Guild Wars 2

My 2nd Warrior would fall under the “tanky” cateogory. The goal was to create a character who could help tank the various trash mobs that you might encounter. Then against a boss, I’d usually switch to more of a ranged combat style with some AoE support.

So far, this seems to be working out. Now it will make me pick x2 different gear groups for the character. Trash mode gear will focus on Power / Toughness / Vitality. Then boss mode gear will focus on Power / Condition Damage / Vitality. By having two different gear pools to work with, I will also be able to mix and match them depending on the content that I’m facing.

(Basically I’m having to deal with the old gear issues that affected my melee healer Inquisitor in EQ2. It’s a royal pain to accumulate the neccessary gear, but it will give you a lot of versatility. Also since GW2 doesn’t have a traditional gear progression system, it actually makes it relatively reasonable to keep a couple of Exotic grade gear sets around.)

Upgrade components must be within the same item tier as the equipment piece that you’re attaching them to. As a result, your ultra low level Back piece only takes the lowest tier of Gem (aka Pebble at that tier).

Back pieces come @ 30th from the Personal Story, possible @ 80th for completing the last stage of the Personal Story (and defeating the dragon), or from the Guild Armorer merchants in a few different level tiers. If you’re part of a guild, the NPC vendor is the way to go.

My own Thief is a Venomous Aura S/P & SB spec. I’ve found that my main role seems to be playing a ghost.

Ability Selection #1 is my mid travelling spec. My Utility slots are Blinding Powder, Shadow’s Refuge, & Signet of Shadows. Then I’ve got Dagger Storm as my Elite. Basically I chain stealth myself when running through open areas. (Hide in Shadows also acts as another form of emergency stealth.) Otherwise I hide my movement behind terrain or underwater. The goal is to move mostly unseen across the battlefield. This can lead to scout for enemy forces or to move toward specific objects by myself.

Ability Spec #2 is my fighting spec against NPC road guards and supply camps. My Utility Slots are Spider Venom, Skale Venom, & Shadow’s Refuge. Then I’ve got Thieves Guild as my Elite. Basically I use my AoE venom buffing on my pets to speed burn down a NPC road guard. By the time the enemies come from nearby areas, I’ve already taken control of that road location and have fled the scene.

Ability Spec #3 is my player killing spec. While it looks similar to Spec #2, I will tweak it as needed. Usually I’ll remove Skale Venom and replace it with Devourer Venom. Also I might removed Shadows Refuge and replace it with Signet of Shadows.

All things considered, I personally consider it to be suicidal to run with a zerg. It causes my computer some potentially major lag issues and I often have trouble rendering things. This has been the major reason for my running around in a small group of 3-4 people or just soloing in WvW.

JonPeters.5630:

We are considering it. now you know, and knowing is half the battle…

GI JOE!!!

100 Blades is a PvE focused move (since you can’t move unless you want to interrupt the Channel attack). Yes, it can be powerful in PvP if you pop up some cool downs and go nuts. However this also means that your opponents doesn’t have a form of Stun / Immobilize removal (depending on the Warrior set up skill that was used), they don’t dodge your anti-movement attack, don’t have their own response attack (like Disable, Stun, Knock), and don’t have any kind of damage immunity.

All things considered, 100 Blades did have its damage toned down some after Beta Weekend #1. Somewhere around the final days of Beta, its recast timer was slightly increased (though the Greatsword trait can reduce its timer down to the original timer). This is really about as good as it’s going to get on the 100 Blades subject. There were countless threads on the Beta forums about 100 Blades, but ArenaNet has mainly ignored them after making these adjustments.

Hyena.2037:

Anyone know if the traits that affect shouts would do so to the charr racial skill battle roar? Might be fun to stack that up with For Great Justice.

Unfortunately not. Any kind of racial skill lacks a category for the purposes of traits and other such things.

For Great Justice (FGJ) is a VERY good Warrior buff. Unfortunately the only useful thing about Battle Roar is the 1,200 range on the AoE buff. Battle Roar is one of the few AoE buffs to still carry that large of a range, which is why its effects are mostly inferior. (On my own Charr Warrior who uses Shouts, I’ve occassionly slotted this skill when doing a dynamic event where everyone is extremely spread out. However that’s about where its usefulness ends.)

