Official AT Guild Wars 2 Guild Thread

[StrangerGuy]

I just bought GW2 and am going in pretty much blind and was wondering what a good race/profession for me would be. I was thinking either a Norn or Human as a Guardian or a Ranger. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Race doesn't really matter, but I won't suggest rolling ranger as that is a joke class at the moment.

 

[Madia]

Race doesn't really matter, but I won't suggest rolling ranger as that is a joke class at the moment.

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up going human/ranger and leveled up to around 11. I wasn't loving the weapon skills so I ended up starting over as a human/engineer. I'm enjoying the engineer a lot more so the ranger play was basically a tutorial for me. The only thing I miss is the weapon swap but the kits make up for it.

 

[zinfamous]

If you want a guild invite--PM me in-game (see first post)

We are on stormbluff, which is almost always full, but can often find space if you check regularly if you do want to move over. Guilds are cross-server and you can join multiple guilds.

 

[Kyle]

If you want a guild invite--PM me in-game (see first post)

We are on stormbluff, which is almost always full, but can often find space if you check regularly if you do want to move over. Guilds are cross-server and you can join multiple guilds.

Thanks for the invite- just joined (Rozock)

 

[Fallen Kell]

That's nice to know. Part of the reason I quit was that I really enjoy crafting in games, but chose Armorsmith/Weaponsmith. They share mats, so I was perpetually poor trying to keep up my skill with my level as you have to supplement harvesting with buying off the AH. I've got a level 55 or something and I think I have 7 silver.

Maybe I'll try to get back into it at some point.

I would also say don't even bother trying to keep your crafting skills up with your level. The items you craft almost always have a better market available alternative until you hit lvl 80, with the exception being cooking and artifacting. The only useful things some of the other crafting professions have are being able to make bags/boxes for item storage. But for weapons/armor, you are far better off simply looking on the market and buying a green or yellow periodically at your level (I probably would go 10 levels before upgrading). It is much cheaper, and as I stated there is typically better gear available (because instead of only being able to craft a "green", you could be buying a "yellow").

 

[zinfamous]

I would also say don't even bother trying to keep your crafting skills up with your level. The items you craft almost always have a better market available alternative until you hit lvl 80, with the exception being cooking and artifacting. The only useful things some of the other crafting professions have are being able to make bags/boxes for item storage. But for weapons/armor, you are far better off simply looking on the market and buying a green or yellow periodically at your level (I probably would go 10 levels before upgrading). It is much cheaper, and as I stated there is typically better gear available (because instead of only being able to craft a "green", you could be buying a "yellow").

well, crafting gives you free levels. And you can craft rares (yellow) as well. You have to buy those recipes from the master crafter for each discipline, using karma for each rare insignia. They become available starting with the 2nd (maybe 3rd?) tier of materials/ item levels.

You actually have to do this to max out tailoring/armor/leatherworking. Once you hit ~385-390, master quality level 80 stuff stops giving you XP, and discovering each one is very, very marginal.

at ~385, you only need to discover 4 rare pieces to hit 400.

So, you can make the same quality, same stats stuff through crafting as you can find anywhere in the game, except for the certain dungeon sets that have unique stat combinations (but these are soulbound, anyway, and can not be purchased)

 

[NoSoup4You]

Crafting is a great option when leveling, but you'll only have enough mats for either weapons or armor and not both. That is, if you're planning to keep your crafting matched up with the level you're at. Once you reach level 35, you can just craft yourself rares all the way until you reach level 80. If you're not sure which to pick, I'd recommend crafting armor and simply buying your rare weapons off the TP or just use the weapons that drop. Crafting armor's more interesting because you equip all of it, whereas crafting weapons often means making LongBows even though you're a Thief.

I just rolled an Elementalist and I can't believe how fragile they are. Fun to play, but challenging. They feel underpowered to me actually but maybe that's just because the last character I leveled was a Guardian and perhaps Ele's real potential is in AoE damage (WvW...etc.) and I'm just not able to tap that potential while leveling in PvE.

As far as choosing a first profession, if you want to be forced into learning the mechanics like dodge rolling then pick an Ele, Thief, or Engineer. Warrior and Guardian can be played just like other MMO's, stand still absorbing damage while hitting button combo's, while the other classes will definitely have to kite and move around but they have pets/minions or strong mechanics to mitigate damage. All of them are fun, although Warr/Guard are easy-mode to the extreme.

