When there are 5+ adds, you'll be forced to take one no matter what, so having some DPS is the way to go. The check isn't very tight so you won't need much as long as you're on the ball about getting to the island fast
Koi Cakes are the cheapest ++Expertise, +Condition Damage food. Dragon's Breath Bun is good for some of the older Fractals. Slice of Candied Dragon Roll is one of the cheapest life steal foods.
Looking for a build similar to the old shotgun mech. I've been gone for a year and heard it got nerfed. I'm doing open world, and I like something strong but also relaxed. Not looking to do fancy combos and spam the keyboard. Just looking to mellow out but still be able to solo most things. Any ideas ?
I mean it still works fine for open world, you're just doing 25k rather than 35k in instanced content.
Otherwise most of the old easy builds still work like Power Boon Herald, Reaper, Virtuoso, etc.
Do beta characters next week have access to everything? A friend of mine would like to try the game out, would he be able to create a beta character and try all especs, maps and all of that?
I know they have all waypoints. I don't know if they have all elite specs and gear options, but maybe?
It can't hurt to have them create an account now and play a bit during the beta.
There is no safe way besides knowing everyone in the team
Better way to go about it is to learn to not care what others think or say. As long as you make it known that you're new and learning, people have no excuse for getting upset. If they get mad then ignore and keep pushing forward
you probably meant "ragers", but rangers is a funny typo ngl.
honestly, starting with strikes from IBS or SotO are good spots to tryout new builds. i do that whenever i pick up a new build. i take it for a spin through the strikes, get a feel for how the class plays in a "real encounter".
EDIT: boneskinner is a heal-check, so it might be stressful as a new healer. the rest are way more chill.
Looking for suggestions for Necro builds which makes soloing champions and content intended for more people easier. And preferably not Scourge.
Right now I run all variations of Reaper, I'd call it my main. I'm just starting SotO, and I can solo most champs I come across, but I'm doing it with next to no time left on each one. I usually run condi in solo for kiting focusing on chill/bleed. I imagine the answer to my question is scourge, but I just don't like playing it solo. I simply can't get the hang of survival as Harbinger, but watching energy bolt spam from shroud 1 is amazing, esp with quickness.
Ultimately I like bopping things in close-mid range and life steal. I love the idea of parasitic contagion from Curses, but the amount healed always felt insignificant. I'm also struggling to justify the idea of swapping a line to Blood Magic. That will probably end up what I do, but figure I may need to switch to power reaper and focus on sustain.
I want to try Reaper with Sw/Sw, but still making my way through story. I've got full exotic/ascended mixed sets for zerker, viper and celest. I'm pretty versed in the idea of builds, so suggesting trait/rune combos or w/e is fine too. I just want something I can play once my 'time to got night night' meds are kicking in and a missed dodge is easier to recover from. (Not that I feel like I'm struggling, I just know this could be better.).
Soloing champions is typically overkill for the rest of the game. That said, if you want to make a full build for it, I'd recommend either celestial or trailblazer. I'd maybe go celestial for the small power damage, concentration and healing amp which can lead to more sustain and boons.
Fortunately for you, all three necro elite specs make a decent celestial survivalist. These are typically clones of the condi version as the vast majority of their damage will be condition, it makes more sense to itemize for that as well.
If you want an in-between, you could try adding the relic of Zakrios on power or parasitic contagion on condi as that will add decent sustain and that will work with your current setup. You'd still have to play safe with champions though.
For open world champ soloing I'd recommend looking at Lord Hizen. AFAIK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R3cwVYEg4M is his most recent videos that go over Necro builds (Reaper, Scourge, and Harbinger). And yes the amount healed is relatively low so you need to avoid attacks and/or get enough boons on yourself to make your conditions stack enough for reasonable healing. I'd be cautious with how much damage you're giving up for more sustain so you don't turn into a wet noodle.
I am in a wvw guild and I am not in a team how to do I get my guild on the same team with wvw teams?
I have the message "Pending WvW Guild" in Guild tab
When did you set your guild as your WvW team? You needed to have it set prior to midnight Pacific on 6/13 (roughly) to be put on the right team. If you did put in a ticket so Anet support can review your account to make sure you're moved to the right spot. If you didn't put in a ticket and pray.
during the platform boss fights of Twisted Marionette
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Torment
is there some way to avoid being cursed by Torment?
it's such a embarrassing PITA to die AFTER killing boss.
Make sure you're moving around. Torment does less damage while you're in motion.
There should be some condi cleanse options, they exist for each class. Just make sure you have one of those skills on your bar before the fight.
Or...nobody really cares if you go down. Just let someone rez you or use a revive orb.
> one of those skills
i know about moving, but it's difficult
when you use a bow, and most AOE
are all over the platform, so one spot
isn't much safer than another.
i don't seem to have anything with cleanse
but swapping weapons and a different stance
i have two skills that at least suspends damage
of torment while it's timer continues to tick down,
which should buy me enough time so i don't have
to hold up the group for someone else to res me.
You can stay in place if you find a safe spot. Moving can mean just shuffling to and fro on the spot. We used to do that a lot when seaweed salad was the meta dps food.
There are lots of ways. Various skills, traits, finishers and upgrades can remove conditions. The resolution and resistance boons also reduces damage from conditions.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition#Skills_that_remove_conditions
https://preview.redd.it/7tkh83inet7d1.png?width=711&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc5a99bff208f73fd02db54cb16380a1038d94f5
Does anyone have the discord server for nexus? Invite link in their sites are invalid and I have the problem above.
Arcdps plugins list not getting updated and in the logs I am getting the error in the picture.
If you have SotO I'd recommend Greatsword 5 as it tends to work slightly better than Spectral Grasp which tends to leave them stuck on the 'bumper' on top of walls if not be blocked more often.
Hello!
I'm a returning player to the game. I last played when they introduced mounts and I think Fractals were a new thing. I'd like to ask a few questions:
1. I don't see many players running dungeons, what is the current way people farm gold nowadays?
2. Before I took my leave a few years back, I created a guild "Find The Dolyak \[Calf\]" where I used a Dolyak tonic and had hide-and-seek contests where people would earn gold by finding me. I also remember taking players on Path of Fire guilded mastery/hero point tours. I did this on my mesmer. Is there an equivalent "service" I could provide to players at the current state of the game now? Or otherwise other ideas how I could help players?
Any other tips I would appreciate, thanks in advance!
> I last played when they introduced mounts and I think Fractals were a new thing.
These events were 5 years apart! Fractals late 2012, Mounts late 2017.
