Guild Wars 2

Where thieves use evades and stealth for survivability, guardians have blocks and blinds. Since you’re running Knights and Zerkers, recognise that your main weakness will be conditions, especially with the small health pool. Have the appropriate food buffs and runes to cover said weakness and maybe pack one condition cleanse.

Finally, you’ll soon realise that, as a roamer, Guardians are absolutely hopeless at chasing, which also means they have very little actual kill pressure.

How do they handle in PvE and WvW?

They’re fine for PVE (dungeon/fractals) and offer the best projectile reflect toolkit in the game. As they are reliant on phantasms for the majority of their damage, mesmers are weak in fights with lots of AOE. Finally, I’d say they have the least build variety because the main conditions applied by mesmers, i.e. Torment and Confusion, are terribly useless in PVE.

In WvW zergs, your role is to drop Null Fields, Veils, Feedback and the occasional Portal. Played correctly, mesmers are formidable at skirmishes while roaming or in havoc squads.

Cathellos.4835:

Ojimaru.8970:

Cathellos.4835:

Ok. Next thing, the WvW pvp thing. Im not 100% clear onhow it works. I understand that its a GIANT vs battle between servers and I think everyone is the same lvl, so no handicaps? But what do I get from it. Bragging rights, Items, EXP, Gear, or is it all just for PvP fun?

Everybody in WvW are raised to level 80, including upscaling of base stats and equipment stats. However there is a very distinct difference in character effectiveness between a level 40 in random levelling gear and a level 30 blinged out in well-chosen gear.

Generally you get the same type of loot and EXP from farming other players and Keep Lords as you would farming normal creatures and Champions in PVE. However, the rate of income isn’t as stable since you are playing against other players.

Ok. So what about when you lose to other players? Do you lose money or anything?

Just your dignity. Since the September 2014 patch, armour repair costs were removed along with Way Point travel costs in WvW. So if you die, you suffer no monetary loss.

killing them out of “rotation” … is considered rude

What nonsense. Ignore them, block them, turn off map chat. Just because some people create an arbitrary “farm route” doesn’t mean the universe has to bend to their whims.

Anyway, besides the above, there are also

Jumping Puzzles: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jumping_puzzle
Diving Goggles: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diving_goggles

I have completed this fight on the following professions, so I’ll post my experience and tips for each.

1. Mesmer (Assassin/Berserker build; 6/4/0/0/4; Sword-Sword/Pistol)
My first character to ever experience this fight. Besides getting hit by every blasted attack thrown her way, her DPS was also kitten during Phase 3 as the Phantasms would get hit by falling rocks and be utterly useless. Feedback was of limited use in Phase 1; Sword #2 and #4 were useful for mitigating “Big” and “Small” attacks in Phase 2.

2. Guardian (Berserker build; 2/6/0/4/2; Greatsword/Sword-Focus)
What a cake walk. Retreat! for Aegis and Swiftness during Phase 2, Stand Your Ground! for extra Stability during Phase 3, and Shelter, Shield of Wrath and Renewed as Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free passes. Needless to say this was the guy I used to solo the Story Journal achievements.

3. Thief (Berserker build; 6/6/0/0/2; Dagger-Dagger/Pistol-Pistol)
Being squishy as heck, she had to tread lightly throughout the encounter. I actively cleared Seed Pods and baited “Big” and “Small” attacks away from the areas where she needed to channel the Divine Fire.

4. Hunter (Berserk build; 6/4/0/4/0; Sword-Axe/Longbow)
Another cake walk. Signet of the Wild and Rampage as One for loads of Stability during Phase 3, and Healing Spring for heals and condition cleansing. Used Longbow for the Tendrils and Sword-Axe for Phase 3.

The fight can be done solo and it isn’t a required to group up, whether for normal mode or Challenge mode. Just bring a towel and, most importantly, don’t panic.

The Shadow of the Dragon (“Shadow”) cycles between 3 phases.

