Guild Wars 2

I should probably point out that the reason why ANet didn’t put this on a “PTR,” like many of their other changes, is so that people don’t get a heads up and then all start bumrushing it ASAP. That would be counterproductive to the goal, wouldn’t it? “We’re testing this dungeon to make it harder so that you can’t speed clear it. By the way, don’t you guys speed clear it while we’re testing that on a public realm where you will hear people come back and tell you to speed clear it ASAP before it is nerfed.”

I’m actually happy they took that out without warning. Seeing people jogging around in their full CoF gear made me think they were just opportunistic, and probably way too proud of their “accomplishment.” I’ve run a few explorable modes, I enjoy them for the experience of actually playing them believe it or not, and I actually do get enough money from the end reward and drops to cover any repair bill pretty easily. Not sure what you guys are doing. My money drops just from the dungeon clear were 21 silver. My repair bills were 14s or so. I got a bunch of greens and blues that went off to the vendor, and an Onyx Loadstone which I sold for 90s all in 40 or so minutes, probably less, so I even made a nice little bit of money there.

Most importantly, though, I enjoyed the experience. That really can’t be overstated (even though I did just edit this post because I said “most” and “important” a second time.)

I played WoW. I wasn’t a pro, my Arena rating hit 1950 at the highest. I do find it funny that people complain about a lack of variety, though, considering most classes only had one effective spec for Arena with minor variations outside of the occasional novelty team comp. After a certain rating you really stop running into those too, for the most part. I should know, because a friend and I did double DPS (Ret Paladin and Frost DPS.) I much prefer GW2’s PVP to WoW’s. I don’t find the weapon selection to be boring, but then again, I do play a Guardian. I find most of the classes, when played well, to be very balanced. I’m going to contradict myself here, though, and say it seems Elementalists do need some help. I’ve seen some great ones, and I’ve seen some really great ones in videos in particular, but the average Elementalist I see seems to be struggling to stay at the base level the rest of us are cruising on.

Also, to the above quotations about how you can’t say WoW sucks because it’s popular, I believe that’s called an argumentum ad populum. Just because a lot of people like it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. A lot of people like McDonald’s, too, but you aren’t really going to tell me that it’s because McDonald’s has better food as much as it has better marketing than its competition (or, if you don’t believe me, you will need to explain why WoW’s subscriber numbers get quoted as often as the “240 billion served” motto McDonald’s trumpets.)

This game certainly does have its PVP issues, but they are very, very minor compared to some of the things that I remember seeing in Vanilla WoW. Destruction Warlocks, Undead Shadow Priests (which I played, unless you thought I was just a still-bitter Alliance player), Undead Rogues, and Enhancement Shamans with Hand of Ragnaros come to mind. You want to talk about a lack of variety, in that last example? Here’s “Stormstrike+Windfury=you’re dead” for a real spread of delight.

I also played RIFT, which took a more WoW-type approach with multiclassing elements and all the skills you could ever want. Again, it all boiled down to a few very hard specs which were set in stone. When the FOTM changed due to rebalancing, so did those specs, but there was never a big variety to them. Pop big cooldowns, crowd control to death, occasionally line of sight. If you enjoy that style of gameplay, there are still at least two MMOs on the market who deliver it in spades.

Ruwe.9612:

But by the time I have 15 of the type of jewel I’m shooting for I could have had 50 or more of any other single tier 5 crafting mat.

So you sell the 50 of the tier 5 mat and buy the other materials you need. Congratulations on cutting down your farm time for the next craft.

Personally, I found Jewelcrafting to be the easiest thing to level so far up until the point where you need to make Rares. After that, it is a pain. I felt that those requirements were fair for an otherwise easy ride, especially considering how many levels you get from making one of those rares (3-5, as I recall. Maybe even more.) The rare gems themselves also gave a lot of crafting experience when you put them together. I’m pretty sure I didn’t end up spending a whole lot on the ectos themselves to do it, but I wish I had kept a record now of exactly how many I needed from 375-400. I found that just making a few different items is really what made the difference as far as how many you need to get to 400.

In fact, keeping it varied to keep it easy was my entire experience through Jewelcrafting in general. I never made anything more than once, with the exception of the rare embellished gems later on. I believe I might have used maybe 9 ectos, I want to say? I don’t know if every other craft gets the kind of leveling bumps off of that level of recipe that Jewelcrafting gets. Maybe they do. I don’t know.

I do feel it is a little out of sorts to complain about the difficulties of Jewelcrafting though. I even felt it was a little too easy. The fact that I can barely make any profit off of crafting exotics at this point is probably a testament to that, too. People will still sell their wares for only slightly more than the material costs, and the buy orders are even lower because someone out there will want to “get a return ASAP” that ultimately means you lose money. That’s a discussion for another thread though.

As someone who has Reaper of Grenth, I can tell you it’s not worth it at all. It doesn’t even really look cool.

If you want conditions, just do a Tome. More damage and utility, and Tome of Wrath spreads burning everywhere.

