Guild Wars 2

I am having exactly the same problem. After asking me to check this, reset this, reset that, reinstall the game… recheck this and recheck that, the support team has fed up with me and stopped emailing me back…

Very sad…

Very frustrating…

Very disappointed…

I have been wonder if the 5 stack cap for Chill is intentional or just an oversight.

Anyway, IF in a raid or any small pre-made team, your Chill Necro is the sole Chill contributor, I suppose choosing a Chill major would be a benefit. Otherwise, IF there is a real chance that your Chill will be overwritten, choose Dhuumfire instead.

Oh, that’s too bad. I was hoping to just let the minions do the damage while, as the necromancer, can do something else (even though I cannot still figure out what exactly is that yet).

I am seeing a lot more MM Necro lately and started thinking:

How does the DPS level of a MM Necro compare to a Power Necro and a Condi Necro?

How does the DPS level of a MM Necro compare to the DPS level of other classes?

Thanks!

So basically Deathly Chill is practically useless in a meta event…

I suppose the only redeeming quality “might” be in raid or other pre-made small team settings.

… it is capped at 5 stack max.

So even though I make a Chill centric build, I will not be doing anything once the mere 5 stack cap is reached, which can be quite easily.

After all, the new Reaper does not really synergise well with other professions. Is it true?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJA2YnsMBVmiFmCGOBkmiFYCzLNcGaDzdwRItEQAIDA-TxRBQBU4iAoHdCWS9HAu/AWU+tIlgA4BAQKgq0aB-e

This is the build I have been using for the past week. It is a power build using Valkyrie gears. Crit chance comes from DD runes, Thrill of the Crime and Signet of Agility, which turns out to be quite respectable. That said, I am aiming at a base 33% crit chance, or one in three chance while unbuffed; that means I have to use some precision infusion to achieve that eventually. Since there so many Herald these days, Fury has become easily accessible. I use Sigil of Strength and Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew to keep up a reasonable level of self Might stacking.

I use either Bounding Dodger or Unhindered Combatant depending on the circumstances. I do prefer Unhindered Combatant since I miss quite often with Bounding Dodger. Staff is the main weapon with X/D as secondary. I use either Steal or Vault as a gap-closer, then Dodge once before using Weakening Charge once or twice and then Dodge again for more DD rune proc.

I like it. The build is durable enough for most of the HoT fights and quite OP for non-HoT activities. The level of Toughness is not that high but I can evade rather often to avoid being hit at all. If I got hit, I still had enough Vitality to absorb the damage done. I have one stun break and one condi cleanse; more if I use Sword.

Hello Thieves,

Thief has been my most favorite alt besides Mesmer. Since I have now fully maxed out and geared up my Chrono, I am going to start working on my DareDevil next.

I used to play a P/D condi trap build using Carrion gears with Trapper Runes. It works reasonable well in most contents. But now Staff has completely won me over and I am starting to enjoy a more melee orientated play style. I still carry two Pistols for some nigh-impossible-to-melee fight but I have a Staff as a primary nearly most of the time.

Now that I have experienced DareDevil at around +70% unlocked, I come to realised that Staff DareDevil combining with some of Physical skills are leaning towards a Hybrid (with decent CC support) than a pure Condi build. Of course, pure Condi still possible but that does not seem to take full advantage of Staff.

So, is a Hybrid Staff DareDevil possible?

I have made this experiment build to test it out. I am thinking of using Marauder armours with Condi based trinkets and weapons. But I cannot decide what Runes to use yet. I know it is not the most optimal build; an experiment after all. Please feel free to criticise.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW4YnsMBNmidmCuNBkmilWCz7N0GiCznwU4LULA0FWAA-TRxBAB9pbAgnAQjKBx4iA0lyPA-e

Traited Staff + D/D with three dodges will provide sufficient evade. I suppose I can swap some of the more defensive gears for more offensive ones.

What do you guys think?

I kept reading here and there that DD makes a good break-bar breaker through the use of quite a few CC. Is it so?

