Guild Wars 2

The problem I have with bomb kit in large-scale fights is its delayed damage. You aren’t going to hit the enemies you want to hit, nor are you going to hit them when you want to hit them. I think that’s what risenlord is referring to when he says that bomb kit doesn’t have the damage output needed. Even the blast finisher is heavily delayed.

The bomb kit can do huge AOE damage… if the enemy is standing where you want them to be. By the time a bomb explodes, your teammates will have dealt their damage already and the enemies will either be downed or no longer on the spot. Or at least that was my experience when I ran bombs in large-scale fights. You can adjust your playstyle to address this issue but I personally found it too much of a chore. If bombs work for you, then kudos. I just find that grenades work better for me because you can use them point-blank without much delay and you also have the choice to throw them from ranged. They do have less utility than bombs though, I’ll admit. Plus, you have the option to trait more defensively with bombs since you’re forced 30 into the Explosives line with grenades.

I agree that Rocket Boots are fine for large-scale fights though. Immobilizes can be deadly and the blast finisher is useful. Just learn to cancel it so you don’t fly off somewhere where you can be picked off.

I assume these will be used for roaming, not zerging? If you’re zerging, I’d just go with the shouts warrior build here: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Shouts_Frontliner. A hybrid build won’t do well in zerg vs zerg because your physical damage won’t be as high as it could be and your subpar condition damage will just be cleansed.

For solo roaming, you can pretty much run with anything as long as you know the strengths and limitations of the build. I’d probably go with the second one and add some toughness in, because once you burn Dolyak Signet and drop below 90% health, you’ll only have 2.3k – 2.4k toughness, about the same as a zerker warrior. Make sure you have a Sigil of Battle for might.

If you want to roam in a small group, consider a more traditional build like Hammer/GS or even a full condi shouts warrior. Imo a hybrid build doesn’t pack enough damage to be a threat in small group fights.

Aw, now he’s just a cat-shaped lump of meat.

They were rare trinkets, not exotic. But yeah, I just salvaged them for ectos because I’m selfish… hehe.

Nothing in the vendor interested me either. I just sold my old clothes for ~1 gold on the TP.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

How much do you get on each day. If you only get 1 or 2 on the selected days and then get like 15-20 for selecting the 28 day reward then the entire system is horse kitten. As over all the rewards of all of them have been decreased. Sure if you select the 28 day laurel reward you will maybe get more laurels than before but then all the other daily rewards end up being less than before. Its a huge nerf and like always white knights gonna come in and tell you that the heaping pile of crap taste like candy.

Day 2 – 1 laurel
Day 7 – 10 laurels
Day 9 – 2 laurels
Day 16 – 3 laurels
Day 21 – 15 laurels
Day 23 – 4 laurels

That’s 35 laurels in total, not including the laurels you can choose to get on the last day.

Edit: Does anyone know how many laurels you get if you choose the option on the last day?

If you log in for day 1’s reward today and then miss the next three days, then on the fourth day you will get the reward from day 2 when you log in. Your progress will be halted but you will never lose your progress.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Login_rewards

It looks decorated for Wintersday to me.

Jana.6831:

reinforever.8902:

but I prefer 2/6/6/0/0 personally because that extra crit chance and ferocity + executioner is too hard for me to give up.

Maybe mug?
Executioner is trait XI line 1.

Trait XI line 1 is Panic Strike, not Executioner.

Tremor hits twice in melee range. The first hit is a melee attack and the second is the knockdown wave, so you can use this to clear blind and still knock down the opponent. Or you could just use it for the extra DPS.

Eviscerate has a much larger range than its animation suggests, both forward and sideways. This can be used in a couple of interesting ways, like hitting a thief in Shadow Refuge. Just aim the Eviscerate near the middle of SR and it should hit the thief (provided you aren’t blinded and the thief doesn’t dodge) even if he’s at the furthest edge of SR. This should deal a fatal blow to the thief since SR is usually used in an emergency.

Savage Leap often hits the opponent even if you leap past it without targeting it. You can use this to reposition yourself behind the opponent while still dealing a bit of damage. Also, if you’re using the skill for out-of-combat mobility, try not to use it when a mob is in front of you. Even if you leap over the mob, you’ll still hit it and be placed in combat speed.

With Signet of Fury or any skill that gives you adrenaline out-of-combat, you can use Earthshaker to make precise jumps in jumping puzzles (much like the engi’s Jump Shot)

This should be common knowledge but Shield Bash is a leap finisher, despite not looking like one. As an axe/shield warrior, one thing I like to do in groups is to use Shield Bash through a smoke field (make sure not to hit anyone or you’ll get revealed), which gives me three seconds to position myself and hit someone with an Eviscerate from stealth.

