Guild Wars 2

I was thinking about creating a warrior alt just for leveling 2 new crafting professions, but now seriously considering doing this as a new main …

I can re-cycle my weapons over to the warrior, but what to do with all my exotic medium armour??

JonPeters.5630:

Hi Anders, I’m totally not here …

Jon

Pretty much says it all …

Cheers for this!!
However, so depressing to see just how horrible looking all the human female medium armour is in this game …
These should be the ‘how not to’ images for armour designers ..

@OP
You should post this in the Ranger forum for more detail relating to how the class functions.

I play a ranger, and traiting the class is always a trade-off between damage output and survivability. You cannot do both and expect to have an effective ranger. Furthermore, the class has poor conditional removal traits/utilities. So, for this class I focus on vitality rather than toughness.

For leveling I went the ‘glass cannon’ build, all power, precision and crit chance/crit damage. My kit (armour & weapons) are all Berserker, my accessories are all Valkyrie

Yes, I am squishy, but I can kill things at range (longbow) before they close enough to do much or any damage. When I do go into melee (greatsaword) versus vets and the like, I need to watch my health, but with high trap damage, quickness and signet boosts I can easily survive.

Interesting build, but not my cuppa …

Just 2 suggestions
I see you using 2 signets but nothing in Marks for signet mastery and/or signet of the beastmaster. These 2 trait bonuses are pretty crucial for a signet heavy build, plus you get some much need power that this build lacks.

I find building for vitality more useful than toughness, but YMMV …

@Ranyella
The best advice I can give you is not to play demanding games on a laptop. They don’t have adequate cooling for the high stress/heat placed on the cpu and gpu while running these games. You will seriously shorten the life of the laptop.

Use the money to build a decent gaming desktop instead.

Also Fastweb near Rome, stuck in Cursed Shore loading screen !!
Had problems last evening also, this has been going on for sometime.
Someone get off your kitten and fix it!!

@OP
First, I play only PvE, and have no problems in stacking the perception sigil.

My base crit chance 48%. With the best sigil of fire or air, my odds of the sigil triggering is 1 in 6. I open with Hunter’s Shot, followed by Rapid Fire, then usually the knock-back shot, then repeat as necessary. That is 12 shots. With a 1 in 6 chance, I could expect1 trigger from the sigil during that cycle, then it goes on 5 sec cooldown and have no further access to the bonus. Also, I will need luck to get another crit hit during that cycle

With the superior sigil of perception, once it is fully stacked, my crit chance increases to over 60%. That is a constant 2 in 3 chance of a crit until you are downed or log off the game. Over a 12 shot cycle I can expect at least 2-3 crit hits.

Yes, you need to keep it fully stacked for the max bonus, but this is easy. Farm a field of moas for a few minutes and you you are at max stack. If you are too lazy or in a rush, in PvE you will find enough mobs around to fill the stack soon enough. Also, as you stack precision, you become more efficient …

If they fix issues with pets, some of the utility skills and the trait lines which are stiffing build variety, then this will be good enough for me.

Anyone expecting weapon damage buffs will be disappointed…

I received an exotic ring as part of the Straits map completion. It has worse stats than what I currently have, cannot salvage or sell the kitten thing on the TP, so is utterly useless! All I can do is vendor it for 3 crappy silver …

I was so pissed after solo’ing the kitten map…

lookitsandrea.8531:

So… is it basically like Skype?

These chat utilities are not skype! Skype requires a lot of computer processing resources and bandwidth to function. You do not want this while running a demanding on-line game at the same time. Plus skype is not that reliable, and has limited group chat unless you use the pro version.

These other utilities are free, voice-only and designed for on-line gaming, they run with much less resources. One person sets up remote server access and anyone who wants to voice chat installs a small client interface on their computer that logs onto this server. When you connect, you can chat with whoever is logged on the server.

I setup Mumble for the guild I am in, and like it. You can have up to 50 channels on a free server.