If so, does it make a good “break-bar breaker” role?

Thanks!

Has anyone discovered where and/or how to obtain the Trailblazer’s Inscription and Insignia?

Thanks!

Where do you get Minstrel accessories?

Lord Trejgon.2809:

HotHit.6783:

Staggs.9372:

I don’t think going full healing has its place in PvP, and in PvE, we already have enough generation as healers. It’s just a matter of positioning and build.

Also, how are you going to heal threw glyphs outside of CA except for the healing one?

Traited glyphs drop seeds of life, which can give you up to five heal procs of Astral Force. As a Ranger with good positioning, it’s not too much of a stretch to assume you can get two procs per glyph as minimum. It’s not much but better than most.

my only issue with druid perks is that glyph perk is fighting for a slot with natural stride perk and I do prefer natural stride after all….

btw is it me or glyph heal with perk giving aoe heal around you when you use healing skill procs AF twice per cast?

Just switch between Signet of the Hunt and one of the Glyphs when you need the mobility. It is less inconvenient that switching between traits.

I have been running a Chrono for a little while now.

IF you can keep a 100% up time for alacrity, you will not be doing much else, including dodging (not for the purpose of DE) and/or positioning. And you and others also have to stand in the Wells to benefit it. So you yourself are often in harm’s way while not doing much else.

So, yes, your skills will be recharging really fast but you will not have the time to translate that into any meaningful damage; your teammates however can. But that is precisely the point of alacrity. It is noting OP about it.

Chronomancer is relatively perfect comparing to all other elites.

After some events (before crashing), I come to realise that healing Druid has to be at mid to melee range to be effective.

Yes, the said Druid can stay at the back and use Staff 1 and be done with it; and use CA 1 and 2 for further heal. But in order to take advantage of all the heal support functions, the Druid has to stay close to the action, or at least where most people are standing, which can be troublesome since people run around a lot.

I have a feeling that most of the heal will come from Staff and Glyphs. CA at best offers burst heal when things start to get rough. At least now you can safe it for when the time is right.

Ranger

Pack Alpha: Fixed a bug in which this trait was not applying its recharge reduction to some of the new pet skills on the Bristleback, Smokescale, Fire Wyvern, and Electric Wyvern.
Druid—Terminate Celestial Avatar: Updated description text on this skill.
Druid—Astral force no longer degenerates out of combat.

I have tested it briefly before the game crashed. It was “better”; at least I can now actually use CA in a fight.

AF generation still feels slow. But I guess I can still heal outside CA by using traited Glyphs and Staff skills. More testing is needed to see how Druid can support a team in difficult situations.

One thing I would like to add though: the rate of generation of AF could be tied to the Healing stat; that is higher the stat, faster AF is generated and perhaps shorter the cool down too. It would really benefit someone going full healing stat.

I mostly play a shatter build, both power and condi since launch. In PvE, classic power shatter does reasonable burst damage; whereas classic condi shatter does decent sustain condition damage. That’s it. If you want a be-all-end-all dps build, shatter is not your first choice.

Currently I play a ChronoCondiShatter, which I find it fun to play. I use a mixed of Rabid and Sinister setup. I shatter mainly for alacrity. The burst of conditions inflicted does good AoE dps but the damage output is no where near a sinister Reaper. Sometimes my skills recharge so fast that after may be a round of shatter rotation, I have a choice to choose what skills to use next instead of auto-attacking while waiting for them to come off cooldown. It is good enough for me since I do not mind taking a few more seconds to kill a mob and I do push out stable dps. Solo-ing may seems slower but in a team, your teammates will be thanking you for all the alacrity.

When I need good solid sustain dps from my Phantasm for prolonged boss fights, I just put three Staff 3 out and they will do a good job then.

Rabid Armour, Sinister Weapons and some Trinkets.

Need the toughness still even my build allows me to dodge a lot. Extra bit of survivalibility makes life easier.

Anyway, I would love to test the new Trailblazer stats: Toughness, Condi, Vitality, Expertise. Or more specifically the Expertise stat. Does anyone knows how to get it?