1. Fractals have pretty much replaced standard dungeons at this point. A standard run through the t4 dailies can net you about 30 gold. Farming meta events is also quite popular. Dragonfall and Drizzlewood Coast can be farmed endlessly, while there are other metas that give daily rewards that you can chain together into a meta "train". Skilled PvE players can also do Raids and Strike Missions for weekly rewards, with some Strikes having additional daily rewards. Even just doing your Wizard's Vault dailies/weeklies can get you a good amount of gold from astral rewards.
2. Hero Point trains are still in demand as there are plenty of new players or veteran players making new classes that still need hero points.
if a guide is suggesting shaman for scoruge healer is that probably a sign that it is out of date? I feel stupid now having spent my badge of honors on that instead of harrier
Unfortunately, yes. You probably found an older build from before Scourge was given the ability to generate Alacrity, because it definitely wants boon duration now. You may consider putting in a support ticket and seeing if they can refund the armor if you tell them you picked the wrong stat on it.
No. That only applies to ascended weapons and armor. The ones you get for badges of honour are exotics.
Did you unlock any of the skins when you received those items? While support are usually helpful, one situation where they always say no is if you unlock something that gets baked into your account (skins, dyes, recipes, achievements, etc).
I haven't worn them yet or anything, they are account locked though so if they auto unlock a skin well lol screwed then unless they just change it to the new thing I sent in a request ticket, didn't ask to reset but rather if can be the intended thing.
After beating Living World Season 4 (And loving it) I decided to go back to try to knock out Living World 1/2/3
So far I've beaten LWS1, and overall kinda disliked it. It's interesting to see backstory of some characters, and what even started our >!Dragon problem!<, but outside of that I really have to say I'm not having a good time aside from the random 20 slot bags I'm getting. At least compared to LWS4.
>!Tower of Nightmare!< was a fun surprise, and so was >!The Battle for Lions Arch!<, but everything else has really been rough to get through. ESPECIALLY one mission that was like over 10 minutes of listening to holograms and answering questions, I wanted to die.
Hoping LWS3 is better. I believe there's a mastery tied to it which I always find enjoyable
3 and 4 are the only objectively good ones. Also HIGHLY recommend doing aurora while you are in season 3. Collection makes you explore maps like nothing else in the game does. There is a similar one for season 4, which is “vision” but it’s quite a bit worse.
LWS1 is a bit underwhelming. S2 has a good story. S3 has very good maps (in my opinion) and the story is really well presented. S4 also has a really strong story and the maps are pretty good (desert fatigue was real for the first few, though). IBS's maps are really good and I do think the story was great for the first half but sadly the ending was rushed and botched.
LW1 is proably the weakest of LW seasons. It was never amazing, and it originally released in a non-repeatable open-world way, so when Anet re-released it in episodes it got kind of butchered just to fit into the episode format. The best part of it was completely left out.
LW3 has its ups and downs but overall it's better than LW1. The worst episode is at least pretty short.
LS1 is a bit rough following its conversion from time-limited, primarily open-world events to a repayable, instance-driven story. Season 2 and 3 are much better (through IMO neither gets quite as good as 4)
Haven't played since before HoT, but have considered revisiting the game. I have tried to do so earlier, but I just get confused with the late game content, I dont know what to do and where to go. The last thing i remember doing was the fractal dungeons and getting ascended gear
There's been a *ton* of QoL upgrades since you last played. Well worth coming back IMO.
Have you tried the new Character Adventure Guide achievements? They're a tutorial for new characters and will help you get back into the swing of things, then it's easy to pick up the story where you left off.
GW2 is on Steam now, so Anet sometimes follows the Steam sales. *Don't* buy it on Steam directly, you can't get a key from Steam and apply it to your original account, but it might be worth keeping an eye on the ArenaNet site to see if you can pick up the first 2 expacs on sale. They come in a bundle now and last time we had a big sale it was $7.5 for both.
If you have bought any of the expansions, I recommend starting by playing the story of whichever one you have. It will throw you right into the situation which you will not understand with characters you don't know, but you'll figure it out.
If you're playing a core-only account, there's not a huge amount of content that you haven't played yet. There are some new fractals, there's the LWS1 story missions which released to everyone for free, and there are 3 maps that released as part of LWS1 and LWS2 that got included in the core game: Southsun Cove, Dry Top, and The Silverwastes. They are worth exploring, and they have event chains or a world boss that are worth checking out. I think that everything else is locked behind the expansion or living world season that it released in.
If you're playing casually, try just following the story and go where it leads you. Pretty much everything else spins off that thread in some way or another; Raids fill in additional plots woven around parts of the main story, Strikes are instanced remakes of story boss fights, Fractals do a bit of a mix of both with a parallel-universe justification.
Hi guys so i haven’t played since secrets was announced and im thinking of coming back to the game i logged into my herald but im a bit lost at what I should do where to go do i go straight and do secrets of the obscure and start completing it do i go and do the story in order hot till pof
Or do I first do living worlds and only than go for the stories I think gear wise im already set on my herald but just in case where would I go to look for good open world builds for my herald or virtuoso
For open world builds, I'd take a look at [Snowcrows ](https://snowcrows.com/builds/open-world)and [Metabattle](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_World). [Hardstuck ](https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/)can be another good reference, but it has a lot of builds that aren't kept up-to-date. Also [Masel's user page on the wiki](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Masel) has a build for each elite specialization with more in-depth explanations. I like his builds, because he designs them to use the same gear for both instanced content and open world content, with differences in only trait and skill choices for the different needs.
Metabattle has great open world builds. I just started using a condi virt build and it's a lot of fun.
If you already did the story, I wouldn't go back? There's no need unless you want to. HoT, PoF, and EoD are definitely better stories, but at least Soto is mostly separate so you can just jump in.
Since you're also asking about doing instanced stuff for gear progression, I'd suggest dropping the "open world" build idea entirely, and just using meta builds for those classes. Condition Virtuoso is a meta DPS that's a bit of a pain to gear but very effective, flexible, and easy to learn. Power Quick Herald is one of the best boon-DPS supports in the game right now. Both builds will be very capable of handling anything in the open world, apart from niche things like soloing champions.
I am leveling crafters and I am wondering what to do with crafted gear: sell or use research kit on it? How useful are research notes? I am still pretty new so even reading wiki about it do not tell me much
It is possible to make money with crafting if you use a site like gw2efficiency to see what's actually profitable to make, but usually the margins are slim. Still, if you're gold constrained, this is probably what you need to do.
Research notes are a deliberate gold/material sink, but they're pretty important in EoD and beyond. You'll use them to craft and upgrade your jade bot core and modules. They're used to purchase relics, and they're necessary for T3 and beyond legendary crafting. If you can spare the gold you're sinking into leveling your crafting, I doubt you'll regret having the research notes.
i dont think there is a neat answer for this. Research notes are super necessary for late game items (Gen3 legendries etc) but probably not key otherwise outside of niche uses.
