Guild Wars 2

Could someone summarize for me the primary traits and stats for either a phantasm or shatter build?

Also, I seem to see a lot of high-DPS mesmer builds based on the sword, which is basically a melee weapon. I tend to get slaughtered in melee range, and I think of the mesmer as a caster class, so I’m not sure what I’m missing there.

Thanks.

Thanks for the replies. Not really looking for a leveling guide, that will be over soon enough. Kai, I’ll check out your compendium.

I think my problem is that there are so many builds with so many subtle variations that it’s hard to know where they differ, and why to choose one over the others. I guess I’ll have to experiment, subject to my financial limits in buying gear.

It would be nice to separate the button for getting loot from the button for picking up environmental weapons. Actually, I have no idea why I can pick up some warrior’s banners in the first place…

I won’t accuse anyone here of griefing. But I have definitely seen it — people who were killing the same bosses as others, just deliberately doing it in a different order to mess them up, and then taunting on the map channel.

One of the drawbacks of a game with many players is that you can get away with this. There are games where behaving anti-socially has very real gameplay consequences — your reputation precedes you, and pretty soon you’re playing by yourself even when you don’t want to.

The waypoints are a good point as well. I also noticed, and found it odd, that in Queensdale at least there are 3 champions right near each other, 2 right near each other, and huge map expanses with none anywhere in the vicinity.

I participated in one of these trains a couple of days ago for the first time. As a relatively new player I have mixed feelings about this.

My immediate reaction is that there’s something wrong with a game when capped players think the best way to get loot is beating up low-level bosses. Seems to be a larger issue with GW2 where the loot you get is based on your level rather than the level of the mob, which always struck me as strange. I was fighting these bosses at level and getting a tiny fraction of what I get now. It basically encourages this sort of gameplay.

I also think that it’s pretty clear that they are not balanced to deal with swarms of 20-30 people, and they respawn too quickly. At level players exploring the map don’t need “champions” that respawn every 10 or 15 minutes.

In terms of how to deal with the train, it’s fine to say that everyone has a right to do what they wish, but it’s clearly antisocial to deliberately mess people up as I have seen some do. The champ train seems to be at least as much about socializing as getting “stuff” and I don’t think there’s anything admirable about essentially griefing people.

Thanks for the replies. I’ve read the Grimoire and a lot of other general info here, it’s really great reference material. I’ll have to tinker with builds I guess and see what works for me.

As a new player myself I need to add a caveat that from what I have found, quite a lot does indeed take place at level 80, and while the game will scale up your stats, I find I am not competitive with “real” level 80s in most respects. That said, I agree that there’s no rush, and a ton to do.

Hey all,

I started playing GW2 about two weeks ago. I was warned that mesmer was a tricky profession, but the idea of an illusion-based class was just so cool (and something I’ve never seen in another game) that I just had to try it.

The low levels were rough, as I was warned, but I’ve been able to get up to level 60 (much of it thanks to the Mad King’s Labyrinth, which has been a blast.) I’m using a “clone bomb” leveling build that someone recommended.

I was thinking about switching to more of a direct damage build, but I realized that leveling is so quick in this game that I’ll be 80 in a few days, so I might as well start looking at 80 builds. I’ve read a bunch of great info on this forum, and thanks to those who have written those wonderful guides. I’m just not sure what to do at this point.

I’m not looking to be led by the nose or have all of the secrets of mesmerism revealed to me through Youtube videos. I’d just like a suggestion for a build to try that would be good for someone who’s very new to the game, has got the basics of combat down — really love those automatic clones on dodges! — but not advanced stuff, and has some gold but not a lot.

I’ve mainly been in PvE so far but I dabbled a bit in WvW and it fascinates me — it’s just that as an upscaled level 50-60 player with nothing unlocked and little real experience, I’ve been fairly close to useless. I can see myself spending a lot of time in WvW because it just seems much more “alive” and dynamic than anything else.

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks!

Sorry, I meant to write southeast, not southwest!

Hey cool, a question this newbie can answer! Well, I hope.

I believe that’s accessed via a cave just southwest of the Solitude waypoint.