Mesmer and Ranger are my mains. Currently Chronomancer just brings too much good things to the game. I have high hopes for Druid to work as a good supporting character as well. But I am still looking forward to the opportunity to actually trying it. Being a healer who cannot heal is very frustrating and disheartening.

Druid itself brings too little support to the team at the moment. Of course there are always Natural Mender and Grace of the Land to consider as well. At the moment they are still too far to be unlocked yet.

Druid is going through some terrible emotional roller coaster ride at the moment. Hope it will end soon.

I am experimenting with a ChronoShatter build, which is rather fun! I get a lot of alacrity from shattering alone. Shield 4 is actually a rather good block. Sometimes I just used it and ran into a group of mobs; it makes me smile every time I see “Block” “Block” “Block” on the screen.

Knowing I can buff the group with alacrity is another bonus. But sometime using Wells in the right place can be a bit tricky.

I was SO LOOKING FORWARD to playing Druid live. Druid in BW3 was good and we were all hopeful that fine tuning here and there would make it even better. We were disappointed.

I am now playing a Chrono waiting may be some good changes will come to Druid soon…

I have it on Staff. Not that useful. Might try it on Shield since skill 5 interrupt often.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Oh My God.8423:

Make Staff 1 similar to Celestial Avatar 1: ground-targeted.

That would be no better, since it would only snap to enemy targets, unless the target to be healed was in melee range with the target, you still cannot heal and damage at the same time. If it were a large GT like Necro staff, then sure it would be good.

If it would just channel the beam without a target, it would be awesome as you could heal and deal AoE damage at once.

My $0.02 anyway.

Actually you can snap Celestial 1 onto Ally; I was thinking Staff 1 can (should) be too. I tested yesterday on a small group. But then I got so tired (and frustrated) on generating AF and soon watching all the hard-earned AF drain away as soon as I walk towards the side of the camp fighting another enemy…

Anyway, if Staff 1 is ground-targeted, perhaps with a wider AoE area, it can deal damage with needed and heal any melee players happens to be there and pure heal ranged players (or players in awkward positions) when needed.

Any good CondiReaper build?

Thanks!

Make Staff 1 similar to Celestial Avatar 1: ground-targeted.

Swagger.1459:

My experience last night..

Zap enemy with staff 1 and strafe to hit team, while team is running all over moving and dodging attacks. Crappy amount of healing

Staff 2 radius sucks and barely does any noticeable healing. Players standing that close to enemies were getting eaten alive anyway.

You can’t even tell who needs healing so you spam stuff which leads me to staff 3…

Staff 3 was to jump in to enemy group, hit CA form, spam stuff… because two of five staff abilities, plus glyphs if you have them, plus the new Druid designed self/team heal are all about needing to stack to be useful… So jump into fray, spam stuff and dodge roll out. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

Staff 4 is a joke because you are just using it to use it. Players can’t even tell if there are conditions on others so just spam it. The immobilize is negligible and you have to aim it instead of having it like other “snap target” ranged attacks.

Staff 5 is a waste in this red circle meta…

No stability meant at times I’m getting knocked around while trying to do this “role”.

Some enemy models are big so the point radius for ranged aoe heal on staff 2 and CA 1,2 seemed useless. Plus I players are moving around like chicken with their heads off so it was “drop heal and hope for the best”.

Yes, in the ideal set up against an AI, and if your team is stacked up and not needing to dodge damage, then the Druid can do its job. As is, though, players are running all over dodging red circles, while avoiding melee hits too, we can’t see health bar and we are also needing to bob and weave to keep ourselves alive…

So basically this is spam useless staff skills. CA is spam what you can because of timers. Waste of time because it’s not about skill, it’s about spam stuff that has a negligible effect in “real” combat setting.

Want to fix staff? See that necro staff? See the radius on necro staff??? There ya go… Make it a medium damage and medium heal set up.

Want to fix CA??? Make it a stance and adjust powers to reflect it, adjust radius of skills, design it so you can stay in form until downed/killed… This would be the high heal and low damage condition role.

