Guild Wars 2

I actually used dagger/pistol for much of my PVE the first time through on thief. It allowed for a lot of mobility in closing the gap to targets, as well as protection from #5 blindness.

I was using that thief for both PVE and WvW and just recently decided a build that works for both isn’t focused enough for either. So I’m dedicating that player to PVE/Dungeons.

I’m leveling a 2nd thief now. I decided to go P/P-SB for my two weapon sets (fully ranged) and full glass cannon while leveling. I dedicated 10 gold to this character to start with, so maybe this isn’t the best option for you if you’re perpetually poor.

I’ve been upgrading to masterwork at normal intervals (14, 20, 26, etc), and eventually ascalon armor since I have a ton of tokens, and rare weapons once I get to that level.

Between loot and map completions I’ve managed to not spend that much so far. Crafted armor at low to mid levels is being sold under cost and is pretty cheap.

Once I get 80 I’ll switch it up and go with a condition build instead of glass cannon but getting there will be faster as a ranged cannon I think.

I have a feeling doing it this way will be very fast/efficient.

So yeah, I’d go Pistol/Pistol for single targets with shortbow as weapon swap to decimate multiple targets with cluster bombs (aimed at my feet while standing near enough to enemies – that way no travel time for the bombs).

You really should learn all weapon skills though if you haven’t already. What I decided to do isn’t what’s best for everyone. Each has their own style of play. So try it like I suggested but try it other ways too to find what works best for you.

Deathspike.1870:

In PvE the thief is pretty boring to level, and pretty weak. I used pistol/dagger to spam blinds and have a semi-easy level experience. The thief really becomes strong at 80 with all traits and gear, before that, he’s useless.

pistol/pistol – shortbow in pve is incredibly powerful. All out glass cannon on map completions, get bloodlust up, upgrade armor to at least masterwork at decent intervals (cheap route), and weapons to rares (still relatively cheap).

Two more more targets, shortbow just decimates them; auto attack as you close the gap then cluster bomb at your feet so there’s almost no “air” time. Single target p/p autoattack two or three times while they close the gap, unload on them, dodge back, repeat (if necessary, most likely not in most cases).

Just using map completions/events to level using this technique you should get to 80 within about 40 to 50 hours of gameplay and maybe 3 to 6 gold (probably less – loot easily makes up for costs of masterwork armor, and quite a bit of rare armor/weapons).

I’ve leveled ranger, mesmer, guardian, and thief to 80 and thief was by far the fastest.

I was running D/D-SB in dungeons a lot, but wasn’t running glass cannon. Then came fotm level 10+ and I realized it wasn’t a viable option any more. So I toyed with my build a bit. I’m up to fotm 31 (don’t have a desire to push further).

I almost exclusively use p/p-SB now. Aside from sun/moon unfused rings, and karka (3 total trinket slots), I’m running full berserker and 0 30 30 10 0 traits. Because I have to worry less about my survivability in gear I feel I’m doing more damage output single or multiple targets.

Also, P/P is HUGE sustain with 66% chance to steal life on crit.

Compared to the vast majority of my parties I’ve been in, I’m staying healthier and putting out more DPS (sustained DPS as well as burst) because I worry less about positioning and can just strafe-fire. I use heal/invis and refuge as my other invis option. Auto-attack from each makes up for cast time while getting lower on agro so I can keep sustaining DPS. Obviously for tough fights I’ll save refuge to aid my party, but in all other situations it’s more beneficial to just use it to regain init and for the auto-attack burst.

I’m to the point that I’m considering going full glass cannon as far as traits and keeping my gear setup the way it is. For sigils, I’m using bloodlust on my shortbow, and 5% crit chance on each pistol. I’m using power/precision/MF orbs in all armor slots and 3 trinkets.

Maybe I’m delusional, but I think a thief’s role in a dungeon party is selective bursting (taking out higher damage dealers asap), as well as not taking agro off tankier classes (as well as keeping agro off other high damage / lower survivability classes). I feel I’m doing my job very well. I’ve had plenty of compliments and zero complaints. Of course the ability to bypass annoying/difficult/non-rewarding content is helpful too.

