Guild Wars 2

This site tracks them

http://gwscr.com/

Yea, we help them decide by filtering paladin 2.5 from the good huilds.

spoj.9672:

Did you know you can dodge the champion orrian warriors bladetrail?

:OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?

Phineas Poe.3018:

especially when there is zero incentive behind how quickly you complete it.

Doing a 3-4 hour dungeon tour versus an 8 hour dungeon tour seems like a pretty good incentive to me.

Bumping this with some updates.

‘Other records’ forum will be opened with rules and a table in the next few days (hopefully). It will be a place where you can share any achievement that you have, and would like to be seen by others. If people have any input on what they’d like to see in terms of rules for certain things (boss kills, fractals), just let me know.

A few records have been beat (in some cases shattered), but weren’t advertised very publically (see: CoE). Check out The leaderboard for the current records of every path! Don’t forget to submit your time if you’re sitting on a faster run. Quite a few paths also are yet to have a time submitted, so get busy people!

ellesee.8297:

i wasn’t talking about the list, even though the idea of categorizing class “usefulness” is moronic. but if you want a list here’s an accurate one. it’s quite possibly the most accurate list you’ll ever find for pve.

1. mesmer
1. engineer
1. warrior
1. guardian
1. necro
1. ranger
1. thief
1. elementalist

i have run every dungeon and every fractal 48+ with every possible group comp. the only thing that matters is the people playing the class, not the class. if you’re talking about speed runs, then that’s the very definition of class elitism and it’s idiotic and most of those people are terrible anyway.

I’ve watched your stream, you don’t exactly pass as any good.

Syn Sity.5826:

I got to a point where even while pushing for really fast Lupicus times I would just let him eat the grub. It never really affected my times (or so I think it didn’t…).

I like to let him eat the grub, so when I tell people that my solo took longer than expected, I just say “well, I didnt kill the grub”

zencow.3651:

a t s e.9614:

Btw thieves are becoming worthless , arenanet hates us , you better roll warrior . And you will survive more , 20k hp in zerks instead of 10k.

It’s not like they’re devoid of any moments of glory though. I was glad I happened to level my thief up to 80 just before Deadeye Dunwell came along and gave me 1300g.

filthy casual

I love the blanket statement fallacy of ‘zerker trivializes content’. Never gets old.

Night/force stack, as do night/slaying, slaying/force, etc.

The passives aren’t really that weak, but banners should always be covered and FGJ should probably always be locked in (unless you want to take a 30 fire ele, i guess).

Black Box.9312:

hybrid.5027:

Why are you using Thrill of the crime?

Flanking strikes is getting moved to master tier, so I figured I might as well get used to it now.

I wasn’t expecting a reasonable answer

Why are you using Thrill of the crime?

The weapons alone are a ~5% increase for direct damage builds. Weapon damage is a big deal for direct damage builds, so it has a much larger impact on said builds versus condition builds.

Could at least put in some effort before making a thread like this.

No one I play with uses an ele

Ashabhi.1365:

It has it’s place, but it’s becoming increasingly useless in a lot of encounters.

Should probably start listing them. Let’s keep it PvE.

Black Box.9312:

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

runeblade.7514:

I would like to see stacking gone.

The best way to do it is to have the dungeon team to play some sPvP. See what is the behavior of players when they react to stacking.

Funny you say this. I have been WvWing a lot lately to get the meta achievement done. There have been many occasions when me and my friends are being chased by a larger group, and we run around a corner and the “mobs” LOS to us and we obliterate them with AOE. You would think that real people with intelligence would be immune to stupid pve tactics, but they aren’t.

Funny you use a zerg WvW example to try to counter a point made in reference to sPvP.

It’s not a zerg WvW example, its 5 of us sitting behind a corner and watching idiots run into us, as if being line of sighted. I guess 5 is a zerg these days. WvW is still pseudo PvP.

Anyway, contrary to popular belief, a lot of us are pretty good at sPvP. I guess the original post was trying to strawman and insinuate that we only know how to PvE, I don’t think he actually thinks we’ll find something amazing about stacking in PvP.

Engineers are pretty amazing for casual runs, tbh. Even ‘high-end’ ones. They just aren’t as good for record tier runs.

When it comes to casual runs, I tend to just group classes like this:

Top tier: Warrior, guardian.
2nd tier: Mesmer, Thief, Engineer, Ranger, Ele
Dumpster tier: Necro.

