Guild Wars 2

Omega Zoa.3859:

So here i was overjoyed to finally get my second Red Ring of Death. To my surprise it did not let me equip my second one; i laughed and tried again thinking i misclicked or something, but turns out to be true, you cannot wear two of the same type. I was quite upset because i gave no in game warning or anything. Now my question is why? why is this a thing? you can wear two orca rings of the same type and two pearl rings of the same type but why can’t we equip two of the same rings from fotm? because i wasted my relics cause of this. Refund my relics or add a in game warning to warn future people or something..

sigh Red Ring of Death clearly comes with a “unique” warning and there is an exact alternative to Red Ring of Death. The Crystalline Band – which has the exact same stats as Red Ring of Death but a defensive infusion slot as opposed to a offensive one. I don’t know why the devs made it like this but that’s how it is. Just save-up relics for a The Crystalline Band – problem solved!

Also, according to wiki, "You can’t equip two identical ascended rings, but you can equip the “normal” version of the ring and its “Infused” version at the same time". So get one our your Red Rings of Death infused and you can wear two!

Just had this happen to me on my Sylvari elementalist sigh

Half Tooth.1867:

Where can you see the pale tree in gw1? I completely missed that O_o

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinni/7855005654/in/set-72157622996008249/ → Pale Tree in Ventari’s Sanctuary if I am not mistaken.

I took the screenshot during the Wayfarer’s Reverie event that happened just before GW 2 launched. I started doing the quest for the HoM point since I needed a Torment weapon but I ended-up really enjoying myself, reliving things and also seeing the GW 2 ties in.

Harum.2896:

I don’t get it. I see people getting ascended rings from the fractal daily chest from left and right. My mate just got his 5th ring and he has done the daily 12 times now.

Personaly I’ve done over 20 daily fractals at lvl 10+ now and I haven’t got a single ascended ring drop from the daily chest. Zero! I’m starting to have really hard time beliving this is just bad rng on my part. Is there something I’m not doing right or what? Is anyone else having this hard time obtaining these rings from the daily chests?

Thank god for the fractal relics at least so I’m going to get my 2nd ring with them tomorrow so this isnt such a big deal anymore. I’m just astonished with my bad luck and hoping for that some to would tell me that this is all normal before I go chase my infused versions.

This happened to me and for a long time (pre relics that is) I never got rings. But then they started dropping but TBH I passed the majority of the rings that dropped to my alts that don’t even do fractals and just bought the ring I wanted for the main that does do fractals. Indeed, recently I even got a Fractals Focus skin drop for me! I was thinking of getting a Focus too but couldn’t find a skin I liked! So you know, your luck will turn!

Oranisagu.3706:

they need to make the rings salvagable with a chance of vials/globs/shards..

I would like this. I have a ring on an alt that I am thinking of getting replacing with a new better ring that dropped but right now there is nothing I can do with the spare ring. Meanwhile, I need 1 more vial and 1 more glob to turn one of my rings into the (infused) version. I wouldn’t even mind if the ring salvage was done through the mystic forge as is the case of salvaging shards into globs and globs into vials.

No I don’t. I have no wish to engage in depraved and degrading acts or bring pain and suffering on myself or inflict them on others. Besides which, joining the Nightmare court isn’t “freedom”. You just abandon the teaching of Ventari for the teaching of Grand Duchess Faolin and do as SHE bids. You are more a “slave” in the Nightmare court then you are as a Sylvari of the Grove.

Besides, forget the Soundless, who cut themselves off from the dream but I never got the impress they had abandoned Ventari’s teaching, what about all the Sylvari Pirates? Clearly they aren’t exactly following Ventari’s teachings either. So clearly, if you don’t want to be good and stuff, you are free to walk away and do whatever you want. You don’t HAVE to join the Nightmare Court to not follow Ventari’s Teaching. I would argue that you are more free as a “Dreamer” then a member of the Nightmare Court.

