Guild Wars 2

Hi, could you check your build links in the first post? The latest one seems broken.

Cheers

Utomneian.9013:

i’m skeptical about colesy’s suggestion, i mean, if my thief who is not even full berserker is having problems surviving at fractal 15, then how am i gonna take a mesmer to 30?

if glassier builds is the way to go though, i do have a staff ele that i am decent at using, though i messed up my build a long time ago, it being my first character, i have an ascended PTV ring that i am too stubborn to delete, lol… otherwise everything except for my back is berserker. would i have better chances getting to fractal 30 on a staff ele?

That’s the point. The higher you climb in Fractals, the less Toughness and Vitality matter, as ironic as it sounds. By then, survivability is all in tactics, movements and defensive skills.

Three thieves in a fractal party is fine – not ideal, but doable. Like any other profession going into higher-level fractals, though, you’ll each need to learn your classes thoroughly and understand where to use which skills. Being able to answer questions like “What slot skills to bring into the Old Tom encounter?” is what determines success from failure.

Skin drops are from the Clockheart Boss Chest.

ZazzzMatazzz.7439:

Ojimaru.8970:

ZazzzMatazzz.7439:

Thank you both for your replies I did a couple dungeons last night and noticed the wall stacking you where speaking of and to be honest it really took the fun out of the dungeon and IMO unless my few groups sucked the wall stacking is an excuse for less skilled players to avoid party wipes which is where all the challenge comes from I do hope to see the staff support buffed as it was by far the most enjoyable for me to play kitten . again thank you for the replies.

I disagree with your assessment. “Wall stacking” is simply a method to efficiently deal the most DPS to a group of trash mobs using melee cleave attacks and AoE. It has nothing to do with skill.

hmm I may have misunderstood stacking what I was talking about was when everyone finds a spot and clumps up. there’s absolutely no challenge in that at all if I wanted something easy to do id stay out of dungeons, they are easy enough as it is. and the two groups in question when they weren’t standing in one spot clumped in a corner all they did was die. it was as if they had no clue how to actually fight so they took an easy and far less satisfying route.

Yes, that describes what we mean by “stacking”. Well, minus the dying bit. You’re not supposed to die.

What stacking does is to exploit the weakness of the AI, as we have for years, drawing them around dark corners like little children chasing the elusive ice cream truck. When they turn the corner, down comes the wrathful vengeance of our heroes. If anything, this tactic does test the aptitude of said heroes, challenging them to understand when to use what skills, and most importantly, when to disengage.

For example, in the first encounter of Crucible of Eternity, consisting of an Icebrood Colossus and two Icebrood Elementals. Clumping them up is arguably much more dangerous here because the Elementals have an AOE attack (V-shaped ice attack) that deals significant amounts of damage and knocks you back. While dangerous alone, two will easily wipe the entire party within two seconds. This then challenges the players to understand two very crucial things:

1. The aforementioned ice attack can be reflected or blocked as projectiles. Successfully reflecting the attack will deal over 60% of the enemies’ HP in damage.

2. You have to recognise an obvious danger on the ground and dodge. Yes! Dodge.

The same concepts are applies with the next fight with the Icebrood Wolves, Golems guarding the Golemetric Waypoint, etc.

Yes, stacking is a tactic that can be used by anybody. But like a hammer, simply knowing that it can somehow put a nail into something doesn’t mean you can do it without broken thumbs.

SynfulChaot.3169:

Ojimaru.8970:

SynfulChaot.3169:

Yes. You can. Not everyone is loaded with reflects and stability, though. Rangers only get it on an elite. Some professions don’t get it at all.

With the right group comp, Slick may be faster. For random groups? Sparki.

Sparki’s attacks can’t be reflected (sadly), only blocked with skills like Shield of Absorption or Smoke Screen (yes, thieves. USE IT)

Eh. S’what I meant. Not like rangers have a good block for that and our only real reflect would just kill the ooze.

The ooze in the Sparki and Slick encounter takes 0 damage from all sources.

Or was that what you meant too?

SynfulChaot.3169:

Charak.9761:

Guess it helps being a guard, can ignore all of sparkis mechanics during slick kill

Yes. You can. Not everyone is loaded with reflects and stability, though. Rangers only get it on an elite. Some professions don’t get it at all.

With the right group comp, Slick may be faster. For random groups? Sparki.

Sparki’s attacks can’t be reflected (sadly), only blocked with skills like Shield of Absorption or Smoke Screen (yes, thieves. USE IT)

ZazzzMatazzz.7439:

Thank you both for your replies I did a couple dungeons last night and noticed the wall stacking you where speaking of and to be honest it really took the fun out of the dungeon and IMO unless my few groups sucked the wall stacking is an excuse for less skilled players to avoid party wipes which is where all the challenge comes from I do hope to see the staff support buffed as it was by far the most enjoyable for me to play kitten . again thank you for the replies.