Phase 1:
1. It’ll hop around the outside of its ring and occasionally call you names (big multi-hit cone of knock-backness). At the same time there will be x Modrem Tendrils that you will need to kill to progress (where x is dependant on Shadow’s HP and number of players in party).

2. If your profession has projectile-blocking or reflect skills like Illusionary Warden, Wall of Reflection or Smoke Screen, you can use it to block the poison bolts the Tendrils throw at you.

3. Otherwise, just skirt around the edge of the circle to avoid Shadow’s cone attack and kill the Tendrils. If you have trouble dodging Tendril melee attacks (1 head-bonk and 1 knockback), then use a ranged weapon.

Phase 2:
1. Once all the Tendrils are cleared, Shadow will dive into the centre of the ring. Don’t stand in the red.

2. This is the part where people panic and lose their minds because they forgot to bring a towel. Really, though, things are very predictable.

3. At every 5 second-ish interval, you’ll see some dirt clouds pop up in a line across the diameter of the circle, followed by rocks popping out. The rocks will deal minimal damage but apply Cripple. Cripple is bad because mobility is your lifeline. To avoid this, stay along the edge of the circle whenever you’re waiting for the next Divine Fire. When Rox tosses the Fire in, be a responsible pedestrian and look left, then right and cross when it’s safe.

4. Once in a while, some seed pods will sprout up. Getting near one will cause them to explode and apply a hell of a Burn. However, take note that these sprout in pairs and have a rather obvious “trip wire” bit running between them. The trick to clear these is to align your character perpendicular (90-degrees) to the pair of Pods, and run straight through. The Seed Pods will explode and you, my friend, will look like an action hero (or something out of the Gangnam Style music video).

5. During all this, Shadow has 3 attacks, which I refer to as “Big-Big-Small”. “Big” attacks are claw attacks that will knock you down and apply Cripple and Bleed. “Small” attacks are bite attacks that will knock you up (hurhur) and apply Bleed. “Big” attacks can be largely ignored by having Stability, while “Small” attacks bypasses Stability (but not Aegis).

6. #3, #4 and #5 will repeat until you achieve the objective of this phase, which is to light up y points around the circle with Divine Fire (where y = 4 or more, depending on number of players in the party). You do this by walking into the white circle of Divine Fire that Rox tosses in, running to the designated spot and pressing “F”. Braum, when he’s not fixing his hair or doing crunches, will shield you with a bubble, giving you 1s of Stability, Protection and Regeneration every second. You can make use of Braum’s shield and ignore the “Big” attacks while channeling the Divine Fire; you will still need to step out of the “small” attacks’ red circle.

7. Once all the fires are lighted, we proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3:
1. The Divine Fires will create a ring and force the Shadow out of the ground. Because aliens.

2. Rocks will fall from the ceiling and knock you down, but generally don’t deal much damage.

3. During this phase, your goal is to deal as much damage to Shadow as possible within a time limit. The time limit is indicated by the shadowy figures that spawn the centre of the circle and walk towards the edge. The figures are fully invulnerable, so just follow your companion’s advice and focus on the Shadow. Keep an eye out for Kasmeer’s Time Warp for more DPS.

4. Shadow will turn invulnerable at 50% HP, but the phase won’t end prematurely, i.e. you will still be dodging falling rocks until the shadowy figures reach the circle’s edge.

5. Once this phase ends, Phase 1 repeats with changes.

Changes to the 2nd cycle and beyond:
Phase 1: After one cone attack, Shadow will throw rocks down in two volleys. It’s easier to focus on avoiding the attacks before continuing to kill the Tendrils.

Phase 2: After you light one Fire, a Shadowy Figure will appear at the centre of the ring. The Figure will walk towards the last Fire that was lighted and extinguish it. It is invulnerable to all your attacks unless you have the Divine Fire, after which they will die to one hit of a wet tissue.

Phase 3: Nothing.

Cathellos.4835:

Ok. Next thing, the WvW pvp thing. Im not 100% clear onhow it works. I understand that its a GIANT vs battle between servers and I think everyone is the same lvl, so no handicaps? But what do I get from it. Bragging rights, Items, EXP, Gear, or is it all just for PvP fun?

