Guild Wars 2

Can someone please explain this event to me? Where to go, and what to do once I get there?

I looked at the game “clock” site, and realized I had never done this event, nor see him/it in those areas before. I’d just like to try it at least once.

Thanks for your help.

Wells were created for pocket Raptors.

Meanwhile we change our own appearance practically daily, and the NPCs don’t even comments on our new outfits. Shameful.

Permanent updrafts and ley lines in new AND EXISTING guild halls.

Just make it so that once a Guild Hall has all the upgrades, they can select to turn these on permanently. Problem solved.

I only have one 80 character with “Been there done that”. So last night I started working on taking my 80 Necro, who’s been enjoying HOT content, back into Tyria to get all the waypoints. This will help me on guild missions, or doing dungeons eventually ,etc.

Wow, I had just forgotten how amazing these zones are. I know a lot of us here focus on our builds and min/maxing and “nerfs” and such. I just feel sometimes I “miss the forest because of all the trees”. Going back into these Tyria zones for the first time in over a year, just for the purposes of exploring and finding new things, is just AWESOME. I even found some things my 100% character never saw! The underwater stuff, the “hidden” caves and caverns, the high points that I can now glide off of (better with infinite gliding), the new jump pads, it is just so cool to go back there after being away. It feels like I’m seeing them for the first time. And to think that any player with a decent PC can now see/explore all of this FOR FREE now is even more amazing.

Some observations. 1) I have mixed feelings now about how fast someone can get to 80, especially if they take the easy path that I did by staying in the low level zones. There really are some amazing things to see in these higher zones. Then again I have the same mixed feelings about “forcing” anyone to go into these areas, as the freedom of progression is my favorite thing in this game. So this is more or less just a regret. 2) I was saddened by how few players seemed to be in these core Tyria zones. I’m hoping Halloween might be part of the reason, but I suppose most of us just stay in HOT once we hit 80 (as I did too). I just hate to see such beautiful places go unexplored, and the big events and champions just “sit there” because most of us can’t solo them (or at least I can’t).

Anyway, I just wanted to thank A-Net again for this amazing game! I still have 5 whole zones to explore, likely tonight. I so look forward to seeing these sights for the second time. And guys, tell all your friends about this FREE game. I think they will be amazed.

Thanks for letting me “gush” for a bit.

There are dragons flying above occasionally, and in Dragon’s Stand they even make dive-bomb attacks. So it seems to me that they COULD have airships and ocean ships in the sky moving around, they just choose not to. I’d also like to see things like leaping dolphins and breaching whales in the ocean areas.

Not saying I demand to ride on these things, although that would be even better. But it definitely does help the “immersion” feel of these areas.

Thanks to some good advice from you folks, I am doing MUCH better in PVE HOT areas with my Necro now (casual player here). I’ve settled on Spite/Soul Reaping/Reaper, Axe/Focus and Greatsword. GS for groups, Axe for Range and/or Single Target.

My view of Shroud has changed greatly in the past couple weeks. For my first 80 levels, because core Tyria was so easy, I just used shroud to get out of dying. But now – MY GOODNESS you can really crank out some serious, sustained damage if built right for Shroud fighting, AND be well protected while doing so! So my strategy/goal now, especially for a long fight like a Veteran/Elite/Champion etc, is to build up life force and get into shroud as quickly as possible. Full Berzerker gear (all I can afford), and a crit rate over 100% in Shroud, AND cleaving, kills things quick (especially with 25 stacks of Might)

But, as you all know, we don’t have access to Utility skills in Shroud mode (Not sure why, but I guess it would be OP for some reason.) So, since I can’t use Wells as I sit in shroud mode, should I be running minions for constant additional DPS while in Shroud? It also helps me right now because I’m running Ranger runes (can’t afford Scholar, but I also can’t reliably stay about 90% health in HOT content). So I’m looking for additional damage I can do WHILE in shroud mode. I do use Locust Signet for movement speed – annoying, but not so bad. Also, instead of a slot for a minion, I could use the Signet that adds 180 more power, for added DPS.