Basically, as a Sylvari your choices are,

1. Follow Ventari and remain connected to the dream – Sylvari of the Grove

2. Cut yourself off from the dream but still follow Ventari’s teaching – Soundless

3. Cut yourself off from the dream and stop following Ventari’s teaching – Soundless Pirate!

4. Keep yourself connected to the dream but stop following Ventari’s teaching – Pirates!

5. Keep yourself connected to the dream and not only stop following Ventari’s teaching but engage in acts of vile deprivation and evil in an attempt to corrupt the pale tree and turn the dream into Nightmare – Member of the Nightmare court and become subject to the hierarchical nature of the Nightmare court

What people forget that those title “Knight”, “Courtier” etc are not just quint things done for fun but an actual hierarchy followed by the members of the court. The Grove has no equivalent of this. A most you have the reverence for the Firstborn but that’s more “respect your elders” as opposed to an actual hierarchy.

I think this all comes down to the question: Do Sylvari have sex?

Obviously Sylvari would only be able to have sex for fun and not for reproductive purposes but that’s not really important here. If they can and do have sex, that means there gender has meaning.

I have one of all races except Charr (tried it in beta, didn’t gel). I have to admit that when I tried Sylvari in Beta and choose “Shield of the Moon” and “Act With Wisdom” and a Sylvari thief, I didn’t much like the race. But I was committed to having one of each race (except Charr) and so rolled a Sylvari Ranger. With Ranger I choose “White Stag” and “All things have a right to grow”. I liked “White Stag” a lot, “All things have a right to grow” was a bit lackluster and I kind of wished I had choosen “Act With Wisdom”. But I really enjoyed being a Sylvari Ranger.

So when I took advantage of the Anet New Years sale to buy a character slot for the express purpose of rolling an elementalist, Sylvari was pretty much my natural choice. I choose “Green Huntsman” and “Where Life Goes” for my ele and to day, hand down, “Where Life Goes” is THE best Part II storyline for the personal story I have encountered! Malyck is great and I really hope to encounter him again!

Bukkebruse.2810:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

That means you were lucky enough to have a coordinated group. Some people do not know how to complete the torch event—-then it goes downhill from there.

This. Torch event coupled with the run through the urn/bomb area and a final boss that’s invulnerable for half of the fight just makes it unappealing to the people that want a quick and easy run for money/tokens.

I successfully PuGed it once recently and haven’t tried it since. Torch event was touch and go but after that it was quite nice and interesting. After doing P1 and P2 to death, I actually found P3 very refreshing. I would do it again if I was sure my team mates could get torch sync done.

themaster.9802:

I’m having a lot of difficulty with Honor of the Waves. Each time I enter the dungeon, about 30 minutes in I fall asleep. Does anyone have any advice so that I am able to stay awake and complete a full path?

HOTW takes more then 30 minutes?

Iehova.9518:

That’s Soldier gear, which cannot be crafted.

Saulius.8430:

PVT stands for Power Vitality Toughness, a.k.a. soldiers gear, or some dungeon like AC gear.

Thanks and now everything makes a little bit more sense.

Noob question: What is PVT gear? I cannot figure it out. I would think Knight and Valkyrie would be considered PVT gear but someone said Knight’s what’s PVT. So what is PVT gear given that I know of no insignia that gives both vitality and toughness.

Shun.9475:

… well trying to find 4 people is difficult

http://www.gw2lfg.com/ – find 4 people is not difficult when you use this site.

This is my Sylvari Ranger Asvatthi.

Favourite weapon: Longbow
Other weapons: Shortbow, axe, sword and warhorn
Most frequently used pets: Snow Leopard and Hall of Monument Spider

Bukk for a warrior just seems so fitting! Vissk is pretty great too! Xibbal… I am not too sure off but it is certainly Asura!

Engineer named: Eyomi

PuGed all the way to 21! Not including multiple runs of level 10 I did to get rings. Already did about three repeats of 20. Had good and bad PuGs, had failed runs too but overall, it hasn’t been a problem. However, I will say this, level 1 is the hardest level to do with PuGs.

This is because very likely, everybody is new. Some might have done a couple of failed runs but with some successful fractals or are alts of people who have characters with access to higher level fractals but most are new and that means they are learning, this includes builds that work, time commitment necessary, as well as the actual encounters and mechanics. So of course the success rate is not high. But that should be obvious to anyone who has ever done a dungeon. Get past level 1 and Fractals does get better… until you reach those crazy agony levels.

