Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

I’ve been doing some dungeons and focusing on gearing up my ele and I’m at a loss as to what stats I should shoot for. Right now I’m running Knight’s gear, with knights prefix on my daggers.

I’ve been focusing mostly on power and defensive stats, is there anything I should change?

My trait build is 30 fire, 10 air, and 30 arcane, with elemental effects on arcane cast, 20% CD on arcane, the auras providing fury and swiftness from air, and pyromancer’s puissance, alacrity, and 10% more damage while in fire from the fire line.

I’m also looking at using Superior Runes of Hoelbrak since I spend time in fire and being able to build might faster and keep it up looks nice.

Killing Saul or removing him, as we don’t know if they actually killed him, let them invent whatever myth they wanted to about Saul. They could cow his disciples into accepting the story, but Saul himself knew too much to accept that. So by removing him, they made a legend. A legend they could manipulate.

The above quote kind of makes sense considering the three professions he lists are the scholar professions. I wonder if its intentional that the scholars take the most practice and heavy thinking to get good mileage, while adventurers are a good balance between ease of use and difficulty, and soldiers are straight forward. Would make sense and explain much. I’ve noticed I get a lot of great mileage out of my elementalist and my necromancer when I figure out the perfect combo for a given situation.

I felt the Charr story handled the story flow between the first 3 ‘acts’ better than most. On my latest character, a human necromancer, I apparently left the city, ran right into a centaur battle. That part was alright. Then I find my friends in the city under fire. I help them out, and then the only reason I see them again later is if I walk into the inn to talk to them, and all they say (commoner) is wish you would stop by more often.

I then embarked on searching for my sister, who I speak to once and actually have yet to find in my home instance. Then suddenly the orders show up and we do stuff. Hell, when Kellach is running around, I never actually got the sense that he was a major threat harming villages. I would have preferred to maybe try to lure him AWAY from the palace itself as the first time I ran through that with my elementalist, I didn’t know he used a secret passage to get in. I had the image of him running mad through Divinity’s Reach.

Now on the Charr characters,

I deal with my position in the warband to start. With Blood, I take command. With Ash, I weed out security threats and ease into my roll as command. With Iron, I perform the duties that make my legion famous. Second Act is father related, which I still felt strong if only because of how Rytlock introduced it. Mind you, I’ve only done the honorable father line, but he stated that I would be allowed time from duty to pursue this investigation. I felt as if this was an ordinary occurence for a charr legionnaire to perform. And then the Orders showed up, and they felt slightly less disjointed because Rytlock stated that they were pursuing a joint operation with the Orders and were trial running which Order I should join. The way the story was structured there made me feel as if the Black Citadel was involved in decisions.

With human, even the soldiers are flabbergasted at how much action I get as a civilian compared to them. I would have much preferred my middle act to involve joining one of the guard forces in DR, like the Seraph or the Shining Blade, or even the Ministry Guard. Or, if MG wasn’t allowable, the choice to either help Logan in by the book Seraph missions, or work with Countess Anise (an under utilized character if you ask me) and weed out threats to the queen in a subtle style.

Overall, the Charr story does a better job of making you feel proud of your race and understanding of why you go off to join an Order than the human one does.

I’m currently leveling with scepter/dagger as my main set, and either dagger/focus or axe/focus in my off set. I use well of corruption, blood is power, and epidemic. Haven’t even gotten my elite yet, but once I do I’ll use the golem. I have no problems handling vets or groups of enemies and I even managed to work down a champion solo. Just have to get clever and be mindful of what does what. Don’t waste OH dagger 4 without using BiP or Epidemic first to spread that condition.

Understandable. If anything I really like the idea of a vigor buff on fire shield, as vigor seems like an underestimated boon that can be tricky to get. Not to mention, we get it on our trident 5 skill, why not focus?

I haven’t had a chance to read through all the posts, however going over the current OP I have to say a lot of the changes sound very reasonable, and would inspire me to use more than the staff. I liked my gameplay with both daggers and scepter/focus and combinations thereof, but I felt the staff always provided so much more flexibility.

