Guild Wars 2

Ok, here is my contribution
I have a 4 toons that can go ‘ninja’ and I could not decide between them, so here they all are.

First image

Human necro

Exalted Mask
Exalted Mantle
Illustrious Doublet
Illustrious Breaches
Student Gloves
Aurora Shoes

Dyes: Abyss, Midnight Fire, Midnight Red, Oxblood, Cobalt, Tarnished Silver
————

Second Image

Sylvari Mesmer

All armour is Sylvari cultural T3

Dyes: Deep Glacial Sky, Midnight Ice, Frost
————-

Third image

Sylvari Thief

All arnour is Sylvari cultural T2, except for the leggings that are Sylvari cultural T1

Dyes: Midnight Red, Midnight Fire, Celestial
————-

Fourth image

Human Ranger (with the new greatsword)

Subterfuge Hood
Shoulders and gloves are hidden
Sneakthief chest and leggings
Human cultural T1 boots

Dyes: Midnight Gold, Ash, Cobalt
—————

Varezenem.2813:

bri.2359:

Varezenem.2813:

That is not even a katana it’s a nodachi/oodachi and it was obvious from the beginning. I like it that way =p.

Yup, and I will be getting this for my ranger …

² rangers great-sword skills fit perfectly with this nodachi.

I know ..:p
Been looking/waiting for a decent GS skin for my ranger since launch!

Varezenem.2813:

That is not even a katana it’s a nodachi/oodachi and it was obvious from the beginning. I like it that way =p.

Yup, and I will be getting this for my ranger …

No, you are not the only one …

At launch and for around 6 months after loading times were dreadful, then later in 2013 there was an ‘update’ that improved things a bit. Now, they are creeping back to the bad old days since those tendrils started appearing at the wp’s.

I blame it on resources diverted to the China release, and LS 2.
EDIT: and megaserver …

This is what I do ..

White
Salvage all with Basic kit

Blue
Salvage all with Basic kit for mats and essence of luck

Green (armour only)
Salvage all with Basic kit for mats and essence of luck

Green (weapons only)
Mystic forge for a chance at a rare weapon

Yellow (armour only)
Salvage all with Mystic kit for mats, ecto, and major runes
The major runes either go into the MF for a chance of a superior rune, or are listed on the TP.

Yellow (weapons only)
Mystic forge for a chance at an exotic weapon

Orange (armour only)
Salvage with Black Lion kit for mats, ecto, insignia, dark matter, and runes

Orange (weapons only)
Check price of weapon and/or sigil on the TP
If weapon is selling for more than 3g, list it on the TP
If weapon is selling for under 3g, will forge with 2 other randoms and forge stone for a chance at a better one
If weapon has a desirable sigil worth close to or more than the weapon/sigil combined, salvage with Black Lion kit for mats, ecto, inscription, dark matter, and sigil

Been playing since launch

The Legend
Mystic Forge (3 random exotics + MF stone)
June 2013

Leaf of kudzu
Mystic Forge (3 random exotics + MF stone)
July 2014

Oh, and I sold both …

Yeah, I did this once, and never will again …
It took transferring to another server for a week to complete my mapping, back when transfers were free.

Regarding being pushed into WvW ..

The odd thing for me was that had I been able to wander into WvW if/when I wanted to. I would have enjoyed it enough to do a lot more of it.

Because I was pushed into it for world completion, i resented this so much I never went back after I finished mapping. That was over 1.5 years ago.

So the notion of pushing players into WvW to stimulate interest, certainly backfired in my case.

Ensign.2189:

Look, if you ‘get’ money there isn’t a big difference at this point between saving up for a precursor and saving up for the gift of fortune – the price isn’t even that different – but psychologically people have no trouble saving up materials for the gift but just break saving up for the precursor, and it’s not the job of the game to teach people personal finance.