So, given that I want to fight in Shroud mode, are Pets the best utilities to go with for additional DPS? Thanks for your help.

Anchoku.8142:

We really should post some low-cost, easy-play builds for new Necromancers and get the list stickied.

Yes PLEASE. Actually for all professions, really. I almost never have more than 20 gold, if that helps with the “low cost” part.

Khisanth.2948:

The PvP and WvW reward tracks also provides a fairly large amount of them.

But I assume the PVP rewards are only if you win? (I am a very casual player and will get stomped )

Very frustrated. I bought gems last night to get the black wings backpack/glider combo, and then realized that I don’t have any transmutation charges remaining So I have an item bought with gems that I can’t use right now (unless I’m misunderstanding how to apply these).

Where can I get a transmutation charge in game? I’d rather not spend rl money just to buy some more.

Thanks.

OP here, with followup. I should have mentioned my gold limitations before.

I couldn’t afford Scholar runes, so I went with Ice. I know, not as good, but I have multiple ways to keep my targets frozen with GS, Focus, or Staff, so + 7% damage isn’t so bad. I also couldn’t afford to try a complete switch to a condition build. (I thought I could, but I’d run out of gold.) I need to stay with my zerker gear for now.

So last night I went into HOT with Spite/Blood/Reaper – Greatsword and Dagger/Focus, Wells for Utilities, and Golem for Elite. I like that I can keep a utility slot free by using dagger to increase run speed. I have Sigils of Blood and Accuracy on Dagger/Focus, and Lightning/Blood on Greatsword. These wells are especially satisfying when I can run into a nest of mini raptors, which used to give me problems, and watch them all fall within a couple seconds.

Just charging into melee range and firing off the wells kills most enemies or groups of enemies quickly, and the healing keeps me alive. I don’t even need to go into Shroud to kill quickly, but if I miss it I can drop Spite and use Soul Reaping again.

The real problem are those enemies that don’t stand in one place – Veteran Mushrooms and Breakers and Leapers that charge or teleport all over the place. I feel I need to keep the staff on hand for those battles, because the fight takes forever (with a lot of stuns/knockdowns) against certain enemies. But otherwise, not bad at all.

I just got Reaper last night, so I was eager to try out my Greatsword. Not suprisingly it did fine in Orr. But HOT might be a little different.

Right now I’m full Berzerker Elite gear, with Air/Fire on Greatsword and Staff. I use Reaper, Death, and Soulreaping, and try to stay in Shroud as much as possible (where I have a 100% crit rate). For utilities I use buffed minions and my new skill, “Rise”. I think I have “pack” runes right now.

Is this the best I can do right now? I haven’t tried a condition Necro yet. My fear is that for PVE exploring it will just take longer to kill things (other than big guys). I haven’t tried wells in a long time, nor these new shouts.

Things I’m wondering if they’d be better. Sigil of Blood instead of Fire? (for some healing), Scholar/Strength/Ice Runes? Moving to a Scepter/Rampager set and work for a condition build? Or does anyone go with 100% Shout build? I want to kill quickly but also be survivable in HOT content.

The other thing frustrating me is running speed. I know I can use the Signet, but I hate losing a Utility for that. I suppose I could also use Dagger/Warhorn, but that would likely mean other traits too.

Please advise. Thanks.

Actually I have an 80 Engineer too. Is flamethrower better?

Why staff guardian? (I have an 80 Guardian too)

I’ve read/been told that this Labyrinth “zerg” is a fast way to get Tyria XP? Is this correct? I’m trying to reach the Auto-loot/Swiftness stage of Mastery.

My main is an 80 Ranger. I’ve read a lot about “tagging”, but I don’t understand it really well. As best I can tell, I want my pet and I to hit as many targets as possible? If this is right, what are the best weapon and pet combos to use?