My main concern with Scepter was that, fire felt decent to play in, if I could land dragon’s tooth, but water was annoying. I felt if I wasn’t casting shatterstone, I wasn’t be effective, yet casting shatterstone would be all I do. I got more mileage out of the focus offhand when I swapped to that attunement, that and water trident.

I really hope a dev takes a look at this thread and weighs in on the ideas. But then again, I might be just spoiled from spending most of my time reading the personal story section where Jeff posts a ton.

Thats good to hear. I had a Charr ranger I ended up deleting due to armor clipping annoyances, but I did love his devourer pet. It wasn’t very responsive though, this was prior to the AI update. So maybe can I try running into the Iron Marches to fetch a Carrion Devourer.

I haven’t done the colossus path, but on Hodgin’s path, we had 2 guardians, a warrior, and 2 elementalists. I was one of those. We ended up having just me and the other ele on the mounds, as our AOEs seemed to take them out quick and we could kite decently well to avoid any enemies coming after us. Mist form was invaluable for getting out of a pounce. It took a couple tries but 3rd try or so we were able to clear it.

Don’t know if that helps you at all but heres hoping.

Hello folks,

I’m leveling up a ranger now, not too far into it but liking what I’ve seen so far. I’m thinking of picking up a devourer pet and using it as one of my mains, probably the lashtail one as its easier to tame at my level. I would like to get the carrion devourer later on the road.

How good are these pets? I like the idea of having a ranged pet for dungeons and such to avoid those AOE problems that can occur in melee combat.

What utility skills are you using? I use Arcane Shield, Arcane Power, and Arcane Blast on mine (level 80 now though, so I get a bit more trait support). Gives me usually just enough defense and burst to take down most things.

You might also try kiting in a back and forth pattern. NPCs tend to try and predict where you will be when they fire their shots, so if you go left and right back and forth quickly, you can sometimes fake them out.

Try using daggers instead for more burst? I haven’t done this fight so I dunno how hard it is but if its a race against time then staff might not be doing it. Eles do have lower base health and toughness and I wonder if that might be a factor.

Are you using the healing skills from water with staff?

If it is account bound, that would be grand as I did priory on my elementalist and didn’t see the Whispers light set until I was 74 or so. Now I really wish I had gone whispers

I also really appreciate the posts here in the personal story forum. Perhaps some of the class balance guys should take a note from Jeff and post their thoughts as well, if only because even when the posts are just “Hey how can this story step be fixed”, or “Can you provide more info” or even just “No info at this time but hey we are looking at it” those kinds of posts really make it easier to wait for fixes.

I know that I can get kind of nervous when there is no information on things coming, but if I know that a dev has looked at it and if I can see some of their thoughts on the issue, it makes the waiting much much easier.

So thanks Jeff, your posts are awesome

They didn’t have the pictures up when I first chose the order. Which is a shame.

Heres a thought for those arguing they should be able to RP near events with impunity. Why the hell are your characters sitting in a tavern/building while the town is being invaded by krait? What world are your characters living in where the townsfolk being kidnapped is a cause for more ale.

You can’t make the excuse that you are RPing and thus shouldn’t be required to do the event. You, as the character, should feel the need to defend the townspeople. You are the kitten heroes, and even if you weren’t then you at least would need to defend yourself. So ya, that argument falls apart for me.

But then I’ve seen people spout some pretty stupid stuff in the name of RP, which is annoying as good RP is a lot of fun but I avoid most RP stuff like the plague due to the prevelance of those sorts.

I leveled up and chose Priory for my human elementalist and while I can’t complain about the actual missions (they were pretty fun) I’m really sad that I can’t get the Whispers light armor set as I find the Priory set to not be very good looking in my opinion. Just doesn’t suit my own aesthetics while the Whispers set does. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t see the Whispers set until I was level 74 or so, and I really don’t want to go all the way through that again.

It seems like the NPCs who sell the armor will sell to non Order members at some point, or in an emergency but I haven’t seen where this would come about.

Anyone else bummed by this?

BobbyStein.2315:

Psientist.4732:

If Mr Stein is still keeping an eye on this thread I’d like to ask:
Was the writing in this game mainly done with a pre-teen/young teen demography in mind? I bet you have some really good writers on your team as well as being one yourself, and I understand the necessity of writing on the same level as the target demography but… please tell me you guys wrote this with crowd pleasing marketing in mind

I prefer a more mature tone where appropriate, which is why the dynamic event and ambient scene dialogue (hopefully) sound that way. My team didn’t set the tone for the personal story, which is why you may notice a difference in voice.

