Guild Wars 2

One useful tip I can give you while leveling is that you use both bomb and grenade kit. The main point is for the aoe blind. Aoe blind is what really got me through leveling in open world. Lead with flash grenade then a few other nades (poison, slow, bleed), switch to bomb kit, BOB then immediately fire bomb, get an area might, drop a few bombs while waiting for mobs to regroup to you, once they do drop a smoke bomb then confusion bomb (it doesn’t matter if they hit or not, they’ll still get damage on attack), rinse and repeat.

I might do mediocre damage (but grenade barage and BOB are nothing to scoff at) with AA, but I can face-tank 5-7 mobs at a time with no problem. Once you get to level 60, get elixer-infused bombs and it’ll even help you so much more. If you can get major runes of dwayna for the regen proc, along with a peach pie (or mango pie, i forgot, the thing that gives hp/sec) you’ll be golden in leveling. Every mob will be cakewalk (except champs. I mean, you won’t go down easily, but you’ll be annoyed at how long it takes to kill them.

Darek.1836:

What’s the ppoint of this build in WvW?

Charging into hills lord room =P

DeathPanel.8362:

penatbater.4710:

Has anyone tried a symbol/AH build? I just bought my new hammer so I don’t have much time to practice hitting people (This is mainly focused on wvw).

Utilities are still all shouts coz of AH as well as me having 6/6 s.soldier runes. I use soldier armor and cleric trinkets (mostly exotic anyway). Hammer/staff for the symbols. Then I run

5/0/30/30/5 build. the Valor trait line is pretty standard, AH, purity and something else. Honor is superior aria, Writ of merciful and either writ of persistence or pure of voice. My main goal for the build is to be one of the first few people to rush into the zerg head-on, so I tried to be a bit tanky (with the clerics) but still have a bit of good damage (although i can say, at the moment it’s pretty crappy =/).

I tried out this build after (at long last) realizing that the end proc of hammer is a symbol so I kinda heal myself with each AA chain. (cast time seems a bit too long imo though, but at least it doesn’t stop even when you’re kiting). What do you guys think?

That’s actually nearly identical to my build. However if you are planning on diving into groups of enemies you might want to go 0 0 30 30 10 for extra retaliation duration.

Ahh retaliation. I forgot about that. But without GS how do you reliably stack retaliation on yourself? I just went with the 5 for the emergency 25% symbol. Sure it grants a small heal, but hey, a heal is a heal. One thing though, do symbols work with AH? I mean since all symbols provide buffs, does every pulse/buff application trigger AH on me?

I think the difference is that during a thief’s combo, you can interrupt him somehow so he can’t do the “perfect combo” rotation to deal out his full damage. Then he stealths out, rinses and repeats. with the old 100nade style, while it does take a lot of skill to set it up perfectly, the combo is basically just 2 skills with a really small window of opportunity. And I think that’s what the devs are trying to balance out. However, it does seem a bit unfair. 100nade rewards players for playing cautiously and carefully, yet punish them (by making the combo not work and be a sitting duck for awhile till it recharges) if they fail. The same is true for thieves, but the punishment is less severe as they can always stealth away.

go tanky, go elixer-infused bombs and go crazy running around dropping bombs all over the place :p

Wait, what’s wrong with your current set-up? Do you want to do more damage? Or do you die quite frequently?

Maybe it’s just that people are so used to thinking that they can just faceroll any engineer they see (mostly seen from the perspective of a thief, a warrior and a mesmer, maybe ele in recent days). And they can’t seem to stand it. Hence, the call for a nerf. Thieves, warriors and mesmers have been the long-standing “OP” classes since the start of gw2. Eles recently came into the picture with d/d. I still remember the time when eles were so few because were too weak, die so easily and didn’t give the same damage output as other classes.

Can anyone tell me what the vid contains? I’m in China atm and they don’t let youtube in At least the basic builds, armor/trinkets/weaps, runes/sigils, trait lines, and utility skills. :s

Try doing komali =P

I once placed 3 rare pistols + mystic stone. Got an exotic mace =/

People complain that the gem price is too high. But where were those people when prices were “reasonable”? :|

Doing DEs give more exp than hearts, or rather faster since DEs generally are faster to finish than hearts, and you can do them over and over again. The problem is finding a chain of DEs to do successively. In that note, try following a capping group in wvw. The exp you get is pretty good.

