Guild Wars 2

Kurow.6973:

I personally don’t recommend you using condition damage for PvE, but that’s my personal opinion.

Well, any reason why? And in that case, any good specs specifically for a Deathblossom and pistols build?

Need some help with conditions setup. Firstly I’m curious if adding condition damage and doing major bleeds and poisons in PvE would be worth what I’d sacrifice from damage and crit. I like it so far, but am not heavily invested.

Currently I’m running D/D and P/P, mostly utilizing Death Blossom, dagger 1, and caltrops for damage, as well as pistol, both standard and with stealth 1 skill to stack more bleeds.

For utility, I’ve got the 25% speed boost signet, Caltrops, and Blinding Powder.

Current setup is 10 in trickery and 10 in Critical strikes, with my trait picks being 5% bonus damage to pistol and caltrops on dodge. I’m currently level 30.

Is condition damage like this viable in PvE? I’m noticing with Deathblossom spam, I’m having a much easier time rounding up enemies for aoe kills, and with pistol 5 and 1, blinds have been particularly useful against vets and even champs. How much should I be investing in condition damage vs. other stats? Any thoughts on this?

Relentliss.2170:

Basically you want 3k armor, as close to 3k as you can get power, 40-50% crit and then as much health as you can stack up.

How on earth do you get power that high and maintain 15k HP? I mean, I think my power is probably closer to 1700-1800 right now, that seems insane unless I’m just doing something wrong. I don’t have full soldier runes yet though, so I’m wondering if that makes up the gap….

Relentliss.2170:

Knights and Emerald

Pick up p/v/t chest and legs

Already got Emerald on all the trinkets. Knight on chest. Once I get the legs should I go Valkyrie on the other pieces to bolster power and vitality? Also, I ended up going 0/15/30/20/5, finally got my base crit at 42% and 48% thanks to some accuracy runes on weapons.

We’ll see how it goes.

Update: Got a new exotic chest piece, time for a dye update! This one is Lemon Zest, Lemon Ice, and Strawberry.

Edit – …attachments never seem to show until I edit. Don’t know why that is…

Also, sorry for potentially blinding you guys. I love this color set but can barely look at my character screen, it’s even shinier live and not in JPG format.

Demarc.4906:

Its pretty specific to builds.

I’ve tried a full healing power build and no healing power builds, personally because of DR I use minimal healing power in one of my builds and that’s about it. (I main a Guardian though – may be more useful for other classes)

I would’ent say its “Useless” … but I, personally, don’t rate over-stacking it. With a build that provides alot of healing I tend to grab a little (200-600)

Your mileage may be different though.

Yeah, I main a Guardian too. Between boons when healing allies, self regen, self boons, aegis, etc, I can’t really see a need for it. I’m wondering if it wouldn’t hurt for another class though, like my warrior w/passive regen on healing signet.

I have zero healing power on any of my characters right now. It doesn’t seem worth it. Anyone have any reason why it might be good to have, maybe for a specific class or skills?

Thanks.

Looking for thoughts on this build:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.3.11.18.0.0.0.0.0.54.74.64.67.77.0.0.0.0.0.0.167.0.0.186.182.191.201.203.0.0.0.0.0.15.30.20.5

My current crit is 42% 1h set (sword/focus), 48% 2h hammer

Seems like a good bet for combined support and high damage thanks to crit and multiple might stacks (should have at least 5-8+ stacks all the time with this build)

Urthona.3198:

You don’t really give enough information to provide helpful advice. What’s your build like? What are you doing with it? (PVE, PVP ,WvW)?

Sorry about that. PvE primarily. I don’t really get down with PvP. I’m trying to attain 45% crit naturally while still keeping as much survivability as possible. Current build is might to allies on crit with heavy aegis and burning (with bonus damage on enemies with conditions).

Primarily play either sword+focus and hammer or sword+focus and mace+torch.

Current build is 0/25/10/30/5
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.3.11.18.0.0.0.0.0.54.74.64.69.77.0.0.0.0.0.0.171.175.0.186.0.0.201.203.205.0.0.0.0.25.10.30.5

Hope this makes it a bit more informative. I do switch builds from time to time. Get healed when booning allies is nice, but I haven’t found a way to go 30 up both trees yet, it nerfs my crit below 40%. Eventually the goal is to be 0/30/5/30/5, but I need ot get my passive crit up before losing that 10 point (5% of toughness added to precision) skill in toughness.

What stats should I be looking for on level 80 exotics? I’m Currently wearing a mix of Carrion and Rampager Yellows. Would Knight gear be best? And if so, how will I make up the Vitality lost?

