Guild Wars 2

1) Warrior – This is one of the most straight forward classes in the game and probably one of the best ones to learn with. They’re tied with Necromancer for having the highest Health (aka Hit Point) pool in the game. In exchange for their high Health, they lack many of the more defensive buffs from other classes (such as Guardian). However you can easily make a defensive build which focuses on Knocks / Stuns or an offensive build based on bursting dps formula (which often leads to the cliche Greatsword crit build). Warriors even have some nice AoE buffing options through their Shout and Banner powers. (Disclaimer: I currently have both an AoE buffing character and a defensive Knock / Stun character.)

2) Thief – I like the class, but they have a unique casting system Initiative for their weapon skills. It can be fun, but it might be a bad choice to learn about the combat casting philosophies of GW2. (Disclaimer: I play a a hyrbid of an AoE buffing and dps spamming build.)

3) Engineer – This is quickly becoming my 2nd favorite class due to its versatility. While you only get x1 weapon combo to actively use (instead of the standard x2 weapon combo switching), you can use some of your Utility skill slots to gain access to extra weapons. While the class does get bonus skill slots as a form of compensation, Engineer will play different from any other class and probably isn’t the best one to learn on. (Disclaimer: I currently have a dot based dps character, but I’m playing on making a 2nd Engineer in the near future that’s more AoE healing and debuffing focused.)

As a general piece of advice, just create some alts to cover your crafting needs. By the time you have x4 characters, you’ll have all of the crafting classes covered. Through the Shared Bank system, a main character could easily acquire materials (both through harvesting nodes and Karma vendors) and pass them along to other characters on your account.

The only reason to constantly switch between crafting classes is to power level yourself up by skilling up to around 100-200 skill in each crafting discipline. If that’s your goal, then it’s fine. However that’s more of a leveling strategy and not a way to create a permanent stable of crafters on your account.

Elowin.9078:

Sooo, is/was Mistfire Wolf worth it? Better then Thieves Guild or the Golem? Do other races or classes get other different kinds of help and Mistfire Wolf is common to all of them?

1) Any account that is Deluxe (or Collectors) gets internally flagged by ArenaNet to get free access to Mistfire Wolf. Once any character reaches 30th on that account, they get access to this bonus Elite skill and it doesn’t cost any Skill Points to access.

2) Mistfire Wolf is basically a single target dps pet. You summon it, it does a leaping charge on your current target, and bites them. However once per summon, the Mistfire Wolf does a howling animation and summons ghost wolf puppies. After the invincible puppies run next to the target, they disappear and an AoE continuous damage effect gets centered on the target. This AoE does very nice damage and it does apply both the Burn and Chill debuffs to any mob that was hit by the AoE. If they’re all bunched together, the AoE will easily hit multiple targets. (Please note that the Mistfire Wolf can get interrupted during the howling animation. If this happens, it will normally try to howl a 2nd time before it despawns at the end of the 30 second timer. When fighting multiple foes who use Knocks or other forms of interrupting, it is possible for the AoE to never go off successfully. The AoE is where the real damage comes from, so this is something to keep in mind.)

3) As someone who uses Mistfire Wolf on my defensive Warrior and Thieves Guild on my Thief, I’ve seen both of them in action. All things considered, I’d normally take Thieves Guild if I could. While the pistol gun bunny and melee trapper pets don’t have that giant spike of AoE damage, their single target damage is significant and they’re very good against both stationary and mobile opponents. The Thief pets are tough enough to off-tank as needed (though this will kill them), have a noticeable dps output when they focus on your target, and can be augmented with AoE buffs (which makes them extremely good for Venomous Aura builds).

4) If you want a true tank pet, then you’d want to use Skill Points to access the 30 pt defensive golem. While I’ve never used it on my defensive Asura Warrior (who uses the Mistfire Wolf), I’ve heard that glass cannon dps builds love that golem as an emergency tank. However that pet is intentionally a defensive choice and it won’t have the dps output of either Mistfire Wolf or Thieves Guild.

ThunderStorm.3140:

what traits would you use to make signet of rage be up all the time?

Trait
Signet Mastery (Discipline – 10 pts)

Misc
Anything that grants +% Boon Duration. The most common ways are through the Tactics trait line and Rune set piece bonuses. Since you’re looking at a 48 second recast after the Signet Mastery trait, you would need +60% Boon Duration to permanently chain this buff up. Otherwise you could use a skill like For Great Justice to stack +Fury up permanently (and either let the +Swiftness drop off for short period of time or give AoE Swiftness through holding a Banner object).

phooka.4295:

That one is great!