I would take this even further.
gift of fortune = ~2000g
precursor = ~1000g

Some legendary weapons sell for less than 3000g, so my point is, if you want a legendary, just buy one … So what if it is not Dusk or Eternity, believe me, no one cares ..

If you want a cool skin, then craft something using a MF recipe like Infinite Light, a nicer skins than Bolt, imo. You can knock yourself out saving up for 250 charged lodestones, if you want a reachable goal.

OP, I have both of these, so here is my take

If you are looking for a class that will be easier to get 100% world completion, then go with necro. Necros have a high health pool, and can be built to be almost indestructible.

Personally I do not like minions, since the AI is even worse than ranger pets, if you can imagine that … Despite this, necros are still a decent solo exploration class.

However, you need to think what you want to do after lvl 80 and world completion. In PvE, your options are limited, because no one wants a necro for dungeons, and the main role in PvE for a condition necro is killing husks at the THW event. Necros are more effective in PvP and WvW, if you want to play these game modes.

As for mesmer, solo exploration is not as easy as with some other classes. You can do it, but it will take you longer than using a necro. Many players level mesmers though crafting and various tomes. Where mesmers shine is at lvl 80.

You have more build and play style option with a mesmer than you do with a necro. Plus, dungeon groups often want a mesmer along for support skills, like portals, invisibility, reflection, and for crowd control. However, to be most effective in dungeons, you will need to play a phantasm build and run with sword/xxx. For open world PvE, you can play a ranged shatter build quite effectively.

Check out: Kai Mesmer PvE Compendium
You should be able to find this in the mesmer sub-forum

I created a shatter mesmer because of this guide

TP bots are alive and well, and have been for many, many months now.

There was a thread in this sub-forum some months back where at least one player running a TP bot explained how his worked in order to justify running one.

To battle them off, you need to keep raising your buy orders until you reach the bot’s upper buy order limit, or until the account running the bot temporarily runs out of gold to place buy orders.

Both methods require you to have a deep gold reserve, depending on what you are buying.

Anet has turned a blind-eye to these because they are nigh impossible stop, and they operate in a ToS ‘grey zone’

Oh, and every thread created discussing TP bots gets deleted after a few minutes, so do not expect this one to last very long

EDIT: Just to add, you can easily tell when buy orders are placed by a bot, compared to those placed by a ‘human’ …

No more Unidentified Dye drops since 15/04
There are only 3 acquisition methods

From the wiki:

Black Lion Chest (Unlocked)
Laurel Merchant — 5 Laurels
Mystic Forge — Combine any four, rare, spectrum-specific unidentified dyes crafted by a Chef, e.g. Unidentified Red Dye (Rare)

And no, they are not account bound ..

phys.7689:

2) your concept that dynamic events are static events, because you have seen them before, is not accurate. dynamic means in motion, it does not mean newly generated or unique. Dynamic means in motion, i have studied dynamics, and statics in engineering and i can assure the difference is studying things that do not move versus things that move.

The ‘in motion’ you refer to implies a delta with start and end points, as anyone who studied physics would know …

The most accurate description for the so-called ‘dynamic’ events in GW2 is ‘cyclical closed system,’ All events have starting and ending conditions that stop or pause the events when either conditions are not met, then advance until conditions are met, and then repeat, and so on …

This is does equate to ‘dynamic’, in any vocabulary I am familiar with.

For those of you defending or claiming GW2 events are dynamic, because they scale, are desperately grasping at straws.

First, let look at scaling, as currently implemented, separate from ‘dynamic’ events,

The concept, as I understand it, adjusts the number and/or type of mob(s) that spawn in a given location based on a proximity algorithm. Essentially it executes a /supplyinfo command at a particular point in time, tallies the number against a list-table that sets the mob type (vet, elite, champ, etc.) and numbers.

If a number of players run out, or run into, of the proximity area after the sampling count, the algorithm cannot adjust for this until the next sampling occurs, if it does occur. Regardless, the mobs have spawned according to the first sample.