But you know, I am just in it for obsidian shards now. No crazy agony for me!

swiftpaw.6397:

Puppy dog eyes, just look at em T_T

Of topic but that is hands down the cutest Charr ever! /I-would-hug-but-I-am-afraid-of-getting-clawed

Well that was a first. I joined a TA group as the 5th member and asked, “So how much do you guys plan on skipping because I have had confusion in the group because of that and would like to avoid it if possible”. My mistake was that I started to zone straight after and thus didn’t see the reply (if there was one). When I finished loading, I had been kicked from the group.

I took the attitude that the 2s something copper I paid was a small price to pay to be saved from annoying people but seriously, that’s the simple question and just required a simple answer. Reasons being is that everybody do not skips TA equally. Some skip dogs, some don’t and always, always it’s an issue where some run through, others try to fight dogs and the whole runs starts on a bad footing. But apparently my attempt to avoid confusion is worthy of a kick. sigh

Black Wolf.7348:

I dont understand why you Dont want to skip. You get trash rewards for killing most mobs.

And people who do dungeons want the large boss chests and tokens. why waste time and effort killing mobs which give you 3s loot in total????

Because skipping only works if all 5 members of the party can make the run and if nothing goes wrong at the boss. Because if something goes wrong, you are basically running a gauntlet of uncleared mobs. Also, trash mob do not give 3s total. Some of my best drops have come off so called “trash mobs”. On the other hand, not clearing trash mobs may well result in high repair bill if something goes wrong.

Given that with PuGs, the likely hood of something going wrong is high, as such, I really don’t get why so many people insist on skipping. Not to mention that accounting for “skipping” actually dictates aspects of your play. For example, I got a warhorn on my ranger because it gives a speed-buff. I felt it necessary so that if I happen to find myself in a PuG that insists on running, I can do so.

Ultimately, skipping is just a high risk activity that I don’t want to take part in unless I am 100% sure of my group members. There is nothing, NOTHING more tiring then a group that starts of trying to skip but end-up dying so much that they have to abandon that plan and clear.

swiftpaw.6397:

A few things give hints:

1.) crafted set of gear
2.) magic find food
3.) Sigil of luck next to their name.
4.) Dies to trash mobs like no tomorrow.
5.) Auto attacks alot.

This obviously doesn’t always mean they are wearing magic find, but it sure increases the chances they are.

When I see this I will ask for a gear ping and when they refuse to provide it, it’s time to kick.

Thanks for the reply. None of those things on their own would indicate magic find and certainly if the person is dying a lot then in the very least they are not on their game/being distracted and maybe needs to do something other then fractals.

swiftpaw.6397:

Even now I have to wade through a sea of bad players at 30+, I guess they got carried all the way up there, there’s no way some of the awful people I see got there through their own effort. When pugging 30+, usually have to restart the dungeon 2 or 3 times to get rid of the Magic finders -_-.. I can only imagine this problem will become even more common place but oh well.

I ask people to link their gear, but a few things come to mind of course:

1.) Doesn’t stop them from having no idea whats going on and screwing up/ just being bad.
2.) They change to their magic find set once we’re in.

That being said, it sure helps to have people link their gear, it at least reduces the likelihood that they’re awful if they have taken the time to figure out their gear and build.

I always wonder about this. How would you even know they have magic find? What gives them away? I mean, I doubt they get a sign above their head that say “using magic find now”.

Stonecaduceus.5638:

which means a low lvl would be an idiot to join a high level group…they don’t have AR, they get the same rewards as if they ran at low level, and they will likely die alot. Won’t take people long to realize that joining high lvl groups early is not fun imo

Exactly! People who will be grouping with low levers are people helping out guildies and/or friends. Only the worst kind of leech would gimp a high level team by tagging along and just being dead weight on the ground.

I would like them account bound. I often get runes on one character that is perfect for another and I don’t see why I can’t give it to said character.

Akisame.9508:

I play solo alot, that’s my playstyle, my choice on how I like to play the game, regardless of what kind of game it is. Why must I be penalized because of my playstyle? Because I like to solo I cannot do any dungeons? yesterday I wanted to do a dungeon and stood at the entrance for an hour and not one single player came near the area looking for a group, I didn’t even see a single group enter the dungeon! At this rate I’ll never get the upgrades I want and it honestly feels like I’m being penalized for being a soloer. There is enough content already that requires me to work with others, like bosses, why are you demanding dungeons to be the same? Please allow a single player version of the dungeons so we can progress in the game in the manner we like to play.