Last time I was there, I died just once. I was there when the elemental spawned and I went down when it had a tad under 10% HP left. I got unconcentrated. So, I’d say it’s doable, it’s even survivable. But it’s not easy. That’s what bosses should be like!

In a 60+ zone, I’d probably agree with you about it being a great boss for a zone boss. However the mechanics are horrible for a 1-15 zone, which is the key complaint about it. It’s the only zone boss in a starter zone where a significant portion of the players all feel the need to avoid the fight like a plague. The mechanics are unbalanced for someone just learning the game, you’re penalized for having a small group of people present (since they’ll increase the Ember spawns), and you basically HAVE to leave everyone dead (or you’ll also get killed).

There are mega threads in this forum about the Metrica Provinence boss fight. Regardless of even the Dev who designed the fight apologizing on the forums during Beta Weekend 3 about this fight, it hasn’t changed and it doesn’t look like things will be any different within the near future.

As it’s already been stated, some of the Mystic Forge “gift” components cost Skill Points. Every level above 80th also grants +1 Skill Points, which is why many high level characters are still xp grinding.

The “Mystic” series of Exotic weapons are the main focus for newly 80th characters that have Skill Points to burn. Beyond that, you’re looking at the Mystic Forge recipes that make unique items (such as Legendary weapons and the Triforge Pendant).

Sigh. The website ate my previous post. In a cliff note version, I have to say that I like Carrion. It’s the dps armor set of choice that I use for one of my Warriors and for my Thief. Both of these characters wanted the Power / Vitality and have specific circumstances where they do lots of Condition damage, which makes the Carrion set a perfect fit.

If you want a new armor set type that uses Precision / Condition / Toughness, then that’s fine. But leave Carrion alone.

I’d have to say Charr since my own Charr Engineer uses the Racial Toolbelt Skill of Dual Pistols as a main part of my bread ‘n butter dps output. However it’s really up to you.

The camera angles are noticeably different between Charr and Asura. They have different Dodge animations, which can really make a difference to people. (PvPers tend to have a thing against the Asura’s animation since you can visually track their flipping jump arc and predict where they’ll land. Ironically this is why I love Asura for PvE.)

That’s a completely loaded question. You trait spec is completely dependent on your chosen weapons, skills, and combat style.

Can you give us a general idea about the type of gameplay that you’re looking for? Do you prefer a kamakazi glass cannon or a “slow and steady” dps output? Would you prefer to have inherent abilities or do you like having to layer self-buffs on yourself using a constantly casting rotation? Are you a melee or ranged type of person? Did you want to just help yourself, or did you want to be able to help / buff others?

It used to be +1% Burst per rank in that Trait line. People were using the auto crit weapon sigil and the Axe’s burst called Eviscerate to own people in PvP. Since GW2 is balanced around PvP viability, they were both hit hard with the nerf bat.

As it currently stands, the +.1% Burst benefit is a joke and it really does penalize the +Stat benefits of the Discipline line. We’ve been complaining about this since around Beta Weekend #3. To date, nothing has changed since they don’t want Burst attacks to be too powerful in PvP. Nor do they seem comfortable with lowering their recast timers (due to the likely PvP balancing issues).

The advantage of being able to ignore part of Chill’s effects is one of the few perks of not using weapon cool downs. All things considered, a Thief’s casting system isn’t that great to start off with. Having the Initiative system actually granting my Thief an advantage is a nice change of pace.

If you’re a Melee character, then you do need to spam #1.

All too often, a mob will take a tiny step backwards. While you can still hit the mob with a melee attack and they can still melee you, this extra space between the two of you is enough to break the auto attack function of #1.

Another key function of #1 spamming is using melee attacks to hit opponents that are under Stealth. While my ranged characters get penalized from stealthing foes, my melee characters just keep blindly swinging. One of the favorite things on my melee characters is seeing a stealthed mob become visible because it’s a corpse (as a result of my guessing swings).

The final reason is that a melee character often wants to attack in a specific melee arc. By moving around the battlefield and spamming #1, you can make sure that you’re attacking the in direction you want (instead of having to aim at your targeted opponent).

No one knows for sure. The assumption is that it has to do with some kind of October holiday event. However we’re all waiting to find out.