CoF seems to make more money than shelt/pen ever will. But the problem is that cof occassionally gets locked out and you have to waste some time trying to unlock it, getting another group going, guesting to see which worlds are open, etc. Shelt/pen is slower but more “consistent”.

Hopefully more people will be inclined to convert gems to gold to bring back more gems in the market and lower the rate.

Fuzzion.2504:

LFk.1408:

Eh. I have a bank overflowing with Ascended Rings, but even I don’t think they should be acquirable for money.

I do feel certain things should actually necessitate playing the game in order to obtain.

So I support: many, many more ways to acquire these items. Right now it’s kind of limited.

Rare drops from X champ? Awesome. WvW based reward? Great. Achievement based? Dungeon based? Whatever works: but no. Not for money.

What about Badges for Ascended gear ? WOuld you agree to that?

Wvw badges for ascended gear? Definitely! :P Somewhere along the lines of 350~badges per ascended ring/amulet and ~500+ per earing. This is all just my speculation (based on the price of exotic trinkets in wvw badges atm). They did they somewhere down the road they will let wvw players earn ascended stuff so that’s another plus if it happens. Also, you can easily do the dailies (generally) all in wvw maps so the laurels should certainly help you get your ascended stuff faster. If not, well the daily spvps are even faster and easier to acquire. It is so easy it’s almost ridiculous (but I guess still fair for the pure spvpers.)

sweet! I get to make my own trinkets/armor now! Apart from the leather/goss stuff (which is cheap) it only takes 30 ectos to make an exotic armor and 25 ectos for full exotic trinkets. That’s like 1.3g :o

A number of people in my guild are dads and moms. Some of them even granddads and grandmas (I think) :p

Just something to help you guys get through this. It took me 3 days of roughly 2-3hrs a day to get just 1 jumping puzzle in Straits of Devastation. (not the magi tower, the one near the river). So keep at it! And use a guide! :p

RebelYell.7132:

Vayne.8563:

Scrambles.2604:

Mirta.5029:

Scrambles.2604:

I personally don’t see the value in intangible virtual content. It doesn’t have any practical value, your investment on your purchase depreciates IMMEDIATELY, so your funds can never be recovered (unless you ebay your account).

One could also argue that buying an MMO is worthless, because it would only last as long as the servers do.

Sure, you could definitely argue that. What your paying for is for server space for your account, which serves a function. In game aesthetic items lack that or any useful function.

That’s like saying going to the movies is worthless because after two hours, you’re going home. Playing tennis is worthless, because once you’’re done paying for the court, it’s over.

Anything that provides entertainment is worth something. How much is up to each individual. I wouldn’t go to a club and dance all night but some people find that worth it.

Movie theaters and providers of tennis courts are in the service industry. When I purchase a B2P game, I’m acquiring goods, in the form of software and art assets. Same as buying the Blu-ray instead of visiting the theater, or buying the music and spinning it yourself instead of visiting the club. Products that are, at least from one standpoint, tangible goods.

Just a small point, but technically you’re wrong. When you buy a b2p game, or even a p2p game, whatever online game you buy, you’re not buying the game, but buying the ability to log-in and play. The account never really belongs to you (else you’d have the ability to resell it, like, say a car). With online games, you’re buying the service that is to play them, or if you want, with p2p games like wow, you’re buying the time to be able to play. Same thing with buying dvds or watching movies in movie theaters. You never really own the movie (sure you have the physical copy, but the movie never belongs to you). What you do own, is the ability to watch the movie in the comfort of your own home as many times as you want so long as you don’t show it in public/charge people money to watch it. Same with tennis courts. You don’t own the court. You own the time to be able to play on the court (as well as a rental of their lockers, being able to use the showers, etc).

Online games and other things like this are really more service-oriented than products-oriented. (examples of products are, say, cars, electronics/computers, to an extent books, clothes, land/house depending on your country’s laws, etc).

It’s gonna pay for itself in years, eventually. That’s why it’s so expensive. When we get to the stage gw1 is (like 7 yrs), you’ll say “I’m so glad I bought that permanent pick, saved me probably almost 500g by now”.

Rash.6514:

Aeonblade.8709:

Who plays those all the time? The sports sure, but I think the last time I saw someone play checkers or rummy was 1984. Let’s be realistic here :P

You missed my post. Quake 3, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Battlefield, Call of Duty, StarCraft. None of those have progression either and people still play them.

As I’ve said, you can’t compare those games with gw2/mmos in general. It’s like comparing Street Fighter to Final Fantasy 7. Both games are games that people play. SF has no progression but FF has. Apples and oranges.

