How come we are able to change things like slot skills, armor and weapons but do we have to go to a skill trainer to reset traits? Could someone explain to me the design thought behind it?
I know that it might make things more complicated and slow-paced if players feel forced to change traits with every boss they engage. But hear me out for a second on the potential of having more freedom in changing trait trees:
First of all, the current way to receive a reset in traits is either done by talking to your trainer (which means we are constraint to a certain location). Or by paying 6 gold in gems to purchase an Instant Trait Reset which only gives you 1 reset. The Instant Trait Resets is very inefficient and I’m pretty sure the majority if the players doesn’t find it worthwhile.
Secondly, if we were allowed to make templates and save our favorite builds, it would open up a lot of diversified fights in different situations. People would spend more time on specific builds for specific dungeons instead of specific builds for maximum DPS.
Is this guy right? I still see a very high price for those specifically crafted exotic armor pieces on the TP. Seems to me that some people are convinced you can get insignia’s from crafted armor.
Support build is pretty good if you’re new to the game or when you often team with pugs. Personally, I think using a hammer will give better support and damage than mace + shield. The hammer auto-attack gives a permanent symbol of protection providing the team with protection and retaliation. The symbol also gives condition removal whenever a projectile finisher goes over it (common with any ranged like mesmer/ele/thief). It’s not that bad to use staff as off-hand but you have to consider that you won’t get as much damage as a greatsword, sword or scepter, unless you have many enemies scattered around you.
You seem to focus a lot on condition removal which is nice but I’m not sure if you need that much in most situations. You could drop 10 points in honor and use those trait points to get more damage or another kind of support.
I like the idea of this. Queen’s gauntlet came close, but unfortunately it turned into a big zerg fest. Same with Scarlet’s minions attacks.
If they could make something like Diablo II where you could explore larger areas with smaller teams this would definitely interest me. Guild wars already has the lay-out of the zones, but the incentive to do them with a team are non-existent. Unfortunately the map completion isn’t rewarding enough and can only be achieved once.
I started a group for CoF Story Mode, and it was my first time in there. We finally finished, and during the middle of the cut scene, i get kicked out.
It so happens, that the person who enters the dungeon first, or starts the cutscene at the beginning, is the group leader.
So he leaves, and everyone gets kicked out because of it. That is so frustrating and beyond stupid. It’s poor game design. I never experienced this any other MMO.
I don’t even know if i got to loot the chest after the final boss, and i didn’t even get to finish the cutscene.
I feel as if my time was wasted, and i feel very discouraged to even do them again, especially if this is the normal thing with GW2 dungeons.
It’s indeed true that whoever starts the dungeon is the host. So if the host leaves the team, everyone get’s kicked out. There are multiple other threads regarding this issue.
If you got kicked out during the cutscene the host didn’t get the chest either, because the chest isn’t rewarded until everyone is done watching the cutscene. Hope that gives you some reconciliation in some way.
The game has always had a weak party design. Not until recently this game started to support a LFG tool (although it does work great now). Just like the LFG tool, host migration should’ve been part of the game since release but unfortunately has been lacking for at least a year. I’m sure they are working hard in finding a proper solution though but probably it is not as easy as we think.
Well, the issue is that almost, if not all of the other professions with crit/condition damage together have a trait that cause bleeding on crit. warrior/necro/engineer all have it set up this way, while ranger has it but has crit damage instead, and mesmer is the same regarding illusions. We however, lack this trait, or lack pretty much any condition causing trait in radiance to really make it worth it.
We have one trait like this and it’s called Glacial Heart. The only problem is that it has been nerfed into the ground and has become a very unreliable skill and has also been put in the wrong trait line.
If this trait would be reworked it could fix two problems:
- The overall lack of condition builds for Guardians
- The lack of CC skills for Guardians
How should Glacial Heart be reworked then? First of all, the recharge rate should be much lower. Thirty seconds is way too long for a skill that only lasts four seconds and can’t be timed. Also move the trait to Zeal so it works well together with Condition Duration.
I usually leave my third utility slot open to adjust to random encounters. So when I need to rush I use Retreat. When I face a projectile boss I use Wall of Reflection. Purging Flames for condition removal. You get the idea…
Oozo, you were just using the skill wrong. you have to run up to the person you want to heal, stand on top of them, and then pop the skill.
