Guild Wars 2

Necrotize.2974:

While in Heart of the Mists, there should be two little icons in the top center of your screen. One that looks like the PvP icon(crossed swords) and another that looks like a helmet. Click the helmet and it should take you to your PvP build tab where you can change traits, amulets, runes and sigils.

The helmet is on the left side of the double crossed swords?
It says it will be unlocked at lvl 31.
Is that the one?

Or do you mean a helmet on the map?

I was told that for pvp, you can unlock heart of the mist at lvl 3 and than become instant lvl 80 in pvp zones.

That I managed.

I also read that you have access to all the pvp gear and that there are a few sigils, runes and amulets that you need to unlock once per account with gold, but that everything else is accessible right off the bat (free?).

The only vendors I found were right after the training zone.
They sell some stuff like weapons for 64 copper and such.

Can someone direct me a bit to how to gear something for pvp?
Where can I get all the right stuff?

Is the guardian role unique among the professions?

For example, the elementalist and the engineer, kinda fill the same role right?

The things that a guardian is wanted for in pvp and pve, some other class cant fill right?
Can some other class fill that role?
Can the new one, the revenant, fill that role?

Do groups really want to roll with a guardian in pvp or pve or you can do fine without?

Arewn.2368:

CD673141-975B-42E9-8500-F0FEFF861A7D:

Since I did not notice anyone addressing stats on gear, allow me to try:

Power: Power increases all direct damage inflicted by the character.

Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance.

Toughness: Toughness decreases the amount of incoming damage suffered by the character.

Vitality: Vitality increases maximum health.

Condition Damage: Condition Damage improves the damage done by the conditions bleeding, burning, confusion, poison, and torment.

Condition Duration: Condition Duration improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character.

Ferocity: Ferocity improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes.

Healing Power: Healing Power improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals.

Hopefully I’m not oversimplifying this, if so I’m sure someone will correct me.

Just a few oddities to mention about toughness:
Toughness increases your “Armor” stat.
Your head, shoulder, chest, hand, leg, foot, and shield gear pieces have a “Defense” value on them, which also increases your “Armor” stat.

Armor decreases damage taken by a percent based on this formula:
Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)
However damage inflicted by conditions DOES NOT get reduced by armor (nor by damage reducing effects such as Protection).
In other words, condition damage ignores armor.

Thanks.

So even stuff like ~-30% dmg reduction protection buffs get ignored by bleeds, burns and such? They just go through it?
So the ~-30% dmg reduction protection buffs only help vs direct dmg??

Mattmatt.4962:

In fact its TRIPLE negative, you forgot the huuuuuge casting time that cries to get interrupted

Overload is triple cost for … well i should say no reward, but in fact its even worse since you heal less, dps less, cc less than if you were not overloading XD

PS: soon moved to ele’s sub forum because reason

Yeah so you get to much negatives, for very little reward. You get more negative than reward, making it not worth it right?

They should make it so that your attunement cooldowns decrease, rather than increase if you go for overload.
This would give an addtional reward and remove one negative.
Maybe decrease casttimes as a reward too?

Anyway, they should make it so, that it becomes a useful and rewarding option to go for.

Currently it seems to hurt you more than it does good right?

Bob F It.5701:

Yashuoa.9527:

Dilligaf Wyt.1867:

Taking the hit for your ally will work unless the ranger has pierce. In which case both of you are getting hit.

Yeah some abilities can pierce, but most dont right?
Engineer has a pierce shot too I believe.

Traited ranger LB pierces (I use it because of this very tactic of meatshielding), so to protect your teammate you would need to negate the projectile (block, reflect or invulnerable).

Regarding homing projectiles, most cases projectiles fly in a straight line of arc determined at he time of firing, typically with he angle of the shot leading any movement; any bending you see is lag correcting what your client drew to what the server is doing.

Traited ranger LB (longbow?) pierces on all his shots?

So as it stands right now in the BETA, staying a while in a certain attunement, gives you overload spells of that specific attunement.
However, your attunement cooldown will increase too when going for this overload.