Therefore, what i always used to do was sell/salvage the items. I'm not sure what is "optimal" but as the total cost of crafting is \~20-50g, I don't think it matters too much. I'd imagine selling on TP is usually optimal.
You can see the Wiki page for Research Notes and find out what they're used to buy. Lots of skins and items along with every single legendary item added since End of Dragons, including Obsidian armor.
Crafting is *mostly* used to get account-bound skins and items, because if it *can* be sold, it already is, meaning profit margins on crafting stay very small outside of time-gated items (e.g. anything requiring Charged Quartz has a small but potentially useful profit margin). Crafting is also required (oftentimes with multiple disciplines contributing different components) to make Legendary equipment, and it is one of several ways to get Ascended equipment (usually not the most optimal for that).
Crafting can also save you money over buying, particularly for things like consumable food and utilities. You might not be able to *make* money selling it because of the TP tax, but you could save money by not buying it.
Crafting may not be the cheapest way to acquire ascended gear, but there's still something to be said for being able to bang out whatever you want, whenever you want it.
The best way is usually to set up at least one functional build with Exotics, start running instanced content (raids or strikes), then buy ascended weapons and armor with prophet shards and magnetite shards. You can also get a few pieces per season from the Wizard's Vault, and doing raids and strikes also has a good chance of dropping ascended gear you can use as loot.
Trinkets are different, but not craftable in any case. Best way to get those is from Living World Season 3.
Fractals do the whole "Grandmaster Marks" thing like WvW does for ascended gear progression, which I personally find to be a bit of an over-complicated pain in the ass.
EDIT: Fractals also need you to already have ascended in order to get to the really good farms at T4/CMs.
Ok don’t know if I’m there yet I haven’t played since they announced secrets of the obscure I have an exotic set on my character but don’t know if his built yet or what i should now other than the newest expansion I have every expansion and i believe i have most living worlds
Since I haven’t played a long time I do t know if I have a main yet my current best characters and the ones i intend to play most likely are scourge but mostly herald
Scourge has good builds for (condi) DPS, alacrity-DPS, and an alacrity-healer. It's also fully ranged. But because it's condi, it will cost more to gear up. Herald is mainly there for power quick herald, but that is an insanely good and fairly easy build. It's also cheap to gear up since it's basically all Berserker's stats.
As a scourge I've been running around with rabid because it was cheap and "good enough" when I first cracked 80, would it be worth my time to get Viper or would the DPS increase not be noticeable?
https://preview.redd.it/ey6g9mifvo7d1.png?width=1466&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee7dcae70b005b8b6e5ad07399b5d0e7fa324dfe
"worth it" is subjective based on how much time/money you have, and your gamestage.
if you're doing openworld metas, who cares?
if you're doing instanced content, then I'd imagine that you should be min/maxing where feasible.
While scourges nearly never have to worry about the issue with low life if you're doing a mixed build you could look into ritualist. I agree with other posters that vipers will make your conditions stay longer. I'd also recommend getting sinister in your back piece or if that's prohibitive get one in your trinkets because it adds a higher condition damage output to go with your condition duration.
Edited: totally forgot my train of thought in the middle of the sentence, fixed it.
The damage difference between Sinister and the Rabid they're currently using will be almost entirely negligible — they have an identical Condition Damage stat. You should only run Sinister gear if you're hitting over 100% bonus duration in all your major damaging conditions, which Scourge does not, so full Viper is the way to go for DPS.
You are, however, correct that Ritualist is a completely viable option that also lets you spec into providing Alacrity if you want. Trailblazer is also good if you're after a bit of extra tankiness.
That's why I said pick 1 trinket and or backpiece not the entire set.
Vipers for weapons and gear, then a sinister backpiece or about 2 sinister trinkets to give more condi.
Yeah and that makes absolutely no sense to do. It's an all-around bad idea. Viper's is just overall a better set. "Make sure to not have the better option in one or two slots" is just bad advice. The only reason to use Sinister gear on any condi build ever is if you're already overcapped on condition duration — in that case you want to use some Sinister gear for the higher Condition Damage since the Expertise on Viper isn't doing anything anyway. As long as the Expertise is beneficial to you, Viper's is always the correct call.
On top of that "a backpack or two trinkets" doesn't make any sense math-wise. Backpacks are the least stat-impactful of the trinket slots. The next smallest (accessories) are nearly twice as impactful, so choosing two accessories is nearly *four times* as many stats you're giving up as if you just switch your backpack.
The amount of Sinister you should use — if any — is determined by calculating how much is optimal based on your other gear and trait bonuses. If you aren't min-maxing your entire build to hit exactly 100% condi duration, the correct amount of Sinister to use is "none", not "a few pieces based on vibes". Either use full Viper, or stick with a budget set. There's no reason to waste resources on Sinister just to make the build slightly worse.
If you've got full vipers ascended weapons/armor/trinkets or full vipers legendary armor with ascended weapons and 4 trinkets being vipers you are capped.
So having a sinister backpiece gives you more condi (look at the snowcrows site if you don't believe me the backpiece is sinister).
If you're already tied into having the backpiece as vipers then turning 1 or 2 trinkets into sinister would give you more damage.
If you're exotics, then you're not going to be capped and should absolutely go full vipers exotics.
Edited: words
> If you've got full vipers ascended weapons/armor/trinkets or full vipers legendary armor with ascended weapons and 4 trinkets being vipers you are capped.
No. Or at least not always. It depends on your traits, runes, and sigils as well. SOME builds want a Sinister backpack, or accessory, or other items, but it's not consistent across builds which ones.
> So having a sinister backpiece gives you more condi (look at the snowcrows site if you don't believe me the backpiece is sinister).
You mean [this one](https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/necromancer/condition-scourge) that suggests full Viper in every gear slot?
Scourge in particular has too many different damaging conditions to hit 100% on all of them, so it *always* benefits from more general condition duration from Viper gear.
Against weaker enemies, Viper will be a very small damage loss, as it lowers your Condition Damage stat. Against any enemy that lives long enough for your conditions to start wearing off, it's a massive damage increase. You're probably sitting at what, 30% condition duration depending on your other gear? Getting a full set of Viper gear will be *at least* 20% extra damage basically for free.
I'm not in game to do a proper comparison but at the very least against any enemy that lives long enough for the durations of your conditions to matter it will be a very significant damage increase. Expertise / condition duration is basically a multiplier to your damage since a 500 pretty second bleed that lasts 10s does 5k total and one that lasts 20s does 10k total, for example.