And even then, there are still some forms of progression not obvious to games like these, match-up/fighting games. For one thing, your own skill improvement is a form of progression. Moving up in the ladders is another form of progression. League of Legends has the whole mastery/runes thing which is another form of progression. The fact is, people like improving/progress.

Sonia.7910:

Thanks, penatbater!

So there’s not actually a trick, like taking impulse or something? While I was painfully climbing again and again on that long jump in Breached Wall I was seeing people doing it easily just running to the edge and jumping. Of course if I do that my kitten keyboard won’t react properly and I will simply not jump XD. And if I take my time to find that xxxxxxxxxxxxxx[a] you so awesomely describe those kitten ascalonian ghosts get my *ss -sigh-. Well maybe next time I’ll do it better since I “think” I already got the jumping point.

I just hoped there was a miracle combination of keys which would allow me jump those missing inches more easily. I guess I’m just clumsier than the other players.

And I do love Vistas. I may be a weird case, but I find them terribly relaxing and rewarding, after figuring out how to climb to a hard place, especially if they have a beautiful piece of soundtrack in the background (Dawn in Shaemor has become a favourite XD). I do prefer the ones which involve no fighting, but then, I’m not the fighter type…. I enjoy exploring the world avoiding unnecessary combat with my thief XD

Nope. You can try using swiftness and getting out of combat for a longer jump, but I assume you’ve already tried that. :p It’s all about where you jump off that determines your distance (and whether or not the structure you’re jumping to allows for character models on it).

What I meant by the small space there is that you need to find the furthest place you can jump from. Sometimes its exactly at the end of your cliff/wall. Sometimes, it’s a little bit more past it (again, due to the nature that each character has the same foot box while having different character models which might cause some confusion). =P Goodluck! A guide really helps as well as they can tell you where is the best place to jump from/from which direction. And don’t worry, I fell down maybe 3-4x as well doing the breached wall. But I did finish it without the guide (just for the excitement of discover :p)

nightmare to level but cool to look at. If you think about it, your “nightmare” will only last until he’s 80. But past that, it’s smooth sailing (which, undoubtedly, you’ll spend more time post80 than pre80)

Try a change of scenery? The shiverpeaks area are also quite boring for me. I prefer maguuma and maybe kryta areas. :p visually, landscape, and mob-quality -wise.

buy green high level weapons, combine in MF to get rares, then sell the rares :p

It’s actually possible to do the same with swiftness and just speedy kits. But your increments are terribly small (1-3 second increment per 5 seconds). On a side note, how did you ever manage that? :o

nachtnebel.9168:

Hickeroar.9734:

Some people REALLY LIKE gear progression. Actually…a LOT of people do. Look at “the other game” for an example of that. Massive subscriber base (dwarfs GW2s active players)…all centered around gear progression.

penatbater.4710:

It’s not really a “need”, but more of a “want”. People want progress at some form or another.
…
So is it necessary to make a fun experience? Maybe not. But do people want it? Yep. What matters now (and what separates gw2 with other mmos) is the form of that progression and rate of progress.

Both of you are probably right, but still your statement is probably not true for the majority of GW2 players. Most people playing “that other MMO” might want vertical progression but most people playing GW2 really hate it.
Having vertical progression in your game is fine if your player base is okay with it, if they don’t like it, which GW2 players clearly don’t – just take a look at the ascended gear kitten storm in November – forcing it down their throats is a bad idea.

I’m talking about progression in general, not necessarily gear progression (with the understanding that gear progression here means vertical progression). The only reason people hated t he ascended fiasco is that it was introduced after the game was launched, introducing the idea that there “might” be more tiers in the future. If this was introduced at the start, I don’t think people would have a problem with it. (but then, fractals weren’t introduced until the later part).

Vol.5241:

Go play tPvP if you want complexity rather than facerolls

Fixed that for you. sPvP are still facerolls/zergrolls/imbalanced groups/people leaving in the middle of the match because they’re down by a hundred points.

Sonia.7910:

I see this is old but I join the rant here. I’m trying to do the Breached Wall Vista puzzle and while most of it is quite easy there’s a long jump which has taken me more than ten attempts (not counting EACH attempt meant having to kill at least two ascalonian ghosts). When I finally achieved that jump my hand was shaking so much in the next two jumps I fell down and now I have to start it over again. I don’t mind easy jumping puzzles required to finish a map (Dredgehaunt ones were interesting and doable to my clumsy hand) but this can be very frustrating!
PS Anyone can give me advice about how to make long jumps? I’ve been completely unable to finish Troll’s End because of that!