Isnt this double negative?

It is already not very convenient to stay longer in an attunement than you want (when important spells are on cooldown already for example and you need to stay in longer after that).
However, you will want to stay longer in it, due to being rewarded with overload,
but than you get punished, by having a longer attunement cooldown.

Shouldnt that attunement cooldown just remain the same and not increase?
Or should it maybe decrease, rather than increase? As a reward for staying longer in the attunement?

Xiahou Mao.9701:

Retaliation doesn’t actually reflect damage, it just inflicts a set amount of damage based on your own Power stat whenever an enemy inflicts damage on you. The incoming attack might do 100 damage, or it might do 5000 damage, but Retaliation will always inflict the same return damage on the attacker.

As such, if you block an attack, you don’t take damage, and thus Retaliation won’t trigger.

Okay so if block and retaliation are both up, than you will block the first attack and retaliation will happen on the second attack?

Danikat.8537:

Yashuoa.9527:

So basically your profession character choice is a pve choice?
Lvling to 80 can take a while, so choosing a profession to lvl is something you want to do carefully.

However for pvp, you can create any class you want and nearly start right away as a maxed out character?
So you can switch around in pvp as you please. So a character choice doesnt matter much in there right, because you can switch to a different profession if you dislike it.

Correct?

p.s.

Sorry I am still mixing up the words profession and class sometimes.

You’re basically right.

You still have to choose a profession for PvP, and you’ll be limited to to that professions skills and traits. You also can’t change profession so to use a different one you’ll have to make a whole new character.

But yes, you can create a brand new character, go to the Heart of the Mists and start playing right away without having to level up or get new equipment first.

But even in PvE you don’t need to worry too much. Levelling is faster than many MMOs and there are ways to speed it up so it’s quicker than the estimates above. So it’s not a huge problem if you do decide you want a different profession.

You say regarding pvp: ‘’You also can’t change profession so to use a different one you’ll have to make a whole new character’’.
Making a whole new character is basically the same as changing professions to a new one right? While keeping your previous character(s) if you have enough character slots.

So if a block and a retaliation are active at the same time and the block will block one attack, than the first hit you take both blocks and reflects?

Dilligaf Wyt.1867:

Taking the hit for your ally will work unless the ranger has pierce. In which case both of you are getting hit.

Yeah some abilities can pierce, but most dont right?
Engineer has a pierce shot too I believe.

So basically your profession character choice is a pve choice?
Lvling to 80 can take a while, so choosing a profession to lvl is something you want to do carefully.

However for pvp, you can create any class you want and nearly start right away as a maxed out character?
So you can switch around in pvp as you please. So a character choice doesnt matter much in there right, because you can switch to a different profession if you dislike it.

Correct?

p.s.

Sorry I am still mixing up the words profession and class sometimes.

Behellagh.1468:

Casually, 1-1.5 hours per level once out of the growth spurt when you first create your character. Hardcore without the crafting short cut, I’ve heard 24 hours of game time to get to the cap.

In PvP everyone is level 80 by default with full access to all or nearly all traits and skills as well as choice of gear. PvP tests skill, not gear, they try to balance the play going even as far a making all animations and character size the same.

So you have access to everything in pvp once you enter heart of the mist?

Pvp is basically you can try all classes maxed out in abilities, gear etc. without having to go through some gearing or lvling process?

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Yashuoa.9527:

AdaephonDelat.3890:

There are no add-ons for the game although there may be an app for Overwolf or some overlay that will give the info.

Honestly I’d say it’s an experience thing. All of the status effects, conditions and buffs have obvious tell tale icons to help you identify what’s going on. These icons will appear just above your heal skill and across the top of that skill bar.

With regards to the reflects the tells are rather obvious. Wall of Reflection (the Guardian skill) conjures a glowing blue/white wall of light. Feedback (the Mesmer skill) conjures a solid purple dome.

Not all abilities are very clear though.

The guardian skill ‘’stand your ground’’ is just one short poof of a blue circle.