Everybody in WvW are raised to level 80, including upscaling of base stats and equipment stats. However there is a very distinct difference in character effectiveness between a level 40 in random levelling gear and a level 30 blinged out in well-chosen gear.

Generally you get the same type of loot and EXP from farming other players and Keep Lords as you would farming normal creatures and Champions in PVE. However, the rate of income isn’t as stable since you are playing against other players.

With the introduction of Megaservers, all you need to do is be in the same party as your friends to play on the same instance of a PVE map. Once in a party, right click on a party member’s portrait and select “Join in [map]”.

Do note that this only applies to PVE maps. You will not be able to guest into another server’s WvW maps.

Power, Precision and Ferocity are the stats to prioritise for a Guardian, regardless of weapon choice.

Condition Damage builds aren’t really any good until you are able to unlock the Tier 3 Major Traits.

First off, I have zero training in music. But I enjoy music and especially enjoy the chance to live the life of a musician through the in-game instruments. So far I’ve used the amazing submissions in the Sheet Music Threads, and have personally made a few requests of my own. However, I’m eager to find an alternative to relying on others for this.

Is there some way for somebody who doesn’t know his musical ABCs to transcribe the notes of an existing piece of music to play in-game? This is assuming the original’s sheet music is available, as trying to identify notes by ear would be way out of my league.

Cheers.

You don’t need a special MMO mouse, a tiny keyboard or massive hands to push your character to his/her limits. Here is old my keybind setup, which you can adapt as you feel fit.

Before all else, I don’t use Double-Tap to Dodge, because I do lots of jumping puzzles. Instead, I had Dodge bound to Shift, i.e. Shift dodged back, Shift+direction dodged in the appropriate direction.

Keybinds:

A, S, D — Forward, Strafe Left and Right
What? No Back? Yes. No Back. Backpedaling is slow and has no use cases 99% of the time.

Q,W,E,R,T — Weapon Skills
Z,X,C,V,B — Heals, Utility and Elite
1,2,3,4 — Profession skills
F1,F2,F3, etc. — Hero Panels, Inventory, etc.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/returningplayers

Follow the guide until 450. The recipes used, i.e. Superior Rune of Krait and Giver’s armour set are very cheap to make, the former is then sold to vendors, while the latter can be salvaged for materials.

Afterwards, since you’re using the armour anyway, make those armour pieces. Since you’ve planned to craft instead of farming tokens, then you’ll eventually incur the costs anyway.

Finish your sprint to 500 with the remainder of the guide, which are just a bunch of discoveries anyway.

Don’t forget to use Crafting Boosters.

I’ll volunteer for the OCE/SEA timezones.

I’m good for PVE and WvW basics.

The FGS train has migrated to Silverwastes and evolved to the SW Chest Train.

Step 1: Pick one of 4 forts (i.e. Red, Blue, Indigo or Amber) to defend.

Step 2: Do the defend events, escort Supply Dolyaks, kill Modrem Champions during the Breach events, and complete the final Vinewrath event. These will award you Bandit Crests and occasionally Shovels.

Step 3: Spend your Bandit Crests on either Bandit Skeleton Keys or Stolen Loot Bags. The former is used to open Lost Bandit Chests that are unearthed throughout the SW map using the aforementioned shovels. The Lost Bandit Chest contains 1 Champ Loot bag, 1+ silver and some other junk, including cloth. The latter can either be sold on the TP or opened for the T5 and T6 maths.

Step 4: Once you have a decent stack of Shovels and Bandit Skeleton Keys, put up an LFG along the lines of “SW Chest Farm” to bring in more people (hopefully with Shovels of their own) and run around SW digging up chests.

Optional: You can run the Labyrinth after the Vinewrath event for Nightmare Keys that will allow you to open a chest containing 2-3 Champ Loot Bags.

Thaddeus.4891:

Its a selfish build that boost only your survivability, while having limited damage and group support.