With a full set of Superior Rune of the Soldier (at 65th+) for AoE condition removal and Healing Shouts trait from 30pts in Tactics, you’ve got a solid amount of group support with any Shout utility power that you’re using. Combine that with the (3) low recast timer Shouts and the Lung Capacity trait from 20pts in Tactics for maximum effect.

An AoE buffing Shout build normally focuses on 30 pts in Tactics. Beyond that, it’s rather flexible. Normally you’d want at least 20+ pts in Defense for the +Healing and defensive stat benefits. Otherwise it’s pretty much up to personal taste.

Every class that uses a 2-hander loses +Stats and Sigil access. While your idea has some style, it would never realistically work since you’d have to offer the exact same thing for every other class in the game.

Electroflux,

I’m in a trio guild. We all know each other IRL and often will have dinner together about once every couple of weeks to catch up with other. All of our own guild efforts are due to the fact that the other two aren’t very socially out going and we’re all a bit permanently burnt out from large guild politics. As a trio guild, we’ve found that we’re able to level the guild’s Influence up at a decent through logging in multiple alts every day (and then consistently playing a character for that day).

We don’t advertise. While we have no objections to adding a stranger into our guild, we aren’t actively seeking out other players. Every once in a while, one of us gets a random PM from someone seeking a guild. When we respond that we’re a 3 player guild, the stranger instantly responds that they’re not interested. It doesn’t matter that we’ve got every crafting class covered or that we’re rather generous with our guildies when it comes to resources. People seeking out guilds want at least a player roster of 20+ members.

I frankly don’t agree with the large guild mentality. In my mind, it would be much better to be with 5 other players that I trust implicitly. When you get into too large of a group, there are just too many shady or unreliable people. However many people have the exact opposite of my view. These are the people that you’re trying to recruit.

What’s the moral of my story? Like others have said, you either need to form a small guild between people that you know / trust (which could potentially grow into a mega guild over time) or you need to join a mega guild. Keep in mind that you could always join a mega guild on your main and have your stable of alts listed as Representing your own private guild. This would let you level up your own guild slowly while still having access to a big guild.

primalrage.6051:

Thanks for the info Clegane. I will give it a whirl

Having played melee Warriors (x2) and a melee Thief, making my Engineer was a real adjustment for me. I’m using Pistol/Pistol, which feels like like I have to constantly keep close to melee range as a I kite in and out (depending on which attack I’m using).

Now that I’m used to it, this isn’t as much of a big deal. My personal suggestion is that you might want to use (1) Kit weapon set on your build. In my case, I activate my Grenade Kit when I’m either getting swarmed or when all of my damaging Pistol attacks are on cool down. I can fire all of my Pistol attacks, spam all of my Grenade attacks at my feet, then switch back to Pistol to fire a 2nd round of attacks. It’s really helped me down time that was causing me problems when my Pistols were on cool downs.

(If you’re going the situational Kit spamming route, there’s a T1 Major trait in Tools that grants you 5 seconds of Quickness whenever you activate a Kit. You could even equip it and weapon switch out of it for the Quickness buff. That buff has really made it easy to fire off all of a Kit’s attacks in record time.)

1) Racial skills have no official category. For better or worse, that is ArenaNet’s stance on the matter. They always want a Racial skill to be less desireable than a Class skill.

2) ArenaNet already nerfed down Battle Roar towards the end of Beta to its current state. The only true advantage it still has is the superior 1,200 range AoE radius (instead of the standard 600 range). If the skill was re-classified as a Shout, then that range would be reduced down to 600 and ArenaNet would probably make the skill even worse than it currently is (by increasing the recast timer or lower the AoE buff benefits).

LameFox.6349:

To be fair, I did get some (PVE) use out of it as a ranged warrior. It could be handy in kiting when I come across an enemy immune to knockback, or to get out of an AoE marker.

I’m personally fine with using it to get out of a ranged AoE marker. My issue is the 1 second pause that happens before the Dodge backwards. Depending on your reaction time and when you notice the AoE marker, 1 second makes a world of difference. If the response time on this skill was instant, then I’d be satisfied with where it currently stands (since ArenaNet always wants Racial skills to be weaker than Class skills).

Kargion.6352:

Now at the OP. I have only seen fixes to make the skills work as intended. There has not been fixes that were specific to pvp or pve.