If you’re looking for other dps boosting AoE buffs, there is always the Banner of Strength skill. All of the summoned Banner objects have an AoE buff and you can also pick up the Banners for a special weapon skill set. Banner #3 is an AoE Swiftness buff with a 1,200 range. Then Banner #2 is unique to each different Banner. (See the GW2 Wiki for a specific list of their functions.)

Here’s a generic soloing spec that doesn’t use Banners.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzRc0m0MoRoGmoRoGm9MxxazaqMRbo

For more group oriented situations, you can switch out Signet of Might for something like Shake It Off or On My Mark. As long as you’re packing some form of Condition removal in a Utility slot, I’m fond of the Healing Signet. (Though if you don’t have room in your Utility slots, I would recommend using the Mending healing skill.) The increased dodge meter regeneration is noticeable when running the Signet of Stamina, which makes it useful even when you don’t need it for Condition removal.

Or for a more group support spec, you can run something like this.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzRc0m0MoRlaMoRoGm9MxxazaqVRbo

Running the Banner of Tactics will increase the self-healing ability of people, it will extend everyone’s buff durations by +10%, and the Banner #2 ability is an AoE Regeneration healing buff. Also note that I switched out the T1 Major trait in the Tactics line. This switch will give your Banner / Battle Standard a 900 range and it will let you almost permanently have the Banner of Tactics out. (Banner objects seem to last for around 90 seconds, which is double the duration of what the tool tip says. Then this trait lowers your Banner & Battle Standard recast timers.)

The dynamic event system gives the gameplay interaction of grouping without the need to create a formal group. Our “group buffs” instead are an AoE centered on us that affect ourself and up to 4 additional targets. We can even revive the corpses of perfect strangers.

Yes, formal grouping does still happen within guilds. PUG grouping does still happen for dungeons. However beyond that, people see little need to make formal groups since GW2 is intentionally designed to make them not needed.

Your FoTM character is a Greatsword wielder that’s min / maxed into using nothing but Signet powers while using the +Power and +Crit trait lines. (There is an Arms trait that gives +40 Precision per Signet that’s not on a cool down timer. At low levels, it’s rather unbalancingly powerful.) In PvE, this lets them spam the self-rooting power called 100 Blades to slaughter trash mobs with a rediculous amount of dps. (They technically can move, but it interrupts the channel attack. Also these builds are glass cannon dps specs, which means that they go splast against anything that they can’t dps down.)

Hammer is built more around control effects and not about raw dps. This is why crit specs for Hammer characters are rare. Most Hammer builds feel a little tanky due to having at least 20 pts in Defense for the Hammer trait. From what I’ve seen, Hammer & Shouts works well together. My own Shout Warrior uses the Axe / Warhorn combo, but I’m finding that it just isn’t as satisfying. It has a better dps output, but it just isn’t as visceral.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Now, people want cookies for eating cookies.

But… C is for Cookie and that’s good enough for me.

(I’m sorry, but the set up was too good to pass up.)

Vzur.7123:

I’m enjoying the game, no question.. just, was kinda hoping it would be more successful. I mean, sure it sold well at first, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to keep growing. I thought there was a good chance it would be the first MMO to do that, since, well, 2004.

Time will tell. It’s a Buy to Play model, which will always cause people to react in different ways. ArenaNet has pretty much lived up to everything that they had originally covered in their mission statements and from what they implied when they said that their “endgame” wouldn’t include a “traditional” raid progression system. This game is more about the “climb” in PvE and the WvW / PvP scene. All things considered, I thought that ArenaNet was relatively up front about that.

However many people expected there to be some kind of big “end game” scene and have become frustrated. If they had been following the MMO’s development for a while, then they would have realized that those were false expectations. Instead a massive amount of people jumped onto GW2 as the next big thing. Thus the general disappoint that many of the forum posters have projected.

Time will tell to see how the game will do. As a Buy to Play model, I see this game doing well and growing in the future. It will likely experience hot and cold periods where people will flip flop between GW2 and a 2nd MMO that has a more “traditional” level cap scene. However I really don’t think that this will be a major obstacle for GW2.

flippa.9043:

Is what you really want something different then WoW or just a different clone of WoW.