I still like my daggers in WvW though which is what’s kept me from retraiting for so long.

I’m at the point that I’m also considering making a thief alt so I’ll have my cannon for dungeons which I’m very comfortable with and a condition thief for WvW. I don’t want to deal with multiple armor/weapon sets and trait changes often.

I’m up to level 31 on my thief and groups love me. The problem I think with thieves is too many think they can glass cannon AND melee. Thieves can melee up to about level 10 but then they’re just too squishy unless they’re playing bunker in which case they’re not being much damage or utility. Also, I see so few cannons using lifesteal food it pisses me off. Pisses me off even more when I see them using MF food and being downed or dead half the time.

Using P/P – SB, a 0 30 30 10 0 build, and berserker gear (for the most part) along with lifesteal food, I sustain my own life quite fine, do excellent DPS to single and multiple targets, and save refuge to get people who are taking too much damage off agro or to revive (which wouldn’t be needed if cannons would learn to be self sustaining).

The only difficulty I have is on cliffside in groups where people are afraid of the hammer so I have to step up. It’s hard to sustain life via food when swinging a slow hammer, getting vuln stacks, AND being in melee.

Mirta.5029:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

how will the new system affect economy? Is it possible that whites and blues are profitable to sell for low level people only because some people are trying to abuse the “Agent of Entropy” achievement? Also another question – why is the monthly only give you 10 times the daily when it’s so much harder to complete?

It’s not that much harder. I completed this month’s monthly on day 2. I probably could have completed it on day one had I realized it was based on discovery of jumping puzzles, not completion. Previous months were harder though, I concur.

I actually wished the reward added something bonus beyond coins and jugs. Now it seems I’m getting that wish. Thanks devs/anet!

I’ve got to say I’m very impressed with your teamwork and communication. Very well played

If each try gives a 33% chance, out of 8 tries, there’s roughly a 11% chance of getting none. It’s not that surprising. I do 30 at a time. I’ve had bad streaks and good. I’ve gotten 10 in a row without a clover and ended up with 7 out of 30. I’ve also ended up with 13 out of 30. The total is still 20/60 which is 33% (33.33333…)

You can also try rampager gear (power/precision/condition) depending on what you plan to fight. It’s less defensive and a hybrid between a crit build and condition build. Since precision is the primary attribute on the armor set, lifesteal food (66% chance to steal 320 health when you crit) makes up for the loss of defenses. Compared to Carrion armor, your damage per hit would go up from crits, but your condition damage wouldn’t be as good. Condition damage is the primary attribute of Carrion armor.

I wouldn’t suggest this for pvp or wvw though. You’d be too squishy and burst damage from players would be too much to handle effectively. I could be wrong though I’ve never tried it.

I’m actually considering it though, especially for a PVE set.

What’s the activation time on cluster bomb again? Isn’t it more or less determine by flight distance? How are you coming to a conclusion, by assuming a shot directly at your standing location? Even at your standing location there is a flight time to consider.

If that’s the case you must be using a tanky build, because if your factor of DPS is true damage over time it implies you’re damaging foes right from the start instead of waiting for other group members to get attacked first. So if you’re tanky, your DPS is lacking right there. If you’re a glass cannon, this strat doesn’t work. You’d get targeted down or have to dodge out/invis/heal which is time you’re not doing damage.

On the flip side, you can start doing damage with p/p without much worry about position and much less stress on survivability – especially with lifesteal food.

Additionally between the two weapon options, invis to clear agro is downtime for shortbow. But it’s not so for p/p because your’e first auto-attack out of stealth is a burst of shots – the time you lose going invis is more than made up.

If it’s a single target available and against champions, I’ll use P/P over SB any day for damage output.

say goodbye to fun?

That’s really open to personal views of fun.

Fun to me in a multiplayer game is playing with other people. Admittedly though I solo’d all the way to 80 for the most part on 4 characters – mostly because it was easy for me. There were areas, events, tasks, skill challenges, etc. that were hard at first. If I die, I’d return and pay more attention instead of rushing in. or maybe I’d go elsewhere and come back when I gained a level or five. Sometimes I’d decide to wait ’til I was a level which could equip some better gear.