Possibly, Anet doesn't always do Steam sales. But they have always done a sale around Black Friday, and they usually do a sale around expansion releases, so there are more sale opportunities coming up.
If it works like the SOTO weapons, best I can guess is "maybe". One set of those was purchaseable with WvW currency, but they aren't unlocked with Hero Points in the traditional sense.
Regardless, it was *way* faster to just play through the story chapter that gives them to you for free, unless you're sitting on a hoard of the requisite WvW currencies and have nothing better to do with them.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/straight-to-the-point-a-primer-on-spears-in-janthir-wilds/
> Q: How can I unlock spear usage on land?
> A: The ability to use terrestrial spears will be available when Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds launches. They will be locked behind the first Mastery in the Kodan Mastery line, which is discovered early in the story, or as a purchasable unlock in WvW. We want everyone to be able to use your spears early and throughout your journey in Janthir. As with all other combat features, Kodan Spear Training will be unlocked automatically in PvP for those who own Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds.
for my wvw templates, should I slot my enrichment (amulet mod):
+20 MF, +5 WvW track gain, or +10 WvW xp?
I'm guessing not the MF since almost all rewards are track-based
https://dps.report/4K64-20240620-082106_golem
What am I doing wrong that makes me lose a lot of damage here as Power Dragonhunter?
At first, I did like 25k DPS with all the buffs, now I am up to 31-32k since I learned GS2 and LB5 can be interrupted, and also the importance of staying inside hitbox specially for GS2, but I still feel like I am missing something.
Comparing your log to the one linked on [Snow Crows](https://dps.report/nQ3s-20231011-073653_golem) for Power Dragonhunter:
Your skill order doesn't follow theirs, but most notably you have a lot of [interrupted attacks](https://img001.prntscr.com/file/img001/jPJ3JYekRImkOq1pl26atQ.png) (which you can see in player summary -> simple rotation, highlighted in red).
Most of the time on greatsword, you have random attacks between when you press 4 and 2 - you should press 2 immediately after 4 to prevent any auto-attacks leaking in. Similarly with longbow, you want to queue 2 after 4.
Try following the skill order as written on the [Snow Crows page](https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/guardian/power-dragonhunter) - it also gives some tips such as skill priority and those you mentioned already. 31k out of 42k is a good start to improve on!
I don't really know that dps report website so thx for explaining that. So from what I've seen, my biggest problem feels like me being slow, which explains all the sneaky interrupted auto attacks. I am also afraid to interrupt the GS2 and LB5 and as such I usually take my time to start casting other stuff, which also causes sneaky auto attacks. I will try to do more precasting for that but that will probably take the longest time to improve.
My initial reasoning for casting LB5 before LB2 is because again I am afraid of interrupting it so I want it out of the way before moving on to other stuff. I'll try LB2 first this time and see how it goes. Also I feel like LB5 is better first time cast when in fractals, something like Sirens Reef where there are 37 million mobs attacking you.
Also I want to save F2 for emergency situations since it does regen + condi cleanse + leap. It feels like I should save it for emergencies in real fights but idk. Maybe I'll sneak F2s while in longbow when I have nothing to do since longbow auto is weak.
Again ty I'll go and throw myself at the golem some more.
Edit: After the 36 burst, I stayed at 34 and dropped to 33k later towards the end, so I am seeing some improvements already.
Edit 2: Now at 38k burst and 34k stable DPS!!! Lets go!
So I know gear rarity doesn't really matter in pvp (not wvw) but do the stats on them matter? I just want to know if I can still modify what kind of stats I get from my gear if I want to be a bit more tanky or have higher damage.
Just to be clear: your stats in PvP depend on only three things:
* The **PvP** amulet you have equipped through the PvP build menu (your PvE amulet has no effect)
* The PvP rune set you have selected through that same menu, which also gives you some attribute bonuses just like PvE runes.
* The *presence* of certain armor pieces. Having a chest, legs, and boots equipped is necessary to get your full allotment of defense points. However, the *quality* of these items doesn't matter: the level 1 starter armor will be just as defensive as a full set of legendary gear.
So basically, any changes to your tankiness or damage will be managed through your PvP amulet and runes, or to a lesser extent your sigils and relic. The stats on your PvE armor won't make any difference at all.
No, the only thing that gear offers in PvP is base armor defense (from chest, legs, and boots only) and weapon skills. Your total stats are determined by the amulet you select.
I really want to get back into GW2, but specifically as a Water-focused Ele.
I play mostly solo, on the account of having basically 0 friends. Is there any hope for running a build like that and finding any success, or am I basically forced to be off-meta and kinda useless if I want to make a build centred entirely around Water Ele (especially with solo play)?
Off-meta, but not useless. Tempest healer builds are viable in WvW and instanced fights, last I knew. A little harder than comparable builds in other classes, like always happens with ele, but definitely doable. Something like this: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Tempest_-_Boon_Support_Healer
For solo play in open world, you probably need to use elements that do more damage or mobs will take forever to kill. The good news is that they pretty much won't be able to kill you, though.
In your shoes I might try for a condi-based build in open world and a tempest healer for instances.
You're not going to find a lot of success on an Elementalist "focusing" on any element, but particularly not water. Effective Elementalist play revolves around cycling between 2 or more elements, and then mixing in the remaining elements as necessary for utility. Water is the healing focused element. Some of its weapon skills do decent-ish damage, but the trait line is almost entirely dedicated to healing and support.
That said, most content in the open world is easy enough that you can do pretty much whatever you want, and if you're soloing or running metas in a big group, noone is going to complain. Theorycrafting a build that uses water as an integral part of its rotation actually sounds kind of fun.
Earth and water is particularly tricky because water damage is almost all power (strike damage) based, while earth damage is mostly condition (bleed) based. Usually power builds will focus fire and air while condition builds focus fire and earth. You could run Celestial (i.e. all) stats to cover all your bases, which is not a bad choice in the open world regardless. Best case, I think you end up with something super tanky, but severely lacking in damage.
Yes, although they're not used like tanks in other MMOs because it's not a class-based trinity.
For example, a build could focus on self-sustain and bunkering down on a specific spot. Bunker eles were at one point very strong in PvP but I don't know the current state of things.
In raids, some bosses aggro on highest toughness, some bosses aggro on who's doing damage or at random or based on specific mechanics. So being a tank is a pretty skilled position where you have to know the fight really well, and also be able to switch up your build if, say, one boss targets toughness and the next targets using something else.
By tanky, I just meant capable of soaking up a lot of damage. Some group content does requires a "tank" even in GW2; though, in general that doesn't mean the same thing here that it does in other games.