This is a predetermined system based on a number count at a specific point in time.
This is not a dynamic system.

So, claiming a predetermined system integrated into a cyclical closed system somehow transforms it all into a ‘dynamic’ system is just wrong on so many levels.

Having 500+ skins where all but a handful either all look the same (medium ‘coats’, masks, etc) or are ‘starter’ kit, or look terrible (most dungeon kit), is not about having choice, it is about bad design. And then there is all the clipping issues and mismatched dye channels ..

I agree with the OP.
I would prefer having far less quantity with higher standards of quality and variations to appeal to more tastes.

GW2 just has lots and lots of poor quality, ugly skins ..

Rampager: Balthazar
Cleric: Dwayna
Rabid: Lyssa
Magi: Melandru
Berserke: Grenth
Soldier Arah Entrance

All the pieces are there, and no more running to 2 or 3 temples to buy a full set

Brother Grimm.5176:

bri.2359:

The weapons to stay away from in PvE are scepter and staff. Both are sub-par for the type of encounters you will face.
….

Yeah…gotta disagree heavily with Scepter and Staff has it’s place. Neither are huge DPS generators, but I can put out constant Clones (for shatters) with both. Sans, Dungeon use, neither of those weapons are horrible if used correctly (tho, I do agree that Staff is not going to be the best solo weapon out there).

Well, I ran a zerker shatter mesmer in PvE for a year, and never once used a scepter or staff. Between greatsword and sword/xxx and utility skills, and dodging, I always had plenty of clones up. I cannot think of a single situation where I wish I had equipped a scepter or staff.

Furthermore, there are no PvE mesmer builds (mantra, old reflection, new reflection, non-mantra) that use scepter and staff. For many of these builds you do not need a greatsword unless you really must go ranged combat.

The most effective PvE mesmers (particularly in dungeons) run MH sword with OH sword or focus, or pistol, depending on the situation. That is all you need, along with knowing which utility skills to equip and when to use them.

The weapons to stay away from in PvE are scepter and staff. Both are sub-par for the type of encounters you will face.

As other have said, greatsword is your best option while leveling, For your second weapon set, it is situational. I used sword/focus a lot, mainly for the focus 4 speed buff.

However the mesmer’s best damage output is with sword/sword. Leaning to play melee on a mesmers is not easy, and you will need to set your traits and utilities accordingly. A mesmers does have some decent survival skills, but it is all about assessing the situation you are in and timing things correctly.

Zaoda.1653:

1) They are difficult to match to armor (Cinder’s dye is probably one of the closest ‘cream’ colored dyes to match the ley line colors, …

.

Here is a link to a colour palette, including the complementary colours, that is pretty close to one used for the ley-line skins.

http://paletton.com/#uid=31e0u0kllllaFw0g0qFqFg0w0aF

This should help anyone looking for ideas on how to colour coordinate with these skins.

Woljnir.7810:

Astral Projections.7320:

Woljnir.7810:

Snip
Because of that, I’ve accepted I won’t be having even one Legendary
Snip

If you just want a Legendary to have a Legendary then there are at least 3 precursors priced at 80 to 90 gold. Rodgort’s Flame, Rage and Venom. Carcharias is currently about 120 (buy) to 145 (sell). If you don’t have your heart set on one of the high priced ones, a precursor is definitely within reach.

(Shrug) it’s what I did. There wasn’t a Legendary I particularly wanted but when I saw how cheap Rodgort’s Flame was I decided to get it anyway.

You could always make the Legendary from the cheap precursor, sell it and use those funds to go toward a precursor for one you really want.

That’s a pretty good idea. Maybe I’ll have to look into that. I probably have enough money to make a crappy Legendary at decent cost to make a profit in the long run.

Before heading down this path I strongly advise you to do careful research.

