Guild Wars 2

I’m a thief who spends 95% of my time in WvW. So I’m used to taking orders, stacking, burning enemies/players and I can handle myself well… But it’s difficult to find my way through a place I’ve never been when there are a ton of enemies in every direction. I try to utilize my stealth to the best of my ability so that I don’t activate enemies or so that I can slip by. But if I take a wrong turn and my stealth runs out I’m SOL.
Again, I apologize for ranting… I just find this whole matter very frustrating. I’m in a guild but I don’t want to be kicked for being a total scrub in dungeons. So I’m trying to get my head straight in a few of them before I do a guild dungeon run.

Everyone just runs past everything in dungeons? You’re supposed to kill the enemies not just rush by and hope you don’t get killed… As someone who’s never done dungeons before, I don’t have a very educated perspective on the matter but somehow I doubt you’re MEANT to run by the majority of the enemies… Maybe in some cases but not all. And after having attempted 3 dungeons now and seen the same strategy every time I’m finding this kind of bullkitten since I have no idea where to go and no one wants to help. They just let me die if I’m too slow… Yes, my fault, too slow. But if I don’t know where to go and I can’t explore to learn the area then how do I learn anything?
I apologize for the rant but I would really like to know why people use this “strategy” if it could even be dignified with such a title.

I agree OP.
I’ve been playing for less than a month and this game has by a great deal surpassed my expectations and has quickly made it’s way to being one of my favorite games. There are always people online no matter what time I log in, there’s a never-ending amount of content to explore, the community rarely squabbles and even when it does it’s not often it lasts for more than a few minutes, leveling is fun, post 80 is fun, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing really the game is just 100% enjoyable. I’m the sort of person who becomes very attached to something when I start liking it. I don’t phase in to something and phase out a few weeks later. If I like it I’ll get to know everything about it, with people places and video games. And I can tell this will be one of those games I’ll end up playing until I know as much as it’s possible to know.

Thank you, Anet. For this awesome game I can waste my life in. You give us hermits a reason to live.

I’ve guild hopped more than a few times but honestly I’ve only been in half of them because I’m too nice to say no…
I’m just not a “people” person really and I prefer to do and learn things my own way and at my own pace. I also have a thing against being told what to do… And although I understand the purpose for hosting guild dungeon events and daily activities I just cannot stand when I’m told to be somewhere or I’m out of the guild. It’s my kitten game and if I don’t wanna do it I ain’t gonna.

So even though at the moment I am in a guild, I do everything on my own unless a guild member invites me to group in WvW. Which I still pretty well consider doing things on my own because the group only really serves the purpose of locating eachother on the map.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think you should come back. Clearly it’s all about rewards to some people, rewards are the only thing that matters, and if it’s not that way, you’re not going to be happy.

For example, there’s a new dungeon path for Twilight Arbor that’s been released. It’s harder than some other paths in other dungeons, but I think it’s a much better dungeon than most. But reward-wise its’ not much better than any other dungeon.

I think people who play for rewards are the least satisfied with this game. People who play because they’re enjoying themselves and don’t really care much about the rewards seem to be happier.

I agree completely. I enjoy every second with this game and although there are times when I’m frustrated with the fruits of my success it never takes long for me to forget why I was upset. There’s so much to do in this game it’s hard for me to grasp why so many people complain about it sometimes. I understand the quest for achieving a maxed out character but what happens when you get there? Nothing… Enjoy the road and soak in the game. Some may disagree but of the games I’ve played Guild Wars 2 is by a generous stretch the most gorgeous and well designed game I’ve played. Not only that, considering it’s size and the detail put in to it it’ never ceases to amaze me how infrequent freezing, glitches or bugs will happen. You would think with the immensity of the world there would be more obvious discrepancies but they’re actually quite rare.
So in closing, no. If you’re in it for the loot you should not come back. The game will from time to time reward you greatly for your triumph but the real reward is in the battle and exploration itself.

