Guild Wars 2

If all your characters are mid-70’s, going into any map, no matter the the map level, will get a character to 80 in a few hours of play.

If you have done this solo up to now, then why the need to group at this point??

If no one in your guild will help you with this, then you should first look for another guild..

Try guesting on another EU server before wasting gems on a transfer to a NA server just to do Arah story. It will cost you more gems to transfer back to your ‘home’ server afterwards.

Arah story is long, takes around 2 hours depending on the group. Not everyone has the time or inclination to help a non-guild mate do this. I would think asking on a weekend you would have a better chance of finding a group for this.

This my first MMO, so I don’t have a history of other MMO’s to compare GW2 against. However, I have a long history of single-player RGP’s and strategy games.

For me to keep on playing a game, there is one main factor. This is how well the developer responses to fixing bugs and poorly implemented mechanics, and customer communication (I don’t mean the PR bits ..).

I usually give a new game 6 months for it to ‘settle in’, for the devs to come to terms with patches, fixing the glaring and not so glaring problems and to establish communication channels and patterns. My 6 month ‘report card’ is due at the end of this month, This so happens to coincide with the end of Feb update.

Anet will need to pull one out of their hat with this patch/update for me to carry on playing. There is just too much Anet has failed to address in the 6 months since release. Class balance is still in the same mess it was at release. Many classes are restricted to certain builds because of buggy or poorly implemented skills and/or mechanics. Any attempts to ‘fix’ these have been lame at best, and at worst created even more problems.

And then there are all the game world issues with DE’s, loot, dungeons, etc. Meanwhile, they release more and more new content that compounds the problems

So, the future of this game for me is very simple. It will take me one read of the 28 Feb patch notes to determine if I carry on playing or not.

What this achievement points loss, after a so called server maintenance / reset, further confirms to me it that Anet does much more ‘tweaking’ to the game during these periods than they let on.

This has an impact on players who have been or are trying to collect statistics on loot drops, ecto salvage rates, etc. This basically invalidates any probability assumptions derived from statistical analysis because the game is not even a natural RNG system.

It is more likely that Anet fiddles with a lot more game mechanics during server maintenance than with designated patches or content updates.

Vayne.8563:

More than 50% of events aren’t bugged, unless your server sucks a whole lot more badly than mine. MAYBE 10% are bugged. Exaggerating doesn’t make you righter.

Part of the problems with forums everywhere is people use hyperbole and exaggerate to make their points and this makes their entire argument circumspect.

Sure there are bugged events, but in no zone are half the events bugged, though in Orr at launch it might have been close.

The problem is you haven’t sat there and counted every zone event and then counted the broken ones.

There are dozens of events in each zone. I doubt more than a dozen of them are broken at any time. In fact, I doubt more than 2 or 3 are broken at any time.

Complaining about something legitimate is fair game. Exaggerating the situation, however, makes people question everything else you’re saying.

You should follow your own advice, mate. Exaggerating the situation in claiming there are less bugged events is just as bad …

I often do my daily in Gendarran Fields. There was a long stretch of time around a month ago when I counted 4 bugged events in 1/3 of this map on my server! These were either stuck or would not trigger. After server resets, they would work ok for a bit, then bug again.

Even now, there are still some events in this section of map that never trigger. And, this is just in one smallish section of one one map! Compound this over all the PvE maps, and situation might not be as bad as the other poster stated, but it is certainly much worse than you claim it is ..

However, this is small potatoes compared against the major issues outstanding with this game. Class balance is still a huge issue. Try playing a spirit ranger then come back and say the game has been fixed …

Releasing new content while the game is still in much the same mess as it was when released almost 6 months ago is more than enough justification for any player, regardless of how much time spent in-game, to quit ..

My time limit is 6 months. If anet has not addressed most of the class balance and buggy / poorly implemented skills in the up coming Feb update, I will be gone as well. Enough is enough, and I suspect I won’t be the only one looking for the exit …

Had the troll spawn on our group twice on two back-to-back AC runs last weekend. Both times from the usual location (near the gargoyle heads).