I know Longbow 5, and Axe 2 can hit multiple targets at once (and Axe 2 only has a 4.8 sec cooldown right now). For Pets, what about Drakes, because they Cleave and also have some AOE F2 skills?

I get bored of monotony pretty quickly, which is why I want to get this done in the fastest/most efficient way possible. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Excellent! Thanks. I’ll try another cat first.

So I heard about this from guildies and was trying it last night with my Ranger, and I could not get it to work. Are there circumstances that would cause the pop-up never to occur? I was told to watch above my 5 skill, and nothing happened, even after several attempts. I tied it with another person’s summoned cat in the guild hall too – still nothing.

In this case, it was my Asura Ranger, in Bloodtide Coast, using the witch’s broom trying to get my very first cat. And I did already have the frog in a jar in my inventory. Do I need another cat first?

Please advise. Thanks.

I’m trying to get XP as fast as possible for 2 more masteries I want. I see a lot of people recommend Dragon’s Stand. Is this the fastest XP gain in the game right now?

Other things I’ve been tossing around are paying for the first 2 Bloodstone Fen XP bonuses (I can’t afford the 3rd one), but that might be a waste of 15 gold for a mere 20% xp gain. Or I’ve been thinking about finding a good spot in HOT with a lot of non-aggressive monsters that nobody farms, which give good XP when they’ve been sitting there a long time.

Please advise. Thanks.

P.S. What is the best food for XP gain?

Right before HOT came out we ran into PC problems, so I missed the first year of HOT and just got it a couple weeks ago. My highest character was/is my 80 Ranger, and I only do PVE. I was excited when Runes of the Trapper came out because of the stealth and running speed it could give me in the PVE world, and I actually went from 0-400 in crafting JUST to make these.

I see now that about a year ago (when I couldn’t play) they reduced the stealth from 3 seconds to 2 seconds, a rather significant drop. Apparently this was done because thieves were abusing it in WVW?

Anyway, I miss the extra stealth time for PVE and I’ve looked over the recent patch notes and here is my question. I see that they can adjust some skills to work differently between PVP and PVE/WVW? If I am understanding this correctly, then why can’t they make something like runes work differently between a WVW and PVE environment? For that matter, if thieves were the problem, you could even make them “Ranger Only” or adjust the stealth time for Thieves, couldn’t you?

Not a programmer here – just a casual player (no raids, dungeons, fractals, etc) curious why changes like this cannot be made more specific to target just the “offenders”, like they are doing for PVP. Thanks.

I want to chime in as another against “Mastery Points”. They could have made more of those Hero Point locations, so that we have other options for getting our Elite Specializations.

The Mastery Points system definitely seems to go against the previous model of “Do whatever you want to and still get progression”. Like others here, I really don’t enjoy most of the little “games” they added. (If I want to play those I’ll play Mario.) It should be XP-based only, and you also should not have to do advanced gaming like raids in order to max it out.

With all the fan-based “Caithe hate” expressed here (and for good reason), do you think she might become a main villain in the future?

In other words, we’re already so sick of her broken moral compass and personal issues, why not let us fight her?

I’m still new to HOT, and last night I did Dragon’s Stand for the first time. It was not the first time that I had this “problem” where I leveled a Mastery and forgot to make a switch to another one shortly afterward.

The first couple times this happened I was worried that all the excess XP, if you don’t level up right away, was lost. But on the Wiki today I gladly discovered this is not the case (thankfully). Apparently GW2 decides which Mastery to start training next, based on which unlocked Mastery is the lowest at the time? (I think I have this right.)

I don’t know if this method frustrates other new players or not, but I’d prefer if we could “pre-program” our Mastery XP path at any given time. Something like “Fill this bar, then start allocating XP to this line, and then this one”, etc. I still like having to formally train it manually by spending the Mastery point, but I hate seeing extra XP going into something I had no intention of leveling until I have X, Y and Z first.

