Guild Wars 2

Glimrac.2164:

I’ve been playing for a few weeks. There is a LOT to learn that doesn’t seem to have been covered as I played through the game to lvl 80 on my first character, a warrior (personal story done and HoT story finished yesterday).

Here are the terms in this thread that I don’t understand yet:

blasts
stability
fractal CM
condi
T4 fractal parties
blob
defiance bars (checked the wiki, lots of info there but will take me a while to process)
breakbars
trinity
combo fields
bubble

None, or very little of this is mentioned in the Tips for New Players posted I searched for online.

Is there a good thread that lists some definitive or supremely helpful guides for new players?

Thanks!

Stability – Sometimes Stab – Boon that prevents you from being knocked down, pushed, pulled, etc. See Balanced Stance, Dolyak signet, Stomp, and Shattering blow (for Warrior).
Condi – Condition or condition damage – 2 types of builds – power and condi. Power is raw smacking the bad guy with your sword. Condi is stacking damaging conditions on the bad guy – bleeds, burning, chill, etc. Condi stacks more damage over time, so the longer the fight, generally, the better your average DPS. Think of it as Power as (relatively) constant DPS, Condi as increasing DPS the longer the fight.
T4 Fractal Party – Fractals are arranged in Tiers – Tier 1 are fractals 1-25, Tier 2 – 26-50, Tier 3 – 51-75, and Tier 4 (T4) 76-100. Each tier increases the difficulty (including increasing Agony Resistance (AR)).
Blob – not sure where the reference is, but probably zerg, – big giant (for certain values) party running around killing/doing things. May or may not be led by a commander or mentor.
Defiance Bars – DB and Break Bars are the same thing. The greenish-bluish bar that a boss/champion/etc. has under it’s red health bar. These are affected by CC’s (crowd controls) and there are 2 types of CC’s – hard and soft. Breaking the bar will – most of the time – stun the boss for a bit or prevent them from doing some other mechanic. For example – breaking the bar on the Matriarch wyvern in the canopy during Verdant Brink’s night time will a) stun her and b) prevent her from flying off and strafing the area with her breath. Hard CC’s are things you do that damage the break bar RIGHT NOW, soft CC’s are like condition damage that does damage over time. For warrior, Head butt is your strongest hard CC, and your FEAR ME shout is your strongest soft CC.
Combo fields – Different classes can lay different fields – light, water, fire, etc. Certain skills can then be layered on top of those fields to change or enhance either the field’s effect or the effect of the skill. These are combo finishers and/or blast finishers. For example, thieves can drop a smoke field and someone else, like a Guardian, can blast that field to give everyone stealth. The wiki shows 9 combo fields and 4 types of finishers for each – Blast, Leap, Projectile, and Whirl. Look at the wiki article on combo fields.
Fractal CM – I think this is fractal Challenge Mote. Used to start a harder than normal instance of a fractal or raid.

And it takes time. I’ve been playing for a little under a year and a half, and I’m still learning – even with over 1000 hours on Warrior alone.

Replace ectos in the mystic clover recipe with exotic luck.

Behellagh.1468:

OriOri.8724:

Are you serious? Ascended medium chestpiece. Requires 1,600 T5 leather pieces to craft the traditional way, requires 1,840 T5 leather if you use the new grandmaster marks system.

Well to be pedantic, that’s thousand, not thousands. Full set certainly but for a single item?

Mystic Chest requires 3000 Thick Leather Sections. /pedant

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

tl;dr proponents of a change to supply or demand or leather undermine their suggestion by appealing to economics. I believe ANet would be more concerned if more people point out that it’s demoralizing to them.

Here’s my economic appeal: “Can I get a refund on the gems I spent for two character slots that I’m never going to use because I won’t be able to afford to craft the armor for a thief and engineer?”

I periodically pop into bloodstone fen JUST to farm bloodstone dust. Which I then turn into ley-line infused tools for my guild hall.