Had not seen the troll for a few weeks before that, then twice in a row was very odd ..

GonzoNeo.4965:

No Knights/Cleric/Valkyrie Ascended items, no Laurels spent, Arena.net need launch the new stats.

Agreed …
Was very disappointed when I saw the stat distribution on these items.

I prefer to mix & match trinkets between Knight and Valkyrie for both my ranger and guardian. I do this with crafted armour pieces as well.

@OP

The earth elementals at Rayhan Bayt only appear when the temple of Melandru in the Cursed Shore is not contested. Also, harvest nodes always change locations after server updates or maintence…

I thought both of the above were common knowledge ..

As a ranger, you can set-up combo fields by yourself …
Place a trap (fire or venom), when it triggers, fire through the field or use melee. This works with your healing spring for regeneration as well.

With other players, the easiest is with an ele. If the ele is in fire attunement, position yourself behind the ele as the ele lays down a fire field, then, start shooting through the field.

Remember, combo fields operate on a chance to trigger, so they are not always a 100% sure thing.

I have solo’ed most of the PvE content in the game, and also done some group PvE on occasion. I have noticed no difference in loot drops, both in quantity and quality between solo and group play. If anything, the drops were worse when in a group.

Also, it is extremely rare for me to respond to ninja party invites from any players outside of my guild. If a player whispers me first, or requests help in map chat, then I am more inclined to accept, unless I am about to do something else or log-off.

I moved from Canada to Italy around 15 years ago. One of the first things to go after arriving was the PSU on the computer I had then, and this was while using a major transformer. Make sure you have a good quality PSU that auto-detects the current and can auto-switch to 220v. Next to go was the microwave …

Good adapters/transformers are not cheap, are a pain to use, and certainly not a long-term solution. They are also subject to burning out if over-used. I know, cos I went this route …

My advice is to sell as many electrical/electronic devices as possible before moving over, and replace when you arrive. This might seem expensive, but worth it in the long run.

Gunner’s Hold (EU) has had it open regularly over the past weeks.

I don’t want to turn this into a guardian thread, but would like to add my experience that might help the OP to decide.

I played a ranger since game launch, and last month, when I was looking for a class to level for an alt, I looked into both warrior and guardian.

The main factor in deciding between the two, had very little to do with class mechanics, skills and the like, although the guardian seemed more versatile. What aided me most was spending some time lurking in both the guardian and warrior sub-forums. This gave me an insight into the types of players who are attract to and are playing these two classes, and the difference is night and day.

I found the guardian sub-forum to be a great source of information, the posts were very informative, and seemed these players knew and understood the class very well. When I asked questions, the responses were knowledgeable and well written. Even the posts describing buggy or poorly implemented skills were well expressed and thought out, and not just rants.

The warrior sub-forum … well lets just say it leaves a lot to be desired if you are looking for useful information. All I found was a lot of chest-thumping over how fast they can do CoF p1 speed runs. This sub-forum only reinforced my opinions on the type of players who are playing warriors, and why some of the worst players I have seen in dungeons are on warriors.

After this, it was a very easy decision for me to make, and it has been fun leveling a guardian to 80 and doing dungeons. The only disappointing aspect to playing a guardian I have found, is ranged combat. This is utterly dreadful, even more so after playing a ranger for so long.

The scepter is by far the most useless weapon on a guardian, the staff at least has defensive usefulness. There is no situation I have come across where I would consider using a scepter over melee options. So, keep this in mind if you think you want to do ranged damage, because this is not really a viable option on a guardian.

OP, you made me laugh, good one !

Yup, who needs to mess about with dragons or dungeons when chickens drop better loot?
I have my guardian perma-camped at Penitent, just for all those chickens …

A note to the poorly informed in this thread …

1- Guardians are not meant to be ‘tanks’ ..
2- If a player builds a ‘tank’ guardian, that player is gimping the toon and does not know how to play the class.
3- The reason there so many guardian is cos there are so many crappy warriors who need the support a guardian provides, or they are licking dust off the dungeon floor …

As Beatsbury said ..
And bring your gold, cos a full set of lvl 80 rares will set you back around 7g.

