Guild Wars 2

Iago.5874:

Well, with Rune of Balthazar you can inflict burning on your heal. Precast -> Steal->Burning applied. Its a weird kind of play but I enjoyed it.

Afaik, Balth 6/6 only triggers on pressing 6. I’m not clear on how you’re using it. Precasting what?

tattoohead.3217:

Dredd Spirit Caller.4082:

well elixir infused bomb work for bomb kit
why hgh don’t work with elixir gun
and hgh description say “ALL” elixir, now i dont count 1 to 3 elixir gun skills but skill 4 and 5 got on description the word “elixir” and same to tool belt elixir gun skill
i count this for elixir skills

Wait… WHAT!? Elixer Infused Bomb works with HGH? Did I totally misinterpret that, or have I been missing out?

Bomb Kit, not HGH

Staff tends to be a secondary weapon for all the classes that can use it, except ele. You’ll rarely see a necro with staff as their primary, but they’ll use it often enough to build up their DS or for healing marks. Due to the mechanics of no weapon swap, ele will most benefit from a Legendary staff imo.

Viable? Yes. Silly? Potentially. Downright awesome? Heck yea!

Also Karl, it seems the global change to how dazes & stuns work has affected a number of skills across all professions. Over the next month or so will you guys be monitoring the effects it has on them and potentially adjust various daze & stun durations. It seems that the rounding up was an unintended thing that required a fix, but now certain skills have such short durations that they border on uselessness.

Well obviously I was hoping for a solid FT build utilizing HGH & Juggernaut to stack crazy amounts of might. I find myself hovering around 18-20 stacks right now and I’m not even optimized with the proper sigils/runes yet. Jugg just makes it so easy.

Apparently, the concensus though is that it doesn’t matter how many stacks of might I’ve got, FT just isn’t going to dish out any kind of desirable damage. And I should switch to bombs. (I refuse to spec grenades again; too boring and carpal tunnel inducing.) How disappointing. Guess if I want to use FT I have to bring the EG too and build for damage + support.

Wow…it’s the simplest solution ever. Just get rid of all full-dps stat sets. Being forced into taking support/healing/survivability stats would mean a forced diversity. Of course, not being able to spec assassin/zerk/rampager would mean dealing less damage and taking less damage. Meaning numbers would have to be tweaked. Damage modifiers, scaling, enemy skills.

True, it’s all about personal feel.

My sentiment is that staff gives the long range when it’s needed. Axe keeps him at 600 range, which is plenty far enough given the minions pulling aggro, 2 immobs on minions, Unholy feast (aoe crip), and Spinal Shivers (chill).

And being that you suggested power/crit, I figured it better to get good habits going early. Namely, to spec appropriately for your gear. Axe auto hits twice as hard as scepter (base) and stacks vulnerability.

Dagger offhand is an amzing tool for survivability. Deathly Swarm is one of my favorite weapon skills in the game. And never underestimate the usefulness of weakness. Focus is much more offensive, but it can spread regen to yourself & your minions. So that’s nice.

Again, use what works for you. You might want to start off with staff as your primary weapon & dagger offhand. As you get more comfortable, swap to axe/focus more and see how that works. Get even more ballsy as you level and try out dagger mainhand; it deals more damage but you’re in melee. Good luck.

For alts, this is great. For 1st timers, I’d say stay away and try to enjoy the game. Being 80 doesn’t really get you much more than being level 50, so try to take in the beauty of Tyria.

Dungeons give 70% of a level for the first completion of the day. Run a few different dungeon paths every day and you’ll hit 80 in no time.

Race/lore wise, they’re both right on.

As for leveling, they’re both incredibly easy. Probably the 2 easiest. Ranger’s pet is a huge boon in open world, and warriors can easily just equip 5 sigils and boringly GS thru Tyria.

By endgame, you’re going to find everyone agrees that warriors are king of the dungeons, while ranger’s pet makes them more difficult to use properly. But that kind of stuff changes every patch (although the general concensus of pet liability and warrior dps hasn’t altered much in the last 6+ months). Both classes can bring some great team utility.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you like best, and which is more fun. Since you have a guardian, I’d recommend ranger, if only for a change from heavy-armor melee action. Plus, it lets you experience the norn storyline. And pet hunting is fun. Just wandering around Tyria looking for all the various pets to charm I gained like….6 levels easy.

