Guild Wars 2

@deffy,

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with MARA. I joined a month ago, and it has been very positive, found lots of friendly people to do the rich ori runs, dungeons, and the like.

WvW is not my thing, I only go in there to map. I did do some of the MARA weekend event on Thurs, and the people on TS were friendly, but you need to go with the flow and try to stay alive. No one is going to hold your hand …

Btw, I have you in my contacts and saw you were online around 2 weeks ago so I whispered you to see you wanted to party up. Perhaps you were away from the game at the time, but you didn’t respond. I didn’t try again, so first impressions works both ways …

If you want some company on Gunnar’s Hold, add me to your contacts and whisper or mail me when you want. I have all of PvE mapped, so can give you some help, and don’t mind going back into lower level maps.

No, in my experience MF food is not worth it …
I have had good drop runs without it, and terrible drop runs with it, besides the 30% increase from Omnomberry Bars is so small, you will not notice anything.

Morrigan.2809:

Osculim.2983:

Why do americans always feel they need special treatment ?. First of the eu servers are just as full as the na ones so the whole english speaking thing is bollocks.

This- seriously, the world does not revolve around the US.
There are people plying GW2 all over the world, it will always be someones prime time.

it takes what a minute , two minutes and you are back in the game- it won’t kill you

All of the above!!

Total population of NA (Can & US) is around 360 million
Total population of EU is over 500 million …

Given a similar proportion of gamers to population, EU has always had more gamers than NA.

There are a few thing to know about about the exotic temple armour.

1- it all looks the same, no matter which seller you use and what name it has.
2- there are 3 stat variations distributed among the vendors.
3- not all vendors carry the same stat armour, means you need to go to at least 2 different temple vendors to get a full set of the stats you want
4- there is currently no vendor that sells medium leggings with p/t/v stats

here are 2 guides:
http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/

http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

I do the Jormag event a lot, mainly to farm the ads. There is no point battling the ice wall or the dragon, cos there is nothing in it. The chest loot at the end is mostly crap, you might get a rare now and again. The ads drop much better loot and corrupted lodestones.

The best way to play this event is to completely ignore the dragon and farm the ads. This event can go on for hours increasing the amount of loot drops.

Now you know why you are the only one fighting the dragon …

@Taym
Thanks for the response!
A 13% chance of triggering is approx 1 in 8, so given the rate of fire, you should get 1 trigger per ‘normal’ mob fight. You should get more triggers in longer fights against vets and champs, but there is the 5sec cooldown to deal with.

I suppose the next step is to compare the 1 in 8 shot ‘burst’ damage with the sigil of air or fire with a constant +5% damage from the sigil of force.

@Heylo
What could you have sold those 10 Armourd Scales and the 10 ectos you had for?? And then the gossamer, the hardened leather, and the 100 odd spools you needed?? Remember, the time you spent and salvage kits needed to get gossamer and leather scraps …

I crafted my exotic medium (3 Knight and 3 Valkyrie) armour around 2-3 weeks ago. At the time I had enough ecto, but needed 5 Armoured Scales, 2 Vicious Fangs and some gossamer scraps.

Before doing so, I checked the armour prices on the TP. What I looked at were not the prices from sellers, but the ‘bid’ prices from buyers. This is the price players are willing to pay, and there was a big difference between the two. I remember doing some sums, and this was when I realised crafting exotic medium armour was not going to make me rich ….

Perhaps the prices have shifted since then, but at the time I felt I was loosing value by crafting the armour. Went ahead with doing it anyway …

In 2011 we had The Witcher 2, Skyrim and Deus Ex:HR, all excellent games and all worthy of GOTY.

This year we had squat. The only big release was ME3, and look what happened there…

If GW2 was released last year, it would not have received a sniff of a chance. Anet were fortunate 2012 was a dud year for releases.

I go into Gendarran Fields a lot to start my dailies. I often come across the first settlement close to the wp near LA on fire with all the npcs down. So getting that sorted is good for an event or two.