As someone who is a big fan of customization I like this idea but at the same time I don’t. I feel it would spawn a whole new era of troll builds that would make the game a lot less enjoyable for those of us who like to PvP. However, something I think they SHOULD look in to relating to this freedom of choice subject is allowing all classes to wear all types of armor. I get that some classes are light, medium or heavy and why, but what if we want to make a tanky caster or a nimble warrior? Although I’m sure the latter would be a lot less common I’d bet it’d still be done from time to time. Or, if that idea isn’t viable… At least let all classes able to transmute their gears appearance regardless of their vocation. eg. If I were a Guardian and wanted the light class style of the Twilight Arbor, I wouldn’t be able to WEAR that gear, but I would be able to transmute my current gear with it’s appearance.

Huzzah! Now that I have completed my first level 80 character (thank you, Dragonbrand! Couldn’t have done it without you since 90% of that leveling process was done in WvW) I felt I’d make a feel good post. So in light of that, here are some of my favorite moments in GW2 that have made me lol;

- While attacking Anzalias Post atop a nearby hill, I was doing the /sit animation as a few of our teammates were trebbing the tower. Looking through my inventory I hadn’t noticed a thief that had snuck up behind me and I’m not sure what attack he did but he literally pushed me off the ledge. This was a pretty high hill and I was right at the very edge of it so it was perfectly done and I lol’d when I faceplanted on the ground below as I’m sure the thief was too.

- Harassing a small group of 3 in WvW I was constantly stabbing these guys and running off. None of them could catch me and I couldn’t seem to kill any of them either so I decided to just be a pest while they were capping camps. I was keeping tabs on them reporting to the team through chat what they were doing while making their jobs more difficult at the same time. At one point while they were attempting to cap Umber all three of them took some pretty good damage from the [Guild Claiming] fellow that at the time had Righteous Indignation activated so I saw my chance and went in for the kill. As all three of them were laying on the ground I spammed Death Blossom and got all three of them before they could get up and repeated the /laugh gesture until they WP’d xD. I know it was the cruelest thing to do but it was so satisfying.

- In the Obsidian Sanctum on my second try at the puzzle I got to the last stretch before the chest (I had looked up a video to help me with a few parts so I knew I was near the finish at this point) and was doing a review of my surroundings to see where I should go next. Unfortunately I was near the roof where the caged enemies are held beneath and when moving my camera around I managed to tap the evade button accidentally… Which of course since I was stationary meant I would roll backwards and I went right through a hole in the roof and fell to my death -_-‘. I was SO angry. Like SO angry I cannot put into words right now but looking back it’s pretty kitten hilarious. I attempted the puzzle again the next day and died a little further ahead… Then the day after that (yesterday) I came in at just the right time because a Mesmer was sweet enough to port some of us to the top. Thank god for that because I was so close to sayingkittenk that puzzle all together. It’s that spot that’s total darkness where you need a torch to see your way around that always drives me insane.

- In Wayfarer Hills I was waiting by the Champion Svanir Marauder for some people to show up. I had said in map chat he was up a few times but most people seemed uninterested. Then after about 10 minutes some guy shows up and tries to solo the thing and he was either stupid or very new to the game because I had said about 10 times in /say that I wasn’t going to help him but he kept at it… I must have watched this guy die about 15 times before he finally gave up and left. Also, just so people don’t think I’m a total kitten for not helping; I was level 50 at the time and this guy couldn’t have been higher than 20… So I was pretty darn certain just him and I couldn’t defeat it on our own so I wasn’t going to waste my time trying.

If anyone else has some funny/interesting stories please share ( : With all there is to do and see in this game I’m sure there are some interesting tales floating around.

I haven’t played the game long so I wouldn’t go on my advice but just food for thought; I’ve played every class long enough to decide which I liked (each up to level 20 before moving on) and I’ve by a long shot had the most fun with Engineer and Thief. I’ve kept both of them and although I’m currently putting more effort into improving my thief I feel that I still have more love for the Engineer. It has a LOT of potential to be a very heavy hitting build. I also know this from being hit by some of them in the past. Engineers are very player dependent, you can’t just pick it up and be good with it. I know I’m not a pro with mine but I can still lay down some pretty nice numbers. Not only that, when it comes to WvW, mob mentality is something you need to learn to play with. I study psychology and although this isn’t the real world real people are still playing it and will follow like sheep if you make enough flee. What I mean by this is- Flamethrower. Stand a few people behind the front of the group and spray that fire far and wide. The enemy zerg will back up almost every time because no one wants to be showered in flames. It’s a very intimidating thing to see coming at you whether you’re zerging, havoc or solo.

