Guild Wars 2

Low base survivability coupled with long skill (particularly defensive utility) cooldowns pigeonholing most builds into water/arcana.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Side note: Anyone else think that Kasmeer and Marjory are lovers?

I actually dunno if they’re actively lovers or if Kasmeer is actually the crazy “stalker” (not the word I want but the real word is eluding me). Actually hearing the convo, I got the feeling that while there’s genuine affection there, Marjory seemed a bit oblivious of Kasmeer’s feelings of possessiveness.

At any rate, it was an interesting exchange.

If you’re looking for survival tips while you’re still lacking a lot of good traits, Glyph of Storms in earth is persistent AoE blind. It really helped me a lot when I was still super squish.

Gregorius.1024:

If you have Hall of Monuments, there’s Gnarled Walking Staff

Yeah, that’s what I’m using now. So really the only thing that makes people think “earth” is the plant-type stuff so far.

Keep em coming though. If you can think of a good “earth” weapon for something other than staff or trident, I’m open to that too.

So, my goal is to have all the elements represented in my weaponsets. I’ve got ice/fire covered in daggers (or will have …), water again in Tsunami scepter w/ a scroll focus whose crystals match the scepter colour, and mystic dagger which matches the teal (air) when I go that route.

That leaves trident or staff for earth . Leaning toward mystic trident though not definite on that, which leaves an “earth” staff. So far I’ve been using the HoM skin because wood is kinda earthy, but I wonder if there is a better option.

What can you guys come up with for either staff or trident for an earth look? I’m hoping one of you has a better idea than mine.

Defora.3694:

New look but I am not sure should I use shoulder & gloves or not. What do you think?

I vote yes gloves, no shoulders.

Creepy toxic plant tower? Priory Scholar Cicatrix investigates!

… I am not a big BLTC skin person but I just HAD to have the scepter and focus with the new corrupted plant skins. They matched her colourscheme AND they’ve got that black, smoky effect which matches a necro perfectly imo. Want the staff too but can’t afford it. =/

In order for me as primarily D/D ele:

1. Boon duration
2. Elemental Attunement (honestly No. 1 and 2 are linked)
3. Evasive Arcana blast finisher + heal/condi cleanse
4. Vigorous Precision

<3 <3 <3 <3 on the proposed compromises. Those sound VERY reasonable, and with an 85% threshold for Diamond Skin, I am now tempted to give it a solid go when running high toughness.

Sunshine.4680:

kinda sucks because there isn’t another mage class besides necro to play with.

Mesmer is a mage archetype too — the Illusionist one.

Zaoda.1653:

Here is my main, Audacious Ignatius.

As his name implies, he’s a fire enthusiast. I hope to make his outfit fully lava-like one day, but until there’s such armor that suits the hellfire mantle and gloves (Cathedral of Flames armor isn’t quite right as it looks more yellow and fiery, rather than orangey and lava-like), this will have to suffice.

You could always do graduating colours from orange to black on your armor. I kinda did something similar in GW1 with the destroyer gauntlets as gloves for her fire magic set.

oZii.2864:

While they are moving Windborne down to Adept and I feel that is the fringe trait that just doesn’t look “Master tier” worthy. If they slapped it with 25% movement speed all the time and not just in combat it then looks a bit better. Then it can be justified to stay Master tier. Then a ele could contemplate the question of 25% movement speed all the time with renewing stamina or elemental attunement.

This is my issue with it as well. If it worked ALL the time, then D/D would be much more solid as a roaming class while not being forced to take glyph heal to keep swiftness up or at least Signet of Air to sorta keep up.

Thanks for posting! I’m probably echoing some concerns here. Overall I’m excited about ele changes. I mostly WvW.

ELEMENTALIST

Good deal on global swap cooldown. As someone who still plays D/D though, I have some concerns. I also feel making both vigor harder to come by as well as moving Elemental Attunement really hurts boon duration builds, which are already sacrificing stats for that duration.