Listen, I don’t mean to be negative, but I’ve gamed a long time, and while I’m not near the best “twitchy” player around, I spent many years playing heal, support and disruption in a game called city of heroes… Gameplay was 10 times faster, “professions” and powers were designed far better, play and counter play was far superior… and surprising enough they had capes (you guys can’t even do that in 2015 with superior tech) lol…

Here it’s auto attack, stack-spam-hope for the best… All while we are not given the right UI tools like simple health bars and your aoe targeting system, for both players and enemies, sucks…

Very early on I brought this up when I started here because I came from a vastly superior combat game during the WoW era, and we are basically given this modern “junk” and UI to play.

Seriously, you guys need to sit down and see where a game like city of heroes got it right with powers, combat, stealth, healing, support, build flexibility and customization, roles, targeting, conditions…

There is a reason that players call gw2… Dodge wars, condition wars, Gwen wars…

Sorry, but I’m tossing hundreds of dollars at this game and it’s been such a waste.

On Staff 1: the beam is soooo narrow to be effective in generating AF via healing; and AF generating via attacking is abysmal anyway. How about making Staff 1 a ground target AoE instead? In that case, it can at least cover a few more enemies, or if necessary allies. In that case, it will make the duo nature of Staff 1 more effective.

The current design of AFG is forcing players to stack in a ball so a Druid can maximise the rate of generation, which is rather silly for two reasons: 1) most of the fights require players to move around A LOT. AFG will mostly come from attacking the enemies instead of healing allies. AFG via attacking is very lacking at the moment.

2) Even if the players are stacked in a ball, not all them will neatly stay in “the ball” for you. There will be backliners all over the place and people dodging in and out of “the ball”. So the Druid has to be the backliner of the backliners in order to capture most allies in generating AF efficiently via healing.

Either way, design of AFG does not appear to have the current game play in mind. It is detached from the reality of the game, I am afraid.

Actually I would like to see more layers added to Central Tyria so we can make the most of Glider. Airships or Floating cities, etc.

Is the rate of generation of Astral Force scales with Healing stat? Or, if not, should it be?

The new way of generating Astral Force is just awful… It generates way too slow and degenerate way way way too fast. It matters not whether the cooldown is 10sec or longer, you will need much longer, and a lot more juggling, to get it filled in the first place. I prefer the BW3 mechanic.

I ran around the new zones in my Druid; mostly in small group. I have tried every whichever way to increase the generation of Astral Force. But I can never have Celestial Avatar ready when needed. Then may as well not have a healing Druid at all. In fact, the current incarnation of Druid completely defeat the purpose of playing one in the first place: why having a healer when in the moment of need it will always fail to perform…

The current state of Druid is like having a Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson designed ambulance that is overly off the mark and constantly stuck in traffic whenever it is needed.

The hurdle of achieving the Celestial Avatar is too high and the slope of come down is unnecessarily too steep. Please at the very least revert back to the BW3 mechanic in terms of Astral Force and Celestial Avatar.

Stefan Larimore.6872:

The fix I described above is for the errors containing the exception code c0000417 in it, as hcopter.3269 included in his post above.

Oh My God.8423, this c0000417 issue shouldn’t be an issue on MAC. I’ll repost when we know more about that “Failed to start Coherent host” issue, described in your post.

Many many thanks!!!

Any advice for the Mac version?

Ever since HoT, I kept crashing constantly too.

Please help…

Where can I get the rune?

I will be playing a Rabid-Sinister mixed condition ChronoShatter… of sort…

Hello all,

Which class(es) and set-up(s) can generate most consistent and sustained (soft and hard) CC?

Or, if I just want fully dedicated CC character, which class(es) and setup(s) should I go for?

Many thanks!!

keenlam.4753:

Condi Chrono, back in the first BWE, was actually pretty strong, overtuned in fact with the old Illusionary Reversion allowing you to shatter back-to-back to keep stacking confusion/torment.