Minions. They are your friends. And their health just got buffed. Grab the elite minion and always have him out. Grab the Bone Fiend and Bone Minions. Together these guys will soak up kits and divide aggro. Also, Bone Fiend and Flesh Golem can stop an enemy in its tracks to make it easier for you to kite.

Your 3rd utility is up to you but I like Signet of the Locust for the run speed. Makes exploring faster.

Weapons: Axe/Focus – use power/preci/crit gear. This will dish out good damage, keep vuln stacked, and not force you into melee like dagger mainhand. And it’s got a couple kiting abilities too. Staff secondary set.

Lady Minuit said use Scepter/Dagger, but that’s a condition set and most players agree that leveling necro with condition is much slower. I personally switched from conditions → power while leveling cuz I found it too slow and hard to stay alive against multiple foes.

From a RP perspective, that all makes a lot of sense. If that’s how you become happy with your characters then keep it up. Personally, I choose the race that I think will look best in armor and then craft their story around them. Not being much of an RPer, my character stories are generally very loose.

As a condition thief, I love Death Blossom. I can evade, reposition, and spread bleed on multiple foes in 1 skill. And the dagger auto dishes poison on its 3rd chain skill. But those skills don’t gel with HS and even CnD because BS will hit like a feather as a condition spec. If you could combine the condition skills from D/D & P/D into 1 set I’d be so happy.

I love the retreat/torment of P/D#3, its auto attack bleeds, and its stealth skill stacks bleeds. If you could somehow put DB on P/D I’d be so happy. And make the auto chain bleed>bleed>poison. And then make dagger’s auto 3rd chain dish weakness or vuln instead of poison. And then make the D/D #3 a power-based attack.

Replace pistol#2 with a pistol version of Death Blossom, whereby the thief leaps over the target (just like in DB) and fires a scattergun type spread at up to 3 targets & bleed (just like DB). Lose none of the functionality but just make it a pistol skill. Then we won’t need an immob because we’d have 2 movement skills (#2 & #3).

I love that there’s no Trinity in GW2. But what’s happened is that everyone is responsible solely for their own health and nothing more. Group healing is an afterthought. Also, in an effort to keep self-healing in check, healing power scales terribly with every skill. So there’s no point in gearing it.

To make an encounter require group healing, and thus more teamwork and strategy, would be to elevate certain classes over others due to their ability to aoe heal. Ranger & engineer spring to mind due to strong aoe heal #6 abilities. This required strategy would compete against Anet’s vision of being able to take any combination of professions into a dungeon and succeed.

The same is true of other support skills. Warriors and guardians are so coveted due to their awesome party buffing ability, even though it’s not even required to clear a dungeon. It just makes things faster. If encounters suddenly required the kind of party buffing only warrior can bring, we’d see profession division. In an attempt to make every profession just as important as every other profession, fights are dumbed down to zerg-status. Nothing is required. It’s a 2-sided sword. If we have strong emphasis on support, then we’re looking at a pretty massive re-design to make sure no class is left behind.

jheryn.8390:

Lord Kuru.3685:

It’s good to raise awareness. However, the charity that has spearheaded this whole “pink” thing has some very suspect business practices.

Are you kidding me? This is an individual that spearheads this event. Her name is Rhonda. If you click on the donate button on the Pink Day in LA website it takes you directly to the Canadian Cancer Society’s website. Unless you are saying that the CCS has suspect business practices, which is preposterous, why would you make such a statement?

I have a feeling he was refering to the Susan Koman organization. He probably thought that’s who was sponsering the event. I too have heard of questionable practices by them.

They can have crab pets with Sic Em
And invisible floating traps

Yes! this is the perfect solution. You can still keep multiples in your inventory if you’re a variety junkie, but this would keep a bag slot open and prevent inadvertent deposits.

Since you plan on doing some PvP too, roll both (or one at a time if you only have one slot left) at test em in The Mists. No time wasted on leveling if you don’t like one. But if you like one over the other, then test em in PvE.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Forestnator.6298:

I just wonder where your bombs or grenades are.

Believe it or not, there are other ways to play the Engineer than 30 points in Explosives.

Had to +1 this.

You might as well have asked why I’m not running warrior if I want to dps. I’m pretty sure I’m playing for enjoyment and (believe it or not) I’m actually doing great damage and stacking the crap out of might. Oh yea…and it’s fun!