I would love heros back as much as any other GW 1 player who did dungeons with their heros and maybe 1 or 2 friends and their heros but please remember that GW 1 didn’t get heros until Nightfall. That’s 1.5 years after it came out and it did kill the community to a certain extent. I very much doubt Anet will be releasing heros or even henchmen for GW 2.

As for what you experience, it seems to be me that because you are a soloer, you have no knowledge of the community and as such don’t know where to go for groups. You make groups in Lion’s Arch, sometimes you see looking for group messages on map chat (which I am betting you disabled due to being a soloer) in the zone where the dungeon is but most people come to the zone already in groups. There is also the wonderful site http://www.gw2lfg.com

That all said, there is zero reason to go into a dungeon for upgrades. If you are soloer, you can just solo grind money and buy all the stat upgrades you need from trading post and/or craft them. Only reason to go into dungeon is for specific looks and that’s a trade-off you make. I.e. not be solo for the duration of a dungeon. If you are unwilling to make that sacrifice, well… don’t go for dungeon armour?

PS. I would also like to add that countless people have soloed certain GW 2 dungeons as they are now. It just takes a long time.

I understand why they are making the change but I do think it’s just going to increase dungeon angst. But I cannot imagine playing level 21 fractals when you are only level 2 is going to be much fun either. The frequent ground hugging, the repair costs, the ill-will of your team mates etc, etc… I really don’t think lowbies will party-up with high levels. I mean unless they are there to leech, they will not want to be or enjoy being the weakest link.

I suspect that what’s going to happen is that guilds and friends will take along low level members along because they are guildies/friends and thus you are okay with them being inexperienced etc but PuGs will still insist that you are the same level or no more then one to two levels below.

Namu.5712:

Raine.1394:

We too readily chalk it up to human nature and fail to see that aspects of game culture can be influenced by game design. Consider another element of game design where it’s easy to see like competitive vs. non-competitive resource nodes or quests. WoW and GW2 create a very different feeling around seeing other players on the map. In one game you are happy to see other players, in the other your own faction members can be your worst enemies. I’ll leave it to you to discern the elements introduced in GW2 that could be contributing to bad behavior in dungeons.

There are none, because everyone gets the same amount of loot, regardless of whose there.

There is ZERO reason to kick someone at the end, there is nothing brought on by how GW2 dungeons work to promote that behavior. The only reason for someone to kick someone is because they are simply being mean and nasty.

You are clearly trying to make a underhanded jab regarding the new content at Anet.
" I’ll leave it to you to discern the elements introduced in GW2 that could be contributing to bad behavior in dungeons."

ONLY reason to kick someone at the end is to deprive them of loot. I mean, let me tell you what happened yesterday on an AC run (positive story so keep reading). I joined a PuG and the leader wanted to kill Kholer. We did with some difficulty but we had just looted his body and not gotten to the chest when the entire group was kicked out. Leader (who died most often in the fight with Kholer), it seems, had just up and left the group and since he was the instance owner – we got kicked out. I (on my then level 79 ranger), a level 40 something thief and a level 80 engineer decided to stay but the other level 80 warrior decided to drop out. We filled the two spots with a level 36 mesmer and a level 63 engineer and went again. This time doing Path 2 while before we were going to do Path 1. Killed Kohler again, joking about how we didn’t need tanks.

We got to the bit where most PuGs run to the boss but we couldn’t run cause the thief kept dying and the mesmer, who was already pant less (armour broke) who was trying to help him also started to die. So we went back and cleared. Got to the boss, pulled and killed adds. Just as we were about to engage the boss, the level 63 engineer D/Ced :/ BUT we waited for her. Waited like 5+ minutes for her. We could have 4-manned the boss (even sub-80s can 4 man that boss), kicked and looked for another. But we waited because we didn’t want her to miss out on tokens.

This is the thing, if you genuinely like your team mates, you’ll go out of your way to make sure they don’t miss out on tokens. But if you dislike them and you have that kind of a personality, you will kick to meet out some sort of punishment to them by making them miss tokens. Others of course do it if they are jerks <— happens when you are the lone pick-up on a guild group or something. Don’t get me wrong, kick them early if you don’t like them but if they and you stick with each other until the end, let them have their tokens and then block them. But when I hear stories like this and think about what I have myself seen in the GW 2 community (a lot of tolerance for the most part) I always think we aren’t getting the whole story because most GW 2 players are VERY understanding and supportive.

