Guild Wars 2

I second AC story. It’s not terribly difficult (and berserker or knights level 80 gear works quite well in there). Your most challenging part would be the trash at the top of the stairs (boss is easy, trash is brutal), and Ralena and Vassar. CM story is doable, but you’ll need a lot more game experience since the mobs in there are very annoying and “twitchy”. TA story would also be doable, but the end fight is a big jump in challenge from the rest of the dungeon when shortmanning.

Definitely do all the mini dungeons. Vexa’s Lab, Old Oola’s Lab, Tears of Itlaocol, and Forsaken Fortune are very creative and have a lot of fun challenges, and two of them (Oola’s and Forsaken) have good lore tie-ins if you’re interested in the backstory. Flame Temple Tombs is also quite fun, but due to how much it’s being farmed it’s not something you’ll really be able to duo that often.

Most champions are quite fun to solo/duo, though risen ones are probably the most difficult. The champion Branded Fish in Fields of Ruin is also pretty brutal. Fields of Ruin in general has a lot of available champion fights and is quite fun to just explore.

When it’s not bugged, the Branded Devourer Queen event chain in Iron Marches is really fun and a good challenge to work on together, as you’ll be required to split up and keep two events working in concert to make it easier for each other.

It will probably me 80-only content, but they could potentially do what they did for Eye of the North and uplevel you.

There was a Steam sale last August or September that had all the available GW1 content (except the bonus mission pack) on sale, and it picked up a fair bit of new players.

There was a patch done in the fall to allow HA to be run with henchmen, there was an exploit fix last week, and a large number of bots were banned less than a month ago. GW1 doesn’t see much ANet activity but they still do care a little about it.

That said, I’m very glad ANet has a bit more leeway with NCSoft than other companies it published for.

If we can get back to The Falls, Magesty’s Rest, and the Maguuma Bloodstone (and all the surrounding regions), I’ll be happy enough. Anything more will just be bonus after that.

Given you can’t make many characters that look similar to many of the GW1 heroes, I agree. You should be able to make a character look a bit like Norgu, or Master of Whispers, or even Xandra or Pyre.

More variety is always a good thing.

If you’re lucky enough to find a friend to go through the journey, it makes a world of difference. Several missions are FAR easier with two people each with their own heroes and/or henchmen.

With just Prophecies and Eye of the North, you will be able to get up to 43 points (but those last 5-8 will be an immense grind).

I bought the Complete Collection (physical only collection of all three campaigns and the expansion in one box) this past August, and have put in over 500 hours into it so far in addition to my GW2 time.

As said above, it’s a very different game, but rooted in the same lore. GW1 combat is very much about positioning, careful pulling, and you and your party’s (of players or AI) use of skills. Combat is a bit more cerebral than GW2’s active/reactive (yet still very fun) combat. The skill system is more like a collectible card game than a typical MMO, and player builds can be incredibly complex. You’ll see a number of familiar skills, but they often have radically different effects.

Purchasing depends on where you are. I was able to get the Complete Collection from a GameStop about a half hour away, and there are still some stores that have it in stock. Otherwise you may have to shop around online to find the right combination of price. To get the full experience, you do want to get all three campaigns plus the Eye of the North expansion. Steam did have all GW1 parts on sale last August or September; so they may do so again at some point.

There aren’t as many players on as there were pre-GW2 of course, but there is still a fair bit of activity. The Great Temple of Balthazar (PvP), Kamadan (Trades and most guild recruitment), Lion’s Arch (how busy it is depends on the time of day), and whatever outposts are associated with the Zaihen missions that day (daily quests that give you good rewards) would be the busiest. During festivals (and one is coming up this Sunday!), you’ll see a lot more activity. You’ll want to play on the US districts in most cases, they tend to be the busiest.

All classes are viable for general PvE (even in hard mode), but some classes with specific builds are more in demand for the hardest content, PvE speedclears and PvP. Basically play what you want, unless you are sure you’re going to be doing something specific that needs a specific class and build.

Also note that you are not locked into your campaign. Once you reach a certain part, you will have the ability to move to a different campaign or the expansion Eye of the North while still maintaining your current campaigns progress. Doing this with Nightfall and Eye of the North allows you to get your heroes (customizable AI) and get more experience and a bit more variety in what you play.