While some of that is true, a lot of the skill “adjusting” has been completely mirroring the reaction to the PvP metagame. As an example, the Thief elite skill called Basilisk Venom has been altered many times in response to popular PvP builds and from PvP related complaints. The most recent 10/7 patch was the latest insult to injury for the skill. Now it will never be realistically used in PvP and it remains in a gutted state for PvE use.

That’s what people are complaining about. This is what I forsaw ArenaNet doing back during the development stages. I have issues with this since I’m here for the PvE and I get hacked off when PvPers ruin my gameplay through a ripple effect. However I thought that ArenaNet was rather up front about running things this way. My opinion was that the PvE was still good enough to buy the game even after this glaring flaw. To date, I’ve still be very satisfied with my purchase. Yet the issue still remains and the complaints of PvEers about ArenaNet’s skill “adjustments” are quite valid.

Although my current Engineer is a Pistol/Pistol build that uses the Grenade Kit, I was thinking about making a 2nd Engineer that was similar to what you were describing.

1) While I like both the Flamethrower and Elixer Gun, they kind of run on different themes. Flamethrower is very damage focused and you’ll be rewarded from using this Kit all of the time after you have the Juggernaut trait (Firearms 30). Yet the Elixer Gun feels more focused toward healing and general debuffing. For builds around the Elixer Gun, you’re more encouraged to switch in and out of the Kit due to the Kit Refinement trait (Tools 10).

If you mainly use the Flamethrower and switch to the Elixer Gun situationally, then I could see the build working. Yet if you were planning on using the Elixer Gun on a regular basis, then these two Kits have conflicting playstyles and I would suggest that you commit to a more focused Elixer Gun build.

2) As a quasi-tanky Flamethrower build, I do agree that Firearms 30 / Alchemy 30 / Tools 10 does sound like it has a lot of potential. While there are obvious trait selections within that build, I do see some interesting room for switching trait choices around. The ability to modify your build on the fly has always been something that I value, which makes this trait setup rather attractive to me.

3) If you’re thinking about a more focused Elixer Gun (support) build, then I might go something like Explosives 20 / Firearms 20 / Inventions 30. This build would use a blend of the Rifle, Elixer Gun Kit, and Bomb Kit.

Or something like Firearms 20 / Inventions 25 / Tools 25 could work well for a more aggressive damage build that blends the Rifle and the Elixer Gun. Running Power / Healing / Toughness gear on this build could really turn out well.

Yeah. If it was basically an Instant Cast version of a Dodge on a 15 second timer (with a worthless amount of damage), then I could at least see the arguement for the skill. Or if the recast timer was then lowered afterward to 10 seconds, it would actually be popular.

Based on ArenaNet’s theory on how Racials should work, I doubt that we’ll ever see the recast timer reduced. However the 1 second pause upon activating the skill is just too much. At that point, it’s really not even much of a “free Dodge” at that point since you can’t even use it in a responsive manner.

For a 6 Skill Point ability, Hidden Pistol is remarkably bad in its current form. I’ll still slot it on my Engineer since the bonus Engineer skill called Dual Pistols has become part of my bread ‘n butter combat moves. However it stinks that I basically have to waste a Utility slot. If I wasn’t an Engineer, I don’t think that there would ever be a time that I would use the skill since it’s just so non-responsive.

Before the recent patch, it was basically a Stun that didn’t count as a Stun for the purposes of game mechanics. Basically you were hit with a Stun that couldn’t be cured. This caused prevented a player from moving or using abilities. However their abilities would still recharge like normal.

I haven’t played my Thief alt since the patch. From what I can understand, it’s now an official Stun. The special “can’t be cured” aspect has been removed and nothing has been really added back. It’s just a 1 second cast time Stun which last for 1.5 seconds and only triggers if you hit your enemy. As before, enemy abilities will still recharge normally while under the Stun effect.

From all that I’ve ever seen, Retaliation is just a damage shield and does not reduce incoming damage in any noticeable way. Defensive builds with ways to create lots of self-healing and Retaliation let their enemies kill themselves through losing a significant portion of their health score to Retaliation.

(I’m admittedly just a Warrior player, so I only have a minimal access to the Retaliation buff. However I’ve seen no kind of protective benefits on my defensive Warrior when that buff procs.)

PsionicDingo.2065:

I’m not sure why they don’t just try the City of Heroes route where some abilities work slightly differently in structured PvP.

A lot of MMOs do this. ArenaNet even switched over GW1 to this system. However WoW balances PvE around their PvP meta-game. In order to tap into that market share, ArenaNet is following the same philosophy. I don’t like it, but that’s how things are.