Last week I pulled Leaf of Kudzu out of the forge.
All I need to craft Kudzu are the icy runestones, a bloodstone shard, around 20 piles of crystalline dust, and to buy the recipes for gifts of wood and nature, and run TA dungeon around 5-6 times for the tokens. I have all the other mats.

However I decided to check the value of all the mats compared to the sell/buy offers for Kudzu on the TP. I was quite surprised with the results …

I will break this down for you as follows (prices from 22/07/2014):

Gift of Mastry: 50 silver, but a shed load of karma and skill points and some BoH
Gift of Fortune: 1052g (TP lowest sell); 1005g (TP lowest buy)
Gift of Kudzu: 845g (TP lowest sell); 813g (TP lowest buy)

So, these add up to 1898g (TP lowest sell); 1818g (TP lowest buy)

Leaf of Kudzu: 730g (TP lowest sell); 710g (TP lowest buy)

Kudzu: 2700g (TP lowest sell); 2350g (TP lowest buy)

Now for the interesting part ..

I consider the value of the mats based on their lowest sell offer.
So if I craft Kudzu then sell it to the lowest buy offer, subtracting the 15% TP ‘tax’, I will loose 20g based on the value of the mats!

Even if I considered the highest buy offers for the value of the mats, I would make only around 20g.

listing Kudzu at, or close to, the current lowest sell offer, would net me around 300g, or10% profit, which is a terrible RoI, and take much longer to sell.

My advice, check before crafting, particularly if you are looking for a quick financial turn-around though selling a legendary to the lowest buy offer. You would be better off selling all the mats at or close to current sell offers, then using that gold to buy the precursor you want

Arewn.2368:

Thanks for the answers. I’m on NA, ill try looking at the guilds.
Hearing that there’s still this “wait for an hour so that you get in” nonsense is incredibly disheartening though.

Waiting 45 min is not ‘nonsense’ if you want to succeed at these events …

Also, have you read up on Teq and THW events? Have you prepared your character with the proper build, armour, utility skills? Do you have consumables, sharpening stones, food buffs??

If you answer ‘no’ to any of the above, then show up unprepared on a map 5 min before Teq or Wurm spawns, you get what you deserve …

I do not mean to be harsh, I am telling you this as a commander with 200+ Teq kills and around 130 THW kills.

OP, the first thing to keep in mind when looking at dye effects is your monitor, graphics and shader settings. These have a significant impact on how dye and details are rendered in-game. What might look dull brown on your monitor, might look quite different on another set-up.

Having said that, as you progress though levels of armour, usually the quality of the dye channels improves as well. However this is double edged as your fine and masterwork dyes that looked ok on your level 40-something coat, can look dullish and lack detail on some exotic armour. This is particularly noticeable with expensive cultural T2 and T3 armour.

For these armours, you want the rare dyes that better enhance details and add some colour depth and variations in luster, etc. The very best dyes are the special event dyes that occasionally appear in the gem shop, or you can buy off the TP. However, these are very expensive ..

Regarding Midnight Red, the previous posters have explained how it works. If you do not like the dye effect you are seeing now, be patient. Once you acquire higher level armour, the dye will come into it’s own. It is a nice dye.

I am not sure if this has been asked yet, but I have some questions for John regarding RNG as implemented in GW2.

Were you involved with the initial design of this, and if so, were other options discussed? Was the decision to implement the current version based on economic or game design factors, or a bit of both?

Is the algorithm constantly monitored and tweaked, or is set and let run for a certain period of time while you collect/analyse data?

When I first saw these, I thought here are some skins worth spending 13 tickets on. However, after previewing them a few times on different toons, they lost some of their initial appeal.

The big problem for me are the bows and blades. Axe. dagger, sword, greatsword and both bows all need to be at least 1/3 to 1/2 reduced in size. I do not mind a ‘carved-from-rock’ look, since historically, the first blade weapons/tools were made this way, but I don’t like the way this has been implemented here.