I think you shouldn’t lump all Guardian Shout builds together with Altruistic Healing builds. There are variations that are not “selfish”, assuming group-wide Aegis, Stability, Retaliation, Protection and condition cleanse is considered selfish.

Diviner’s Mantle in my inventory that I can neither sell not salvage (and for the life of me I don’t remember how I got it).

Likely from the level up rewards introduced in the NPE. Depending on the item’s level requirement, there may not be a “meaningful” way of disposing of it, i.e. I wouldn’t want to mix a level 46 exotic with 3 other level 80 exotics in the Forge.

I don’t know about the 20s, but around mid-30s, you can try the pirate cove at the Brigantine Isles in Gendarran Fields. Then around the 50s, the Scorchlands in Iron Marches is also pretty decent.

Basically, what you want to do is kit out in Power, Precision and Ferocity gear as much as possible, and run a circuit in these areas. The mobs have about a 90s respawn timer.

Also to consider is the bonus EXP from mobs. i.e. the longer a mob stays alive after spawning, the more bonus EXP it will accumulate, up to about 2.5x it’s regular EXP reward.

I’m sorry, can you keep it simple and say again which achievement – or whatever it is – that you’re trying to get?

I can only guess the one you’re talking about is the achievement Opportune Moment. In which case, allow me to refer you to a video guide, courtesy of Dulfy.net:

TheSwede.9512:

There is no Aggro System in place in GW2,

False.

There is an aggro system in place, just not something similar to WoW or Wildstar where there are threat modifiers to aid tanks.

with people that want to do the same!

That’s a large and glaring assumption.

CrazyHobo.4038:

-ohhhh ok 97 gold isnt as bad as i thought haha guessing i need 400-500 craftmanship on a couple of crafts though eh?

Quivers and Books from the mystic forge do not require any crafting professions.

Dire works for Condi Neco, Thief and Engi in open world PVE, Triple Trouble, WvW zerg and roaming.

I’d go for Sinister stats if solely for open world PVE, dungeons and fractals.

CrazyHobo.4038:

That recipe for the ascended backpiece, is that a 100% surefire way of getting an ascended back? Or is there chance of failure? O.o

100% success rate. And apologies for the mistake: Bowyer’s Delight is Soldier stats (Power, Toughness, Vitality). Berserker stats are from Quiver of Swift Flight, which costs approximately 97g worth of materials.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Quiver_of_Swift_Flight

CrazyHobo.4038:

30 laurels for the amulet? I thought it was 40 + 50globs of ecto? Cuz i have 32 laurels now…

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Laurel_merchant
Wiki says Amulets are 30 Laurels. Accessories are 40 + 50 ecto.

Season 1 isn’t replayable at the moment because ANet used world events to tell most of the story. These world events greatly altered affected maps depending on the episodes and many of these required large groups of players to complete. So even if they remake the events in instances like in Season 2, you’d still have a really hard time finding enough players to attempt the story. Instead, ANet has released some of the dungeon instances form Season 1 as Fractal dungeons for players to replay.

Season 2 episodes that you miss by not logging in during the 2 weeks it was available is a financial decision to encourage players to log in at least once every 2 weeks just to gain access to the episode for free.

A1: I’m going to be honest with you, if you are only able to put in 2 hours a week for the game, gearing one character is full ascended is going to take a very long time. But not impossible or even unfeasible, once we use some Time Management-jutsu.

Backpiece. Unless you can find a guild or a static group to run Fractals with, let’s assume that’s out of the question. That leaves us with the other two methods of making an ascended back piece, i.e. Mystic Forge and crafting. The cheapest of these are the book/quiver ascended back pieces from the Mystic Forge, the recipe being (taken from Dulfy’s guide):

General formula: 1 Vial of Condensed Mists Essence or 250 Bloodstone Dust + 250 Philosopher’s Stone/40 Crystal + 50 Glob of Ectoplasm + 250 T6 Fine Crafting material (except for venom sacs and totems)

So for example Bowyer’s Delight (Berserker) would, at the time of writing, cost around 86g in purchasable materials. This is an overestimate since you will eventually get Ectoplasm and Vicious Fangs while gathering the gold.