The reason I, and I suspect other new players also, don’t always realize we have leveled is that everything is happening so fast in these HOT events that we don’t pause to check our progress. In Dragon’s Stand last night (which was awesome btw) it felt like we were constantly being attacked and I was trying to help the best I could. But of course I got a TON of XP from the event, and it turns out the excess XP went toward something I’m not prioritizing right now.

Anyway, does anyone else feel there might be a better way to allocate the extra XP?

This is semi-related. I got the expansion last night and was impressed at first, and then realized how HARD so much of the new zone is for a single player in rare/exotic gear like myself. There were not a bunch of players in that starting area to help me out.

But my example is concerning Silverwastes, actually. It had been a year since I played, because of PC problems. I noticed last night that I never completed SilverWastes, because I still need that Vinewrath section. Of course, I couldn’t get in there, so I researched it online. Apparently its at the tail end of the storyline events for that area? The problem is that no one is in Silverwastes anymore. This is the first time that I’ve ever not been able to complete a map (and likely never will) because the content cannot be soloed. From what I hear, this is what I have to look forward to in HOT as well, more grouping or following the “zerg”.

I sure wish they had advertised this “feature” better before I made my purchase

Bump. I just bought the expansion yesterday. This is ALREADY something I do not like at all. I found multiple hero points where a champion has to be defeated. Sorry, but I’m a casual player. I CAN’T beat a Champion by myself – not even close. In my case there was even another person standing there watching me die. HOW, exactly, is a new player supposed to beat those when no one is around to help out (especially in the first zone, since that zone is considered “old” now)?

I know I’m late to the party here. Our PC crashed over a year ago and we just got it ready to play GW2 again. We have 6 level 80 characters and I’d like to get the expansion.

But here is my concern. I read a review where the reviewer was impressed, but noticed that just 2 weeks after launch there were not always enough players around to complete the big “events” that are needed to get mastery and specialization advancement. Its apparently not like Tyria experience, with hearts everywhere that I can complete on my own. Apparently its more like Silverwastes in this regard?

Anyway, now that HOT has been out a long time, is it going to seem like a ghost town in these starting areas and hard for me to grind XP? I really want to get the weapon specializations and gliding mastery, but not if it is nigh impossible because it depends too much on other players.

Please advise on whether or not you believe this to be a legitimate concern, or what Arenanet may have changed since the review in question to make things easier for “loners” like me Thanks.

We do not have the expansion and are considering getting it. I enjoy PVE a lot, and look forward to exploring new areas and seeing the new story. I don’t do dungeons, Fractals or PVP though.

Our current level 80 characters are: Warrior, Necro, Ranger, Guardian, Engineer. With only Orr as a comparison (where we do OK), will these characters be able to survive OK, PVE-wise, in HOT, or will we need to do some expensive upgrading? Most of these characters are in full exotic gear right now.

Thanks

PC problems kept us out for the last year or more. Finally got back in last night. WOW I missed this great game. The new Lions Arch is cool (it was destroyed last we played), but I miss the “old” one still. Also, the “sandy” area had recently opened up and we were exploring it.

But now, even though we have 6 level 80 characters, I feel like I’m having to start from scratch. Is there a link someone can give me on how to learn the game, especially the skill tree? Last I played we had “traits”, and every 5 points or so you got a new ability. I think it went as high as 30 in certain columns, and at level 80 you had something like 70 points available, so I might have them allocated 30/30/10, or something similar. Is any of this making any sense to you veteran players?

Now that screen looks VERY different, and I’ve temporarily lost some abilities I had, although I see a lot of points on the hero screen that I can spend. So do traits still exist or have they been replaced? Are there new abilities? New weapon fighting styles?

Right now I’m just running around hitting 1-5 because I don’t know much about traits and abilities now. Thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction.