Endurance concerns
Before —-> After

1. air II (Zephyr’s Focus) 10——> 10
2. water III (Soothing Disruption) 10—-> 10
3. arcane VI (Renewing Stamina) 10—-> 20
4. arcane X (Arcane Energy) 20—-> 20

… this seems to be pushing people MORE into arcane, rather than less. Water III is very situational/shortlived, though D/D benefits well from Air II. However …

Condition removal concerns
Remember ele’s smaller healthpool. Frequent condi removal is important.

1. water V (Cleansing Wave) 10—-> 20
2. water XI (Cleansing Water) 30—-> 30
   • Dovetails into arcane V (Elemental Attunement), 10—-> 20
3. arcane XI (Evasive Arcana) 30—> 30 arcane

Again, it encourages going even further into water and arcane, particularly when you combine the two concerns. The new earth grandmaster could mitigate this a bit with a high toughness build, but even that requires strong healing to maintain which again sends you back into water where you’ve already got access to lots of condition removal. Why take an earth trait that requires water investment to manage conditions, when I could just take water and manage conditions?

Other concerns
I feel the dagger arcane trait is lacking compared to staff and scepter versions (swiftness access), with little for a D/D ele to pick if they want Elemental Attunement or Renewing Stamina. Having it work both in and out of combat would make it feel more in line power-wise as the other weapons’ respective traits, imo.

Using sigils/runes to offset lack of condi removal or vigor punishes a class that already has low base stats.

Khalic.3561:

Some interesting changes, and even some good looking buffs. But wow… Losing renewing stamina is gonna be painful for my D/D.

This is really the thing that gives me pause after a quick readover. Condi removal getting moved around I can deal with but that … that really hurts any D/D build I would care to run. And since D/D is my preference … eeeh.

Also, +1 to fixing Lingering Elements or actually swapping it with Elemental Attunement. I’d love to have lots of good minor traits to build around, like guardian has.

These changes look like they’re really a step in the right direction. I still enjoy 30 arcane for small things like making my stability on earth attune longer (small, but key, in PvP) but I’ll definitely be more tempted to move away from that now.

Need some more time to digest the proposed changes but I’m cautiously optimistic.

Rennoko.5731:

Rainshine.5493:

If I am building your standard condi necro (I have never done a condi build on my ele so I want to swith things up … and yes I know the limitations in PvE events) would my necro benefit more from the toxic focusing crystal, stones or …?

I am not sold on the new crystals unfortunately.

Thanks for the detailed response (both you and others). What about the crit + condi? I assume like many crit builds there are necro builds that rely on crit heavily (but I’m still feeling my way around the class, so I could be wrong).

So, seen a lot of conversations about which gold people use for guardians. I accidentally consumed “Tarnished Silver” (meant to sell it) but after playing around with it, it’s actually a really pretty desaturated gold.

No fancy background, just wanted to show the true colour, used it on her WvW armor.

Ruse fighting toxic krait.

cassius.5809:

Azure Prower.8701:

You simply took the picture from a different angle.

Agreed. My plates also seem to be growing

LOL!

However, although those images were taken from different angles, I did have other screenshots taken from roughly the same location where the rift was smaller.

Well then. Has it been revealed where the portals go to, or have we not figured that out yet? I admit I was gone when the Scarlet saga first launched.

Unless it always grew and shrank and I just didn’t notice.

First image with my sylvari is from Day 2. Second image is from late this evening. It looks like bridges or something visible through it … Lion’s Arch maybe? What do you guys think?

If we upgrade and defend nobody comes out to play. I assumed SoS and Mag were grateful to get to get some WXP, karma etc. instead of being spawncamped during times they have little/no coverage. -shrug-

I think karma trains are boring too, but it behooves you to participate some if you’re after the Season 1 rewards.

… condi duration + condi damage is “niche”?

If I am building your standard condi necro (I have never done a condi build on my ele so I want to swith things up … and yes I know the limitations in PvE events) would my necro benefit more from the toxic focusing crystal, stones or …?

Trying to get a feel for what is useful for the widest number of builds. Neither the sigils nor the food/stones are especially good for my ele builds. I usually prioritize chef but I dunno about hybrid power/condi builds. =/

Sigil seems solid for condi builds. I assume condi + condi stones and condi+ pre stones are also desirable in general.

