Thieves have quite a few ways to battle at range, you’d have no problem there. Of the three classes they are, by far, the sneakiest. Also, they are by far the most single-target-burst-damage oriented. Ranger can get in on that a little bit, but the pet makes it difficult to sneak anywhere.. And the Necro is all about attrition, they don’t have much in the way of swiftly taking out an opponent. So it looks like the Thief is your best bet.
GW2 is chock full of hybrid-melee. It’s the fun thing about the way weapons work: a dagger doesn’t necessarily mean “stab”. Lots of casters use daggers as an implement for short range spells. And likewise, the ranger takes axes, normally a melee weapon, and uses them as a throwing implement. So if you play any class that doesn’t entirely revolve around physical actions (ie: anything but warrior, thief, and to some extent, ranger) you’re going to feel like a not-entirely-melee profession with at least one weapon set.
The use of mods is “not supported”. Do they violate the ToS outright? I suppose it depends on the action of the mod. It has been confirmed and reaffirmed that one button press can never ever result in more than one action. So there’s at least one fundamental rule. But I presume Anet isn’t going to seek and destroy absolutely every mod out there just for being a mod.
I suppose the most important thing to ask about each mod is this: “Does this mod give me an advantage in some way above and beyond what mod-less players have access to?” If the answer is Yes? You probably shouldn’t use that mod. Devs understand that mods will inevitably exist, so I’m sure they feel some sympathy for the ones that aren’t out to imbalance the game in any way.
But if you want to perfectly obey Anet’s wishes: no mods.
(edited by Pinder.5261)
I’m pretty certain this is one of those npc sets which players cannot (yet?) get.
Falunel pretty much covered everything, I wanted to add in one more thing.
Crafted gear can get pretty cheap, depending on the stat sets you’re looking for. I picked up a full set of armor (no trinkets, no weapons) from the Trading Post for just over 11 gold by making purchase offers. Steal of a deal compared to the 120 gold cultural set.
Here’s a very detailed guide to how weapon sigils function and interact. It should tell you everything you need to know about why certain sigils work together, and why others don’t.
In a more general context, why don’t both runes work? Balancing issues, primarily. It would put dual wielding 1-hand weapons at a numerical advantage over using a single 2-hand weapon. So it doesn’t work.
Two classes have the capacity to apply stealth at will: Thieves and Mesmers. Either class has a couple ways to apply stealth to themselves, and either one has a spell or two which can apply stealth to their teammates as well.
Engineers and Rangers each have a trait which will automatically cast stealth when certain debuffs occur. Engineers trigger it when immobilized. Rangers trigger it when subject to a Control class debuff. Additionally, Engineers can sometimes apply stealth by tossing an Elixir S (toolbelt skill).
Finally, using a Blast Finisher with a Smoke Field will produce a friendly AoE stealth, while a Leap Finisher applies a personal stealth. Norn can use stealth while under the effects of their Snow Leopard elite. And at least one rune set exists which applies stealth at a certain health %.
Given the availability, only Thieves and Mesmers can effectively stealth for prolonged periods of time. But no stealth can last permanently, and few uses of stealth last longer than 3-5 seconds.
And, of course, the basics: stealth is not invincibility, and you are still susceptible to taking damage from any source that does not absolutely require a target (even a well aimed arrow can hit you in stealth). Taking damage in stealth will not remove the effect, but making any successful action will take you out of stealth. Successful action is important, because it means using a physical attack without actually hitting a target will not de-stealth your character.
If you’d like tips on the subtleties and nuanced uses of stealth, it might be better to ask some specific questions. There’s a whole to talk about, especially concerning strategies and tactics.
(edited by Pinder.5261)
As long as you play a Sylvari, the first part of the storyline will remain in Caledon Forest.
It should be clarified that by “first part”, he means, “the personal story line until it stops having a direct involvement with race, at level 30.”
At no point in time can you play the Human’s race-specific story line, which takes place predominantly in the human areas, unless you play a human character.