Each character has a specific area of space on which he “stands”. This is why you see sometimes charr or asurans hanging by their pinky on walls and cliffs. You need to find out the exact shape/size of that relative to your character model. Like if you’re an asura, I find that it is possible to jump slightly later than a human model would. For example, this is the cliff/wall.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and this is you – [a]

Sometimes, you must jump at

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[a] to get maximum distance. But on an asura model, sometimes I jump
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx-[a] (I tried my best to illustrate x.x)

It’s as if on my asuran feet, the last jump isn’t on the wall/cliff anymore, but 1 step or half a step off the wall/cliff.

The point is you can jump slightly off-platform on an asura since they’re tiny in character model but each character has the same specific hitbox and foot area. Once you figure that out, jumping puzzles become easy/doable. =) Also, NEVER ever look at your char’s foot to check if you can stand on it or not. :p

PS. The one vista in dredgehaut cliffs was actually nerfed to make it easier. I think this happened during the wintersday patch. I remember the only way to finish that was to hang by the edge of your toe on one plank to be able to jump to the next one. >.< Took me 2 days to finally get it.

TooBz.3065:

I disagree, you don’t need “progression” to make an experience fun and engaging. Chess, checkers, Gin Rummy, Bridge, Euchre, Poker, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer, and a host of other activities do not have “progression” as we’ve been discussing it.

But people play those all the time.

It’s not really a “need”, but more of a “want”. People want progress at some form or another. GW2 is taking that form as cosmetic upgrades. And you really can’t compare those games with gw2. It’s like comparing dota/lol/hon/sc2/cs with wow/gw2/swtor. Apples and oranges. Also, all of those games have progression of some sort, when it comes to competitions. You start at the season, go to playoffs, quarterfinals, semi, then finals. Those are progression. You may also start those activities as, say, team C of the LA lakers (idk if they have a team C) and play in smaller tourneys. Then work your way up to Team A and play in the NBA. You being better at your activity, that’s also a form of progression.

So is it necessary to make a fun experience? Maybe not. But do people want it? Yep. What matters now (and what separates gw2 with other mmos) is the form of that progression and rate of progress.

a really quick way to level up as a mes is to get the trait that grants you clones when you dodge and a GS. Basically get 3 clones up and just AA, letting your clones do the tanking. I’ve been doing it for quite some time now and I feel like it’s almost cheating. Ofc, we don’t really have the best aoe damage, so that’s the only problem – you usually have to deal with 1 mob at a time.

I think people have come to equate gear progression as something bad. But the thing is, progress is still progress, be it vertical or horizontal. What irks people (i think) is how the gear treadmill replaces the main function of the game, how it’s all about getting the next tier armor, and how it is gating people from content. I used to play DCUO, and after getting the tier 1 controller armors, I was annoyed at the amount of grinding i had to do daily to get tier 2, nevermind tier 3 (maybe even 4 now). I really liked the story aspect of DCUO, but I couldn’t do them because those kinds of dungeons and raids are only for people with a specific gear score. In gw2, it’s so easy to get end-game gear, and even if you don’t have it yet, you can do almost all pve content with rares.

Poplolita.2638:

Begining of an expansion

Normal dungeon
Heroic dungeon

Raid 1
lfr gear tier 1
normal gear tier 1
heroic gear tier 1
2 months
Raid 2
Lfg gear upgrade tier 2
normal gear upgrade tier 2
heroic gear upgrade tier 2
2 months
raid 3
lfg gear upgrade tier 3
normal upgrade tier 3
heroic upgrade tier 3
2months

Next patch:

Outdoor raid
(…)
3 months
Farm valor points which has a weekly cap of 1000 to upgrade your gear.

Next patch:

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat.

so in essence, you’re simply playing to achieve the top gear, and once that’s done, they release something that makes your current gear obsolete so you have to do it all over again? =/ that’s rather… disheartening.

what’s interesting (at least for me) is that juggernaut transforms ugly/common dyes into awesome-looking with the chrome effect, and vice versa.

Unless anet is a publicly owned company, I don’t think we’ll see their books.

EDIT: I fail at reading. I read “How much money does Anet have?” =/

Well, save yourself is probably the shout he’s looking for. Then maybe healing breeze for his heal? mace + focus/shield. Other than that I don’t think a guard has a lot of aoe healing. Much of his healing has a small aoe (mace symbol, symbol healing). You might wanna get Knight’s gear.