NeoVaris.4806:

Keiel.7489:

do you keep a tally of which character earned which tokens, gold and badges? Don’t you want to have the proper character earn the proper equipment themselves? Why even bother making a new character and gear them out via the shared-inventory exploit?

You do remember that the tokens were account bound to begin with, right? So it would have made no difference what character you earned it on. Otherwise it would be a bit pointless if you had thousands of tokens from one dungeon, but could only use it for one character…

They started soul-bound

I would highly recommend just using obals advice, and not the others.

akamon.2769:

have you seen the movie 300? or read the comic 300? or heard of the story of the brave 300?

they stacked.

they also wiped against trash mobs, because they were all zerkers.

huehuehuehuehue

haviz.1340:

hybrid.5027:

You can’t reflect his agony attack, but it can be blocked (Aegis, blocks, etc).

Wanna bet you can?

Obal told me I was wrong

Vox Hollow.2736:

I can’t imagine why I’d have to justify saying stacking is lame.
Why in the briny blue blazes would think stacking is fun?

It’s not particularly boring, either ;o

http://youtu.be/LVzbcpjwo6U

and

http://youtu.be/ONZr1iGFR9I

zencow.3651:

haviz.1340:

zencow.3651:

It does not circumvent game design purely on the fact that Anet can choose which skills are unblockable and thus unreflectable e.g. Bloomhunger. Ergo, they designed the skills to be reflect-able.

Also, it actually does take abit of timing and practice to achieve a lupicus p2 skip.

Except that none of bloomhunger skills are unblockable.

I guess I’m just horrible at standing behind WoR then

You can’t reflect his agony attack, but it can be blocked (Aegis, blocks, etc).

Black Box.9312:

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Black Box.9312:

obal.3218:

Emanuel.9781:

Alright, alright. It’s settled. In the next few days, you’re going to see a real “play how you want” lupicus kill. Actually, i’m not sure if it’ll be possible to kill him in that setup.

Time will tell.

The point was to get a clean run on both play how you want build and a zerker meta build to compare times.

Honestly, that’s all it really comes down to. Time. Everything else is based on the player, not the build. I care much more about efficiency than about speed, which, despite what people seem to think, are actually two different things.

Which run was more efficient after you watched both?

He just admitted that they were purposefully trying to play bad and were using builds they aren’t comfortable running with. If you think that’s a fair comparison, I really hope you don’t hold any sort of political influence.

No, we were actually trying. What we said was, we TRIED to play badly, but it was too hard so we ended up actually trying (other than obal skill clicking).

Actually I’m not really following what you’re trying to argue, I’ll just leave it be.

Syn Sity.5826:

Agreed, at this point you guys just look for any reason to troll anyone who has a differing opinion and instead of presenting an argument you collectively make him feel like he is an idiot (of course he isn’t so your tactic is wasted). Reflects are very overpowered, especially at lupi. And if we’re being completely honest, autoattacking on ranger sword and swapping and hitting whirling when lupi has his heart attack is not all that difficult. Bring in 5 people who can feedback his aoe and you’ve got the dream team. No offense but that’s just the way it is, and it’s like that because reflects are way too strong at lupicus.

It was just a defensive response, because it came across as an attack on something done by their guild. Wouldn’t think too much of it, the people trolling weren’t even in the video. The 5 of us who were just wanted to do something fun, hopefully provide some entertainment for people.

Anyway, ANet could remove the crit damage scaling from reflects, or just their ability to crit at all. The defensive utility from reflects is already powerful enough, the damage is a bit much of a luxury.

haviz.1340:

Oxxy.7068:

You sure? I’d like to see people fighting lupi or alpha for example in a non optimal (non zerker, not stacking boons) group without vigor, it sounds really painful.

Stacking only regen I guess.

I saw dodges!

CptAurellian.9537:

Isslair.4908:

But, but you can’t melee and dodge grubs if you play how you want

Yup. All at range and eating every stupid grub would have been more realistic for the play how you want fraction.

We tried playing deliberately bad, and I got pretty close to rage quitting. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to be what you hate >:

The blobmericans seem to be having fun

haviz.1340:

Naduk.8750:

I doubt someone has a Fractal reward level higher than 60.

Good laugh.

c:

Flamethrower is so enjoyable to use. I’m pretty upset that it’s so awful

This was just for ‘le lulz’, nothing too serious.

