Guild Wars 2

Usually Anet posts on twitter when there are tech problems.
So far nothing.

Usually Anet posts on twitter when there are tech problems.
So far nothing.

Same problem with Gunnar’s Hold, logging in from Italy

Ok, thanks OreoWolf!

Will check that out.

Hummm …
Well, here is he wiki page with the recipes using Vial of Condensed Mists

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vial_of_Condensed_Mists_Essence

Are not quivers and books back pieces?

I have been avoiding FotM since it was introduced, but recently began doing some runs.

During a lvl 2 run, I had a Vial of Condensed Mists Essence drop. Not knowing what this was, I checked wiki to discover it is a crafting component for ascended back pieces.

Looking at the recipes, all require a stack (250) of T6. mats. Given the current value of some of these mats, (250 = 50 to 60 gold) does anyone craft these back pieces?

Must say Ranger followed closely by Guardian, two completely different play styles, mind…

My main for many months was a power/crit Ranger – 1200+ hrs on her, however, not anymore. The quickness nerf in the last update was the last straw that killed the build. I re-specc’ed into a dual-bow cat master, more of a fun build for doing easy content like dailies and some dragon/world events.

Fortunately, I leveled a guardian back in January, and now consider this my main, This is my dungeon runner and does all the heavy lifting in Orr.

I created a Mesmer a few weeks ago, and cannot seem to get into this class yet. Terrible during early levels so speed-leveled 4 crafts to get past the awkward stages, now at lvl 56. Will try again, but much prefer my guardian than this.

I don’t profess to know everything about node re-spawn rates, but I have been harvesting in Orr for quite sometime.

I cannot recall ever seeing or harvesting an omnom node with a 6 or 8 hr spawn rate. Other nodes like ghost peppers, lotus, yes, but omnom, no. They have always been like the ori and ancient/orrian sapling nodes.

They only times I have harvested the same omnom node within 6 or 8 hrs was when a server reset occurred during that time period. This goes for the ori and ancient/orrian saplings as well.

Remember that after a server maintenance reset or update, the nodes can reappear in very close to where they were before. This is particularly so for 2 of the omnom nodes in Malchor’s, often they reappear in the exact same location.

I think the people claiming the 6 or 8 hrs re spawn rates for omnoms are forgetting this …

@Sebrent
That is your opinion ..

Rangers were of marginal use in dungeons and any serious PvE content long before the quickness nerf, That was why I created a guardian.

Whatever the time-up was on QZ, that nerf was enough to push power/crit rangers off the cliff.

Already had an 80 guardian in full exotics doing dungeons before the quickness nerf …

As for my ranger, I gave up on it ever going into a dungeon or doing serious content again. Regulated it to doing the easier dailies, dragon/world events and low-mid-level map node harvesting. You could say I ‘retired’ her to a life of leisure …

I re-specc’ed from 30/30/10/0/0 to a 0/15/10/15/30 dual bow cat master. Cat does more damage than I do, so it kills everything while I stand back and watch and swap weapons to keep fury and might up.

For trinkets, I would not waste ascended kit on a ranger, at least not until Anet gets around to properly fixing this class. If I ever get ascended, kit, it will be for my guardian.

My current ranger trinkets are also a mix of Knight and Valkyrie,with slotted Cleric jewels. Back piece is Soldier with Cleric crest

@TheMasahiro
For general PvE, the ranger runes are fine. I use them cos I already had them slotted in my Knight/Valkyrie armour and could not justify destroying them for other runes.

If you have the sigils of battle in both bows, you get more than enough might through weapon swaps, so you really don’t need Hoelbrak runes.

Ranger runes are expense, but if you have the gold, then go for them. If not, then go with Hoelbraks or the Melandru ruins for more condition/stun mitigation. both are cheaper than ranger runes.

@Chokolata
I am not convinced on the need for altruism runes.
Along with Cleric jewels/crest slotted in my accessories, both my bows are Cleric. My healing power is just over 600, and this seems to be enough for what I do with my ranger these days.

I have been running this build for 3 weeks now, mainly in PvE.

I was in WvW once to do a caravan disruption daily, and was fooling around trying to capture a supply depot using only the jaguar. The cat could take down 2 of the npc defenders on it’s own, but could not manage the other 2. While doing this, seems I attracted some attention from the enemy server.

I was caught by surprise by a solo ele. Once I realised the player was there, and began firing, the cat tore into the fight with devastating results. It did not end well for the ele…

I have been using 2 amour setups depending on what I am doing. Both armour sets I had before re-speccing to this build.