Fun to me is also finding content that’s a challenge to overcome. I’ve “been there, done that” (world completion title), so I’ve obviously overcome most things.

Fun is also helping others. If someone on a map is asking for help and I’m not bogged down, I’ll gladly help them. If they ask for advice I’ll give it. That same goes for my guild.

The game isn’t as interesting and new to me any more. But even after getting four level 80s, getting them all in exotics/ascended (some with multiple armor sets), and working towards a legendary, I’m still having fun.

So my suggestion to you and anyone else not having fun: If you don’t enjoy a game, you’re not required to play it. Readjust your point of view on the game, your playstyle, whatever – and retry the game. Alternately you could take a break from it and come back in a week or month or two. Another option is to uninstall and never look back.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

For jumping puzzles I just went down the list one by one. I entered the name of the achievement in youtube to find the start of the jumping puzzles. Then I tried it without the video. Ones I couldn’t figure out I continued watching the video.

At some point I was going to do diving a similar way – just look up locations and go to each one. Now that I’ve done 100% world completion I imagine it would be sort of fast – though in both cases (jp and diving), waypoint costs add up.

Also a cheap route compared to some of the better runes to put in armor is to just put orbs in them. Right now on one of my armor sets for my thief I have 6 orbs that give power/precision/magic find. I forget the name of the orb but you can look at orbs in your material collection at any crafting station of course.

Ascalon Catacombs dungeon is probably the most popular way to get your starter set of exotic armor. Look at Lion’s arch, at the southern most area that’s walled in. There’s a repair guy next to a waypoint. Just west of there is a row of merchants. Each merchant has exotics you can buy with tokens gotten through dungeons.

AC is a level 35 dungeon with a pretty low difficulty in my opinion. It takes some learning of course, but if you have friends/guildies, see if they’ll teach you the ropes. Daily you can get 180+ tokens there. With those, every two days or so you can get a piece of exotic armor. Also you’ll get items to sell, mats, silver, and the like.

With a group that knows what they’re doing, an hour is REALLY easy to finish all 3 exploration paths. Most groups are much faster than that.

And of course there’s karma armor at the temples in Orr. They’re costly karma wise but it’s another non-gold way of getting armor. Someone mentioned saving jugs and getting a karma booster. Go beyond that though if you can. You can boost karma with 4 things at the same time – karma booster, guild bonus (if you’re in a guild and they run the bonus), guild banner (found around Lion’s Arch and often in front of the karma merchants), and food (any ice cream I think, it’s been a while). if I remember right, with those four bonuses each jug is close to 8000 karma.

In dungeons, especially fotm higher levels, I find ranged much better. So I run pistol/pistol and shortbow. in fact in fotm the only time I use daggers is the jade maw fractal.

Single target P/P is really nice. But just plain autoattacks with shortbow against more than one is about 3-5k damage per shot, sometimes more depending on might stacks. I’m running 0 30 30 10 0 for traits and pretty glassy armor.

As for hang time on cluster bomb, try shooting at your feet while on the move once. You can just keep moving and CB when you’re at a location with a decent amount of mobs and the total AOE damage output is quite good.

As for world vs world, I find shortbow only useful bombing people up on walls, or from walls … and if you’re trying to get your kill count up by tagging enemies in zerg vs zerg. Other than that, shortbow just doesn’t cut it for my taste.

Maniac.5163:

For the KH thief at Ruins in FA BL.. you know who you are.
You rendered just in time to bow at me after pretty much 1 hitting me.. then walked off and let me get back up from downed. Well played sir. I don’t know how you were stealthed that long and then a heartseeker with that much damage on my toughness? Must be a bugged combat log or something, surely. I was downed before I could even hit evade – see combat log for damage output.
brb rerolling thief

I’m not the thief in question but I’m guessing he stacked might via signets and/or dodge rolling. I assume you know but heartseeker does more damage the less health you have so I’m guessing you were under half when that big HS hit you. I imagine he maxed crit damage too. Even considering that, that’s a pretty big HS hit considering your armor.

Yup and it didn’t take long. Sorry I missed the fact that there was a suggestion thread. Thanks for pointing that out.

