Guild Wars 2

You’re not a Ranger if…

-You haven’t run Twilight Arbor F/F and then screamed at your pet when it runs through the instant-kill, projectile-absorbing barriers around the archers in the archer room and subsequently died.
-Swap out your dead pet for the other one, enter a portal to another archer, and watch the second pet do the same thing as the first

And my personal favourite:
-Used sword #2’s evade and leap skills as a means to run away from a WvW zerg trying to kill you and only you.

Chaos has it right – TA dungeon armour. There’s a vendor in Vigil Keep that sells it.

The total outfit costs something a little under 1400 tokens, and only if you’re really lucky will you find people willing to run through all three paths of that dungeon. Most are content to run U/U and F/F.

TA is also one of the few dungeons that doesn’t go by the normal “path” system (path 1, path 2, path 3, etc.).

Most classes have boon stealing or condition cleansing, or both. Aside from the small buff that would mark how many attacks were left after activating the active effect, this elite is pretty much already countered by classes or builds meant to deal with these things.

I consider it a better version of the warrior’s downed skill Vengeance. Here’s why:

1.) Affects multiple allies
2.) 100% chance to remove the buff (and therefore fully revive the player) without needing to trait for it
3.) Returns allies to the downed state rather than kill them if they are unable to kill something themselves

Admittedly, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve used the skill (over a year!) so I might be wrong about that last point.

redslion.9675:

Actually, I think the Pact should act the same way with the people it protects:

Not only the enemies, but ALL of Tyria must fear the Pact. All kingdoms must be afraid off of belittling its power.

When the Pact acts, it mast be taken for granted that ALL Tyrians are evil and will act for their advantage when given the occasion. Only the Pact knows what is right and wrong, and everyone must be protected from him or herself.

And everyone in Tyria can be the enemy of the Pact. At the first sign of disagreement, his will must be broken.

Yeah, that would be pretty brutal.
I’d love it to happen, going from this:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/286b7b9f968431fef87ed1880afb8b1d/tumblr_mfmdnsk8EL1rmcyoko1_400.jpg

To this:

https://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/styles/blog_post_media/public/images/Judge_Dredd_01.jpg?itok=-7_l8r7i

That wouldn’t make much sense. The Pact exists solely for the purpose of defeating the Elder Dragons under a unified banner. Peace between most nations seems to be doing well so far, so they don’t even need to consider taking action against the various factions.

They also rely on recruits from those peoples, so trying to go all Machiavellian on them would only lead to their own demise by making EVERYONE their enemy.

I’d like to see this added to the mix of the storyline myself, as these kinds of thinkers can be the bringers of great change, but it doesn’t suit many (if any at all) of the current cast of characters we have been given. Not to mention that a Machiavellian way of thinking is doomed to fail in the long run, as eventually the people who love you will come to fear you, which will inevitably breed revolution.

Soldiers who fight out of fear of their leaders are essentially caught between a rock and a hard place: fight and die, or retreat and die. A self-motivated man has no such decision to make; he is able to retreat without fear of being cut down by his own men, because his COs will know that he will just fight all the harder to take that ground back, and then some more!

That sounds good to me.

I’d considered a single boon, but I thought that multiple ones might allow Might to stack a little. One Might is rarely enough.

Hmm… Perhaps you’re right, though. One boon per shatter, but with a long(ish) duration and no ICD. 10-15 seconds?

Of course, there would always be the risk that Aegis gets granted on the first shatter, then again on the second, for example.

Personally, I would rethink the passive of that elite skill. You’ve already got a trait line that reduces shatter CD the more points you put into it, and a signet that refreshes their CD when you use the active, and a trait that refreshes them when you reach 50% health.

Another 10% reduced recharge seems like overkill. How about… grants one boon for every clone you shatter?

I’m with Berullos on Minion AI, at least in certain areas of the game. In PvE I have almost no problems with them. Hit 1 a couple times and they’ll get rid to murdering. However, I often find in sPvP that the first set of minions I summon (all three utilities and elite) will sit around and do absolutely nothing until they die and I have to summon them a second time. THEN they start acting normally.

I swear it’s like necromancer minion skills became the new ranger signets in sPvP: they don’t work properly when you first join a game/map. Use them once and then everything is fine. My only qualm with this (when I had signet problems with my ranger I just used them as I left the spawn gate) is that I now have to summon my minions and then wait for them to die. If an opponent realizes my minions are bugged, they’ll never get killed and I’ll be left without defenses that are technically standing all around me.