Now an eater for airship oil…that I could be talked into. I’ve deleted probably 30 or more stacks of that in the last year or so.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Actually, why is it even a scroll? Why not turn it into an account unlock? Spend unbound magic and every character on your account gains access to one WP on the new map (or even all 3 WPs, since there are generally so few). That eliminates the need to keep track of an inventory item.

I haven’t bought any of them because I can’t really imagine using them more than once per character.

Yeah, I was hesitant about buying them too, but then I bought the one for Bitterfrost Frontier. I keep all of my level 80’s at the flax farm in VB, so when I wanted to hop to Bitterfrost to farm berries, or whatever, it was ~4 silver to way point in. Use the scroll and it drops you at the central WP for free. Considering that at first I hit the map on 5 or 6 toons, that’s 20-24 silver per day that I’d save. Two or three days and you’ve saved the 50 silver the scroll cost. Hopping to the Guildhall is free, so that cut the return to the flax farm down to ~1.5 silver or so.

Okay, yes, I’m talking about saving a couple of silver per day per toon, but that can add up quick. And as I’m salvaging everything and selling very little so that I can level our GH, saving 10 or 20 silver per day is pretty meaningful for my income.

Map suggestion: With the increased complexity and verticality to the maps, add an outline to ALL map icons indicating what level is on. For example, on a 3 level map, bottom level is red, middle is green, and top is blue. When I’m on the top level trying to get to a POI, I can see that it has a red outline on it, so I know that the POI I’m headed to is at the bottom of the map…instead of arriving at it and finding out that it is 25000 below me.

Anataboshi.9842:

I just started the game after about 4 years, there’s a lot of change, and I just want to be able to test what’s the best build i can find.

You say there’s a raiding area with a dummy where you have information about your DPS? Where can i find this area?

Inside the raid aerodrome in Lion’s Arch. It’s called the special forces training area. You can set a golem up and give both you and it whatever buffs you want and smack away at it.

There have been a few times that I’ve purchased something to level one of my crafting professions and turned out to not need all of what I purchased, so I turned around and relisted it on the TP. So, no, not a big fan of the idea.

Especially for this nice little change:
“Blood Rubies, Jade Shards, Petrified Wood, and Winterberries have been added to material storage.”

Behellagh.1468:

And really, it costs 420-490 gold for the ascended mats needed to make a full set of ascended armor, the 65 gold for the T6 leather sections to make the insignia isn’t that significant.

The cost for ascended armor is not the only issue, though. I may have missed something in the 2 minutes I used to look this up, but fully upgrading a guild hall requires 5,950 Cured Thick Leather Squares (23,800 sections), and 1910 Cured Hardened Leather Squares (the squares and insignias, 5730 sections total). And that does NOT include the thick leather sections needed for all of the Elonian Leather that is required (I want to say that is 450-650 Elonian Leather, but my memory could be off a bit).

And that 65 gold for the ascended armor? Yeah, that’s per set, per time the meta changes. So its 65 to craft it, and it’s 65 to change that stat set when ANET nerfed Staff Ele, and 65 when Rev’s F2 got nerfed (okay, not really – revs just got dropped from the meta instead), and 65 when Grace of the Land changed for Druids, and 65 when (if) power necro ever gets let back into raids (like that’s going to happen).

You don’t hear me complaining about the 60,000 piles of flax seed that are needed for the guild hall (vials of linseed oil, the empty kegs, etc.). Because I can park my 7 toons in the VB farm and hit that every day when I log in. And so can the rest of the guild. Nor do you hear complaints about the number of quartz crystals we have to get (something like 1000 for all the ley-line infused tools…so 25,000 quartz crystals). You don’t because we can reliably spend a few minutes every day sourcing those materials over time – AND THEN GO HAVE FUN PLAYING THE REST OF THE GAME. Reliably sourcing the leather? Spend 2 hours killing the horses in Lake Doric for the leather equivalent of one vial of linseed oil…then do I go play the game for fun, or go to bed so that I can make it to work on time tomorrow?

Rauderi.8706:

When it comes to some fantasy universes, world-moving phenomena are generally attributed to something ubiquitous and generally magical. In FFX and X-2, it was “spheres.” in XIV, all crafting required “crystals,” which is common to the intellectual property and fantasy tropes in general.