Also, the best is only lvl 80 rare, so it is not end-game kit. Buy it only if you like the ‘look’ to use as a rather expensive skin ..

The guardian shield skill 4 is a bash for some damage and then blocks the next 3 incoming attacks. The skill 5 is an AoE shield dome that pushes back mobs and protects any allies/npc’s inside for a few secs.

This is as good as it gets …

Rangers can stow pets, but they auto-appear once any combat is initiated …

EDIT: Yes, every ranger should have, and know how to use the greatsword. I was shocked the other week while doing AC p1 and a lvl 80 ranger in the party did not have a GS for the burrows. This was very sad …

Gendarran Fields, right next to LA (Canal wp), has all you need to do dailies within 1/3 of the map, plus a few event chains you can trigger yourself, if they are not bugged ..

I usually do dailies on my ranger in Gendarran Fields, and have no problem with the dodge …

Go to any location that has spiders, run around to aggro 2 or 3 so they are in a group, then dodge roll through them a few times. If timed right you should get 2 or 3 evades with 1 roll. If you don’t like spiders, do the same with wolves.

For an easier time aggro one or 2 of the many freshwater crabs. They move more slowly and quite obvious when they are going to attack, and do not hit very hard if you miss the dodge …

There are no rare or exotic aqua-breathers in game yet.

The best is the one already mentioned from the Cursed Shore

haviz.1340:

bri.2359:

Not saying all warriors are like this, and I have played with some decent ones, however, I have seen a lot more warriors on dungeon floors than thieves, and a downed warrior contributes 0 DPS …

One of the rookie mistake. Downed players still do damage and downed glass cannon warrior/thief does more damage than alive tanky guardian.

Then replace ‘downed’ with ‘dead’ …

As for a ‘rookie mistake’, been playing since game launch, mate ..

JJBigs.8456:

I really dont think the people posting have played warriors…

Don’t need to play one because there are so many around, and have seen enough to know that I would sooner take a thief into a dungeon than a warrior, any day ..

You need a much higher player skill set to run a thief. I cannot imagine a bad or mediocre thief having much fun dying all the time and racking up repair costs. They would either re-spec and/or L2P, or go do something else. So, odds are a player regularly running dungeons with a thief is pretty kitten good. You can say the same about rangers as well, another misunderstood class.

On the other hand, warrior class seems to attract the speed-levelers who jump into dungeons without bothering to learn the class, let alone tactics. These are the same players with glass cannon builds, kitted out with MF and say “I can tank anything” then promptly get 1-shotted.

Not saying all warriors are like this, and I have played with some decent ones, however, I have seen a lot more warriors on dungeon floors than thieves, and a downed warrior contributes 0 DPS …

Cheers for this!
Now keen on giving CoF P2 another go …

Thanks for the info!
I’m surprised no one in our guild party knew about this, we were all on TS as well …

Still not sure how well the ‘wall’ strategy would have worked with our group. We were 3 rangers, 1 thief and I was on my guardian.

Leo G.4501:

For CoF, the mobs that spawn aren’t that tough. Some AoE clears them pretty quickly but what you want to focus on is the invisible assassins that spawn. They slowly walk toward Magg during the event and spawn from 3 locations I’ve noticed: one near the door and 2 by the lavafalls. The trash mobs tend to aggro the nearest player while the assassins only attack Magg when they reach him so it’s important to dispose of them first.

I hear if you just kite the weak mobs while only killing the assassins, new mobs don’t spawn but I like killing them to make the encounter more exciting :P

Defending Maggs while he plants the bomb is CoF path 2 …

And yes, we could not complete this. After at least 6 attempts with different strategies, the best we could do was get Maggs to 72% completion before he died …

Didn’t know about the invisible assassins .. Certainly explains why the npc was dying so often .. How do you ‘see’ them if they are invisible???

Morrigan.2809:

^ I have 100% on those maps and my loading screen now shows I’m missing waypoints^
I haven’t actually tried to find them yet- thanks for the info.