It’s a paradox. On the one hand, a lot of people have become burnt out on WoW over the years. They feel that each expansion is just making things worse and they yearn for the “old days” of earlier WoW eras. Being frustrated with WoW’s current content formula, they complain that they want something “new” and “fun”.

Then on the other hand, a new MMO will come out that is “different”. From a non-WoW perspective, it’s usually a mix of “good different” and “bad different”. Inevitably the burned out WoW players rush to this new game in hopes of reliving what they considered to be the prime years of WoW. However every game is unique and these various differences aggravate the WoW players since the changes aren’t what they are used to. This leads to massive complaints, which then leads to developers changing their game during the Alpha / Beta / Live game stages. Due to these accomdations, many of the unique features of the MMO become lost. At the same time, many of the ex-WoW players are still unsatisfied and ultimately leave the new MMO to return to WoW.

This cycle has been repeating itself for probably the last 3-5 years. As WoW continues to show its age as a MMO, the frustration of its players is increasing. However the viscious cycle of MMO hopping and returning to WoW hasn’t slowed down. Most new MMOs implode as a result (though many of the contributing factors are that MMO’s own fault) and the gaming industry awaits the next MMO to continue the cycle.

Some mobs specifically drop Cloth or Leather salvage trash items. I know Grawl cover Cloth. (There are more, but I can’t think of any.) Then any kind of lizard can drop a Leather salvage item, though the four legged lizards seem to drop them more often than just “reptilian” creatures.

Since they moved Butter and Chocolate to the random crafting item bags, our supply of Leather and Cloth pieces has significantly decreased. Despite complaints, an ArenaNet dev has stated on this sub-forum that they won’t reverse their decision to make those items drop in-game (instead of being bought for Karma). Their reasoning is that they don’t want people to be able to just level up Cooking with vendor bought items. Yet in fixing this “flaw” that made Cooking easier (if you had the cash / karma), they jacked up the drop rates of everything else. Kind of a sledgehammer fix, but MMO companies are often like that.

So you like melee, aggression, Knock effects, and buffing everyone’s dps output. Well based on that, my 1st reaction is to suggest trying out a Hammer Warrior who’s built around their Shout skills.

Taugrim had a thread running around called Captain Hammer. I know he’s got it on Youtube, GW2 Guru, and in the Warrior forum on this site. His build is PvP based, but any variation of it could work for PvE. You’d basically be wielding a Hammer and a ranged weapon (which I prefer as the Longbow for my own Hammer Warrior). Trait lines would focus on maxing out Defense and then using Tactics with another line of your choice. (Off hand, I’d suggest something like Defense 30 / Tactics 30 / Discipline 10. By dipping into Discipline, you can grab Signet Mastery. This is a key trait for Warriors.) Tactics will increase your Shout usage, give you AoE healing for support, and increase your own Boon durations (which means that you can chain up a lot of buffs on yourself).

The Defense and Tactics lines also raise your Toughness and Vitality scores, so you’ll be very durable. This kind of build is designed more for out surviving your enemies and not for its spike damage capabilities. However I have seen posted build that have Hammer used for a crit build. Yet these seem to be more of the exception than the rule.

As another perk of being a Shout based Warrior, you’ll eventually be able to use Superior Runes of the Soldier at level 65+. A full set of (6) runes will cause every one of your Shouts to remove (1) Condition from every player (including yourself) that’s within relatively close range to you (up to 5 total targets). The +Stat benefits from the runes increase your Toughness and Vitality scores, which just builds even more on the defensive Warrior concept.

(My own Hammer Warrior is Strength 30 / Defense 30 / Discipline 10 once I’ve hit the level cap. While I do like using Shouts, I’ve already got another Warrior who is using that spec.)

As other people have said, it’s VERY bad to force someone to learn how to play a MMO using the WvW combat system. I would never take any of my characters into WvW until I had a firm grasp on what each character does and what kind of playstyle I felt most comfortable with while using that character.

Warriors are a generally straight forward class, as opposed to some of the more finesse oriented classes. For a learning curve, it’s not a bad class to experience MMOs on since it has a very high health pool and mostly obvious game mechanics. However for a new person who doesn’t have a MMO background, Warrior will still feel complicated and I wouldn’t just rush into the WvW / PvP scene.