Daboris.6730:

Let me know what you think, or someone give it a try: http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzcM0V0zMmwxoMmwxmx9MxaoaqckaV

I’m not much of a fan of spirit weapons to be honest, but whenever I see an effective build for them, they usually also use 1H weapons (Scepter+Shield or Torch, Sword+Focus)

Here’s the build I run for WvW, SPVP, and PVE content.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUAQJASRlUgKD3FyIEfIFSmCRCBtPAQ1HiHMFa0HB

(Note: There’s no toughness. You’ll have to pick that up through gear/runes, or you could supplement it through Signet of Judgement as I have done.)

There are three things that make this build work very well. The main thing is the symbols: They apply vulnerability, about 4-5 stacks or so. They heal you for a small amount, maybe 500-600 when you’re standing in it total. Maybe more if you get +healing.) They do about 300-ish per tick of damage to the enemy. In the case of the Hammer, it also buffs you with protection, and with the Greatsword, Retaliation. This means whenever you have to stand and fight, you’re already working on buffing your nearby allies and wearing down the enemy. Depending on the weapon that you use, you’re also either doing more damage or taking less.

The second thing about this build is the Virtues. Each time you use one, you get retaliation. Each time you use Virtue of Justice, you blind the enemy, give everyone burning to build a longer stack immediately, and you get might. It also refreshes on kill, which is more useful for WvW and PVE than it is for SPvP, but it’s still useful. Virtue of Resolve is both a stronger passive regen and a conditions cleanser (works to knock off fear as well.)

The third thing is the Consecrations. You can swap Wall of Reflection for Hallowed Ground if you want. I like them for the combo fields, the added damage, and the way Purging Flames works with the first major trait in the Zeal line. Also great for group support.

So how does the Hammer come into this? Hammer’s Might Blow spreads retaliation on Light combo fields, and Might on fire. Giving everyone standing near you protection, retaliation, a small heal, and a softer target is a good thing. Hammer also has an interrupt through Banish. Ring of Warding and then Banish is effective in a lot of situations because it both interrupts/knocks back and keeps them within your strike range. The third hit, slow as it is, comes down hard, and when it does, you can either choose to stand in it if the enemy wants to fight you there, or leap out of it to activate the combo field. Once you’ve done that, you can either immobilize/swap to Greatsword and lay down Symbol of Wrath, or you can continue another chain and wait for them to exhaust their endurance.

For anyone complaining about the slow third attack, you probably should consider the fact that Hammer has two “immobilizes,” and Greatsword has one with the yank as well. Also keep an eye on how many times the enemy is dodging. It’s not the perfect weapon for every encounter, but it absolutely wrecks melee, and even casters many times.

I used this build fairly successfully in hotjoin sPvP last night. It was extremely effective against Thieves, Mesmers, and Warriors. The burning damage that you can do, with the added “burn”-esque damage on a Symbol mean you can really get someone’s health down fast before they understand exactly what’s happening. Toughness is pretty important to stack for PVE and PVP situations so that you aren’t squishy.

(Note: For WvW, I switch between Hammer and Greatsword, but I keep Staff and I replace the Writ of the Merciful with Two Handed Mastery as a major trait for the lowered cooldown on Line of Warding and Empower)

Symbols can put vulnerability on enemies and heal allies when traited.
The auto attack can buff your allies with might every time you crit when traited.
The heal and might on the 4 skill do not have a target limit.
I believe the warding line is a combo field, which gives you two combo fields on one weapon. I believe only mace and shield can do that as well.
Staff is a very good weapon. It just isn’t very obvious. I even think a power staff build would be possible. I know during earlier beta weekends I used a “glass cannon” Greatsword/Staff build, and with my Staff and a ton of power and crit damage, I was critting all targets often for around 1.2k-1.5k. With no limit on targets, that’s about as much damage as Tome of Wrath does (without the burning, of course.)

The only weak point is the slow orb and the detonate. I’d replace it with a direct, channeled beam that blinds for its duration or something along those lines. Maybe even weakness.

Actually, when I play my Guardian in any WvW situation, I feel like one of the most powerful contributors. The heal on Staff hits everyone within range, I’m not sure what the buff limit on Virtues is but I’m pretty sure Resolve heals everyone within range. The blockade you set up with Staff can literally hold an army off from crossing a bridge, and Wall of Reflection is downright ridiculous when placed against a firing line or a gate you’re defending.

I mean we get shouts, Purifying Flames, Tomes (both Courage and Wrath are more well suited for WvW than any other area in the game, you can firebomb the entire enemy cluster within range of the reticule or heal huge amounts of your own side.)

Not every weapon is going to be useful, but I even got a lot of use out of Scepter/Torch for harassing enemies on top of gates and catching runners with the immobilize. As an added bonus, the torch’s flame breathing ability can go through both your own gates and the enemy’s to hit whoever’s on the other side. Staff and Scepter / Torch or Sword / Torch make me capable for both small scale skirmshes and pursuits and line to line combat.

If you want to see a class that probably needs help in WvW, I imagine Thief is much worse off.