I disagree with your assessment. “Wall stacking” is simply a method to efficiently deal the most DPS to a group of trash mobs using melee cleave attacks and AoE. It has nothing to do with skill.

I find it endlessly fascinating that people claiming the “casual player” tag are crying about how they can’t complete the dungeon within the first 48 hours of its release and calling for people to be fired. How horrendous of you, ArenaNet.

What interesting timing.

Currently, pure support isn’t well-valued in dungeons, regardless of profession. Most groups prefer you gear towards damage and consider support as secondary. In other words, we want the support provided by the skillset of a staff elementalist, but we prefer if you help us kill this boss faster.

Interestingly in a week or so, ArenaNet has already announced plans to buff the support capabilities of every profession. You can read more about it here. The part pertaining to Elementalist is as follows:

Elementalist
We’re working on the staff in an effort to make it a stronger support weapon, and we also improved the conjure weapons so that they’re stronger for support. You’ll see improvements to all 4 of the conjure weapons to make them stronger and better for support.

We also increased the healing on Water Blast, the radius on Geyser and we reworked
Unsteady Ground to make it function more like line of warding.

I am absolutely in disagreement with your assessment that mesmers are “useless” next to warriors and guardians. On any other day I would have put on my “Elitist Tophat of Nerd Rage +20” and demand you L2P and so on, so forth… But that’s not the point of this topic.

Well, between my years of multiplayer games, I have to say that this isn’t something unique to GW2, or goodness forbid, new. Hell, I admit that I have dumped particularly frustrating groups before, even in GW2. It really boils down to an individual’s threshold of patience. It just so happens that some people have none.

Chin up. It may or may not be entirely your fault, but have some, well, patience. The dungeon has been out for less than a week, so people are still stumbling through it. The content is permanent, so there’s always an opportunity to come back once the hysteria has died down.

So I’ve just browsed through the entire list of Lockdown build above and, in general, have a couple of questions:

1. Why don’t many, if any, build use Signet of Domination? I would have thought that such a long-duration Stun at 0.25 s cast time would be a staple.

2. Does anybody know if Shattered Concentration is affected by Imbued Diversion, i.e. with both traited, Diversion now causes AoE boon removal?

The potions work on the Inquest Golems, i.e. the set just before the laser trap room, the Golem boss and the subsequent room afterwards. The potion, strangely, sees most usage from SE path 1.

Fay.2735:

<— The aforementioned shiny guild leader ^

…

I’ll be submitting a petition to the Captain’s Council to legislate against super-shiny asuras on ground that they are a public hazard. Excessive shininess at below waist height will cause glaring to regular folk’s eyes, leading into them tripping over said perpetrator or other obstacle and fall to their deaths.

It is at these times that I am grateful that Evon Gnashblade did not get elected for he would simply tell us to buy more Sunglasses from the Black Lion Gem Store.

How do I get geared up for WvW? I’m a year behind everyone else, and I’m sure a lot of people out there are going to have some pretty amazing gear, and I’m just going to get rolled. Should I wait till I’m 80, and get some end game dungeon gear before I bother with WvW? What’s the best way to go about getting PvP gear for WvW?

The beauty of Guild Wars 2 is that, even if somebody has 4,000 hours into a character, getting full Level 80 Exotic gear isn’t hard. The “basic” set you should aim to start with will be Soldier items, i.e. main stat Power, minor stats Toughness and Vitality; alternatively there is also Dire items, i.e. main stat Condition Damage, minor stats Toughness and Vitality.

Soldier weapons and armour can be obtained with Dungeon tokens (Ascalonian Catacombs, Sorrow’s Embrace and Honour of the Wind dungeon tokens, to be specific), Karma (from the vendors at the various Orrian Temples) and Badges of Honour (vendors in WvW). You can also find Soldier-type weapons and trinkets in the Black Lion Trading Post. The reason these are the “basic” for WvW is due the survivability it provides, while still allowing you do deal decent damage. While it won’t allow you your 16k Kill Shot, it’ll allow you great survivability in team fights.

Dire armour is harder to come by since the only way to get them, as of this post, is with tokens from Crucible of Eternity; weapons can be found in the Trading Post, thanks to the new crafting recipes. If you still fancy playing a Condition Damage build, the alternative stat set is Rabid, i.e. main stat Condition Damage, minor stats Precision and Toughness. These can be obtained with Dungeon tokens (Caudecus’ Manor, Twilight Arbor and Ruined City of Arah) and Badges of Honour.