I am so tremendously glad this isn’t happening to just me, but so terribly upset that it seems to be an issue now.
It doesn’t happen so frequently that it makes WvW unplayable for me but what has been happening is that my skills lag JUST long enough that I die instead of lagging for a few minutes. Every so often I’ll have skills lag out for up to 30 seconds + but more often than not it’s that they lag for about 5seconds which is just enough time for me to be killed before I can retaliate. Such as watching my healing skill flash repeatedly while I’m being attacked just to see it go off the second before I’m downed… Which is incredibly frustrating.

As I’ve stated in most of my previous posts, I’m relatively new to the game. According to my /age 21days. I’m beginning to better understand the game now and currently have 2 level 71 characters (stopped working on my Engineer in favor of a Thief but I plan to bring them both to 80 this week.) However, I’m still a bit hazy on how to properly build a character. And because I spend the majority of my time in WvW and am a very competitive person there, it’s important I’m as effective as possible. So, my questions are:

1. As a thief I would like to fill the role of annoying assassin. I don’t plan to nor did I make this character to be a troll, -but I do want to have the option of being able to sneak around and snipe off the enemies I see lagging behind the zerg. So what would be the best traits and skills for me? I found this page that I’ve been using to guide me but a bit of outside advice on whether it’s a good guide to follow or not would be great.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cF33RBF_w-_07-VOVd0;9;5JTJ;207-34A08;24FG0JJF0JF04JF045Bt

2. As an assassin, I want to deal as much damage as quickly as possible. I’m extremely fast with this character and have really gotten the hang of running in for a stab and taking off. But I don’t do quite enough damage yet. So what kind of sigils and runes should I be looking at? Precision and Critical Damage? Or would there be better options for me?

3. I’m almost positive I’ve misunderstood something about stealth. I see thieves going in to stealth for long periods of time all the time but I can only ever manage a few seconds. Have I not filled the right traits or am I doing something wrong with my skills?

4. Not related to build but still something I’m curious about; The Ruined City of Arah is apparently where I earn Shards of Zhaitan. I would like to do this so I can purchase the Orrian Reward set. I love the fur and hunter look of the Norn and that set really fills the bill for that style.

5. And finally, I purchased 2 Exotic daggers for when I reach level 80 which hopefully will be by the end of today. Will exotic be an okay weapon to roll with or will I be largely outclassed by Legendary?

I apologize for any stupid questions I may have asked but as I’ve said I’m still relatively new.

Otaur.9268:

I am also an altoholic, and because of this, I have 1 character almost fully geared.

Same problem. I’ve been playing for 3 weeks tops and I’ve made at least 12 characters… I only have 2 at the moment neither of which are 80. I like to play around with other builds too often and wind up being less productive doing low level stuff trying to grind the character rather than being more productive making a capped character better.

I appreciate the responses, everyone.

KeyLimPi.9031:

Mesmer is the most boring, useless, monochromatic class in the game. Then you hit level 40 and you fart kitten smiles and throw up rainbows. Seriously, level 40 and after is when the class opens up. It’s such a trait dependent class and still the only one you’ll hear people say “just wait it out”. When you’re 80 it’s support potential goes through the roof. Your utility is basically unrivaled in this game for both zergs and havoc groups.

Elementalist… this was/is my first love class. Made one back and in beta 1 and I can tell you this from the bottom of my heart, I regret putting so much time into it. I got used to how fun D/D used to be as it was the fastest paced, action packed, joyride that I wanted. Then the nerfs started coming and ANET forgot to stop nerfing. The worst part is after playing D/D every other class has felt boring in comparison.

Necro I can’t accurately tell you too much about aside from with dire gear, you’re going to be the biggest, tankiest, beefiest pair of training wheels you can be =P. It’s super simple and you can still be a massive help in zergs and havoc.