PvXWiki is your encyclopedia of builds for you and your heroes.
GW Wiki is amazingly detailed and a great reference for almost anything you want to do in the game.
The /wiki command works in GW1 almost the same was as it does in GW2 (you just don’t have item link functionality).

Erylian.8405:

Female Charr definitely. I seem to never have enough female Charr.

I have an Ash and Blood legion female charr, so time to round out my warband.

My second choice would be an Ascalonian themed human, to round out my Elonian guardian and Canthan thief.

dagrdagaz.4913:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars:_The_Complete_Collection

Its prolly sold out though.

Perhaps, on GW1 website u can buy all (to download).

If you’re in the US, some GameStop stores still have the Complete Collection, you can check availability on their website. It’s a physical only distribution, but barring sales and shopping around, it’s the cheapest way to get everything (aside from the Bonus Mission Pack).

You can start in whatever campaign you wish. Prophecies is best for a brand new player as it gives you a fairly shallow learning curve, and gives you time to get used to the positioning and skill system. You can reach Lion’s Arch, and from there you can do a quest to go to Nightfall (and pick up several heroes), and get a fairly easy quest to get your first Necro hero once you reach Nightfall proper. Also, you can pick up MOX (as mentioned above) once you are level 10. Finally, you can head to the Eye of the North once you reach Lion’s Arch and are level 10, and get the above mentioned Ogden, Vekk, and Gwen.

The other campaigns have different flows. Factions levels you VERY quickly, but dumps you into very challenging missions and primary quests rather quickly. It can be rather painful for a brand new player. You have to make a Factions character if you wish to play Assassin or Ritualist, but as soon as you reach the mainland you’ll want to head to Eye of the North and Nightfall to get heroes and additional experience (both xp and to learn a bit more before tackling Kaineng City’s challenge).

Nightfall is a balance. It’s a lot quicker to level in than Prophecies, but doesn’t hit the steep challenge cliff as fast as Factions. It also gives you a number of heroes early, but their builds are fairly poor to start with. Kamadan is also the primary trade and guild recruiting city, so having early access to this might help you get a guild faster to get started more easily.

Once you get your heroes, you’ll want to spend your coin on skills for them. The best use of coin is to improve your heroes skills, even more than armor and weapons (you can get decent armor and weapons from collectors). In many cases, the default hero builds are rather poor, so you’ll need to improve them a bit. The 7-Hero Player Support build linked above is one of the best to work toward, but with limited heroes you may need to look at some of the hero builds just marked ‘Good’ to carry over until you can get the important Ritualists, multiple Mesmers, and multiple Necros. The elite skills in those builds are important, but you can make do without in normal mode for 3/4’s or more of each campaign (since several of the 7HPS builds depend on elites only accessible right near the end of campaigns, like Panic and Signet of Spirits).

If you head to the other side of the flame jet chamber from the broken floor room, you’ll find a wall with a chain. In most cases*, pulling the chain will open the that wall and let you reach the surface on the other side of the statues. From there, just walk out the entrance.

• Sometimes the wall glitches and will not open when you pull the chain. If this happens, you’ll probably have to waypoint.

If you have Nightfall, you can also pick up a Necro hero (Olias) fairly quickly after you do the quest to go there. Making a Minion Master hero is one of the best things you can do for survivability in most areas.

You may not be able to get the bonuses alone without a lot of well built heroes, but you should be able to complete those missions if you pick up and equip+skill up an eles, Olias, a monk of your choice (I recommend Dunkuro since he’s required in so many missions), and a mesmer. The last spot can be whatever you feel you need, either another ele or another monk.

As hinted above, Guardian is a reactive profession. To play well, you need to watch what you’re fighting and know when to use defensive skills in order to prevent damage to you and your group (when with a group).

There is a lot of good advice above, so I just have a few things to add.

Shelter is both a heal and a block. Often times, it’s best to save it for times when you really need the block, and get the heal as a side effect.

Guardian (along with Mesmer) really benefits from changing weapons, skills and/or traits for each major thing you do.