You cannot ‘see’ the new, missing wp while outside of SoD or CS. You need to be in the specific map to know where they are.

The one in SoD will require swimming, since it is just a little ways off-the top NW shore, but at a quite shallow location with no mobs or anything around it.

Someone has already explained quite well where the CS one is.

Btw, with the Orr nerf, SoD is a breeze to complete now. Took my guardian more time to do the JP’s/vistas than running/swimming around for everything else, including the temple SP’s …

Did my first dungeons runs over the weekend since the ‘fix’…

Our group of 3 rangers, 1 thief and 1 guardian (me) did CoF path 1 with no problems. The rolling stones room a lot easier since the time to light the 3 flames was increased.

Then we tried path 2 …
We could not complete it. We failed the ‘Defend Maggs while planting the bomb’ room. The most we could defend was up to 72% before either we were wiped or the npc died. We tried this at least 6 times with different strategies and nothing worked. One of the party had to leave, so we moved on to AC with another player

All this ‘fix’ will do is further exclude certain classes or class combinations from dungeon runs.

Elias.3204:

@Dezarys: I’ve also started a Guardian, but am having issues with their lack of solid ranged abilities. I’m not sure I could get used to being in the thick of the mob when playing. At least, that’s been my impression up to level 10. =P

Sorry to break this news, but Guardian ranged attack does not get any better after lvl 10…

I just finished leveling an alt guardian to lvl 80. After playing a ranger for months, guardian range attack is terrible.

Staff is a defensive/group support weapon, so has uses in specific situations in dungeons and some big boss PvE events if partied up.

Scepter is pathetic, never used it outside of a starter map. Focus is ok when using a mace for a more bunker style of play, but I usually go with shield instead.

Apart from the staff, I can see no reason why a guardian would ever go ranged over all the excellent melee options. Get used to being in the front-line, cos guardians do this well, and there really is no viable alternative.

One of the AC armour sets has soldier stats (p/t/v) that cannot be crafted, These are very useful stats, particularly if you want to run more difficult dungeons later. I strongly recommend you get at least one set of this.

As for looks, the AC female medium armour is one of the very few medium sets in the game that does not have a stupid trench coat. This and the crafted emblazoned medium are the only 2 armour sets my ranger uses for ‘looks’ …

Any player that had already explored these 2 maps 100% should have had these auto-added to their maps. This what I was led to believe in the patch notes, and why this was not the case, I don’t know …

The 2 wp’s are useful cos they are never contested, so this makes sense and the reason I took my 100% world toon back to SoD to get the new wp. The new one in CS is easy, since often there are resource nodes in that section of the map I harvest and the wp is just a short distance away.

Gratz on Arah! I still have to do mine, but helped a guildmate do this during the holidays. Yup, very epic …

For 100% world, best to do the borderland maps just after the servers reset on Friday nights / Saturday mornings, depending on your timezone. Try to get as many poi’s, vistas, etc. as you can, then wait for a week and hope your server does better and shifts to another map

To finish mine, I had to transfer to another server for the last map. Now, this will cost you gems since guesting won’t let you into wvw ..

I have both a lvl 80 ranger and a very recent lvl 80 guardian, the two classes are very different.

I never PvP, and don’t do WvW, so cannot give you much on this, but for solo PvE, you cannot do much better than a ranger. I used longbow/greatsword almost exclusively while leveling and had a lot of fun with this. I still use this set-up when farming in Orr, although after the recent Orr nerf, a water pistol would do fine …

Rangers have a wide weapon choice, so your preference will dictate play-style and build. I could go on about what I did, but if you prefer using shortbow or sword/X, the play-style is very different.

In dungeons, rangers have one main roll – ranged single-target and AoE DPS. The support rangers provides to the group is in generating a steady stream of ranged attack. To do this, you need to survive, so dodging and mobility is paramount, and anything that reduces and/or eliminates condition damage.