Garenthal,

This game’s balancing is based on PvP. I don’t think that fact, but ArenaNet has been rather up front about it. Every change to Basilisk Venom seems to be based on PvP player reactions at the current PvP meta-game. These changes are completely expected and I assume that EVERY class is going to get smacked around from time to time as a result of PvP.

I’m only in this game for the PvE and I don’t like this aspect of GW2, but the game offers enough for me to over look this issue. Every skill will likely change at some time. Like it or not, that’s just how things are.

Due to my new Engineer, I’ve finally tried out the Charr skill called Hidden Pistol (due to the bonus skill that a Charr Engineer gets access to). Now that I’m actually trying to use the skill, I’m running into an issue which is making this skill even less viable than it normally is.

Standard Skill Function

This skill causes the caster to leap backward as a Dodge. At the same time, you fire (1) shot of a Pistol for minimal damage. The recast timer on the skill is 15 seconds.

My Issue

When you activate this skill, your character will pause. It will sit there doing nothing for around 1 second. You will only Dodge backwards after the 1 second of dead space. This means that this Dodge will only be effective against mobs with long cast timers and is generally useless in any kind of tactical situation that actually requires timing.

My Resolution

Remove the 1 second delay on the activation of this skill. I’d never slot this skill in the first place due to the 15 second recast timer. Including a delay timer is just insult to injury. It would be nice to have this skill be remotely viable.

Having finally made a (Charr) Engineer, I’m actually slotting this skill for the 1st time. (By using this skill, you also get a bonus Engineer skill which is basically a version of the Thief’s “Unload” ability.) While I’ve got issues with a single pistol shot & Dodge roll having a 15 second recast, I’m will to over look that flaw due to my Engineer benefits.

My issue with the skill is the time delay pause. When you hit this skill, you character freezes for around 1 second. Once the freeze ends, you jump backward and shoot. It’s this 1 second of just sitting there that grinds my gears. Hidden Pistol isn’t the best skill in the first place. Then 1 second of dead time just makes it nearly unusable. If I didn’t need it for my Hidden Dual Pistols bonus skill, I don’t see how I could ever justify this skill since it doesn’t even operate in a functional manner.

Is S/P still a viable leveling build? That really depends on how you play it. If you are constantly spamming Black Powder and using the Sword #1 to mostly kill mobs, then nothing has really changed. (For that style, Pistol Whip is for anti-Blind mobs like the Dredge and for when you need a spike of damage.) Yet if you were planing on playing a crit focused glass cannon build that spams Pistol Whip in a race to kill the mobs before you implode, then this nerf could have a noticeable impact in your performance.

Yes, it’s still a viable leveling build. Having said that, the glass cannon style of this build got noticeably hit with the patch. I’m honestly not sure just how dramatic of a change this is for PvE since I haven’t played my Thief lately.

People are used to having character levels. Even in a MMO like TSW, they have unofficial levels for the purposes of gaining additional skills and what kind of gear you can equip.

I do remember my early days of Ultima Online. A free formed skill system without levels was fun. However now we run into the modern concept of “progression”. Far too many people are still freaking out about the fact that GW2 doesn’t have a “raid progression” system (regardless of ArenaNet being up front about this from the very start). Could you even imagine what people would do if there was no “progression” in this game at all? The collective mental breakdown of Western MMO players would just be too great.

Blacklight.2871:

It’s a really bizarre and restrictive trade system. It’s basically pushing you towards the Trading Post, which itself is a really stellar trade system, but it all but prevents individuals from dealing with each other personally, unless you’ve already established trust between you. Not exactly a great community building mechanism.

It is ArenaNet’s way of enforcing money sinks into the game and also a way of preventing the usual Trade Window sleight of hand scamming. Customer Support always gets bogged down by Trade Window scams since they “technically” didn’t scam the player. These scammers just added and removed items / cash from the windows (or opened up extra windows) with such physical speed that they suckered the other player into clicking on the wrong thing because that player had a slower reaction time.

Resolving this kinds of things are a royal pain for Customer Support. In response to that, ArenaNet has preventing this situation from ever existing. Now it’s either the 100% BLTC auction system, or a game of Mail russian roulette that people can recognize as risky before they even start the exchange.

I don’t completely agree with ArenaNet on this stance, but I can see their point of view and it is an interesting way of trying to prevent economic inflation.