Doesn’t that typo-fix reduce the cost from 1580 gold to 230 gold? That’s right on par with other named exotics on the TP.

In principle, I completely agree with your disdain of achievement hunting for LS events. However, this year’s achievements have been designed and scaled well so that they’re easily accomplished within a few days of just enjoying the content. And since they added dailies to the LS meta progression back in the Pavillion days, it’s easier than ever. You don’t need to do 50 doors if you don’t want, just do another of the cycling dailies. And it’s here for a month! You’d have to actively try NOT to get the meta for this event.

Props to Anet for getting the LS achievement scaling right on. No more “carve a million pumpkins”

I will say though, that I miss not being able to attain a title. I’m hoping as more is unlocked, we can get a Right Hand of the Bloody Prince title. He’s a bit of a whiner, but I’m always down for dishing out some vegeance.

Having spent more time in the Labrynth with my engi main, I think I just need to be more careful with my alt thief. Not exactly the heartiest profession to begin with. Gotta bring more condition cleanses and evades I suppose. Being condition spec in a zerg doesn’t help either I’m sure. Time to adapt!

…Can you post the build? Hard to advise without knowing what you’re running with.

@ Phineas & Conflux: made those suggested changes. Good calls.

@ Phineas: for now I’m testing it in the Labrynth zerg. Let’s me get away with design flaws. Ultimately, I want to use it in dungeons. Despite people dissing FT’s damage output, I can’t help but love it. Especially with so many might stacks.

@ Freek: Your build is very interesting. I’ve never rocked a hybrid FT engi, as I’ve always thought that FT works better with straight power. I might give something like this a go at some point but for now I want to mess around with HGH. Also, I don’t feel like acquiring new armor (too lazy).

Build updated

Just threw this together and headed into the Mad King’s Labrynth with some good results. Obviously, it’s a tagging machine but I was also able to keep up 15+ stacks of might on myself with ease.

Wasn’t sure about my last 10 trait points so I took Energized Armor in an attempt to squeeze out a little extra offense & defense. Although it was a toss up with Incendiary Powder, I just figured my burns would get covered up in the zerg.

Anyway, can I get your thoughts on it? I’ve never ever played an HGH style build and thought that combined with Juggernaut’s natural might stacking, it’d be a beast and fun to play.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlspyanuSgF1LJyoCdWoCSIIF11dJ6xj1YTGA-jACBYLAkFAJPFRjtIMI1hTjVtATViIq2boIa1A-e

Yea I’m actually having more fun in the Halloween zerg than any of the others that the LS has produced. The gauntlet wasn’t much fun, just effective. The invasions were even more effective, and fun in the beginning (when people wanted to win). But the Labrynth has some great challenging enemies, a great ambiance, and is loads of fun.

Don’t judge a 4 week event 2 days in. There will be more to come.

Also, it’s fun. I think the fights in the Labrynth are fun and challenging if you avoid the zerg.

And the point of Lunatic Inquisition is….<gasp>…to have fun. If it’s not your cup o’ tea, then just don’t do it. I think it’s one of the better mini-games we have.

rizzo.1079:

CETheLucid.3964:

Anet didn’t “encourage” that in this update.

Considering you can’t go 5 feet in the labyrinth solo without getting cc’d to hell and back, I’m going to go ahead and dispute this statement.

You mean while trying to ignore everything and run through to catch up to the zerg? God forbid you actually have to fight your way there.

While I admit a stationary dodge would be incredibly useful from the dodger’s point of view, I think it would cheapen dodges. They’re already the strongest form of damage mitigation (100%). But the trade-off is the repositioning. Forcing a melee foe to dodge away from one of your attacks is the recompense for not hitting them. Sure, your wind-up skill missed, but at least they aren’t on your face for 1sec.

Obsidian.1328:

How so? It costs a measly 2 initiative points? Granted Guardians can shrug it off better now, but most classes don’t have boons galore like they do.

It costs 5 initiative, because you have to first spend 3 initiative (and 1/2 sec) on Flanking Strike just to have access to LS. Not exactly spammable.

You can do PvP and WvW as soon as you finish your intro event (level 2). There is a PvP icon along the top-left of your screen. Click it to bring up the menu and to travel to the Heart of the Mists. Hit B to bring up the WvW menu and to travel there.

Not sure if/how it matters, but are you upleveled? I noticed that on my upleveled thief (actual 64) that I was taking way more damage per hit than I was with my exotic geared engi.