I remember once signing up to play a MUD, asking what the most powerful class was, and being told flatly that there was no such thing and they all had pros and cons. That’s class balance.

That was the first thing I checked, but I was able to put a major rune into a ML38 greatsword with no problem, and this is also ML38.

EDIT: Okay, I think I put the sigil in the wrong greatsword. Maybe that’s it, and why I am so confused. Thanks for the replies.

I was just upgrading my armor and weapons and bought some sigils and runes since they seem useful and are pretty cheap. All of them went where they were supposed to, but I have a major sigil of corruption that refuses to go into the staff I bought. The other sigil of that type went into a scepter, and I can’t see anything unique about the staff. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Thanks.

Thanks. I wouldn’t imagine they’d voluntarily give me $ back.

Thanks.

I don’t suppose they offer credits for geniuses like me who buy the game 4 days after the previous sale and 6 days before the next one? I hadn’t thought they’d be running another sale again so soon.

If a family member also wants to sign up is there any plan or program associated with that? Thanks.

(Might take advantage of the one-day sale. Bummed that I didn’t wait a week for it myself!)

Hi, sorry. System is several years old, good quality components, never any problems with any other software.

I thought I had Catalyst on auto-update but I didn’t. Installed new drivers, will see if that helps.

Thanks for the reply.

Since I installed the game about a week ago I’ve had intermittent issues with the screen suddenly going black. Nothing will recover it except for a restart.

I came here and was pleased to find a sticky about this very issue. But I’ve tried those suggestions and they don’t seem to work. Unless maybe there’s a specific step I need to follow to enable the game-specific profile.

I even tried turning off anti-aliasing altogether, still get it occasionally.

Any ideas? Thanks.

You know it’s funny, because I understand the advice being given to newbies here, but my experience has been somewhat different. I am in the event area a lot not because I’m trying to grind out levels, but because, well, it’s fun. In fact, I wish I was getting less XP because I don’t really want to gain levels quickly. I just like the sheer chaos of this huge scrum of people running around killing nasty bosses. The loot’s pretty nice too — I have lots of coin now and more karma than I know what to do with.

I actually find the Mad King area is teaching me more about combat than the regular world areas. I’m getting my levels and hit points scaled up to level 80, but not my gear and abilities so much, so it’s a challenge.

In the normal places it’s pretty easy for me to be careful and avoid difficult situations where I might die. In the Mad King place it’s utter insanity, all the mobs are nasty, and I really have to be careful to stay alive. I also have had to work on my gear and technique so that I do enough damage to get drops, which isn’t really an issue when soloing.

I’m trying to do both, since it does get a bit dull to kill the same bosses over and over. But the, well, madness of it all is fun.

This all makes sense, but one of the great things about race being mostly cosmetic is that you can mix things up if you want to be more creative. Sure, Charrs being warriors makes sense, but why not a super-intelligent Charr outcast who becomes an engineer? Asura warriors and guardians are such a cute idea as to be trite — though it didn’t stop me from trying one out. Etc.

Thanks for the responses. I actually haven’t gotten to the point you are talking about, I was referring mostly to my experiences in the Mad King’s Labyrinth, the holiday event. I think it’s just because my character is young and wimpy, so it’s hard for me to put out a lot of damage compared to others, especially with dozens of people all in the same place.

As for the chests… I think that’s also something special to prevent people from getting too rich too quickly. I asked in-game and was told that there’s a limit of one chest per day or something, though it seems like it’s been a lot longer than that since I got one….

Thanks for the replies.

One issue I find with my clones, at least at this level, is that they seem to do zero damage. I guess they are just decoys. Yet they are often ignored. Maybe I’m using them wrong but much of the time the monsters just run right past them and towards me, which makes them of little use other than one-time shatters.

Thanks. I know I have a healing spell, I just often find myself mashing the “6” key because of the long cooldown, where in another game I’d use an item. That’s what I’m trying to figure out here.