My son and I are SO frustrated right now. We’ve had a PC that has been able to run this game just fine since its beginning. It’s a quad-core with 8g ram and an Nvidia 550ti 1g graphics card? (Not savvy with the technical stuff, but we custom built it a couple years back specifically for games like this.)

Now we are wanting to play the game more in anticipation of the expansion. We have several level 80 characters, and the game keeps messing up.

The screen goes black either for a second or two (best case), or STAYS black, so that I can hear the sounds of the game but can’t see anything. This just started happening recently. I don’t have the graphics settings very high – I have the game decide what works best based on our components. I don’t use ANY AA, for example. This happens EVERYWHERE – fights, standing still, towns, story quests, accessing the hero screen – you never know when it will happen, but it happens within 5 minutes of logging in.

I’m pretty sure its not the graphics card, because the PC says it is fine, and we can still play several other 3D games flawlessly. When I’m in game we have no “lag”, and we’re around 60 frames per second, and then it just goes black?

We had just spent money of some gems, so this is doubly frustrating. This game never gave us any trouble, and now its unplayable. Anyone know what is happening here? Thanks for your help.

I’m still a total noob in WVW, and I die A LOT. The only time I’ve ever killed anyone was when I had someone with me to help out.

But then I tweaked my Warrior for constant healing, condition cleanse, and condition damage (As much “Rabid” gear as I could get.) So I was running around solo last night and I got attacked by a Guardian. I figured, like always, “OK, let’s see how fast I die this time.” Except…I didn’t die. I just kept switching from my swords to LB to swords again, using shouts to clear conditions and keep myself alive, and it felt weird not going down right away. I wasn’t even looking at her health, since I figured my own death was inevitable. And then suddenly SHE dropped. I guess all that fire, poison and bleeding finally did its work. While she was fighting me from the downed state, another player attacked me (not sure what class). And after about 30 seconds THEY went down too!

About 20 minutes later an elementalist attacked me and HE went down, but by the time his friend arrived to help out I was almost dead, so I went down quickly at that point.

It just inspires some confidence once you make your first build that is strong enough to take someone down 1 vs 1, even if its only 1 time. Trust me, it wasn’t skill, as I’m pretty bad at this game. I only point this out for other players out there who may be very new to WVW like I am. You CAN get better over time. And I’ve also realized that going all “glass” in WVW can put up impressive damage numbers, but it doesn’t keep you alive very well (at least not if you’re new like me). Anyway, FINALLY having a positive outcome to a small battle is a big confidence booster, and now I look forward to exploring some more.

Thanks for all the good advice you Vets have given over the past few weeks!

I’m trying to find a good damage build for PVE that also heals well. I’ve been using minions in PVE for a while, but was wondering what the best “leeching” PVE build is.
Also, would the same build work for Dungeons?

I was thinking 4/4/0/6/0, using Minions for additional damage and life leeching. I usually use Dagger/Dagger and Axe/Wh, adding in staff if I need to range. I like the quick damage that the dagger auto-attack does.

With 6 in Blood and a high crit chance I was thinking about life stealing on hits, minion hits, and crits. Fetid Consumption sounds good (although I have not tried it yet) for removing conditions.

For gear I was thinking either Rampager’s or Assassin’s for a high crit chance (with bleeding being my only condition damage), or maybe Rabid for more defense?

For Sigils, would Blood and Leeching be more healing than I need, or would they work well with a build like this?

Thanks for the advice

I’m currently using a 0/5/3/6/0 build in PVE in Rabid Gear and liking the great durability and ability to help other players with shouts/condition cleanse, swiftness, etc.

I usually do SW/SW because of the Torment from # 4 (which does not do as much damage as I thought it did) and the bleed procs/interrupt on # 5.

But I also REALLY like the Versatility that Warhorn provides, especially when traited to turn conditions into boons. Perma Swiftness is nice too (20% reduced recharge + 30%
boon duration).