The made-up [unknown] numbers were simply to illustrate a point. The point still remains. Get upset/excited as you will.

johnsonade.9547:

… and I got that agressive mandril/revealed werewolf/Saw the Arc of the Covenant sort of shocked face …

laughed so hard

The Tassi story is the best part of this year’s Halloween event so far! I want more Blood Prince!

We haven’t seen all of the content yet. Maybe we get 1000 candy corn each time we play Mad King Says. Or maybe the home node will give like 25 each time. Just some hopeful speculation. Otherwise, this is a looooong road that I don’t wanna trudge down.

Yes please! Was there one last year? I can’t remember. But given that many people (like myself) will bring their <80 characters and will subsequently die often (like myself), a repair anvil would be nice. I say anvil so-as not to give an easy sell merchant to empty bags.

Also, I noticed a sizeable difference in difficulty in the Labrynthe this year. Seems the bosses hit MUCH harder now, making it very difficult to stay alive with my <80 alts. Anyone else?

Seriously, equip some evasion & condition removal & speed. Then reset your skills when you catch up to the zerg.

Or…<gasp>…you could actually fight your way to the zerg. With the high volume of people popping into the Labrynth, you won’t have to wait long to be joined by 1 or 2 other adventurers.

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one then. I feel the exact same way. The story is pretty cool so far, and I’m anxious to continue it. But LA’s decorations didn’t hold any magic for me; they were exactly the same. Less even. I feel as though there could be way more spider webs and decorations. The cauldron is cool…again. I think Wintersday and then Dragonbash kicked the redesign of LA up notches that require them not to simply reactivate 2012’s look.

I’m really happy though that the achievements this time aren’t stupid things like “carve 250 punkins” or “open 250 doors.” They’re more story-driven achievements, and I can dig that.

Btw, love your ideas OP. Especially bone armor, a haunted house, & scarier LA.

Get the 13/13 achievements for the Candy Corn reward, then try again. This is just a guess, as it’s not yet possible to have gotten 13/13 (until after tonight’s reset).

I’m assuming that they increased the material costs in an effort to reduce the amount of 2012 Halloween items that are still floating around. But requiring such a high amount would need to equate to literally millions of unclaimed ’12 items on the TP.

“Weapon skills that hide the player’s weapon will no longer hide their back-slot item.”

Even if it read “Kits no longer hide their back-slot item” it doesn’t say anywhere that it makes the kit backpack (hobosack) disappear. It just says it doesn’t make the backpiece disappear. Which means they’ll both display and clip horribly…like they do.

kostasliv.8163:

Again thank you all for your help. Now i need to decide Male/Female but i can do this alone xD

Male & Female Asura wear the exact same armor skins.

Now you get to see the back item and the hobo sack clip together !!!!!

Whether Fasalina is a thief or not, I think the idea is smart use of skills. Are you saying that if a thief is not in stealth and does not have a reveal debuff, then you want sic ‘em to add the debuff? That’s not lending way to smart use of skills, but just spamming it and hoping it helps. I hope it only works against actual stealth to promote smart gameplay.

Maybe there’s a 10s ICD between instances of stealth for Shadow’s Embrace. So still removes every 3 secs, but once you leave stealth the 10s ICD begins. I’m at work. Can anyone test that?

skullmount.1758:

funkylovemonkey.3097:

Aberrant.6749:

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone else picture an overly-excited camel walking around yelling “Patch Dayyyyy! Yeah!”

They should have an asura riding a yak that wanders around LA doing this to help inform players.

I support this idea.

I’ll second that. Though maybe it could be a baby Quaggan on the yak?

If it were quaggan he’d be yelling “Patch DOoooooo”

And if we want a boisterous herald, it must be a norn. Riding a yak. Mug of mead in hand.

There are some legitimate class-forum posts….a few….maybe 1 or 2…..

Ok, it’s mostly filled with whines about past nerfs and speculations about future nerfs. But there are some good discussions and ideas that arise from build posts.

The devs would be better off starting a thread in each class forum covering a single class-specific topic and opening discussion. Much like they plan on doing with broader topics for PvE, WvW, and PvP. I’m hoping that as these threads become successful sources of community feedback, class-specific ones will start. Eventually, we might see a new team of Anet employees whose sole purpose is to familiar with the community voice and discuss issues and feed it all to the devs.