GW2 great in terms of giving all characters healing options, and also auto-healing between encounters. But I’ve noticed the conspicuous absence of in-combat healing. In most games you can just go to a merchant and buy a bunch of healing potions to use while fighting.. in GW2 you can’t. I assume that’s by design and part of the difficulty, and I have no problem with it. Well, except that I seem to die fairly often.

Are there any good options here that I’m unaware of? I started using those candy corn custards that drop in the Hallowe’en event as they provide 45 minutes of regen, but they’re really rather slow (I get I think 8 health a tick at level 20).

I’m playing a mesmer. Thanks!

I get how they work in general, but I’ve been participating in the Hallowe’en “scrum” and can’t make much sense of how they function there.

• Sometimes I spend a lot of time killing a boss, get a “gold star”, and there’s a drop for me to pick up. Other times, there isn’t.
• Sometimes the boss leaves behind a chest, and sometimes not.
• Sometimes I can open the chest, but usually not.

Can anyone clue me in please? Thanks.

Yes, there’s a whole industry that caters to people who think that’s fun. Lotteries.

I admit that I do find it fun a bit myself, though not so much that I’d pay for the privilege.

I did consider selling the bags. I’m just not sure what can drop out of there, or if it’s level-dependent, thus my question. When I’ve opened them I’ve mostly gotten more candy corn…

I know that monster drops themselves depends on player level so I wondered if things like those chests did as well.

Everything hits hard in there, heh.

So a quick question about random items and scaling. In a nutshell, should I wait on opening up random items until I’m higher level? For example, the candy bags and trick-or-treat bags from the Halloween event?

How about the black lion chests? I got a key as an achievement award — will I get better goodies by saving it?

Thanks.

Oh, one more thing. Is there a limit of only 250 items for collectibles? My candy corn stack doesn’t seem to want to increase…

Thanks all.

So continuing my newbie saga…

First, I’m terribly impressed with how good a job this game does technically. A new build comes out and I can just update it when I want with basically no downtime? Nice.

The only issue I have is sometimes the game disconnects due to an Internet problem, and the game goes black and then just sits there. I have to restart the client. I know disconnects happen but I’m surprised that, in a game otherwise so polished, the client doesn’t retry regularly.

Meanwhile this new holiday event came out, obviously aimed towards level 80 players. I decided to follow the instructions and go talk to the event NPC, and despite the scaling got promptly owned by a couple of skeletons. I realize it only scales stuff like HP and damage, and not equipment, skills, traits, etc. Nor does it scale in-game experience. So I’m not too surprised, and I just left.

Later one of those doors opened near me in Shaemoor and I followed it to the Mad King’s Labyrinth. Had great fun in there! I died a zillion times for the same reason, but I was able to stay alive long enough to get some kills in on those insane bosses as long as I was in a group. I have lots of candy corn now, not even sure what to do with it but I believe it’s a crafting ingredient or I can sell it. Also got a ton of XP and Karma in there.

I was literally laughing out loud the first time I arrived at one of the bosses and saw the scrum of players, summons and effects going all over the place.. I couldn’t actually even see the boss!

I actually found the guardian too easy in a way. I’ll play with both but am right now back on my mesmer.

Engineers and elementalists also intrigue me somewhat.

Thanks Falunel, useful stuff!

I am enjoying the mesmer more, though I find many of the abilities confusing and, based on what I know of the game, not that useful.. at least at this level. But I was warned about that…

I may roll myself a Guardian even though everyone and his brother seems to run one. It does seem like it might be a better way of learning the game, and of course I can play both at the same time if I wish…

I thought maybe part of the problem was my gear so I went on the TP and upgraded everything when I hit 11. Much better. Still need to try some slightly more difficult stuff but it’s an improvement.

Thanks for the advice. I’m still experimenting… and dying.. a lot.

It seems to be really tough to level with this character, perhaps due to my inexperience. I find kiting or running backwards and shooting difficult because I’m 1/2 to 1/4 the speed of most of the mobs.

I have begun to think maybe a different character to start might be wiser. Something like Guardian is typical of the style I normally like, though I’m somewhat put off by what I’m reading suggesting half the game is Guardian right now.

Well, that and I don’t really want to give up on this one. I know I can come back to it later, but still.