Arah is bugged, with the waypoint available, but the area hostile, and the event is not going off. Are there any plans to fix this? I’d love to finish the story, I’ve only be stuck with the last quest now for a week or so…

/disgruntled

Hydrophidian.4319:

Now, you might retort, “but Guild Wars is called a CORPG!”

Yes. But who called it that? The industry? No. Players? No. Journalists? No. So where did that label come from?

Guild Wars was marketed as a Cooperative Online Roleplaying Game by the studio that produced it. This was a marketing strategy employed to distance and distinguish the title from many of the recurring conventions of the MMORPG subgrenre.

The subgrenre. Not from MMOs in general. MMOs and MMORPGs are not the same thing.

“CORPG” is not a separate genre, because one title does not a genre make. “CORPG” appears nowhere relevant outside of the title’s marketing language (do another web search). “CORPG”, in the larger context of gaming industry and culture, is meaningless.

But even if it were a recognized genre, it would be a counted as a subgenre of the MMO category.

I have to disagree here. The original Guild Wars was a Co-RPG, not a MMO. Firstly, the content was instanced, there was no “Massively” portion to the “Massively Multiplayer Online” game.

Secondly, regarding your claim that one game does not make a genre, I also have to disagree with this. If one game can’t make a genre, what does? Survival horror didn’t exist in any real measure before Resident Evil or Silent Hill. RPGs didn’t exist before the first (JRPG was founded on Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest, and then Final Fantasy. Ogre Battle and FF Tactics defined the SRPG Genre, though it we want to go back, it probably started with Shining Force). FPS didn’t exist before Wolfenstein, and so on.

Yes, one game can define a genre. However, Co-RPG stands for cooperative RPG, which judging the playstyle of GW1, you could include many games in. Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, Diablo, Torchlight, Dungeon Siege, Titan’s Quest, and probably many others I haven’t even considered can fall into the fairly broad category of Co-RPG.

Let’s look at the one major thing that separates the original GW apart from the MMO genre in general: it has an ending. MMOs, as a loose rule, do not end. However, each campaign of GW had a solid, linear plot that had a beginning and ending, with end credits like a typical single player game or movie. MMOs don’t do this.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get my point. Guild Wars is not a MMO game. What it is, is one of the first forays into bringing Cooperative RPG play from the LAN to the masses, much how many online games now have hosted servers, and not local ones (and again, these are not considered MMOs).

IcomeINpeace.2085:

yeah not big on hood.. really like smaller masks

Sorry dude, can’t help there. I hate the typical “bandit mask” style helms. I just hide them whenever I have to wear one.

For all the talk of weapon choices and such, I must say, I went axe/mace and greatsword and never looked back. I keep aranged weapon on standby, but pretty much never use it, I find ranged play dull on the warrior.

Melee though? It’s a blast. I’m on my 2nd warrior, and I admit, the first time I deleted it ,I found it dull. Now though, I think I just didn’t find the right weapon and skill combo, the first time I tried to play it too much like my guardian. Now I’m running a crit build and loving it, I feel like some kind of destroyer.

I personally like the thief hood. I rolled a thief, transmusted the hood, then deleted the thief and took the hood for my ranger.

boxjon.7682:

Oh, btw runes are soldier and sigil on weapon is bloodlust.

Not sure about the weapon sigil, I don’t think bloodlust would give you that much of a boost at high level, 250 power I think at max?

Personally, and this is hearsay, I don’t have a full 80 set yet, but air and accuracy would be better weapon sigils for crit builds I think.

Enzo Kensei.9850:

Sorry for the late reply but i wasn’t at home in these couple a days. Thanks for the help i’ve started my human guardian (almost went Norn)

You don’t know what you’re missing. We norns are awesome, in a bar, a fight, or a bar fight. Just sayin’.

Panther Chameleon.8465:

Lol, Anet made the guardian weapons stronger than the entire Ranger kit. I had a sword and hammer following me, so I decided to see if I could kill them. Nope. Both my pet and I were “Obstructed” and the hammer knocked me down 3 times within ten seconds(wtf?), and took half my hp pool before they disappeared. If they had a fresh charge I would of been easily killed by NPCs. A bit ironic that the Ranger has the worst pet A.I and everyone else has kittening super heroes.

Tip for you: Dodge the 3rd swing. Hammer only knocks down on swing 3 and it is fairly well telegraphed. If you were knocked down repeatedly by this, you’re probably not playing very well.

You have 2 dodges, 3 skill on shortbow, 2 and 3 skill on sword, 4 skill on greatsword…there’s just no excuse.