The other Ley-line skins are quite nice and unique, but are difficult to match up with existing weapon skins.

Vanilla gw2 graphics are dreadful because Anet needs to cater to players still running potato computers from 10 years ago.

Try running something like the SweetFX enb for improved texture sharpness. You can adjust this to your liking. This makes a huge difference in rendering all in-game textures with a minimal FPS hit. You can also adjust contrast and brightness.

I use the SweetFX enb with the highest in-game graphics settings on a 2 year old self-built desktop computer. The Ley Lines skins have some of the best details I have seen in BL skins in a long time. So, do not claim lack of details in these textures just because you cannot render them properly.

Caliga Meshima.4768:

digitalruse.9085:

I liked the shield, so decided to pick it up. It has quite the nice little sound effect when drawn:

http://offsite.theruse.net/sounds/leylineshield.mp3

All of the Leyline weapons have a sound when you unsheath them.

The shortbow does not have the sound animations, this is the only one missing

I took ‘regions’ to mean different in-game map regions. i.e. not being to join on (taxi on) a player in Spark Fly if you were in LA.

You were never able to taxi players across EU/NA.

Mount Malestrom has loads of embers in the volcano and lava caves.

Also lots in Orr around the statues and poi’s/skillpoints

Wow, still these threads appear, 10 months after the event was changed …

OP, if you show-up at Teq 5 min before spawn, you deserve what you get, an empty map and a failed event.

I command at Teq, and usually post a taxi notice in LFG if the map we are organising is not full 25 min before spawn. Players who actually want to succeed this event arrive prepared 30-45 min before spawn.

So many guilds and randoms successfully do this event now, the price of Teq minis on the TP has crashed. If you have not figured out how to get on an organised map by now, then go do Maw or Shatterer instead ..

At least 200 kills here, no hoard yet …

Evans.6347:

Sure, and their F1 can be a ranged spit attack that causes blindness.

Raven F1 does blindness ..

Rangers are missing a pet that causes torment

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Elementalist is the king of damage so I wouldn’t expect to getting equal numbers on any other class.

My thief says ‘hello’ while eating ele’s for snacks …

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Guardian is popular because they can pile on a lot of support buffs and basically AFK through a lot of content. However, they do not buff well offensively so you will likely find that it takes longer than you would like to solo a lot of stuff, and your ability to receive buffs from allies in group content is directly proportional to the quality of the group, so playing guardian may result in a lot of situations where neither your party nor the enemy are taking damage.

You clearly know nothing about guardians or playing one

A full zerk 4/5/0/0/5 GS guardian in scholar runes can do more sustained damage than a warrior, while still throwing out some support buffs. Also, it seems you know nothing about guards ability to stack group might And no decent guardian player would build bunker/support for dungeons/PvE because they would be utterly useless.

I went to Dry Top for the first time 2 days ago, completed the story instance, opened the wp’s but will never go back there again.

I don’t like jumping puzzles and the aspect travel got very boring for me soon after the first time it was introduced last year.

Oh and the first npc dialogue or story content I see with the word ‘Scarlet’ in it, I skip over or tune out.

So yeah, LS 2 lost me in first few lines of dialogue.
The content is not worth giving a score.

Chase.8415:

calyx.9086:

Hmm, no problems here, most times I land in the same shard as party and guild members, unless that shards is really packed (Dry Top the first few days), or because those guild/party members are based on a different home server.

Same here, experienced no problems with MegaServer. The only time I run into issues where they are on a different megaserver is when the map is really full and I am unable to join their map. If that’s the case they just join mine and the issue is fixed.

You have never done organised Tequatl or THW events, have you?