Tsunami Slash (Spear #5) is a great skill to use underwater for mobility. Every warrior should know this but I’m including it just in case.

This is more of a mindgame than a trick, but as a hammer/GS warrior, something you can do is pretend like you’re in trouble and kite away from the enemy. While he’s chasing you, look behind you and anticipate where the opponent will be, then use Earthshaker. Oftentimes the opponent will not expect this (since you’re running in the opposite direction) and will be hit by it.

Greatsword for mobility and Hundred Blades.

Personally I prefer the Longbow as a ranged weapon in PvE because of its superior utility, but it’s up to you.

It’s one of the cultural sylvari armors, T2 iirc.

I think you can get an order from completing the new Ambassador’s Aid achievement in the Silverwastes.

I’d get some -condi duration. Hoelbrak runes, Dogged March, and food should give you near-immunity to movement-impairing conditions, which is important since you’re a melee warrior.

Also, you need stability. Scrap the shouts and grab Balanced Stance or Dolyak Signet. For the other utilities, Berserker’s Stance and Endure Pain are good choices. Maybe Bull’s Charge so you can land some hits of Hundred Blades, but it’s kinda bugged/unreliable atm. You could use it for kiting though.

Good use of dodges and pet CCs. I like.

Please post your build if you can!

If you really want a serious answer, then I’d choose #1 because it has more toughness than the others. But it’s by no means the best choice because, well, the builds are similar enough that it’s personal preference (like the others above mentioned).

But these new tentacles have pull mechanics as well as barriers to keep us… y’know, within their reach.

All PvE guardians should be carrying a scepter anyway.

Btw, for the instace with the thresher and the roots, there’s a flamethrower nearby that you can pick up and use to kill them all with a couple passes of the autoattack. You need to do this for one of the after-story achievements. I’m not sure if the flamethrower is available when doing the story itself though.

Crossplay.2067:

I see toughness as an absolute must with the latest living story releases.

I do fine as a zerker warrior in the Silverwastes and will gladly engage champs by myself, knowing that I can dodge their highly telegraphed attacks. I once soloed the Amber boss to 50% and could have killed him had it not been for the time limit.

I haven’t been in a situation in open PvE where berserker gear didn’t suffice.

I’ve been roaming around in WvW as a D/P thief and there seem to be a lot of power necros running around from the other servers. I have no idea how to fight them. I’ve tried playing defensively with shortbow and fighting aggressively in their faces and keeping them blinded, but I just get whittled down with fears, immobilizes, and soft CCs like chill. Even when I’m in stealth, Life Transfer deals a ridiculous amount of damage to me. I always interrupt this skill when I can, but they shrug it off and proceed to annihilate me with 4k+ Life Blasts. Even when I manage to get a good backstab into them, they just immediately go into Death Shroud, fear me, and start barraging me with those massive autoattacks.

I’m pretty sure this is a L2P issue for me, so any tips? I suppose that speccing full glass and killing them before they kill me is an option, but I’d rather not go that route.

Thanks for the responses!

Lol, I forgot that Spectral Walk gave swiftness. I’ll scrap the warhorn trait and grab the 20% damage one (and swap Axe Mastery for Chill of Death as well). That’ll lower my crit chance though, so I’ll have to make some tweaks to get it back up. I don’t think I can do that without losing a lot of toughness though, so I’m considering just going yolo mode with full zerker and Strength runes. Is solo roaming as a full zerker necro feasible, or should I add some toughness just to be safe? How much toughness should I aim for?

I think I’ll use dagger/warhorn as my first weapon set. It seems like a good life force builder and the weapons synergize with each other. As for the other set, I think I’ll go with staff like some of you suggested. I’m new to necro, and I thought staff was only useful for condi builds, but I did some reading on the forums and it looks like staff is also a must-have for power builds due to the utility it brings. I guess staff is to necro like shortbow is to thief?

Edit: In any case, this is my tweaked build. Full zerker with some knight’s trinkets. Not sure I’ll be comfortable running around with only 2k armor, but maybe the offensive pressure and Death Shroud will suffice for survival.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakjmibbtx8G2bTgLUQ/mBQLEVIQ9WcGPLA-TVSDwAs2fgqSjDPBgnKzSoE8l6Pg03AwEkkTBAZAynAA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRBHhhu1IHNF32aj5Ns3moWogsODgIPhWg65oNqWA-T1iDABcquDUKDcVJoBPBAAMBRlSjnUi9h+nd2fIiTCAMqEQIABjBA-w

I wanted it to be a little tankier than the norm but still deal respectable damage. The build only has 30% crit chance, but Pack runes and the 15-point minor trait in Curses provide fury uptime for 50% crit chance. Death Perception takes care of the rest.