Then ignore our collective reponses, lose something in a Mail scam, and complain to Customer Support. Plenty of people have gone that route, then posted angry threads on these forums because Customer Support said that there wasn’t anything that they could do. We’re just trying to save you some time and aggravation.

beren.6048:

Sure, nice thing is that you can play it as you want. Doing a combo has nothing to do with social interaction. Talking with people and getting to know one another, that is social interaction.

We obviously define “social” in different ways. I consider it to cover any kind of interaction that involves using social skills or social interaction. Whether this is verbal or non-verbal is undefined.

So many people define “social” as talking. You have guilds for that. Beyond the general community of a Guild environment, I really don’t see why a game designer should intentionally create game mechanics that force people into formal groups since they have absolutely no way to guarantee “social” interaction as you’ve defined it. Nor does that even mean that such “social” interaction would automatically result in even vaguely positive forms of communication thanks to the current social expectations of what can and can not be said in a MMO.

If you force formal grouping on people, then you create the need for Guild Groups and PUGs. With a PUG, you’ll either get sane people with social skills or people who like to run at the mouth. The only way to avoid that is to run with only Guild Groups. However in MMOs like EQ2 (which introduced their own instanced Guild Halls that acted like independent cities), this need for Guild Groups caused the community to permanently splinter into countless Guild city-states. This took the Us vs Them issue of MMOs to an even greater level, which created a poor environment for new players coming into the game since they encounter a world of anti-social cliques and a relative ghost town of a game since everyone was lurking in instanced Guild Halls.

Now I’m not saying that every MMO will turn out like this. However I’ve experienced grouping and Guilds in some of its worst aspects. (It’s made me permanently cynical about the value of Guilds, but that’s something that I try to keep to myself since most people seem to genuinely enjoy them.) I don’t want any MMO that I enjoy to turn into that environment. That situation was the result of many years of “evolution” within the “social” community. There can be some very negative aspect to the “social” world that you prefer.

ArenaNet is doing something different. They’ve always been rather up front about this. Whether you personally appreciate their point of view or not, this is the game that they wanted to make. I personally object to anyone trying to get any developer to change some of their core game design decisions in a MMO. Pretty much every developer that has caved in to this type of reponse has caused their MMO to implode. Succeed or fail, I want to see what happens when GW2 tries things its own way.

Jestunhi.7429:

Please provide a link to official confirmation that you should not trade via the mail system.

During Beta, people complained about this type of thing and the Devs did make some response posts (which have been wiped since the Beta forums were closed). Basically ArenaNet got tired of Trade Window scamming where people would use multiple windows popping up and quick reaction times (to close windows and/or remove items from windows) that they wanted to create a system where their Customer Service didn’t have to deal with resolving this kind of junk.

The result was the BLTC auction system. This was supposed to be the replacement for Trading windows since there was a 0% chance of being scammed through this item transfer system. (However it is highly ironic that their trading solution was out of commision for the early weeks of the game.) In various posts (which were even carried over into the early days of the live game on these forums), ArenaNet responded to threads by saying that they were not responsible for a what a player does with the Mail system. They stressed that you should only Mail with people you completely trust, but you should still expect to get potentially scammed. If you wanted to avoid getting scammed, then you should use their BLTC system.

Jestunhi.7429, I’m not going to hunt through a month’s worth of forum junk to provide you with a Dev quote. That’s like hunting for a needle in a haystack. If you want to see it in hard writing for yourself, then you’ll need to do that on your own.

Chaorx.2178:

No open world content requires grouping.
There is no reason to group, other than assembling for a dungeon run.

Well…. Yes. That’s one of the key points of GW2. You can interact with your fellow players in a social manner without having a gun against your head that is forcing you to formally group (as is common in other MMOs due to how their AoE Buffing and Loot Drop mechanics work). I’m playing GW2 for exactly this reason. There is a social aspect of creating spontaneous combos with your nearby players. The same goes for my ability to Revive any player I can find (which seems to really help the community spirit of this game).

I know that other people come from MMOs that are based on making formal groups. However I don’t see that system as a positive thing. It creates a culture of Us vs Them, which leads to social cliques and elitism. Yes, having your own personal loot drops in GW2 would mean that it wouldn’t ever get as bad as a “traditional” MMO. Yet it seems that ArenaNet has a similar point of view as my own when you look at how they designed GW2.