The issue is that your story doesn’t make it that clear about what pushes your buttons. For example, I know that I’m a “control” player. For some reason, I have this inherent need to debuff or lock opponents down with control effects. If I play a character which lacks these effects, then I’ll eventually had a hard time getting excited about playing that character.

Case in point, my purely AoE support Warrior got boring because I was just buffing my dps output and everyone else’s dps output without really debuffing or using control effects. However my 2nd Warrior is designed to tank group content trash mobs using control effects and lots of dodging. I’m having tons of fun. Even though I’m technically playing the same class again, my character Trait and Skill spec looks very different and it’s making everything so much better.

It sounds like you want variety and reasonable cool down timers. Beyond that, I’m really not seeing a distinctive theme here. Do you have any personal observations about what makes you have fun?

In general, any kind of skill which Stuns / Knocks / Cripples / Immobilizes / Dazes the mob just won’t work if they’ve got that Boss buff (that looks like a dragon crest on a white shield). You can debuff them to reduce their damage output, to increase the damage that they take, or to just deal strait damage to them. The only odd exception is Blind, which is 10% effective.

On my Hammer Warrior (which specializes in Knocks and Stuns), I mainly use my Hammer #2 for the Weakness debuff. Beyond that, the only reason to use a Hammer on a boss is for the raw dps output (which was never the Hammer’s strong point). If I actually want to be more effective, it’s better for me to switch to my Longbow and act like more of a support character. (I also switch out my Knock skill in the Utility slots and replace it with Banner of Tactics for the AoE Regeneration heal.)

It’s a hot button subject.

As someone who passionately disliked the GW1 structure and couldn’t even force myself to grind out GW1 achievements in anticipation of GW2 pet unlocks (which was my only motivation), it does irk me that I’m having less access to content in GW2 because I dislike a completely different game with a totally different game structure.

Yet at the same time, making specific things (like the pet skins) available in the Gem Store would make many of the original GW1 players foam at the mouth in their rage. While I can partially see their point of view, I think that they’re wrong. However regardless of what I think, this is definitely a subject that ArenaNet would be wise to avoid. It just provokes too many extreme opinions and emotions on both sides of the fence.

1) For short duration fights, +Condition Damage should be superior.

2) There is a cap of x25 stacks of any specific Condition. As a result, running +Condition Damage is going to be more beneficial when you’re running with other Condition players (while at a large Dynamic Event boss or in a dungeon).

3) If you’re doing some PvE soloing and really aren’t at risk of hitting the Condition stack cap, then +Condition Duration may be better for long fights.

4) If you’re doing a lot of Poison or Burn attacks, it’s probably better to go with +Condition Damage since re-applying these attacks just increase the Condition’s duration (instead of increasing their damage stack count).

In general, I’d personally say that +Condition Damage is going to be superior if you have a choice between the two. While I wouldn’t turn down trait choices that extended Condition durations, my gear choice will normally focus on +Condition Damage.

The only exception to this rule would apply to specific character builds. For example, a Guardian can be spec’ed to gain +% damage against foes with the Burn Condition. Similarly you can make a Warrior who gets +% damage against foes with the Bleed Condition. If you don’t have enough ways to consistently layer your opponents with your chosen Condition type, then the +% damage increase from your traits could make it worth your while to use +Condition Duration gear when you’re soloing.

Shao.7049:

Guild Wars 2 should stick to their “the climb” approach while also including the grinding “end game scene” that more traditional MMO players expect – doing so keeps the best of both worlds in check.

In the long term picture, I suspect that ArenaNet will alter the “end game scene” to be more like other MMOs. Whether you consider this to be adapting to their audience or caving into whining will depend on your point of view. Yet making an end game system does take time, especially if it isn’t based around some form of raid progression. I wouldn’t expect to really see anything substancial for at least another month or two.

Netsu.3769:

SausageStorm.4293:

@mosharn

I’d totally use it if my Charr actually roar’d

The sounds are fine, but why is there absolutely no animation? Are the warrior shouts also like this?