How are you guys with multiple crafts prioritizing?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Rainshine.5493:

Imo the real problem is that with vertical progression and ascended being such a grind, people are forced to not only balance immediate stat improvements over cosmetic items they really like the looks of (not a problem GW1 had — despite very large cosmetic grinds — because of the low barrier to maximum stats), but expected FUTURE improvements to stats. AKA, the rest of the ascended gear and whatever future tiers you stick us with.

It’s already difficult for an average gamer to fully kit out a single character, when all weapons are considered and if we assume people might actually, you know, want to play more than one build. When you add in alts, then you’re further gimping yourself when you pursue expensive cosmetic items.

So these high prices for cosmetic things become even bigger in people’s eyes, whereas if they didn’t have to worry about stat creep, I think you’d find far fewer complaints.

Just an FYI – you can’t buy Ascended gear from the TP.

That said, how are you comparing expensive skins (no stats/cosmetic only) with vertical progression?

No, but you can buy materials to level your crafting and such from the TP, which is a hefty expense, and some of the materials themselves. You can also buy the (large) ecto component to trinkets, and gold is added to trinkets if you go the guild commendation route, etc.

So I’m saying, in GW1 it was very cheap and easy to max stats, so big, expensive cosmetics were embraced. Here, getting max stats is NOT cheap and is NOT easy, and thus expensive cosmetic items must be balanced against money you spend toward getting the current best stats. (And we know ascended armor is just around the corner, so you must also balance it against saving for future stat increase releases.)

I think if pretties were all people had to worry about, they’d complain much less about paying a high price for them.

Raven.9603:

While its obvious that ele’s are in a kittenty place spec wise (still no reason to spec fire, very little reason to spec air if not scepter, and no reason not to take 15 water/20+ arcane, celestial gear mandatory and hard to aquire); saying the devs want us to be awful is a bit much.

I can’t agree with some of these … I am a fan of celestial for D/D in particular but it’s hardly mandatory. There’s also plenty of reason to spec fire for group activities such as dungeon runs (especially speed runs). Some quick combos can give your whole team a minute of fury thanks to 30 in fire.

One of the big reasons I like 30 in arcana is because the reduced recharge + Rock Solid means more frequent applications of stability for both me and my teammates (that also lasts longer thanks to the boon duration bonus). Stability is so so clutch in large engagements, and also very useful against the stun warriors because their crit chance is usually crap when you aren’t stunned.

Do I think there are builds that can do fine without 30 in arcane? Yes. Do I think 30 arcana is a crutch? No. There are too many goodies there for it to be a bad idea, imo.

Also, no, you don’t have to run full bunker to successfully D/D in big battles as long as you/your commander are good. You need more than base toughness obviously, but not full bunker. EDIT: I dunno if I would even say you must be “good” so much as you must have done it enough to understand zerg mechanics a bit. Takes a little practice, but once you get it you will very rarely end up downed.

Imo the real problem is that with vertical progression and ascended being such a grind, people are forced to not only balance immediate stat improvements over cosmetic items they really like the looks of (not a problem GW1 had — despite very large cosmetic grinds — because of the low barrier to maximum stats), but expected FUTURE improvements to stats. AKA, the rest of the ascended gear and whatever future tiers you stick us with.

It’s already difficult for an average gamer to fully kit out a single character, when all weapons are considered and if we assume people might actually, you know, want to play more than one build. When you add in alts, then you’re further gimping yourself when you pursue expensive cosmetic items.

So these high prices for cosmetic things become even bigger in people’s eyes, whereas if they didn’t have to worry about stat creep, I think you’d find far fewer complaints.

…. Slightly related, I’d love to have a currency that’s just for “fun” things. Nothing that can ever be converted to gold, or anything with stats, just skins, minipets, and random “toys.” Be nice to buy something and not have to think, “Well, I guess it’ll be another month or two before I can afford to try out that other build…” etc.

Zamiel.2130:

before someone says “you’re obviously on a band wagon server”, I’m not. I’ve been on Mag for the past 10 months and going in to the league, we were the last spot in gold.