Through experience you will quickly notice the buffs on your enemies with their durations?
By recognizing the iconds?

That skill also has the audible tell of the Guardian shouting “Stand your ground!” but yeah you just need to pick up the icons. So stand your grand grants Stability (the little Pillar Icon) and Retaliation (the little Fist icon).

I meant for the enemy it can be hard to recognize when the guardian does stand your ground.
Not for the guardian himself.
Not sure if that was clear.

Belzebu.3912:

In PvP level doesn’t matter, if you enter the Heart of the Mists (PvP lobby) you’ll be lvl 80 automatically there.
I took about 2 months to get lvl 80 in my 1st character (when the game was released) but nowadays around 50 hours seems to be a reasonable time for a 1st character.

Thanks.

So about 50 hours in pve with the first character.
About how many hours for the second character?

In pvp the lvl doesnt matter, because you become insta lvl 80.
However gear matters right? You cant do well with just your starting gear upon character creation in pvp right?

How long does lvling to max lvl roughly take as in hours played?

If you lvl to 80 than you are lvl 80 in both pvp and pve?

Does the guardian have a gear hatpiece somewhere in the game that has the hoody look?
Like a chainmail hood or other hood?

Uden Reavstone.3426:

As for the leveling question, it depends on what you do and how much you do it. You get to max level in anywhere between a few minutes to a few years. If you want to max out really fast, there are guides all over the forums and YouTube. While I do know the fastest way to level, I don’t think you will have access to it. Good luck and I hope that helps.

A few years or a few minutes? 0_0
How can that difference be so big?

How will it turn into a few years? How does one lvl when it turns into that long?
How does it turn into a few minutes?
Or days/weeks in between?

Hi, once you activate the grenade kit, you will drop a grenade at your feet (with an internal cooldown).

Can you do something with this grenade or not?

It isnt clear to me what retaliation exactly does.

Lets say it says Retaliation for 6 seconds.
Does this disappear after one attack gets reflected back to its source?
Or does it continue to reflect till the 6 seconds are over (meaning all attacks during those 6 seconds)?

I couldnt really find out well from testing in heart of the mist vs those profession target dummies.

If you have block and retaliation active, does it block the first attack and retaliate the second one?

AdaephonDelat.3890:

There are no add-ons for the game although there may be an app for Overwolf or some overlay that will give the info.

Honestly I’d say it’s an experience thing. All of the status effects, conditions and buffs have obvious tell tale icons to help you identify what’s going on. These icons will appear just above your heal skill and across the top of that skill bar.

With regards to the reflects the tells are rather obvious. Wall of Reflection (the Guardian skill) conjures a glowing blue/white wall of light. Feedback (the Mesmer skill) conjures a solid purple dome.

Not all abilities are very clear though.

The guardian skill ‘’stand your ground’’ is just one short poof of a blue circle.

Through experience you will quickly notice the buffs on your enemies with their durations?
By recognizing the iconds?

Thanks.

Nice that in this game you can even protect someone by standing in front of them.

Makes me like the game even more.

I want to check if something is correct.

Can you take hits for someone?

Example:
Three targets.
Enemy ranger (X).
Teammate (Z).
Me (Y).

X the enemy ranger shoots an attack towards Z, my teammate.
However I am standing in the path of the ranger attack and thus in between the teammate and the enemy ranger. Will the ranger attack hit me, or go around me towards my teammate?

Another question.

Do projectiles home in?

Lets say someone shoots a projectile towards me.
It is flying towards me but before it hits me, I jump behind a rock.
Does it still hit me or does the rock take the hit?

Thanks.
Yeah I have been browsing through the wiki too.

This seems like a game that i will enjoy. If I can get to the point of choosing a profession that is xD.

However a new game also brings a new world and a new language.

With that I mean some things as a new player, feel as if you are reading a foreign language, because all sorts of words are used, that you dont know the gw2 meaning from yet. Figuring out how the game plays, trying to understand how things work sorta feels like translating.

So I am in the figuring stuff out stage atm, which can help in choosing a class.
Through wiki, vids, heart of the mist trying stuff out and such

and hopefully through some info and advice from the forums.