I played GW1 up to the first expansion. Comparing that to this, I’ve enjoyed GW2 more. People have to remember, GW1 evolved over time to what it is now. GW2 hasn’t even had a major content update, lot alone an expansion…

1. I’d like to see more reasons for people to party up. I’d like to see a form of party bonuses. It doesn’t have to be huge, but I think each profession could bring a bonus to the party. IE. Thief brings gold find bonus, Elementalist brings magic find bonus, Mesmer: cool-downs, Warrior: power, Guardian: armor, Necromancer: regeneration, Ranger: movement speed, Engineer: precision? Whatever the bonuses are, they’re applied to all party members within a certain range of each other. These bonuses could just simply be innate, or gained via traits, or a completely separate form of alternate advancement (something new to spend skill points, training, whatever in)

2. Rewards scaling better to risk. There’s an overabundance of complaints on this subject, and it speaks for itself.

3. Epic events: Events that span multiple maps, cities, dungeons, etc. This would get people to visit maps that are much less populated, but only if the reward(s) for doing them are either valuable or unique – perhaps even a new resource beyond skill points, karma, tokens, etc to spend – like “fame”. Fame could be spent at many world locations for varying prizes, and additional could be an indicator of simple personal fame, guild fame, and even server fame. This could be taken a step further with Fame and Infamy, depending on choices the person/party/guild makes.

4. Alternate advancement in general: Obviously Everquest did this, as well as hellgate:global, and I’m sure many others. Once a character reaches level 80, experience just isn’t that important aside from getting skill points to complete a legendary – which the majority of players aren’t trying to get – at least not yet. I’d like to see experience matter beyond 80… especially if it can bring more diversity to builds, appearance, and playstyles in general.

5. Quality content: I don’t want to get down on developers because I think generally speaking they’ve done a fantastic job with GW2 thus far. But content like Sea of Sorrows – sorry but it’s worse than Orr as far as how many players actively spend time there. For a relatively new level 80 map, that doesn’t seem right to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a big beautiful map. I absolutely love the design. But what are people to do there really? This is an example of quantity content. It’s big and beautiful, but the quality aspect (reason for people to go there) is just lacking.

6. WvW ranks: Commander is it right now. I’d like to see a tiered ranking system with different abilities in each. Watchman/Intelligence officer, Armsmaster, Engineer, Siegemaster, Special Ops, Captain/Commander, General, Admiral? Perhaps not in line with the current achievement system, but something similar to that to achieve these ranks, as well as reason to achieve them – abilities/bonuses/etc.

7. WvW aspects: There are some great tactics being deployed in WvW beyond just strength in numbers but zergs are the dominating factor right now. Maybe this shouldn’t be messed with or changed that much, but maybe it should/could. Obviously you change the world by controlling points and limiting access to the enemy. But I’d like to see change beyond that. Perhaps via tunneling and sabotage, terrain alteration based on where large scale battles take place, or even more changes/effects based on influence with indigenous populations. This could tie in with suggestion 6 obviously.

8. Guild instance: An instance a guild can purchase via influence, gold, FAME/INFAMY!, or other means – chosen from a list of possible maps. Each map can have a tiered/customizable keep, plots of customizable player housing/decoration, Hall of Monuments, Meeting Hall, etc etc etc… options to make the map or certain areas open to the public or upon invitation. I don’t know any guild or player that wouldn’t love this. The game is, afterall, called guild wars. Let the guilds and their members make a mark on the world! (even if it’s an instance and not part of the actual world). Obviously the map would have to be large enough to accomodate plots for the current max of 500 members in addition to other buildings, sites, parks/recreation, whatever you can think of that a guild can customize. Member assignment to plots can be determined by rank (possibly), or specifically assigned by leaders/administration of the guild. You could even go so far as to do the true guild vs guild – make it so challenges can be made, and guild can design their map’s defenses, etc. Whatever the case, give us a home and let our banners fly high!

That’s it for now. I may edit and change this, and I hope it wasn’t too tedious a read.

-Xenth

I know there are a lot of suggestions for future content and updates. I could probably post a response to one of those but decided to speak my mind in my own thread.