@OP: I agree with you about transformation skills; they need to let spectral/minion players use these things without wasting their utilities.

That said, I’d like for you to take another look at Life Blast. It deals increased damage the closer you are to a target. Dark Path is an amazing ability because it lets you close on your opponent AND prevent them from running away, provided they don’t have condition clears or a warrior’s greatsword.

We’d have to test Engie #3 vs Aegis in sPvP.

That said, I think Kasmeer admitted in the previous LS segment that she gets hiccups when she gets scared.

Sorry, guys. She was stone-cold-sober when she kissed Marjory.

Even if they didn’t ignore the warnings, who is to say that Lion’s Arch wouldn’t have ended up exactly as it is right now?

LA doesn’t have anti-aircraft technology, so even if they were to deploy some they’d need time to work on a prototype. There’s also no such thing as anti-portal technology, and we KNOW Scarlet likes portals.

I’m not about to say that the council was or was not taking steps to prepare for the attack, but the one thing they would have needed, they wouldn’t have had enough of. That thing is time.

Personally, I think it would have been better to do a (sort of) reversal of what we saw in the trailer. We should see the Molten and Toxic Alliances, backed by the Aetherblades, marching towards some unseen target. Try real hard not to let camera angles show the location of the event.

Then….

Show a brief aerial view of Lion’s Arch. I’m thinking from the southwest corner, pointed towards the northeast, to get a view of the city and the docks.

Fade to black fairly quickly so people don’t get too long to see the city.

There, we get to see everyone involved, and get a very vague idea of what’s going to happen.

To speak more specifically about the video, I am disappointed by the in-game footage of LA on fire. That… kind of explains everything that we’re going to be doing, when you add in the title of the event. Lion’s Arch is going to fall, and we’re probably going to have to help evacuate civilians, or defend against the various Alliances in an effort to give the LA folks time to run.

I fully expect the story in this next update to blow my mind, knock my socks off, and leave me going “Whoa……!”

Without getting into (or too far into) the current/outdated debate, non-charr engineers definitely deserve some love. Asura really ought to get turrets and other gadgets that are based on Asura designs, not charr. And Sylvari? Why can’t they be bio-engineers, whose ideas are taken from growing and manipulating plant matter (like seed turrets, for example!). Humans, too, are a race in dire need of a technology change for their engineers. Who made the original watchwork guardians? Not Scarlet – she stole them from the humans. And certainly not Queen Jennah – she’s a Mesmer, not an engineer.

The common human made those things. So why is it that an engineer can’t have some kind of funky watchwork turret?

Admittedly, I can’t think of anything for the Norn or the Charr, but it’s my personal opinion that for the charr, the current turrets are good enough.

Except they don’t look like charrzookas. <—— Make it happen, Anet!

Kind of funny… When I first heard that Eles were going to get that immunity to conditions trait, I was playing my ele a lot. Really enjoyed it. But the first thing that came to my head when I learned about that trait was “Darn… now condi necros won’t be able to PvP anymore.”

Your video (and others) have only proven that this is true. A full condi build can’t touch an ele with that trait.

Not sure why you don’t like minion builds, unless it’s because they’re the necro meta (I’ll admit I may have missed an explanation in the video). I have a great time with it in hotjoins, though I still have trouble with some classes. I have to say that once this patch came out I think my minions got a lot… less intelligent. Now they’re just A without the I.

I’ll share what I know, but it’s subject to change as my knowledge and understanding of Sylvari culture changes:

1.) As far as I know, the Pale Tree doesn’t get to “keep” these memories. Rather, they’re automatically sent to the Dream and the Pale Tree is just there to keep an eye on it all. If I remember right she called herself a custodian of the Dream of Dreams, or something similar. So really, her only job is to monitor what goes in and what comes out; she doesn’t get to directly control the Dream, although it seems well within her abilities to do so. (Visions of Orr)

2.) Probably. Sylvari have been around for 25 or so years now, so it would be difficult to say that most races wouldn’t know this kind of thing. However, there might be a few people here or there that have yet to meet a Sylvari, so it’s entirely possible that one or two people do not know this.