Schroedingercat.7065:

I can’t figure out how to post an image.

You can take a screenshot and attach the local image to your post in the “attachments” box below the post frame.

To OP: My dye set is using Pumkin Pie, Mahogany, Hazel, Apricot, and Umber (Umber only as the main glove color).

I’ve noticed that dye behavior can be a bit weird depending on material. On cloth it’s very vibrant, leather it varies, but usually flat, and on metals there are specular highlights. On fur your color choices can’t be trusted at all, for example on fur, Deep Maple looks like an olive green instead of the typical dark reddish-brown.

But here’s my guy:

^ This.

Plus, that might is given as a boon to allies near you as well, boosting your entire group’s DPS, and even healing you for each boon if you spec for it.

I started playing a thief a while ago, level 24 now, and I’m noticing there isn’t really anything in the way of condition removal? Am I missing something, or is that just a weakness of the class?

Thanks!

try greatsword + mace and focus. The GS gives you offense, mace and focus defense on the other set.

With a group you can use skill five to pull in 5 mobs, spin them to death, then switch to mace and skill 3 block counter and pop shield. Massive AoE and in the earlier levels, everything dies by the time you get to the mace counter. Also, focus 4 gives you healing and a multi-mob blind (bounces 4 times, heals allies, blinds enemies and does damage).

Later on there are nice infinite might builds that give you might on crit, there are support oriented builds, self survival builds that heal you whenever you get a boon on allies…there are a lot of build options for Guardian, it’s a good class.

I played warrior not long after launch and found I hated it. I felt it was weak, squishy, and overall, not very playable.

That said, I recently decided to give it another chance, as I love melee play. So I rerolled warrior this weekend and this time around I feel powerful as heck, destroying everything in my path. I don’t understand what changed. Have there been buffs or changes to the class, or am I just better now after playing for a while? Because the difference is one of night and day from when I first played the class.

Panzen.4625:

Before I actively played my story, I thought Logan should go die in a fire. After I played my story up to the parts where Trahearne shows up, I didn’t care about Logan anymore. That guy still deserves to die (permanently instead of in every single encounter with every single mob) but Trahearne is just so much worse.

Basically everything about Trahearne annoys me. They should rather have done the story missions with the (also horribly written) Destiny’s Edge drama club than give us Trahearne.

Geez, I guess I’m really in the minority here. I also like Logan, though I admit, his Queen obsession can be grating at times (though obviously he’s in love with her, so it makes sense from the character perspective).

Celestina.2894:

One thing to keep in mind is that unless you are a Sylvari, he is literally shoe horned into your story because really the Zhaitan story is very Sylvari focused.

For me, I never felt overshadowed myself. At the same time though, I do not hate but I also do not like him. He had potential for being a interesting character……..but felt rushed, especially for non-Sylvari players.

Unfortunately, presentation has never been GW’s strong point. The plot and lore? Great, but the presentation is where is normally falls apart with exceptions such as Tybalt. Some will tell you otherwise, but even Guild Wars 1 had bad presentation with a few exceptions. Funnily enough, in my opinion Nightfall was the strongest of the stories……..while having possibly the worst character in Kormir.

I liked him pretty well as a Norn, but yeah, I have to admit I liked him a lot more and understood his place in the plot better after rolling a Sylvari up to 20 or so.

I get all of your complaints and appreciate the legit comments, though I really don’t appreciate the kitten who want to take jabs at me personally based on my opinion.

That said, I stand by my opinion. Despite overall dislike of Trahearne, he does grow as a character over the course of the campaign, and I actually found him likable, and have no issues with his voice actor either. You do see him progress, much as you do yourself, and I think a lot of the butthurt about it stems from the fact that it makes another character in your campaign as important as you, the player, are.

I personally like the fact that my progression as a character occurs via my interaction with the campaign plot, while Trahearne’s progression occurs likewise, via interaction with the player character. I have no issue with dissenting opinions, but leaving personal attacks out of it would be nice.

dirtyklingon.2918:

you must be a wesley crusher fan too.

Nah. Wil Wheaton seems like a great guy, but overall I’m a Picard kinda guy.

I finally leveled my main through to 80 and through the story and…well, Trahearne is freaking awesome. I never felt overshadowed by him, more like partners. Throughout the plot it was obvious that we saw our development alongside Trahearne’s own growth.

I dunno, not ranting or anything, I just don’t get all the hate. Is it envy for that wicked greatsword he’s got or something? He’s pretty cool, IMO (but yeah, dat sword).

I posted this before right after launch, but thought I’d repost it for newer players who haven’t seen it. Plus I’ve updated and improved it a bit since then.