Malediktus.9250:

Tinni.4351:

Oh, I would also like to ask that things like the torch sync garbage in CoF path 3 be got rid off. I don’t mind syncing games in most dungeons cause they are doable without voice chat and stuff. CoF path 3 sync is pretty much not doable in a PuG without voice chat. That is not on! It’s not challenging, it’s just frustrating. Please get rid of crap like that.

Also, can we not have Knowledge Crystals and Mist Fragments look the same? Please?

its far from impossible without voice chat, learn to use countdowns and coordinations

We tried both but it does not work with the mobs beating on you and stuff. Not with 90% of the PuGs. I am sure there are PuGs that can do them but it is an unnecessary and annoying barrier to progress that no one will miss if it was taken away.

Nashaan.3160:

The longest thief stealth is 9 seconds and mesmers is only 5 seconds, none of them will last long enough for all party members to get to their respective torches and, if I recall correctly, there is only one torch you can click without getting agro from the mobs guarding them.

Doing path 3 without voice comms is frustrating at the very least, especially as it takes 2 seconds to light the torch and you only get a 5 second window from the first click.

I know that. But supposedly, if you get to the gate without being seen. You don’t have to do the torch business. Last time, I got to within two steps of the gate with my whole party without being seen by any mobs but just in the last minute was seen. I don’t know by whom. That’s why I was asking about how not to trigger the need for torch sync.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Before entering, make sure everyone has this.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ash_Legion_Spy_Kit

It’s a measily 28karma and at most 5s to wp to Plains of Ashford and back. Buy a good bunch, spam it at the torches.

Edit: More info on how to do this without chat. Tell everyone to run to a torch and spam it. Since you have 10 seconds each consume; just type when to activate it and leave your inventory open to reapply every 8 seconds or so.

That’s really, really cool! Thanks for that!

Oh, I would also like to ask that things like the torch sync garbage in CoF path 3 be got rid off. I don’t mind syncing games in most dungeons cause they are doable without voice chat and stuff. CoF path 3 sync is pretty much not doable in a PuG without voice chat. That is not on! It’s not challenging, it’s just frustrating. Please get rid of crap like that.

Also, can we not have Knowledge Crystals and Mist Fragments look the same? Please?

How do you do it? I need CoF path 3 to complete CoF for my Dungeon Master but every time I have attempted it, the group fell apparent at the torch garbage. I was in PuGs so no voice chat was available. My guild does have voice chat but personally I would like to just avoid the torch sync thing if possible, even with my guild, by getting to where I need to go through Stealth. But last time I tried it, I was seen by someone when I could have sworn that I was not in the line of sight of any mobs. So I am not sure how to do the stealth thing. Would anyone be able to help me with some tips?

We do have mesmers and thieves in the guild and so mass invisibility and everything is on the table.

I have difficulty telling when I am out of danger when it comes to overlapping red circles, like the case for Subject Alpha. I think I am out of danger/standing in a safe spot and then bam! I get hit by AoE and it’s all over.

I need to do path 1 and path 2 for Dungeon Master. I also wouldn’t mind the rifle for my engineer. The armour I have always found disturbingly hideous. However, so far I have only managed do path 3 successfully once. I was in a path 1 team where no one had ever done the path (and I am not even sure the dungeon) and it was an unmitigated disaster with people giving conflicting accounts of how to do the golemn fight and we all just called it a day. Second time I attempted Path 3, I was the only one in the team who had done the either the story mode and path 3 before. We killed the first boss but the group elected to run to the second boss, something I do no advise for a team of newbies. I showed them the run path but it took a few goes for us to all get across and then we wiped at the second boss. It was generally decided we couldn’t afford to continue and called it quits.

It’s a hard dungeon and unless you have good reason to do it, people will elect to do other dungeons with their play time.

Cav.9152:

Yes – I know only a very small percentage of GW2 players reads the forums and most of the readers are probably dedicated players who have tons of experience. You still have to understand that a large part of the player base cannot spend 8 hours per day in the game trying to perfect their game-play just to see/clear the game content.

