Guild Wars 2

Raven.9603:

Counter to condi-cc-druid is stability. Stability means no knockdowns or dazes which in turn means no roots from ancient seeds.

Rock solid + harmonious conduit + imbued melodies + runes of leadership is more than enough stab uptime without even using armor of earth traits or util (60% boon duration without food).

My current d/d build is entirely dependent on armor of earth for stability since I’m using air/water/arcana instead of earth and am cautious of tempest. I have a lot of cleanse which is great but it didn’t do much for that fight. I suppose that with a completely melee build I’d have to use tempest and perhaps earth against this cc heavy ranger. I hate to lose one or especially two of my favorite trait lines though.

Also thanks to everyone who replied! I’ll either have to invest in more stability or maybe try out s/x for a while, maybe even with tempest for the stability as an added bonus. This has been a very helpful thread so you guys rock!

Nike.2631:

Sounds a bit like my Mad-seed. Shortbow has a really potent daze/stun and there’s CC on glyphs. Mad seed is more built for team fights than dueling, but the tools are there.

The description of that build seems pretty accurate. Definitely wasn’t using sb but I’m pretty sure it was staff and axe/dagger now. What’s the counter? As much stunbreak as possible and/or ranged attacks to avoid cc in the first place? I can’t even access more stun break than I had lol

Wasn’t burning so likely wasn’t torch. Definitely poison and bleeding so sword or dagger? Tough to say because my combat log was completely filled with conditions. And he didn’t heal, he never needed to. I couldn’t deal any damage at all, not even with the multiple instant casts of lightning on swap to air. Only ever saw wolf so I can see him using the wolf cc but the entire fight was me struggling to last more than a second at a time without being cc’d again. He definitely had stun as well so that sounds right

Some druid in wvw kicked my kitten and I need to know how the hell he did it. Help me ranger forums!

He was definitely a condition bunker druid because he was running axe and something else along with staff. After a full minute of me being completely unable to deal any damage whatsoever (d/d ele), like literally 0 damage, he perma cc’d me with non-stop knockdown and roots. I’m pretty confident he cc’d me probably at least 5 times within the last 30 seconds of the fight because I used 3 seperate stun breakers and used water attunement to free me at least once and was rooted or knocked down or both every time I broke free. Without fail.

Any idea what this build is? I’ve never encountered anything like it before and if this is legit, I need to get druid on my dusty ranger ASAP.

Also would like to add that at the risk of sounding arrogant, I’m usually a pretty good ele that has little or no trouble with rangers ever. I carry more than enough condi cleanse to win or at least stale mate trap rangers, enough mobility to close the gap on pew pew rangers, and enough burst pressure to pin druids. Usually.

TL;DR: can anyone identify this build? Staff and axe/x condition bunker with extreme cc

Character Name: Atregos
Race: Human
Server: Tarnished Coast

I’ve recently created a new look for myself. All of the following screenshots feature the same pieces of armor and the same dye schemes.

There are quite a few photos (35 to be exact) so here’s a link to the photo album: http://imgur.com/a/4k1em#30

Enjoy

I completed this dungeon with only one other person. It took a while seeing as we were two thieves who knew nothing about the dungeon and refused to receive help from other players or guides but it was just as fun as it was challenging. The trick was being patient enough to learn the mechanics. I would welcome more dungeons similar to this.

Just a normal day in fotm…

…when my aqua breather decided to stay on my face after the squid-fractal. I couldn’t resist taking a photo and quoting Bane in a mediocre impersonation that you sadly won’t hear.

Enjoy:

hharry.1967:

I would love an OUT OF COMBAT weapon switch. So i dont have to actually open my inventory and switch every time i face a different situation that needs a different weapon. Mostly for pve.

I agree with this, even if it seems like a minor addition. An out-of-combat switch wouldn’t provide any unfair advantages but it would allow elementalists to be a little more organized.

I forgot to mention that the music still plays while the screen is black, like you guys. It’s not a huge deal since it happens so rarely, but it’s really, really obnoxious in FotM because once you’re out, you can’t get back in unless your party wants to lose all progress. I’m just now considering that it may be my internet connection causing these crashes and that would make sense. I was in vent when I crashed in GW2 and I heard the “disconnecting” sound and the “reconnecting” sound a second later (meaning that I lost my connection for a second). It has occurred to me that I’ve been playing in a different location than where I usually play, so for now, I’ll assume that it’s my connection to the internet (which has only seemed to fail for no more than 2 seconds at a time and not often).

As the title implies, I’ve been getting black screens (but rarely). Today I got one just before killing the boss in the Jade Maw during FotM lvl. 14. I can’t even remember the last time I got a black screen (but it only ever occurred in FotM) and I assumed that I didn’t have to worry about it. I’ve looked at https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issue-Nvidia and verified that setting so I’m not sure what the problem is. I’ve never had black screen issues anywhere else in GW2 or any other game. Apparently there can be many causes and I have no idea where to start. Specs are linked and any help or suggestion is appreciated.

