Guild Wars 2

I once fell down to a similar area in the dungeon with the giant. Only I didn’t survive the fall. There was huge flat area, surrounded by hilly landscape. There was a big dead tree, and some sort of building.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

We haven’t scrapped the old dungeons. We tried something new with Fractals, and so far it’s been very successful. I was on the team that built fractals, and now I am on the bug-fixing live team with a focus on our ‘old’ dungeons to fix bugs in there and see what I can do to spice them up a bit.

We’re certainly not going to just sweep the old dungeons under the rug. I will be working very hard on improving the dungeons.

The reason it’s popular is that FotM hands out rewards that are better than you can find anywhere else in the game world. Had it come with unique looking Exotic skins the demand for FotM would have been much better balanced. But right now, there is not one reason to run the old dungeons, unless you want one of the dungeon skins.
FotM has superior rewards, with 20-slot bags and new Ascended gear drops.

I posted this same idea yesterday.

Just wanna say that Air Drop is one of the most fun story missions I’ve played so far. Controlling a god-mode golem battlesuit (Gundam FTW) and mowing down waves of undead with a Kamehameha beam and electro shields is awesome.=P

Non-exotic items I pick up keep going in my 20 Slot Fractal Exotic Equipment Box, even though my other bags are still empty.

Iehova.9518:

Gated content is never a good thing.

Thanks for reading and contributing to the topic in a constructive manner.

Fractals of the Mists (FotM) is gated content. Players are forced to grind through difficulty scalings (DS) to get to the higher content. This is not necessarily the bad thing. The bad thing is that players are required to be in a party of 4 other players in the same DS in order to progress to a higher DS.

Several problems this creates are:
-Making it hard and frustrating for people to find others at the same DS to progress to a higher DS.
-Players currently not playing FotM, or coming into the game months after now, will have a lot of trouble getting started in FotM.
-A lot more spam in chat as players have troubles finding others to play with.
-Players wasting time searching for a party instead of actually playing the game.

The Solution to these problems is right here. Make it so a party of 5 people is able to enter the highest DS a player in your party has reached.

Example of a FotM party:
Guy 1: Unlocked up to DS 2
Guy 2: Unlocked up to DS 5
Guy 3: Unlocked up to DS 7
Guy 4: Unlocked up to DS 10
Guy 5: Unlocked up to DS 12
This party would be able to play up to a DS of 12. After clearing the set of dungeons, each player will unlock their next DS. So Guy 1 from that party will now be able to start groups at DS 3.
Now if the party decided to play a set of dungeons at DS 7, only Guy 1, Guy 2 and Guy 3 would unlock their next DS, as Guy 4 and Guy 5 were playing at a difficulty below their current highest unlocked DS.

What this solves is:
-Easy to find people to play FotM with.
-Easy to play in the higher DS without having to grind through the lower DS first (as long as you have 1 guy in your party that has unlocked a high DS).
-Everyone playing at or above their current DS unlocks a new DS after finishing a set of dungeons.
-More time spent playing, rather than looking for a group.

It’s a WIN / WIN situation.

Pray to the RNG god.

I do most dungeons with dual dagger, exceptions would be most of Twilight Arbor and Arah, and a few parts in other dungeons (like nuking graveling burrows in AC). Utility is Lightning Flash, Mist Form and then either Glyph of Storms (in easy fights), or Arcane Shield (in harder fights).

Most important key to survival is to know the dungeon and encounters. If you feel you have trouble with a boss, kill it with staff first till you learn the tricks it uses (use staff to save yourself the repair costs).
Second, invest in better gear.

Also personally I way prefer higher Arcana for faster Element swaps. Wouldn’t put that much in Water, but that’s just me.=p Also the fire Magic trait seems a bit wasted, but I don’t know. I never used it. +5% damage on a burning foe just doesn’t do much.

I’d do FotM if I could get a group for my difficulty scale. But instead I’ll stand in Lion’s Arch and go do something else… maybe read a book or so.

And some guy on my server got The Legend (legendary staff precursor)…

matenji.3809:

I’m guessing the rewards were only available to those who landed a few good hits on the enemy and weren’t disconnected? Congrats on the loot!

The rewards were at the end of the event chain, where you kill the Legendary Karka at the bottom of the nest.

I got an earring with stats like Triforge. Got the 20 slot bag. Exotic wand called Anura, an Exotic Crystalline Sword and 2 random rares.

moiraine.2753:

Shadow of Azrael.1205:

There is one more lame thing about FoM, it saves progress only for characters, not the whole account. =-/

Actually to not be account wide is a good thing because that way new people will have who to play with when old players level alts.

It’s a good and a bad thing, but personally I’d prefer it being account-wide. People with alts still won’t play on lower difficulty, because the rewards are just less. So we’re forced into one or a few characters if we want the best rewards for our effort.