My background and experiences are somewhat irrelevant but here’s that info anyway;

I’m 39 and I’ve been gaming since I was 16. I’ve played SO many games I couldn’t begin to list them all here. The games that pop out in my mind as far as how long I played them and enjoyed them are; Might and Magic series, Diablo, Diablo II, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Empires II, and now Guild Wars II. I played Guild Wars among hundreds of other games but none that really lasted for me (mostly because in my “gaming” time I was busy with other titles at the time).

I’m a GW2 addict for sure, having recently hit 1000 hours played. My main is a thief, while I have three other level 80 alts – ranger, guardian, and mesmer. I’ve done world completion twice, done most dungeons/paths, world events, 3800 achievement points, and spent enough time in WvW to rack up 3500 kills. There’s nothing “new” for me in the game, yet I continue playing just simply because I enjoy it, especially hanging with my guild or just helping people in general.

I hope that doesn’t sound like bragging because it’s not. I’m not competing with others for stature. I just wanted to give a background so there’s an understanding that I’ve been around GW2 and gaming in general.

So, that said, here are some suggestions I feel would help the game going forward in increase enjoyment levels for all types of players.

edit: Message ended up beyond the 5001 character limit, so…

Gerke.7695:

Cool video, but what is your build and what gear do you use/runes? Since i see you do cewl dmg but yet you’ve got like 16k HP, SHOW ME YOUR SECRET!

Greets,

Gerke

The secret is selective targeting. Did you notice in the vid that the majority of targets were players scaled up to level 80. Others’ that were taking large damage were most likely glass cannons or not geared in exotics yet.

It’s still a pretty good video, and definitely a very skilled/experienced player playing the thief.

I’ve completed these maps on four characters, and didn’t find them particularly hard. I play with an awareness of my surroundings. That’s not to say that I sit and wait for an opportunity to pull mobs one by one or anything like that. Most of the time I just decide where I’m going next on a map, and head there killing things as I go.

I did this solo pretty much the whole time. I recall on one character someone asked for help with a skill point so I helped, then we grouped and did about 1/3 of the map together – that was much faster, and much much easier.

I guess I just don’t get where the complaints are coming from. But I’m entitled to my opinion. Maybe my tolerance level is just higher than some, just like I’m sure my playstyles are.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

So your guildy intentionally teased/insulted another player and was not capable of completing the required mechanics for the fight. Seems like these players did the right thing and kicked him.

Then you proceeded to kick them for no other reason then spite. You are in fact the one that should be reported and banned.

Spite? Sorry but kicking someone because of such a minor argument on the last stage of fotm is being spiteful. What’s the point of that? The repercussions were justified IMO.

Khairos.3890:

To those belittling the TC for loot:

Do you know why Diablo 2 (Not 3) was so successful and lasted as long as it did? Ultimately, it was the loot.

Loot is a universal element in all roleplaying games, and certain games excel at the loot game. There’s a certain psychological approach when it comes to obtaining loot, I suggest googling it and reading up on it. It’s certainly an interesting read. Just saying, those that are tossing the loot factor aside so easily are oversimplifying the primary concern.

This is one thing I don’t like about gw2. There are a few different skins but basically everything is available to everyone quit readily. There was a reason Everquest and Diablo II were games I played for years each. That really hard to get gear to improve your character(s) was a driving point that this game lacks. Also in EQs case, the sheer amount of content added and raiding aspects (with a great community and guild I might add) really kept people playing for a long time.

I didn’t play wow but I bet the same could be said for that as well.

GW2 is still a fun game, but rewards are so limited that people aren’t coming together as a community to do the tough stuff (not that there is much tough stuff).

Khairos.3890:

To those belittling the TC for loot:

Do you know why Diablo 2 (Not 3) was so successful and lasted as long as it did? Ultimately, it was the loot.

Loot is a universal element in all roleplaying games, and certain games excel at the loot game. There’s a certain psychological approach when it comes to obtaining loot, I suggest googling it and reading up on it. It’s certainly an interesting read. Just saying, those that are tossing the loot factor aside so easily are oversimplifying the primary concern.