However, that’s not to say you can’t effectively participate in WvW before level 80! All it requires is that you follow the same gearing guidelines, i.e. prioritising survivability. A quick fix would be to look up the Black Lion Trading Post for some items with stats similar to Soldier’s and Dire, even if Blue or Green tier. Simply kitting your character out appropriately will make a world of difference (same logic applies for pre-80 dungeon runs).

Besides gear, you’ll typically need to gain access to your server’s voice communications, be it Teamspeak, Raidcall, Ventrillo or Mumble. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a microphone or simply don’t want to talk to people. What matters is that you listen in to team communications, especially the Commander you are following. Knowing where to go, when to charge, when to retreat, what to shoot, who to look out for is crucial if you don’t want to die alone amidst a sea of enemies. Even if you don’t want to speak up, alerting people through map (/m) or team (/t) chat to enemy movements, especially when they are besieging a keep or tower, is equally important.

Of course, this is all in the perspective of someone who enjoys team effort. If you think running around in a zerg while dominating PPT is for skilless leeches and prefer roaming duels, you can look up some videos and guides in your appropriate profession forum.

Basti.7860:

Cloud Atlas - End Title

hide spoiler

14 8 8 3 8 8 4 8 8 4 2
14 8 8 3 8 8 4 8 8 4
(21 5 4 3 1 4 3 2 5 4 2)
1 5 4 3 3 2
repeat

Hi, thanks for this. After spending the weekend testing/practicing, however, I feel some of the keys and timing off, compared to the original score. But this will be a great baseline to build on.

Cheers.

Requesting

Cloud Atlas End Title from Cloud Atlas (2013)
iTunes Store: https://itunes.apple.com/my/album/cloud-atlas-sextet-for-orchestra/id574518857?i=574519140
Piano cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZeA7bd-M1E
Sheet music (unofficial): http://www.mfpiano.co.uk/sheets/

Noble Maiden Fair (A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal) from Brave (2012)
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/my/album/noble-maiden-fair-mhaighdean/id532573163?i=532573493
Youtube (unofficial): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnI0BY1Yg5g
Flute/Tin Whistle cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8nV6NY8qqM

I have tried to make a similar group Might-stacking build work, but have given up. The combos just involve a great deal of knock backs which is really a detriment to group DPS. My current build uses Flamethrower, Elixir Gun, Enhance Performance and Rune of Altruism, and even then I’m finding the build hog-tied in certain fights, e.g. Spider Queen and Subject Alpha, where launching off in the wrong direction with Acid Bomb can result in a group wipe.

How do you overcome things like the delayed Thumper Turret Overcharge with your fire field, by the way?

With all due respect, I’m not that impressed with the Mesmer’s gameplay. At all. Throughout the fights the Mesmer is seen on the sidelines doing little but dropping a Glamour and stomping Downed opponents.

Wouldn’t an off-hand pistol (Stun-daze-blind-confusion), torch (Retaliation and condition cleanse) or greatsword be more impactful than sword-focus in these fights?

Stop hoarding.

Boosters? Do you use them? Why haven’t you used them?

WvW Siege? Does your server have a strong WvW presence? Does your guild have strong WvW presence? If yes to either, then send the siege to a (trusted) commander. “But I want to place sie-” No. “Bu-” No. 9.9999/10 times, random placement of siege weapons is a detriment to a siege effort. By controlling what siege weapon gets placed where, a commander can make sure he/she has the proper supplies to take down a tower, or even a keep. If no to either, why not make some coin and sell the siege in the TP?

Currency? After the introduction of the character wallet, most other currencies are irrelevant. The same goes to tickets, buttons, etc.

Transmutation Stones? How is this a problem? Why are you hoarding Transmutation Stones? Do you plan to have a low-level alt that will never see level 80 and you plan to have 99 different sets of armour for him/her? If so, carry on.

As odd as it sounds, one of the greatest strengths of a Guardian is its lack of reliable condition damage from its main-hand weapons. This means that most builds rely on direct damage and hence allow the Guardian’s arsenal to be extremely versatile, with each weapon being a contribution in a myriad of different scenarios. Hence, I always advise Guardians to work towards getting a one of each weapon to carry in their inventory.

Now, regarding your build.