I fought a veteran karka yesterday and got a trophy worth 4 copper off of it.=P
But I agree. In the 2 hours or so I spent there yesterday, I barely got anything. A few blues, 2 or 3 greens, and trophies worth practically nothing.

I’m going to have somewhat of a rant here, but will add constructive criticism.

The first problem I have with the Fractals dungeon is DISCONNECTS. Yesterday I did 5 or so runs, and never did we end with 5 people in our party. In fact twice we had one disconnect on the first dungeon. Another time we had one disconnect on the last one, and then had a leaver as well, leaving us with 3 people to finish it, which really isn’t fun.
Why are you going back to inferior dungeon design, when you had it so right in the old dungeons?

Second problem I have is NO RESPAWN. So yesterday I was doing that dungeon with the giant. I fell to the bottom of the stage and couldn’t do anything, until my team of 3 players (after 1 early disconnect of course) decided to suicide themselves to get me back up. Why can there be no timer on a respawn or something.
I know this is probably made so people can’t just endlessly respawn at a boss fight to grind down its HP, but you could have made barriers instead or something to prevent respawned players from entering again. Or as I said, have a 2 minute timer on respawn.
Also, could you please make it so we can watch other people in our party play when we are dead? This was in Guild Wars 1, and it took away some of the boredom of laying around dead, because at least we could watch our teammates, and maybe help them out while they fought.

A worry about Fractals I have is the huge splitting of player-base with difficulty scaling. Yesterday I had a friend (more like a dungeon “friend”, though) ask me if I wanted to join for Fractals. He was at level 5 or 6 difficulty, while I was still at 3. Now what reason did he have to take his team with me at a lower difficulty? Of course he took someone else and did his level 5 or 6 difficulty so he could further progress in difficulty scale, can’t blame him for that.
So what’s going to happen to people who take a break from the game, and come ingame after a few weeks? Do you think they’ll have people gladly joining them on their difficulty 1, when they could go on their difficulty 9001 for better rewards (or whatever higher difficulty is meant to give you).
I’m fearing this difficulty scaling thing is going to split up the community in way too many pieces, because what reason do people have to run lower difficulties?

Elementalists have several ways to protect themselves.
Focus has skill 4 on Air and skill 4 on Earth. Or skill 5 on Earth if you’re really desperate to survive. With staff they can use skill 3 on Earth. Using daggers you can use one of the CC skills to interrupt the karka, or use Arcane Shield. Otherwise just dodge around.

I’m keeping 30 points in Arcane because of the faster swap, but was considering Final Shielding for my new trait. Until I read that it’s bugged and not working as it should be… so I’m thinking of sticking to EA as there’s really no useful replacements for it anyway.

I also loved it with daggers. But it was even better with staff.
I don’t get it. Games are supposed to be fun. Elementalists were fun with the trait (fun, not overpowered). Now they’re less fun.

Bad devs are bad.

Shademare.8369:

can someone tell me if this is good build or not ?
since i see some sarcasm, so im not sure, and i just start my ele so i dont really know anything

When in doubt, roll a greatsword Warrior.

1. First ArenaNet needs to play the Elementalist at level 80. Have them play high-end PvE zones, dungeons, WvWvW, sPvP and tPvP as Elementalist.
2. Actually fix everything that is bugged. Not destroy, but fix. (keyword: fix)
3. Change ~75% of the traits to something that’s actually fun / useful.
4. Buff elite skills.

This is about constructive as I can with suggestions for the Elementalist.
It needs serious unbugging in a lot of skills and traits. Not just claiming it is fixed in the patch list, but actually fixing it ingame. And by fixing, I mean making it work as intended, not destroy it.
They need to have a good look at Elementalist traits after fixing the buggy mess that it currently is. Then it shouldn’t be too hard to see that many of the traits are either: boring, useless, not fitting in general Elementalist gameplay.
From this they should re-think many of the traits, and turn them into something good.
Finally they should buff the Elementalist elites so they don’t make me rather want to bring a 4th utility over an elite.

If all above is too much work for ArenaNet, then I’d like to request a rollback on Evasive Arcana as a compensation for the current state Elementalists are in. I could live with that.

Lightning whip now hits 3 targets, instead of 1.
Fire Grab has a wider hit arc.
Conjure weapons now give +180 in a skill when used.

That’s about it as far as I know.

So at least they didn’t destroy my secondary character (Elementalist being my primary)… unfortunately the Guardian is still boring to play…

Defyx.3956:

omg you’re right healing power on frostbow makes the #1 so insane and added to healing
geyser it makes your team invicible. Thank god there are only 15 charges or else it would definitively be broken.

If you want you can sacrifice your staff DPS and spec into extra charges for your frost bow.