You may visit any location in the world that your little heart desires, so long as the mobs are roughly at or below your level. Nothing stands in your way of doing the renown hearts, dynamic events, skill points, and etc. in the human lands. Outside of the personal story, you never need to set foot inside Caledon forest once you leave. If that sort of thing is what you want.
The personal story, however, is fixed. You cannot, as a Sylvari, help Logan uncover Caudecus’ treason any more than a Human can help Caithe infiltrate the nightmare court. But at level 30 your personal story with divorce from your race and follow the Prior, Order, or Vigil instead. So it’s only a short time to spend just around sylvari.
Technically, this is a guide for starting out in sPvP, but it has a lot of information that can help a new player understand combat mechanics and fundamentals as a whole.
Have any tips about social stuff, like how to meet new players, where to look , and such?
The social stuff is easy: you just have to… be social! Pithy, I know. But remarkably, there’s not much more to it than that. Strike up conversations in /map chat. /say things to the players who have joined in on dynamic events or renown hearts. Just be talkative in general. A lot of people respond to that. Of course, there’s always Lion’s Arch, the social hub of the world.
If you’re looking for players to grind along side, make sure you’re hitting all the dynamic events. Someone is bound to show up and help out. When they do, ask if they’d like to have a partner in crime. That’s probably the most simple way to find a temporary companion. Otherwise there’s Guilds, LFG, and Operation Union. Options a-plenty.
Easy there, Guzzi. There’s nothing wrong with his request.
Gyler, can you give us a little more info on your character? Race and Gender, in particular. Can’t very well suggest an armor if we don’t know that it’ll look the same as what we’re seeing.
I’m quite certain Explorable mode is the only mode of the dungeon. Thus why it’s listed as “Explorable Mode (level 2)”. Normally the level dictates the minimum level entrance to the dungeon. And since every player hits level 2 from the starting event, it means you can’t get in earlier. That, and it doesn’t offer a story mode.
Despite what the wiki says, my guess is that you actually missed one little tree, or wall, or park bench, or miniature squirrel. Something like that. You have to thoroughly comb the area to get everything.
I got it myself in a partial party, and helped three other people, three different times, get the achievement in a partial party. I seriously doubt there’s a bug.
wow cheers guys ,
i was expecting neg responses tbh .
Naw. Help is why we’re here.
Glad you found the answers you needed.
The first dungeon (Ascalonian Catacombs) is located in the Charr starting area. You can enter story mode at level 30, and explorable mode at level 35. Your best chance to find a group is by shouting out in Lion’s Arch.
Can you be more specific about the PvP issues you’re facing?
Edited for accuracy:
You cannot change your avatar. That feature does not exist.
For your signature, click “Forum Profile”, then under your name the “Edit Profile” button has your signature controls.
Former Shaman and Dwarf enthusiast here.
If you want similar aesthetics, Donari already picked it out: Elementalists are near as you can get to the “I use the elements” flavor of a shaman, for both the elemental and restoration specializations. If you preferred enhancement? Kinda tough, you can’t really replicate that same hybrid of caster and melee. As for races: Norn feel similar both visually (despite the height, they’re very close) and socially. Though if you were really into the whole smithing-metalworking-engineering side of the dwarves, the Charr will take the cake in that respect.
If you’re looking for something that feels mechanically similar to a Shaman— dwarf or otherwise— you just aren’t going to find it. Casting feels nothing at all like it does in WoW. Only a very specific build and item set can reproduce the enhancement’s weapon procs, and even then it’s a pale shadow. So even if you make a character who uses the elements and looks and acts like a dwarf shaman, it won’t feel at all like playing one.
So I suppose it depends on what parts matter to you.
No area is unplayable, that’s a load of bollocks. There are some very particular open-world bosses that are nearly (but not totally) impossible to solo or duo. But not only are these bosses few and far between, rarely spawned, and frequently out of the way of your normal duties, there’s almost always enough people in the zone to round up and kill the mob with a little persuasion.
Furthermore, the great thing about low level zones in GW2 is the sidekick system. Sidekicking lets guildmates, friends, and even random friendly players can join you without going silly-bored, regardless of the level. The loot tables need a few tweaks for the game to really bring level 80’s out to the mid-level areas. But those players who are leveling can play in nearly any (underleveled) area they want without exp rate repercussions.