I think this is deeply insulting to the majority of the GW2 player base because, news flash, the majority of the GW2 player base does not play 8 hours a day and have lives. However, they do try to perfect their game-play just to see/clear game content with whatever time they do have. This is part of playing the game. What you are saying is that you will not put any effort towards perfecting your gameplay, even if you can only do it for 30 minutes a day but want to breeze through content being crap. That’s not fair and there nothing “understandable” about a stance like that.

stof.9341:

- Walking through the lair of the ultimate life form : the Champion Destroyer Crab. Run for your lives! Thank god this monster doesn’t try to take over the world or else we’ll all be doomed.

Your groups choice to not clear isn’t Anet’s fault. Don’t get me wrong, the Evolved Destroyer is an annoying, annoying encounter but the whole “let’s not kill things” on the res path for a fight in which you are likely to die is just poor planning.

I just did CM Path 2 and Path 3. Path 2 everybody was 80 and I think most had at least a few piece of exotic gear. Path 3 (keeping in mind the exploit has been fixed) we had 3 people who hadn’t done it before. 2 of them where 52 and 50 and I can only guess what they were wearing. But both paths were successfully completed and fun and good times were had by all! You don’t need full exotics to do CM and while the bandits do seem to be hitting harder and CM does have problems, no need to avoid it or not do it with level appropriate characters in level appropriate gear.

The Caudecus Manor Dungeon Vendor has at least two incorrect items for sale.

1. Under Armour tab, the vendor does not have a Major Rune of Noble for sale. Instead, it was Minor Rune of Noble for sale for both 10 and 30 tokens.

2. Under Weapons tab, the vendor is selling the focus for 300 token instead of 210, which is the price of all off-hand items.

This bug been around for sometime and should be fixed ASAP.

Svarty.8019:

I suggest you try them again at 80 with exotics and with other 80s. It’s a completely different experience. The level boosting system needs some analysis.

This is silly! People go into dungeons to get exotic gear. They don’t have to be in exotic gear to do them! Does it make a difference? Sure but not that much. AC, CM and TA are completely doable in blues, greens and level appropriate rares with character who are sub-80. Heck, my engineer leveled from about 60is to 80 with 60% of her experience coming from CM explorable. She hit 80 being able to get her pistol and shield from the tokens from CM! It’s ludicrous to suggest or encourage people to be level 80 and in exotic gear for CM.

I have also done CM story 3+ times, once on each of my characters who reached CM story (guardian, engineer and ranger) and I think I repeated to help folks once or twice. It’s strictly, and I mean strictly, a 30 minute faceroll. It is beyond my comprehension why the OP had problems with what is by far the easier dungeon in the whole set!

I have done CoE path 2 and path 2 only. I want to find people to do path 1 and 3 because I want dungeon title but have had no luck. Everybody just wants to do path 2.

Excelliate.7914:

In the 1st path of Citadel of Flames, there is a human-charr friendship. Apperently, they were enemies, the human working in Ebonhawke to disrupt the charr’s efforts to put up equipment or something. If I remember right, after the treaty was made, they became friends after the human came out with some wine.

O yeah! I forgot about those two!

In Fields of Ruin, humans and Charr appear to be holding joints patrols these days. Plus human members of Durmand Priory are in multiple Ascalon locations and they seem to have/need Charr escorts. There is the Charr commander assigned to the Vigil members near Ascalon Catacombs. They always remind me of a sitcom. I would certainly watch that show! So I think we might see more Charr-Human friendships in the future.

Unspecified.9142:

Tinni.4351:

Thanks Unbroken! I definitely want to switch between things and so that trait spread sounds promising.

Just one last question: spirits, are they really as unviable as I hear they are?

Spirits have a few problems:

1) They have an internal CD which prevents them from proccing very often (I’ve heard from 3-10 seconds it may vary from one spirit to another). This basically makes them useless as a solo utility because they just don’t have enough up time to make them even on par with other choices.

2) They die incredibly easily to the more powerful enemies in the game. This makes them more or less useless in any group situation like dungeons or WvW because they are always dead from AoE or body-blocking a shot. Go to the mists and try fighting the elementalist NPC with spirits up to see how quickly they die. Even fully traited they only have ~5k health.