• Be fully prepared to swap in a stability, or two, when you’re in heavy pull and knockdown areas. The same with reflects, additional aegis, or any other necessary utility. Use Bane Signet for a little more damage if you have absolutely no need for any defensive utility.
• For areas where you’ll take a lot of unavoidable damage, especially large numbers of hits from multiple mobs, swap in a hammer to get near-permanent protection to reduce the incoming damage.
• If you will need a lot of dodges, put 1 point into the Honor line to get Vigorous Precision. It’s no longer “permanent” vigor, but it’ll still help give you more dodges.
• When facing Veteran Karka or Dredge, you can strip their boons with the trait Radiance V, Searing Flames. Each time you give the mob burning (ie every kittens with the default Virtue of Justice passive, or on demand with the Virtue of Justice active and Purging Flames), you’ll remove a boon.

Those three lit symbols exactly match the three symbols you needed to light to Ascend in GW: Prophecies.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Elona_Reach
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dunes_of_Despair
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Thirsty_River

This further links to the Forgotten, as they were the guardians of ascension.

As said above, you need a Tapestry to place statues in the Fellowship, Devotion, Resilience, and Valor monuments. Honor does not require a Tapestry. When you arrive at the Eye of the North, Gwen will give you your first Tapestry. The other three are earned from completing the three racial storylines in the Eye of the North.

Easy points:

• Finish any campaign: 1 statue in Honor, which is 2 HoM points for your first one. (5 total)
• Recruit MOX (if you have all three campaigns), place him into Fellowship for 1 point. (6 total)
• Charm a Black Moa pet, which is done by doing a long quest chain halfway through the Factions storyline (if you choose to go with Mhenlo and recruit the Kurzicks). The pet is charmed at level 20 and can immediately be placed in Fellowship for 2 points. (8 total)
• 1 mini, if it’s a white or purple you get 1 point. If it’s a green or yellow, you get 2 points in Devotion. (9 or 10 points)

More time consuming:

• Complete the other two campaigns, and get the Protector title in two of them. This will give you 5 statues in Honor, for another 3 points. (12 or 13 points, depending on the quality of the mini you added).
• Partway through the Nightfall storyline, you can get access to the Dajkah Inlet challenge mission. It can give you Stolen Sunspear Armor to upgrade hero armor. Get three pieces and put them on Koss, Dunkoro, and Melonni. Get another two Stolen Sunspear Armor for future use. Place those three heroes in your Fellowship monument for another 2 points. (14 or 15 points)
• Once you complete all the campaigns (and thus have access to all the areas), you can do the Black Moa Chick scavenger hunt. This will give you a green mini (if you don’t already have one) for 1 point. Also, if you’re able to, complete Sorrow’s Furnace while you’re down there for another statue in Honor. (15 or 16 points).
• Once you finish the Prophecies storyline, you get access to the War in Kryta content. Complete that quest line (some of the missions are quite difficult), and you should have enough Medals of Honor and War Supplies to create an Oppressor weapon. This will give you 2 points in the Valor monument. (17 or 18 points).
• Once you have rank 5 in any of the Eye of the North racial titles, you will be able to purchase prestige armor from that race. Buy a set of Norn, Asuran, or Monument armor (you don’t need the helmet), for 1 point in Resilience. (18 or 19 points).

From here, it comes down to earning titles (more Protector and Guardian titles, Vanquisher, Sunspear and Lightbringer, EotN racial titles, Skill Hunter), making a Destroyer weapon, doing the Wayfarer’s Reverie scavenger hunt in August for a free Tormented weapon, buying more Prestige Armor (Luxon or Kurzick is the cheapest of the bonus point ones), charming a Black Widow Spider, charming and training an Imperial Phoenix, using the extra two Stolen Sunspear Armor on the two Acolyte heroes, getting five Ancient Armor pieces from the Remains of Sahlahja challenge mission, and buying more minis.

Knighthonor.4061:

Necro has the boon consumption I thought.

Necros got their sacrifice mechanic changed to giving themselves a condition to power an effect, rather than lose life.

