll happily pay someone else for their crafted goods, even if it costs me a little extra. cause Crafting sucks(to me). I’m wondering why it is so important that you craft a Legendary or Ascended item yourself. why not be able to gather all the Materials and give them to a Crafter to craft for you for a fee, like in most other MMOs. standard was that you either gathered the mats and took em to a crafter and paid a set fee based on the item, or you paid extra if the Crafter had to get the mats himself. what’s wrong with that?

I liken this to a staunch PVE-only, despises PVP player being forced to do PVP against his will. or vice-versa.

In every MMORPG I have ever played, going back to Everquest. Crafting is a boring tedious chore.

stand at a crafting station. Click the item in a menu. Watch the Progress Bar cycle. over and over. can’t do anything else while your items are crafting.

I always try crafting at first, and it always bores me so much and seems so tedious that I always just resign myself to gathering/salvaging and selling the gathered/salvaged materials to people who can put up with the tedium of MMORPG Crafting to make my money and using that money to buy my equipment or using dungeon drops.

thus, I’m disappointed greatly, when I am reading that in order to eventually get best-in-slot items in this Game, Legendary, and Ascended, I am going to be forced to level up Crafting.

Not sure why such things are being FORCED on the playerbase, a portion of which is most likely like me, and dislike crafting in general. I don’t feel you should be FORCED to partake in any particular portion of a MMORPG, be it PVP, Crafting, PVE, etc. if you don’t want to.

that said, I have to play by ANet’s rules if I want BiS in the future. so, I guess I just need a decent guide for the quickest and most painless way to level up a crafting alt, in all the crafts i will need for the Best In Slot equipment. suggestions?

Unless Exotics are being bumped up to match Ascended stat-wise the way Legendaries are?

My primary weapon thus far is a Greatsword. I like the function, feel and aesthetics of it, so it’ll likely be my primary weapon all the time. also, so far I am using mostly traps for my Utility skills.

I’m looking at Bows for my secondary weapon slot, just so that I have some range if and when I need it (especially considering WvW in the distant future)

that said, I am interesting in seeing some more experienced rangers debate the merits of the Longbow vs the Shortbow, for my particular usage.

ok thanks a lot for the quick answer

I wasn’t playing GW2 the first time it came around, but I read about it.

is it only for level 80s or can lowbies participate as well?

Assuming that Melee is my primary Combat style , with a Longbow in my second weapon slot as a backup.

Thought?

Medkit seems awkward to use unless I am in a big group. I figured being able to throw them would make it less awkward.

I am definitely taking Elixir Gun.

not sold on explosives, I might try a Bomb Kit though. but I know that I don’t much like any of the turrets except the Med Turret.

The next class has gotta be Golemancer.

In fact, I would like to see each Race get their own exclusive Class.

Asura – Golemancer
Norn – Brawler
Human – ???
Sylvari – Druid
Charr – Cannoneer

stop ERPing in public chats and people won’t report you. This ain’t Goldshire.

Is it a lore thing? or some sort of gameplay balance issue?

when looking over the Ranger thinking about trying one, I’m highly surprised that a Warrior can use a Rifle but the Ranger can’t.

what gives?

Ok so here is what I have settled on, for the most part.

Pistol/Shield.

at least 20 in Firearms, at least 20 in Tools (so I can throw medkits)

Med Kit, Elixir Gun, Tool Kit. My #9 slot is a revolving door depending on the situation. Sometimes Flamethrower, sometimes another kit, sometimes an Elixir.

So what would be the best way to spend my last 30 points?

I’m just level 30 right now, but I am putting together something to work towards.

A sense of community, yes it definitely missing.

I see no reason to really be social at all in this game so far. I see another dude, we finish a event, we go our seperate ways, yeah, but beyond that, the game seems very single-playerish.

Nayru.3947:

Horheristo.3607:

@ Nayru

- PvP (both WvW and structured)
- Seasonal events.
- Achievements (all of the non-gold / grind achievement in this game are actually fun to do)

I’m positive other people find other parts of the game more enjoyable for them.
If you can’t find anything, I do wonder what you’re still doing here.

If that’s all the fun content then I fear for this game.

don’t worry, your Gear Treadmill is apparently on the way. then you’ll finally have your “fun content”.

as for me, thus far, I have yet to see any “non-fun” content. I’ve enjoyed everything so far. even the Jumping Puzzles.