3.) To me, Trahearne feels like a guy who grew up without much confidence. And for some reason people have given him a lot more praise than he should have had. People praise him for being one of the few to have seen Zhaitan, as well as survived multiple trips to Orr, but there’s nothing to indicate that he actually fought anything while there. Judging by how he acts in the earlier parts of the Personal Story, I’d guess he survived in Orr not by fighting Risen that tried to kill him (unless absolutely necessary), but by running away. And getting hailed as a hero for being a coward can hurt a man’s confidence worse than failing.

4.) Sylvari are a naturally curious people. I’d assume that despite his fear at the SIZE of his Wyld Hunt, he kept going back to Orr because studying it was the only thing he felt confident that he could do. Remember: A Wyld Hunt is more like a pulling sensation, that you (a Sylvari) must accomplish the task. If you’ve ever had a task or job that just made you feel awkward or uncomfortable until you or someone else did it, then you know what getting a Wyld Hunt feels like when you try to push it away.

5.) This is a strange question – and by that I mean a good question! I’m not really sure why Caithe would ask that. There isn’t really a reason to, because like Caithe, Trahearne is one of the Firstborne and has a lot more worldly experience that almost every other Sylvari alive (with the exception of other Firstborn). Considering that both you and he have similar goals, that she doesn’t want to pool resources and knowledge is very befuddling. Perhaps she just sees the two Wyld Hunts as being completely separate from one another, or perhaps she didn’t think about that at all. I don’t know!

6.) Caladbolg doesn’t intentionally bring out a man’s worst qualities, it just strengthens their defining qualities. Waine was afraid and irrational when he took Caladbolg from Riannoc and fled. Keeping the sword only made it worse as he grew up. Trahearne on the other hand, is an intellectual man trying to find the strength to do the right thing. Caladbolg only made these qualities better, and helped him achieve his goals in the end.

7.) I don’t think the Pale Tree would do something like that. Or if she would, she would try to make sure it only stayed in capable hands. Perhaps she just hopes it will do more good than harm.

BriarRose.5639:

well if we are talking about game design, then why is it in the TP you can not list an item any lower than what you could sell it to a mechant but people are able to offer a lower price than the merchant to purchase it which should not be in the game design. The lowest price that we should list in the TP should be a mandated to be higher than what a merchant would offer you and thus would stablize part of the economy or make what the merchants offer higher to help.

This is just a problem (not a bug or exploit) that Anet has not fixed since the TP was originally made. I played back in mid-September right after GW2 released and the TP used to allow players to make a “Buy Offer” that was lower than vendor price. Some months afterwards, however, they made it so a player could not list an item at or below vendor value.

However, because a lot of players do not know how to remove their offers, are too lazy to do so, or simply no longer play the game anymore, these “Buy Offers” are still present on the TP.

I don’t think Anet is willing to try to remove them from the game, because doing so would likely require the entire trade post to be reset. Trying to do so without resetting the whole system (which would be devastating to the economy) probably requires more manpower and man-hours than they can currently put into it. Doing so would also cut into time and resources that could be put into making future content.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Ritualists’ magic innately connected to spirits, and not the magic flowing throughout Tyria?

If that’s true, then I can see why Ritualists would have faded out of existence. Because they are limited by the spirits they work with, there is a specific skill ceiling that they will eventually reach. Because magic has become much more rich in the last few hundred years, it’s entirely possible that magic-based classes are simply more powerful in comparison.

Just to address the title.

You mean she can’t be a BIO-engineer?

I am pretty sure that leafy-toxicky-kraity-ugly thing we fought in the Tower of Nightmares was created through a mixture of bio-engineering and magic.

Buuuuut I could be wrong. I won’t pretend to understand what it is that Scarlet’s doing besides rally the public against her.

The best thing you can do to play with friends is to repeatedly join and leave these places until you end up in the same server. If you’re hunting with more than just two people, designate one player at the start to stay where they are until more people appear.

Edit: I did this with Lunatic Inquisition for Halloween with two of my friends.

As William said. There are some skritt that throw snowballs near the fountain that are unrelated to the escort events but still count towards achievement completion.

I don’t doubt that if Evon won the election, Kiel would have done the exact same thing and grumbled about Evon being interested in Fractals (remember he promised to show us Abbadon) and something else about his actions in Tyria.

For those of you wondering, are confused, or just don’t like what’s going on right now…

Mesmers make their own physics.