They have a lot of ways of managing conditions and boons, but they don’t have anything that will sacrifice a boon on themselves to power or enhance a skill.

Any profession can be picked up by a new player, just some have lower learning curves than others. Those are all mentioned above. Even the higher learning curve professions can still be picked up and played effectively by new players. A more difficult to play or survive with profession can actually be a benefit to a new player, as they are forced to learn when to dodge, use survival skills, and position yourself faster than they would with a ranger or warrior.

She should just try ones that appeal to her until she finds a playstyle she likes. You have 5 character slots for that reason to experiment. The game does a decent job of easing a new player into it, aside from combos and specialized PvP, dungeon, or WvW tricks. All of those can be taught once the basics are down.

The only thing I don’t recommend is a “typical” new ranger setup with a tanky pet and a bow. This is a very safe way to play the game, but it doesn’t require the player to learn when to dodge and when to activate defensive skills. It becomes a lot harder to play another class after learning on a bow/tankypet ranger. Greatsword with an offensive or support pet is a better way to learn the game as a ranger.

One mechanic from GW1 that did not make it into this game was the Dervish’s sacrificing enchantments to power up their skills.

We don’t have enchantments and hexes here, but a new class, whatever form it takes, could use this mechanic as a sacrifice a boon or a certain boon to improve the effect of a skill.

Of the ones I made (in order):
Kamohoali’i Kotaki
Bifrost
Bolt

The spear has, in my opinion, the best effects of any legendary. Bifrost is beautiful and a lot more subtle than most. Bolt greatly appealed to me two years ago when I was making it, but is a bit too over the top for me now.

Including ones I don’t own, below Bifrost put:
Flameseeker Prophecies
Rodgort

The shield has a great lore connection, and is quite elegant but is limited by how little use it would get. Rodgort’s effects are just below the “over the top” limit, and the weapon simply looks nice. It’s also limited by the low usefulness of Torch.

The ones I dislike are
The Dreamer
Quip

The Dreamer is far too over the top, and Quip’s sound effects are some of the most annoying things ever made.

Aeolus.3615:

I think she is the Oracle from cantha that player and shiro met or she is defenitly Livia, since she was the last person with the staff from prophecies campaign.

Can’t be the Fortune Teller. You can kill the Fortune Teller in the quest Bad Fortune in the Realm of Torment.

Weyandt’s Revenge (Sharkmaw in LA) apparently has the same chest ID as Chaos Crystals. Only one of the two can be opened per day.

This has been reported before (although you can’t search back without external Google searches), and unfortunately is still not fixed.

Second the above. For Teq/first-phase Wurms and the like, the runes would give you
Scholar: +175 power, conditional 10% damage
Flame Legion: +175 power, guaranteed 7% damage (unless someday a Destroyer structure type world boss with the proper immunities gets added).

It’ll come down to whether you can maintain Scholar’s bonus regularly enough or not.

Privateer could be a fun alternative, but won’t match up to either of the above.

I’d have to agree in that it’s how you affect Kryta. She takes Livia’s role in this story, utterly devoted to Kryta and Queen, but willing to do anything (kill, maim, destroy) no matter how “dirty” as long as it benefited Kryta.

Correct as above. The ones you can buy with Fortune Scraps are account bound. The only ones that could be sold were the ones that dropped rarely in the original release of the activities.

That would fit right into the Sage Lands from GW1 (right near the former town of Druid’s Overlook. Just east from there is Magesty’s Rest, and the Krytan Mausoleum, where Rotscale used to hang out.

More of his “pride” and hatred of all things Krytan (leftovers from the Guild Wars) shows during the War in Kryta storyline (also note Evennia’s disappearance in Old Ascalon).

Most likely latency or synchronization issues. Synchronization with the activity servers seems to be a major issue this year in the Bell Choir (the song timing you have to hit the keys doesn’t match up with the falling lights), and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what’s making it more noticeable in the JP.

That said, it happens elsewhere too. Anywhere with stairs or a ramp can trigger it, but little is guaranteed reproducible.

Guardian of Angels.9867:

How much play hours are on your gw1 account?!

About 250. After finishing the campaigns, most of the time spent was doing Vanquisher/Cartographer. I had a few donations from friends that helped a guildmate and I get our Obsidian and minis, which got us each several points.