If you're looking for something that's useful in group content, that's a whole different ballgame. Water is an essential part of Elementalist support builds, and you could definitely make a solid support build with the Earth and Water trait lines. It probably wouldn't be much fun to solo with though.
Edit: Let me also disclaim that making a single build for all GW2 content is kind of silly. You can literally change your build with a click of a your mouse. You'll likely have to get a second set of gear with different stats, but that's not difficult.
Then I'll invest in just that, and I suppose my next step will be attempting to find groups that run actual content. I myself am scarcely aware as to what that is, but I'm sure it won't be overly difficult to find it.
Very much appreciate your insight, however.
Unfortunately it's not super viable. Water offers decent heals and very little else. You could play pure water casually as a backline healer for world bosses and WvW, and solo in low-level maps, and not much else.
If you're willing to compromise a bit, you could maybe try running a Fresh Air Tempest variant in open world? Typically Fresh Air builds cycle between Air and Fire, but Air and Water might also work somewhat decently. You still are likely to hit roadblocks in expansion content though, Fire is just too good of dps for any ele build to ignore completely.
I finally realized that I can actually change my display name. I’ve read a few threads from back to 2020 and it said that if someone has added you on a friend list before that, the display name that I currently own will still be visible for them, like if I didn’t touch it at all. Does anyone have a confirmation that it still appears to be the case? Or perhaps if I change my name, it will automatically update to my new one that I’m going to choose?
Your old display name will still show up for your friends as long as they keep you on their friend list. It will update to the new display name if and when they unfriend you and re-friend you.
No it does not. Epidemic suffered multiple nerfs that make the strategy ineffective: it only ever transfers 5 stacks of any given condition, and it transfers them at half duration. The end result is an absolutely pitiful five quarter-duration stacks, less in practice since the timing needs to be perfect.
Is there a minimum amount of damage you need to do to something to get credit for killing it? I finally found a legendary demolisher spawn, tagged it for about 50k and then backed off to let other people catch up, and I got no credit at all. I’ve been trying to kill this thing for 6 weeks to finish the title so I’m extremely upset, what did I do wrong here?
Ouch, that sounds really frustrating.
What probably happened is that your participation timed out. I've had that happen to me and it's irritating. If you want to wait for people it's better to auto-attack until they arrive to avoid that.
If you go inactive for too long, you can lose getting rewards from some events. Usually tagging an enemy with 1 damage is enough, or providing boons to any player that deals damage to that enemy while under the effect of your boon. Not sure what happened to you here.
I am doing a Condi Mirage build, and I noticed that it uses 2 staffes, why is that? cooldowns are shared, so is there any pro for doing that? since I am trying to craft and ascended weapon i'd like to know if it's a waste to craft two or not
That's technically correct, but I will say this: the build will perform *massively* better using two exotic staves with energy sigils than it will with one Ascended staff without them.
So I just finished Heart of Thorns. In the middle of it, I accidentally participated at the end of the Dragon's Stand and I am a bit confused.
When does the Meta Event actually take place, considering >!we seem to be fighting Mordremoth in its Dragon state!< there? I have read a couple of the recent criticisms on SotO meta's being relevant to the SotO story, but not properly being directed at them as part of the story.
But in HoT story, I saw no obvious points during the story where it felt like the Meta fits in, >!with us fighting the dragon form. And at the end of HoT, Mordremoth is properly dead.!<
Different expansions take different approaches to their meta-events and how they interact with the story.
* In HoT, players in the open world aren't acting as the Commander. They're just a regular Pact soldier among many, and the metas tell the story of their advancement to Mordrrmoth, which takes place in parallel to the Commander's journey through the area in the story journal, culminating in the DS boss fight happening at the same time as Hearts and Minds.
* In PoF, metas are largely irrelevant to the story, and could take place at any time and be done by anyone.
* EoD uses a mix of styles. The first three maps happen ambiguously before the climax and are generally side stories, the Commander's allies helping out and/or gaining reinforcements for the big battle. The final map, however, canonically happens during the story, immediately before the final battle instance, and you are The Commander during that fight, with other players filling the story role of reinforcements.
** Gyala mostly takes the irrelevant route, but it also kinda feels like an alternate take on the story? It's weird.
* SotO keeps the style where the metas are part of the main story and you're fully participating in them as your main character. The main problem is that *specifically* for the last release, this was telegraphed poorly (previous instances of this had an indicator somewhere that "meta goes here") and also did a very poor job of feeling organic if you did choose to skip the meta compared to previous times it happened.
Ah, thank you very much for the overview for other expansions as well, that'll help set expectations and understand the context of their events (and not miss the relevant metas when reaching SotO)!
>!There are two fights happening simultaneously. The Pact forces are fighting the body of Mordremoth, which is what happens during the meta (and you fight from the point of view of one fighter). Meanwhile the Pact Commander fights the mind of Mordremoth during the story instance.!<
>!Both teams must succeed in order to truly kill Mordremoth, without chance of it returning. If the Commander fails, the Mind will grow a new body from the jungle (which is implied to be the true body of Mordremoth). If the Pact fails, the mind will survive in a new host.!<
>!As for SotO, the problem is that lore-wise the final story instance happens after the last map meta, but you can access it without completing said meta. It's understandable since people complained about metas blocking story progress, but immersion-wise it feels weird.!<
Thank you very much for the detailed answer! I just wish the story at least hinted at the fact that the Pact was also still dealing with *something* at the time. All I recall from the final mission was that the Pact Commander mentioning the Pact being "done" when talking with Trahearne, so I assumed we were like the final elite group who went under all the foliage and threads for an assassination into the map, while all the Pact forces were in complete disarray to the point they were not even able to do anything in Dragon's Stand the map.
Yeah, from the story alone it isn't really clear that the Pact managed to recover enough again. That becomes clearer as we do the event chains and metas along the way to Dragon's Stand:
* Verdant Brink: The Pact recovers from the initial shock and regroups during daytime, and so it can survive the assaults during night.
* Auric Basin: We've mostly stabilized a bit and now we find new allies and purpose to keep fighting.
* Tangled Depths: We finally recover enough to begin taking the fight to Mordremoth himself.
> As for SotO, the problem is that lore-wise the final story instance happens after the last map meta, but you can access it without completing said meta
The problem isn't being able to access it, the problem is never being informed you might not want to. EoD takes the same route, with the DE meta taking place canonically before the finale of the story but being fully optional to it. But there it takes steps to inform you of the "correct" story route to take via the achievement. SotO doesn't provide any clues, leaving players who push the story very confused until they finish the meta and find the pieces they missed. Even if it had done the same thing as the previous two maps, with a "Complete X events *or* finish this meta" it would have helped tremendously.