I use a Superior Sigil of Perception in my longbow.
Kill 25 trash mobs and it stacks 250 precision, giving a nice crit chance increase.

I will add the ‘explore’ suggestions.

The game rewards you well for exploration – all the discovered waypoints, PoI’s, vistas, and reveling sections of the map all add up, then you get an additional bonus for100% map completion. This along with doing the personal story will keep you leveling very quickly.

or so the theory goes …

I have yet to notice any difference. I have had crap drops with MF and good drops without it. I think the map and your toon level factor much more in the quality of drops than any MF boost…

Here is a link to everything you need to know about how to obtain high-level items:
http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/

Decide what you like, and see what is required to obtain it.
Cheers

I think all the Shiverpeak maps, visually, are the best in the game, with Dregehaunt Cliffs being my favourite. All the vista’s are amazing, with many places where you want to stop and take it all in. I liked the variety in wildlife and the quests (hearts) are much the same as anywhere else.

Ascalon maps are very much the same as Kryta, except for the ‘scarred’ zones and the metal structures. Not my favourite maps … I found the Maguuma maps the worst, the jungle and marsh areas look lame and I don’t like all the over-sized fungi and plants.

So, I would suggest the Norn starter maps

You heard wrong …
The merchants I have been to have lvl 80 kit, this includes both coin and karma merchants.

The problem is with the stats, these are lower than crafted lvl 80 exotics

@Kyouhei
I have been on Gunnar’s since game launch. Been in WvW only a few times. The wait is maybe 2min at most on a weekend. Don’t know if this is a long or short wait for you, but certainly much shorter than the LA overflow wait during the Halloween event.

If you play during a work day in a mid-level map, you might not see many other players, but evenings and weekends there are always others around for DE’s and group events. Starter areas always have players in them, and always someone around in the high-level maps.

I don’t know about transferring an entire guild. This will depend on size of your guild, and you might get some stick from the guilds currently active in WvW. So you might want to do some research beforehand.

If you want skimpy, I am afraid you need a light armour profession ..

I play a human female ranger and would take anything that was not a coat!! I have leatherworking 400, and there was nothing I recall during leveling that was not a coat. The Duelist was getting there, but still not what I was looking for.

As for other options, I find most human female medium armour the worst looking I have seen in a video game for over10 years, with some being downright hideous. This includes the cultural, order and most dungeon armour.

Only dungeon armour I have seen that is passable is from AC, but I don’t like the stats. My ranger is currently in Berserker exotics, this is still a ‘coat’, although a shorter one, and still don’t like it but better than nothing …

Lol!!
Yeah, I hear Gandarra and Aurora Glade are pretty good as well !

It is around a 15GB download.

Yup! Gunnar’s Hold
It is primarily an English EU server, and players seem pretty friendly. Also, we have a chapter of a cross-server guild there mainly for players wanting to help out other players.

Check out the this thread for more info:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/OPERATION-UNION-Bringing-Players-Together/page/7#post658867

Cheers!

I use lvl 80 exotics LB/GS.

I carry all the others around but rarely use them. I don’t like shortbow and sword/x, and axe/x is very situational for me.

I upgrade them with loot drops, but not with dropped rares or exotics. Those I either sell on the TP or salvage for ecto and the sigils.

Hey, I am a Canadian living in Italy, who plays on a mainly English speaking EU server since game launch. 95% of the map and local chat I see is in English.

Most of the other players I know on this server are Brits who seem to communicate just fine.

Why would you think there are no English EU servers??

Thanks Auesis!
I have come across loads of earth elementals, but never had a core drop. I’m in the wrong maps, I guess. Perhaps Orr has better drops …

Does anyone know locations for farming onyx mats (cores and lodestones)?
All the wiki says is earth elementals and TA …

Cheers

@OP

Here is a good guide that should answer all your questions:
http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/

1- Craft! It is not mandatory, but you gain XP and you can sell refined ingots, leather, cloth, etc. for a lot more on the Trading Post than just the ‘raw’ materials. You won’t get rich doing this, but it does supplement your overall gold accumulation that you will need when you hit lvl 80.
You can have 2 crafting professions active at once, and switch to other professions, but this will cost.