This is one thing I don’t like about gw2. There are a few different skins but basically everything is available to everyone quit readily. There was a reason Everquest and Diablo II were games I played for years each. That really hard to get gear to improve your character(s) was a driving point that this game lacks. Also in EQs case, the sheer amount of content added and raiding aspects (with a great community and guild I might add) really kept people playing for a long time.

I didn’t play wow but I bet the same could be said for that as well.

GW2 is still a fun game, but rewards are so limited that people aren’t coming together as a community to do the tough stuff (not that there is much tough stuff).

I’m only on level 30 but I personally like dredge and grawl for loot.

I think the best advice I can give is this;

Learn where to stand/move, when to dodge, etc. Positioning matters a lot.

Learn not to be aggressive ALL the time. If a team member is down, it makes no sense to keep attacking the shaman so that more adds spawn. Two people with high(er) survivability can dodge/run interference while two others revive.

Adjust your build so you have more survivability. Heck I’m a pretty squishy thief with only 15k health and 2400 armor. But I use a crit build and P/P – SB combo. With 66% chance to lifesteal on crit, those weapon combos give me a LOT of health depending on if single target (p/p), or multiple targets (sb). I see so many players running glass cannon but not using lifesteal foods even though they have high crit chance.

As a thief I can duck out of combat/agro at will. I understand that. If my team is all good on health, I often do just that. If someone goes down, I’ll refuge them and let someone else revive while I go elsewhere and distract the shaman more often then not and we do just fine.

I can’t speak for other professions though. My mesmer and guardian are both only in low teens in fotm (they’re alts, not my main so I haven’t focused on getting them further). I imagine a big role for guardians is to provide defensive buffs, regen, and condition removal to the party in ranged fights considering their range damage is sub-par at best.

I didn’t really do jumping puzzles until I got to 80, then I backtracked and did them all. Sure I tried them when I found them. Once I hit 80 I decided I wanted the achievements so I did them all. Some were annoying to the point I swore at my monitor at times. Others were really fun/interesting.

The way I see it, it’s bonus content.

Some people want fishing in the game which I’d see as pointless. Just like this, JP are pointless to some. If you don’t like it, don’t do it, I say.

Wanze.8410:

As someone already mentioned earlier, why would you like to get world completion, if you dont wvw?

The Star next to your name or the Title? Seems not much reward to me, for all the playing time you have to put into that.
Most likely, you would like to have the 2 Gifts of Exploration to craft your Legendaries.
But for that you also need 500 batches of honor which are only obtained in wvw. I am pretty sure it takes less time to get map completion in wvw than earning 500 batches.
I was also not amused when I realized that wvw maps are needed for it because i never done pvp in other mmo´s. But I had to go there anyways for my monthly and i spend more time there than I would have usually done. Now I like it very much and I am grateful that Anet forced me into it.

You are correct. It takes vastly more time to get 500 badges. I have 3200 player kills in wvw, and I just got my 4th stack of badges (1000 total). I’m guessing about 200 of those badges I got from jumping puzzles in wvw. So basically I got about 800 in the time it took to get 3200 kills.

Someone else mentioned world completion means everything which it doesn’t. You don’t need dungeons for example.

Another argument one might make is why do you need to complete your personal story to get world completion? Assuming you don’t cheat via a teleport bug, one of the POIs requires you to get to the level 77 quest in personal story. While that’s not “completion” of your personal story, it’s pretty close.

Why do you want world completion? For the achievement? For the reward?

The reward gets you one small part of a legendary weapon. But guess what, you also need 500 badges of honor from… WVW in order to complete a legendary.

Personally I think they should have included dungeons in world completion as well. But that’s not the point.

The real point is this: world completion, unless you’re going for legendary, is a small part of the game and not required. You get a title and a star by your name. Big deal.

If you don’t want to wvw, don’t.

I don’t want minis, so I’m not doing those achievements. I don’t want racial karma armor so I’m not doing those achievements.

Learn to live with what you’re willing to partake of in a game, or quit.

To clarify so newer people aren’t confused. The very top right of your screen is your personal story quest progress (this goes away once you complete all of your personal story). Anything under that is an event and only shows up if you’re close enough to the event.