Heading west, across the bridge at Lionsbridge wp, that traveling merchant is always down near the swamp with the risen, again this is good for another event. Heading northwest there is usually Nebo Terrace and/or Ascalon Settlement to sort out, the vet skelk wandering about, centuar catapults to take down …

I can usually complete my dailies now within 1/3rd of the map …

This is not to say the map is empty, I always see some other players around, and often help them out with the skill point near Lionsbridge wp .There are not nearly as many as when I first explored this map back in Sept …

I have a base crit chance of 43% and this goes up to over 50% with a full stack of precision from my longbow and axe sigils of accuracy.

I consider my crit chance too low to use any sigil that has a 30% chance of triggering off a crit, and if it does trigger, then there is the 5 sec cooldown.

So, I assume all the players using these sigils are running power/precision builds with full berserker amour, weapons and accessories to have a decent chance of the sigil triggering during a fight.

I am curious to know often these sigils trigger for players not running such a build.

You should post this in the Ranger sub-forum ….

GraynX.8947:

Welcome to GW2, Dreadflame!
If you are concerned about getting into dungeon parties, you can party with players from other servers.

You cannot party between NA and EU servers …

@OP

The main advice I can give you is explore everything and be cheap!! Do not waste gold buying kit off the Trading Post until you are at least level 60. You will find all you need through loot drops and as rewards for completing your personal story.

Plan to save 15 gold for when you reach level 80, cos you will need it to buy exotic kit to explore the end-game maps in Orr. Seems like a lot now, but it is very doable by not spending it on things you don’t need, avoiding waypoint travel, not dying too often, and following a good salvage and vendor plan.

Decide on an item price limit – say 30 copper. Anything below this value, salvage for crafting materials, anything above you sell off to vendors, unless it is better kit than what you currently have.

You will find vendors in game that sell items for karma, not gold. You earn karma by completing dynamic events (DE’s), completing hearts, map completion, daily kills/harvest gathering. It is up to you to decide if you want to use this to ‘buy’ items or just save it up.

One thing you will need to buy using karma are aqua breathers. Only certain karma vendors sell these, usually 1 per map. A lot of player ignore these, but they are important to keep up-to-date. There is a lot of underwater travel and events to do, and it can be a nasty place if not prepared.

And, have fun!!

Yup, crafting is in a sad place right now …

I hit lvl 80 before I had my leatherworking anywhere close to crafting exotic armour, so I bought a full set off the TP for around 6g.

I considered this an investment, whereby I could better farm the T6 mats and get the yellow drops to salvage for ectos. I thought that by leveling leatherworking to 400 and crafting exotic armour to sell on TP, I could re-coup my original 6g, plus make a tidy profit. Boy, was I wrong …

When it comes to exotic medium armour crafting, you make more selling the mats than selling the crafted pieces. I did eventually craft a full exotic set, but it was for my own use, not for selling.

I think the same goes for weaponsmith (my other 400 craft). Although this varies from weapon to weapon, and depending on the inscription used, you can break even. Greatswords with berserker or magic find always sell well ..

@Sir Digby
I appreciate what you did here. In fact, last evening I tried your unidentified dye method. So you can add my results into the mix …

I spent exactly 5g buying 40 unidentified off the TP. These were bought in 2 batches of 20 (2g 50s each batch).

Rares
In each batch of 20, I got 2 rares, so 4 rares in total, but 1 rare from the 2nd batch was a repeat of 1 rare from the 1st batch! So, in the end only 3 different rares, and none of these were very valuable, Each fetched around 25s on the TP. The only one I liked was the repeated dye, so kept one of those, and sold the others

Uncommon
Each batch of 20 netted around 4 of these, so 8 in total. One of these I already had and was worth around 1g 50s, so sold that. The others were worth around 6-8s each. There were only 1 or 2 of these I liked, so sold the rest.

Common
Lots of these, many I already had, others I didn’t like. I kept around 4 and sold the rest for 70c each …

From the 5g I spent, I made back 2g 50s from selling the repeats and ones I didn’t like.