3) Their active abilities are very difficult to hit with because of limited range and being centered on the spirit itself. So for the spirit to hit anything with its small AoE active ability it has to be up in the “Accidental AoE Death” range and stay there through the cast time.

They aren’t exactly ‘bad’ in theory just in practice they are either under-performing or dead and on a 60 second CD.

That’s pretty much what I observed but I didn’t have any spirit traits and so thought that maybe fully traited they might be more effective but doesn’t seem so. Thanks for the explaining, I won’t bother trying that out until something is done about spirits then.

Apart from the famous bromance of Logan and Rythlock and excluding Tybalt with human PC, have you guys seen any other instances of Charr Human friendship?

I mean, there is Leyah and Jordyn and a number of other kids in Lion’s Arch. But what about adults?

Thanks Unbroken! I definitely want to switch between things and so that trait spread sounds promising.

Just one last question: spirits, are they really as unviable as I hear they are?

Thanks for the responses so far, I have gotten some good ideas to try a few things out. I have been playing with longbow, shortbow and greatsword but I am first to admit that my melee weapons have been under utilised. I got myself an axe and torch but haven’t really come-up with a build or play style.

I’ll try some of the things suggested and see if I can’t get excited about the ranger. I think I might also embrace the whole pet thing more. I like having a pet but I haven’t really been thinking of the pet as part of my build. That’s probably a mistake I made and so I will start thinking about the pet more and not just have it as a meat shield.

So my ranger is level 61 and probably it is my fault that she got to level 61 a little too soon from crafting etc and not from clearing zones, PvP, dungeons etc. Still, she is “current” with the story modes (AC, CM, TA and SE) and not too far behind on her personal story quests. So it’s not like I haven’t played her. But I still feel that I am missing something.

To explain, I have a level 80 guardian and a level 80 engineer. I enjoy them both and have a lot of fun with both my guardian and my engineer. There seems to be no end to the possible ways I can play both classes. But with ranger… I don’t know. I can’t seem to find a fun build or even a versatile trait spread that lets me switch between builds. That latter is very important to me because I don’t like running the same utilities all the time and on both engineer and guardian, I often change things between encounter to encounter etc.

I feel like I am missing something vital with the ranger. Where is the fun in playing the ranger? It should be the funnest class for PvE at least and I can’t seem to find the fun in either PvE or PvP. What’s wrong with me? What am I missing here?

I haven’t set foot in AC for a long time. So don’t know what’s happening there now. Of all the PuGs I have done, only one suggested we skip bridge in CoF 1. The idea was quickly shut down. But I have noticed people skipping more and more of TA. I don’t mind since I am not fond of the place but it isn’t cool to assume people know to run. Best to ask/make clear.

However, Anet has said they are okay with people skipping mobs/encounters. So…

From what I understand, the only thing Fractals has killed is Cursed Shores. Admittedly, that’s an issue if you want Karma gear because no one wants to the temple quests any more. Plus if you want map completion on those zones, life just became a little bit difficult because there are skill points, points of interest even way points that are difficult to tag on your own, even if you are a tank the world and live to tell about it Guardian. But Orr was never loved. Tolerated because people used it to grind Karma and loots but it was loathed by one and all. I doubt Cursed Shores would have died if people actually enjoyed it.

I think we are getting to a larger issue here, which is that at the end of the day – what OP is experiencing is party gear discrimination. His party members do not approve of his gear choice, i.e. not having ranged weapon.

In a sense, this is no different then the rage that’s happening over magic find gear or people who demand toons be in full exotics etc, etc. The argument in all these cases is that the group suffers because of the individual choice.

However, it is clear that the OP is one of those uber guardians who can melee 100% of the time. I also doubt 90% of the time anyone can tell if party member X is not in full exotics or opted to have magic find in place of another stat.

Now with friends, with guildies, play styles to gear matters little. They know you and so don’t often care what you are wearing. It only matters in PuGs BUT the kicker is that you have no obligations to a PuG either. You probably will never meet these people ever again. All you have is a vested interest in the run going smoothly. That’s really all we can count on. Everything else is just assumptions that are most likely not valid.