Set 1: PVT with runes of melandru.
This is for tougher, condition heavy encounters. I used this while running Arah story to complete my ranger PS.

Set 2: Knight/Valkyrie mix with runes of the ranger.
This is for general PvE farming, world events, etc. I find the added precision and crit damage from the ranger runes gives some much needed DPS, and the added 5% damage while having a pet is a nice bonus.

One of my favourite thing to do now is harass the grawl in Frostgorge, near where the Jormag event takes place. I stand well back then send the cat in to clear them out. All I do is weapon swap to keep stacks of might and fury up. It really is quite something to watch.

For the high-level nodes (ori, ancient/orrian sapling, omnom) they ‘re-charge’ every 24 hrs, when your server resets the daily. They should not move location, but this seems to happen in Malchor’s on occasion for some unknown reason.

Whenever there is server maintenance, or any other sort of server update, all the nodes change location in all the maps. Locations are random, but do follow a pattern.
This is at Anet’s whim and is not always once per week, sometimes this can be 2-3 times a week.

I presume you are looking for T5/T6 mats, yes?

Also,. you might want to consider your Slayer achievements as well while doing this.

Southsum is good for skelk (blood) and jellyfish (scales).
Frostgorge is good for jellyfish (scales).

If you just want to quickly kill a lot of fish or to use underwater weapons, then go to Gendarran Fields. Lots of water and very easy prey.

I had 2 pact tokens, used one to get the scepter for the skin. Not decided what to do with the other token, but yes, seems a shame to use only for salvaging.

Also, for the end of the personal story reward, a Pact rare is pretty crap, considering you get exotics for high-level map completions.

Malchor’s Leap has been acting odd lately. Sometime over Saturday night/Sunday morning (European time) the nodes reset in different locations. Only this map, Cursed Shore and Frostgorge Sound did not change.

This was happening a few weeks ago as well, almost on a daily basis – just Malchor’s Leap, not any of the other high-level maps.

EDIT: Just to add, I am on Gunnar’s Hold

@OP
Dungeons are not for low level players. If you want to do dungeons you need to look for a server with a lot of high-level players, not low-level players.

The level rating for entering a dungeon is not indicative of the dungeon difficulty. For example Ascalon Catacombs is listed as level 35 dungeon. In reality, this dungeon is more difficult than some of the 70+ dungeons. The only dungeon where you get auto-scaled to max-level (80) is Fractals. However this does not mean you get access to all the traits options of a true lvl 80 character, so you are still at a disadvantage.

Furthermore, you will not find many groups on http://www.gw2lfg.com/ wanting to take on a low-level players for any dungeon.

Concentrate first on leveling, building up your playing skills, and enjoying the PvE content. Stay away from dungeons until you are at a high enough level that you can enjoy the experience.

My two armour sets for my Norn guardian

Left: This my general event farming set, this is used the most
All draconic (crafted) except leggings are Heavy Plate (karma/WvW)
Dye: Black, Heirloom, Coco

Right: This is my dungeon set
Full temple set
Dye: Black, Heirloom, Patina

I really do not like this set, hate the spikes, and desperately want to find something to skin it with. I don’t like ‘skirts’, so unless I use the Heavy Plate leggings again, I am stuck.

And please don’t mention dungeon armour, I find all of the heavy armour horrible.

As a last resort, I still have the Slayer PS reward armour, and could use this with a chain chest from the TP. It has a ‘skirt’, but is not as and as others.

Also, I have Midnight Fire and Celestial dye sitting in my bank. Still not decided on activating these for my guardian

HoTW p2 is not difficult.

The so-called ‘elite’ speed runners don’t like it because players actually need to fight mobs, particularly underwater.

If you have a decent underwater class, p2 is a faceroll.

Now imao ..
I get a lot of t6 from those 100’s of moldy bags …
So, I ask again ..
Why would I (or anyone who has access to Orr) even consider spending laurels on yet more bags of mats??

Esya.3427:

Even if it is account bound I would not buy it, simply because I have so many alts that the hassle is too much. I would soon find myself standing at an ori vein with the pick on another character or in the bank. It would be great if it would work like an account upgrade. That all your character, current and future ones, get a mail with the item. Like the mails for hero’s band. Only then it would be worth it for me personally.

This! ^
And 800 gems for a full set of 3 tools without silly animations ….

Crafting bags??
Crikey, I get 100’s of of moldy bags in Cursed Shore.
Why would I even consider spending laurels on yet more bags of mats??