I use Force (+5% damage), since it was already in the slot when I got the bow.
No reason to change it yet …

@dulfy
I can help some some weapon styles.
I like the lvl 35 rare Bandit kit. I use these skins on all my exotic weapons (except for the greatsword …)

The Bandit skins I currently have:
Longbow
Shortbow
Warhorn
Axe
Dagger
Harpoon Gun
Spear

I can craft the remaining melee weapons:
Hammer
Sword
Mace
Greatsword
Shield

So, if you need these, give me a shout.

PS: You might need to find some one else for the Staff, Focus and Trident

Cheers!

I actually like the Orr maps, particularly Malchor’s Leap and the Cursed Shore for the harvest nodes, and loot drops. I went into these maps at lvl 80 with full exotics, and having fully explored all the other regions.

I have solo explored and farmed these maps regularly with a ‘glass cannon’ ranger without any problems. As others have mentioned, you need to pick your routes carefully, avoid the wandering champs, and engage when you need to, and to keep moving cos things will re-spawn quickly. You need good planning and tactics to survive these areas playing solo.

These maps are not like the other areas, and are meant to be tough, so if you see other players on the map, and there will be some for the harvesting, tag along and ask in /s if they would like to help you with skill points and the like.

Having said that, if your build, kit and play style does not allow you to at least deal with more than one risen mob at a time, then you need to reassess your character and play style.

I have never played an ele, and have no desire to, but I did party with one for awhile. This ele was traited for survival (toughness and vitality) with some condition damage, so survivability was as good as it got for an ele, but the problem was damage output. Low crit chance and no power meant water pistol base damage.

The main damage came from whatever conditions the various attunements could add. It took the ele a lot to bring down standard mobs in mid-level maps, so the Orr mobs were a serious challenge. When partied up in Orr, our main tactic was ele puts down AoE combo field (usually fire) and I shot through it for added condition damage. This worked very well.

Hope this helps ..

@Ayrilana
You should not ignore your pets!
The ranger class is designed based on damage from both you and your pet. Ignoring it means you loose damage output. Also some pets remove conditions,and apply boons to both you and allies. You might as well play a warrior if you ignore your pets …

No limit I am aware of .
The only restriction that I know of is that the items must be of similar type. So, 4 armour pieces, or 4 weapons, even 4 aqua breathers. The forge interface will tell you which pieces are compatible by graying out the ones that cannot be used in your inventory selection screen.

@Andykay
I understand where you are coming from, I work with statistical analysis every day. However, with MMO game loot drops and functionality we are not dealing with a natural system where standard principles of randomness applies.

We have no idea what tweaks Anet does with the weekly ‘maintenance’ updates, Sure, they make drop announcement for things like special events, but for the weekly updates and you can be assured anything like loot drop tweaks would not be made public.

The game is still very young, and I am sure Anet hasn’t settled on a ‘sweet spot’ yet for loot balance. This is why we get so many threads on nerfed drop rates for this and that. Put simply, Anet are in control and we never know from one week to the next how things are going to play out.

said after some player runs past you training 5 mobs …

“wt ….. "

Some pets require less management than others, so it is about using ones that compliment your play style.

The ranged pets (devourers & spiders) are generally easier to manage than the higher damage, more ‘squishy’ ones like cats.

Rangers are fun class to play, but can understand if the class is not to your liking. It does take awhile for a ranger to grow, so give the class some time – at least lvl 20-30 ..

Well, if you have 3 more of the same type you can toss it into the Mystic Forge and see what you get …

Signet of Renewal is one of the very few condition removals rangers have!
In case you haven’t noticed, we are bit short on these …

Yes, SoR could be improved, but even in it’s current state, how is this bad??
Try using the Marks trait line, you will find signet mastery and signet of the beastmaster in there. These 2 improve signet use.

If you use signets at all, then Signet Mastery (reduces CD) and Signet of the Beastmaster (signet effects on pet, applies to you as well) are a must.

I always run with Signet of Stone, and will swap in Signet of Renewal for a trap if going into dungeons or any situation where there will be a lot of mob conditions. I never use Signet of the Hunt, and still won’t use it after the up-date …

As a ranger, your class mechanic is pets. However, before you can use pets, you need to find them, and they are 41 pets scattered all over the various maps.