2- Lvl 30 is very low to be entering dungeons and the first one that becomes available to you is tough. Unless you are in a group with people who have done AC before, it will not be a pleasant experience for you. Best to wait until you have leveled some more and have access to better kit.

3- I don’t PvP …

4- Karma is not that great, IMO … The only things I bought using karma while leveling to 80 were aqua breathers and the odd harvesting tool. I have over 60k of the stuff. Unless you are interested in acquiring legendary weapons, or really like the look of some karma armour or weapons (to use as skins for transmuting), then it is pretty much useless.

5-As Garambola wrote, explore, explore and explore! The game rewards you well for exploration. Do not be concerned about leveling, this will happen more quickly than you think.

Finally, be cheap! Walk every where and avoid WP travel as much as possible (use the free travel to the Mist to get to LA and the gates to starter cities and maps), up grade your kit with loot drops, set a minimum item value to salvage and vendor the rest. Do all the DE’s you come across

But most important, have fun!!

Spreadsheets!! lol!
I use spreadsheets to help keep track of things like this ….
I had to set one up to help find all my ranger pets, and so this became my main map coverage record.

Debsylvania.7396:

Faction weapons are unique but pricey.
The little gears on it actually spin.

5 gold, 52 silver for a rare LB with mediocre stats is borderline highway robbery!
For that price it should wash my socks as well …

Gunnar’s Hold …
Been on it since launch, all map chat I have seen has been in English, apart from one time when I saw a bit of Dutch.

PS: PCGamer has a big guild on this server, if that helps you to decide..

There was a decent return a few days ago, now it has dropped.
I would wait until just before or during the next holiday event in December.

Here is my ranger with Abyss along with Midnight Gold and Midnight Fire trim.
Leggings are Malt

I thought server transfers were available once every 24hrs …

@OP
What server area are you in? NA or EU?

Last evening (from 9pm GMT+1 to midnight) no doors, and all meta events to open the doors on Gunnar’s Hold were borked….

Some of us work, so evenings are the only time we can play. Loosing an evening during a limited timed event means not being able to complete the event. Makes starting the event rather pointless …

Lesson to learn from this: avoid all future events …

Finally, some LB love from rangers who understand the weapon and know how to use it!!

I mainly PvE (no dungeons yet …) I dropped shortbows after lvl 20-something. It has been all LB for me to lvl 80. I briefly tried a SB again around lvl 60-something, but dropped after a few battles.

My build is the classic ‘glass cannon’: 30/30/0/0/10 with all Berserker exotic armour and weapons (LB/GS). No runes yet, saving up for a full set of Superior Doylaks to deal with my current squishyness.

Since hitting lvl 80, I have been helping a friend (an Ele…) level through some lower level maps, so being squishy has not been a problem. I should have enough gold for the Doylaks before hitting the tougher maps.

Btw, Ele and Ranger work well together. We have good attack tactics that take advantage of combo fields and conditions. The Ele is lvl 76 and not fully spec’ed yet. She is waiting to hit 80 to spec her final build.

Haven’t decided on sigils yet, but after reading this thread, will start shopping for a superior perception for the bow and the might stack one for the GS. Currently using
all Valkyrie jewelry.

Took me around 240 in-game hours.
In RL, from 3-day head start to around 2 weeks ago.

I first played a Thief until level 20-something, that took me through the 3-day head start. I then rolled a Ranger, and that has been my main since.

I was more interested in exploring and collecting all my ranger pets than leveling. The leveling just happened along the way. It took me longer cos I spent a lot of time lower level map areas to find the pets.

I will 2nd the krytan skin, plus it is very easy and cheap to buy on TP.
Just search for the lowest level krytan bow and use it to transmute.

I’m lvl 80, and the only thing I spent karma on while leveling were aqua-breathers and the odd harvesting tool. I have 60k of the stuff ..