He might’ve used the skill wrong, but that’s because the description is also partially wrong and should be changed.
Great to hear that the healing area actually works though. Might be more useful in dungeons than I thought, where stacking happens occassionally.
Anyone also annoyed by the camera when teleporting with MI and JI? Sometimes when you’re close to walls your camera resets into the wall. Then you have to waste time to zoom out and find the correct angle again. I’d rather have the camera keep the angle the same.
The description of Merciful Intervention is very ambiguous if you ask me.
“Teleport to the nearest ally with the lowest health and create a healing area around them.”
Does this mean nearest ally, or ally with lowest health? It’s very confusing. If I understand your video it’s nearest ally. This requires the guardian to run to your ally first which makes the teleport quite useless.
Also how many are affected by the healing area and what’s the range on it?
It teleports you to closest ally regardless of health. Which is why I hate this skill. It really should be a target skill. However Anet doesn’t want a “dedicated” healer class. Also only one person is affected by it, and it has a 1200 range.
Then the description should be changed imho by removing “lowest health” and “healing area” because they don’t fit with the actual presentation of the skill.
I also rather would like to see it changed to a target skill. We can only dream I’m afraid.
The description of Merciful Intervention is very ambiguous if you ask me.
“Teleport to the nearest ally with the lowest health and create a healing area around them.”
Does this mean nearest ally, or ally with lowest health? It’s very confusing. If I understand your video it’s nearest ally. This requires the guardian to run to your ally first which makes the teleport quite useless.
Also how many are affected by the healing area and what’s the range on it?
Did my first level 20 fractal today and got a axe, I guess I just got lucky.
But yes they do drop as skins now rather then items that you must transmute.
Except for the Fractal Trident which still seems to be an exotic weapon rather than a skin. Seems like they forgot to change it.
This thread is about the heal so why woudn’t i mention the heal? Also if you use meditations in pve content such as dungeons fractals or world boss fights…. You are possibly the most selfish guardian in the game… Meditations are great for DPS pvp, open world pve, solo wvw. Thats it. Using it in zergs, dungeons, boss fights etc… There are so many great and “imaginative” builds that use other things besides meditations because they provide group support something meditations completely lack.
It’s irrelevant that you don’t want to comment on pve. The topic does not make that distinction so I commented on it. Also, I’ve already stated this numerous times. The heal is an addendum, and therefore you can choose not to use it if it doesn’t work for you. Therefore it in no way magnifies any problems.
The most useful aspects of the guardian is in the reflects, blinds, and virtues and those are in tact in any meditation build and one of the meditations can be swapped out for consecration or stand your ground for specific encounters that require stability so your statements regarding meditation group play is invalid.
Because in Pve yes this heal can be useful with mobs that don’t run away from you. In tPvP it can be somewhat useful since it is all about capping the points. In wvw it is utterly useless…
Also while a meditation spec can “bring” all those things… The wasted 30 trait points spent going into meditations is what kills your group support. They bring no vulnerability (symbols/blinds), No damage modifiers (compared to 25 in any other line besides valor), and no condi removal from the virtues (because if you use meditations chances are you won’t go more than 10 into virtues).
You can’t sit and tell me that you run a full meditation build that brings all the other stuff that a build like 10/25/0/5/25 or any other variation brings… There is a reason the “best” guard builds for pve stay away from valor… Because aside from strength in numbers it is generally useless for pve. In pvp that is another story entirely.
I’d like to see the numbers comparing the build you’re mentioning (vulnerability/damage modifiers), with the meditation build which allows you to have constant fury up. I’m currently leaning towards the fury, but I could be wrong.
The guards that have used them almost never switched the skills for the appropriate fights, had no blast finishers, no team buffs, nada. At high level fractals the last thing that is useful is a meditation guardian. They are on par with the five signet warriors.
This is your problem, associative thinking. You are applying your experience to every meditation guard that might exist in pve. Every meditation guard won’t have blast finishers, every meditation guard won’t switch out skills, every meditation guard won’t have team buffs etc. You see what I’m saying?
Your past experience is causing you to apply this to everyone. And that is just wrong. Which is why I told you in my prior post to you, your experience is simply limited to you.