Consequently, this trait has now been nerfed to have an extra requirement (at least 2 illusions shattered to regain a clone).

Having said all that, I do believe, condi chrono is still a solid idea. With a bit of experimenting and finetuning, it might work out given all the recent/upcoming changes to chronomancer.

Could you suggest a build template for me to mess around?

Thanks!

Hello all,

I have been away from playing Mesmer for a little while. It used to be my main but I have been playing other classes just to keep the game interesting for me.

I used to play a Condi Staff Mesmer: I generally prefer a condi build more, I am afraid. Now I am planning for HoT. May I ask: is Condi Chrono build a viable build? I mostly do PvE (hopefully a lot of raid) and WWW.

Many thanks!

Will Grace of the Land and Lingering Light apply to pets as well?

Also, yes, I think those two Grandmaster Traits need to last a bit longer since Celestial Avatar is on a 10 second cooldown now.

THANKS!

Love to test it now…

I am sure there will be more changes in the pipeline. Look forward to seeing them soon.

Fire Drake: Smaug the Terrible
Wolf: Big Bad Wolf
Shark: Jaw

Dear ANet,

Would you allow us to use the skins for Spear and Trident on melee Staff please? Most of the current Staff skins do not look like as though they are meant for hitting someone up-close with it. On the other hand, those skins for Spear and Trident fit perfectly as a melee weapon.

Would you consider letting us use those skins on melee Staff please?

Thanks!

It has been over a week since BW3. Is it too late to submit any suggestion?

I was on my Ranger again doing SW events. I was just thinking before I log off: how about pets do extra things when the Druid is in Celestial Avatar form? It could be as simple as having extra stats.

The reason I think of this is that I still against having offensive capabilities whilst in Celestial Avatar form. I think it should be pure supportive by way of heal and perhaps extra boons support. BUT I do agree having a little bit DPS might help a bit. So how about having extra stats, or something else, on the pets instead and let it do the DPS whilst the Druid is in pure support mode?

Add some sort of scale slider in the pets selection window. Set the current size and “Normal”, then add a slightly bigger version as “Medium” and a bigger still version as “Large”, which is about the size of Signet of the Wild. Should not been too hard.

Zatoichi.1049:

Oh My God.8423:

Oh Oh OH! I just have an idea regarding adding condition damage to Staff 1:

Instead of, for example, burn a target regularly on each pulse, it burns a target IF Cosmic Ray actually heal an ally on that pulse?

It adds a layer of positioning to the gameplay.

So if Cosmic Ray ONLY hits a foe, it applies a flat damage per pulse, perhaps similar to what it is now. BUT IF it hits a foe AND an ally, Cosmic Ray applies burning per pulse. It can even be per number of stacks of burning per ally hit.

This could add some strategic positioning to using Staff and make the (rather small) healing portion of Cosmic Ray means something more. It incentivise a Staff Druid to make the most of its (constant but little) “maintenance” healing outside Celestial Avatar.

I think at the moment, we want the druid to be LESS reliant on needing allies around to be effective. Your idea is creative, but a step in the wrong direction

But Druid, or Staff Druid, itself is designed to have allies around to realise its full potential. Is it not?

One can of course solo with a Staff Druid and be DPS effective. But does that contravene the philosophy behind Druid?

Please do not get me wrong: I would LOVE to see Staff 1 doing burn damage. After all I like condition damage build way more than power based build. I am in fact currently running an A/T burning sinister Ranger and I love it every moment. But choosing between having burn damage because of doing auto-attacks or having burn damage because of taking advantage of the supportive nature of Staff, I would choose the latter because it makes using Staff supportively more rewarding for both the Druid and its allies.

Zalani.9827:

Holland.9351:

Zalani.9827:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The animations for staff are getting looked at.

Thank you!

I like the auto-attack animation where the laser shoots from the top of the staff. I don’t want the laser to shoot from the hand. I don’t like how they bend their knees while attacking though.

I just don’t like the idle animation holding it like a hammer:
https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cfaa8Glamour-2.jpg
But I guess I could live with it.