As a below 20th PvE character, I would have to say that P/P is not a viable set by itself. I’m constantly dealing with fights involving 2+ mobs and the many single target moves on the Pistol just aren’t helping. In order to adapt to this, I’m using an AoE weapon kit to supplement my P/P use.

With my limited SP, I’m currently enjoying the Grenade Kit (using a Condition / Precision spec). I could also see a lot of viability with the Flamethrower if I was running a different +Stat spec (such as Power / Precision). However the blast radius of the Bomb Kit feels too small to me. A part of me is curious to see what the Elixer Gun could do in my character build. We’ll have to see about that once I gain some more SP.

I’m running two Warriors that are rather different. Basically the 2nd Warrior is in many ways the exact opposite of my 1st Warrior.

Warrior #1
1) Charr Male
2) Axe/Warhorn & Rifle
3) AoE buffing (Shouts/Banners) build that focuses on buff stacking
4) Uses offensive gear build
5) Defense 20 / Tactics 30 / Discipline 20

Warrior #2
1) Asura Female
2) Hammer & Longbow
3) Area control Off-Tank using Physical skills & dodging
4) Uses defensive gear build
5) Physical 30 / Defense 30 / Discipline 10

There is really a lot of room for playing multiple Warriors. While I’ve maybe got 1 or 2 skills that will eventually overlap when they’re both 80th and in full Exotic gear, their playstyle will be drastically different.

3) Multiple applications of Bleed cause a single tick (based on how the mechanics are supposed to work). By adding additional stacks, you just increase the damage value of this single tick. Yes, +Condition damage should increase the value of each stack of Bleed (for a higher combined result).

CptCosmic.3156:

Arvin.3124:

Erm..I think kits rock late game. I use bomb kit, healing kit and elixir gun.
Its all about the versatility kits provide.

And as was said, they scale with everything except weapons.

so you have no stun breaker or condition removal? tell me how it works out when you engage your first time in pvp or in dynamic events.

Healing Kit does have a Condition Removal on a 12 recast recast. So he’s not completely without utility. Having said that, it’s still a 12 second recast.

Update:

After messing with my Nvidia settings and my GW2 Graphics settings (per the sticky at the top of the forum), it seems like everything is now functional. If anyone else is having the same kind of issues, the sticky’s settings could help.

Prior to the 10/1 patch, I was mostly able to access the “O” Black Lion menu. The Gem Store would always work. Then I could get the Auction portion to work if I was persistent enough. (An inconsistent bug would prevent my Buying and Selling. Customer Support was clueless and updating my computer’s Certificate information didn’t help. If I rebooted GW2 around 1-2 times, I could eventually get a working version of the Auction system.)

Now after the BLTC down time, I can’t access anything. Hitting “O” brings up the window. I can see the titles at the top of every screen. However the lower 3/4 of the screen of each window is now completely blank. I can’t use the Gem Store or the Auction system. No matter how many times I reboot GW2, the problem won’t fix itself.

Does anyone have any advice? This is starting to get really frustrating.

The one thing that I do want to point out is that anyone who uses x6 Superior Runes of Speed will be able use a +40% Swiftness movement speed (instead of the usual +33%). If you really want to move around quickly, figure a way to chain up Swiftness and use the Runes to make yourself even faster.

Adding a (melee) Whip to the Off-Hand through an expansion could be fun. I could see a lot of fun combinations and it does feel like a thief who fights dirty. (It would also fullfill many Indiana Jones fantasies for people.)

1) Get a Primary set of Exotic Armor / Accessory pieces.

2) Get a “Situational” set of Exotic Armor / Accessory pieces. (If your Primary set is focused on a glass cannon dps style, then you’ll want to have a more defensive gear set that you can mix and match as needed. Etc etc.)

3) Slowly work towards getting yourself a Legendary weapon. Or make multiples if you’re feeling especially crazy.

4) Make yourself all kinds of crazy gear using the Skill Point vendor items through the Mystic Forge system.

5) Start a new character if none of those sound appealing.

You can easily make yourself an Exotic weapon or two using the Mystic Forge system upon hitting 80th. (See the GW2 Wiki page about the Mystic Forge for more information on the “Mystic” weapons.) Then after gearing yourself up with a set of Yellow gear as a starting point, you can start to farm either Dungeons or Karma. With the dungeon tokens, you can buy yourself a set of armor. Or using Karma, you can buy armor pieces from the end game merchants (who I believe are Priests in the Orr zone).