Yes, Warrior’s Shout mechanics acts the exact same way. You hear your character say a line of speech with no kind of in-game animation. The only way that you know that another player has used a Shout is if you see debuffs suddenly appears on mobs or if you just gained specific sets of buffs on your own character. (For example, getting x3 Might stacks and Fury is a pretty obvious way of telling that some Warrior just cast For Great Justice.)

Unfortunately GW2 is all about “realism” because ArenaNet wants the game to be a “PvP E-Sport”. While WvW is more of an extension of our PvE characters, it does still involve a lot of their PvP balancing philosophies. Amongst those philosophies, ArenaNet wants every class to be at least vaguely recognizable by their armor appearance. As a result, there’s unforunately no way for me to buy the Cook’s appearance outfit for my Warrior Cook and to still use it during combat (via Transmutation Stones) because it could be potentially unbalancing in WvW.

I frankly think that their point of view on this matter is rather dumb, but they’ve always been consistent and up front about this view.

LONGSHANKS.3085:

Cool thanks guys, I think they need to put it a solid system that makes sense.

Its all just too random

But that’s the point of the system. ArenaNet doesn’t want a formal Trinity class role system. By making the aggro target randomly change, ArenaNet is forcing everyone to pay attention and dodge around. While you can certainly disagree with their game philosophy, the aggro systems does seem to be working as intended.

Unfortunately this is a buggy part of the mob leasing system. If that happens, my best suggestion is to try to physically move to a slightly different area. Sometimes the mob is bugging out because of a specific area that it’s standing over, so getting it to chase you to a new area can help. Other than that, I don’t know what else to say. I do find that water combat tends to be the most notably buggy when you’re fighting near the surface or near a physical wall.

1) It seems to be proximity based. If you’ve got aggro, running away from the mob can often lower yourself on the invisible Threat chart. Though if you’ve still got aggro by a significant amount, the mob will just ignore everyone else and will chase you (which can allow you to kite the mob all over the place while everyone else shoots it).

2) It seems to be built up through dealing damage to the mob. I’ve observed that certain debuffs or penality effects can also yank aggro pretty fast, but I don’t have anything concrete.

3) Mobs will periodically aggro wipe. You won’t see much of this when you’re just soloing around. However when you’re fighting a Veteran or Champion mob that is taking a long time, you will notice the aggro wipe mechanic.

robot.9134:

I stopped reading… Not trying to be a jerk…but lets be real.. MMO’s are great for the journey to lvl cap…but the game is centered around lvl 80 play. You don’t have the experience to tell me that end game is or isnt an issue. i had the same point of veiw while leveling to 80 and completely lost it at cap.

Ever since I started watching the progress of this MMO around 1.5 years ago, I got the gut feeling that this MMO was specifically about “the climb” and not the “end game scene”. Close to release, I posted various comments which repeated these thoughts on the GW2 Guru forums. I was shouted down because of more recent developer quotes which said otherwise. At the time, I really wasn’t convinced.

Lo and behold, people are saying exactly what I was expecting. ArenaNet specifically said that they didn’t want to have some kind of raid progression at the level cap. Therefore this left various forms of grinding for vanity appearance items and for maybe a tiny bit of extra +Stats. This is exactly what we got in the finished product of GW2.

Why are people surprised? I intentionally bought this game because the “journey” sounded remarkably fun in this game. While my highest level character is only in the upper 60’s, I’m having tons of fun because I got exactly what I expected.

I can empathize with the people who expected an “end game” scene that didn’t include grinding, but I really don’t see how a non-grinding system (that doesn’t include raids) would work in a MMO. The player frustration is understandable, but I can’t help feeling that many people came into GW2 with unrealistic expectations.

Yeah, a lot of the emotes in this game actually have real functions. I’ve triggered various effects with /kneel or /salute in specific areas.

PuffballPink.6035:

btw, call it something other than “diminishing returns”. That has a real definition in statistics, and it’s not what you’re referring to.

While I may agree with you, the MMO industry calls it “diminishing returns”. They’ve used this term for years. This will be the term that ArenaNet will eventually use, so there’s no need to make up a new name that will just confuse people.

Dyrna.6312:

Thanks Wiser! Does the Swiftness buff last only while you are in that zone, or does it apply every time you come back to the zone as well? Also, is there a significance in the ratio as shown on the (H)ero screen?