We play you guys this week. The times I’ve gotten into WvW this weekend, the problem has been that we own everything. Hard to get caps and things when you don’t lose anything except the occasional sentry point. And even if it’s “smarter” I don’t like just giving people caps so I can take it back.

I’m not trying to be a jerk, I play offpeak which I assume means you guys probably just don’t have the coverage during those times. But hey, at least the JPs are easy to get to. I hope I can make up for it during the nights I can actually play more primetime.

shagworth.5017:

All that being said, in the end, I don’t really care about the title that comes along with the meta achievement and we all know the reward is going to be lackluster so if I fell short, I couldn’t say I would really care.

You will probably be proven right about the rewards being crappy. However, I’d hate for people to be regular WvWers and not get the reward because they choose not to play artificially. The PvE equivalents are easy to knock out for someone who doesn’t even spend much time in PvE because dailies count toward them.

You keep diverging more and more from your original promises. “Max armor will be easy to get!” ring a bell?

Just make WvW XP account bound. The drops/kegs whatever don’t cut it because it’s STILL most advantageous to rank up the character I play the most with them rather than an alt. And I’m still contributing less to the WvW effort if I don’t bring my main because of the siege, supply, repair etc. goodies I don’t have on my alts.

ACCOUNT. BOUND. WVW RANKS.

You promised to treat us like a player, not a character. So do it. I don’t see the difference between making karma account bound (thank you, by the way) to making WvW ranks account bound. People didn’t like karma character progression; why do WvWers still get stuck with WvW rank character progression?

Heinel.6548:

Chess Jurist.3580:

Rainshine.5493:

Chess Jurist.3580:

I dunno what you guys are complaining about. Got the achievement in a week and played about 2 hours everyday.

There’s a big difference between “difficult” and tedious, unproductive grind. Perhaps if you actually read the thread you’d know what “we guys are complaining about.”

I still don’t get why people feel the urge to comment on kitten they don’t read.

I’m not sure why you are criticizing me. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my post clearly states that the achievements aren’t difficult nor tedious, as it’s achievable even with average game play.

Average selfish game play. If you ignore what everyone else is doing and just focus on your own objectives, the achievements can indeed be cleared fairly quickly.

To give a recent example, a few 5-man groups were coordinating to spread out defenders. My group was to hit the northern camp (where the citadel owners could just waypoint and pop out of their own back door to stop us). We trekked all the way up avoiding several sentries and guards so that we didn’t give our position/plan away and would be able to cap unhindered and hold for at least a point tick.

But that’s not going to up our achievement points. Neither is actually trying to hold onto ruins instead of running a clockwise circle with enemy BGs so you can all get your achievements done. Neither is defending something you own rather than let it be taken and recap it, etc.

Running karma trains shouldn’t be the most efficient way to do WvW achievements.

FrownyClown.8402:

they have an overpowered trait that gives them 50% crit chance while opponent is stunned

With Earth’s Embrace and Rock Solid traits these guys aren’t really a problem because they don’t stat for high crit usually (they rely on the trait).

Not that everyone runs those traits, but. I find them very useful.

Lifeson.4352:

Rainshine.5493:

NondSwiftshot.9168:

Rainshine.5493:

So … since I too like a particular scepter aesthetic for my necro, is there a primarily scepter-based build that’s viable for PvE and WvW? I know this topic is a bit old but I didn’t see a build posted that people had actually played.

I am still leveling my necro but http://youtu.be/ptGYVTaDrOo seems to be a pretty effective build and a really in depth review of it.

Great, I’ll check it out! Thanks so much. I’m a very noob necro and I don’t play a lot but I really am enjoying what I have played of it. Very very different than my ele.

I’m a pretty new necro too, but this spec seems to work fine in wvw, just spam your specter/dagger, skills into DS 5->4->3, people just melt. It’s a pretty standard build I think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQIQNAW7YjMat7FbKb87JEoH9CuAiRKOmghSh7kOA-w

Hmm. Maybe this is the ele in me talking but seems like the stability on DS would be huge in WvW (soul reaping 30). Are you not running into problems getting CC’ed all to hell while in DS? Otherwise, it looks like a fun build on paper.