Megaserver is broken and working as intended …

Welcome to Anet’s way of doing things …

Genius/deranged sylvari rounded up minions, attacked various areas, blew up LA and died … Oh, and she woke up some dragon …

OP,
A few months back I pulled The Legend out of the MF. I already had all the clovers, world completion, gift of battle, stacks of T6 mats. etc. All I needed was around 150 unidentified dyes, that I could have easily bought. However, the game-breaker for me were the Arah tokens. No way was going to run that dungeon for the number of tokens I needed, so I sold The Legend.

Regarding which is better, twilight or biofrost for a mesmer, it depends on how you play your mesmer. I run a shatter mesmer exclusively in PvE. Apart from unlocking the skills, I have never used a staff since on my mesmer, I only use greatsword and occasionally sword/focus. I don’t even have a lvl 80 staff for this character.

Regardless of which legendary you want, just buy it. Oh, and doing 100% world completion is a far more ‘epic’ task than crafting a fancy skin …

Nerelith, well said!
+1 to you!!

Anyone thinking megaserver is a positive or good step forward for this game, drank the kool-aid …

More fiends and guildies left the game in the 2.5 months since 15/04/2014 than during the entire time between launch and 15/04/2014 …

Alaric.3980:

I’m wondering why you guys picked the classes that you did, whether you have only one main or several level 80’s that you play. Why that class, and which way do you play it? I THINK every class can tank/heal/dps but I’m not sure.

I have 5 level 80’s, and play them all, so do not really have a main anymore.

I began playing a ranger from launch for 4-5 months, did 100% world, then created a guardian to focus on dungeons and more difficult PvE content. I still use the ranger for dailies, some world bosses, PvE content and guild mission. But my ‘go to’ class for dungeons or anything difficult is my guardian.

A few months after the guardian, I created a mesmer after reading a very amusing guide on leveling and playing a shatter mesmer. I now use this for any PvE content requiring ranged combat since the class is the best at this in the game, imo.

When the Tripple-Headed Wurm event was introduced, I leveled a condi necro just for this event. This is all I use it for, but did take it into the battle of LA quite a bit when that was running.

My last and final character is a thief. I tried this class during the 3-day head start and didn’t like it that much, so deleted it and created a ranger instead. Now that I am much more familiar with the game, I appreciate the role a thief has, and constantly amazed at the damage output this class can do. Plus it is a fun class to play. Since the recent changes at Tripple-Headed Wurm event, there is less need for necros, and have been bringing my thief to this event instead of the necro.

TurtleDragon.3108:

bri.2359:

You want to stack and sustain might.

So, first look at your weapons. If you are using sigils of strength and/or battle and can afford runes of strength, go for those. The cheaper alternative are runes of Hoelbrak. These are what I use…

If your only source of might is from your pet, then forget runes of strength. If you don’t like runes of the scholar, try ruby orbs. They are surprisingly good for what they cost, particularly if you cannot keep your health above 90% for scholar bonus.

Ruby orbs aren’t good anymore and should not be recommended post ferocity patch.

You should be relying on your team to provide you might, since you won’t get 25 might stacks by yourself as a ranger. Sigil of strength and battle have high opportunity costs, as they replace a 5% or 10% damage modifier in order to maintain a bonus from a runeset that was already inferrior to both scholar and ranger.

Yeah, I agree the ruby orbs are not that great anymore, but still a cheap option until one cam afford something better..

However, you are wrong about sigils of strength. I mainly solo open-world PvE,
running sword/xxx and axe/axe with MH sigils of strength and OH sigils of force.

I can easily, and very quickly, generate 25 stacks of might by myself, and sustain a good portion of this through fights of any length on both myself and my pet.

Regarding relying on teams for might ..

How many pugs do you know that understand what might is, let alone able to stack it?
Unless you constantly play with the exact same 5 players for all the game content, then forget about relying on a team for might.

If you want might, then you need a build that can generate and sustain enough of it yourself. I have no need of a team to stack might …

You want to stack and sustain might.