One of the greatest pleasures of finally getting a legendary is being able to just sit in LA and just chat with people, as you’re no longer pressured to farm. ;D

rangerxnecro/mes in gw1
engineer in gw2 :p

Has anyone tried a symbol/AH build? I just bought my new hammer so I don’t have much time to practice hitting people (This is mainly focused on wvw).

Utilities are still all shouts coz of AH as well as me having 6/6 s.soldier runes. I use soldier armor and cleric trinkets (mostly exotic anyway). Hammer/staff for the symbols. Then I run

5/0/30/30/5 build. the Valor trait line is pretty standard, AH, purity and something else. Honor is superior aria, Writ of merciful and either writ of persistence or pure of voice. My main goal for the build is to be one of the first few people to rush into the zerg head-on, so I tried to be a bit tanky (with the clerics) but still have a bit of good damage (although i can say, at the moment it’s pretty crappy =/).

I tried out this build after (at long last) realizing that the end proc of hammer is a symbol so I kinda heal myself with each AA chain. (cast time seems a bit too long imo though, but at least it doesn’t stop even when you’re kiting). What do you guys think?

you just gotta keep on moving. remember that the attack animation of mobs usually are pretty slow so even if you’re in melee, you gotta learn how to kite them. If you’re having problems surviving, i suggest a staff and a scepter/shield as they’re more support/defense-oriented weapons. You probably won’t do a lot of damage, but it might help you survive and learn the dungeon.

Individual kit refinement cds on kits even if the cd is increased to 30sec per kit.

or

bring back some of the old kit refinement things (like elixer gun’s), move the kit refinement higher in the trait tree, plus the suggestion above.

I run into more female players than what you’d normally expect from an MMO in gw2. I guess gw2 has a better appeal to the female base than other games.

One of these days, I’m gonna make a “GLF3m Cofp1 farm. NO zerk mes/war allowed(other mes/war builds allowed), but must know fights. ping gear on accept” just out of spite, and hope it catches on.

tbh i don’t think AH is support at all. It’s more selfish really. While you are indeed giving boons too your allies, that’s all you’re doing. I prefer more a guard that does ground-targeting consecrations, at least wall of reflection. That thing saves lives! :o

ahhhhhhhh i see i see. ok thanks x.x

MLieBennett.9031:

Do you attack, or more specifically LAND an attack, after getting stealth?

I know that the LANDING an attack after being stealthed is a big problem for me, when using the Staff with its slow projectiles and potentially the Scepter against something ranged. I can’t recall if it also deals with reflected projectiles from Feedback and a traited Temporal Curtain though (It doesn’t occur from a traited I.Warden, I know that much).

not at all. I was walking some dolyaks, but the timer on the icon starts at 2sec. =/

It says in the tool tip 4sec of stealth. Yet whenever i walk through it, I only get 2secs. What’s up with that?:|

Snow White.9680:

Thinking I’ll bench the engi..

If I’m reading these suggestions correctly, seems I can’t play with the weapons I want whats the point.

Thanks for all the advice you guys

you can try a power/crit build with rifle, with static discharge. Idk if it’ll still be viable now, but it used to be a popular pvp build back then.

hi I’ve been looking for some current bunker eng builds but i can’t seem to find any. I also don’t know how to make a bunker build for ele. Any advice/thoughts?

You can roam as an eng with perma-swiftness on kits.

phys.7689:

the highest toughness with a secondary in power isnt that impressive, youd have no crits and no crit damage. Im not saying its trash, but its not really stronger than anything else.
Far as saying OP with conditions, is essentially accurate, im not saying this stuff is weak, im saying its not OVER powered. like i said most condition applying is tied to critical hits, Id say probably mesmer would be the craziest with condition and toughness, but the vit wouldnt be that necessary for that build.

like i said, do you really think either one of those builds would be stronger than any other statistic build? especially in PVE? is the high hp necro that afraid of getting hit they wouldnt rather have CON toughness prec? its just not overpowered versus builds we already have is all im saying

Can you tell me an OP build we have right now with the existing stuff? zerker mes/war? cleric guard? condi necro? The fact is, all of those builds/stat allocations all have a trade-off between killing power and surviving power. And all of them are counters. The suggestion above is also a good example of an OP build. T/v/h or t/v/H will really be OP on a guard.