Thanks Donari, hopefully I’ll find you sometime. Wouldn’t mind someone to bounce questions off, though I mostly do want to figure this out myself to the extent that I can.

Contiguous, I’ve tried most of the weapon combos so far. The main problem with the phantasms right now is that they get nuked very quickly by the mobs, which then go after me. This may just be because my gear is poor and I’m also fighting some mobs a bit harder than I probably should, simply because there’s not much I’ve found so far under level 5.

I can usually handle 1 mob at a time — and I’m practicing my dodging skills — but if I get swarmed, I’m toast.

As fun as the mesmer looks overall, I might have been wiser to have started with something a bit easier…

Thanks. I do understand, I’ve experienced the same phenomenon in another game.. the benefit of XP distorts the normal raw material / finished product cost / price relationship. It’s all good.

I’m going to poke around tomorrow in some of the other newbie areas… I’ve done much of Queensdale but I’m level 6, quite squishy and can’t really handle the rest of it right now.

Which makes sense. Thanks. I did sell it.. and then another. I have about 50 silver now and feeling rich!

I have been experimenting with the abilities associated with various weapons and trying to unlock them. All of them seem pretty weak so far. The greatsword one seems pretty tough to use at least at this level, or maybe I just need more practice.

What would be a good/fun/lucrative crafting skill to focus on at the low levels? Artificing, Jewelry and Food seem interesting, but I have no idea.

Cool thanks.

Can an unidentified dye be any of the ones on the TP? I just noticed some are staggeringly pricey.

Probably should just sell it unidentified as it will multiply my cash 10-fold.

Funny, I just logged in and the 4th thing I killed dropped an unidentified dye.

Thanks for all the advice.

Cool about weapons changing abilities. I found one vendor that had all sorts of weapons and I now have a whole silver (lol) so I’ll buy a greatsword and see what it gives me.

Thanks for the warnings. I’ve already learned about squishiness the hard way.

“Oh, that mob’s level 3 and I’m level 2, seems about right.” Oops.

That said, I did just manage to take down some level 5s at level 3 when I wandered into them.

I’m utterly confused about weapons and how they work and the wiki isn’t helping a whole lot. Why on earth would a caster use a greatsword? I know the game is flexible that way but it doesn’t make much sense.. especially since Astral mentioned it in the context of keeping distance between mobs.

Also, are there any relatively easy (but not too “meta”) ways of earning gold at low levels? It seems to disappear fast.

Thanks.

Mostly PvE. I’ve traditionally hated PvP but I think that’s because the ones I’ve tried have suffered both from being simplistic and having rather.. immature.. people involved in them. I’ll definitely try again here. But mainly I’m a PvEer.

I went to the WvW area briefly and was even more lost. And then had to ask someone for help to get back to the newbie area, lol.

I did read that sticky and will reference it.

I’m still having a hard time understanding skills and how they work, but I guess that will come.

Thanks for the replies, all!

I went with Tarnished Coast since it seemed pretty busy but not the busiest, and that was before I noticed Falunel was there also and her post was very helpful.

The mesmer interested me the most because I’ve always wanted to see a class like that in a game and I’m impressed that GW2 was willing and able to tackle it.

I started playing and completed the first little encounter. There’s all these skills and traits and attributes and weapons.. it’s super-confusing and I have absolutely NO idea what I am doing, lol.

Which is great! The last game I tried, I had pretty much figured the whole thing out in a day and was bored within a week.

I am still having trouble getting a handle on what my attacks/spells/whatevers are and how they work but I guess I’ll figure it out in time.

Hello, brand spanking new player here, haven’t even finished downloading the 8.2 million files yet. I’m doing some reading, obviously looks cool since I paid for the game without trying it.

I don’t want to know any grand secrets that I should really discover on my own.. but a bit of advice on what world to select and what sort of characters/races are well-suited to newbies would be helpful.

Are there any classes that are especially in demand? That might help compensate for me not having a lot of wealth/gear at the beginning. I tend to prefer caster-types, though I realize the GW2 classes are somewhat unique and in particular there are no “healer-types”.

Thanks!