So, first look at your weapons. If you are using sigils of strength and/or battle and can afford runes of strength, go for those. The cheaper alternative are runes of Hoelbrak. These are what I use…

If your only source of might is from your pet, then forget runes of strength. If you don’t like runes of the scholar, try ruby orbs. They are surprisingly good for what they cost, particularly if you cannot keep your health above 90% for scholar bonus.

Mada.5319:

Elstar.7864:

“all you need is an organized group” + “open world event” + “megaserver” = “epic fail”. especially when there is no way to select a proper instance by yourself.

I fail to see how this is a problem with the actual event itself. This is an issue regarding the megaservers, not the event. Even then, it’s easy enough to find an empty instance and taxi your people in.

I agree that this is not a problem with the actual event, however, it is impossible to find an empty instance because no such thing exists.

All you can do, if you have 90+ players logging in from character screen all at the same time, is ‘force’ the creation of a new map instance. Even then, not all 90 will arrive on the same map, because some will soft cap previously existing maps until the new instance is created. You then need to ‘taxi’ those in before the new instance fills with randoms.

This was always the case, even before megaserver hit. We would guest to a low pop server, do the simultaneous log-in to either enter the actual server map or force an overflow if some player swere there before us.

Not this again …

Sunspear General.7964:

Yea I know they’re doable…but going there and failing on each attempt…or going there and finding no one is lame. I mostly want the achievements for these 2…and I work and go to school so it’s not like i can just sit in game and camp the 2 bosses all day trying to get the achievements.

I hate jumping puzzles, many are too hard and take too long only to fail close to the end. I work all day and just want to do easy, face-rolling game content. All I want are the achievements, so these puzzles should be nerfed, just for me …

See how stupid the statement I wrote seems??

No, Teq and THW events do not need to be nerfed.
And no, you do not need to camp these bosses ‘all day’ …

Have you even bothered to find out how these events work??
If you show-up 5min before spawn like you do for Maw or Shatterer, then you deserve to fail them every time.

I guess these achievements are just not for you …

I use these skins for my necro

Modniir Carver
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Modniir_Carver

Modniir Baton
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Modniir_Baton

Modniir Quarterstaff
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Modniir_Quarterstaff

darksilklips.3165:

So, now I’m thinking maybe Mesmer should be my second alt when I have some tomes saved up. Sounds like it’s loads of diverse fun… at high levels. (Or is that a cheap shot?)

Yeah, not much fun at lower levels, The way I dealt with leveling my mesmer was by using one of those 0 to lvl 20 scrolls,, leveling tomes, maxing 2 crafts and opening wp’s in low-level maps. I did the old Queensdale champ train for a bit as well. Once you get to the 60’s it is not so bad, although with the new leveling changes, this might not be true anymore ..

Check the Mesmer sub-forum for more info and guides. The best shatter mesmer guide I found was Kai’s Lazy Mesmer guide, also a fun read!

As for being squishy, I run full zerker, and when necessary my mesmer can hold her own in melee with sword/focus vs single or 2 targets. More than that, particularly if there is a lot of AoE around, can be a problem, but as long as you can generate clones you have escape options. Knowing how and when to dodge is the most critical thing about being successful with this class. If you cannot dodge properly, you will have a difficult time with a shatter mesmer.

darksilklips.3165:

I’m kind of leaning toward necro. Is there a reason you hate minions, bri?

The minion AI is even worse than the ranger pet AI, if you can imagine that!
Also the character models for the minions are horrible. If I want a pet, I will play my ranger ..
Bottom line on necros is that they fine in PvP and great in WvW if built properly. In PvE they are still meh. Fun factor aside, you still need to do damage and contribute something, particularly in dungeons. Necros do lots of condition damage and the way condition damage works in PvE is not in the nerco’s favour.
Yeah, you can try building a zerk/dps necro for PvE, but it means going melee dagger/warhorn, dagger/focus. Your only range option with this build is axe/focus, and this is not great. However, if this seem fun to you, then go ahead.

darksilklips.3165:

Guardian seems like a good option, too. How’s the AoE damage?