If you were saying meditations won’t work in pvp, I probably would agree with you. Pvp is dynamic, but when you talk about dungeons….dungeons. Everything is scripted, the exact same thing each time.
Which is funny because in a PvP such as tPvP an offensive meditation guard is quite a force…. In PvE they don’t do much for the entire group which is the point.
A meditation hammer guardian can still provide different types of support:
- Hammer providing symbols granting protection, retaliation, condition removal (projectile finishers are common) and skill 2 for blast finisher.
- You still have plenty of trait points left. You can put 15 points in Radiance for constant blinds and might spam. Or 20 points in Virtues for even more condition removal or stability, and consecration trait for the wall of reflection once in a while.
I am somewhat disappointed how people keep labeling meditation builds as selfish while in my opinion the majority of the guardian’s group utilities are a joke if we want to believe the current ‘berserker culture’. Does the entire PvE group need more defensive guardian utilities when everyone is already playing fully offensive?
PvP gear also seems to effect certain things inside Toypocalypse. For example, I was healing faster inside the circle while wearing a cleric PvP amulet. I believe I also crit higher with the rifle when wearing a Berserker amulet.
Here’s the thing. Warriors give 8 seconds of fury to the team every 25 seconds. Add that to their banner of discipline and you are looking at a ton more crit chance. That is bringing a lot to the team. With what you bring, might as well bring another warrior and stack more vuln and offensive buffs.
Again you’re forgetting about the symbols in this build. Warriors do not provide the party with protection, regeneration nor retaliation (or WoR and condition cleansing if necessary). As you can see my build is still less egoistic than most other classes you’ll have in your team. Of course if you have a team full with warriors you might ask yourself if meditations are as useful as you can keep fury up almost all the time. But it seems you’re blessed with the perfect team set up every time you play.
Consecrations are the bread winners in PVE. Meditations are crap for team play. No need for em. You are gimping yourself and your team. But at least you aren’t running a cleric build or something. I’m just glad I left pug land a while ago.
Shouts are crap unless your team is really bad and is not able to survive without the overkill of defensive buffs. Also good luck with the Wall of Reflection when the mob isn’t shooting projectiles. But at least you’re not running full bunker like most pugs…Come on, give me a break already. Meditations are not crap as you keep saying because guardians do not have any other reliable offensive utilities.
Also 0/0/30/30/10 is a terrible build damage wise. But whatever. “Play How I Want” I suppose.
Your link is outdated and doesn’t take into account the new changes. Also, I already used his exact build before (check the OP) and feel like this current build provides more offensive power and still gives the party plenty of buffs.
That’s what the 10 points in Virtues is for (check the traits I showed in the OP). WoR is situational and doesn’t affect every enemy you face. Even then it only takes away 1 slot and still leaves room open for 2 other meditations plus your meditation heal.
Meditations might be more selfish. But shouts nor consecrations give the same offensive benefit as meditation does (fury). What PvE needs is DPS and that’s what Fury can give us.
Oh are you talking about solo’ing? Where no other classes are there to give buffs?
That’s not true. You’re forgetting the whole protection part of the build which the hammer and the symbols provide. It gives permanent protection, regeneration and retaliation to the whole party. Plus condition removal if you have a mesmer or elementalist or any ranged in the team who can give easy projectile finishers. Does your team really need more defensive utilities that could otherwise be used for more damage output? I’ve run this build for two days now and my pug teams are doing extremely well, on top of that I’m doing a lot more damage.
I agree that Stand Your Ground and Wall of Reflection are strong defensive skills and in certain scenario’s definitely useful. The new heal meditation gives us another source of fury and therefore the build is now more flexible, allowing us to equip SYG or WoR if necessary. At the same time you can melt through the rest.
That’s what the 10 points in Virtues is for (check the traits I showed in the OP). WoR is situational and doesn’t affect every enemy you face. Even then it only takes away 1 slot and still leaves room open for 2 other meditations plus your meditation heal.
Meditations might be more selfish. But shouts nor consecrations give the same offensive benefit as meditation does (fury). What PvE needs is DPS and that’s what Fury can give us.
I really can’t imagine PvE without a source of Stability. I’d swap out at least one of your meds for Stand Your Ground.