1) Swiftness buff disappears if you zone (even if it’s a sub-zone of that city). I think it normally last 5 minutes. You constantly have to see NPCs to get it re-applied.

2) I do know that I did manage to shift my ratio back during Beta. While I was a Ferocity character, I kept making Charm or Nobility choices to make the NPCs do what I needed in a certain area (because they didn’t react well to Ferocity lines). After a bit, I did get some kind of flashing message that my ratio had changed. If this was continued into the live game version, then it is theoretically possible to slowly change yourself into another communication style.

GW2 is all about Time vs Money. This is reflected with their Waypoint travel system. The same goes for people trading real life cash for game currency through the Gem Exchange system. Even the Boosts in the gem store follow this philosophy.

Like it or not, GW2 is consistent about this theme.

All of the GW1 players seem to love making Human characters. Also it seems like every new player automatically makes a Human as well. This means that the Human zone is always over loaded with people.

There were masses in the Charr zone during the beginning days. However most have out leveled the zone. At the same time, people don’t have the same compulsion to make a new Charr when compared to the standard Human obsession. This means that the non-Human starting zones are always going to have lower player population counts.

Also on a side note, this isn’t a prime time for the USA. Most of your player activity will be on the evenings and the weekends. If you’re online during those time frames, you’ll see more people running around the Charr zone.

These are your starting choices for how you communicate with NPCs. That’s it.

Now if you’re high in a method of communication, then you’ve got a better success chance with using that communcation style. Sometimes you only get x1 choice for a specific NPC conversation (such as when you’re a disguised bandit), which can either go very well your way or very poorly.

Example #1

In the cities, you can run into NPCs who can grant you an in-zone Swiftness buff. When talking to them, you normally want to pick the communication category that you’re the best in. However the results can be varied. Using a Ferocity style works well with fighter type NPCs, but does poorly with peace loving priests. If you fail the conversation (based on your skill and choice), then you won’t get the Swiftness buff.

Example #2

When you’re disguised as an enemy faction, sometimes the normally hostile NPCs will verbally challenge you and question you about why you’re here. If you are high enough in the available communcation choice, then they’ll continue to be non-aggro. However failing that choice (because your score in that communication style wasn’t high enough) will cause the NPC to become hostile and they’ll attack you.

1) Break up your stack. <ALT + drag> to an empty slot will bring up the item split window.

2) Drag the amount that you want to mail (which you just broke out) into the Mail window.

From Beta, I remember people saying that you could hit a Diminishing Returns soft cap once you’re in 80th Exotics, but I honestly can’t remember where that +Stat break point was.

I’m also in agreement about a Hammer character. My 2nd Warrior was basically the opposite of my 1st Warrior and this new one is so much more fun. (Something about knocking mobs down and away just makes me happy. The same goes for Stun effects.)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fIQQJASTlkOyd2CR4B29AA6RVcll5hRFRkqgdA

This is a PvE build. For the record, I can’t choose the normal Elite that I use for soloing since it’s not in the system of this character builder. My Elite of choice is the Mistfire Wolf from the Deluxe version of the game. (It’s a great source of single target dps, which is something that a Hammer control build really needs at times.)

1) Asura: Yes, the race makes all of the difference in the world. Their unique racial animations really show up on a melee character. When using my Hammer, I often feel like I’m playing a Looney Tunes character. Also their Dodge is different. They use a jumping flip animation that makes them sail through the air (without the standard Dodge blurring). With this animation, you can always see where your Dodge is about to end and it also looks visually great.

2) Utility #7: This is a slot which I rotate around. For normal soloing, I use the Stomp. Or if I know that I’m about to solo a Veteran, I replace it with Kick (which has a beautiful Asura animation). Then for boss mobs which have the anti-control effect buff, I switch to the Banner of Tactics for the Banner #2 AoE Regeneration healing buff.

3) Adrenaline: One big issue with the Hammer is that it swings slower. While you can work around this face and get used to it, you will generate adrenaline at a slower rate. You need to choose traits which increase your adrenaline generation, which is why Embrace the Pain is a vital part of the build.