Because of the sidekicking system pretty much all areas have a certain minimum of players. You’ll likely run solo for the majority of a map, but a small group getting together, even if just for a single event, is hardly uncommon. And I’ve yet to find a zone that is completely bereft of interested players.
You have nothing to worry about.
It’s all the more hilarious because she uses a hammer. CHAINSAW HAMMER!
vreeeerumblerumblerumble
And outside of guilds or posing the LFG in a creative way (excellent suggestion, Garambola), you can try http://www.gw2lfg.com, as that’s become popular among dungeon goers since the in-game lfg works floppily at best.
That said, I’m a native to the Henge. If you can catch me online (eveningsish) I’d be happy to help you run Tixx. Granted, it might disappear tonight, and I’ll be out on the town for new years. But just in case, look me up. We’ll see what we can do.
I wouldn’t consider the thief a long range player. Ranged, yes, but not much longer range than the engineer. Almost all the Thiefs ranged skills cap at 900 distance, whereas most long distance weapons reach 1200. You’ll end up in close combat more often than is enjoyable.
More importantly, a Thief is not being played to the best of it’s abilities if they’re used to just stand back and shoot. Other professions have that part covered far more effectively. I was a bit reluctant to add warrior to the list for that same reason. They’re a slight step better at range than thief, so it’s debatable. But warriors at least are designed to sit out and the open and hit stuff. That doesn’t suit a thief at all. Much too squishy. You’re just asking for a bad time.
Fail troll failed.
On the contrary. Successful troll got everyone in this thread all up in arms about him obviously using a steady weapon.
All eight times I’ve pressed “Hot Join” today, the game has put me on a server with only one other player. Is this standard by any stretch of the imagination? I can see plenty of servers on the list with 4 or more players. Far more of those than servers with only 1 player. So what’s the deal?
Ele (like Wasp said, you don’t have to be squishy), Ranger, Necromancer, Warrior, and Mesmer (potentially squishy) all have very viable long ranged combat, with ele and ranger topping the list for certain. Engineer, all things considered, is more of a medium distance class who has ranged weapons. But any of the rest should fill the niche you want.
While we’re on the topic, I want to point out that you can’t always transfer, “that warrior kicks kitten with a rifle,” onto, “all rifle warriors kick kitten ” Especially if you passed one in PvE, you have to consider he might be a higher level than the zone, have a higher tier weapon, or might have been under extra temporary effects. Any player will breeze past you with one or more of those benefits.
In any case, while engineer isn’t nearing the top for ranged output, you have a lot of options outside of warrior.
Fair enough. You said “sites”, didn’t know if that was included. I can’t find it there either, sorry guy. It beats me.
I can’t identify them myself, but http://www.gw2armorgallery.com is generally your best friend in cases like this.
Actually, very few skills create conditions and boons at the same time. Granted, most of them are owned by either the necro or the mesmer, but you aren’t going to build a whole lot around that concept unless you’re following a specific regiment of fights, which isn’t very inevitable. You can’t build a fully adaptable play style around it.
It should really get stressed that playing a Necro feels nothing at all like playing a Mesmer. Not even if you’re playing for the same goal (as you’ve outlined). Whether you’re going to like one over the other is just up to what you enjoy. But you did get close with your earlier comparison. I wouldn’t call mesmers chaotic (maybe for your opponents), nor would I call necromancers steady. But hectic vs solid sounds accurate enough for a vaguely correct impression.
While I haven’t tried the d/d thief myself, and therefore cannot speak on its potential (seen a few in sPvP, nothing to write home about), the ele takes #1 just for the fact that you cannot build an Ele without aoe damage. It is a core construct of their class. Within that, some builds are more or less effective, but all of them have AoE.
Depends on the build. Bunker (tanky) ele’s are considered some of the most difficult to kill in the game. But you can also run very squishy, if you choose your stats and traits to go that way.