O honestly! This anti-magic find garbage is just getting out of hand now. IF you make magic find shared, what is to stop people from excluding people who don’t have magic find gear? You NOW want inspect feature so you can kick people wearing magic find because you think it is somehow screwing you. But would be perfectly okay with taking these people you have to “carry” if you could also get a slice of their pie? Yet that’s just going to mean that you will inevitably go for the people with the biggest pies! I.e. if magic find was shared, you would want an inspect feature to find the people with magic find gear!

The magic find argument is not about group efficiency. It never has been! It’s about envy! You don’t want the guy next to you coming out of the dungeon with more loot then you! Well tough! We are only given three stats and we all made/will make judgement calls on which three stats we choose to favour. Other’s may agree or disagree with the choices but no one, NO ONE has a right to “share” in stats they had no hand in us obtaining.

And if you can’t tolerate the idea of the guy next to you coming out of the dungeon with more loot then you, then get magic find gear of your own!

almostdaft.4319:

I do not believe I’m holding the team back or going against a team strategy that was never set-in-stone in the first place. I’ve never flat out said " lol i’m not using range ", I’ve always stated something like, (and sometimes before we begin the dungeon) " I do not use ranged weapons—I believe I do better, and I have, with what equipment and mind-set I have. "

It boggles me where people where conditioned to the point where [X] Trinity needs to be followed, all players must have ranged weapons, and all players must [X]. This game doesn’t bound us to these pointless self-assumed requirements.

1. Trinity needs to be followed – old thought patterns die slowly and I am always a bit weary when groups refer to me as the “tank”. Sure I do “tank” in the sense that I keep the mobs attention on me, control them as best I can and try to keep them focused on me and away from other members of the party but that’s not tanking, that’s “control” and “control” shouldn’t be being done by only one member of the team but all members of the team should be cycling through damage-control-support, which is the GW 2 trinity

2. All players must have ranged weapon – yes this one has been conditioned into us a bit and this is because the average player is simply not good enough in melee to not have ranged option on them.

So here is the problem, you are or atleast you think you are but 4 other random people who may have never grouped with you before don’t know that you are. I know you explain your reasoning and if I was on a team with you, I would give you a chance to show me that you are that have mastered dodging and can melee anything. But not everybody will give you that chance, so all you can really do is say upfront – before you enter the dungeon: “I will not use range at any point” and if the person doesn’t want to play with you, well, do you really want to play with a player who isn’t even willing to give you a chance?

I think we need better scaling for the events need to be better or at least doable by a party of 5.

I am a level 80 guardian as well and when I made my “permanent” weapon choices, I picked 1. Great sword, 2. Hammer and 3. Staff. I never run a dungeon without having the staff equipped as a secondary weapon.

There are just too many situations were melee is 1. impractical, 2. inefficient, 3. against the group strategy. Guardians are a melee class and should be in melee but not having ranged is inexcusable in dungeons.

Edit:
I am not disputing that their are uber Guardians who can melee 100% of the time and maybe the OP is one of those uber Guardians. But if you team asks you to go range and you refuse, thus go against team strategy, your team is under no obligation to stick with you.

I think there is merit in the suggestion of an “experience bar”.

I.e. if I successfully complete a fractal run at my level, I get upgraded to the next level per normal.

However, if I repeat lower level dungeons because of whatever reason, then I get “partial credit” and it take me X runs to get to the next level. Using myself as an example, this is how it might work.

I am level 6 now, to get to level 7 I have to either,

1. Run one successful run of one fractal chain (3 mini dungeons) at level 6

or

2. Run two successful run of one fractal chain at level 5

or

3. Run three successful run of one fractal chain at level 4

etc. This way, you stop people abusing the levels but just running lower level dungeons to get higher level fracs but also give people incentive to run lower levels without being stuck at a given level for want of a group.

HOWEVER

Jairlyn.1429:

zamrai.3784:

Another thing is players ARE FEELING BAD. We all want to experience game on the same rights, not feeling handicapped by the level factor, not being people whom you have to help getting through stuff because we can’t find party by ourselves. I believe many players feel exactly like this, that’s why there is so many topics criticising current mechanics of levels in FotM.

Levels should remain but they should not exclude so many people from teaming up with each other. I’m waiting for Anet’s solution to this problem.

What we would then get are new threads about people complaining how low level unprepared people who do not know the mechanics of the dungeons and asking what to do then get into 10+ lvl fractals.

Yep, this will happen people skip levels.