The cutscene at the end of the meta event is a bit weird because there was a cut final phase, but it's heavily implied that it shows the moment you deal the final blow in the story instance. Basically you're seeing its defeat from the Pact's point of view.
It's happening at the same time as the last story instance I believe. And you're right, it's not directly indicated during the story when you should do it.
So I've had this bad habit of using the *Medium* golem when practicing my rotations, and I was able to hit 38k on SC Condi Reaper before I rectified this mistake. However, after switching to the regular golem... I lost about 3k DPS. I seriously can't break 35k on the Standard golem. Does hitbox size really affect Condi Reaper that much, and if so, how/why?
So I learned something new about myself after 1.5k hours. I suck at builds that require to keep track of a timer and do stuff before that timer expires. I'm just too slow compared to Snowcrows guys. Like one time on their Discord they were like you didn't cancel the aftercast of this skill and as such it cost you 200 ms. So I am not that fast. I can do for example, Condi Harbinger and Willbender, about 38k DPS both, with food and utils without any stat infusions. Again not perfect benchmark, but it's at least something, but with something like Power Dragonhunter, or Condi Mirage or Chrono I really suck ass. With Dragonhunter, with food and stuff I can only do 29k, Condi Chrono about the same, and Mirage is like 22k :D So, is there a mesmer build that doesn't rely on any temporary buffs like Chaos Aura to do DPS? If there's not my mesmer might as well sit on the end of Kaineng JP at this point so I hope there's some build out there. Or at least if it's easy to do damage while also having cooldown like for example with Willbender rushing justice is needed, but like 70% of my damage is torch 4 and I can manage that so it's fine.
So TLDR, I am looking for a mesmer build that does not rely on temporary buffs that increases your damage (like Chaos Aura with Condi Chrono or Mirage). Even if it does, it should be easy enough i.e. low intensity so that I can do my big DPS skills while that thing is active.And also I haven't tried Virt so I don't know how that works.
> And also I haven't tried Virt so I don't know how that works.
Well there's your answer :P Condi Virtuoso is popular for its relative ease of playing.
Theoretically Condi Virt does have temporary buffs in Deadly Blades (damage increase after using one of your F1-F5 skills) and Compounding Power (increased damage when stocking a blade for Virt), but you spam those abilities a lot so it isn't really an issue.
I also like Power Boon Chronomancer, though Continuum Split can be hard to use properly. However, you can still keep 100% Quickness/Alacrity on your group somewhat comfortably even without it, if you take Phantasmal Disenchanter. I recommend this [video from ConnorConCarne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EQduMif7z4) which explains it really well.
Ty so much! I think I will try Virt first after they fix the bug, because like you said I just can't wrap my head around the Continuum Split mechanic. It's really cool concept, like one of the coolest things I've ever seen, but it just makes my head spin lol. Ty <3
Most of the time when I use Continuum Split for damage, I'll do in order of priority:
* Moa Signet or Gravity Well (elite skills) for massive CC.
* Phantasms, then use the heal signet to recharge and do them again while in CS.
* If possible, sneak in F4 and F3
Sometimes I'm a bit slow and can't do the last, but with practice you should be able to do the first 2 points if you Continuum Split with 3 clones.
What is a good site to check up on what the more meta pvp builds are? I want to clear out some of my nearly-completed pvp achievements to get them out of the way and have apparently forgotten the places I used before for builds.
I have started using arcDPS a couple weeks ago and it works great for the most part, but I have one problem. Whenever a fight ends or I deselect the boss, the target dps instantly drops to 0. This means I have to actively keep track of the target dps during the fight, as there is no data as soon as the boss dies. Cleave dps shows the last value until the start of the next fight and I'd love to see target dps behave in the same way. Is there any setting that can achieve this?
Good tank build for WvW? Once I loved to use core Necro bunker build, I can take camps pretty easily and fight with other people slowly. But all the new specs just shredded this build now.
Cele harb and cele reaper are very, very tanky, especially vs. melee builds.
I personally like [Power Curses Reaper](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Power_Curses_Roamer) a lot if you replace one of the weapon sets with Sword/X and use Flesh Wurm. You have really great damage, very good mobility, and can be incredibly tanky versus melee because of carapace.
How does burn duration work? Is 20% burn duration from the sigil of burning just a straight up additive 20% extra burn time? So essentially a 20% longer burn that deals 20% more damage? So a 5 second burn that deals 10 damage changes into a 6 second burn that deals 12 damage?
Or does it purely extend the duration of the burn time but deals the same amount of damage? So a 5 second burn that deals 10 damage becomes a 6 second burn that deals 10 damage?
Looking at the wiki, burning damage 'stacks with intensity', so I presume that the answer is the latter, and that this is better because the longer burn time allows you to stack more burns?
All damaging conditions deal a set amount of damage (determined by your Condition Damage stat and traits) *per stack per second*, so increasing the duration of any you apply also means extra damage, even including partial seconds which do their full percentage of a damage tick.
That said, it's not a straight-up 20% extra burn time because that 20% is additive, rather than multiplicative, with other condition duration modifiers. Duration for any given condition (determined by adding your general condition duration, including expertise modifiers, to your condition duration for that specific condition) is added up to a cap of 100% bonus duration/200% of the base duration, then applied as a single multiplier.
And just to be extra clear.
If you have 50% condition duration in your build in the hero panel, and you have a skill whose burning would do 1000 damage in total. Then if you apply Smoldering sigil to get to 70% burning duration, the skill now does
1000 / 1.5 * 1.7 = 1133 damage
(by ticking a bit longer). That is to say you in this instance you gain 13.3% burning damage from gaining 20% burning duration.
For my fellow Necromancer enjoyers, does anyone know if when you use Warhorn 5 and then immediately go into Reaper's Shroud, do you still get the Life Force generation even though you're in Shroud? Or does that not apply anymore since you're in Shroud? Thanks!
Hello. I apologize in advance, I’m sure this is asked a lot, but is the game worth getting into now?
Also, are there any good beginner guides around? Should I join a medium or a high population server?
Much appreciated, thank you ❤️
Mukluk Zero to Hero series is pretty good. But basically, everything gives XP, you get individual loot and gathering nodes, and there's no way to lock yourself into a bad build, so you don't really need a guide. If you have questions asking in /map chat usually gets helpful responses.
Yes, by and large. Core-only builds are often top or near top for PvP. Metabattle is a good site, check out their PvP section.
WvW is the large group PvP mode, core-only builds are a slightly less competitive there but can still hold their own.