Chess Jurist.3580:

I dunno what you guys are complaining about. Got the achievement in a week and played about 2 hours everyday.

There’s a big difference between “difficult” and tedious, unproductive grind. Perhaps if you actually read the thread you’d know what “we guys are complaining about.”

I still don’t get why people feel the urge to comment on kitten they don’t read.

NondSwiftshot.9168:

Rainshine.5493:

So … since I too like a particular scepter aesthetic for my necro, is there a primarily scepter-based build that’s viable for PvE and WvW? I know this topic is a bit old but I didn’t see a build posted that people had actually played.

I am still leveling my necro but http://youtu.be/ptGYVTaDrOo seems to be a pretty effective build and a really in depth review of it.

Great, I’ll check it out! Thanks so much. I’m a very noob necro and I don’t play a lot but I really am enjoying what I have played of it. Very very different than my ele.

So … since I too like a particular scepter aesthetic for my necro, is there a primarily scepter-based build that’s viable for PvE and WvW? I know this topic is a bit old but I didn’t see a build posted that people had actually played.

Phoebe Poison.4875:

Finally did a revamp of my armor combos, switched and remixed pieces around, dusted some of my beloved ones that were sitting in the bank because they had stats that I haven’t used for ages on them and made sure that all my favourite armor parts are used in the two main sets for the 2 stats combinations that i use on a regular basis.

I like your mix n match Profane way better than the full set. Looks great!

grayskull.2367:

So here is my Undead Egyptian Lich priest

This is just an awesome idea, and executed really well.

Please stop making awkward, high and grindy requirements for ascended gear. It kills build diversity and discourages alting.

Instead of a dark death/decay theme, I went with more of a ghost/spirit theme. Colours on her clothes are all pale blues/violet, though they look quite a bit darker in this lighting for some reason.

My sylvari Cicatrix, from the Cycle of Night

If “listens to directions” = “elite” then … yeah, I guess I’m elite.

For the record, I’m glad more people are trying WvW. I hope many of them enjoy themselves and decide to stay past achievements. That doesn’t change the fact that the most efficient way to use your time toward getting said achievements is NOT the most efficient way to help your server.

I’m sorry if that stings.

Korossive.7085:

I never use the mini’s that get auto-cleared into the bank and always need to manually be told to spawn.

Just an FYI, invisible bags and lockboxes will “hide” your minis from the “deposit all collectibles” function. I have one on every toon I use a mini on for that reason alone.

I play offpeak on a T1 server and even I see my fair share of the outmanned buff. In that situation, it’s hard to get anything significant done, and you’re mostly just trying to stick bandaids on things.

I would support rewarding effort in a significant way for lower pop/lower tier servers. It’s much easier to “contribute” and have the WILL do to so when you’re rolling. It takes a lot more guts to WvW as the underdog.

airstu.2579:

No defensive achievements proves karma train blobs are the dev’s preferred play style.

Also, this.

Verdelet Arconia.6987:

Rainshine.5493:

The problem is that to get it completed this quickly, it’s highly likely you weren’t actually providing optimal support to your server.

IE, killing dolyaks when it didn’t matter. Repairing random things before building siege that provides much stronger immediate defense. Doing merc camps rather than helping defend. Doing JPs which contributes absolutely nothing.

You didn’t read my first post.
Using a ranger,I’ve assisted in the capture of stonemist more than 5 times,7keeps,more than 30 towers,more than100 supply camps,150+sentries,defended these important structures because they cost so much to upgrade and it gives quality of life when playing with WP in keep and SMC,killed and stomped more than 450 invaders. All in less 3 days, you say I don’t contribute to my server score? All the above helps the server score.

And how many veterans did you tag to give away the position of your group? How many times did you hit the gate when asked not to because it puts orange swords up?

I’m not saying you can’t help your server by doing some of these activities. I’m saying to do it in 3 days, there’s no way you were contributing the most you could for all the time you spent in there.