Lol about the Mesmer. Yeah I didn’t play it to 40 or up so I imagine I missed out on a lot. Which is probably why I wasn’t so fond of it. Thanks for the advice, I may yet give it another try although it still remains my lowest preference.

From the sounds of it, I’ll be going for an Elementalist since it has the best support abilities and just sounds overall the most appealing to me. Now for coming up with a name!

I appreciate the advice, everyone. As for those who have asked/mentioned the effectiveness of the gear, I’m after it for aesthetics. I find the majority of the medium and heavy armors to be f_ck ugly and one of maybe 4 sets I actually like on my thief is a cultural set. I’m trying to make my character a ninja but for reasons beyond me there are only 2 sets of medium armor that AREN’T some form of trench coat. I enjoy long coats and all, they look awesome. But it just doesn’t work with a ninja…

I think the problem is that I spend most of my time in World vs World and I don’t make a whole lot of cash because our server isn’t frequently kicking kitten . Sometimes we do but it’s not an every day thing. And since I’ve only started playing about 3 weeks ago I haven’t done much farming either. So, I imagine once I’ve been playing a while longer I’ll make some more gold. I hope, anyway…

Which of the three would you recommend? I’m leaning toward a human Necromancer or a Sylvari Elementalist (seems fitting.) I know Mesmer’s are great and all but I’ve tried one before and wasn’t super thrilled with it. Doesn’t mean it’s out of the question just pointing it out that it’s my least favored of the three.

I’m mostly in World vs World and I’m about 50/50 in zergs or in a havoc group. I also prefer to be a support role so if any of the three have good supportive capabilities (healing, granting swiftness or other boons) I’d prefer that one.

Are there faster, better ways to do it? Or am I SOL and have to buy gems to trade for gold?

I haven’t been playing long but I’ve been concerned for when I reach level 80 because there’s a set of cultural gear I would really like but it costs a total of 119g… And I have 14 at the moment. I’m almost certain once I get that gear I’ll be making more gold than I know what to do with, but for now I’m almost broke and more than halfway to 80 on the character I want this gear on. So any suggestions on how I could make some $$$ faster would be really appreciated.

dukerustfield.7120:

Because I WvW a lot and I learned in FPS games there’s nothing more annoying than being killed by an annoying toon. So I’m Stinky Stink the Asura with pink hair and a top pony tail and pink clothes and I laugh like a hyena when I kill someone.

Lmfao, this is very, very true.

Xae Isareth.1364:

The problem is that we got a downward spiral on T<2 servers. I don’t think the players are going anywhere but..

1. Large guilds start leaving for T1/2 servers because of WvW.
2.This makes WvW almost unplayable for those that remain because they just get stomped all the time, so more WvWers leave.
3. Everyone else sees an emptying server, and so they leave as well.

This is very true. I haven’t been playing all that long but in the time I have I’ve witnessed a lot of hard work being done in WvW as a member of Dragonbrand. It’s a highly populated server but most people seem to prefer doing dungeons or just hanging out in Lion’s Arch doing kittenall.
I’m not the kind of person who says f_ck it because things get a little challenging so I haven’t left the server. But I couldn’t count on one hand how many times I’ve seen the Outnumbered buff come up in WvW and our zergs are no bigger than 10 people. Every so often, mostly in the mornings, we have some pretty impressive numbers and do very well, but otherwise it amounts to us getting stomped from being vastly outnumbered the majority of the time.

Just a note though; I don’t in any way put blame on ANet for this. I see a lot of people saying it’s their fault for WvW being this way but I believe they’re matching us up correctly. Dragonbrand is a very large server but most of the people don’t bother to WvW, instead they’d rather sit in LA and complain about how we suck. They match us up on potential players not people who actually participate in it.

Just /age checked and I’ve been playing for 12 days with my main character at 95hours and 1minute old, level 70 Engineer.
I spend most of my time exploring, in World Versus World, mastering combat and… Shopping (curse you Black Lion trading company…)
Since I’m a new player, I promised myself from the beginning I would avoid making the game overwhelming by only practicing combat, exploring and figuring out which classes I liked best. That way, I could save crafting, modding and dungeons for when I’d become more experienced and less likely to get frustrated. 80 is fast approaching though, and I don’t want to be one of those players with a capped character who knows nothing about the game other than hack and slash. So if anyone could answer me a few questions I’d really appreciate it.