4) Strength 30: While I’ll use Physical Training for when I’m actively using a Physical skill, this trait will be switched out for Berserker’s Might at various times.

5) Defense 30: While Last Stand will be my normal anti-control trait, I will switch this out for either Defy Pain or Spiked Armor (depending on the situation).

6) Boss Mobs: When dealing with mobs which are immune to control effects, you’ll only need Hammer #2 for the Weakness debuff. Otherwise you’ll often be using your Longbow full time. It’s AoE Fire Field from F1 is a great Combo source. You can trigger an AoE Might buff from Longbow #3 and it’s a ranged damage increase (in addition to what other people can combo off of it).

7) Dodging: Your character should almost always be dodging around since the Signet of Stamina will greatly increase your Endurance generation. I use Dodge on my way into melee (much like a Leap). Also I use it while closing the gap in between spaced out mobs. Even massive AoE spam from Ice Elementals doesn’t bother me that much since I can usually dodge out of the way.

Gear
Lvl 1-20: +Power
Lvl 21-59: +Power / +Vitality
Lvl 60-80: +Power / +Vitality / +Toughness

This has been brought up in Beta and Live. At this point, I’m not sure if anyone know whether or not this trait actually works. It has been added to our stickied thread on this forum which covers our malfunctioning things. Beyond that, I’m not sure that anyone know for sure.

Warriors who were using a full set of the Superior runes were noting that they lost their full Rune set bonus in underwater combat. Our response was to ask them if they had added a bonus Rune to their Aqua Breather, which they admitted that they hadn’t.

Based on that, I would say that it does matter for keeping your Rune set bonuses. However it shouldn’t count if you’re not wearing the Aqua Breather. (However I have no idea if it’s incorrectly giving credit for Runes on both Helms and Aqua Breathers at the same time.)

I’d personally love some kind of Looney Tunes flavor on a Hammer’s graphics. Playing an Asura, their constant jumping has always seemed kind of cartoony to me anyhow. If there was some kind of comedy Hammer released, I’d do everything that I could to get it.

From what I can remember from Beta, the Warrior’s “nearby” buffs were all 240 range. It’s my understanding that this is the unofficial range for all abilities with that designation.

If you can pull off multiple Combo effects within the normal duration of a Field, then they’ll all happen. Some of the Field last longer than others.

Considering that I hate D/D as a Thief, I honestly have no idea about how long the Death Blossom animation takes to complete. In theory, there will probably be enough time for you to activate both of combos that you’re describing.

If that your goal for the Combo? Then yes.

Cultural armor vendors are on the main upper level of Ratta Sum in the center area of the triangle. Go to each of the x3 vendors and Right Click the item pieces to Preview the set. That can help you make your own decisions.

White > Blue > Green > Yellow > Orange > (Red)

Orange grade (aka Exotic) will be what everyone farms for at the 80th level cap. Also there is a long drawn out process for making Legendary grade Red item (which we’re sitll figuring out), but they just have special graphics and aren’t supposed to be any better than Orange grade.

For leveling, Blue is the minimum to use and Green should be a goal. However certain level ranges drop a lot of Yellow items as zone completion rewards, so you can find a lot of Yellow gear on the BLTC auction system for reasonable prices once you start to get around 46+ in level.

Charlie.7924:

I got 2 human characters. I had one go as a street rat and the other as a commoner but for both of them i chose the storyline with the diseased parents. Will I still get different quests later on? They both around lvl 10

Quest Chain #1 – This is based on your Social Background choice.
Quest Chain #2 – This is based on your “regret” choice.
Quest Chain #3 – This starts the cycle of quests that leads you into the secret societies.

Charlie,

Since you chose the same “regret” for your two characters, they will share identical Quest Chain #2 paths. There are some sub-choices in this path if I remember correctly, which could give you a little variation. Otherwise it’ll be the same general thing. If you want to have different quest experiences, make sure that you pick different secret society choices for your two characters.

Well there’s always the GW2 Wiki, which you can easily access through the link in the upper left corner of the screen. That can explain many of the terms.

Other than that? There’s really not a good thesarus for the game. I don’t know what else to suggest on that front.

1) “Mat” – A lazy abbreviation for Materials. “I need a lot of Mats to make this item.”