Xpadder configuration for Guild Wars 2

Hope you guys like it or find it useful. Everything you need is in the doc link. It uses mouse turning with analog sensitivity and even works well for ground targeting. I’ve tested on every class except Necro.

Enjoy, and if you have any questions about the setup feel free to ask!

For now I’ve settled on Sword+Torch and Shortbow, with a flame trap for maximum burning uptime on mobs. I’ve got a Longbow available to me at next level, I’ll see how that goes.

Edit – tried the longbow, still hate it. Skill 2 is nice, but honestly I think I just prefer a closer kiting and mixed melee/range kind of game. I find the longbow boring overall, just my own preference. Already bought a new shortbow.

I play shortbow, axe+warhorn or torch, and Greatsword primarily. I like the 1h sword, but don’t like the dodge bug, so don’t bother, and longbow just seems pointless to me when I have shortbow. Any thoughts?

While we’re at it, anybody have nay ideas on decent trap builds? I love the idea of a trap build, but only in theory. In practice I’m moving around way too much and end up with the regen signet, QZ, and the speed buff signet 99% of the time.

Thanks.

Levetty.1279:

Tomkatt.1684:

Levetty.1279:

Ravnodaus.5130:

What is gained by using axe/warhorn offset sword/torch that going axe/torch and sword/horn doesn’t do better? I’m not seeing it, can someone fill me in?

I’d think axe/torch is preferable for easier projectile-fire combos, and sword/horn for mobility. It isn’t a huge difference, I’m just curious why you want to use them in the order some have listed.

I would imagine throwing the bonfire at their feet and then fighting them in it would do more damage then the procs you would get from throwing an axe through it.

That would be logical, but burning doesn’t work that way in this game. Burning is burning, and additional stacks only increase duration, not damage, so Axe/Torch is a better combo than Sword/Torch by far. Sword pairs best with Warhorn and Dagger in my experience, and particularly with Warhorn.

I’m not sure what your reasoning is there, the combo from throwing an axe procs the burning effect too, so that provides no benefits over them standing in it. Also bonfire has a direct damage to it as well.

Bonfire has a small radius and drops right at your feet, so if you want the direct damage sword is best for this. However, if you are using axe and drop the bonfire, you can stack burning on multiple foes due to the axe bounce. Each bounce causes burning after the axe passes through the field, and the enemies can still end up standing in the bonfire. Maybe it’s a playstyle choice, but in my experience axe/torch is much more powerful when facing multiple foes.

Levetty.1279:

Ravnodaus.5130:

What is gained by using axe/warhorn offset sword/torch that going axe/torch and sword/horn doesn’t do better? I’m not seeing it, can someone fill me in?

I’d think axe/torch is preferable for easier projectile-fire combos, and sword/horn for mobility. It isn’t a huge difference, I’m just curious why you want to use them in the order some have listed.

I would imagine throwing the bonfire at their feet and then fighting them in it would do more damage then the procs you would get from throwing an axe through it.

That would be logical, but burning doesn’t work that way in this game. Burning is burning, and additional stacks only increase duration, not damage, so Axe/Torch is a better combo than Sword/Torch by far. Sword pairs best with Warhorn and Dagger in my experience, and particularly with Warhorn.

I tend to carry them all, but Primarily:

Shortbow
Greatsword
Axe/Torch

I really like Sword/Warhorn and Sword/Dagger, but am holding off due to the Sword animation bug that prevents dodging. I’m pretty sure that’ll be fixed in the near future.

TheVirtualFrog.8714:

Tomkatt.1684:

TheVirtualFrog.8714:

Pets give 45-50% of the Ranger’s damage (confirmed fact) but spend half of their existence being in a defeated state and thus useless. Ranger is good against one or two targets in PvE and that’s it. Any more mobs and you’re overwhelmed.

This is a bit exaggerated. I roll shortbow main and axe/torch on 2nd set. Axe+torch gives you good ranged against multiple mobs (up to 5 I think), and the torch field adds burning to every attack.

Secondly, put a few points into BM (at least 5, preferably 10) and your pet will be fine. It’s not like the points are wasted, 5 points in BM gets your quickness for 2 seconds on pet swap, that’s pretty useful.

Also, use troll unguent for your heal. Your pet will not die unless you’re not paying attention.

Beastmastery tier line makes pets decent. Problem is, I need to spend points on traits I don’t need just to bring my class’ defining mechanic somewhat on par with the rest of the world. Even then pets have horrible damage output due to not being able to hit moving targets.

No matter what your build is, 5 points in BM is almost mandatory for the quickness 2 of every 20 seconds. I don’t see what the big deal is.