Does it take long to lvl a character?

Maybe I should just pick one, get to know the game with it and
than see if I would prefer to play a different profession or that it is the right one for my main.

Okay to have it clear,
it can remove 1 condition each pulse.
So you can cleanse 9 conditions from a teammate who stands in your flames?

Being new to this game I have some questions.

Professions have spells that give certain effects, like having x% dmg reduction for y seconds. Reflecting the next spell within y seconds.
Professions can apply blind on you that makes you miss with your next attack.

I find such things difficult to track. They are not very clear imo.
Is there some way to make this more clear? Like an addon or such?

Do I just have to become more experienced?
Will recognizing these things go smoothly once I gain more experience?

I am a new player to this game and choosing a profession isnt going really well.
Heart of Thorns (HoT) giving professions new spells has made this extra difficult for me.

I have made a few classes lvl 3 to test their weapons with different spells in heart of the mist. This has given me a better understanding of the game.
I have not checked out the talents yet and the stats on gear are still unclear to me too.

What I understand is that certain weapons fit better with each other due to the stats?

Basically I want to just start with a profession. I have this game for about 2 weeks already now and I still havent started yet lol. My little bro wants to start together and he will play warrior as his first character.

Main interest will be pvp.

I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.

I was thinking of going elementalist or maybe engineer as my first profession. Both would fit the above description the best right? Or some other class would fit more?

Which one would fit the description best?
What are the pros and cons?
Which would you recommend? Why?

p.s.

If a profession is hard to play I dont mind at all, as long as it is wanted.
I dont want to play something that no team wants, no matter how good you are because of the profession being in such a crap state.

Yashuoa.9527:

Nick.7621:

As an experienced engineer I’ve tried out the Marauder Rifle build, condi builds, and the Soldier Rifle build. I went back to Celestial a couple of days ago and I haven’t looked back. I’ve been able to beat all of the other engies that run Marauder Rifle, I have survivability because of Celestial Amulet, and because of the way the traits are set up now I do more damage than the last Celestial engi meta. Not to mention that if you use Mortar Kit it’s a whole lot more team oriented (combo fields and blast finishers). For example if I blast my Healing Turret with Elexir Shell and Orbital Strike that’s ~11k heal for my team. Blasting Healing Turret with Endothermic Shell gives my team a 10% damage reduction taken to them, and dropping Flash Shell is amazing for fighting on point with the blind outputs. Also if you go into Firearms and go bottom mid bottom the combination of High Caliber with Slick Shoes and grenades is amazing, not to mention that every 10 seconds when you crit you put out 2 stacks of burning which equate to just over 400 burn ticks for that extra DPS and the recharge reduction by 20% on rifle is amazing.

I am a new player. Could you explain to me how to do these combo’s with your healing turrent? Just shooting at it with the mentioned spells wont make it happen right?

Anyone?

Nick.7621:

As an experienced engineer I’ve tried out the Marauder Rifle build, condi builds, and the Soldier Rifle build. I went back to Celestial a couple of days ago and I haven’t looked back. I’ve been able to beat all of the other engies that run Marauder Rifle, I have survivability because of Celestial Amulet, and because of the way the traits are set up now I do more damage than the last Celestial engi meta. Not to mention that if you use Mortar Kit it’s a whole lot more team oriented (combo fields and blast finishers). For example if I blast my Healing Turret with Elexir Shell and Orbital Strike that’s ~11k heal for my team. Blasting Healing Turret with Endothermic Shell gives my team a 10% damage reduction taken to them, and dropping Flash Shell is amazing for fighting on point with the blind outputs. Also if you go into Firearms and go bottom mid bottom the combination of High Caliber with Slick Shoes and grenades is amazing, not to mention that every 10 seconds when you crit you put out 2 stacks of burning which equate to just over 400 burn ticks for that extra DPS and the recharge reduction by 20% on rifle is amazing.

I am a new player. Could you explain to me how to do these combo’s with your healing turrent? Just shooting at it with the mentioned spells wont make it happen right?