Unfortunately, for Guild Wars 2, PVE and WvW each has their “sub-genres” which has their own “optimal” builds. To start off, PVE can be split into open-world PVE – one that focuses on dynamic events or general running about – and dungeons (including Fractals; although some professions have further different builds for Fractals). Frankly, any build works in open-world PVE, although you will find that your build farming relatively slower to other more aggressive builds (e.g. full Berserkers). As for Dungeons, your DPS (damage-per-second) is also lacking; tankiness isn’t a high priority in most Explorable Dungeons and Fractals. If you like a fair deal of Toughness and Vitality, consider switching your armour to Soldier stats instead (i.e. major in Power, minor in Toughness and Vitality). Furthermore, Celestial isn’t ideal for Guardians since Condition Damage isn’t an optimal stat for Guardians, considering the profession only has access to Burning as a reliable form of Condition Damage. Due to the multitude of Aegis, Protection and other healing capabilities of the profession, most find the Guardian perfectly survivable in full Berserkers.

Next, we consider WvW, which is also split between roaming solo or in small groups, and being part of a zerg/blob/block/mob/guild/organised bag farm/whathaveyou. For the former, again, you lack damage. Sure, maybe you can bunker down on a point, but that doesn’t stop the opponent from ignoring you – and maybe calling more of his/her friends to help. On the other hand, as part of a zerg (etcetcetc), Sentinels just sacrifices too much damage. While survivability is valued, being a front-liner without significant damage pressure isn’t necessarily good either. As above, consider using Soldier equipment instead.

Hope you find this useful.

I can’t comment on PvP, but both professions are welcomed in WvW for their CCs and utility. As for PVE, they are also both perfectly viable.

Thanks to the recent update, both professions are fairly “active” in combat, i.e. you don’t sit and autoattack all day.

HyJinx.4896:

and as far as that golem not taking damage just use condition damage when its not shielded and it will suffer the damage from it while it is shielded… keep that up and they will fall over dead easily

ZOMGWTF Condition damage finally being viable in a dungeon scenario! No wonder people are crying.

Wow, I totally forgot about the Monocle. Thanks for reminding me.

AR’s difficulty is perfect. It’s totally viable going max DPS, but man does it make your life miserable, especially if your team isn’t prepared to support you.

I sincerely hope ANet recognises the fact that the amount of complaints will always outnumber the number of praises regardless of circumstances.

Keep up the good work.

It caps out at +90% bonus duration, according to my tests.

Would like to request that all cooldowns, currently not shown anywhere but tooltips, be made visible in or near the buff bars. I’m referring to cooldowns such as Sigil of Rage, Superior Rune of Nightmare (fear), Kit Refinement, etc .

Thank you.

Solandri.9640:

Here’s the test data I collected several months ago using steady weapons and a base build (no traits, 916 power, ignoring crits, 0 condition damage) against the heavy golem. These are raw DD (direct damage) figures, no bleeds.

Sword
83 damage per 1.8 sec, or 46.1 DPS, or 362.8 DPS with an exotic level 80 weapon.

Shortbow
19 damage per 0.51 sec, or 37.2 DPS, or 270.4 DPS with an exotic level 80 weapon.

So they’re a little more than 90 DPS apart. Just 3 stacks of bleed (42.5 per sec with 0 condition damage at level 80) will swing it in SB’s favor. Especially against heavy armor targets where DD is reduced but bleed damage is not.

Things get more complicated when you’re adding stats. Power is a straight multiplier, while condition damage is mixed with a constant for your level. So going from 916 to 1916 power (+1000 power) would increase the sword’s DPS to 758.9 DPS. A net gain of 396.1 DPS.

But a SB specialist who gained 1000 condition damage would only increase bleed damage from 42.5 to 92.5 DPS, or a net gain of 50 DPS per stack. The SB would now need a 10 bleed stack to equal the sword. That’s actually worse that a SB with 1916 power and 0 CD. That would only need a 5 stack of bleed to equal the sword.

You also have to factor in that non-flanking SB shots won’t bleed, and there’s a trait for 10% additional SB damage if flanking. Sword has other benefits too though. The cripple has already been mentioned. Every 3rd hit also gives your pet a stack of might. It’s AOE – if you’re fighting just two adjacent targets, it will easily surpass the SB. And it leaves your off-hand free for the weapon (2 skills) of your choice.

Overall I think the situations you’ll be in matter more than the raw DPS of these two weapons against a single target. I tend to use SB more outdoors, sword more when I’ll be facing multiple targets.

I would like to challenge some points you have made above.

First, with 1000 Condition Damage, the Ranger would only need 5.28 stacks to equal the DPS of a sword with 1000 extra Power.

Secondly, the Hunter’s Tactics trait provides bonus 10% damage to all direct damage, sword or shortbow, while flanking.

Besides that, I would like to ask Rangers who use swords something that I haven’t been able to wrap my head around.

I always assumed Hornet’s Sting and Serpent’s Strike were cooldowns saved, either for Evasion or other situational purposes. Off-hand weapons, even with Off-Hand Training are generally 12s or more cooldowns. Therefore, the main source of DPS of a sword/x is the Slash-Kick-Pounce (“SKP”) chain attack (Skill #1).