The build has perma swiftness from warhorn and the warhorn trait, negating the need for Traveler runes. Unfortunately I had to sacrifice the 20% damage trait to achieve this. I’m not sure if that loss of damage will be a problem or not. To somewhat offset the loss, I chose Axe Training over Chill of Death.

Thoughts?

Edit: This will primarily be for solo roaming. I know necro isn’t the best choice for that, but I still find it really fun and challenging.

Did Majory not rez you guys when you went down? I died maybe twice during the fight and Marjory immediately ran over to get me back up.

Anyway, it was fun trying to figure out the mechanics of each fight. After you get them down, they’re honestly not that hard. I went for the story achievements afterward and got all four in one go.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcMqcW4wzBf0APAC5fv2JKQ5qJfC-TFjDABup+zK7PMlSGoUGAgJIqUKQxDAYEtAcpE6DdAkqE8hTAAZAy3CA-w

Too much celestial? Too little power? Not enough crit damage? Better food? This is my first time coming up with an ele build, so I just wanted to get some feedback on it. It’ll be primarily for solo roaming, but any possible tweaks to make it perform well in small group play would be appreciated as well.

As a typical zerker guard with Sw/F and GS, I want to know what the optimal way to take down the gate controller is. I know guardians aren’t usually the ones to do it, but I usually pug my dungeons and sometimes the job is left for me to do.

At the moment, I change two of my utilities to Bane Signet (passive 10% more power) and Stand Your Ground. Not sure what to use for a third utility; it needs to be something with a low cooldown that can be swapped in time for the final boss, or something that is actually useful for the final boss, since I don’t want to be stuck with a useless utility when fighting it.

When the wall opens, I pop SYG and #5 on focus, swap to GS, leap in with #3, use #2 and #4 (by this time focus #5 should have exploded), swap to sword, use #4, and then autoattack for the rest. It seems pretty slow though. Another problem is that the flamethrower dude often forces me to interrupt my rotation due to its ridiculous multi-hitting burning attack that usually kills me if I don’t pop Shelter or Renewed Focus, slowing me down even more.

Any tips?

From what I understand, Riposte can also block all melee attacks for its duration, but only if you’re out of range for the counterattack. So if you face away or run away from the opponent while using Riposte, you’ll block everything.

My FPS remains about the same, but I’ve been having noticeable stuttering issues since the patch.

In WvW, they’re essentially the meatshields of the zerg. If properly specced, warriors have around 30k hp (buffed) and over 3k toughness which, combined with healing signet/adrenal health, gives them massive sustain. Most warriors run with hammer and sword/warhorn. Hammer offers AOE crowd control abilities and sustained cleave damage, while sword/warhorn is a support-based weapon set that provides personal mobility, a blast finisher, perma AOE swiftness, AOE vigor, and AOE condi-clearing. There’s also the option to run healing shouts for even more sustain (and with soldier runes, even more condi clearing). Warriors are also expected to take Battle Standard because of its ability to instantly rally downed allies.

Here’s my WvW zerg build if you’re curious:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNBMhJakpjOPr8wxD6QD8DUov9aoFMFApnitoKA-T1CEABwoWQLq6slSQDOCAMpsh4HAgWKl8QfQS7PAwhA4hTAAZAW2CA-w

I don’t play sPvP much, but the typical builds you’ll see there are Hambow and celestial Axebow. As for PvE… well, the only thing that matters there is DPS.

mammasaura.5907:

Super Elixir is a light field, with Surprise Shot and Throw Wrench (both 100% Physical Projectile) you have 2 more condition removals, also hip shot has a 20% chance.

I thought projectile finishers from light fields only cleansed conditions on allies they passed through. Do they cleanse the caster too?

Hm, if you blocked an attack from a phantasm, would the phantasm or the mesmer receive the burning?

Pretty cool build. One question though: does Counterblow block projectiles for its full duration like Riposte does? The wiki page for Counterblow claims it only blocks one attack regardless of whether it’s melee or ranged, which is kinda disappointing (would only result in one second of burning).

Grimwolf.7163:

Where else did I see it? Every single time I try it and get the timing slightly wrong.
It looks exactly like the regular dodge.

Are you an asura?

I ignore them. Even if you manage to avoid their CnDs, negate their Sneak Attacks, and just outplay them in general, they’ll just stealth and either get away or come back at full health. Complete waste of time. By avoiding p/d thieves, you gain the satisfaction of knowing that you denied them a fight, which is all they want anyway.