2) Boon – The official name for a beneficial “buff” in this game. Basically it covers any kind of positive effect that has a duration. Boons show up in the lower right corner of your game UI screen. (See the Wiki for a full list of the various Boon effects.)

3) Condition – This is the opposite of a Boon. These are negative effects which either cause Damage Over Time (aks “dot” in MMO speak) or some kind of non-damaging peanlty to your character. Like Boons, they have their own row in the lower right corner of your UI. (See the Wiki for a full list of the various Condition effects.)

4) Combo – There are game abilities which create Fields that last for a few seconds. These Fields will have their type associated with the power that caused the Field to exist. (For example, a Thief that creates a blinding cloud of smoke leaves behind a Smoke Field. Etc etc.) Once a Field is in place, any player can use specific categories of effects to interact with the Field for free effects. To get a full explaination and a comprehensive list of the Combo Field results, search on the GW2 Wiki using the word “Combo”. (“Combo Field” causes the search engine to give the wrong results for some reason.)

Raf.1078:

Circus storyline is a hoot

What’s even more entertaining is that after playing a Human with the circus story, I found a small cross over in one of the Asura story lines where it mentioned them inventing a Grizwhirl for a contest.

Each of the x3 social backgrounds (aka Commoner, Merchant, Noble) have different story lines. You may interact with some of the same leadership people in the city, but the general NPCs and story line are different.

The same goes for your “regret” choice. Picking a childhood wish about joining the carnival will produce a specific story line, regardless of your social standing. This would also apply to the other choices like losing a family member to centaurs. Make sure that you pick different choices for both of these categories and you’ll be fine.

There are specs which make you act as a pseudo-healer, but there is no dedicated class.

For example, a 70+ Warrion using a Healing Shout spec and a full set of Superior Rune of the Soldier to give solid group healing and Condition removal. That doesn’t even take your weapon choices into consideration. For a class which has a reputation as a beat stick profession, that’s a nice option.

Then you’ve got the Spirit summoned pet line for Rangers. If you’re devoted to that line, you’ve got some nice support.

Or a healing and group buffing focus on an Engineer is another viable choice.

Elementalists focusing on Water Field effects and using lots of Blast descriptor attacks to trigger AoE heals off of the field can be extremely powerful.

Even Guardians can do some nice healing with the proper weapon, skill, and trait choices.

I could go on and on, but you should get the picture. While there isn’t a “true healer” in this game, there are many different classes who can cover the aspects of that role. You can help your group avoid damage by granting AoE Protection and Vigor buffs (or Blinding trash mobs). Or you can remove their Conditions, which cover both damage dots and various debuffs. Then as a last resort, you can physically heal them with AoE healing abilities.

The drop rates for Butter may be lower, but it’s still essentially the same problems. People who need Cloth and Leather component pieces still have a worse chance of seeing them from the loot bags, which is a big deal since you can’t just harvest these things. At the same time, it’s a royal pain for crafters to get access to Butter in the long term. Yes, you could always buy it off of the BLTC. However you’ll also be held hostage by the current whims of the BLTC market, which makes me rather jumpy.

There are known Bug threads on these forums that state that certain AoE range skills are incorrectly reduced for Asura players. You might want to hunt for those threads if that’s a worry to you.

Having said that, I love my Asura Warrior. The unique animations are so much fun. Intead of just drop kicking an enemy away from me, I instead do a double footed jump kick to their chest and back flip away as they go flying. It’s just incredible to see and feel the difference with the unque Asura animations. Even their unique flipping jump animation for the Dodge rolls is great. Flipping dodges show me exactly when my Dodge will end, which has really helped things out.

If you like WvW and you’re on one of the few WvW dominant servers, then that’s the best route. PvP is easier if you’re on one of the weaker WvW servers, but you have to rely on your teammates for the +Influence. Or you can just grind Dynamic Events in the starter zones since you’re getting +2 Influence for any DE (regardless of its level).

You also used to get +10 Influence per character logged in (per day). However it looks like things have been adjusted to +10 Influence per account logged in (per day).

While you can solo level a guild, it’ll take a long time. I’m in a x3 person guild, so we’re actually making decent time (all things considered). However a x1 person guild would really just take forever.