 

[Skott]

I heard that rangers got nerfed pretty hard but I think that is only for PvP. For PvE its a pretty good Profession to play. My guy is only level 20 so far though so I cant say that for 100% certain. Although reading the various forums people say it is pretty strong PvE still. I'm certainly enjoying it. He can really kick some mob butts.

I switched my younger warrior over to axe/shield + gun and I'm having a blast with him too now. 2h sword is suppose to be the bomb but I wasn't liking it too much to be honest. I wanted a weapon/shield build + something other than bow and he is filling in just fine for that type of play for me so far.

I'm not really interested in PvP or 5v5 but the WvW I might be able to get into. I like the idea of realm vs realm type of play in MMO games. If its good. I havent tried any of it yet in GW2 though. I'm still trying to learn how my characters work and how best to use them. So its PvE for now.

I haven't tried crafting yet. I heard its pretty much useless unless you just want to make your own stuff. I keep hearing how the economy is completely broken. Not sure if that is just on my server or across all servers. I hear the talk all the time in chat though how crafting sucks. Saw quite a few similar comments on the official forums too.

 

[GaiaHunter]

The best way of going is to ignore crafting for your first character.

On the other hand I've been noticed that with the bots banning it is possible to sell some low level blue/greens for considerable higher prices than a few weeks ago.

It was certainly nice to be able to craft vitality gear for my elementalist at level 10, which is much more frail than necros, warriors and even engineers.

 

[aigomorla]

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up going human/ranger and leveled up to around 11. I wasn't loving the weapon skills so I ended up starting over as a human/engineer. I'm enjoying the engineer a lot more so the ranger play was basically a tutorial for me. The only thing I miss is the weapon swap but the kits make up for it.

the engie... ranger... and necro are all broken at the moment.

when i say broken i mean they been nerf'd to buttfungulo so badly, they are totally outclassed by the other classes in every category without being competitive.

The necro is on the bottom of the food chain in dps.. its all about conditional dmg on the necro, however conditional takes time to build up, and by the time its built up, the other classes has ground stomped whatever ur trying to kill and already moved on.

The Ranger, is broken too because of the last 2 nerf's on it. I hear a lot of people rant, and u can blame the bots for the nerf's. The nerf's were more made so botting would be more difficult with rangers.

The engie lost a lot as well during the last patch.
A lot of skills got nerf'd, you dont take anywhere near the DPS ladder against a warrior / elementalist.

Everyone says a warrior is a no brain character.. you just mash 2 buttons, with a third every now and then.
But the warrior in guildwars 2 is the most OP class in terms of DPS with survivalbility.

However my guardian could probably give my warrior a run for the money in Survivalbility as well as group heal more so then an engie could.

Which goes back to 1... why is there even an engie?
Oh yeah. the flame thrower.... but that goes boring quick.

 

[zinfamous]

the engie... ranger... and necro are all broken at the moment.

when i say broken i mean they been nerf'd to buttfungulo so badly, they are totally outclassed by the other classes in every category without being competitive.

The necro is on the bottom of the food chain in dps.. its all about conditional dmg on the necro, however conditional takes time to build up, and by the time its built up, the other classes has ground stomped whatever ur trying to kill and already moved on.

The Ranger, is broken too because of the last 2 nerf's on it. I hear a lot of people rant, and u can blame the bots for the nerf's. The nerf's were more made so botting would be more difficult with rangers.

The engie lost a lot as well during the last patch.
A lot of skills got nerf'd, you dont take anywhere near the DPS ladder against a warrior / elementalist.

Everyone says a warrior is a no brain character.. you just mash 2 buttons, with a third every now and then.
But the warrior in guildwars 2 is the most OP class in terms of DPS with survivalbility.

However my guardian could probably give my warrior a run for the money in Survivalbility as well as group heal more so then an engie could.

Which goes back to 1... why is there even an engie?
Oh yeah. the flame thrower.... but that goes boring quick.

turrets are really good for crowd control, especially with difficult mobs. They instant-aggro anything that is aggressive, and that alone is of substantial use for any group. damage mitigation is, to me, the most important aspect of defense/healing. Much better to not have to heal than to have to spec too much into healing. The guardian does this very well with aegis, protection and all that--a very solid type of healing theory. One other way to mitigate damage, is to not be damaged. Distract, send the mobs to focus on something else and tear them apart without taking damage. A different way to achieve the same goal.

I recall being able to trait into turrets to buff their defense, so that they essentially act as pain-absorbers, but I'm not sure if that has been nerfed as well. I've only played mine up to level 11 or so, but more substantially during the beta.