Now, if you’re able to stay stationary and leave SKP on autocast, then I agree you can get really good mileage with the sword. However, in numerous fights, you are required to react to mechanics to survive. The common thread of wisdom I hear to overcome this is to “not spam #1”.

So my question is: if you’re not spamming SKP, how exactly are you attacking the mob/boss?

1. Why only 2xSvanir for 20% Chill duration? Why not go all out for another 40% Chill duration with the other runes? Or, why bother with 20% Chill increase in the first place.

2. Going into a PvP environment without stun breaks?

3. You’re going for Chill-based, so why not Chilling Darkness + Well of Darkness?

Marcus Rickard
The teenage son and heir of the Rickard family. Rickard was to attend the Queen’s ball with his sweetheart, but instead was found hanging from the ceiling in an apparent suicide. When questioned, the maids had mentioned seeing Marcus locking himself in his room in a fit of tears. Reports did not mention the cause of his grief; as this was a year after the death of his sister and no previous signs of grief to this degree was witnessed before hand, the connection was ruled out.

While exploring Marcus’ bedroom in the dark, the party will hear a soft sobbing sound. Hasco reassures the party and searches for the key to the workshop. A stray breeze will part the curtains, allowing the moonlight to illuminate the hanging body of Marcus Rickard at the foot of his four-post bed. The fight begins with Marcus dropping to the floor, his neck clearly broken.

Marcus Rickard
Despair – Marcus projects an aura of teen anguish that affects players near him. Players affected suffer Weakness and damage every second.

“SO SAD!” – Every hit Marcus takes gives him a stack of “SO SAD!”. Akittens cap, Marcus will lash out at everybody around him, causing massive damage. Despair will end and be set on cooldown after “SO SAD!” is activated.

Memento
Marcus’ memento is a torn letter found throughout the study. Players will need to find all six scraps of the letter to piece it together. The letter is from an unknown person named “V” with only words “It’s over” written on it.

Should the party piece the break-up letter before encountering Marcus, his “SO SAD!” will be replaced with a new ability.

“I HATE YOU! PLEASE DIE!” – Every hit Marcus receives gives him a stack of “I HATE YOU!”. Akittens cap, Marcus will scream said words and launch a channeled attack. Ghostly nooses will snare every member of the party, disabling and damaging them for the entire duration and suffer 90% HP loss. This attack cannot be avoided.

Clue
Defeating Marcus while in the possession of his memento will cause his spirit to reappear after the fight. He will be seen giving something to an unseen person, say “You’re sure she’ll like it right?” After an unheard reply, “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, go ahead and give it to her!”

Additional
A teenage female human named Valerin can be found in Queensdale. She is the ex-girlfriend of Marcus and author of the letter. When questioned, she will reveal that a messenger from Marcus had delivered a necklace to her a day before the Queen’s Ball that the then-couple was to attend. However, putting on the necklace caused such a bad rash around her neck, resulting in very visible red welts around her neck and chest. In fury, she sent the letter to end the relationship that caused her to miss the Queen’s Ball.

Anna Rickard
The daughter to Malady and Rictor Rickard, Anna was the light and laughter of the Rickard Mansion. Sadly she wondered into the Mansion’s boiler room and suffered an unfortunate accident, resulting in suffering from severe burn wounds. She never recovered afterwards and died at the age of 5.

Fast forward to the present, Anna’s ghost is found haunting the dining hall. At first encounter, she will be prancing around the large dining table in the centre. Upon encountering the party, she will disappear in a wail of fear, thus drawing in the ghosts of the Rickard family’s house guards.

The ghostly house guards are Silver-ranked mobs and will assault in waves, consisting of swordsmen and archers. In the last wave, the ghostly Captain of the Guard will appear as a Gold-ranked mob.

Throughout the fight, one random party member will be tagged with the debuff “Play with Me” for a period of time. This is prompted with Anna whispering to the affected party member with lines such as “Will you play with me?”, “Have you seen Lockey?”, etc. The tagged party member will need to seek out Anna’s ghost and interact with her. Failure to do so within a short amount of time, or having a party member without the debuff interacting with Anna will result in Anna throwing a (fiery) tantrum, knocking down and burning everybody – friend or foe – in the room.

Memento
Anna’s memento is a Rytlock plushie, found in the boiler room. The plushie is badly burned and has decayed into a sordid shape. Only one person in the party may pick it up and it is Soulbound.

Should the party have the plushie in their inventory when they first encounter Anna, she will scream “YOU TOOK HIM! IT WAS YOU!”, then she and the plushie will disappear from the room in a fiery blaze. The walls of the room will start burning and the fire will slowly creep further into the room until it is totally engulfed. Touching the supernatural fire will cause instant death to the players.