I’m more a fan of this setup: http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.3.5.18.17.4.4.0.34.54.74.64.67.77.2.2.13.0.0.0.171.0.0.186.182.191.201.203.0.0.0.0.0.15.30.20.5

Heal a lot, crit a lot, grant might to allies, and still do decent damage with consistent burning on all nearby allies.

Generally I’m either sword+focus or Mace+Focus, but I sometimes use Mace+Torch, or a GS or Hammer. I don’t really like weapons specific builds as I swap around a lot.

Also, “Hold the Line” in that build can be swapped for whatever you want. Signet to reduce damage, sure. “Save Yourselves” why not? It’s no biggie.

TheVirtualFrog.8714:

Pets give 45-50% of the Ranger’s damage (confirmed fact) but spend half of their existence being in a defeated state and thus useless. Ranger is good against one or two targets in PvE and that’s it. Any more mobs and you’re overwhelmed.

This is a bit exaggerated. I roll shortbow main and axe/torch on 2nd set. Axe+torch gives you good ranged against multiple mobs (up to 5 I think), and the torch field adds burning to every attack.

Secondly, put a few points into BM (at least 5, preferably 10) and your pet will be fine. It’s not like the points are wasted, 5 points in BM gets your quickness for 2 seconds on pet swap, that’s pretty useful.

Also, use troll unguent for your heal. Your pet will not die unless you’re not paying attention.

Snow White.9680:

Mesmer all the way.

Is this based on my current character choices, or just your own personal preference?

I’m curious, given your mobility issues, would it be easier for you to play on a gamepad/360 controller? If it would help let me know, I have an XPadder script I’ve tweaked and have been using since a week after launch, it’s worked well for every class I’ve tried, with a few caveats (‘nade kit doesn’t work out well for engi, only daggers and scepter are decent for elementalist, no issues with anything else IIRC). I think it would fit your gun/shield and turret playstyle, I have a pistol/shield engineer myself.

Want to make a new asuran character, ankittenorn between elementalist and mesmer.

Any thoughts or opinions on the classes and playstyles?

My 3 current toons are a defensive guardian, shortbow/Axe+torch ranger, and a DD / PD thief, if it makes any difference.

Just curious, how well would engineer work utilizing the tool kit and the bomb kit to play in a melee / close range style?

This thread is actually in relation to PvE. I don’t really PvP at all.

Just wondering if there are any medium hoods you can buy that look like the anonymity hood. Want to get a hood type helm for my ranger, but don’t want to roll up a toon and transmute right now if I can avoid it, I’m low on Transmutation stones.

Yeah, I’ve had great success with the crit rate on torch, plus the fact that it hits everything in a line even outside melee, seems to have about 600 range. I’m sitting on 37% crit right now.

As for pairing mace+torch, I’m not a fan of the combo. Mace+focus is my big defensive combo with block/counter on 3, blind and heal on 4, and shield bubble on 5, plus the healing. I think sword is better paired with torch or shield.

@Guanglai

I find that with torch I have two benefits. On torch 4 you can get about 2 burn ticks and still throw it for good damage. On torch 5 the power comes in that if you line up properly you can hit multiple enemies with the entire burn for good group damage.

Personally, I’ll probably switch to sword and board at some point, but this is the first time I’ve played around with a torch since probably level 10 (I’m 74 now). Mace+Focus is my staple second set, usually paired with a Greatsword, but I’m having fun changing it up a bit. Also, a bit of burning may not be OP, but it pairs well with my setup, and I get 10% additional damage on burning foes (Zeal 10 point).

Holy cow is the combo powerful, especially when paired with mace+focus on the other set. I never really bothered, always played defensively before.

Confirmed, ran the story a second time and Renewed Justice doesn’t work once you reach the “Defending the gate” portion. Works again when you leave the story.

I’m noticing drastic improvement with Leap’s accuracy today. A few times I just used it as a closer, knowing that I was out of range or going to miss due to elevation, and it still connected, felt like I actually was stickied to the target.

I haven’t played since the 19th or so, and just logged in, I’m noticing that Renewed Justice is not working. Anybody else having this issue? When I kill a mob, Virtue of Justice is not being refreshed.

Edit – nevermind, maybe it’s something tied to the story sequence I’m on (The Battle of Fort Trinity). It’s working fine outside the story quest instance.

At level 30 and up, an aegis heavy build with retreat and renewed focus (and maybe a mace+focus) will let you block and negate damage from 7-10 attacks in a row. I laugh at bosses until I run out of aegis and dodge (that’s rare, btw).