I think they are quite useful, if for no other reason than they offer good control--assuming it still works. I think other classes do a lot of the individual things that an engi can do better (healing: guardian, AoE DPS: ele), but engi can do a lot of different things pretty well. that alone could be a knock on them, but I think it's still a fun class to play.

Nec...I don't know. The caster classes really take time to get rolling and comfortable. I want to think that if traited properly and well into level 40 or greater, they are viable. I still see a lot of level 80 Necs running around, but I've barely played one.

 

[shurato]

The warrior class has the stigma of being easy to play and to a certain respect I can understand where people can think that. In this game a lot come to this conclusion by trying out the class and easy mode leveling in PVE with a greatsword. I've played many MMO's in my time and a lot of melee classes and I think it does take a lot of skill and finesse to play a melee warrior well. However obviously being in plate does afford you a little more wiggle room for error compared to a cloth or medium armor wearer.

It's difficult to gauge the effectiveness of classes without tangible metrics such as a dps meter. When I played WoW and raided heavily, I prided myself in being as efficient as possible and being usually the top DPS in the raid with my Warrior even when other classes are supposed to out DPS me. That means knowing the fights, being efficient in your skills, always eating foods/buffs, etc. In GW2 I'm trying to do the same thing by constantly moving around and maximizing my DPS while soaking up as much damage that I can and using all my my skills while swapping weapons to help my teammates around me.

I also have a Ranger and Engineer in full exotics and I feel I'm fairly skilled with them but lately I just bring my Warrior to dungeons because I feel that I bring the most with that class to the group dynamics. I'm not saying I don't go down or die because I frequently do but I'm consistently trying to do MAX DPS and am always trying to go to the aid of someone who's down or aid of someone getting pummeled by mobs/bosses, or having difficulties running past mobs in certain dungeons, etc. So if your surrounded by mobs and about to die, I'll often run in suicidal since I'm tanky, and try to get you up and often popping endure pain, frenzy, and healing you to get up and sometimes I'll go down or die trying.

It's all in how you play the game and utilize the class to the best of your abilities. Certain classes are always going to be better or easier than others until the inevitable future patches/nerfs, etc. The beauty of this game is that all classes are enjoyable to play and the removal of the trinity is actually the best part of this game. I plan on starting an elementalist and necro next. I respect good players of all the classes in GW2. I will say in the AT guild we don't really have any end game engineers, rangers, or necros. As aigomorla pointed out those classes have gotten the shaft in patches and nerfs that really makes them a little less desirable to play than other classes.

 

[zinfamous]

It's all in how you play the game and utilize the class to the best of your abilities. Certain classes are always going to be better or easier than others until the inevitable future patches/nerfs, etc. The beauty of this game is that all classes are enjoyable to play and the removal of the trinity is actually the best part of this game. I plan on starting an elementalist and necro next. I respect good players of all the classes in GW2. I will say in the AT guild we don't really have any end game engineers, rangers, or necros. As aigomorla pointed out those classes have gotten the shaft in patches and nerfs that really makes them a little less desirable to play than other classes.

well, we had Isaha, but he doesn't really play any more. And Woop has abandoned his Ranger for the Warrior.

I got my Warrior up to 80 and exotic'd (except for the trinkets), but at the same time I became more and more comfortable with my Mes in dungeons. I just much prefer that play style. My ele is now at 71--thought I would have it up to 80 by last night, but I keep getting distracted by the chat channel. It is, however, "fully geared" at 70 with a dungeon running set....so I feel like AC survival would be OK. That would be a few quick levels.

 

[I4AT]

How do combo fields work with projectiles? Do they only give a % chance to activate whatever buff? I use super elixir with my engineer a lot and it never seems to remove conditions (light combo) on either me or any of my allies when firing through it. It does remove one condition on impact, is that the only benefit of the light combo field or just a trait of the skill?

I've noticed the wiki says projectiles: 20%, but it'd definitely have to be a lot lower cause I've never once noticed a condition get removed when firing through the field, maybe 2% would be more accurate in that case. Or it could just possibly be bugged?

EDIT: I guess autofire skills without cooldown supposedly have a 20% chance for activation, but it seems a lot lower to me unless it only applies to allies and not the skill user, I'll have to mess around with it some more.

 

[GaiaHunter]

How do combo fields work with projectiles? Do they only give a % chance to activate whatever buff? I use super elixir with my engineer a lot and it never seems to remove conditions (light combo) on either me or any of my allies when firing through it. It does remove one condition on impact, is that the only benefit of the light combo field or just a trait of the skill?