From someone who has been playing mostly shout builds I can understand where you’re coming from. But it’s not as bad as you think. As of a few patches ago stun breakers instantly recover you from a stun. Two meditation skills give stun breakers and in certain situations (such as the AC dungeon) you could always decide to equip Stand Your Ground or Hallowed Ground (and even change from symbol to shout trait).
After the introduction of the new meditation healing skill I’ve been testing out the meditation build for PvE. Because we can use 4 meditation skills now it might be more worthwhile to run a meditation build. I currently run 0 / 0 / 30 / 30 / 10. Where I focus the Valor traits on meditation (I, X, XII) and Honor on symbols (III, VII, X).
In combination with the hammer and berserker gear (maybe boon duration runes or else scholar) this allows me to get constant protection, fury and healing. Also I can easily switch my traits to shouts/bunker for certain situations such as WvW or high level Fractals.
Personally, I feel this build is stronger (because of the fury) than the other hammer build with the traits 15 / 15 / 0 / 30 / 10.
What do you guys think? Also which boon duration runes would you recommend? Perhaps full Traveler runes or a mix?
Either make it fire so I can blast it for might and get that extra damage, or make blasting the light field give condition removal.
The light field does give condition removal in combination with projectile finishers. The only downside is that we’re dependent on ranged classes to provide the projectile finishers.
Although I do agree that the constant light field can be annoying for those who want to stack and use fire fields. Perhaps they could give guardians a trait that allows us to change the Symbol of Protection into a more offensive ‘Symbol of Redemption’ that gives 2 stacks of might and a fire field.
I have the answer to your problems people. It’s based on whether or not you yourself are targeted when you’re jumping. For example, if there are 6 people in an AoE, you must be one of those 5 targeted when you jump for it to count. That’s what the problem is for this achievement. And with the large amount of people doing this, it’s at least a 1 in 50 chance of you getting credit.
Ah, I was already wondering what I was doing wrong. Surely this shouldn’t be intended. Hopefully this get’s fixed soon because lots of people will waste their time jumping for nothing.
“Exotic armor pieces with the stat combos Rabid, Dire, Magi’s, Soldier’s, Cavalier’s, and Shaman’s now have a chance to salvage their insignia.” – it was in the patch notes
you couldn’t get inscriptions from crafted weapons, so I’m guessing you can’t get insignias from crafted armors. that would lead to a loop that you could max your armor crafting for much less cost.
That’s what I also think. But they didn’t add that into the notes, so it’s somewhat a grey area. Rather not waste my salvage kits on it until someone can confirm it actually works.
Has anyone tried to get insignia’s from crafted armor?
Let’s say you salvage an exotic dire armor and receive an insignia. Then you use the insignia to craft an armor piece. Can you then salvage it again and retrieve a dire insignia from it?
You’re forgetting that salvaging dungeon weapons allows you to get inscriptions which can be used to level up your crafting to 500. I am fairly certain this will be applied to salvaging dungeon armor as well. So it is not totally useless.
Does that actually work? I was under the impression that only named, dropped Exotics had a chance to salvage their inscription off. (From what I heard, dungeon weapons do not give inscriptions when salvaged, and neither do crafted Soldier’s/Magi’s/etc. Exotics.)
If you salvage soldiers or rabid stats you can get the inscriptions off them. I’ve been doing for a good while, easy money.
It also works with salvaging exotic dungeon weapons containing Dire, Magi and Shaman stats.
Even though they buffed Glacial Heart two months ago it’s still not useful. The 30 second cooldown and the inability to choose when to use the chill makes it a very lackluster trait. You’ll be better of with a Sigil of Hydromancy which has a cooldown of 9 seconds.
Ring of Warding can be potentially useful if you time it right. But you can’t move when you activate the skill and so it becomes hard to catch someone. That’s why most of the time I see guardians use the skill to keep people out instead of inside.
If they could somehow make our elite skill Tome of Wrath more attractive for guardians it could potentially be slotted to finish off players. It has all the right skills: Cripple, Knock Down, Swiftness, Quickness, Fury and a Burn.
I have to agree with Elrey here although I understand OP’s frustrations. There’s a big risk for trolls (as well as gold spammers) to dominate the tool and abuse the system if they can join groups without limits.