Additionally, the guards will no longer spawn. In their place is a life-sized flaming monstrosity in the shape of the plushie the players had just found. “Lockey” is a Legendary-ranked mob that the players will need to vanquish before the room (or Lockey) burns them to cinders.

Lockey
Fire Claw – Lockey strikes with its claw, causing direct damage and Burning.

Flameshield – Lockey surrounds himself in a protective fire shield. The shield lasts for a certain amount of damage and causes Retaliation/Burn.

Flamebreath – Lockey breaths fire, causing direct damage and Burning.

Pyroclasm – Every 5th attack, Lockey gains Pyroclasm. The next attack it makes will Stun players for 3s, in addition to regular damage.

Clue
Upon defeating Lockey, the ghost of Anna will reappear. She will be seen staring up at an unseen person. “Have you seen Lockey?” she will ask, then in a shocked expression “Oh no! It’s dangerous down there! I’ll save you Lockey!”

Foreword
This seed of an idea was planted in my brain yesterday morning and haunted me the rest of the day. I ended up sacrificing a day of productivity and typed away.

Rickard Mansion is a dungeon idea that is currently a work in progress.

Inspector Ellen Kiel is back on the case!

In a long-abandoned family home of eccentric nobleman Rictor Rickard rumours abound of strange mechanitions and junk piles littering the property, and, of course, ghosts. Once known for being a tinker of Asuran arcano-magic, Rictor was lauded as a genius amongst peers… until a series of unfortunate events lead to the death of his entire family, followed by the tinker’s disappearance from society.

Inspector Ellen Kiel has been approached by a man who claims to be the ex-butler to the deceased nobleman and his family. The butler, Hasco Swarez needs help retrieving a special memento from the family home that he needs to honour their graves on the fifth anniversary of their demise. As the death of the Rickard family been one of Lion Arch’s most notorious unsolved mysteries, Inspector Kiel is taking a personal interest, especially with the promise of the family memoirs lying within the mansion, which could lead to clues to their deaths.

+++++
Haunted Mansion is a 5-man Level 80 Explorable mode dungeon. It features 2 wings and 5 bosses. Boss fights will take place in the large dining hall, the son’s bedroom, the kitchen, the yard and finally Rictor’s secret workshop. The party can choose the order of which they will explore the Mansion, with the exception of the workshop.

However, a dark secret lies buried within the mansion… players who are able to solve the mystery of the Rickard family’s demise will be awarded with bonus rewards, and a bonus boss fight.

In order to facilitate this, a new mechanic is added, dubbed “Mementos”. Mementos are items and events throughout the dungeon that can be found or activated by the players, either by accident or through a keen eye to rival Inspector Kiel’s. These mementos will trigger at specific boss fights, hence introducing new boss mechanics or simply making the fight more challenging. Finding and activating these mementos is entirely optional.

I’ll look forward to the video of four Liches spamming #1 in Time Warp (hopefully with Staff equipped).

Also, for your COF run, your Grasp+Wall combo will only work on one boss. So don’t forget to change utilities after the first boss fight.

Any greatsword with Power bonus will do. Damage isn’t an issue.

Spend the first 5 trait points into Virtues for Inspired Virtues. Once you do, activate Virtue of Justice every cooldown for the free Might stacks. Things get way more fun when you gain access to Renewed Focus (level 40+), since it refreshed Virtue of Justice after every kill, allowing for more Might stacking.

Kichwas.7152:

Bunker builds are good outside of sPvP?

It does look like pretty tanky gear – but wondering if without power or precision there’d be value in a PvE environment. I tend to like knights, soldiers, and rabid when I go in for toughness.

PVE is all about damage. This set is more for WvW bunker builds. Engies come to mind.

I recommend the Guardian.

Run around with a Greatsword and Staff. Equip gear with Power and Vitality/Toughness.

For heals, either Signet of Resolve or Shelter works; the former heals for much more, the latter is great for escapes.

For Utilities, Hold the Line!, Stand Your Ground!, Wall of Reflection and Save Yourselves are staples.

Before 60, trait into Radiance for Renewed Focus and the rest into Virtues.

Craft skills aren’t important unless it benefits you in getting your Legendary Weapon(s) of choice much later on. If you feel like an equipment upgrade, simply buy at-level Fine or Masterwork equipment from the Trading Post.

Here’s a PSA for non-80s in WvW: don’t hide in the zerg.

While most people take it likely when they die amidst a group, they forget a fundamental aspect of the game: rallying. When you die, you will allow enemy players (yes, plural) who have been downed by your own group to rally and rejoin the fight. Being up-leveled usually means sub-par survivability (and damage), which then means an easier kill and an easier rally for the enemy.