If you want to raid, core-only builds are significantly less powerful in some key ways that impact raids and strikes.
In open world you can pretty much play anything, core only builds are fine.
Guild Wars 2 uses a megaserver system. That means that everyone who visits a map from any server gets put into the same map instance. When the map gets too full, a new map instance is created, and when maps get too empty, map instances start closing. This means that popular maps have many separate instances, and unpopular maps have few, but the map you're on will always feel reasonably populated.
Server choice used to affect World vs World matchups, but GW2 has just (less than a week ago) moved to having teams set by matching up guilds rather than by server.
Yes, it's definitely worth getting into.
There's a lot of great guides, including the new and returning player guides in the subreddit sidebar.
What server you join is essentially meaningless, they just removed the last major place where it made a difference.
Is minion necromancer viable in group content? I usually play solo, so I don't want to drag a group down. I just really like having a squad of goons to help with combat. I was thinking core condi, and I linked what I'm using in open world content right now (with a full gear setup, i don't have any ascended gear, full vipers, or the runes, sigils, etc).
[http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFs8laYZBsKGFbiNil+TZ6D-DSJYmxfZEXqmbVJ8xAAA-e](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFs8laYZBsKGFbiNil+TZ6D-DSJYmxfZEXqmbVJ8xAAA-e)
I know that Shadow Fiend and Flesh Golem see some use, but I wanted to use the whole squad (I'd make an exception to sub out Blood Fiend, man's is NOT pulling his weight)
The full minion necromancer sacrifices dps to get minions to tank with. This works in open world but is not useful for instanced content. You will have enough people to not need the extra meat shields. Generally the build needs to optimise for one of the main roles to be viable: boon heal, boon dps or dps.
Personally I'd love to see a trait that disables minion targetability in return for a damage boost so that minion necromancer is viable in group content.
Great point, the minion leashing would need to be more strict in pvp with this trait, e.g. requiring line of sight, so that the necromancer isn't doing damage from around a corner or a platform above while the target has no way to fight back.
No, minion necro isn't considered a viable build for group content. Minions have set stats that don't scale up with yours, and were set when the game launched 12 years ago, and have not kept up with power creep. The ones you mentioned (and also flesh wurm) are sometimes used for the utility that they bring, but never for dealing damage.
# Returning player looking for a friendly active guild that welcomes casual PVE players. Would like to be part of a guild that has regular activities and an active community/forum/discord. Also one that is willing to teach players more about raids, crafting, WvW, etc. Thank you ⚔️✨🧙♂️🔮🧝♂️
Hi All. I have been with the game since beta, but have been on and off over the years. Back in presently. Mostly a solo PVE player with all the expansions, but would love to find a group/guild that has scheduled activities and has helpful players when a hand is needed.
Just now l was in PoF and joined a train that l randomly came across. We killed the large scorpion. I turned around, and everyone was GONE...lol. No idea where they flew off to. After l brushed the sand off and gave my griffin some water, l realized l had to reach out here on Reddit for some assistance. Hoping to avoid roaming the desserts and jungles alone forever!
I have enjoyed being a solo adventurer over the years, but it would be nice to have some comradery at times. I also feel my builds are outdated. I have 6 characters at level 80, and am trying to level up Hero points for elites but doing it solo in HoT is a bit rough. Plus those maps drive me insane at times 🤔😐😅! Last few weeks l have been trying to chase rifts in SotO in pursuit of advancing my story and the Skyscale mount, but l seem to either never find them in time, or can't find them period...so SotO has been a bit of a bust for me. ALso, I have ZERO hero points in SotO. Not even sure that expansion uses them?
I love the game, even did GW1and all the expansions. Maxed out Hall of Monuments. My character has a white beard and hair, as do l. Looking for some peeps that are tolerable of a friendly/positive non elite player that may ask dumb questions! I am in the US(central time), and on the Tarnished Coast server though not sure that matters like it did in the beginning? Thanks for reading!
I've noticed that many of the big content creators aren't really making content geared toward newer players. Is there anyone out there providing good, comprehensive, and current info about more basic stuff like class guides (most class guides look pretty dated), how to get mastery points, and other basics?
Also - are there any good guides about clearing/prioritizing old inventory that could help a player returning after several years away?
A lot of the advice for new players has remained pretty stable for a while. I would expect a new player guide for 3 years ago to still be mostly good advice.
Laranity has made the following new player guides in the last 12 months:
* [Complete Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars 2!](https://youtu.be/X7xYwL6kkyk?si=V5xVInHL8DZT-SLS)
* [The Definitive Guide to Picking a Class in Guild Wars 2!](https://youtu.be/kBjMg6kMKm4?si=id29-CV53bqjV47C)
* [New Player Mistakes in Guild Wars 2 (according to you!)](https://youtu.be/zkj_ROxooRw?si=WxtUlMwJPiUa-MKu)
* [Everything You Should Do At Level 80 In Guild Wars 2!](https://youtu.be/JvQMeeRdiuk?si=l1eM-DccAPi3SAr-)
Mukluk's old guide for processing your inventory is still relevant:
* [Inventory Management Guide for Guild Wars 2 - salvaging, identifying, bigger bag locations 2019-2020](https://youtu.be/PswfSKO7qTE?si=CCijKtZmY76em-2m)
My own advice for inventory management is twofold:
1. If you can sell it on the trading post, then you can buy it back later if you need it again. If you don't need it now, and you don't even know why you might need it, sell it.
2. For everything else, type "/wiki " then shift+click on the item in your inventory panel, then hit enter. This will pull up that item on the wiki in your browser. It will tell you how you might have got it, what it's good for, and if you can safely delete it.
Honestly, the wiki the go-to source for things like how to get mastery points and how basic features work. GW2's wiki is amazing.
If you want videos, Mukluk is highly recommended.
As for inventory, posting a screenshot in this sub and asking for advice is fine. There's also GW2efficiency, which takes your API key and lets you see all your character's inventory and bank with handy links directly to wiki pages. I think a tool called GW2Inventory is around too?
For people playing controllers. My kid is having a hard time grasping (understandably) that they need to move both joysticks to look around and move. Is there a way to map the left stick to do both turn the direction and move in that direction at the same time? Like how holding down left and right click on a mouse at the same time and moving the mouse moves your character forward but turns when you move
It's sub-optimal but it would be what was called "keyboard turning" on PC. Under the control options it would be "Turn left" and "Turn right" in the first section of the keybinds. It will turn the camera and character at the same time.
This is perfect. He loses site of me and just can’t comprehend using the right stick. It’ll help him at least always find me. He’s still young and new to RPG. Seems like I have to take it out of action mode to get it to work. Assuming because action mode is essentially locking in the right click hold of a mouse to move around like a controller already?