Well, if the goal is to make gold, let’s consider some of the most time-efficient methods. You can play the commodity market, of course, but I can’t really speak much on the subject as I’m terrible at it. Otherwise, another fast method would be to run dungeons. Each Ascalonian Catacombs (AC) explorable path, when done with a competent group takes about 10 minutes, and rewards 1.81g for the first run of the day. That’s 5.43g in 30 minutes, per day, excluding the loot sold to NPC vendors and the TP. So if you only did AC P1, 2 and 3 daily, spending about 30-40 minutes total, you’ll be able to buy the Ectoplasm and Fangs in less than 16 days.

Amulet. Just spend 5 minutes a day to login to claim the login reward and logout. By the 23rd login, you’ll have the 30 Laurels needed for the amulet.

A2: I’d set world exploration as a lower priority until you complete the above, but it’s a great distraction now and then. When you do, don’t discount the gathering nodes. Of everything you do in the map, they are your biggest source of gold income during map completion.

A3: Of course you’ll be able to subsidise the cost of the legendary with the stuff you pick up while working on the above goals. Just find out what materials you actually need and sell the rest.

You can’t replay stories from Season 1, but you can unlock earlier episodes of Season 2 using 200 Gems each episode.

Alternatively, there are summaries on the Wiki you can (kinda) read.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Megaservers ruined gw2nodes. As was said, you never know which map you are loading into.

Well, you can find out which map you’re in with the /ip command. The second last bit of numbers are what we call “maps” now.

My best tip for new players:

1. Play the game and ask if you don’t understand something.

Even as somebody transition from another MMO, GW2 has a whole bunch of stuff that can’t be easily covered without being a wiki. Try out a profession/class, let us know what it is, and explore the world while the helpful people on this forum try to jam your head with information.

If you’re thinking about crafting some equipment to increase your survivability in WvW, you only need 400 Leatherworking to craft exotic gear. The stat combination you’ll want is Soldiers (Power, Toughness, Vitality).

But, if you’re still adamant on making your Ascended armour, Soldier’s – or in this case, Ahamid’s – is still the stat combination you’ll want to go for.

Regarding Guilds, their 100% rep policy and your personal guild bank. Assuming you already have the guild bank research you need completed, in all honesty, how long would you really need to spend rep-ping the alt guild? 10 minutes? 20? Once you’re done your housework, switch back and most people won’t care. If they do… well, there are plenty of other guilds around without sticks up their darker reaches.

Regarding what to do next. This answer varies from person to person but what I know works on many is this: find a goal. Long term or short term, find something in the game to work towards. Maybe that dream of a legendary weapon is too far off, but there are other things like completing a certain achievement or set of achievements, or maybe a particular title. Maybe you want to challenge yourself and others at the various speed run records, be it dungeon, fractal or jumping puzzle. Maybe you want to be that username people recognise and respect instantly when they see you in PvP or WvW. Or even getting that specific set of gear and dyes, becoming the next best looking character in the game. Hell, it could even be as simple as wanting to buy 5,000 Fireworks and start a party in Lions Arch. Whatever your goal ends up being, there will be a path, or multiple paths, of which you can take to reaching it, thus giving you lots of stuff to do.

For example, my current goal is to achieve the Grand Artisan title by obtaining a full set of ascended armour of each weight class. This lead me to paying attention and learning optimal strategies from dungeon speed runners, learning how amazing a Thief plays while farming for Wool and Linen Scraps, and the other myriad ways making gold and finding appropriate materials in GW2. At the same time, I also want to complete the Luminescent armour set, both because of the title, the armour skin and the free piece of ascended armour. And since one of Kholer’s adds dropped a Howler for me, I’ve researched and laid out my plans to craft my second legendary.

All berserker. Full glass. Much nuke. Very hype.*

• Only for PVE, except Tequatl and Triple Threat world boss fights.

The best gear is made or forged

Or found. Or through specific achievements.

Stat Priority for a Thief: Power – Precision – Vitality, in that order.