A good Mesmer can make a spell that summons, say, a lamp with an intricate pattern on the shade, and carvings on the base.

A great Mesmer can do all of the above, plus give it weight, and throw it at you. With their mind. And probably for critical damage, too.

Based on the paint around some of the holes in the wall, as well as what Eluveitie has said, I’m going to guess that these things once belonged to the Grawl. It’s mostly the bad paint job.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Right so from the change it will cause enemies to “explode” into Death Nova and then summon a minion?

No. Killing an enemy will spawn a Jagged Horror. Your minions explode into a poison cloud when they die.

Literally merging both the minor adept trait with the grandmaster major and not changing a thing between them in the process.

….That’s the hope, anyways.

I like the change they did to the Reanimator CD. I was in hotjoins earlier and I could have sworn I had 3-5 of the little things following me around.

That is of course until they died, the poor things…

But that was okay too because I traited for the poison field on minion deaths!

I wouldn’t ever consider Glyph of Renewal except as part of a troll build with a group of tanky friends, or during important keep defenses. Need that lord back on his feet? Glyph of Renewal will get the job done!….

….Provided I can find the bugger in the pile of bodies, first.

Pets are a major part of a Ranger’s damage source. So why is it that Rangers are kittened-over when we enter a dungeon or other fight where the mob(s) have high damage, unavoidable, or one-shot mechanics? Does Anet have any plans to help Rangers out against these kind of things instead of leaving our pets to rot?

I don’t have much to say against Death Blossom, but I while reading through this I suddenly had the crazy idea to swap DB with Unload for the P/P build, with some minor variations.

D/D’s version of Unload would be several dagger strikes in a row for flat damage (think of a warrior’s 100 Blades but less overall damage to account for the fact you can cast it while moving around a target).

P/P’s version of Death Blossom would have the same animation/evasion as the D/D skill, but its attack ranged would be about equal to the range of the auto attack. As well, it would shoot up to three targets three times each (unless something gets in the way), but come with a higher initiative cost to prevent it from being used as a core skill and spammed. Physical Projectile finisher makes more logical sense for this skill, but since you’re still spinning around, whirl isn’t too much of a stretch.

The only thing you -can- do is level up or visit more regions specifically to complete their skill-point challenges. Most of them should not be too difficult, but you will have to explore new zones that you might not have intended to visit just yet.

I’d recommend visiting the other races’ starting zones.

Soilder.3607:

I changed Signet of the Beastmaster to only make the passive effects affect allies. Group invulnerability for 6’s kinda is op as well as group 60% damage increase with signet of the wild. But giving those passive effects in a group is kittening sweet. Aoe regen, aoe speed boost, aoe cd removal, aoe toughness..

I think evasive purity is better off being able to remove any two conditions, even if it’s ICD is 20. If it were all movement impairing effects, including immobilize and torment, plus the additional two conditions, then that’d be too strong imo.

Well, I -know- that Thieves have two skills that cure all movement impairing effects on activation. One is their heal skill, and the other is Roll For Initiative. My version of Evasive Purity would be similar to that, except you need to dodge in order to activate it, and it only cures those conditions I listed (as they are all movement impairing effects). Not all of those and -then- two more.

Evasive Purity: You can now dodge while immobilized.

-OR-

Evasive Purity: You can now dodge while immobilized. Cures all movement impairing effects on dodge. 20-30 second cooldown.

I think “movement impairing effects” include cripple, chilled, immobilized, and torment. The long cooldown compared to other classes’ “remove-X-condition-on-dodge” is to compensate for the very powerful cleanse it provides.

And is it just me, or was the Signet of the Beastmaster trait listed by the OP “passive effects of signets are now granted to allies,” or was it changed from “active effects of signets granted to allies”?

Because I think if it was just the passive effects, that would be fine by me. >_>;;

How do Dire stats (cond/tough/vit) compare to Apothecary (tough/heal/cond)?

From my understanding – and as Gandarel just stated – everyone can use magic. From the day they are born, no less! However, not all do, and magic is often used as a mechanism for children to spend time or deal with stress. Perhaps a lonely baby boy creates a Mesmer illusion to keep him company? Or maybe a scared little girl hides under the bed and goes invisible (with a thief’s stealth magic) when her parents start to argue?

Everyone has access to magic from the moment they are born and are smart enough to use it (accidentally or otherwise).