Confirming it works, as I bought the Guild Wars Complete Collection this past August, and now have 39/50. Make your account in GW1 with the same e-mail address as your GW2 account. Make a character in GW1, and be sure to remember the character name (a linked account needs a character name to work). Then, go into GW2’s My Account panel to link the two.

The next time you log onto GW2, you should see 3/50 HoM points.

Note that you need at least one campaign (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall) plus the expansion Eye of the North. I recommend all four, that gives you more skill choices, and almost all the available content.

A character in one campaign, once they reach a certain part of the story, can take a break from that campaign and head to another campaign or Eye of the North.

There really isn’t much like the green weapons from GW1 in GW2.

A few world bosses have rare drops that are only obtainable in the bosses chest (some bound, some can be sold on the TP). Some examples are the unique trinket Sam from the Foulbear Kraal world boss chest, the Final Rest staff from the Shadow Behemoth chest, and the Sunless weapons (from Tequatl’s Hoard), rare Waterbreathers, and mini Tequatl from that world boss (Hoard is bound, the rest are not).

A few dungeon bosses and dungeon boss chests (specific ones in each dungeon) can drop extremely rare recipes. These recipes produce items that can be sold but give you another way of monetizing your dungeon tokens.

The aforementioned Twilight Arbor Aetherpath has some extremely rare unique weapon skins that drop from the end chest (unbound). There are also Fractal weapon skins that are only available from the final daily reward chest when doing Fractals of the Mists (and these are bound, so they tend to be prestige items).

Dungeon armor/weapons, but since you can also earn these from doing sPvP, I wouldn’t consider these unique any more. Arah armor is still sometimes considered prestige.

There are certain rewards that appear only on certain maps. You have the Apothecary exotic trinkets that drop from any mob in Southsun Cove. Unique minis, a required component used to make “insect in amber” weapons, and exotic trinkets from the chests in Dry Top. Exotic trinkets, Carapace armor skins, unique minis, and transformation tonics from chests in the Silverwastes.

Finally, there are unique rewards from doing certain achievements. You can browse the available achievements (though some you must unlock before you can view them) and mouse-over the reward chest if there is one to see what it gives you. One recent example is a Skritt transformation tonic obtained by completing the Silverwastes jumping puzzle the first time. Others are unique ascended trinkets (though most eventually get placed on the Dry Top or Silverwastes vendors). Completing collections are also a source of some unique items, like the Spirit backpiece skin or the Karmic Converter npc for your home instance.

As said earlier, the main reason the overall “bearbow cliche” is a problem is that you don’t learn the mechanics of the game and your profession well enough. Below are several:

For many mobs (but not all), toughness and proximity matter for deciding who to aggro on. This often means that the bear will take the aggro while the ranger can safely range. While easy and safe, you do not get to learn what skills you need to dodge, and what you can easily absorb. Problems occur when you get a mob that doesn’t follow the typical aggro rules, or if there is a 1-shot that can even kill a bear.

When running with a group, there are often shared buffs between group or party members (Banners, shout, virtues, Phalanx Strength, and blast finisher might, blast finisher healing are only some examples). These buffs typically have a fairly small radius from the source. If the majority of your group is in melee, or in short range (longbow has a longer range when traited than anything except grenades), for optimal power the longbow ranger will have to be away from the group. Therefore, the ranger will not benefit from any shared party buffs.

While longbow has great burst potential, its sustained damage is a bit lower than greatsword and a lot lower than sword/x (albeit, one handed sword can be frustrating to use). In addition, the traits needed to boost the power of longbow tend to be “selfish”. They only boost the power of the ranger, rather than boosting the power of the party (ie Spotter, traited Frost Spirit).

Point Blank Shot, as said earlier, is another common annoyance. When used well, this skill is a huge help to a group. When used haphazardly, this skill is extremely frustrating. Pushing something into a wall so the melees can keep it in place, pushing a ready to explode Risen Plague Carrier out of a melee group, removing a stack of Defiance, and knocking someone off a cliff in WvW, or off a point in sPvP are great uses.