You do know that you can click on his name and quote him directly right.
Staff 1 is about the only animation I liked for staff.

I, on the other hand, think animation of Staff 1 looks like someone trying to scrub the bird-poo off the roof of his/her car.

I only recently notice the animation of Greatsword 1 on a Charr Mesmer. I suppose Druid Staff 1 can look something similar to that.

Dealing with the Ranger community is not easy to start with, to say the least. On top of that, Druid is supposed to introduce a new way to break the “zerker meta” mold. Thank you for being so patient and attentive throughout this BW3 to our concerns and suggestions.

There are indeed some rather good and constructive suggestions given from those very dedicated Ranger players who want nothing more than seeing their favorite class reaching its full potential. We therefore look forward to seeing the final version of Druid at launch.

Meanwhile, if there are plans for a BW4 (or other similar activities) for testing the Druid class, please let us know. We would be most delighted to continue to contribute more.

Make it only trigger a condition (or two) IF you heal someone with it.

Oh Oh OH! I just have an idea regarding adding condition damage to Staff 1:

Instead of, for example, burn a target regularly on each pulse, it burns a target IF Cosmic Ray actually heal an ally on that pulse?

It adds a layer of positioning to the gameplay.

So if Cosmic Ray ONLY hits a foe, it applies a flat damage per pulse, perhaps similar to what it is now. BUT IF it hits a foe AND an ally, Cosmic Ray applies burning per pulse. It can even be per number of stacks of burning per ally hit.

This could add some strategic positioning to using Staff and make the (rather small) healing portion of Cosmic Ray means something more. It incentivise a Staff Druid to make the most of its (constant but little) “maintenance” healing outside Celestial Avatar.

Aridia.3042:

Add boons to celestial avatar skills 1 to 4, so the pet can be buffed to do the damage component in a 1 v 1 in astral form, and it makes more sense for WvW and PVE also since both healing and buffing should happen before attacking. I wouldn’t add condi components to the celes skills since condi specs mostly all have tanky builds, to output additional condi damage while healing might be a bit too much.

Celestial Shadow – Makes little sense to get stealth as you exit. You’re most vulnerable when you need the healing so it makes more sense to get stealth when you enter celestial form, and get super speed as you exit it. This way you can have added few seconds to get those heals off and might actually make it easier to land natural convergence while stealthed. Moreover, if you take primal echoes with ancient seeds, it makes sense to run hydromancy sigil on it to get an extra proc. This will actually get rid of your stealth and make this trait not work properly. You should get stealth when you enter celestial form, so people can control when stealth kicks in.

I have been suggesting to add some defensive boons (and/or conditions) to Celestial Avatar making those boons (and/or conditions) as a supplement to heal. For example, Protection, Aegis, Stability, Blind or Weakness, or even 1-2sec of Invulnerability.

I kind of make this suggestion from the point of view as a first aider: after you have assessed the situation and decided someone needs help (healing), the first thing that you ever do is actually “do no harm”. You do not rush to fix the problem; you instead first stabilise it; hence, by analogy, in this game, applying some defensive boons or conditions.

As to Celestial Shadow, I have tested it briefly and found it weird. Does a Druid need escape boons AFTER exiting the Celestial Avatar form? And why a short 2-second Stealth? And why within a hugging distance of 240 radius? At best, Celestial Shadow can function as a repositioning tool whereby the Druid can relocate him/herself after healing the team. Otherwise, I do not see any reason to pick it over the other two Major Traits

IF Stealth and Superspeed are to stay, at least make them activated upon entering the Celestial Avatar form. But I would suggestion to change Stealth to something else, like those boons and conditions I suggested above. Superspeed can stay since a Druid may need to rush to the victims, I suppose.

I am on SoS mostly doing PvE stuff. I would very much like to learn to do Fractal and Dungeons. I would be most delighted to join the guild.

I cannot say I have a main but I do spend most of the time on my Ranger. I also play a Necro, Guardian and Mesmer.