Going to all these maps to collect pets, and exploring each map to 100% will get you to level 50. So, go get your pets ….

I disagree with Kaii …

Though builds, armour stats, runes and sigil, you can easily get to over 60% crit chance without sacrificing too much. Also, a lot depends on your class, play style and what you do, eg, solo PvE, or PvP or WvW …

I have successfully solo’ed a high crit chance (glass cannon) ranger through every PvE map in the game and farmed mats Orr. Plus, it was a lot of fun to play!

The difference between a 1 in 2 and a 2 in 3 chance of a crit is huge, particularly if you use sigils that trigger off crits. If you play ranged, you kill most single targets before they get near you.

Yes, you are not a tank, but then some classes are not meant to be. You learn how to dodge, evade, kite and pull mobs. You learn how, when and where to pick your fights.

If you do decide to go more defense to play a different role, then you can easily do so though accessories, and armour. And all the tricks you learned while ‘squishy’ will keep you on your feet that much longer.

EDIT: Just to add, I was playing longbow/greatsword with this build, and no problems going melee against vets and any pals.

nldixon.8514:

bri.2359:

My reasons are due to poor trait options in the defense trait lines and the role I want to play as a ranged damage dealer, at least as much as I can. I can maintain a 50% crit chance without being too squishy.

Rangers have some of the best defensive traits in the game. You crazy!

Not the first time I have been told that!

When I look at the options in the Nature Magic and Beastmaster trait-lines, yes, there are a couple of possibilities, but I see nothing that makes me want to shift 30 or more points of offensive options to access them. The all seem a bit meh too me …

@deepwinter

Yes, I know all about mob leash distances, but what you failed to understand is you need to stop at some point. Or do you just run from settlement to settlement doing nothing in between?

I don’t do PvP or WvW. I will write this again, I don’t do PvP or WvW!
So, I don’t give a toss what a Thief can or cannot do. You want to run like a Thief in WvW, then play a Thief. Problem solved!

Meanwhile the dev’s can work on fixing all the many ranger problems that actually need fixing! Sorry, but I see this SotH buff as something even more useless for PvE than the underwater weapons buff we got in the last update.

If we told you, it would get nerfed …

Ah! Sorry !!
Somehow Charged became Corrupted in my brain …

Well, if you ever need corrupted lodestones, now you know where to get them …

One thing you will need to spend karma on while leveling are aqua breathers.They don’t require much karma to buy, but you will need to up-grade when you explore the higher level maps.

The best aqua breather (lvl 80 masterwork) is sold by a karma vendor in the Cursed Shore …

You can ‘farm’ charged lodestones off the spawns from the crystals during the Jormag dragon event in Frostgorge Sound.

However, this requires Jormag to be ‘up’ for a considerable length of time. In other words this means everyone ignoring the ice wall and Jormag so the event continues to spawn more crystals…

Mercypsy.9602:

bri.2359:

LA looks like a mix of a funeral and a goth convention …

I’m a necromancer so I’m okay with that

Lol!! Ok. a goth section for all the necros ….
Just not near the crafting stations, please … !

I agree with the OP

I have explored every PvE map in the game, and there is no situation where I needed a 25% speed buff outside of combat. All you will do is train more mobs onto other players or onto yourself!

Try doing a speed run through any of the Orrs maps and see how far you get. The only speed increase will be in how faster you die ..

I found Midnight Fire was ok for trim, but rather terrible for anything else on my ranger. This is why I got tired of all those dark and ‘midnight’ type dyes.

Come on people, use a bit of creativity!!
LA looks like a mix of a funeral and a goth convention …

attended / looted / no mail

Yes, not only have overall dye drop rates dramatically altered since launch (both up and down), the drop rate for rare dye, and to some extent uncommon dye has been nerfed recently.

Abyss dye dropped for me around 2-3 weeks after game launch. I didn’t know at the time how sought after and valuable it would become, otherwise I would never have activated it. I don’t even use it anymore. It is actually a rather boring dye and you see it around too much. Same goes for that white dye (Celeste).