Also, if you’re near an event, an orange symbol or circle will appear on your map.

Karolis.4261:

Xenth.2408:

I don’t like cannon style feeds but I’ve considered it lately. I’ve considered going bleed build with p/p (and shortbow as secondary for multi-targets) using rampager armor and earth sigils on both pistols.

auto attack from stealth with pistol already stacks decent bleed, followed up with an unload with high crit chance is a lot more bleed stacks. Using food that gives 66% chance to lifesteal on crit and bonus precision helps offset the glass factor quite a bit too.

Just one problem cowboy Unload does not stack bleeds. P/P is nota a viable condition weapon choise. P/D and D/D is.

Hence the earth sigils. Unload stacks plenty of bleed if you have a high crit chance while using earth sigils on both pistols. Attack from stealth = 5 stacks, followed up by two unloads with earth sigils = a lot more in a very short period of time. At least I imagine so. Like I said, I was considering it. I haven’t tried it out yet.

Edit;
Superior Sigil of Earth = 60% on critical: inflict bleeding (5 seconds). So say I have 70% crit chance. From two unloads, I’ll crit an average of 11.2 times. 60% of that is 6.72. Plus the 5 from the original attack from stealth would avearge … only 11 stacks of short duration bleed. Okay maybe not the greatest bleed option. By the time the 2nd unload finishes the first stacks of bleed from initial attack will be about worn off.

A couple weeks ago I decided to try p/p – sb combo in fotm when I get up there in level difficulty, to great success. After adjusting some gear and traits, I now d/d-p/p in wvw except when needed to aoe people on walls or from walls.

I’m quite happy with pistols.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far. I have 4 level 80 characters and I still love the game! I concur with you that the intiation into the game was great! I love the multiple options for starting areas and personal stories. You chose to find your sister was it? Well along your personal story you get more options beyond that the branch out into other quests/stories such as joining factions.

I too started with a human and just like you the giant worm was my first event. When I started there were a lot more players in the lower level areas and I think this increased my enjoyment of the game. I do “daily” stuff on a lower level character in queensdale (human starting area where you’re at) and I still see a lot of new players around the area, so hopefully you’ll get to enjoy helping others and being helped, grouping, and the like.

Mesmer was my 2nd character and I love them! They are very unique and quite powerful once you know how to play them well. They have a good number of viable options for how you build your character (what style armor to wear later on, what skills and traits to use, etc).

I won’t tell you how to play, that’s up to you to figure out. But I will say this: hit “H” to bring up your hero and in the skills / weapon skills tab you’ll see what weapons you can use. Try unlocking all skills on all of those weapon types, and learn your playstyle based on that. Don’t just stick with the scepter you started with. Different weapons means different playstyles as well, but you have to learn what’s best for you of course.

Enjoy GW2!

I switched from d/d-sb to p/p-sb once FotM became too much damage. I can tell you this, groups look down on thieves that are glass cannon and getting downed in melee whether in fotm or any other dungeon really.

But I was never glass cannon, and now that I’ve switched to full ranged (other than gearing daggers for things with reflect projectile), groups love me. The single target burst as well as sustained damage is so good with P/P, and between shortbow and daggerstorm, large groups melt pretty fast as well.

I have no traited power but use berserker armor for the most part with beryl orbs for the bonus crit damage and health. I also exclusively use foods with lifesteal and bonus precision. The sheer number of attacks/crits with these weapon sets combined with these foods is about 2/3 of my total healing.

More often than not I don’t need to use healing utility (6), but I do anyway to top off and because pistol auto attack from stealth is like a mini unload for more burst damage. I’ve also traited to regain init when using stealth skills which gives me more unload burst.

Heck I even shadow refuge often to get the init back and for the auto attack with pistol from stealth – only when I’m fairly confident in my groupmates not being downed in a fight. otherwise I save it to save them.

With this setup I stay off agro so that I can do max potential damage over time while not having to be protected or saved by groupmates.