Power builds with no Ferocity is pointless outside of WvW Zerg Frontlines. The extra vitality from Valkyrie or Toughness from Cavalier will allow your squishy thief to withstand an extra ONE regular attack from a boss. HYPE!

Link to guide on Dulfy.net

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/30/gw2-the-dragons-reach-part-i-explorer-achievements-guide/

Q1: None. Although personally I’d use Boost Enchantment Powders to convert the XP and Karma boosters to Magic Find or Crafting Boosters.

Q3: Average cost of ’Forging 4 medallions is 4s 44c, whereas crests are typically sold around 3s 30c, with Crest of the Assassin as the outlier. Therefore you are more likely to lose money forging the crests. On the other hand, average price of superior runes and sigils are 1g 82s and 3g 86s, respectively, with major runes and sigils selling for approximately 4s each.

Q5: Using 4 rare Foci will guarantee a Focus, rare or exotic. Adding a second type of weapon into the mix will result in a random weapon, rare or exotic.

It is rare a day when I don’t laugh when the words “conspiracy theorists” and “fact” are used to back one’s claims.

Cheezy.2039:

I would like this idea if they eliminated the problems some of the dungeon paths have.

Why does no one run SE p2? That’s not because reward/time sucks, that’s because the escort event bugs out half the time making you reset the path. Why does no one run Aetherpath? Of course I can speak solely for myself but the rewards/time are okay but it’s simply not fun. (Unskippable cutscenes, huge timegates, boring puzzles)

Other than that I like that more difficult paths (like HotW) would get a better reward than easier ones (like AC).

Exactly this. Before ANet should even bother with such complicated systems, they first need to actually fix their dungeons. Because face it, even if they make SE P2 or Arah P4 worth 4g a run, while nerfing AC paths to 1g, in their current state nothing would change.

Heal skills: Use either Hide in Shadows or Signet of Malice, the latter being the preferred where mobs use Bleed, Burn and Poison

Signet skill: Assassin’s Signet and Infiltrator’s Signet would be my go-to, while aiming for Signet of Shadows while in the open world.

World Boss chests and bonus chests: These are only available once per day per character.

Check out a full guide for the achievements on Dulfy’s site:
http://dulfy.net/2014/12/03/gw2-seeds-of-truth-living-world-story-achievements-guide/

It’s much easier to do the Centaur achievements with at 2 players, as you can alternate between both players to get the Don’t Tread On Me achievement by having one person stay ranged.

As for the Centaur Shaman boss, it’s a pretty old raid/dungeon mechanic. The boss will remain invulnerable while at least 1 Earth Elemental is alive. The Elementals have high toughness but low health, and will spawn a Sand Pool when they die. So the ideal way to handle them as Caithe is to stand against a wall and use skill #3 (AOE cripple and Torment), then kite them a little for the full effects of Torment. Run back towards the boss when the Elementals are close to death, thus forcing the Sand Pools to spawn in areas that you won’t likely accidentally run into. Note that Wind Walls will rarely spawn from the walls, but they are generally the safest spot to stand while killing Elementals. It is also important to be moving the entire time to avoid the Shaman’s rock projectiles.

Finally, do make use of the LFG UI. Advertise for a group in the Open World or Personal Story tab and more often than not you’ll find a kindred spirit, especially during weekends or holidays.

Gulesave.5073:

If this is for PvE, (which is how the editor is flagged), you usually don’t need so much boon removal. I use Well of Power instead of Corruption.

In PVE Well of Corruption is used for the damage in most cases, rather than the Boon strip.

As for the suggested build…

Vampiric Rituals is pointless
I’d drop the Curse line for 6 in Spite for Axe Training and Closer to Death. Wells and Life Transfer have roughly the same CD, so weapon swap to Axe for additional efficiency on your AOE skills and Lich Form.
Well of Blood is absolutely lacklustre and your build lacks condition removal, so I’d drop that for Consume Conditions.

I’m an experienced dungeon runner but may be a little out of practice on current “meta” dungeon/fractal tactics. Would like to relearn and share the knowledge how I can.