AoE damage is fine, guardians have a few AoE utility skills plus staff auto attack and #3 for AoE. Again. check out the guardian sub-forum for builds. I run a full zerk with scholar runes guardian with greatsword and staff. I do Tequatl daily with my guild on my guardian. My main role is to do high damage and provide reflects, might, and stability on turret/battery defense.
Keep in mind, guardian range options are pretty bad with only scepter. Fortunately, the situations where you must go ranged are not that many ..

For open world PvE, you cannot go wrong with sword/pistol.

Auto attack with Pistol Whip is really all you need. You get cleave, evades and do a shed load of damage. Run with either dagger/dagger for more damage or shortbow for a nice blast finisher, in the second weapon slot.

Guardians are not boring …

I mained a ranger for a long time before deciding on my first alt and went with a guardian. Never regretted it. Although current build diversity is not that great anymore, running a zerker/dps guard is a lot of fun.

My second alt was a mesmer. A pain to level, but once at 80 you have a few options. I went for a shatter mesmer, and this is the best ranged class in the game. You will never use your ranger for ranged combat situations again after running a mesmer.

Third alt was a condition necro, specifically to deal with champ husks at the Triple-Headed Wurm event. This is all I use the necro for, I don’t like minions, and have no interest in a zerk/dps necro because all my other alts are zerk/dps builds and do this much better.

My fourth and last alt is a thief. I like this class for the amazing damage output and evades. Run your squishy thief solo in PvE with sword/pistol and dagger/dagger and nothing will touch you. You will melt though mobs before they can hit you.

spoj.9672:

Well yeah. 6/6/0/0/2 is the ideal trait allocation for both zerker and condi necro. So that simplifies switching a little. You can also just use condi necro traits on the zerker build and it wont affect you too much (just swap close to death).

My opinion on optimal condi necro has changed btw. You now go full rabid with aristocracy runes and a sigil of battle. And run 2-3 signets and BiP (2 if you need epidemic).

Thanks for the reply!

Yup, still using 6/6/0/02, with carrion armour / scavager runes, rabid trinkets, and rampager weapons.

Will look into full rabid.

Cheers!

OP, the bad habit you can develop while playing a ranger is always staying at max range with a longbow and bear pet.

If you learn to play a melee ranger (sword/xx) and select you pets based on the situation, you will become a good ranger.

spoj, thanks for updating the guide!

Now for questions …

I posted earlier regarding a condimancer build for dealing with husks at the Wurm event. With the 15th April changes, I was wondering if what you suggested 3 months ago still holds?

Also related to the Wurm event …

Seems all Wurm spit can now be blocked, this includes the spit that spawns husks. The guilds that regularly do the Wurm event don’t know if this is a bug, or permanent stealth change. Regardless, with enough ele’s (or classes with point-capture prevention skills) this means fewer or no husk spawns, so little or no need for condimancers.

I have been doing this event for many months, with over 90 Wurm kills, as a condimancer, Now my guild now wants all the necros in the condition teams to go ‘zerker dps’, when necessary, but still have our condition builds available if some husks spawn.

As stupid as this seems to me, along with trying to completely swap out armour, trinkets, weapons and traits in the middle of a Wurm event, I thought I would ask if your DPS necro build would be a starting point for this.

Khorrax.2108:

They just had to monetize story as well, didn’t they?

I would not mind this if the story was actually .. you know …. good!

I missed 6 weeks of LS 1 last year, at least 2 or 3 LS ‘episodes’.
Given the overall quality of LS 1, I would never play the crap I missed, let alone pay 200 gems to do so. Furthermore, I see nothing from Anet that convinces me LS2 story will be any better quality than LS1.

Also, I see this new LS format introducing even more bugs every 2 weeks than each LS1 update did during season 1.

So no, I am not impressed with this change