I've noticed the wiki says projectiles: 20%, but it'd definitely have to be a lot lower cause I've never once noticed a condition get removed when firing through the field, maybe 2% would be more accurate in that case. Or it could just possibly be bugged?

EDIT: I guess autofire skills without cooldown supposedly have a 20% chance for activation, but it seems a lot lower to me unless it only applies to allies and not the skill user, I'll have to mess around with it some more.

If I'm not mistaken, you will need to be inside the field to lose the condition.

 

[I4AT]

I typically am because it's a 240 radius spell which is fairly large. I tested the fire combo field with Napalm from my flamethrower and it proc'd burning multiple times per cast, seemed about in line with a 20% autofire chance.

The light field just does not seem to work as well/as often, if at all, for removing conditions. At least not with the engi super elixir, I don't play any other classes at the moment. I'm starting to think it's either bugged or significantly less than a 20% chance.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I typically am because it's a 240 radius spell which is fairly large. I tested the fire combo field with Napalm from my flamethrower and it proc'd burning multiple times per cast, seemed about in line with a 20% autofire chance.

The light field just does not seem to work as well/as often, if at all, for removing conditions. At least not with the engi super elixir, I don't play any other classes at the moment. I'm starting to think it's either bugged or significantly less than a 20% chance.

I haven't played the engineer for a while, but I remember when I was using the elixir gun it seemed to work properly.

What you need to consider is that you will see the combo visual display (both the combo indicator and see the projectile change) every time but the effect will only be applied 20% of the time.

If you fire your elixir gun dart you will see it shooting a lightning every attack.

I'll have a look when I get home.

 

[aigomorla]

I also have a Ranger and Engineer in full exotics and I feel I'm fairly skilled with them but lately I just bring my Warrior to dungeons because I feel that I bring the most with that class to the group dynamics. I'm not saying I don't go down or die because I frequently do but I'm consistently trying to do MAX DPS and am always trying to go to the aid of someone who's down or aid of someone getting pummeled by mobs/bosses, or having difficulties running past mobs in certain dungeons, etc. So if your surrounded by mobs and about to die, I'll often run in suicidal since I'm tanky, and try to get you up and often popping endure pain, frenzy, and healing you to get up and sometimes I'll go down or die trying.

Havent i been telling everyone this game is soooo off balanced with the warrior.

And Woop has abandoned his Ranger for the Warrior.

Yeah cuz straight up and simple, the warrior has the crown for the top things needed in a dungeon.

Single Target DPS / AoE DPS with survivalbility / Short Duration Tanking.

I have been playing the light armor / Medium armor / Heavy armor classes, and well, it honestly seems like:

1. Light armor classes got GIMP'd... they all shelled out raw DPS for conditional, and conditional is kinda broken in this game without stacking conditions for a good duration for it to be effective. God dont get me started on the Necro.... Necro is so much fail...

2. Medium armor - got nerf'd... minus the thief who has all about explosive up front DPS, but after that, the thief doesnt have anywhere near survivability to deal that explosive DPS. Dont get me started on the ranger and engie... they got NERF'd hard...

3. Heavy Armor... lets face it... in a game like guildwars2 where its save your ass yourself.. and u get very little help from other players or team mates because of the non trinity, the Heavy Armor wins... especially if that heavy armor can drop sufficient banners with shouts, or the heavy armor can lay down symboles with perma defense (-33% dmg reduction + heal) the other classes are so "cheap" in value.

however i do love mesmers lately... i make sure all the fractal i join has at least 1 mesmer.... but i always expect myself to end up picking up that memser which died from like 5 hits.

Dude bring back the holy trinity... *face palm*
not having it is killing the game more. And the whole point of the non trinity, was so dungeons could go faster because u didnt have to look for a dedicated healer.

But yet lions arch is constantly spam'd with LFG posts, so there brilliant idea was entirely moot.

 

[NoSoup4You]

The trinity's not coming back, so I won't waste my breath on that except to say that the trinity sucks, hardcore. Good riddance.

As for Warriors, they just need to make Hundred Blades a little more situational in PvE rather than just "press 2 to win". It's okay having imbalance among the various professions, and this issue is only in PvE so really who is it hurting?