Well, seems you have convinced yourself not to use them for any of the things you can currently buy with them.

My suggestion is to ignore that you have them. I have over 100 laurels, never spent one yet. I forget I have them until I see a daily with the ‘go visit the laurel chappie’ ..

The prices might be accurate, but as a guild to leveling a craft, I find it poor.
I used it only once to level Cooking., and would not recommend it.

I usually use this guide:
http://www.gw2wiz.com/

It doesn’t have prices, but I find it is much clearer describing the steps you need to do.

First time I saw a player using one of these last evening …

My first thought was that animation will get tired very quickly. Just think how many times you will have to look at that over one month, let alone a year or more …

Any way to turn it off??

Last evening I successfully managed to get a faction armour piece from a different faction onto one of my characters.

I wanted the Vigil medium boots for my ranger, but my ranger is in Whispers. However, my guardian is in Vigil, so my guardian bought the medium boots, these were soulbound to my guardian at purchase.

My guardian then bought basic (white) lvl 80 medium boots off the TP. Using a crystal transmute, just the Vigil boot skin was transmuted onto the basic medium boot stats. This resulted in the Vigil basic boots now being account bound. This might work with basic (white) boots from a lower level, but figured it best to stay with lvl 80’s all round. Only a few copper difference in price anyways ..

The guardian placed these boots into the bank. I swapped to my ranger, collected the boots from the bank, then using another crystal transmute, transferred the Vigil basic medium boot skin onto the exotic medium boots I already had with the stats and rune I wanted. Now, the Vigil medium boots were soulbound to my ranger.

The key to this working is making sure the right character is doing the transmuting at the right time. If my guardian did the final transmute, then the boots would have been soubound to the guardian again, ruining the entire effort.

Aveneo.2068:

Now if it was a full set (pick+axe+sickle) it might have been worth the $10/20gold.

Exactly!
Better yet would be an omni-tool, one unlimited harvest tool that collects all mats of any type. I would pay the 800 gems for that …

If a player cannot make at least 2g / hr running pent/shelter/jofast, there is something seriously wrong with your toon and/or play style.

This areas is better for farming now than before because all the MF leechers are gone..

For neutral black, the best is abyss and then black dye.
All the midnight dyes have a colour tint, some more than others, and this tint appears to greater or lesser extent depending on the material you apply it on, lighting conditions, and your graphics settings. You really need to experiment in order to see if the effect from any midnight dye is what you want. I have many of these dyes, all from drops so quite familiar with them

I am less experienced with the white dyes because not many of these have dropped for me. I have Silver on one toon, and that is my lightest shade of dye, and seems to work well for anything I want ‘white’. I find some of the common dyes, like Fog, can work quite as well as ‘white’, particularly on cloth (light armour).

Last evening Celestial dropped for me for the first time since game launch. I am more inclined to sell it, as I am not a big fan of glowing white, and do not use that much light dye anyway.

I soloed a Ranger and Guardian both to 80.

Rangers were more fun at game launch than now. They have been hit hard with various nerfs and so-called ‘fixes’ that made things worse. They are still one of the most poorly balanced classes in the game, and Anet seems happy with this because they have done nothing over 7 months to improve the situation.

Having said that, they are still a fun class to solo, just not as effective they once were. You will lean a lot about tactics playing a ranger, Forget about bringing one into a dungeon, though …

A Guardian is great for solo PvE. Very effective class with some decent build options. It is a more forgiving class to play, but still requires skills. Probably one the best balanced classes in the game right now, and unlike most classes, they have managed to escape any serious nerfs. Also, Guardians are very good in dungeons for the group support they can provide.

The weak point with Guardians is ranged combat, they are terrible at this mainly because the scepter is crap. So, if you don’t like full-time melee combat, this class is not for you.

Vargs.6234:

I wish there were PvE titles that were acquired through something remotely resembling competence, rather than just a bunch telling people how much gold you’ve spent, or that you can spend 20 minutes fixing signs in wayfarer. The only one that really fulfills this at all is Dungeon Master.

Dungeon Master is meaningless because there are Arah dungeon groups selling p4 slots at the final boss. Makes the title rather trivial, yes??

The only PvE title that involves any competence and work is ‘Been there, done that’ …

I find the armour choices in this game range from terrible to horrific, with medium by far the worse. I just started a light armour class, but I suspect choice is no better than what we have for heavy armour.