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been running on a pin — smallish group, maybe 15-20 people — and commander says in TS “Don’t attack sentry”, we type in say “Don’t attack sentry” for those not on TS … and what inevitably happens? People attack the sentry, because … achievements.

Can’t tell you how many times you lose half your force at capture points when you’re trying to move quickly because … achievements.

Can’t tell you how many times people won’t let supply points upgrade because they’re draining it to repair things that aren’t essential. Because … achievements.

Can’t tell you how many times commander says “no PvDoor” in TS, we type in say “no PvDoor, we don’t want swords” and what do people do? They PvDoor because … achievements.

Forcing really big numbers for this stuff promotes selfish, unhelpful and stupid play. It could be heavily mitigated by reducing the number of overall achievements required OR allowing WvW dailies to count toward it, the way Living World achievements do.

KeeZee.7312:

1) Best time to get the repair achievement is when a wall is being trebbed. Just drain all the supply to get the achievement. The best place to do this is EB if you can get in. Don’t worry if draining all the supply allows the keep to fall. That will just allow you to get other achievements by taking it back.

Some of your fellow achievers have already realised this.

2) The best way to get the capture objectives it to sit on siege and do nothing allowing the other team to flip your T3 keep. Once flipped your team will flip it back allowing you to get those achievements.

3) Demolition…easy. When your team goes to take a keep and says don’t attack the gate/wall just ignore them and attack away. Don’t worry about the orange swords.

LMAO! Spot on.

Verdelet Arconia.6987:

Terra Dactyl.2047:

Some people go outside occasionally, just FYI.

Some people have better time management skills,just FYI.

The problem is that to get it completed this quickly, it’s highly likely you weren’t actually providing optimal support to your server.

IE, killing dolyaks when it didn’t matter. Repairing random things before building siege that provides much stronger immediate defense. Doing merc camps rather than helping defend. Doing JPs which contributes absolutely nothing.

Luculus.9860:

World Ranker: 50. Or 125,000 wxp. Yuck. This seems too high. Maybe an attempt to get more badges spent.

More likely to sell WvW XP boosters.

I think currently the achievements are doable for a regular WvWer. I DON’T think they’ll come “naturally” though — IE, you’re going to have to do a lot of things that might not actually be best for the server at any given moment to get them all.

I think encouraging even regular WvWers to do a variety of tasks is good, and maybe step outside their comfort zones. I think the numbers are high and will turn aspects into a chore rather than something you enjoy doing.

All in all, I think the OP is spot on. EDIT: While I WvW pretty much every day, I also play primarily offpeak. What peak players experience, and how many objectives are capped/change hands etc. is probably pretty different. I’d hate for this to discourage Aussie/EU/SEA guilds from helping to provide 24-hour coverage. Those guys matter, too.

1) WvW rank being character, rather than account, bound discouraging alt play.
2) Better incentive to defend
3) Skill lag

Hastur.4937:

No, zerglings are not terrible players per se, they just are not using their abilities to be anything other than a rampaging cudgel.

I like to zerg on my guardian because I get to satisfy my inner healer, and people actually appreciate you healbotting. No cleric gear/Tome of Courage hate in the blob! lmao.

Asaghon.8346:

I’m a pure pve player and I usually detest any form of pvp but the I got tempted into wvw the other night (mostly for the ap yea). So I joined a party of some people from my alliance and have to say that I enjoyed it better than I would like to admit. I did offcourse gear/trait on of my 80’s for wvw and looked up viable builds, and honestly didnt do too shabby in zergs or smaller 5v5 battles. Its not like I was actively looking wich achievements I still need and ignoring everything else. I genuinly had fun, mostly due to beeing in party and mumble with people who play wvw alot more often though. Even had most fun in the smaller battles since the big zergs are kind of a lag fest. And since we won most smaller encounter I’m probably doing something right. Offcourse I could have just been encountering other people like myself the whole time I was in wvw :p

And you’re exactly the type of player I’d love to see more of; people who assumed they’d hate WvW and find out it’s actually fun.

Hope you stick around.

Daemontoy.2087:

Here i was after completing the clocktower busting out some sweet dance moves.

I’m not sure how I feel about a male norn pantyshot … lol