While Point Blank Shot is an interrupt, interrupts in GW2 are far weaker than they were in GW1. Aside from a few skills, interrupting a mob’s dangerous attack in GW2 will only put the skill on a 4 second (IIRC) cooldown. The extremely short cooldown can be dangerous for the group as they may have burnt dodges and are now low on resources.

There are situations where bears and longbows in combination are very useful, but there are also far more situations where they are not. Eventually you will want to carry one of each weapon, and swap weapons, utilities, pets, and traits depending on what you’re encountering. We just need templates like GW1 to make the swaps easier.

The average age of my guild is around 40. I’m slightly below that.

Much of my guild has been together on various games for nearly 7 years now, though we’ve picked up a few more members on GW2. We play all content: open world, LS, dungeons, fractals, WvW, and sPvP.

I started with the NES when I was 9, and my sister was 3; and as of 6 years ago (the last time I had access to a working TV) the original NES still worked (Zelda is still an awesome game). My sister and I cooperatively played through Deja Vu. The SNES is still the best system ever made.

I also play tabletop games (EuroGames and RPG’s like Pathfinder), and occasionally play single player games.

While some of my other guildmembers are long term GW1 players, I only got the game in August. I’ve since earned 36 HoM points, and am greatly enjoying my playthrough.

That line is one of Ogden’s battle quotes. Confirmation here

My guild has been tracking whenever we get a laggy instance or map for the past two weeks (Teq, Silverwastes, dungeon, fractal, WvW server for the week*, sPvP match, ), and every single time, it’s been either .161 or .162. .161 is the worst of them, and most certainly has the most detrimental effect on players.

• My server’s home borderlands is in .162 this week, and while not anywhere near as bad as .161 is, there are still a lot of disconnect, lag spikes, positional desyncs, and skill freezes.

Zaxares.5419:

I found the Pacman homage in the Labyrinth to be quite entertaining. Too bad there wasn’t a “Power Pill” we could take to supercharge our #1 skill and kill the wolves.

The “power pill” effect is what made GW1’s Pacman homage (Remains of Sahlahja ) so much fun. The labyrinth is a lot more chaotic and is fun in its own way.

• The RNG-pain of getting hero armor out of it was brutal.

Sariel V.7024:

This would be a great way to reintroduce the missing Worn Voltaic Spear skin.

Or the Rose Focus.

Out of 6 80’s (all hit 80 pre-NPE), only one of mine has an issue with quitting an episode. That’s my warrior who completed the personal story post-NPE. The others all completed the personal story before, and I have no issue with removing the markers and green “direction” panel.

More diverse character options are never a bad thing. More variety on body shape, size, and age allows people to both be more creative when making a character, or better represent themselves.

Just an aside, the average age of my guild is currently 40.

Most, if not all, of its attacks are unblockable. This makes the bouncing daze very frustrating, so carry stability or have a guardian provide it (Stand Your Ground, Hallowed Ground).

With enough DPS, you can beat it like any other AC boss by freezing it with Ice Bow 5, and bursting it down before it has a chance to recover.

Without that…push it into a wall, and have everyone stay in melee range. That way, it won’t leap away from the group. When it leaps, you’ll want to dodge into the wall right before it lands to avoid the blast, and either be directly underneath it or dodge again to avoid the tremors that pop right after. Being directly under its feet will make the tremors avoid you. With really good timing, you may be able to avoid both attacks with a single dodge. Keep stabilities up to avoid the fear and dazes, and it should fall.

I just got my first one of those yesterday doing vanquisher.

The Forgotten Fan from The Falls would also be nice too, along with a few of the other GW1 skins that did not port over.

That said, the most likely source will be the gem store, as a standalone or as a created-set.

Certain dungeon recipes are great, if you get them to drop. They are just insanely rare.

Every dungeon runner in my guild has at least 250 or more repeats in the Hobby Dungeon Explorer track, running all paths regularly except SE2 and Arah4, and in total each of us has only gotten 2-5 recipes (some duplicates)

Branded, Destroyers, and Icebrood (other dragon minions) also do not have slayer tracks.