I know its standard to use LB as the other weapon set, but what happens if you use Sw/Sw and Sw/Warhorn? Do Sword skills 2 and 3 being on cooldown on set 1 mean that I can’t use those skills on a second set with a 3rd sword? I was thinking about Axe/Wh or Mace/Wh for the other set, but those don’t seem to do condition damage.

Thanks for your help.

Not trying to sound mean here, but it sounds like some people are happy that she was freaking out at level 10 now instead of level 1. Is that something to be happy about? It sounds to me that 1) If her boyfriend didn’t play already she would have never tried this game, and 2) Without her boyfriend answering her current questions she would quit right now instead of figuring it out over time like the rest of us did.

So, personally, threads like this do not convince me that the NPE has solved the problem. While it MIGHT be argued that it has helped new players early on, there is still going to come a point where the new player decides if they are going to 1) Do some research online and/or ask other players their questions, or 2) Decide this game is just “too complicated” and go back to crushing candy or whatever else they were doing before. The game is NOT for everyone, and trying to create a game that everyone will like just lessens the game, in my humble opinion.

I’m wondering what the best Ranger build is for 1 v 1 fights while roaming in WVW. I am thinking that it would do well to keep the opponent afflicted with movement impeding conditions while it bursts with the Longbow, thus capitalizing on my survivability and Predator’s Onslaught?

My current build is Rampagers with Traps and Runes of the Trapper. (I find traps fun in WVW.) I either do 6/6/2/0/0 or 2/6/6/0/0.

We have lots of ways to apply chilled, crippled and immobilized. Has anyone found the best combination?

I could run Frost Trap, Spike Trap, and Muddy Terrain, giving me 3 means right there. LB 5 applies it as well. Entangle applies Crippled.

Runes of Grenth and Rune of the Ice apply Chilled and increase its duration. Should I also try Superior Sigil of Ice and Ghost Pepper Poppers (at night)?

Finally, what Pets are best for an Onslaught build? It’s looking like the Owl (Chilling Slash + Swiftness for me) and Krytan Drakehound (Intim Howl) might be best.

Thanks for your help.

I recently started WVW, and I got an “exotic” spoon of some kind? Then I did Tequatl for the first time last night, and I got another type of spoon…

I can’t sell them or salvage them. The game says they are part of a collection? But I’m fresh out of bank space for all these collection items.

If I keep collecting things like spoons do I get anything noteworthy, or should I just say “thanks a lot RNG” and destroy these? Thanks for the help.

Bloodtide Coast Heart Quest (SE Corner). Defend and research the Oasis.

Last night none of the players in the vicinity could test the potions on spiders after giving them to Cesseilia. She hands us the new concoction (fortunately at least giving us some xp), but we are frozen in place and cannot move, even if we WP to another location. Only logging out and logging back in worked, and when you return to the game you don’t have the potion to test anymore.

Just FYI. Thanks.

I just got my Warrior to 80 and would like to try a Conditions/Shout build for a while, using Rabid Gear for Crits. I’m debating between 0/6/0/6/2 and 0/5/0/6/3 (the latter for the reduced weapon swap cooldown). I’d like it to be able to able to generate several stacks of might for more damaging bleeds also. (This is most likely for messing around in PVE btw.)

Anyway, I’ve never used “on weapon swap” sigils before, but it seems like Geomancy is a given. But I don’t know what to use for the other slot, or for the other weapon. I’m thinking about going Sw/Sw and GS for a while. (I know most cond builds use Longbow instead of GS, but I’m not impressed with any of those skills except # 5 and the burst, which both have long cooldowns.) With Forecful GS I can get occasional bleeds still but also build might quickly.

My question is if there is any benefit to having Superior Sigil of Geomancy in BOTH weapon sets or not, especially if I have a 5 sec weapon swap time. My guess is that the cooldown is not just on that weapon, but also any further uses of the sigil. Is that correct? In other words, I can’t switch to swords to trigger the effect, and then switch to GS 5 secs later to trigger the effect again, right?