Anyway, I tend to agree, reflects make things easier, sometimes too easy. Saying it "circumvents game design’ may be a bit extreme.

a t s e.9614:

List of the current exploits:
Stacking
Selling paths
Dealing damage
Reflects
Dodging
Skipping trash mobs
Not watching cut scenes
Not using a bear
…

c:

Has anyone ever done a high level (48+) ascalon fractal without the charr NPC’s? It feels like that fractal is actually designed around having them, but it’s quite possible that people (such as me) have just gotten used to using them as a crutch.

Also; RANDAL CAN DIE IN A FIRE

CptAurellian.9537:

hybrid.5027:

Dolan.3071:

Or… You could just melee Lupi.
Complaining that a boss is too easy because you choose to go AFK range makes no sense.

Melee’ing is easier than ranging. Next time your team melee’s, stand at range and let me know how you do.

Well Cookie, in that case I think that you should try to do that some times with a bunch of Lupi melee newbies (and without soloing the remaining X % yourself when everybody else is dead). You’d probably be surprised how deadly his kicks and punches can be.

I’m no god, I eat the occasional kick and swipe. I know how much they hurt. I also pug, and anecdotal evidence is consistent with what I would consider logical. There are more attacks, and less predictability when you are ranging, so the people ranging almost always die first (not phase 1, unless people try to tank locusts, but that’s the human factor, not anything to do with range vs melee).

I probably eat more kicks and swipes than James and Dub combined (when Dub isn’t lagging, anyway. Hard to compete with Dub’s lag).

PUG adventures

Well, we’re working with blanket statements (Dubs and Dolans favourites). So I figured we may as well cover all points. I would still argue that ranging in a 5 man you’re playing a larger gamble than in melee, due to the inconsistency of lupine blasts/aggro. If lupi decides that he hates the guy ranging, you’re not going to have a fun time (nor are the guys melee’ing).

Dub.1273:

You don’t even have to evade any attack but single target lifesteal. You can evade lupine blast by sidestepping and the aoe/shadowstep by just walking out.

Let’s see your video of it

Syn Sity.5826:

hybrid.5027:

Syn Sity.5826:

hybrid.5027:

Dolan.3071:

Or… You could just melee Lupi.
Complaining that a boss is too easy because you choose to go AFK range makes no sense.

Melee’ing is easier than ranging. Next time your team melee’s, stand at range and let me know how you do.

Well, we usually don’t use reflects so in this case I think melee is significantly more difficult.

I still wouldn’t agree. In melee there is no lupine blast, nor is there the phase walk (or bubble). If you stick to ranging, there are more skills to look out for. Especially if he decides to spam lupine at you, you can’t dodge forever. In melee the attacks all have long tells, and the barrage is honestly the same as ranging, unless your party member decides to troll you.

Kicks have probably the quickest tell of any attack i know of except maybe the champion orrian warrior’s little scoop/pull melee attack. Ranging in phase 1 is cake, in phase 2 you don’t have swipes and the mass aoe from range is incredibly easy to avoid, and phase 3 the only attacks you have to worry about are all single target or have small areas of effect (life drink, lupine blast, dome, barrage field which affects a very small area). Ranging is slower and will certainly drag the fight out for longer but I think it would be easier to survive for a long period of time ranging than it would melee’ing, as one dome at the wrong time could whipe the party and aoe lifesteals force all 5 party members to burn 2 dodge/evade/blocks. As long as the group isn’t stacked up then ranging would be easier only because worst case scenario he focuses down one person at a time and slowly kills them and a decent team wouldn’t have many issues res’ing.

Phase 1 ranging is easier. Phase 2 you’re incorrect on pretty much all of your points. He will swipe, because he will phase walk and you’ll be in swipe range (not a definite, just a possibility, mainly if you actually get hit with it). The AoE barrage is incredibly easy to avoid in melee range, you only have to use one evade and you’re done (2 if you want to be safer, I tend to use 2 because you can afford it on war). So again, we end up with more attacks to look out for at range, due to the phase walk and the lupine blast. Phase 3 has the bubble, the barrage, lupine blast, and the two life drains (he’s not static in phase 2 and 3, you know this). Again, we have more attacks to look out for when you are ranged vs melee.

I challenge you though; go and try to solo Lupicus while staying ranged. A step less than that would be max melee constantly in phase 3, so that you also have to deal with bubbles. I won’t claim that I can do it, but I also acknowledge that there is more involved in ranging than melee’ing.