I don’t like cannon style feeds but I’ve considered it lately. I’ve considered going bleed build with p/p (and shortbow as secondary for multi-targets) using rampager armor and earth sigils on both pistols.

auto attack from stealth with pistol already stacks decent bleed, followed up with an unload with high crit chance is a lot more bleed stacks. Using food that gives 66% chance to lifesteal on crit and bonus precision helps offset the glass factor quite a bit too.

I forget the exact line but while fighting Toxx doesn’t it say “do not resist, I am Toxx … ‘hic’” Britney Spears’ Toxic reference? I don’t know the exact lyrics ‘cause I’m not a Spears fan.

I had multiple threads up at the same time, and misread the title. Sorry about the “impossible” question. I’m still curious what percentage of health each tick of agony hits for. I guess I’ll just get there and find out.

Couldn’t agree more with Lordryux. mesmer was my 2nd 80, and my first for WVW. Thief was my 3rd 80, and Guardian my 4th.

The lack of movement on the mesmer after being spoiled as a thief basically keeps me from playing the mesmer as much as I enjoy it. To be honest though thief is my main for life in gw2 regardless. But mesmer could really use some movement love.

How much % health total do you drop from the agony? 160%, 240%? I assume you’re labelling it as impossible because of full agony wipes?

Only read through the first few replies before posting this so maybe others have mentioned all this;

Finding groups isn’t hard. you have three basic options: Go to Lion’s arch and start a group with a specific task or join one. Be in a decent sized guild and do the same, or go to gw2lfg.com for dungeon groups (pugs: pick up groups).

There are raids of a sort but other than world bosses which only a few are even done any more, it revolves around world vs world.

A lot of wvw is made up of random zergs following commanders (since you can see their tag on the map, they’re easy to follow). This is less tactical and more about power in numbers. On the other hand, some guilds/alliances use a “raid” style of play when it comes to wvw, assigning tasks to specific commanders, groups, or multiple groups.

An example of this is what happened last night on my server. A good portion of my guild kept a vast zerg busy (feigning an attack on a tower) away from our goal while another guild/group attacked that goal after a short delay (an enemy garrison). Meanwhile three seperate groups of players worked on supply (guarding caravans and getting them to keeps/towers faster), flipping supply camps.

outside of wvw/pvp, the end game content for me consists of mainly dungeons to get some armor skins / materials to save for my eventual legendary weapon / gold – plus doing fractals to gear 3 slots on each of my level 80 characters plus weapon skins / materials / gold – to see how far I can advance, and to have a stockpile of resources and ability to get further/more if/when other ascended gear comes along associated with fractals.

I also like to try to get achievements, so I’ve done all the jumping puzzles, crafting professions, and I’m working on “slayer”, “explorer”, etc in PVE plus achievements/titles in pvp/wvw.

Sometimes the end game content for me is just simply helping guild mates or new players or just BSing with people.

I have 4 level 80 characters, and I got to 80 in this order: Ranger, Mesmer, Thief, Guardian.

Of these, ranger brings the least to groups. They have good single target DPS for sure from range but that’s really it IMO.

On the other hand, thief has better single target and multiple target ranged damage and much better survivability. They’re also lacking on group utility other than bypassing content or easier reviving. I think their sustained DPS over time and burst DPS makes up for this, assuming the thief knows how to play well enough to stay alive. Thief is my favorite class to play in PVE, Dungeons, and WVW.

I like my mesmer but like my ranger I don’t play it much any more. Damage is pretty good, utility is excellent in that they basically make foe(s) miserable.

Guardian doesn’t match my playstyle well. Mine is a defensive/shout based build. And while I increase the survivability of my group tremendously, it’s just not as enjoyable to me.

So I guess thief is the best profession.

It’s just a matter of playstyle. In a group, a good thief helps kill things faster and can focus key opponents so things end up doing less damage overall. A guardian protects/regens a group and removes conditions so that a group lasts longer in fights.

Group I was in yesterday for level 20 daily got two (infused) rings, or at least two people linked them right after the daily chest reward. Not sure how helpful that is.

Shadow Refuge (thief) or portal (mesmer) work quite well for bombing the door. My main is a thief on level 21, my mesmer is on level 11. I’m not sure of other tactics since I haven’t thought about it since my groups use these tactics since I’m capable of both options.