So I’m wondering what sigils you might suggest on a setup like this. Since this is for PVE exploring, I don’t want any that build stacks because they disappear when I go underwater, and there’s a lot of water out there I was thinking Sigil of Strength maybe for building Might faster? Sigil of Doom deals poison damage I think on weapon swap. Is that helpful in Rabid Gear?

Thanks very much for your advice.

I still consider myself new, and last night I got my first legendary item. Thank you RNG for the item (a ring of some kind). But the stats are all wacky and not something I would use on ANY of my characters, so I was going to sell it. And then I saw that it is account bound? WHY?

It’s weird to be playing a game and now hoping that I get “less than legendary” drops by the RNG so I can make some gold. I just don’t see what the harm is in making these “account bound after equip”, or something like that.

Thanks for explaining the reasoning to me.

Anyone have any input on this idea? I’d really like to hear if anyone has tried this before I make the commitment in gold for the Perplexity Runes. Thanks again.

I’m wondering if anyone has tried something like this and can tell me how it works. Money is tight and I’d like to “theorycraft” this before spending the gold on those expensive runes.

I’m thinking a 4/6/4/0/0 build with Longbow and Greatsword. With consumables + gear/traits I think I could get to 90% confusion duration, and 6 (maybe even 7) ways of applying it. But I also know that confusion damage is halved in wvw right now, so I’d like to know if this is viable.

I like running Rampager’s for Power + Precision + Condition Damage. This way I can use Air/Fire Runes on weapons for increased damage, although I’m wondering if Earth is better on one of those for the occasional bleed stacks I’ll get from Sharpened Edges? Anyway, crit chance should be around 70%. Yes, its fragile, but in WVW I’m just thinking 2-3 man grouping and not zergs, where frankly nothing will keep me alive. I think Dire gear would add a little more cond damage and be much more survivable, but at a loss of power and crit chance.

Weapons are Longbow and Greatsword. This gives me 3 interrupt opportunities, as well as a stealth, a block, a “distance closer” (or even extender) and 2 evades. With Moment of Clarity Hilt Bash does a 3 sec daze or stun, on a 20 sec cooldown. Counterattack and Point Blank Shot (my 2 other weapon interrupts), are on 12 sec cooldowns when traited.

For utility skills, because of Asuran race and Moment of Clarity, I’m actually thinking about using TWO racial skills. Pain Inverter gives 3 stacks of confusion, and Technobabble creates a whopping 6 sec daze (which would also apply confusion with runes). For the 3rd Utility slot I’m not really sure. I hate to see so much cond damage go to waste, so maybe a trap? SOTW would provide good burst damage, and for roaming I’d definitely need SOTH in there for 25% movement speed.

Runes would of course be Perplexity, which would cause confusion on hitting me (25 sec cooldown) and also when I interrupt a foe (15 sec cooldown). If I did my math right, in theory I could have them permanently confused, as the 8 sec from the runes would be extended to 15.2 sec, and Counterattack and Point Blank Shot on 12 sec cooldowns.

As far as the Pet goes, I’m really not sure. I usually use spider’s or dogs for CC. Would reef drake’s confusion attack help this build, or make it worse?

Anyway, thanks for letting me know if this would work well one on one or in small groups.

Tonight I was totally on my own and trying to get 100% world complete on my first character, which REQUIRES that I do wvw. I put my Ranger pet on Passive cause I just wanted to run and grab and not get into any fights.

I came upon an odd sight. There was a group of Red guys camped out, all from the same guild. Standing right there among them was a “green” (my server) guy, from their same guild! So since they didn’t attack each other, I assumed a truce existed. Then the red zerg attacked me while their green guildie watched me die and wouldn’t rez, even when I asked him to.