Generally speaking, practitioners of one profession won’t trade secrets with one person from another profession. That’s why Necromancers can’t make illusions of themselves, and Mesmers can’t raise the dead.

Zacchary.6183:

Every veteran thief should be used to getting hit by the nerf bat by now.

Only if you forget to dodge-roll-a-new-build. :P

Konig, haven’t the other Elder Dragons been awake for much longer than Zhaitan? I speak of Primordus, Kralk, and Jormag.

Triconis, most of what we do as the Commander of the Pact is leading the forces, because apparently we’re the only person in the entire world who can lead a squad to victory (except that part where we messed up). We’re like the equivalent of Diablo 3’s Nephalem: the only person who can do anything right, by themselves or with a group.

The other thing to remember is that while we did kill an Elder Dragon, he was severely weakened when we gouged out his Eyes and then ripped apart his Mouth (of Zhaitan).

It would be like if you fought a professional boxer who hadn’t had anything to drink in the last 24 hours AND hadn’t eaten food in over a week, and had no eyes. He wouldn’t have the energy to beat you to a pulp even if he could land a hit.

No Walking.6349:

Typical young gamers…..the challenge is what makes it worth the time….

Agreed… and I’m normally someone who only does anything because it benefits me in some way.

For me, finally beating Liadri was my prize, after quite a bit of work. Getting the little mini? Puuuurely a bonus. She now rests inside my bank because I am too lazy to show her off.

I didn’t get the achievement for Chomper and his Norn buddy, but Durzlla and I pretty much used the same technique: sick a wolf on Chomper. That cripple/knockdown was a huge boost, though I decided to split DPS and attacked the Norn, myself. I didn’t get all the meat before Chomper, but I did beat them on my second try when I used the technique.

Rangers are flexible and durable—proficient with the bow, yet surgical with the sword. They rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature to slay their targets. Their loyal pets, which rangers tame and train, distract enemies while the rangers strike safely from a distance. As an adventurer profession, rangers wear medium armor.

That is taken directly from the ranger wiki.

I’ll admit, Rangers need to see some more love to their bows before we see them as a viable weapon to use in all locations. Or maybe a name and description change, as to not confuse people into thinking that we are the best of something that we… really aren’t.

I loved the idea of the Hunter class in World of Warcraft, but it always saddened me quite a bit to know that I couldn’t enter melee combat, standing toe to toe with my opponent and an animal at my side, without seriously hurting my overall damage output. We’re talking the difference between 10k DPS and 200-300. (Okay, I’m not using real numbers, but you get my point)

But here? In Guild Wars 2? Not only is it possible to melee as the pet class, it’s also viable, and in most fields of play!

So my question for all of you is this:

Do you like the Ranger class? Where it stands compared to everything else? How it plays?

Because I sure do. Even that annoying MH sword!

Sounds like rangers DO need a nerf (okay, bug fix for spirit stacking).

…Is it bad that I ran a bunker wells (necro) build in sPvP, and every time the spirit ranger on the enemy team engaged me on a point, they left about 10-15 seconds later with at least one dead spirit?

Scarletdawn.2750:

oh yeah, almost forgot
where are the pets that ONLY a BM can use? This is something WoW incorporated…and it should totally be applied here, otherwise, whats the big deal with BM? Ooooo big deal, your pet does more damage and has more health…boring…make the BM unique!

Well, depending on the encounter…. I would say cats and birds. They become soooo much more survivable with 30 points into BM over none. It’s ridiculous.

I am also… very disappointed by the pet quickness on downed minor. Seriously? Most other classes get their “X boost while downed” skill as an optional major trait. Why do we HAVE to take it as a 5 point minor? Give our pets 10 seconds of swiftness on swap or something.*

• I say ten seconds because pets can sometimes be unresponsive (especially when at a range from the target), and 3-5 seconds just seems too short for that. Especially when using the longbow.

Another sort of off-the-current-topic post, brought to you by meee!

Mad Queen Malafide,

To use your definition of genocide (“the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group."), the Elder Dragons do not seem to fit any of these. Perhaps a “national” group, but I personally feel like that is stretching the context of the word – especially since they are spread out across the world. They are unique, individual creatures; only grouped together under one name because they look and behave in a similar fashion. I’m not quite sure you can commit genocide on one individual, if it is the only one of its kind.

Especially if you’re killing them to prevent them from doing greater harm to your people(s) than they already have. That’s still self defense.