I ignore them. Turning a 1v1 into a 2v1 isn’t my idea of fun, unless the enemy who’s fighting my ally has ganked me (or attempted to) in a fight I was involved in. Then I’ll return the favor.

For example, in our current matchup there’s a roaming ele on HoD running a scepter build who likes to join small fights (particularly ones when we’re already outnumbered) and burst unsuspecting people down from range. So whenever I see this guy in a fight, I always focus on him and CC + eviscerate the crap out of him. Needs a taste of his own medicine, y’know.

Also, I tend to ignore fights where multiple allies are fighting one enemy. Hopefully they can handle themselves.

Hachiman.2470:

FYI sizer changed his rune setup. He’s using Pack runes instead of strength and using Hard to Catch master trait.

Pack runes I can understand, but Hard to Catch? Interesting.

Xmania.6834:

Why do you need a defence skill when you can dodge? the toolkit seems useless to me, the toolkit’s toolbelt skill is really useless, toolkit is in more melee range then bomb kit, and i prefer the elixer gun for coni clearing every 20 secs and stun break in the toolbelt skill.
I really dont understand all the hyp over the tollkit…

Good luck relying on dodges to stay alive as an engi without a source of vigor or energy sigils. Your build doesn’t have much sustain either. If you don’t want to use tool kit or give up the elixir gun, I’d recommend at least taking out 2 points in Firearms and putting them in Alchemy for the vigor, especially since it synergizes quite well with Speedy Kits.

You say that the tool kit’s toolbelt skill is useless, but you ignore skills #2-5, which are all great in a condi build. Box of Nails gives you some kiting ability, which is important in builds that lack endurance regen such as yours. Pry Bar is one of your main sources of confusion and hits hard even in a condi build, so I’m not sure why you’re think it’s useless. You can even combine Pry Bar with Magnet to land a free hit with it. Speaking of Magnet, it’s a great control skill that can force the enemy to waste a dodge if you cancel the cast, or lets you land a skill of your choice (usually Pry Bar) plus a couple more depending on your speed and the reaction time of the opponent. And of course there’s Gear Shield, which is one of the best block skills in the game and ups your survivability by a ton if you use it well.

I’ve been using the Elixir Gun for WvW group play lately and I have a few questions about the Fumigate skill. According to the wiki, Fumigate removes one condition per tick (5 total) from allies in the cone of effect, so…

1.) What is the max number of allies that can be cleansed of a condition per tick, assuming they’re in the cone of effect?

2.) If one ally has 5 conditions on him/her, can Fumigate cleanse them all if that ally is in the cone of effect for all 5 ticks?

3.) Does the cone of effect have to hit enemies in order for the cleansing to work, or can you just aim it at allies to cleanse them without any enemies nearby?

4.) Do you have to be in combat to cleanse allies?

Thanks in advance! Any comments about Fumigate that I didn’t mention are also much appreciated.

Seerstrange.4723:

The problem with using longbow and Sword/x is that its just less damage then axe/x and GS and with the current mechanics the game has in place those tank stats are just wasted :/.

Oh, I should have clarified that I’m referring to WvW, not PvE. Pure zerker is obviously the way to go in dungeons and whatnot, but the bonus stats from celestial gear is great in WvW.

Celestial armor, or at least a mix of it, works surprisingly well with sword/x + longbow builds. I have enough power (~3300+ with stacks and might from self) and crit damage (63% or 73% depending on weapon) to hit hard with Final Thrust and Arcing Arrow, and enough condition damage (~1300 with might from self) for some decent bleed and burn ticks. The trait Last Chance combined with the new sigil of intelligence will make for some deadly burst combos with Final Thrust when your opponent reaches half health.

Hey, just wanted to say that I love your build and playstyle. I’ve switched over to a variation of it and been having a lot of fun with it. I’ve been winning some and losing some, but this is a much different playstyle from what I’m used to (celestial might-stacking ‘nades) so that’s to be expected.

Silinsar.6298:

Also, in case I would feel like writing a guide, what’d be “must have” content for you? Might gather some ideas and write something down over the time.

Some of your favorite rotations would be helpful to know. For example, I’ve seen you doing Place Turret > Magnet > Pry Bar > Detonate Turret as a CC combo. Also, tips on fighting various classes and builds (especially those that outrange you) would be awesome. For some reason, since switching to your build I’ve been losing to guardians a lot lately when usually I defeat even zerker guards with ease. I guess the loss of condition pressure has something to do with it. I also suspect that I’m not fully utilizing my CCs.