Generally a ranger doing melee in dungeons is not a good thing. Yes, there are certain situation where you need to go melee, but medium armour and being rooted in a small area means AoE attacks and hard physical damage from many mobs and/or bosses will down you very quickly. You cannot melee a ranger like you can a guardian.

Pet selection and management is very important. The pet represents a portion of your overall DPS. Using the wrong pet at the wrong time, or sending the pet on suicide missions reduces your DPS. If you don’t like managing a pet, then go with another class.

Well, I finally went back to Orr last evening to see for myself what changed …

The good
I like all the environmental and risen model changes. Less murky atmosphere and water lets you see the design of the place – it really is quite amazing. Now I want to stop and actually look around. Also the statue icons on the map with the type of conditions around contested statues is very helpful.

The bad
Do not like the nerfed population density and mobs are too easy to kill. The ‘old’ Orr you needed to actually think, plan and use tactics to get around, and that was still too easy for an end-game area. Now, it is just pathetically easy with the loot drops to match. Being down-scaled in starter map is more difficult than Orr …

I hope Anet introduces a proper end-game area soon, cos this is just sad …

Thanks for the suggestions!

Yup, I figured a mix and match would be necessary, read that when you do this there are problems with clipping and the like…

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

@Bri, I like where you are going with this. What were your end stats?

ok, here are my stats with 2H equipped ( berserker greatsword)

power: 1802
precision: 1506
toughness: 1523
vitality: 1638
attack: 2902
crit chance: 32%
crit damage: 69%
armour: 2734
health: 18025

Alarox.4590:

Bakitten291:

I think alot of people are drawn to the class also because of the paladin/magical warrior concept.

I’m in it for the magic infused melee brawler concept.

This is closer to the reason why I chose an alt guardian.

My ranger does a decent enough greatsword, so the big sword thing wasn’t the draw. I wanted to try a more melee oriented class that had something else besides mindless auto-attacking.

My usual class preferences are stealthy ranged classes, so a guardian was a big departure for me.

Oh, and I really do not like the goody paladin-type class, and seems to be what was intended with the guardian in gw2. I prefer the fallen knight image much more, so I use the Bandit skins on most of my weapons to add the effect. Tying to find a heavy armour set to match the theme, but not much luck …

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Appreciate the replies everyone!

@Bri, I like where you are going with this. What were your end stats? …

I just saw your reply …

I am at work now, but can give you more details when I get home a bit later.
Last evening I crafted up all the exotic Berserker weapons, so my stats will include these as well.

Rememeber, you can stack only a max of 25 of one condition type on a mob in total from all players attacking that mob.

So, being able to stack 25 is wasted if 1 or 2 other players are applying the same condition to the same mob.

I would think a class that applies a larger variety of conditions with less stacks is more viable than a class that applies a lot of only 1 or 2 conditions …

@ Paulytnz

In the Nov update I referred to (patch notes are on the wiki..), there was an unexpected buff to some of the ranger underwater weapon skills, cannot remember exactly what now…

I was being a bit sarcastic cos, rangers were promised a big update in Nov by the devs, and got this instead of what we wanted or expected …

Yes, jellyfish is the underwater pet to have, I use this and an armor fish … The spear is great for ‘melee’ and the spinning aoe-type attack when surrounded by mobs. However, I like the harpoon for ranged attack. Both are very nice underwater weapons.. Now if only our land-side weapons were as effective …

I’ve been busy leveling a guardian, for the past 2 weeks, so haven’t spent much time Orr recently. I solo farm there quite regularly with my ranger, so keen on getting back.

I always liked Orr cos it took planning and tactics to get around. I hope the changes haven’t nerfed this too badly …

Rangers own underwater combat after our wonderful Nov update buff ….

I enjoy underwater on my ranger, not as much on my guardian. Guardians share the spear with rangers, but the skills are entirely different and under-powered compared to the ranger’s set. The trident is ‘meh’ ..

I always use underwater travel when available for more direct map travel. Also, I use underwater travel most of the time in Orr to avoid the never-ending land spawns and always loads of normal and rich ore nodes down there ..