I think what TheMaskedParadigm is trying to get at, is the fact that the lava shaman’s “burning when standing still” only applies when you’ve stopped moving for more than one second. In essence, you could have stutter-stepped the entire time instead of run circles around the boss and achieved the same end.

And probably less cramping on your movement key fingers. Ow! Ow!

The ranger class isn’t… too bad. I enjoy it, though I think it needs a name change. Calling it a “Ranger” and then giving it the description Anet did leads many (including myself) to believe that it is a primarily ranged-heavy class.

But I still looooove melee.

Understanding boss mechanics can take some time, especially when you’re trying to master the use of the 1h sword and probably the dagger (because who doesn’t want extra evades on their evades, plus dodges?). Though, I can still have fun in CoE P2, staying in (mostly) melee with Subject Alpha and using the evades tied into my sword’s #2 and 3 skills to completely avoid his AoEs.

And I, like a few others in here, won’t immediately kick a ranger when grouping for dungeons.

….But seeing a bear pet still makes me cringe, and my spine tingle (not in a good way). Drakes and dogs are almost as survivable and can deal better AoE damage or add some CC to a fight!

Mm.. I’d just like some better warning than “you’ll need to group up to complete it” – especially since, according to these forums – it’s easier to do higher tiers solo than in groups. A friend of mine really really really really really [takes a breath] really really REALLY likes to collect achievements, so it’s hard for me to listen to my friend complain about this when Anet says that it’s doable – just in a group. If we had known beforehand that the latter half of the candidate trials were only meant for the most skilled, most coordinated groups (like what has been provided to us in this thread), my friend and I would have had a much easier time with it.

The first time my friends and I went into Candidate Trials, here was our general reactions:

Tier 1: “Heh.. pretty neat. Not hard, but not easy either.”

Tier 2: “Whoa, that was challenging! Glad we made it through that.”

Tier 3: -insert random mass of letters and numbers as we hit our keyboard keys at random- “Nope. No way this is doable for us at this point.”

….To be honest I don’t even want to think about tier 4.

As nice as a nerf would be for a player like me to get the achievement for it, watering down content just makes it boring for everyone else in the long run. I learned this the hard way, over time, in my last MMORPG. You can probably guess what it was – I left before the martial-arts pandas became its thing.

So… since I can’t ask/beg/demand for a nerf, I’ll just ask for something else: let us know when you’re giving us Clocktower-level content again Anet, before or when you send it out. Pretty please?

I’m with GuzziHero on this one, as it’s the same thing I do! Cower behind a pillar and pick off the spectral weapons as you can. Bonus points if you can draw the aggro of two or more (and handle them) at the same time.

I tend to stay away from having one of my characters being Trahearne’s right-hand. It’s a nice way of letting us – the players – get some say in what happens, but as far as taking it IC goes… I don’t. My characters, if they have participated in Orr at all, are almost always lower-ranking members who just did what they were told, when they were told, and tried -really- hard not to die in the process.

Except my first ranger. She was a bit of a mercenary that came and went from Orr as her interest in the place rose and fell.

I can see and feel the effects of the nerfs that Anet did to Cursed Shore. It’s not as alive with players as it felt before. They only ever show up for Temples or Plinx anymore – when they aren’t bugged like TC’s Temple of Melandru is/was. I haven’t seen that temple in a few days, but it was bugged after the most recent addition to the patch notes.

And I only ever go to Cursed Shore to farm when I have nothing else to do.

Farmers (and by extension people who are only there so they can obtain X number of Y material so they can make Z item) need somewhere to farm. It’s understandable (and completely reasonable) that you’re upset with what’s been forced to happen – but this is literally a case of “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” If other methods of farming items weren’t nerfed into the ground (and therefore less viable than Giant farming), they wouldn’t be forced to block you from seeking Arah on your own server. You wouldn’t have to look for a server that runs Arah events normally.

Speaking of other servers, Tarnished Coast is one of those servers that does not farm the giant. We routinely complete the entire event, from what I have seen.

I might also suggest – for your future Arah runs – that you consider opening up a thread for an open Arah gate, much like the threads asking for uncontested temples. I would do this myself but I don’t have any interest in Arah.

@ Malafide:

Just going to nitpick here, because there’s been talk of necromancy between you two and I’m interested in your take on necromancy – specifically in Tyria and GW2.