I had a nice blue dye (Sapphire) drop for me a few weeks ago, and this is now my main armour dye with Mahogany and Adobe for trim and leather parts. My small fringe areas are a yellow dye (Lemon). This makes for much more distinctive kit, without being garish. I can actually see my character now in zergs of black kit … The only rare dye in this lot is the blue Sapphire.

My advice, is look at the dye selection you have based on hue, not set type. Experiment with the dyes you have, and I am sure you can come up with something more original and interesting than black, grey and white, or any equivalent.

If you really think you are still missing something, then go to the TP and find a common or uncommon dye that fills the hue you are looking for.

EDIT: just wanted to add my leggings are blue ice …

I have a 30/30/10/0/0 build.

I use superior sigil of perception (stacks 250 precision) on my longbow, and superior sigil of force (+5% damage) on my shortbow.

I should say shortbow is not my PvE secondary weapon. I use either a greatsword (superior sigil of battle) or axe/warhorn when out farming mats and exploration. My axe also has a superior sigil of perception, and my warhorn has a superior sigil of accuracy (+5% crit chance).

I just up-graded my harpoon and spear to exotic.
I went Rampager stats for the harpoon and Berserker for the spear.

Now, I need some sigils for them, and looking for some suggestions. I suppose sigils that add a straight bonus, like the sigil of force (+5% damage) make the most sense.

Which sigils do you prefer for underwater weapons??

My guild on Gunnar’s Hold is putting together a team of at least 40 players to do the entire event chain. The priest battle is only the last part of 6 group events …
See for yourself: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temple_of_Balthazar

Completing the entire chain of 6 events opens up more loot rewards at the end, but takes a large group of very well coordinated players, cos it is very hard to do. Probably one of the most difficult things in the game. Lvl 80’s with full exotics (no MF kit, please…) and voice chat are required …

Yes, Gunnar’s Hold !
What Morrigan said … and some nice big guilds as well.

For Jormag, I always stay back on the ridge near the tents and cannons. I farm the mobs that spawn from the crystals and don’t bother with the ice wall or the dragon.

There is always a champ icebrood wolf with mega hit points that spawns during the final sequence. I concentrate on the vets, but it often finds me cos I am dealing a lot of damage. With the zerg down at the dragon, there are never enough players on the ridge to deal with it.

If more people ignored the dragon and stayed back to farm the spawns, they would get more, and probably better loot, than from the chest. The dragon is not going anywhere, and when it dies before you kill off the spawns, the spawns disappear and you lose the potential loot,

I don’t understand why more people haven’t figured this out yet ..

Mainly the harpoon gun for me as well. This is always my opening attack. I swap to the spear for mobility and aoe damage when surrounded by mobs. For pets, I use an armour fish and jellyfish.

I actually like the underwater environment and combat, plus I always take water short cuts for quicker map travel. Also, lots of harvest nodes down there ..

Full set of Ranger runes for me …
Even put a 7th in my aqua breather to keep the +5% damage with a pet.

@woodt
I use Berserker stats for all my weapons, except for my shortbow. That currently has Rampager stats.

Primary: Longbow, for general PvE and farming or Shortbow for close quarter skirmish situations

Secondary 1: Greatsword
Secondary 2: Axe/warhorn
Secondary 3: Shortbow (when not used as primary)

You can buy a lvl 80 rare Soldier’s back piece (P/V/T) off the TP for a 1s 50c.
I know this cos I bought one last evening …

As for the other trinkets, I know P/V/T cannot be crafted, so perhaps from loot drops and/or map completion rewards.

All the Orrian weapons skins drip water, if you fancy the just-stepped-out-of-the-shower look …

I like Frostgorge for the harvest nodes and mat farming, so I’m usually camped there for 2 days in a row, then back to Orr for 2 days, rinse and repeat. I follow the timers and will do Jormag at least once each day when in FG, sometime twice if I get the timing right. On weekends I might do the one in Sparkfly as well ..

I have looted 2 rares over my last 10 dragon events, the rest is the usual crap blues and greens. I don’t count those lvl 60 and 80 medallions as proper loot, so, the rare drop rate for me is 20%, I have never looted an exotic from a dragon …

This was never going to end well ….