Well, the best about Elementalists is that they have cool looking skills.

Like I said in another thread. Choosing Elementalist traits is like choosing between kittens or kittens. It doesn’t really matter, as it’s either bugged, and/or so underpowered it might as well be an empty trait slot.

I never looked up builds from others. The moment I looked into the Arcane trait line I knew I wanted Evasive Arcana because it seemed cool to me. Over time I learned that it also combos in fields, which made it extra fun. I don’t play PvP, I don’t exploit might stacks. I just liked the ability to dodge into fields and create a combo with my trait.
It changed my playstyle into something more fun, and now that’s gone.

Novalight.7568:

Well, you’ll need more than 4 friends so idk 30-ish decently active people on your friends list + guildies = pretty much can get 5 people at all times to do shenanigans with you. If you’re not willing to be social in a multiplayer game...don’t whine about multiplayer content, besides, gaming with people you know (as far as you can know people you meet on the webz) it’s much more fun than dealing with randoms (although it can be fun too, if you get a nice bunch).

Oh, I didn’t know I had to befriend 30+ people to be considered a social person. I guess the few best friends I have don’t matter and that I have an anti-social relationship with them. Well excuse me, o great social person with big friends list (*bows*), time to get up my social skills and add more people to my friends list. I hope one day I can be as social as you are, to get my army of friends to do anything I want.

Adapting to the recent destru- I mean fix to Elementalist, I come here to present the new Elementalist META build for staff users.

Traits
-30 Fire (Ember’s Might, Internal Fire, Pyromancer’s Puissance)
-10 Air (Bolt to the Heart)
-30 Arcane (Arcane Resurrection, Windborne Dagger, Nothing)

Utility
-Conjure Frost Bow
-Conjure Lightning Hammer
-Conjure Earth Shield
-Tornado

How the build works
The 30 points in Fire are obviously to pump out more DPS. The chosen traits will support this. Make sure you stay on a 1.200 distance from any mob (for more survivability). 10 points in Air with the Bolt to the Heart trait will help you burn down stuff faster.
Of course the 30 points in Arcane are needed for the Elementalist to be effective. Like when your teammates who are on the other side of the room bashing the faces in of your enemies are in need for a heal. You will be there to give them your 200HP healing Geyser.
Arcane Resurrection will be useful for when one of your teammates somehow dies, like in case of moving out of your healing Geyser. Windborne Dagger is there to give you your 15% speed boost. And yes, I know it says it does only when wielding daggers, but little know that it actually only works with staff (this is intended btw).
The final trait slot is left empty, because that way it’ll actually be of better use than any of the other available traits in the line (but you still need the 30 points in Arcane to switch back to Fire as soon as you can to maximise DPS).

Your utility skills are all powerful tools of destruction, each giving you 5 unique skills to pick from. Not only that, but they give insane stat boosts as well. Like + Healing Power on your Frost Bow.
Finally, Tornado will be your ace skill. A useful tip for becoming a pro with this skill is to leave the transformation as soon as you accidentally activate the skill. This way you actually won’t die, and the skill will safely be on cooldown, effectively preventing you from accidentally activating it again for 3 minutes or so.

I’ve been trying out this build, and so far none of the test dummies have been able to survive. We better make good use of it before the next set of nerfs come our way.=D

They can’t communicate here when they’re busy discussing the next set of buffs planned for the Warrior class.

I played primarily dual daggers, and I still miss Evasive Arcana a lot. It was a lot of fun, and added an extra layer of active gameplay over the already active DD gameplay. Like being in the middle of kicking butt, seeing your Ranger teammate at low HP standing in a Healing Spring. Quick! Dodge roll into it, heal yourself and your teammate back up, and get back into the fight with Ride the Lightning like a badkitten.
Meh, I’ll just stuck to kicking butt now. I enjoy dual dagger gameplay, but I’ll miss that extra layer of support that Evasive Arcana gave me.

As for Staff. I don’t think I’ll bother with it anymore. If I wanted an afk profession I’d go back on my Guardian. Fun and active combat on my staff Elementalist is pretty much gone now…

What needs to happen if Evasive Arcana was meant to be a useless trait slot is to make other traits more attractive.
Right now I’m looking into re-speccing, but the only choice I have is between kittens and kittens…

moiraine.2753:

Milennin.4825:

moiraine.2753:

I don’t use MF gear in dungeons,nor my groups.Only pugs use MF.
Conclusion don’t pug.

Because everyone playing this game has a big active guild and full friends list dedicated to doing any dungeon whenever you want… right?

Who my group is made from guildies lol.My group was made from random people i met while doing stuff in GW2.I become friends with people i meet.It is not a guild group lol

And your friends are always online when you are?
Your friends are always willing to go with you when you want, and on what you want? Or if they ask you to do a dungeon with them, they’ll invite your other friends to join them so you won’t have randoms in your team? And your friends always have time to go with you?