I have no interest in legendary, and all the karma armour weapons I have seen so far have worse stats than my current exotics and are very ugly. I still have a few maps to do, so might be something out there skin-wise that I might like, but I doubt it…

Perhaps in future game up-dates there might be something useful for it.

My lvl 80 human ranger

@trinzen

From one old geezer to another, play a Ranger! Great class for solo PvE or in a group. For PvP (I don’t PvP) it seems a bit weak, according to all the whinging on the Ranger forum. The class is due to receive a much needed update soon…

Cheers!

@TakaEagle

I have yet to find any medium in this game that looks good. Not a fan of the ‘coats’, so this eliminates almost all of it. The only armour that I found marginally ok is the lvl 80 Berserker exotic (what my toon currently uses), and the kit from AC.

Nor are you including survivability …
Cats are squishy and a dead cat does not produce DPS.
You will need to constantly micro-manage them and/or swap them out as they die.

It is all about play style, but my main pet is a carrion devourer – good AI evade, decent toughness, with some damage, CC, and AoE condition
What more could you want in a pet??

I run an i5 (3.3GHz) with 2 GTX670’s in SLI
Been playing GW2 since game launch on full eye-candy and the first lag I had was last evening in Lion’s Arch cos of all the new activity. It was probably more of a server thing than my hardware, cos never seen this before during DE’s with lots of players and effects firing off.

Not sure if this helps …

Thanatos.5102:

System Components
Intel Core i7 3770K (s 1155 , 3.5 GHz , 8 MB)
MSI R7870 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC

I build my own gaming desktops, and always follow this rule-of-thumb:
Intel / Nvida, or AMD / ATI

Only other things are power and cooling.

Make sure you have a good PSU, and if you plan to run SLI or Crossfire at some point, the PSU needs to have adequate overhead to handle the additional GPU.

As for cooling, a well vented case and good fan positioning will let you OC.

Cheers!

All I can suggest, is not to mix Intel processors with ATI graphic cards …
Rule of thumb:
Intel / Nvida
AMD / ATI

Be a cheap kitten! This is how I reached lvl 80 with 16 gold in my pocket!

As others mentioned, walk everywhere and harvest everything you see in the mini-map. Do the DE’s around you, explore the maps to 100%. Sell the crafting mats you don’t use on the TP. Try not to die as much as possible, and wait for other players to rez you to avoid wp costs.

As for what to vendor or salvage, everyone has there own methods when it comes to this. For me, I set a value limit, anything below a certain value I salvage, anything above I vendor or goes on the TP.

Since I am cheap (salvage kits cost! ) at lower levels I set my vendor/salvage value at 20 copper. Very low, but since I was harvesting everything on the map, mats were not a problem. At around level 40, I raised the vendor/salvage to 30 copper, and still use this at lvl 80!

As for kit, never bought a single piece of kit (weapons/armour/accessories) until lvl 61. If I really needed something, I used karma vendors to save on gold. I up-graded with what I found in loot drops. When I bought Berserker armour at lvl 61 off the TP it was all ‘blues’. At lvl 72, I sold that and again bought ‘blue’ Berserker kit. This got me to lvl 80.

Then I sold some gems for an additional 5 gold, to bring my lvl 80 stash to 21 gold, and went on a major spending spree – full set of Berserker exotic armour, and 2 exotic weapons ..

@SupahSpankeh
I am in the same boat as you, although with only 50k karma.

Only thing I can see spending it on is a lvl 77 or 80 aqua-breather when I get to the high-level maps and those cost around 1.5k for a lvl 80 ‘green’ from the Cursed Shore vendor.

I have no interest in crafting legendary weapons.
This is a game, and not supposed to be work …

Thanks Ten for clarifying that …
I remember receiving an invite letter to CM just after I hit level 40. I went there and got one-shotted by a huge golem! After that I ignored all the ‘invitation to death’ letters I received …

Haven’t done my PS far enough for the last bit …