How does this work?
Does it cure 1 condition each pulse on everyone in the flame?
Does it cure all conditions each pulse?
One each pulse and all after the channel is done?

How does it cure?

Dahkeus.8243:

Frenk.5917:

Engineer is still good. The problem is that it is completely overshadowed by elementalist (if you consider the soldier build) or thief/mesmer (if you consider the marauder build).

To some extent, but engis can do what eles do almost as well while bringing superior CC.

Who brings superior cc? The Engi?

Cool, thanks for the info.

So there are no serious pvp builds with a shield?
I read about support guardian. Doesnt that one have a shield?

Could you recommend me any pvp vids/streams?
I would like to watch those to help me gain a better impression of the game as a new player. To see a bit what to expect from the various classes and their builds.

Your created lvl 1 characters have certain gear equiped.
Lets take for example the thief.
He has a hoodie.

Can I get this look for other leather characters by getting to lvl 6 and unlocking wardrobe? Or does that not work for the starter gear?

New player to guildswars here and normally I am not the one who plays the rogue/thief like profession, but omg, I just tryed it out with a lvl 3 in heart of the mists and omg its fun.

That mobility, shadowstep here, shadowstep there, stealth left and right. Daze attacks, stone/stun stuff, puul with a robe. I have never felt more like a rogue/thief like type.
You can even put down a shadowstep portal on a higher ground jump down, attack, and jump back up. So much fun. I like how being behind/the side of a target gives a different ability.

Trying out thief has made my profession choice even harder.
A few questions after all the enthusiasm.

Do you use a sword in your pvp build (weaponswap) for the infiltrator’s strike?
That ability makes me superduper happy.

I read how thiefs arent good in large scale fights but they have so much mobility and thus escapes. That should not make large scale fights hard right? You can pick targets out in all the chaos of a large scale fight. It could even be in your advantage.

When people talk about professions that are most difficult I read stuff like ele and engi.
Isnt thief the most difficult? To me it seems the profession with the biggest skillcap with all the options that you have with your positioning, timing, shadowsteps, dazing abilities and such. Right?

Does anyone know some recommendable pvp vids/streams of thiefs that I could watch?

Thief seems lot of fun in pvp to me with all their tricks vs real players but that might be different in pve vs npcs.

Do you find thief fun in pve too?
Why?

Thanks.

Conjure weapon spells.
Are they wanted in ele builds?
Like in pvp or pve?
Which parts of pve or pve?

They seem like fun because they give extra spells but you are stuck in those spells or lose the ability if you swap to other spells of yours.

I was wondering how useful these conjure weapon spells are.

savacli.8172:

Those are really broad questions to ask as ‘support’ can be defined in many different ways.

Generally, support will run into three different categories:

-Offensive
-Defensive
-Utility

Offense and defense are fairly straight forward. The first is concerned about aiding allies deal as much damage as possible while the latter focuses on mitigating (if not preventing) damage.

Utility support is more or less the catch-all of the rest of the type of support skills such as portals, stealth, etc.

What exactly do you mean by support?

I like to be wanted in terms of protecting people.
Think of things like pulling a target from or to someone, stopping/lowering/reflecting dmg, healing, removing dangerous stuff from people, stun/knock/rooting, . Things like that.

I dont mind being able to give dmg buffs, stealth and speed increases and such, but those are not on top of my wanted list.

I guess when groups look for support professions I am curious who they usually want to pick. Maybe I should have reworded it like that?

What kind of support is wanted? Which professions and weapons?
Than I can see if I would like to play that.

Okay I am a new player and I am trying out guardian in lvl 3 heart of the mist.

I have some questions.

Does Scepter shield + swap weapon 2h sword work in serious pvp?

I love the ranged stuff from the scepter and the domes from the shield.
I also love the pull that the 2h sword gives.

Does this weapon combo work well in serious pvp?

Which profession do you consider the most fun gameplay wise in pvp?
Why do you consider this so?

I am curious to the various or similar views of people.