EDIT: Just wanted to add that cos I do more underwater travel than most players, I always keep my aqua breather and weapons at the proper level. At 80 both my ranger and guardian have full exotic underwater weapons …

Nevetz.8306:

When you find it at game release, use it, stop playing, then come back months later and find it on BLTC worth 20G or so….

Do you know a similar story? Share!

Yup! Exactly this^ …

Abyss dye dropped for me about 1 week after game launch. Activated it without knowing what it was or how valuable it would become … Oh, and I kept playing, cried a bit every time the price rose, and I don’t even use it …

The most valuable thing that has dropped for me since was the Naga greatsword I pulled from the karka event chest, sold for around 4g …

What is needed are not specific classes, but decent players …

By that I mean players who take the time and make the effort to understand the classes they play, how to properly trait and equip for their rolls, and learn the tactics/strategy to get the best out of the classes they play.

I just finished leveling a guardian to 80 and kitting her out, mainly for dungeons. So, far, only did AC story at lvl 43, so have yet to try her at her best. From what I have experienced leveling the guardian, it has a shed load of survivability and group buffing/healing skills.

As for a ranger in dungeons, I agree with wauwi. More often the ranger is the last toon standing, still sending out a steady stream of ranged DPS. while the so called survival or DPS classes are running back from wp’s .. It is the most over-looked class for dungeons because many players. both playing rangers and not playing them, do not understand the class, nor it’s role in dungeons.

One of the best dungeon runs I have ever done was Arah story (one of the most difficult runs in the game – before the recent nerf ..) with a guild PUG of 3 rangers, 1 thief, and 1 engineer. We got through it without a single party wipe because we knew our classes and rolls.

For what it is worth, I applied what I learned converting a glass cannon ranger into a more survivable ranger to my guardian. And yes, I used a spreadsheet …

I found a very nice balance with a particular combination of crafted Knight and Valkyrie armour and trinkets as follows:

Knight: power/precision/toughness
Valkyrie: power/vitality/crit dam %

helm Valkyrie
shoulder Knight
coat Valkyrie
gloves Knight
leggings Valkyrie
boots Knight

Ring 1 Knight
Ring 2 Knight
Earring 1 Valkyrie
Earring 2 Valkyrie
Amulet Valkyrie

With a full set of Runes of the Ranger, this is my general, solo farming in Orr kit for my 30/30/10/0/0 ranger. I have a fulls set of p/t/v with Runes of Melandru for dungeons.

Last evening I crafted the exact same armour for my new lvl 80 (0/15/30/20/5) Guardian, with a full set of Runes of the Soldier. For trinkets I went as follows:

Ring 1 Valkyrie
Ring 2 Valkyrie
Earring 1 Knight
Earring 2 Knight
Amulet Valkyrie

Guardians have a lower health pool, and I wanted to get at least 18k hp’s so went with Valkyrie for the rings and Knight for earrings. Weapons will be all Berserker to fill in more precision and crit damage.

Eventually, I will get a p/t/v armour set, but for now, this should be good enough to do Orr map exploration and some dungeons.

In Gendarran Fields I went up the the caged animal pit area near the gate to Snowden and triggered the event there. As each group of animals came out, I dodged-rolled through them a few times before killing them. This helped with the kill variety and the dodging daily …

The only manually placed ground AoE attack for a Ranger is the longbow Barrage (5th skill on the bar). There is trait option allowing you to manually ground place traps, but this is easily avoided.

From the wiki:

There are two new waypoints to explore: Shipwreck Rock Waypoint in the south of Cursed Shore and Dire Shoal Waypoint in the north-west of Straits of Devastation.

EDIT: If you already have explored these 2 maps to 100% completion, then you automatically get the new wp’s.

Here is a guide you should take a look at:
http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/

As for armour specific for a ranger, this depends on what you plan to do now that you reached lvl 80, your play-style, build, and the rest of your kit. You can use armour/runes to further boost your favorite build stats, or to fill gaps where you think something is missing.

Also, many players have more than one type of armour set for their lvl 80’s. For example, my ranger has 3 different sets I use for different activities.