I’m from Malaysia (UTC+0800) and am typically on early morning EST on weekdays, and prime time EST during weekends.

Thanks for the detailed replies!

I have seriously considered Thumper Turrets over Elixir Gun, especially since Acid Bomb’s displacement has, on some occasions, caused grief to me and my party. (I know it’s technically possible to cancel the jump animation, but insofar as I have tried, there’s still a 200 unit jump, unless I’m doing it wrong.) However the problem I’ve had in execution with Thumpers is the delay over Overload, which makes it rather difficult to time Detonate Turret while trying to spot the Thumper’s attack animation amidst the dog pile of bodies and flashy lights. Do you have any tips on better use of Thumpers?

Also, Sinister vs Rampager?

And Dragon Bash was last June, while there wasn’t one this year thanks to Scarlet. Maybe one after Modremoth gets pruned.

Cool. Thanks for all the info guys.

1) Have Jade weapons been removed from the game? (until possibly the next Dragon Bash?)

2) Is it a trend whereby older weapon skins will increase in price (from 1 ticket to 5)?

Cheers

Okay, so to start off let me introduce a build I’m using (not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, etc. etc. etc. as I had taken a break from the game for over six months). My engineer (build link) is designed for group Might stacking and near-permanent (personal) Vigor and Swiftness buff. The general play style (of which I have personally tested) is that of a frantic engineer pulling levers, pressing buttons, monitoring situations, etc. So far as I have devised, my opening to fights start like this:

1. Med Kit (activates Rune of Altruism’s party-wide 3xMight and Fury)
2. Incendiary Ammo
3. Drop Stimulant (set on Auto-cast)
4. Big Ol’ Bomb
5. Bomb Kit
6. Fire Bomb
7. Elixir Gun (around this time Fire Bomb explodes, followed by Big Ol’ Bomb blast, giving the party another 3xMight)
8. Acid Bomb (another Blast finisher on Fire Bomb’s fire field, hence another 3xMight, which gives a total of 9xMight for the party and 12x on my Engineer)
9. Weapon switch to Rifle
10. Jump Shot (Leap finisher; used to be able to snag the tail end of Fire Bomb’s field for Fire Aura, not sure whether I’m just slow now)
11. Blunderbuss
12. Flamethrower
13. Napalm
14. Flame Blast
15. Detonate Flame Blast (it’s a blast finisher now?)
16. Supply Crate (more blast finishers!)

Around this time I’m at a total loss as to how best to follow up. Are the regular Bombs with the Bomb Kit better than using Hip Shot for single targets? Are there a different set of skills that’s more efficient? Berserker vs Carrion vs Celestial vs ??? Have I missed any new/updated runes or sigils that synergises better?

Would love to hear the community’s thoughts.

Casmurro.9046:

I saw that wildstar failed but i still dont understand why that happened. I think maybe its because players nowadays want hardcore content but they were too lazy to keep farming atunements, so they want the hardcore aspect from the old WoW days but they dont like the hardcore grind.

It’s simple. Wildstar catered towards the “hardcore” audience, who happens to be very niche, and allowed entry to the full experience of the game to these “hardcore” players. At the same time, there isn’t anything for the players who weren’t “hardcore”, which meant there was no reason for them to pay a monthly subscription (or grind the gold for it). The players who weren’t “hardcore” left the game, which left the open world and cities empty.

While that, some “hardcore” players for one reason or another leave the game, which puts the onus on the rest of his guild to find a replacement “hardcore” player to fill their 20- or 40-man raid. During this search, all 19 or 39 remaining players have nothing to do. So it’s to nobody’s surprise that within a week of failed tryouts, the entire raid team disbands, even including some “hardcore” players leaving the game entirely.

Thus continues the vicious cycle.

For all its faults, Wildstar had the better take on Defiance (or Interrupt Armour, as it was known there), especially in end game dungeon encounters (bosses and thrash).