Here in Tyria, we’ve seen two different types of necromancy: Zhaitan’s, and the PC profession as the second.

Zhaitan’s version of necromancy, which is to raise the dead with their souls inside the bodies and force them to do his bidding. As far as we know, though, the spirit should be restored to normal upon the Risen’s death – although I use the Personal Story as my example, that just might be the power of Caladbolg.

Then there is necromancy as we use it as a player-character. With the exception of the shadow fiend (as it’s not a zombie), all of our minions are created from the parts of dead bodies. Not the whole thing, and definitely not forcing the souls of the dead into the bodies to do our bidding.

I can agree that what Zhaitan does is evil – not only does he force people (albeit dead ones) to do his bidding, he also corrupts their bodies (even newly-made Risen seem to have rotted for a while), as well as their minds. “My will is Zhaitan’s!”

But for the player character, are we evil? Sure, we are messing with dead bodies – but we’re not hurting anyone by doing it – especially the dead for whom the bodies originally belonged to. So are Tyrian necromancers evil in that regard?

Hakkology.3189:

Yea i really don’t like the terrormancer anyway, played it only a couple times ;P. Mostly watched videos of op necros owning with fear spam.

But i’ve been playing a conditionmancer for 6 months now, I was under the impression that condition damage was not mitigated by toughness, am i wrong on this ?

The only thing that “mitigates” conditions is removal – whether destroying it or passing it onto an enemy (say, Consume Conditions or Staff 4.).

Toughness does not resist against conditions, because they are not physical attacks (example: thief Backstab).

Vitality only “protects” against condition damage because it gives you a larger health pool. But it treats those about the same way it treats a thief’s Backstab.

And finally, no. The boon Protection does not defend at all against conditions. Not that I’ve seen, anyways.

Hope that helps!

I want blinds to work on Dredge so I can stand in one place as my vampire wells spec when running Sorrow’s Embrace, like I do just about everywhere else. >_>;;;

Otherwise, I don’t have many problems!

Spamming all the blinds it my personal favourite as a necro.

I am also levelling a condi necro just to try something different. It’s real fun in general PvE, but once I hit PvP I kinda wish I could do more than 20 into Death Magic to improve my capabilities. Bigger, unblockable marks and shorter CDs is great, but I never really find a scenario where either one would be especially useful (in both PvE and sPvP), and often just stick to scepter/dagger for most fights.

It kinda feels like I can’t hybridize a good bunker/condi spec as a necro, which is something I would looooove to do.

Lastly, I want necro elites that aren’t Blood Golem (since it already does this) to NOT destroy minions when used – at least Plague form. Blood Fiend has become my favourite healing skill as a necro, and I hate killing it in favour something that will either save MY life, the lives of my allies, or murder everything with hundreds (okay, maybe a dozen) little bone minions. Blood Golem is awesome – don’t get me wrong – but in a few of cases it’s better to have a more defensive option (Plague) or something with greater AoE damage (Lich).

Simplicity.7208:

Hoelbrak? The norn were always described as nomads, I wouldn’t put it past them to either 1) fight and die or 2) abandon the city without much concern. I agree with what Alleluia said about the grove & divinity’s reach. But wouldn’t it be simple for an Asura to attune the Asura gates to skip the middle-man of Lion’s Arch? Furthermore, if they can recalibrate their Asura gates at will, they could simply begin an attack then recalibrate asura gates to drop anyone who uses them in the middle of a volcano. Nothing says “Oh shi—” like spawning 500 meters in the air above a pit of lava. Where’s the reinforcements? “Well, funny story about that…”

I do agree that the black citadel & lion’s arch wouldn’t fall so quickly to the blitzkrieg, but I feel like they still could be taken. Although “they are not very numerous” is a great argument for why they wouldn’t succeed.

You’re perfectly right in that the Asura could easily change their Gates to redirect forces from one place to another.

However, Asura are not yet so evolved in technology that they can teleport someone without an entrance and exit pad (like an Asura gate). If you run the Personal Story, one of the early missions involves a piece of technology that can teleport people without the need for a destination pad, however the Inquest captures the blueprints and you’re forced to destroy everything when those evil scientists try to use it for their own purposes.

It’s not something that’s out of reach for the Asura – so they probably could develop it again if they needed to – but for the time being the gates work perfectly fine for what they’re programmed to do.