Once you’re in mostly Exotic, you’ll be very powerful in WvW. Assuming that you’ll eventually want a Legendary weapon (which is only an Exotic weapon with a special appearance), then you’ll need to get a 100% Map Completion from all of the PvE and WvW zones.

midsummer.8237:

It would be giving people more options. It isn’t meant to be disrespectful it is just an idea so that people have more to do at end game because some people feel there is a lacking of things to do when they hit 80.

I really don’t know why people hate the idea of raids. It is like everyone assumes there is only one way to make raids, when really there could be multiple different ways to make a raid.

It’s an issue of reward. If there’s no reward, then people won’t raid widely enough to make it worth a dev’s time. But if there is a reward, it would only be a new cosmetic gear skin (assuming that ArenaNet continues with its standard philosophies).

Would people really go through a x5 raid zone progression just for gear that “looks cool” and has the same +Stats as any other Exotic? My personal opinion is “No”. At the same time, the ex-GW1 players would likely pitch a fit about ArenaNet sticking desirable appearance gear into a raid system since that really goes against the GW1 philosophy (which still faintly echoes in GW2).

One of the reasons that I’m playing this game is due to the lack of a raid progression. I just don’t have the time (or patience) to devote a couple nights of my life to a raid guild. Based on my own past experience, a “Raid-Light” gear standard ends up becoming the bare minimum for any kind of PUG scenerio, what is something that I just don’t want to get into with this game.

There’s no real clean way to do a raid progression in this game. If there’s absolutely no special rewards for raiding, then people won’t do it and the devs will have wasted their time. Since ArenaNet has already said that they don’t want to get into a power creeping war, raid tier equipment (in terms of +Stats) won’t work. Even if it’s just for pure graphical appearances, I think that you’re going to get a player backlash (whether it’s complaining about access to the appearances for non-raiders or from raider complaints about how “special” appearnaces are a waste of their time).

Dark.6083:

Did they fix the size issues yet, though?
An Asura Guardian has a much smaller AoE than a Norn Guardian for their runes and such, last I saw.

A dev has previously posted on the forums about this issue. (I think it was some time around the middle of last week.) From an invisible game mechanics stand point, their AoE radius ranges are the same. This would affect any kind of game interaction for PCs, NPCs, and mobs.

The dev did agree that there was an error with the graphical animation of the ability that makes it look reduced on smaller races (while still extending beyond the animation for the full radius range). This was going to be added to their “To Do” list. I haven’t been paying attention to see if they’ve corrected the animation yet.

Ever since I hit 65th and was able to pick up the Power / Vitality / Condition gear pieces, I’ve been a major fan of the Longbow for my Hammer character. I do agree that the Longbow is really more of a point blank range weapon. While I’ll use its range and will kite with it as needed, a decent amount of +Condition really makes this weapon a force to be reckoned with. It’s my weapon of choice when I’m against mobs that are immune to control effects or if I need to just do massive amounts of AoE dps (instead of AoE control). By switching back and forth between the Hammer and Longbow, I feel like I’m getting the best of both worlds as a melee character.

If you want real armor, just buy a full set of 65th Yellow grade armor from the BLTC auction system. At that level, you’ll get a bunch of different Stat #1 / Stat #2 / Stat #3 armor and weapon pieces to choose from. (Technically 60th is when the triple stat gear starts to show up, but the BLTC doesn’t have all of the types until 65th.)

Please be warned that many of those sets are UGLY. Don’t be afraid to use Transmutation Stones to apply gear graphics which you like better. (If you don’t have any, you can always get x3 Transmutation Stones for getting a full Map Completion in any of the non-combat cities.)

The only reason to buy Racial armor pieces is for the style of their appearance (and using Transmutation Stones to apply it to your current gear set). If you personally hate the appearance of an armor set for your race, then just don’t buy it and save yourself a ton of money.

Stenc.1394:

Is it even possible to finish all hearts without killing anyone? Than how does one unlock all weapon skills?
Or is it just trolling?

There were a lot of issues like this during Beta. People ignored Dynamic Events because they weren’t “quests”. These people had been trained to avoid “trash mobs” while they chained quested for xp in other MMOs. This resulted in their conscious avoidance of Dynamic Events and they just did the bare minimum neccessary to complete Heart locations. In the end, their level quickly became far lower than what was needed by the next Heart location and these players then made a number of forum posts talking about how bad the xp curve was in this game.