I really appreciate you weighing on this, as the lore and story really drive me in both this game and in the previous game. If anything, I think more communication between you guys (Anet as the devs) and us as the players on here would be invaluable. I cherished the blog posts for that reason and I am really liking some of the posts in these threads. At the same time, I think they are a bit scarce and a little more dialogue from the devs would do much to calm people down.

I just want to know why the story team has made some the decisions they did. Cause really, when I met Trahearne I was expecting Rurik or Togo and I got Kormir again. I know you guys can pump out some great stuff and there are even bits in the Trahearne segments that I liked a bit. It would just be really great to here a bit more from those who wrote it and also if the possibility is in there for the story to be revise in a major way that would be very heartening to see at this point.

I won’t lie, I’m really more psyched to level my charr character both for his personal story and to see Tybalt as I did Priory on my Elementalist. I don’t want to level my Ele anymore purely because of how the later story quests feel like a step back.

All in all though, I am really happy with a lot of things in this game and many of the little lore touches, environmental things, and dialogue is fantastic.

Its been mentioned in dev posts scattered across the forum, mostly in the personal story area from what I’ve seen.

what about instead of applying the usual condition, a condition attack on an object applies a unique condition effect? That way you could balance the condition damage on an object around how effective that one condition is rather than what bleed does to players or whatever.

Guardians pull their powers from traditions like the Paragon and the Monk. While the latter was pretty faith based, and the Paragons had some faith aspects, there is a good example of a Paragon who drew power from his leadership and his desire to protect and defend, Logan’s ancestor, Lieutenant Keiran Thackeray

I think a guardian fits any of the legions well, depending on their mindset. Is your guardian about the team, about the warband, self sacrificing in mindset? Blood Legion is likely your home, holding the front line for your companions to rest in your shadow.

Do you scour the shadows, bringing justice to corruption? Do you seek out the lies and expose them? Then Ash Legion could be for you, a force of purity using shadows against the unclean.

Do you place your trust in Iron, in the machines of war and the comradery of the workshop? Do you feel that the best defense is a plate of steel and a sword of iron? Is your faith in unified progress unbreakable? Then Iron Legion is for you.

Well give whoever did Dinky’s bits a medal because his lines were great.

Any chance in future personal story content, we could have more interaction from our warband members at higher level? I am really sad to leave them behind to join my Order.

I was very much impressed with the Charr as well. Dinky felt silly without being annoying, I liked how Fyron the Wraith complemented my warband (though the other blood member, Shredskin, wasn’t as good for some reason). I kind of want to go back through the Blood route and try the other warband member, because it was a good story. I liked also how my warband felt like a group of friends during my father quest line, offering insights and caring about my struggle.

Like many people, I was a bit saddened to leave behind the friends I made in early story for the later stuff.

But what if, there was a mode where I could explore bits of Tyria with my old warband as a charr, albeit at beefed up power levels so they don’t feel as wimpy. What if such a mode involved picking a region, having that region be populated with random, but flavorwise appropriate creatures and bosses. Have a cycle of maps with traps and puzzles, and have an option to camp out and recover a bit (IE create a checkpoint in the dungeon). I just feel it would be nice to capture the feeling I had in the mini dungeon Flame Legion Tombs, but in a way that let me connect with my story friends.

Finally got to do the Font of Rhand/Flame Legion Tombs today as the meta event was unbugged for once. Luckily it was on my engineer, so underwater combat was much more tolerable.

I have to say, places like that are great. I honestly would prefer more things of that nature than the main dungeons, as a more laid back alternative. I managed to group up with 3 other players doing it, and we figured out the riddles fairly quickly but had fun.

Going to try seeking out the other mini dungeons in the wiki, but doesn’t look like there are many. Perhaps a good place to expand in the near future with iterative content?

Retreat is a military tactic though. Other races aren’t as formal because they aren’t soldiers serving in the military. All charr are.