After completing Fractal scale 41 today I received a Fractal Trident in the wiggly chest together with the usual Pristine Fractal Relic and gold reward. The odd part is that the Fractal Trident is not a skin but a normal exotic weapon (like how the old fractal weapons were).
Did you guys forget to turn this one into a skin?
PS. Also got my first precursor in that run from a dredge.
I much prefer 0 15 30 20 5.
Damage is still great, you bring a lot of group buffs and you heal insane amounts through AH.
You won’t have that much condition removal though. A bit from the Purity trait and perhaps Signet of Resolve or Purging Flames. Not sure if that’s enough for certain dungeon encounters with pugs.
Although many people find AH very selfish I find it useful with casual pugs. However, when I play with a strong team I can immediately tell that the build is too defensive.
Perhaps the new Meditation heal will allow us to fully trait into Valor and easily switch between an Offensive Meditation build and Defensive AH build.
Yes, because it’s not like there are literally millions of them at the trading post or anything.
Don’t you hate it when people use the word literally when they don’t literally mean it? There are currently around 30,000 soft wood logs available at a price that’s almost 10 times as expensive as elder wood logs. Nobody wants to farm 720 soft wood logs to create an ascended staff. This makes it the most expensive material to craft ascended weapons.
I agree ascended gear should not be something that’s easily available, but things like soft wood logs force you too much towards farming.
You’re forgetting that salvaging dungeon weapons allows you to get inscriptions which can be used to level up your crafting to 500. I am fairly certain this will be applied to salvaging dungeon armor as well. So it is not totally useless.
On top of that you get loads of materials from the dungeons which can be used to create ascended weapons and soon ascended armor. Although if I had one suggestion I would encourage Anet to increase the droprate on lower level crafting materials in dungeons. For example, I’d like to see more soft wood planks and iron ingots from Ascalonian Catacombs.
I think removing the account bound flag would be a step in the right direction. Let us trade and vendor them.
They should also reduce the droprates on Bloodstone and Empyreal Fragments. These materials seem to be overflowing my inventory unless I use up all of my karma. At least I hope I will need lots of them to craft ascended armor.
Does anyone know which weapons can be salvaged for Orichalcum Imbued Inscriptions?
I know from experience that some named exotic weapons do not give inscriptions. For example, I tried salvaging a few Ugly Sticks without result. Now I found Droknar’s Forgehammer (Shaman stats) and I wonder if I should salvage it or not.
I know this table gives a good overview of which type of stats yield inscriptions. But it doesn’t tell us much about which named weapons can be salvaged for inscriptions.
Agree the combo field is annoying. Anet need to rethink combo fields.
The combo field is indeed annoying in a situation where you need to optimize DPS.
I did find the combo field very useful in situations where you suffer from conditions. It removes a lot of conditions every time a projectile finisher goes on it. You’ll have to rely on other classes though because we don’t have projectile finishers.
On top of that applying the symbol will trigger healing with each pulse for each ally affected (including yourself) if you have Altruistic Healing traited.
Armageddon armor is bought with karma so that won’t be salvageable.
The last inscription I salvaged was a Shaman’s inscription from Droknar’s Hammer. Unless you have a very narrow definition of “named exotic” then that is not true either.
The thing is though, I got the Armageddon armor from Fractal chests. I just tested it and it does allow me to salvage it.
I didn’t know named weapons could be salvaged as well. It seems I was misinformed about that.
Thank you all for the information. I currently have around 30 armor pieces and about 15,000 dungeon tokens ready for salvage. This will definitely help me getting my armorsmithing to 500 when ascended armor is introduced.
With the introduction of Ascended Weapons the game allows us to salvage certain weapon types (such as soldier) to gain inscriptions. This was a great way for me to level my weaponsmithing to 500.
Anyone have any insight whether I should save my dungeon tokens and exotic armor drops so I can do the same salvaging process to get insignia’s in the future?
Also will I be able to use my exotic armor sets such as Khilbron’s Armor and Armageddon’s Armor or are they considered named exotics (as you can’t salvage named weapon for inscriptions)?
While I was doing Ascalonian Catacombs P1 today I decided to take the ‘garlic bread’ that dropped from a monster. After we finished most of the dungeon there was only the bit left where you have to cross a few chambers with gravelings to reach the boss (Howling King).