Just in case it isn't obvious, people that play Warrior aren't noobz or unskilled. Don't take it personally if Warrior's your favorite class, it's Arenanet's fault this issue exists not the players.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah, I have to agree. Just because you play a warrior doesn't make you a noob. There are a lot of subtle things which make playing warrior work well, or be only ok. I will be the first to admit, that my first character was an ele. I died so many times, that I pretty much abandoned it, and rolled a guardian. After playing the guardian for a bit, I rolled a warrior which became my primary for a while (it was definitely the first to hit lvl 80 and have full exotic gear). Then I went back to my guardian because I really wanted to get him to lvl 80 as well. I love them both to be honest. In certain situations, the guardian is definitely the better class, and in others the warrior.

The situations I am speaking about are all dungeon based, because in PvE, the warrior by far is the winner. But depending on the group, I will change between warrior or guardian. I much prefer the guardian for FotM due to being a lot more versatile (because you don't know what paths you are going to get and you almost always need 2-3 melee characters, so the guardian hammer build which supports your other melee characters is really useful with giving almost perma protect+healing to everyone meleeing). But for some of the other dungeons (AC especially), the warrior really shines with such a good mix of being able to revive characters (frenzy+endure pain+fear me will pretty much allow you to get anyone out of any situation).

 

[zinfamous]

The trinity's not coming back, so I won't waste my breath on that except to say that the trinity sucks, hardcore. Good riddance.

As for Warriors, they just need to make Hundred Blades a little more situational in PvE rather than just "press 2 to win". It's okay having imbalance among the various professions, and this issue is only in PvE so really who is it hurting?

Just in case it isn't obvious, people that play Warrior aren't noobz or unskilled. Don't take it personally if Warrior's your favorite class, it's Arenanet's fault this issue exists not the players.

agree with that. My main complaint with them is that they are just boring. They definitely do more than just "push 2 to win," but why bother? no one does. Well, not in PvE, anyway.

Warriors have been getting nothing but buffs, anyway, with each update. Kinda figures, really, since the game in terms of legendaries, skins, desirables and the economy, is very much great sword-driven.

I'd like to see some buffs to key skills for various other classes, to make them more dungeon friendly, more useful overall. While I think the only classes outside of warrior/guardian that are useful for dungeons are mes/ele, I still see the benefits of ignoring either of them. I feel that my Mes offers a lot, in terms of buffing all the damage output as well as damage mitigation (though again that is not as good as what the guardian can do) and simply offering a backline option and helping parties to skip the more annoying segments (mesmer running FTW), but I wonder if that is really more valuable than going with an all guardian team.

I don't know...Kell hated it, but I had a blast with that 3 Mesmer AC run.

 

[aigomorla]

I don't know...Kell hated it, but I had a blast with that 3 Mesmer AC run.

trust me that probably still was better then woop and i running fractals with 3 rangers.

 

[zinfamous]

trust me that probably still was better then woop and i running fractals with 3 rangers.

damn, now I wanna make a ranger.

BRB

 

[Madia]

I'm still new to MMOs (I've only played 3 months of SWTOR before this) and was wondering if there were any good GW2 sites/articles on how to build a good class. I'm a level 11 warrior and am not sure what weapons to use or how to best allocate my traits. I can find different people's warrior builds but I'm more looking for information on why certain configurations make a good build so I can learn to build a good one myself. Also, I'm wondering if skills and traits are fixed for good or if there's a way in the game to reallocate the points if I make a mistake.

 

[I4AT]

If you're level 11 you don't have to worry too much about traits just yet, you can only spend 10 points per trait line until you hit level 40. After that you can buy another manual unlocking up to 20 points per trait line. At level 60 you can buy the final manual that lets you spend up to 30 points maxing out a trait line.

Pretty sure you get to reallocate points each time you purchase a manual. And once you've reached the grandmaster (level 60) manual you can also pay about 3-4 silver to reset and reallocate your traits any time you wish. Well technically I think you can retrait at any point, but it doesn't really make any sense to do it before grandmaster, IMO.

When I'm experimenting with builds I like to do it in the Heart of the Mists which is the PvP area. You're automatically level 80 there, along with access to end-game style equipment, all available skills (except race specific), and you can change traits as often as you want. There are also some AI controlled characters you can practice against.

I went through probably 10 builds there before I fine tuned one I was finally happy with for my engineer. A lot of builds that sound good in theory just don't quite work out the way you might think.

There's a GW2 wiki that has a list of all skills and traits for each class, I use that a lot to draw up ideas for builds. And if you do a search for Guild Wars 2 Build Tool you'll find a kind of rudimentary skill calculator, requires watching a pretty long ad before you can use it now, though.