If yes on all of these, where can I buy these friends?

They’d be too busy posting on the Warrior forum, and planning the next Mesmer buffs anyway.=P

You stay at 1.200 distance and fling fireballs while going afk to rant on forums about Evasive Arcana of course.

moiraine.2753:

I don’t use MF gear in dungeons,nor my groups.Only pugs use MF.
Conclusion don’t pug.

Because everyone playing this game has a big active guild and full friends list dedicated to doing any dungeon whenever you want… right?

With 10 silver, lootbag and a chest + waypoint he’s definitely worth killing now.

It’s still broken yeah…

Yes, this is about the removal of Evasive Arcana. It’s so bad now, it might as well be an empty trait slot now. Earth and Fire do pitiful damage. Earth is advertised as Churning Earth on dodge roll, but besides the looks it’s nothing like the actual spell.
So we have a useless spell by sacrificing half our dodge bar, for either pitiful damage, or a weak heal.

Evasive Arcana made playing Staff Elementalist somewhat fun. Now I wasn’t a fan of the staff, but it was ok to use in some of the dungeons. With Evasive Arcana on I could add nice support to me and my team by sacrificing endurance, which I don’t need much of in the backlines. It would add extra depth to an otherwise bland and boring playstyle. Promote careful positioning. I had to be aware of where my teammates were, and plan my combo fields in such ways it would benefit them most. I had to look for opportunities to cast strategically placed water fields within my current dodge reach to save teammate’s lives. It was an excuse to get into the frontlines, just to activate a useful combo field (risk vs. reward).
With the removal of Evasive Arcana I’m stuck in the backlines. I have no excuse to move from that position whatsoever. I’ll just stand there and fling spells at a comfortable 1.200 distance. What a fun I’ll have.
My fields will sit there, unused as they disappear before my teammates notice it’s there, or as they have their finishers on cooldowns, or are too busy struggling to keep themselves alive. They’ll only get triggered through luck, or maybe I should go on a voicechat with my PUG to tell them everytime I plan on placing a combo field near them.

As a dual dagger Elementalist it was the only reliable way to grant myself an extra few might stacks, for a little extra damage. I guess being on the frontlines as the profession with lowest base HP, lowest defence and lowest armour was considered too powerful with a few extra might stacks on them.

And there I thought traits were supposed to change my character’s playstyle. I suppose I was expecting too much.

To add something constructive to the post: If Evasive Arcana was abused, why not split it for PvP? Or why not add a 10 second limit on when the blast finisher can be activated again? Why is the blast finisher completely gone on the EA version of Churning Earth?

Well, it’s called monthly achievement for a reason. Gives you until the end of the month to achieve it.

I don’t know, it seems to be a bit lower than before, but I’ve had a few drop for me since the fix.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

It’s certainly a possibility, but we feel that doing so will be very inefficient. Three islands must be completed between trips back to the hub area that saves your progress and advances you to the next level. You could certainly keep retrying to get your very first island to be an “easier” one, or one that you prefer over others, but if you try to quit the next island in hopes of going to a new one you will have to complete all 3 again. This would mean you’d have to get the preferred ones three times in a row with a possibility of 9 different islands. We feel the odds are so low in doing that, that you will run whatever island you get.

Also, in terms of difficulty, we tried our best to balance them accordingly. While some are shorter than others, or have different puzzle elements, we feel that you won’t be trying to quit tougher ones in favor for easier ones.

Okay I see. So you can’t just go out to reset instances till you get the one you want after the first one. That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.8)

“My team just got epic loot for beating this mega hard dungeon.”

At least t6 materials can be grinded fairly consistently, or slowly buy a stock of them over time. Unlike pre-cursors where you would not have made any progress whatsoever after throwing 1000 weapons into the Forge without getting a pre-cursor.

Can I make a Legendary on a character, for another character I have? Like, making a Legendary on my Elementalist, and give it to my Guardian? Or is it Soulbound on creation?

This is really nice. Some useful information there.

Since instances are being randomised in the new Fractal dungeon, does anyone else fear that people will reset the dungeon until they get an easy instance?

I was also very interested in following the story in the Arah dungeon, until I found out that it doesn’t really tell me anything… quite the disappointment.

I’ve killed my way through the event in a PUG without problems.
Although it really depends on the PUG I guess. I’ve tried in other groups, but sometimes it just doesn’t work, and we don’t kill fast enough and have to resort to kiting anyway.

I had a few exotics, only 1 got me an ecto (2 of them). (salvaged with Black Lion Kits)
I also had some rares. Most of them gave me an ecto, or multiples. Seems like rares are better sources for ectos than exotics are. (salvaged with second highest merchant kit)