So what ubiquitous magical thing does GW2 have?

Dragons!

That’s right, dragons are somehow responsible for our bathing and poo.

Aaaaand now we know where the water dragon has been hiding – the sewer system under Rata Sum.

Fastest movement early on in the game is Ranger, Necro, and Thief – they gain a 25% movement speed increase through signets. Mesmer gets a movement speed increase from Signet of Inspiration, a) but it is random with other boons procing instead, b) annoying because quickness procs just before you jump (epic trolling by the developers, even if unintentional ), and c) causes your toon to same something stupid every few seconds, otherwise, mesmer gains a speed increase trait with Chronomancer, which is after level 80. Warrior has a trait that grants 25% movement speed increase when melee weapons are equipped, but it is in the discipline trait line. Not sure about Guardian or Engineer because I haven’t leveled either one to 80. Yet. Revenant you gain movement speed increase with the elite spec. You can move faster with Shiro before completing Glint, but…that utility has a lot of uses in combat and it you’re constantly burning up the energy for it just running around, you won’t be able to use it when you want.

Lastly…feel your pain on the 60 hours a week. I do IT, so, been there, done that, still have the scars – previous employer I averaged 100 hours per week juggling 3 roles that were 60 hour-a-week jobs by themselves. Did that for 2 years before burning out. Fortunately, I have a new employer that is A LOT better about that…

I was just strolling through the latest “permanent upgrade extractor” thread and came up with a decent solution to that problem. My solution is to give Miyani two new options/abilities:
1. The ability to swap runes (and probably sigils) from one set of armor to the other, even unsalvageable armor. Hand both sets of armor to her, she swaps the runes from the old to the new and hands both sets of armor back.
2. The ability to reapply runes to ascended armor that was just stat-swapped in the mystic forge. Stat-swap the armor in the forge, then immediately (within 10 minutes) ask Miyani to recover and reapply the runes you just lost to the armor.

Consider Superior Rune of Leadership. Full set of 6 is 12 gold and 600 crystalline ore, or 12 gold and 450 Proof of Heroics. And it is account bound on acquire. That is a lot of grinding in either Dragon Stand or WvW for a set. So what is one supposed to do when the meta changes and now my chrono needs a different armor stat? Even with all the other grinding that I have to do in the game, I don’t mind grinding it out for the first set of runes that I’m never going to replace. But if Anet is going to push out a balance patch every 3 to 4 months, then I’m POTENTIALLY looking at the same grind every 3 to 4 months because their balance patch caused the meta to shift.

To my mind, there seem to be a couple of ways to fix this, the permanent upgrade extractor, or, and I like this one better, give Miyani the ability to reapply lost runes to ascended armor that was just stat-swapped in the mystic forge AND the ability to move runes from one set of armor to a new set.

Lastly…SWAP SOULBOUND TO ACCOUNTBOUND for unique, once per account items. Like Mistward Armor. Just a pet peeve of mine.

VectorVineyard.8379:

MikeyGrey.2496:

The map currency nodes in new maps are a good source. Berries for dragonite ore as you mentioned; bloodstone crystals/jade fragments for bloodstone dust and petrified wood for empyreal fragments. Also, if you have a lot of alts, I’d recommend jumping puzzles for fragments.

I’ve been meaning to ask: can you use TP to Friend items to enter the new maps without buying story arcs? The wiki doesn’t mention it either on the item’s page or under the “Getting There” section of the new maps.

Thanks your your replies! I’m sure it won’t take long to get my set of armor thanks to you.

If you have the map/episode unlocked on your account, you can TP to a friend to get there. I did that on one of my toons for Ember Bay. If you don’t have it unlocked, my understanding is you can’t get there, period.

Thinking back, I think that I had to do the first story/prologue for HoT to get from the silverwastes into Verdant Brink. One it was unlocked on one toon, I could get the rest in there without entering the story.