Levelling in WvW is theoretically possible, although that depends on your sever and its matchup for the week. Get a small group (3+) and take over enemy Supply Camps. Don’t bother defending or upgrading once captured; just move on to the next one. If your actions have gained the ire of the enemy forces, switch to a different Borderland (aka WvW map) and repeat. You can also do the same with the Sentries (NPC guards marked with a flag), Quaggans Power Nodes (3 events located in the centre lake of the Borderlands), Hyleks and Ogres (2 NPC events in the Eternal Battlegrounds).

1. Why 30 into Spite instead of Curses? What Major traits are you considering there that you think is better than, say, Weakening Shroud or Lingering Curse? I can understand 20 Spite for Training of the Master, but I don’t see the need to spend anymore in that trait line when you’re not using a mainhand dagger or axe.

2. Why 30 into Death Magic when you’re not gearing towards Toughness? You would be better off with 20 into Blood Magic for Vampiric Master if you’re running a minion build.

sticx.5823:

Also is my friend correct when he says that I won’t be able to run dungeons with a condition build?

The two biggest things going against Condition builds in party/dungeon scenarios are

1. Damage limits. Bleed caps and the mystical interactions of Burn and Poison damage from multiple sources aside, Condition builds do not benefit from Time Warp. Sure, you can hit your 25-stack Bleed easily, but that’s it. You gain about 700 DPS compared to 1-2k with a Power build.

2. Anti-Condition mechanics. From the Poison golem in SE Story/P1, to Simin, to Mossman, and now NULL, we continue to see boss mechanics that wipe all Conditions from them periodically (or worse, heal with more Conditions applied). The problem is getting back to your 3k DPS as a Condition build requires a long ramp up, compared to Power builds who can do the same the moment the fight continues.

If you run around in WvW, please don’t go glass cannon. Knight’s is definitely a much, much better option than Berserker’s as your main item choice.

And when people mention “sweet spots” for Condition Damage, that is usually in the context of a hybrid build. Depending on how you go about your WvW, you’ll want to maximise your burst, over sustained damage, more often than not.

And I’m going to be stacking Power, Condtion Damage and Precision. How’s that sound?

I notice that I tend to be squishy

You answered your first question there. Stacking Rampager’s means you have zero additional defensive stats. This will affect how you use your Death Shroud, especially, because enemy damage will not receive mitigation, forcing you past your 50% Life Force threshold much quicker.

I’m not using a staff

build that focuses on entering DS to Life Blast enemies to pieces

Life Blast damage also factors in weapon damage, i.e. you deal more damage with Life Blast (and Deathly Claws) when you have a Staff equipped.

Dylninja.4216:

I highly disagree. This build is very viable with the right gear setup.
I run it in dungeons, sPVP, and WvW.
I have a different trait setup tho

Edit: Okay my setup is a bit different but about the same trait spec points wise.
0/20/0/20/30
I’ll post a video once it has finished uploading to youtube

I’ll look forward to your video as I’m rather interested in your definition of “viable” in end-game PVE content.

I don’t know about Sigil of Chilling, but the runes worked the last time I tested. When you say the runes “don’t work”, are you basing it off actual skill use or just the tool tip?

Context is everything.

The question nobody has asked is the playstyle of the OP. Does he/she run with an organised guild group? Or is this solely for roaming?

If you’re interested in end-game PVE, your build outright lacks the DPS that is sought after in that level of play. You’re a Power build but lack Close to Death or even Target the Weak. You’re relying on your Golem to give some damage output but nothing to boost its already subpar damage and survivability. You look like you’re going to use Life Blast for damage, yet lack Reaper’s Might or a Staff.

I am almost positive 30 in Spite would beat out 30 in Soul Reaping for pure damage.

I agree. The additional Power, Vulnerability duration and Close to Death far outweighs the Critical Damage gained from Soul Reaping, assuming you had to sacrifice one for the other.

When running with guilds, consider slotting in Spectral Wall and place it down when Veil is called for. Also, as long as you have a Staff and regardless of build, Corrosive Poison Cloud is severely underrated.

For most fights, if we’re pushing, I’d drop my Marks and Wells and slip into Plague Form for mass Blinds and Chills (Chilling Darkness). The target is to make my way to the back line and sit on them. If the enemy force is routed, the Chill will slow more walking loot bags; if the enemy is standing to fight, you’ll become a source of frustration and attention, easily drawing 10 people away from attacking your forces.

A few more key point’s on a Necro’s role in WvW I’d like to add.