Actually, bringing this back to the original poster of this “dont afk range, go melee”. He would definitely collapse under those conditions.

Use a ranged weapon in melee range!

Syn Sity.5826:

hybrid.5027:

Dolan.3071:

Or… You could just melee Lupi.
Complaining that a boss is too easy because you choose to go AFK range makes no sense.

Melee’ing is easier than ranging. Next time your team melee’s, stand at range and let me know how you do.

Well, we usually don’t use reflects so in this case I think melee is significantly more difficult.

I still wouldn’t agree. In melee there is no lupine blast, nor is there the phase walk (or bubble). If you stick to ranging, there are more skills to look out for. Especially if he decides to spam lupine at you, you can’t dodge forever. In melee the attacks all have long tells, and the barrage is honestly the same as ranging, unless your party member decides to troll you.

Dolan.3071:

Or… You could just melee Lupi.
Complaining that a boss is too easy because you choose to go AFK range makes no sense.

Melee’ing is easier than ranging. Next time your team melee’s, stand at range and let me know how you do.

Dolan.3071:

hybrid.5027:

No melandrus were killed that day

If it wasn’t one of the most ludicrous fights in game skipping him would bother me… But alas it doesn’t
(And probably why I place p4 after p3.)

Spikyspikyspikyspikyspiky fruit

Dolan.3071:

We run Arah p1-4 most days (though I’m beginning to lose hope on getting Bloodstone Fragment.) I think today it took something like 1.5-2 hours all up? Granted they’re pretty kitten casual as far as runs go cough cough three manning the bosses because two people want to level their alts, people going AFK, potty breaks, etc etc.

No melandrus were killed that day

Upham.6137:

hybrid.5027:

Do you mean Vix?

Agh, I can’t check atm, but his name was “Vel -something asian-”, playing a norn female.
I’ve never seen another LFG offering P2 at 4 gold, lol

Not who I was thinking of then :P I think that’s Emanuel, though. He posts here sometimes.

Upham.6137:

Romo.3709:

Considering p4 takes roughly about 3-4 hours to complete, I’d say that’s resonable

For a full party of bearbows wearing Magi/Giver gear, maybe.

So I bought my first P2 run the other day, I was just looking to run P3 or 4 and saw a LFG offering P2 at 4 (yes, four) gold, and I thought kitten that’s pretty nice.
So I joined knowing that I was possibly gonna waste 4 gold and get kicked, but no, it went alright, and the guy was super nice (if you ever see a “Vel” something warrior selling spots, he’s a nice dude).

Do you mean Vix?

Full zerker is the way to go, but don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s easy to run in full zerker. You may have to run some more defensive traits, but honestly the higher levels you go, the more important damage becomes and the less useful defensive stats become.

I don’t know what guild you’re in, or who your friends are, but the better fractal groups IN THEORY are the ones that run full berserker. People who get removed for wearing zerker, probably lacked the skill to play that way.

As for the build, I would recommend a base of 10/25/0/5/20. This leaves you with 10 trait points to use where you like. Common variants are 15/25/0/5/25, 10/30/0/5/25, 10/25/0/10/25, etc etc. 10/30/0/20/10 is also an option, if you feel that you need more defense. Full berserker gear, offensive runes (preferably scholar, ruby/ranger work). 10 in virtues is a MUST, wall of reflection is just so amazingly awesome in fractals, that it will almost never leave your bar. 5 in honor is also a must, permanent vigor is too good to pass up on. 10 in Zeal is essentially a permanent 10% extra damage, you should probably always have 10 in zeal.

Alternatively, there is the hammer build. The hammer build is very, very powerful in fractals due to the constant protection uptime, but is less useful if you are playing in parties filled with people who range (try and avoid these). The traits for a hammer build look like 15/15/0/20/20, again in full zerker.

If you feel that you just can’t get used to playing in berserker, swap in a few knights pieces, but do give zerker a good try before you do that. If you want some more in-depth advice/help, feel free to PM me ingame at ‘Cookie’.

Dub.1273 might be able to help you out if you’re EU.

‘Cookie’ if you’re on NA.

Both might be willing to help you out with shards, if you’re willing to listen and learn (free of charge).

No, but you’ll probably be dead after the first chaos storm + the prestige :dddddddddd