I haven’t finished the story for either Ash or Iron because Blood ended up winning me over so well on my engineer. I really liked how I was able to take command and how choosing my warband actually felt like a major decision. I almost wish I could redo it without locking in my choice so I could see what the other guy besides Fyron is. But Fyron was a pretty cool bandmate.

I know this goes a little beyond our gadgets and tech theme, but I was thinking that as another ranged option for long range, how about a longbow? Before you start freaking out, we could have a skillset that involves attaching grenades and stuff to the arrows to keep the gadget feel. Like, I dunno,

1 skill- Rocket Arrow: Fires a rocket assisted arrow that speeds toward the target and explodes, causing short duration burn damage and projectile finisher.
2 skill- Lightning Arrow: Fires an arrow that arcs towards the enemy and causes enemy and those around him to be zapped, causing vulnerability and daze for short duration.
3 skill- Webbing Arrow: pretty sure you can figure this one out.
4 skill: Poison Arrow: see above
5 skill: Grenade Tipped Arrow Barrage: Fires a rain of arrows that explode into pieces of shrapnel and gas, causing confusion

Hello,

Upon advancing my blood legion storyline quest and into my sire quest, I’ve noticed that Dinky uses an underwater weapon, but Elexus Shredskin and Fyron the Wraith do not. Elexus continues to use a sword and shield and Fyron just swims around muttering about ghosts and the good ole days.

I noticed this primarily because skale regen health like mad and fighting them in one of the Sire quests is a trial against my patience.

Necromancers seemed to be a well respected if odd branch of scholarship in Tyria. I think, as someone mentioned earlier, it has a lot to do with the way the Afterlife works in Tyria. We KNOW the Mists exist, people KNOW that heroes go to the Hall and so forth. The minions are constructs of flesh and bone, useful and powerful. So long as nobody is desecrating the souls of the fallen, as Shiro did with his Afflicted or as Zhaitan does with his corruption, the people of Tyria accept it as a normal part of life. Its no different than wearing the pelt of a dead animal or crafting a weapon from it’s bones.

I would like to recommend that Arenanet send out surveys, similar to the ones from the BWEs to members of each Profession at different level ranges. These surveys should ask mostly what main things the person likes, what they don’t like, and so forth. I think this would help Arenanet with balancing things.

Now I understand, much information might be useless as you get things like BEST CLASS EVAR NO PROBLEMS 1337, but I think it would be beneficial data to have to see what major trends/issues there are (Like the possible trend of elementalists being dissatisfied with traits being focused on single element/attunement and not broader)

I also would like to know, if Anet feels like illuminating on this issue, how they will handle Class balance?

I know one thing I’ve really enjoyed in the leadup to release for this game has been the Devs posting their thoughts and ideas to the GW2 blog and I think continuing that open and detailed communication will be vital to the continued success of this game.

I’m not saying story is afk mode, but its supposed to be the any class combination is workable. A guardian shouldn’t be vital to killing that boss. I mean, if I hadn’t been using a staff, I would have been screwed.

It just felt like the encounter called for more specializing than I was led to believe was necessary for story.

And just to reiterate, I would have expected and been fine with that level of difficulty had it been explorable mode. I just was under the impression that story mode should have been a much simpler affair.

I also can’t really say how much of the difficulty could have been due to teammates as I couldn’t really focus on how well my team did. I just know that I was having to use my water heals on CD constantly and swapping elements like a mad man.

Hello,

last night, I did this dungeon with a group of friends and we found the Kudu golems to be extremely difficult, beyond what I would expect for story mode.

Our group consisted of myself, an elementalist with a staff,
a guardian,
2 thieves,
and a ranger.

We didn’t have much trouble with the first golem, its mechanics were easy to understand and quick to adapt to. The second golem however, the fire golem, proved to be insanely difficult. His burn conditions ticked for quite a lot of damage, and it took us a ton of attempts to take him down. If we hadn’t had a guardian, I don’t think we could have done it. The poison golem was also difficult, but less so.

I think the fire golem healing himself via condition removal was my biggest complaint, as it made a good number of my moves counter productive.

Overall the only fight I liked in this dungeon was the Forge robot, as his mechanics were actually entertaining.