When running in WvW, unless you’re flat out roaming, you should always have Greater Marks. This not only ensures that a Warrior rushing through your Marks with Block Stance will suffer everything, but also lets you place down extremely large red circles for enemies to rush through. Assuming you’re not the only Necro around, covering choke points and Entry Portals with Marks will usually give pause to most enemy guilds. Even in a Power build, Marks can still deal significant damage, as well as provide offensive support. Placed before hand, even if the enemies send a suicide elementalist to trigger your Marks, both Mark of Blood and Chillblains would have already got off cooldown, allowing you to reapply Bleeds, Poisons and Chill on the enemy guild.

The next most important support provided by Necros is AOE Blind. This is achieved through Blinding Darkness and Plague Form. The latter is by far the greatest source of Blindness in WvW because a) the AOE is mobile, and b) AOE Blindness is applied every second. Compound that with Chilling Darkness and the enemy guild won’t be having an enjoyable time missing crucial attacks and moving 66% slower.

DarnDevil IV.2143:

I just tested in spvp against heavy golem some condition duration vs damage from runes:

I used traits 0/30/20/0/20 (hemophilia and +33% duration)
I used rabid amulet with rabid jewel
I used stable scepter and dagger without sigils

The runes I tested was Superior Runes of The Undead (x6)
and the other set was Afflicted (x2), Krait (x2) and Centaur (x2) for +45% bleeding duration

I found out that when using only scepter chain 1 it takes about 15 seconds (starting from when I start casting first time and ending on golem death) to kill a heavy golem with both rune sets. All test times were between 15 and 16 seconds.

When using 1 time scepter 2 and off hand dagger 5 and then using only scepter 1 chain to finish the golem it took 13 seconds from both runesets to kill the golem.

My conclusion: Yes, condition duration makes you stack more bleeds and will make your bleeds do more damage (specially short ones) than condition damage, but poison will get a big boost from condition damage so if you are having it up almost always on your opponent condition damage is the way to go. At least with full rabid the bonus percent you get from your toughness with 20 points in death magic will equal the amount of damage you will get from +45% bleed duration.

Condition Duration, for increasing the damage from short duration bleeds
Condition Damage, for dealing the damage in shorter time and increasing poison (necros don’t have any other damage boon)

(I also tested the terror trait and I don’t find it useful, even with +50% fear duration it tics only 1 time for about 1200 damage, = 1 second of 8-9 stack bleed on my build)

Also Runes of The Undead will increase your survivability

Thanks for the test. However, with your set up, the Condition Duration spec had, at best +65% Bleed duration, +0% Poison Duration and +33% to relevant Poison and Bleed from Lingering Curse. My question is this: given that PVE/WvW has access to Rare Veggie Pizza for an additional +40% Condition Duration, would we see a DPS increase for this spec? For that matter, would a Condition Damage spec benefit more from a different food buff?

I, too, began this game as a Guardian and saw my role to be interchangeable with any other profession during dungeons. This opinion continued I saw the utility Mesmers brought to the group (which was always noticed when no Mesmers were in the group). It was when I started dungeon farming with my Mesmer did I begin to truly see how certain classes enhanced a team composition for a particular dungeon.

Yes, you can stumble through any dungeon with any team composition. However, when you start caring about group performance and clear speed, be it for efficient use of limited play time or for competitive reasons, you really, really start to appreciate each profession and ask “What does my character bring to this dungeon?”

One example that always come to mind is the first boss of TA, the Nightmare Vines. In my set guild dungeon group, we could all five melee the Greater Nightmare Vine while only kill five of the first six smaller Vines. On an off day I decided to run the dungeon with a PUG and with an alt. Suddenly I noticed not only did I not have a permanent 25-stack Might, Fury, Regeneration and Banner of Discipline buff, but also that we were wiping to the Greater Nightmare Vine despite killing all first six Vines.

The way Guild Wars 2 was built, it’s impossible to quantify your contribution to the group. Even if you shoehorn in a DPS meter, you will only see the Warrior topping the list, but not the Might stacks and heals an Elementalist provides, nor the Protection and Aegis from a Guardian, nor the Mesmer’s Time Warp, nor the Boon stripping of a Necromancer.

Good job! You have effectively killed two bird with one stone:

1) Engineers are fine
2) AC is fine

Thank you so much.

However the damage is based on condition damage. At the same time the condition duration is based on Spite and Soul Reaping. What does that mean? That means if you want to max the fear damage by making it 2 ticks, you would need to invest into condition duration. However when you do that, you losses on condition damage itself, which would hurt your bleeding and poison damage.

You need exactly 0 points in Spite to reach +100% Fear duration.

Master of Terror (+50% Fear duration) + 2x Superior Rune of Lyssa (+10% condition duration) + Rare Veggie Pizza (+40% condition duration) = +100% Fear duration