If adding more armour skins means more of the same designs-from-hell, then no thank you. My eyes hurt enough as it is …

This bug happened on Gunnar’s Hold the other week. It began on a Friday and lasted until Anet did a maintenance build on Sat evening ,while we were at the final boss in SE p3… Great timing ..

The most annoying aspect of this bug for me are not the players camped at the spider spawns locations, is it the fact that all of the other pent/shelter/jofast events are blocked!

I work, and weekend game time is precious for me. I rely on weekend farming of the pent/shelter/jofast events for in-game income.

Nachtz.4930:

Onyx drops from earth elemental and you can loot them from boss’ chests in Twilight Arbor. For the elementals, I recommend you go to the Altar of Lies point, in the Malchor’s leap (south from Seal of Union teleporter).

I never tried farming the earth ele’s in the location you mentioned, didn’t know they dropped lodestones

The place I farm onyx lodestones in Malchor’s is at Rayhan Bayt near Pagga’s Waypoint
Earth ele’s are up in this location when the temple of Melandru in Cursed Shore is unconstented, There are a quite a few, including a vet ..

Last evening I farmed 2 from there in 1 hr …

Kasenai.9418:

Introducing Kawaratake – Hopefully the scariest looking sylvari you’ve ever seen!

Lol!

If your toon uses a scepter, I have just the thing:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zhaitan%27s_Reach

Image is terrible, the scepter is an arm complete with moving hand. Hand moves in a clawing, scratching motion … very creepy …

Took me a week to do this…

Yes, it is very annoying, but if you approach it systematically, it is doable. Most maps I could manage in 1 day was 3, because it was so deathly boring. Usually I did 2 – Warfare’s and Dissia mostly while waiting for world/group events to start. For the 3rd map I did Ascalon, never did the other maps.

Use dulfy’s maps and plan your route .Start in one corner and work your way around in a big loop so you finish near the collection npc.

If you want max the karma earned from this, wait until you have all 150, then take a karma booster before turning them all in

@OP, here is a suggestion

I always have 2 chat windows running, one just for map chat, the other just for guild chat. If I am in a party, I open another chat window just for party chat. I prefer to keep chat convo organised and uncluttered.

I spend the vast majority of my time with the guild chat window active, thus ignoring all the silly map chat spam. I only tab to the map chat window just before group events, and only very briefly. Sometimes, if i am not busy with something else, I will monitor map chat to see if someone needs help with a SP or the like.

Doing this might reduced your urge to be a ‘smartypants’ …

Just to clarify a bit on the world event changes
World bosses (dragon events, Maw, and the like) and clearing temples now guarantee at least 1 rare (or better) drop per account per day. The odds of rare or better from the actual event chests remains the same.

Some another changes …

If you had 100% world, you have it no longer. There have been some new waypoints and poi’s added to various maps.

Orr was revamped.
The mob density was reduced along with the aggro range. Some mobs had their character models and attacks changed. Loot drops were increased, mainly heavy moldy bags.

Also, the murk was cleaned up, both on land and underwater, you can see stuff now. The Cursed Shore events around pent/shelter/jofast now include more vets and the odd champ. These scale with the number of players taking part in the event.

Changes to dungeons

AC dungeon was revamped with different boss mechanics. It is now considered to be a harder dungeon. This is something Anet will gradually implement for many dungeons.

Many ‘shortcuts’ have been removed in various dungeons.

Classes

Warriors keep getting buffed, Thieve still own WvW.
Every class, apart from guardians, has been hit with some sort of nerf.
Engineers and Rangers are in a worse state now than at game launch, many players have left these classes ..

That is all I can think of for now ..

I used a Sigil of Perception on my longbow while running a power/crit ranger

With a full stack, it brought my crit chance to well over 60%, so 2 out 3 arrow shots were crits, If you have a high crit damage % as well, this can be a lot of DPS. The stack stays up with weapon swaps as well.

The down side is every time you change map, or are downed, you need to build the stack again …

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I’m still here and lurking about (as is the balance team) …

You must mean the ‘un-balance’ team, because all that has happened resulted in less balance after every update.

Sorry Robert, after 7 months your words ring too hollow. All I know is that Ranger plays worse now than it did at launch. I don’t do PvP, so your wins/ranking mean nothing to me.

What does matter to me is PvE and dungeons. I read that dungeons are your thing, well, I do not dare bring my ranger into dungeons anymore. In fact, I cringe when I see a ranger in my dungeon party now because I know the class will bring nothing.