If he was a “traitor”, I’m assuming he was also able to observe our map chat and report green zerg movements to his guildies?

Anyway, it was a crude wvw introduction to this newbie just trying to get some spots on the map checked off. I didn’t even put up a fight because there was no point.

I looked at the “Report Player” options (for the first time ever), but I didn’t see anything in the “reason list” that fit this scenario, which has me thinking it is perfectly legal behavior? Please advise. Thanks.

L2P or to pop reflects or evade…

While I enjoy my joke class for a change.

Sorry, I’m totally new to WVW. I don’t know what these are officially called, as I only discovered them recently. It’s the points you get when you level up in WVW and can allocate points into things like “Guards”. Right now we (my son and I) are level 11 but still haven’t allocated any points.

Regarding how we play right now, my son likes big zergs, but I prefer small groups.

Also, are these points permanently fixed once placed, or are they like traits in that we can reaoolocate them later for free? Thanks for your help.

I’ve been running full Rampager’s Runes of the Trapper build with all 3 traps and Longbow – 6/6/2/0/0, traited for traps and Longbow speed/damage. For soloing and small group I find traps super fun, and the stealth/swiftness on deploy helps my survivability too. Sword/Axe is nice as alternate in case you face another Ranger. You can surprise them by defelcting their Rapid Fire back at them. Anyway, I still die a lot to “pro” players, but placing those traps in real strategic or bottleneck locations is a lot of fun.

I get the balance thing. But they could have even had identical structure location, but slightly different landscapes and Vista locations. One could be a cold zone, another a desert, another a jungle, or something like that. Oh well. Just seems unimaginative to me

I just started WVW a couple weeks ago, when trying to get 100% World Completion.

As I went through my own server’s zone I thought “This is cool, and looks different than the other zones in the world.” But then when I went to the next one I saw it was the same map. Likewise for the 3rd. And frankly it’s pretty boring, in my opinion, to be jumping around between identical zones.

My guess is that this goes back to “balance” of some kind, but couldn’t they have a balanced map, but a different looking zone at the same time? What am I missing here?

Thanks for explaining the reasoning to me.

Oh. Forgot to mention why I hate(d) grenades, and it is the having to aim them every time. Not sure if they improved that or not. Until they get some kind of better auto-attack, I’m just not interested in them. Thanks again.

My 80 Charr Engineer has had a strange life. I leveled him to 80 about 6 months ago, so certain that I had a greta build planned for him that would make him nigh “indestructible”. I was going to go the bomb healer route with full Cleric gear.

The result was “meh”. First of all, it wasn’t the “indestructible” mode that I thought it would be, as I still had to stay mobile to stay alive. Second of all, the damage was not as impressive as I had “theorized” either.

Then I went the rifle + static discharge route, I think with Assassin’s gear and several quick cooldown toolbelt skills? This did seem to do more damage, but was pretty fragile. And when I looked at Engineer recently, static discharge seems to be gone?

One of my first favorites, and the main reason I picked Engineer at all, was the cool animation and attacks of the flamethrower, but six months ago it did lackluster damage. This seems to be better now, if I read correctly. What about Flamethrower with full Rampager’s gear for PVE/Dungeons? I keep hearing about Engineers being masters of conditions, but I’m not sure how it works or what Runes to use.

Thanks very much for your advice, as I would like to use my Engineer more than I do now.

Well, if I am go all out condition, with 2/6/6/0/0, then the pet dies pretty fast, and starts limping back to me

I am still able to see my pet when I stealth from laying the traps. Is my pet stealthed at the same time that I am?

If the pet is not stealthed as he runs right beside me, then doesn’t this kind of defeat the purpose of the stealth in WVW? Doesn’t the enemy just need to watch for where my pet is to know where I am?

But I may be missing something. Please advise. Thanks.

But didn’t we used to get look from corpses in Story quests? Is this a glitch or is this working as intended?