Who is the best support class in pvp?

Who is the best support class in pve?

Shaogin.2679:

Go to your home city, take the portal to Lion’s Arch, then take the portal to Heart of the Mists. That will allow you to test out these classes at level 80 with all skills and traits unlocked.

That is the same as becoming lvl 3, and than using those swords on the top of the screen to go to the pvp lobby and heart of the mist?
Because I did that (before I made this thread), but I find it still difficult to choose, so therefore this thread.

I am a new player so I am still figuring out how the professions and this game work.
Also the language like boons and such. I am getting into that.

Also, check out MetaBattle.com for builds to start you off with, then customize for your own play style.

I will.

Siobhan.3582:

you run burn or medi guard.. marauder amulet … you do not need a video.. medi is simple and works well

I am new to this game and still figuring out who my first profession and main will be.

So for me its useful to see footage, because I am trying to get the right impression of the game and its professions.

Thanks both of you.

Please keep the replies coming people (also meaning new posters).
The more the merrier.

I like to play something who can support his teammates well with stuff like cc, heals, other forms of protection and utility, that kind of stuff.
Preferably while having some ranged attacks, with good mobility and survival cooldowns to stay alive. I dont like the warrior/juggernaught tank type, who can soak up a lot of dmg. I prefer the sqhuishy type who has to use mobility, has to time his abilities skillful and use survival cooldowns to stay alive

Ele, Engi and Guardian fit that the most right?
Engi and Guardian do well in pvp too?

as for elementalist the longer you play it the sooner you realize it has similar rotation over and over again which can get boring.

Yeah I kinda worried about that from watching some footage from elementalists.

As if you are forced to rotate your attunements in a certain way to do the right job rather than that you can choose when you want to go to certain spells in certain attunements. This is correct?

But, of course, the best you can do is go test them

I lvled them to lvl 3 to test out a bit in the training zone, but I still felt I could use some help, so therefore I made this thread.

I would like to watch one to get a better impression about how guardian pvp looks like. or maybe read about it.

Elementalist.
Engineer.
Guardian.

Could you tell the pros and cons in pvp for these profession?
Could you describe a bit how they play out in pvp?

I am a new player and I am stuck between these three for choosing my first profession and main.

I hope to receive a better impression from these three through your help,
which will help in making my decision.

My younger bro will make a warrior.
Does one of these three work better with a warrior than the other two?

I am hoping to receive some guidance from you experienced players.

Btw if you feel the class I am looking for is not among these 3, than feel free to name the one you thinks fits the descriptions.

Are there any around of guardian play?
If so, could you please list a few?

Ele or Engi.

I am a new player and I am currently stuck between those.
Hopefully you can give me a bit of guidance.

What I like in a profession is mobility, utility, skill based spells that you have to time to survive, having a few ranged attacks.
I prefer being sorta base squishy (if my survival spells are not availaible), but still having good survival through mobility and survival spells that I can time well when I my survival spells ready. Using them wisely.
Sorta the opposit of being a warrior and juggernaught/tank like types in games I guess who can take quite a beating as base.

I like being useful and wanted for a group and having spells to help a group like peels, pulls, knocks, cc, heals, other useful utility like cleanses, other protection spells for teammates and me, buffs, some of that kind of stuff).

I am also considering Guardian.
Seems cool with all their abilities to protect people and it would allow me to experience weapon swap (seeing how Ele and Engi cant do that, but they have other stuff).

How good are Ele, Engi and Guardian in pvp?
I dont need to be the top strongest profession or anything but I dont want to be a profession that is in a rock bottom free hk state either.
If the profession does good as long as I play well and well with others, than I am satisfied.

My younger bro will play a warrior. I thought lets add that in case that would play a part in giving me advice on my first profession. We will often be together, so if something synergizes well with him, would be nice too.

I might eventually make all 3 (ele, engi, guardian), but I want to choose a main first to focus on.

Main focus in the game will be trying to do serious pvp (all forms probably, both large and small scale)

Any recommendable pvp vids from these classes are welcome too.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the answer.