To those unfamiliar with their system, it’s broadly similar to GW2: boss tier enemies have a certain amount of Interrupt Armour (“IA”) that players would have to deplete before being able to land any CC. The two main differences are

a) IA is reset to maximum stacks (typically 2) within 10s of the first stack dropping. This punishes flagrant and misuse of interrupt skills and promotes team coordination.

b) Successfully interrupting any mob skill puts the mob into a state known as the Moment of Opportunity (“MoO”) whereby they will be stunned and receive 150% damage for a certain duration. This promotes specific and deliberate use of interrupts, especially since Wildstar has in-game incentives (better loot drops) for speed runs.

Now the big problems inherent to the GW2 system that acts against all this are as follows:

a) Interrupts are sometimes a product of RNG, e.g. Daze as a random effect from Chaos Field, Ranger canine pet’s knockdown. This can probably be fixed by removing these RNG factors.

b) Dodging, especially with Vigor, negates most negative effects easily and does not require any team coordination.

c) Most interrupt skills have cast times, and not all are the same. This makes any timing interrupts to coincide with enemy cast times extremely difficult.

d) Interrupting mob skills only sets it back by 5 seconds or so, meaning it’ll be ready much quicker than the party’s interrupts.

Now, I’m not saying both of Wildstar’s IA system above works for GW2 as is. Having in-game rewards for speed runs is a debatable matter, and resetting Defiance stacks may be a little too “hardcore” for GW2’s target audience. However, some of it can make a big step towards rewarding higher-skill play, for example,

a) Normalise all interrupt skills to instant cast and possibly remove all RNG stuns, daze, etc.

b) Implement Wildstar’s MoO system. This rewards higher skilled players with faster kills, while regular players can carry on with their regular play style.

c) As with Wildstar, give dungeon Champion tier mobs 2 stacks of Defiance that resets after 10s. This means that 3 out of 5 party members need to coordinate their interrupts in order to benefit from the MoO. Open world Champions will likely have to be set to uninterruptible, but I don’t foresee that as a problem as nobody in these events even care about the original Defiance mechanic anyway. In the case that ANet’s tech can’t support timed resets of Defiance, simply keeping the current Defiance counter works, too.

d) With the new Living Story achievements, players get a buff at the start of the repeated run to prompt them towards a particular challenge, at which they are rewarded should they get the achievement. So why not introduce this to dungeons and fractals (especially since we already see a hint of that in the Grawl fractal)? Let’s say, for example, killing the Cave Troll in AC gives a bonus event chest and AP, or defeating the Jellyfish Beast at the end of the Aquatic Ruins Fractal with nobody getting eaten gives a bonus chest and AP.

In short, the idea is to make Defiance an optional mechanic for players looking for a challenge, while at the same time giving them a incentive to do so (faster kills, bonus chest, etc.). There may be a number of “elitist” groups that pop up as a result, but that’s not all too different from the current “Zerker only, link gear, 8g per run” groups, who are few and far between.

Before I left many moons ago, I had been deeply involved in PVE (dungeon speed runs, group build optimisation, Tequatl) and WvW (formerly of HIRE). That being said, I’m a fairly flexible player who has nothing against playing with all manner of players, provided they are sociable and active in the game.

I’m looking for a guild which is active around the South East Asian or Oceanic evenings – or NA early mornings – on weekdays (and anytime during weekends).

Feel free to post any questions below.

Cheers.

Carighan.6758:

Behind every great party stands a cutesy asuran mesmer clone.

Fixed. The real one’s chilling in the forums while the party takes down Clockheart.

My Mesmer’s current two sets of gear for PVE and WvW.

e) invulnerability state begins with a big aoe root (huge red circle around him), meaning you can already prepare to fetch the holo

Invulnerability state also only occurs when he no longer has his stacking buff, and usually around 10s of the buff falling off. Otherwise, having one person simply tapping the hologram with a 1200 range weapon and getting back to the boss is fine.

Skills that are useful:
1) Necromancer – Deathly Grasp (Note: due to the subsequent Chill, only use when the hologram is halfway/near to the boss)

2) Engineer – Tool Kit: Magnetic Pull

3) Thief – Scorpion Wire