Here comes the weird part. While having this ‘garlic bread’ buff the gravelings were able to kill me in three to four hits. I died three times before I decided to override the garlic bread with another food buff. Of course then I was able to reach the boss immediately. For your information, I think I only died there once back when I did the dungeon for the first time a couple months ago.
Rarity will vary if you are not in a lv80 zone.
The rarity will affect the level of the crafting materials you get out of it. Each of the rarity also has a different range for the amount of coin you can get out of them.
Ok. I think I understand the thought behind the rarity of the loot bags now. But then I don’t understand why they would make the rarity of the loot bag match with a totally different system of crafting material levels. I assume tier 6 crafting materials are exotic bags then? What about ascended crafting materials? Also why not make the bag exotic when there’s an exotic weapon inside?
Perhaps it’s not a bug but at the very least very confusing.
I have two questions regarding the rarity of champion loot bags:
First of all, I am wondering why I sometimes get ‘Masterwork loot bags’ and other times ‘Exotic loot bags’ on my level 80 character. I thought it had to do something with the amount of damage done, but it seems to be random.
Does a loot bag with a higher rarity (fine, masterwork, rare, exotic) have better items inside? Or are the items from a ‘Fine loot bag’ exactly the same as those from an ‘Exotic loot bag’ if the bag dropped from the same Champion?
As of a few patches ago the seals now properly reset when your team get’s killed. The reset means that the number of mobs goes back to the initial 2 chanters on each side.
The part with the 2 seals is one of the toughest situations of Fractals (especially at scale 48), but it can definitely be done with pugs. As far as I know this works as intended now.
Last week I was roaming around the ruins in my own borderlands. It was in the middle of the night and the place was basically deserted. While capping a few ruins I noticed a guy from my own server flying/teleporting in the sky going from ruin to ruin. When he spotted me he immediately dropped down and pretended everything was normal.
I reported him for botting. Although I don’t think that botting is the right term for it (Arenanet should add another report function for hacks). Unfortunately when I was playing yesterday I still saw him playing. Which probably means he will get away with hacking.
In case it does bug out there is a way to successfully fix Detha. Pull oozes or gravelings from the previous rooms on Detha and let her die. After that take care of those enemies. Then get Detha back up and she will proceed with charging the traps.
I believe Detha bugs out if she is still in combat while the event is triggered. Therefore it is important to get rid of all aggro before you proceed into the middle of the traps.
Wow… how many people can possibly make the same exact post?
Apparently not enough people. There’s at least one thread per week complaining about that wolf.
I googled “Champion Ice Wolf bug” before I made this thread and it did not come up with any specific threads about it. So either Google is lying or you are extremely exaggerating.
I used to skip it until they introduced Champion loot bags. Now every team I join wants to kill it. Personally I’m not sure if it’s worth the loot bag though.
I think there is something fundamentally wrong with leveling if players feel the need to use their main characters to level their alts.
Personally, I think you could compare switching at the end of the dungeon like having your twin brother make your exam. Nobody would find out because of a gap in the system to exploit it. But everyone knows the brother who reaps the rewards did not make the effort and therefore should not be getting the reward.
Of course in this game’s case it’s the same person playing both characters so there’s an ethical discussion possible between people who believe the player made the effort and people who think the character made the effort.
Players like to distinguish themselves through all certain ways, finishers is one of those. Personally, I like the ‘Mortal Kombat’ style approach. Arenanet introduces finishers to PvE because from a business perspective they can make an extra buck. This makes perfect sense.
However, the execution could be more thorough. Personally, I’d prefer to see the finisher requirement only on Champions. First, that would make finishers feel more special. Second, easier enemies usually take the same amount of time to kill as to finish, which can be perceived as a waste of time.
The other Guardian bugged skill is leap of faith, occasionally it’ll leap over your target, instead of at them.
I’m hesitant to use Leap of Faith in certain places such as the Ascalonian Catacombs. If leap of faith bugs out at the Spider Queen or at Lieutenant Kholer it could kill the whole team.
The Whirling Wrath bug is harmless and some players even enjoy it. I’ve tested it and while it keeps spinning it does no damage. Personally, I wouldn’t give it a high priority on fixing it.