I’ve heard players tell that, out of curiosity and a little boredom, they send gold out to random people just to see how many of them take it without question, and how many return it, ask if it was intended, or just plain say thanks.
I’m not certain if that’s the reason you were sent some. It’s entirely possible that someone accidentally sent it your way. Who knows. Did you send a mail to the person who sent it?
Condition Damage:
Mesmers using a staff cause conditions at random (a highly favored choice among condition build users), but outside of that they can only apply confusion. It’s entirely viable to play a condition build, but it lacks variety and type control. Necromancers have a wide variety of condition variety, access, and control, which makes them one of the best Condition classes in the game, so no worries there.
Summons:
Mesmers will always summon things, no matter the build, and you’ll be summoning pretty often. Necromancers have access to a lot of minions, but they aren’t necessary to have around. Contrary to the Mesmer, the Necro minions are summoned much less often, but stick around in a much more permanent way.
Melee:
Both classes have a Melee option (Sword for Mesmer, Dagger for Necro). But for the most part they’re range heavy.
Support:
Neither of these classes are truly support heavy. The Mesmer can apply a few boons, the Necro can apply helpful control debuffs. Both classes have access to aoe condition and boon removal. (Note that Necro support and pet skills both share utility slots, so you have to sacrifice one for the other.) Neither class has a lot of physical control, though Mesmer has a slight edge up on that part. So while both have support options, you aren’t playing a full support class either way.
All said and done, your requirements make it sixes either way. I don’t think you’ll be unhappy with either class.
Presuming you’re making a build that’s centered around maximizing your AoE (ie, I’m not talking about the AoE capacities of the profession on a whole), I would (personally) list the best to worst builds as such:
1. Elementalist (because elementalist).
2. Ranger (Axe/Torch & 3 traps)
3. Engineer (Flamethrower, Grenade, & Bomb kits)
4. Necromancer (wells, staff, exploding minions)
5. Warrior (Hammer/Longbow)
6. Guardian (variety of half-decent aoe)
7. Thief (Shortbow & Venoms)
And you should be able to solo reasonably well with any of those.
Whoops. Indeed I did. Thanks for that catch.
Gear gets better up to a point, which would be Exalted items. Exalted and Legendary share the same quality of stats, but legendary items tend to look a lot more awesome.
Ascended stats are a slight step up from the Exalted. And yes, if Agony ends up being a common part of endgame play (lets hope not), you’ll want to get ascended gear just for the infusion slots.
At the moment: Agony only exists in the Fractals dungeon, Ascended gear only exist for the back slot and rings, and 99% of the game is completely do-able without either.
The forums replace obscene words with “kitten”.
Still not quite accurate. Technically, nearly any ranged attack that includes a separate projectile (ie: laser beam type skills don’t count) are completely free flying. One exception is a projectile which bounces between targets (Thief shortbow, for instance). Again, technically, the projectile doesn’t follow you, but sometimes a sidestepped projectile will trigger a ‘bounce’ midair and will, in fact, shift direction back towards the target. And a few mob projectiles really do just track you (Damnedable imps), but that’s extremely rare.
For the vast majority of projectiles, no tracking occurs. (Video proof!) Granted, the projectile hit-box is fairly generous, and most projectiles fly much too fast to strafe unless you have the advantage of range, much like Rainu has pointed out, and as the video shows. So the dodge mechanic is the only reliable method to avoid projectiles.
And since you’ve brought it up, you can actually play GW2 as an action combat game using only manual targeting (again, lasers don’t count). All but a select few projectiles can utilize manual aiming, and when done properly will connect with their target as if you had the target selected. Obviously it’s not a reliable way to play the game, but it’s possible.
Bottom left corner. The little eyeball.
Can’t win all the matchups, this game isn’t remotely balanced enough for that to happen.
This is, quite possibly, the most hilarious thing I’ve ever read on these forums.
Survival boils down to three parts: stats, skills, and movement.
I hate having to say something as trite as, “Defensive stats increase your survival!” But I notice a lot of players haven’t figured out just how much it matters to incorporate a defensive stat. A little vitality or toughness can go a long way.