All my ranger does now is crafting, the easier daily/monthly achievement bits, and the dragon events. I don’t even bring the ranger to harvest Orr anymore, my guardian does that.

For me your so-called balance team has been systematically destroying what fun there was to this class since launch. Is this the direction Anet wants for the ranger??
If so, job well done!

When I finish my daily today, i will be at 100 laurels, so would also like confirmation on this …

For map exploration/harvesting I run GS/Staff on a shout guardian. Speed is not a problem.

What is far worse for me is ranged combat. We have none to speak of …
And please don’t mention that terrible scepter …

This is difficult to test, at least I never tried to test this..

However, I used these runes for a long time, and it seemed to me the 5% bonus drops if/while the pet is downed. Swapping pets gets it back up again.

Anyway, these are good runes for a power/crit ranger. I still have these in a mix of knight/valkyrie armour.

I had all the monthly events and vets done in an hour or 2 running pent/shelter/jofast, plus the drops are better than doing this in a starter map.

Collecting all those audio logs is a right pain, at 73% now …

I just created a silvari mesmer alt the other day, and had no problem with finding a single name.

I used an elven name generator, and the first name it came up with I liked and was not used.

@OP
If you want a facerolling easy time to 80, then yes a warrior is the ticket. You might find it gets a bit boring, through …

If you want to learn about about tactics, making something sub-par work for you, and a fun challenge, then solo level the ranger. Believe me, never a dull moment with a ranger and the pet, you will become a much better all-round player for the experience.

Learn to play ranger well, and any other class will be a breeze to play afterwards …

Khyber.2693:

Now I cant make it to my last personal story because the kittening zombie crap has too much cc. Like wtf, horrible zone.

Have you ever heard of ‘stability’?? Try it sometime, you might like it …

Yup, Orr has a lot of undead, a huge steaming mass of risen types, so what??
Get over it..
They also drop fancy exotics and a lot of rares. Orr has every type of elemental in the game. and the only PvE place outside of dungeons that drop lodestones.

Frostgorge is full of icebrood and svanir, Derdgehaunt is full of dredge and they have CC as well! Are you going to start complaining about these maps as well??

Last evening, I passed by Wren in Malchor’s and it was contested, full of risen with few vets standing about the place. I began pulling out the normal mobs a few at at time, then went it and cleared out the vets. All done solo, and got a rare drop for the effort.

Someone explain to me how this is any different than clearing out a bunch of flame legion or centuar in a different zone??

Sorry, but being level 80 and down-scaled in a starter map is more difficult than running around in Orr these days. There are so many safe paths and places outside of the camps where nothing will attack you if you stand there all day.

As for the ‘look’ of Orr ..

I do not understand how anyone can find the Orr colours drab and boring. Each Orr map has it’s own overall theme – Malchor’s is green/blue, Cursed Shore is an ocher, SoD ranges from jungle green in the north to more yellow in the western sections.

Within each map you find fantastic colours of plants and coral,, both on land and underwater The Orr maps have the most diverse range of colours of any of the other regions of the game.

Leo G.4501:

Well I think you’d have to pinpoint a reference to your belief. You say the pets are a hang-on from D&D and that’s sort of a reference to why they are like they are.

Dungeons & Dragons (1974–1976)
The ranger was introduced in The Strategic Review Volume 1, Number 2.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977–1988)
The ranger was one of the standard character classes available in the original Player’s Handbook.⁵ The first edition rangers were a subtype of the fighters,⁶ using any weapon and wearing any armor.
High level rangers gained followers, ranging in type and power from classed player character races, to such fantastic creatures as pegasus mounts, pseudodragons and werebears, and even to copper dragons and storm giants.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989–1999)
The ranger, as part of the “warrior” group, was one of the standard character classes available in the second edition
High level rangers also gained followers, which could include various woodland animals, mythical creatures (like the treant, pegasus, and pixie), or even classed characters like druids, clerics, or other rangers (presumably low-level rangers wishing to train under a more experienced one).

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000–2007)
The nature of the ranger’s companions also changed significantly. Instead of gaining multiple followers the ranger gains a single animal companion, and at an earlier level than in previous editions.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008–)
The Martial Power supplement introduces the Beast Mastery alternate class feature which replaces Fighting Style and Prime Shot and gives the ranger a beast companion.

Is that reference enough??

Guess I am in the 1% not running traps …

Been playing since launch and never ran a condition/trap ranger. I ran a power/crit build up until the last update, then last week completely changed over to a dual bow cat BM.