1. 95% of the time I’m in World vs World, it’s insanely fun and I enjoy the versatility of combat. From zerging, scouting, havoc and reinforcing towers and keeps. However, I have yet to kill even ONE person by myself… I’ve killed many in zergs, with a partner or with a small group but I haven’t ever succeeded in a one on one. Which is either due to me completely sucking, not being modded what so ever, or because I use a touch pad mouse on a laptop instead of an actual mouse…
So my question is: If I were to mod, what mods should I go for and would they make a big difference or would I hardly notice?

2. Thieves kitten me off… I can at LEAST defend myself against anyone else, even if I never win. But I can’t do anything against thieves because I can’t see them. They stab me a bunch then I’m dead without ever getting a hit in on them. I understand that there are certain abilities that can be used to reveal thieves from their stealthing, as an engineer, do I have any abilities that can do this?

3. What is the difference between PvE and PvP gear and where can I get PvP gear? As I’ve mentioned, I’m in WvW more often than anything and I’m a huge customizational freak, so I spend a lot of time in the vendors and trading company. However, I haven’t noticed any statistical differences in gear that would say PvE or PvP. I got a chest piece from an award box that was level 80 and it said right on it PvP. But I hit “deposit collectible” and now I can’t find it -__-’.

4. This question is far less important than the others but I’m still curious. I did a bit of research on armors and found that back slot items are listed under trinkets. I have a Charr backpack equipped right now that I found under the “container” tab though, and when I look in trinkets all I see are earrings and rings? I right click on ones I think might be back items but none of them have a preview option. Do back items not have that option or am I looking in the wrong tab?

5. I’ll probably be making another character after I reach level 80. I enjoy the engineer class very much, but I’m not finding it as effective in WvW as a lot of the ones I come into contact with. Not to mention it seems like a very under used class. But for now, I’d like to know what attacks I can use to stun enemies. I get blinded, confused, crippled and all that other junk all the time and it’s quite devastating because it leaves you so vulnerable. I’d like to apply those tactics on my enemies so I can be as effective as they. Are there any abilities that come to mind for an engineer that could do this?

I’m aware that I’m probably a complete nub so there’s really no need for name calling… I’m just trying to be as effective as possible so that I can stop relying on zergs to stay alive.

I appreciate the advice, everyone. I was actually invited to a small guild last night for being social in World vs World. Which by the way is my new favorite part of the game.

I’m level 35 now and think I’m just starting to peak that learning curve in to not needing much advice anymore.

I’m not sure at all how to craft yet but thanks to the internet I’m sure looking up how to do it won’t be very difficult.

I also haven’t done any dungeons yet but as Yen and Mystic Starfish have mentioned I’ll probably save it for level 80 unless the guild wants to do a run beforehand.

Thoroughly enjoying this game… I’ve been playing for about 3 days now and I’m completely addicted. I did a ton of exploring right from the get-go because it’s one of my favorite elements to any MMO/RPG/MMORPG, and when I realized the “World completion” bar I almost shxt my pants. I’ve 100% completed 5 or 6 zones now and I’m only at 14% of the world discovered O___o. The size of this game is absolutely insane and I love it.

On to my questions though;
Through my journeys I’ve mostly done questing, storyline and exploring. Completing areas for the chests and killing enemies or doing events for dailies. I’ve also already gotten my monthly box. I’m not sure how fast most people progress but I think in 3 days I’ve done pretty well. However, I’m feeling that the leveling process is a bit slow. I’m at 28 right now, have a basic understanding of game mechanics and can hold my own in the world. But knowing I’m not even halfway to the level cap makes me feel like there’s a hell of a long road ahead. Not that I don’t enjoy the exploration and experience, but I want to get up to that cap sooner rather than later. So how can I level a bit faster? Am I on the right track or should I find some other way?