After stats, your next line of defense are your skills. This includes mitigation skills (blocking and barriers), control (stuns and knockdowns), debuffs (blind, weakness), boons (protection, aegis), and condition removals (though you probably are too low level to see a lot of incoming condition damage). It always helps to have at least one accessible defensive skill, either on your weapon or on your utility bar. The difficult part is learning when to best use the skill (aka, don’t use it really early).
Speaking of defensive skills, a tip for healing: heal early, heal often. Don’t wait until you’re down to 25% hp before you heal. Use it when you’re at 75%.
Finally, movement. Movement is the holy grail of survival. Movement, positioning, and dodging. There’s a lot to talk about here, so I’ll try to keep it short and sweet. Never stay still. Save movement buffs/debuffs for kiting or to help pull aggro off your squishy friends. Keep an eye on enemy and friendly aoe placement, position accordingly. Pay close attention to enemy animations, they always telegraph their attacks. Use those telegraphs to time your dodge rolls.
When you keep on the move, dodge roll out at critical moments, and properly kite mobs, you’ll save yourself from taking a whole lot of damage. Not only is this the most important part of survival, it’s also the one I see new players have the most trouble getting used to. It will take time, but pay attention to how you move and position yourself and you’ll survive a whole lot better.
Gear is obtained through a gambling system. When you open a pvp chest, you can get a piece of gear at random. The tier (aka, visual style) of the gear will match the tier of the chest. Chests are obtained either by achieving higher sPvP Glory ranks, or by purchasing them from Glory vendors.
Gear pieces can get dismantled into base components, and those components can be reforged in the mystic forge in the mists. I, personally, haven’t done a lot of this, so I can’t give you accurate details. My apologies.
The gear itself is purely cosmetic. It doesn’t come with stats on it. You get stats from two sources: runes, and the amulet. Both are free to purchase. Amulets will give you the bulk of your stats, so make sure you use the one with the combination of stats that best fits your build. Runes, available on the second tab of the basic armor vendor, give you some ways to lightly customize your stats, including a bunch of particular effects that only rune set bonuses will provide. Runes don’t take effect until you apply them to a piece of armor. You can wear up to six runes.
Hope that helps. On the wayside, if you have questions about more general sPvP stuffs, this guide might be useful.
And that’s totally understandable. But, again, is it necessary to delete the character? I see no plausible loss in just making a second character and leaving the first one behind in the background. But to delete a character that you’ve already spent so much time on… if it were me I know that a month or more down the road I’d suddenly feel really sad to have tossed all that away.
I digress, I haven’t answered your question. To the best of my knowledge the dev’s set barriers in place to keep karma and gold separate. This is why you can’t dismantle or vendor any karma gear, so as not to let the currencies overlap. Not to mention there was a big hubbub about monetizing karma at release which turned into a fiasco about system exploitation. My assumption is that, no, you will not be able to monetize your karma.
Why is it necessary to delete the character? Sounds like something you might regret later down the line.
Only Tournament mode allows you a guaranteed spot on the same team as your buddy. Though some tricks do exist to playing together in casual sPvP. First, once one of you are in a server, the other one can right click their portrait and choose “join server” to hop immediately onto the same game. Easier than running down the server list. If you’re worried about the player skill, then the new player should hot-join a server first and the experienced player follow.
Second: once inside the server, if you bring up the scoreboard you’ll see a little square with a plus sign on either of the top corners. You can use this button to swap teams, assuming the team you’re swapping into has less members. You might end up doing this nearly every match or so, but I’ve found it works out about 80% of the time. The other 20%, well, you’ll just have to deal with trying to kill your buddy.
And since I figure you, and your guildie, might be able to use it, here’s a newbie guide to sPvP.
Hope that helps.
That’s pretty much it. Which is why you often see trait trees pair up Power and Condition Duration, even though Power heavy builds don’t always include many DoTs. It’s important to note that Condition Damage is far, far easier to come by than Condition Duration. Duration bonuses are generally relegated to traits and specific upgrade components (runes and such). So you’re naturally going to build a lot more Condition Damage if your build heads that way.