Laptop Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3610QM
VGA: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 660M / 2GB GDDR5
RAM: 8GB(4GB*2)
HDD: 750GB 7200RPM

Still getting errors in fractals, and often in the 3rd mini-dungeon (meaning a massive waste of time and effort). How long must this go on?

@Jefzor.7145: Is the regeneration really worth it if it can only proc every 45 seconds? Regardless, thanks for the advice- I’m going to change my build around like the one you suggested and try it out.

@Berengar.6951: Thanks for the advice as well, taking shadowstep in place of caltrops as we speak (although it will take some getting used to).

Level 78 thief here, just wanted to ask around on the forums and gather some good max-level, recent PvE and WvW build ideas (with PvE as the primary focus). Initially, I decided to move towards d/d builds (with sb). After exploring a bit, I considered trying out condition damage d/d builds, but ultimately decided that the bleed limit made me uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure that I want to build towards using d/d with zerker gear, but I’m having trouble deciding where to spend traits. This: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlUmaPXey5E95Ex2jdmTeqzgmts/wVB, has been my favorite build so far. It utilizes Deadly Arts for increased dagger damage and decent damage with steal, goes 30 points in Critical Strikes for greatly increased crit damage, and lastly 15 points into Acrobatics for mobility. In WvW, I’ve found my combat (solo) to be pretty depressing (partially due to the poorly scaled stats but also due to my lack of thief experience). I’m tempted to try out a decent build spending points in Shadow Arts, but any build is welcome.

If you post a build, please link it using any GW2 calculator and describe the basic approach to combat (in PvE or WvW).

Thanks for replying. I thought it over and might take a condition route leveling as well as a burst route at some point to experiment. I made a build that relies mostly on dealing large crits with back-stab. The traits go in Critical Strikes for the 100% stealth-crits and instant gain of 5 might on signets (and the passive crit increase). I have points into Shadow Arts so that I can stealth for an extra second and can conserve initiative which is always helpful. The points in Acrobatics are there purely for dodging so that I can gain might, swiftness, and regenerate endurance faster. The last points go into Trickery for the initiative gain and the fury/swiftness/might on steal. On paper, it seems like this build might do okay, but feel free to correct any mistakes you see. This build would allow one to move quickly in and out of stealth with proper avoidance. Lemme know what you think.

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAoY6YlUmaPXey5E+JFx2jd6TiyfwoeFIb/hrC

I’ve decided to leave my ranger for a while and level up a thief (perhaps as a new main) and would like some advice on D/D and P/D builds. At this moment in time, I’m level 25 with 10 points in Shadow Arts and 5 points not spent. I’ve been reading so many thief-build posts that I’m confused as many of them conflict. I’ve heard that daggers go with condition damage and that condition damage is great for survival, and I’ve heard that daggers go with crit and that condition damage is awful in most circumstances. I’d appreciate it if any thieves with lots of experience could post their favorite PvE/WvW build from any GW2-calculator and explain why a particular type of gear goes with the build.

TL;DR: Post your favorite PvE/WvW D/D and/or P/D build

I’ve never heard of pulling them into the ooze room, thanks for the advice. Again, it’s uncommon to encounter this problem but next time I’ll try that.

iMav.7869:

You can always communicate to people to not rez the NPC.

But it seems that you need to get better groups.

Yeah I figured that someone would say that. I do my best to communicate it, but sadly many people revive the NPC on purely on reflex. I’ll probably continue to join PUGS as the number of successful EXP runs far outweigh the number of failed runs (still obnoxious though heh).

I have a level 76 ranger and am working on a level 37 warrior at the moment and I’ve pretty much only done dungeons for exp (past level 30) on both characters. I mentioned my characters first to show that I have a fair amount of experience with explorer modes; my ranger has more dungeon currency than most 80s in my guild.

On to the actual topic…

I’m sick of the most obnoxious mechanic happening too often on path #2, just before the final boss (when your group is protecting the turrets). Your group must kill a few enemies while keeping the NPC alive, generally not a difficult task. Unfortunately, the NPC will occasionally die (for numerous reasons: someone goes AFK, or internet connection failures, etc…) and then ghosts stick around once everyone dies. There is just about ALWAYS one person who revives the NPC before the group kills off the remaining enemies, causing 3+ more to spawn and start attacking. This is where most PUGS disband as they cannot kill 6+ ranger/eles/necros at once or are unwilling to spend the time and money just to complete the dungeon. This happens WAY too often. The path itself (ignoring this problem) is relatively simple, one that PUGS often choose. It this a bug, a poor mechanic, or do I just need to be more selective with my groups?

/rant

TL;DR: Is AC EXP Path #2 bugged or a poor mechanic? What do you do when a member of your party decides (foolishly) to revive the NPC spawning more enemies (with some enemies already out)?