Taku.6352:

What’s the point of interrupting the dogs retal cast when it only goes to a 3 second cooldown and then just casts it again and again until you run out of CC.

Retaliation is a bad boon that rewards for playing badly.

Biggest problem with interrupts in general in PvE (looking at you Kohler and the TA champ vine).

—

As a guard, I could manage retaliation spam by retraiting to have Searing Flames, and remembering to not activate my virtue so that I have an every kitten boon strip on one mob. It was still annoying to do so, for just a few fights in the game (old Mordrem wolves, Skeletal Lich, dredge), and it’s not available to all professions like interrupts are.

AC: Salvage exotics for Soldiers or Magi inscriptions/insignias. (whichever is more)
CM: Salvage for Rabid or Shaman.
TA: Salvage for Rabid or Magi
SE: Salvage for Soldiers
CoF: There are no insignias here, buy the cheapest rares and salvage for Ectos, or buy 4 of a weapon and forge.
HotW: Salvage for Rabid, Magi, or Soldiers; or salvage cheap rares for ectos
CoE: Salvage for Dire; or salvage cheap rares for ectos
Arah: Salvage for Rabid; or salvage cheap rares for ectos.

Salvaging dungeon gear still works perfectly fine.

I’ll chalk up another ‘I like Bifrost as it is’. It’s much more subtle than many of the others, which makes it far less intrusive on “busy” screens.

BWE2: First time doing the Font of Rhand. A group of 15 people figuring out how to solve the puzzles, then getting 1-shot by his auto (yet alone his Boil), then finally winning and seeing about a dozen chests pop up floating in the water. It was intense, fun, and a little disappointing how easy it is now.

The first time doing each dungeon, each Fractal, and the story the first time. The first time doing each jumping puzzle (no matter how fun or frustrating). First time beating each world boss. Some living story event (SAB1, Flame and Frost dungeon, Mai Trin dungeon, and the first Labyrinthine Cliffs event. Nightmare Tower I didn’t like at the time, but grew on me).

Buying GW1 this past August, and seeing how everything was connected. Especially enjoyable to see the ghosts I fight in GW2 AC as living people in pre or post Searing. They’re very different games, but both are still enjoyable. Earned my 30 HoM points, but still working slowly on 50 and GWAMM. In there, finishing each story, the grueling finish of War in Kryta, first time I completed Sorrow’s Furnace, the Fissure of Woe, and the Tomb of the Primeval Kings (still need to finish UW and DoA), beating Winds of Change (just normal so far) and fighting the GW2 style clone mesmer.

skullmount.1758:

wolfyrik.2017:

DOOD!!

New Squirrel ranger pet plz Anet or GTFO!!!!1111!!!!one!!!1!!

I’m not sure I’d be content with just a single squirrel as a pet. It’d have to a mini mob of them.

I preferred Deranged Hermit in my old M:TG/judging days, but any amount of squirrels were fun to run people over with.

That said, Squirrels would be a great pet, along with bringing back the crabs and dune lizards from GW1.

Different mobs have different aggro mechanics. Many aren’t completely known.

Nearly all prioritize people resurrecting others over anyone else.

Tazza, the boss of SE path 1, likes to focus the person with the lowest total health (so Eles and meta-zerk Guards are usually her focus).

Some, like the Defend Magg trash at the end of CoF path 2, prefer the person with the highest armor (though doing damage to them can break that initial aggro).

The original HotW path 1 troll used to focus whoever did the most burning damage (maybe other conditions but burning is what I actually tested).

When I bought GW1 this past August, I ended up finding a local GameStop that had the physical only Guild Wars: Complete Collection. It was 29.99$US for all three base games plus Eye of the North. If you are in the US or Canada, you can try this site to search for a store that has it.

Shortly after, Steam had the entire series on sale. I believe the total for the Trilogy and Eye of the North was around $35US. They may, if there is enough demand, put it on sale again during the Christmas sale.

Note that Trilogy only contains the three base games, you would have to buy Eye of the North separately in order to earn Hall of Monument points.

With a friend, it would make things a lot easier, and more enjoyable.

Guardian support is about preventing damage, not healing or tanking damage. Preventing damage to the group works the same no matter what gearset you use.