Beyond that, the duration addition itself gets a little tricky. While non-dot statuses increase by minimum increments of 0.25 seconds, DoT damage only increases by increments of 1.0 seconds. This means if you have a bleed that does 100 damage over 10 seconds, you need at least 10% more condition duration to hit 110 damage over 11 seconds. 9% duration will give you 100 damage over 10 seconds, and the 0.9 seconds left over effectively does nothing.
I wouldn’t worry so much about how Condition Removal plays into it. It’s more important to consider how easily you can reapply the dots, not how much damage you’re losing, versus an opponent with Condition Removal.
Also, I’m glad I could help answer your questions. You are very welcome.
You know, each race/profession forum usually has a stickied “Show us your dudeguychick!” thread. You’ll find a whole lot of screenshots of dye combos in each of those.
It’s important to remember that players still take damage while Stealthed. It won’t knock them out of stealth, like in WoW, but they’ll get hit. If you have a decent idea of where they might be standing, you can still pressure them with aoe damage. If you’re good enough you can even hit them with your projectile spells, aiming fps style. Though that’s super difficult.
If you want to completely shut them down (although this take some kitten good reflexes), hitting Earthquake (Earth #4 w/ dagger offhand) and Lightning Flashing onto the location they stealthed will knock them out for the duration of stealth.
At least, I think you can double up those spells. If not, you can always just lead with Lightning Flash.
Are your criticisms mostly being leveled at the personal story and cinematic conversations, or also with the ambient scenes and events?
I’m late to this thread, and many of the comments I’d like to make have already been delivered by people more capable than myself. But seeing how it was brought up, I want to point out how much my feelings about the lore and environment shift between the story and ambient moments.
Listening to the story voice acting very often (not always, but most often) drags my heart to my ankles. You’ve heard the reasons, I don’t need to repeat them. Sufficed to say, I felt more than happy to put Apatia out of her misery.
But for every moment I drudge through an awkward, stuttered story cinematic, I find five little moments in the ambient world which get me positively goofy with happiness. A little girl who recreates a large dog’s “Woof”; a sylvari who baffles an asura over whether his golem has a mother; an asura who argues with a golem about whether his corner market is actually loitering. These liness have done more to enhance the game than all the overbearing drama in the cinematic dialogues together.
Exceptions exist: the norn, for one. It’s been said many times in this thread, but I feel it’s important to reiterate just how nauseatingly preposterous the norn female sounds.
Another exception: the human ambient lines hit and miss. On one hand you have, “Met an asura the other day… called me a ‘bookah’… I think she likes me.” And it sounds self indulgent and prim and very, very natural. On the other hand you have the guard who sits on the door of Shaemoor Garrison, constantly blabbing about how he needs vengeance on all Centaurs, and he sounds like someone who wants to act really melodramatic about a wet sock. It sounds so fake that my hackles raise. I mean, if I had hackles.
But this example very often defines the difference between the game’s good and bad voice acting. Flippant moments, funny quips, and oddball banter are almost always delivered well. Primary reason, I believe, that so many people enjoy the Asura— and to a lesser extent, the Charr— backdrops (personally, the Skritt do it for me every time). They always have bizarre, outlandish things to say, and you can hear voice actors get into the fun of it. Bear Shaman Marga is an awesome example. Despite all the problems of norn female voices, I loved hers from the moment I heard, “You found the bear’s den, lets celebrate with FIGHTING!” She’s campy, and over the top, and outright fun. She gets into it.
Those actors who get saddled with all the gravity and seriousness, that’s where the acting falls apart. I have trouble recalling ambient examples, as most often the voices are forgettable, rather than painful. But the storyline actors get hoards of seriousness pushed on them. And, no surprise, they’re the ones who have the most trouble getting the lines across. Gravitas is difficult. I blame no one for missing the mark. But when it consistently fails, something is definitely wrong.
Honestly he was less annoying back when he had all the puns. Now he’s just generic.
The best way to go is to pick whichever one looks the most awesome, and never look back. If you don’t have any other information to go by, then why worry about picking one profession over another?