Engineers. Mainly because I’m interested to see what build they’re using. A good engineer can be fun to fight, but unfortunately the majority of engineers in WvW don’t really know what they’re doing. The last engineer I fought used Elixir S in the first few seconds of the fight (even though he got the jump on me) and killed himself via retaliation from my Elixir B since he was running flamethrower.

I was capping a sentry in Eternal Battlegrounds when I saw a warrior and guardian running towards me, so I quickly smoked bombed + rocket booted toward Stonemist, which was ours at the time. As expected, they followed me. I decided to engage them near the gate and the guards to even it out a little. The fight went on for a while (the warrior was glass cannon A/Sh + GS and the guard was running healway I believe), and when I was low on health and out of cooldowns I attempted to retreat back into Stonemist, only to find that it had since been capped by another server. I died valiantly.

skeet.1390:

Lol.

I’m embarrassed to be on BP.

Qft. Who cares if there was an alliance or not – just get out there and have fun.

Just yesterday when everyone was karma-training in other borderlands, a group of ~6 CD tried to take Bay’s northwest gate with an omega. Luckily I was expecting this since I spotted the golem beforehand. I rallied the few people remaining on the map and while they held them off with siege, I advanced from behind and had a 1v1 against the golem (lol), taking it down to about 10% health before I was overwhelmed by the 6 CD.

I guess it wasn’t the smartest thing on my part, but we still wiped them and killed off the golem as it tried to get away. If it were a larger group, I would have gotten someone to hop maps and tell the karma train. However, I knew that a bit of teamwork would be enough to drive off the CD because I had had a couple skirmishes with them earlier and knew that they weren’t particularly amazing players (no offense).

Moments like these are why I play WvW. Thanks to everyone who helped and to the CD players who gave us a good fight.

Believe it or not, I have had a random warrior pop FGJ for me before I ran in.

But again, wouldn’t Signet of Might be better than FGJ against the gate controller?

Oh, I always thought it was that initial fire shield around the controller that knocked you back. I guess Balanced Stance is staying on the bar. The Healing Surge tip is helpful, didn’t think of that.

Also, why FGJ? 3 stacks of might gives less power than the passive +180 power from SoM, unless I’m missing something.

Do you absolutely need stability to take down the gate controller? I’ve always popped Balanced Stance beforehand just in case, but if the other four teammates are inside the domes, then you wouldn’t really need it, right?

Also, what would be the best rotation to take down the controller as an A/M + GS warrior running with PUGs? I personally use Rush > Pop Frenzy and Balanced Stance > Hundred Blades > Whirlwind > Swap to Axe > Tremor in melee range > Eviscerate > Auto-attack if needed. Utilities are Signet of Might, Balanced Stance, and Frenzy.

Cool, thanks for the replies. And yes, I’ve heard about the combo with Rocket Boots but I haven’t actually tried it myself.

So I understand now that the knockdowns are triggered by the target’s efforts to move, but is there some kind of method to get the most knockdowns possible (running back and forth over the target, standing on the target, moving in a circle around the target, etc.)?

So I’ve been wanting to integrate Slick Shoes into a build, but I have trouble getting the knockdown to work. I’ve been told that the “hitbox” of the knockdown is just behind my character’s model and that you can run over the enemy character’s model to trigger the knockdown, but it only works about half the time. What am I doing wrong, or was the info I received incorrect?

We can do all sorts of things in zergs. I run a tanky, power-based bomb build on my engi, and I can provide a fire field for might stacking and push with the zerg while dropping bombs everywhere for AOE pressure. I can provide a water field when necessary, and Big Ol’ Bomb is just a great skill for area denial when placed correctly. When I see a group of enemies clumped together, I’ll drop supply crate (stun), glue bomb (immobilize/cripple), and smoke bomb (blind) to make it easier for the zerg to run them over. All of this is a lot easier with stability, of course, but even without stability, I still have -61% stun duration and -53% damage when stunned.

I also run rifle, which may not be the best weapon in a zerg, but it has its uses. With the toolkit, it is good for picking out stragglers. Magnet > Prybar > Rifle swap > Wait for dodge > Net shot > Throw wrench > Overcharged shot > Jump Shot is typically the combo I use to disable the target long enough to get him killed.

My last utility is either Elixir gun (support and stun breaker), Elixir B (AOE stability), or Rocket Boots (blast finisher and easy escape with smoke bomb). All have their uses.

It’s true that we don’t have a specialized role in WvW like guardians or mesmers, I definitely don’t feel like I’m not accomplishing anything in a zerg.