I have Lake Doric unlocked on all of my toons, but only the one (or two) that have done the story can just walk in from DR.

OriOri.8724:

The point of a fully upgraded GH is to have a guild contribute to it, not to do it yourself. 1 less potion a day would still allow for pretty quick accumulation of potion of PvP rewards, and by removing the class specific dailies it would make everyone in PvP matches happier and make the game mode better overall

Yep, but that depends on the size of the guild, the number of active members, their level of activity, AND having some that like PvP. I accept that fully upgrading our guild hall is going to take a lot of time, and frankly, a lot of grinding. Not a problem. But, when I’m am pretty much the only one doing PvP – and that only because I have to – it’s a different story. While that 1 PvP potion per day change doesn’t sound like too much, the original proposition to change it to x number of wins means that it will be a higher effective drop in the number I can get. So instead of averaging 4 per day, I’m down to 2 unless I want to extend my time spent in PvP even more. Yes, please, make me spend less time in the parts of the game that I want to spend time in. Sounds great.

OriOri.8724:

Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946:

The other side of this is the need for Potions of PvP Rewards for GH upgrades. Dailies are the only way to get them, so removing two potential options for me to get them is a bad thing. Upgrades to the GH are already enough of a grind, making it even more painful is suboptimal.

These dailies should be replaced with a “Win X games” daily, where it can be 2-3 games. Then the last daily could be “play a game on Y map” to encourage players to play different maps. End result, only 1 less PvP potion (since the game on a specific map should only grant 1 potion), but players are no longer given huge incentives to play classes that they aren’t as strong at.

A fully upgraded GH requires 720 Potions of PvP rewards. You want to remove 1 a day from the rewards? Let us make a game mode that I really do not enjoy just that much more unenjoyable. Pretty please, with cherries on top! NOT.

The other side of this is the need for Potions of PvP Rewards for GH upgrades. Dailies are the only way to get them, so removing two potential options for me to get them is a bad thing. Upgrades to the GH are already enough of a grind, making it even more painful is suboptimal.

I have to say that it didn’t seem like the thief I was playing against last night had much of a cool down on anything. I got hit by 4 traps just outside the barracks doors and was dead about 10 seconds later, even with a full condi-cleanse. And he never broke stealth. Personally, I wouldn’t PvP at all if I didn’t need the PvP potions for the Guild Hall, so I am a newb. But that was particularly frustrating, and frankly toxic enough that I quit PvP, finished my daily farming and logged off for the night. About 2 hours earlier than I normally would have.

I should add, that thief seemed to take extra pleasure in specifically hunting me down in that match. To my knowledge, it was the first time I ever played a match with him.

I’ve map completed all of the PvE maps on my Warrior. Last time I looked, I had a substantial excess of HPs awaiting the next elite specialization that is added to the game. I want to say the number is north of 300, but I could be mistaken. And yes, that is after maxing out the Berserker trait line, along with all the regular warrior skill and trait lines. In short, go play the game, you’ll end up with more than enough hero points for everything.

Another thought in the same vein that I had after going to bed, is displaying the distance to a party member when you mouse over their dot on the map/mini-map. Admittedly that is only a quality of life issue for mesmers, but I have been…caught short a couple of times thinking I could port someone only to find out they were too far away.

Especially in the HoT maps where some of the Hero Points are nigh impossible to solo, it would be nice if the name of the HP name was displayed in the “tool tip” text like it is for waypoints. Ability to right-click and add it to chat would be awesome, as well.

It would be nice, though, to be able to un-soulbind some rare items – and by rare I mean unique/special items, not yellows – especially things that can be obtained only once per account. Leave it account bound, but either let us un-soulbind it, or make it only account bound in the first place. Perfect example of this is the Mistward heavy armor. I finished and run it on my rev. But if I want to change out to a set of ascended, I can’t move that over to a warrior or guard because it is soulbound to my rev. Sure, I have the skin unlocked and can skin any other armor set with that, but I’ve already got a set of armor that is the stats I want for the other character…

Really, if it is an item that I can only get one of in the game, I’d much rather it not be soulbound.