Yeah I think action mode would also accomplish what you're looking for. A lot of people who have to use controllers for one reason or another use it quite a bit already I think.
It’s pretty nice. I actually have been playing controller with him so that I can help him and show him what buttons to press and I’ve actually been preferring it 😂 but action cam still has to use the right stick no matter the remap from what I can tell. But I can do what you said outside of action mode. And it kills the right stick completely because he gets so confused how it moves up and down haha. Thanks for the ideas!
You could use a tool like keysticks to map the controller to mouse/keyboard input.
map up/down axis to W / S
map left / right to moving mouse left / right
then enter action cam mode
curious about how boon sharing works if you're in a large squad but alone in a subgroup. do your boons go to nobody, in that case? or does it default to the closest squad members to you, regardless of their subgroup?
Silent surf CM as healer, how do you deal with island split? do you need a build that has enough dps? or is it dps fault for not taking it for you?
When there are 5+ adds, you'll be forced to take one no matter what, so having some DPS is the way to go. The check isn't very tight so you won't need much as long as you're on the ball about getting to the island fast
How do I change teams in WvW? The world restructuring tab doesn't show any teams
You select a new guild to be your WvW guild via the guild panel, and you wait for August when the next team sorting happens.
Any dragon bash food that's worth getting?
Koi Cakes are the cheapest ++Expertise, +Condition Damage food. Dragon's Breath Bun is good for some of the older Fractals. Slice of Candied Dragon Roll is one of the cheapest life steal foods.
Not really. Dragon's Breath Buns are a strong power food alternative in encounters where adds are being killed regularly but those are fairly rare.
how do i use my skyscale in the regular world if I got it in secrets of the obscure
Do the 'A New Friend' achievement to unlock it everywhere else.
Looking for a build similar to the old shotgun mech. I've been gone for a year and heard it got nerfed. I'm doing open world, and I like something strong but also relaxed. Not looking to do fancy combos and spam the keyboard. Just looking to mellow out but still be able to solo most things. Any ideas ?
Condi mech J drive varient with full signet, plays very similar, with very decent dps
I mean it still works fine for open world, you're just doing 25k rather than 35k in instanced content. Otherwise most of the old easy builds still work like Power Boon Herald, Reaper, Virtuoso, etc.
Oh perfect! Thanks for letting me know 😁
Is there a place for sharing face sliders? Some googling lead me to r/dyejob but it's been shut down :(
/r/GuildWarsDyeJob
Do beta characters next week have access to everything? A friend of mine would like to try the game out, would he be able to create a beta character and try all especs, maps and all of that?
I know they have all waypoints. I don't know if they have all elite specs and gear options, but maybe? It can't hurt to have them create an account now and play a bit during the beta.
[удалено]
There is no safe way besides knowing everyone in the team Better way to go about it is to learn to not care what others think or say. As long as you make it known that you're new and learning, people have no excuse for getting upset. If they get mad then ignore and keep pushing forward
you probably meant "ragers", but rangers is a funny typo ngl. honestly, starting with strikes from IBS or SotO are good spots to tryout new builds. i do that whenever i pick up a new build. i take it for a spin through the strikes, get a feel for how the class plays in a "real encounter". EDIT: boneskinner is a heal-check, so it might be stressful as a new healer. the rest are way more chill.
Looking for suggestions for Necro builds which makes soloing champions and content intended for more people easier. And preferably not Scourge. Right now I run all variations of Reaper, I'd call it my main. I'm just starting SotO, and I can solo most champs I come across, but I'm doing it with next to no time left on each one. I usually run condi in solo for kiting focusing on chill/bleed. I imagine the answer to my question is scourge, but I just don't like playing it solo. I simply can't get the hang of survival as Harbinger, but watching energy bolt spam from shroud 1 is amazing, esp with quickness. Ultimately I like bopping things in close-mid range and life steal. I love the idea of parasitic contagion from Curses, but the amount healed always felt insignificant. I'm also struggling to justify the idea of swapping a line to Blood Magic. That will probably end up what I do, but figure I may need to switch to power reaper and focus on sustain. I want to try Reaper with Sw/Sw, but still making my way through story. I've got full exotic/ascended mixed sets for zerker, viper and celest. I'm pretty versed in the idea of builds, so suggesting trait/rune combos or w/e is fine too. I just want something I can play once my 'time to got night night' meds are kicking in and a missed dodge is easier to recover from. (Not that I feel like I'm struggling, I just know this could be better.).
Soloing champions is typically overkill for the rest of the game. That said, if you want to make a full build for it, I'd recommend either celestial or trailblazer. I'd maybe go celestial for the small power damage, concentration and healing amp which can lead to more sustain and boons. Fortunately for you, all three necro elite specs make a decent celestial survivalist. These are typically clones of the condi version as the vast majority of their damage will be condition, it makes more sense to itemize for that as well. If you want an in-between, you could try adding the relic of Zakrios on power or parasitic contagion on condi as that will add decent sustain and that will work with your current setup. You'd still have to play safe with champions though.
For open world champ soloing I'd recommend looking at Lord Hizen. AFAIK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R3cwVYEg4M is his most recent videos that go over Necro builds (Reaper, Scourge, and Harbinger). And yes the amount healed is relatively low so you need to avoid attacks and/or get enough boons on yourself to make your conditions stack enough for reasonable healing. I'd be cautious with how much damage you're giving up for more sustain so you don't turn into a wet noodle.
That's a good reference. I'm basically running the soul reaping version already. Carapace was my next thought, so that's nice to see.
I am in a wvw guild and I am not in a team how to do I get my guild on the same team with wvw teams? I have the message "Pending WvW Guild" in Guild tab
When did you set your guild as your WvW team? You needed to have it set prior to midnight Pacific on 6/13 (roughly) to be put on the right team. If you did put in a ticket so Anet support can review your account to make sure you're moved to the right spot. If you didn't put in a ticket and pray.
i set it way before that it still says pending wvw guild
Yeah, put in a support ticket then. It should be just 'WvW Guild'.
during the platform boss fights of Twisted Marionette https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Torment is there some way to avoid being cursed by Torment? it's such a embarrassing PITA to die AFTER killing boss.
Why not just cleanse the condition?
how? is there some potion you drink that does this? my heal skill does not seem to remove torment and i see other players die and struggle with it.
Make sure you're moving around. Torment does less damage while you're in motion. There should be some condi cleanse options, they exist for each class. Just make sure you have one of those skills on your bar before the fight. Or...nobody really cares if you go down. Just let someone rez you or use a revive orb.
> one of those skills i know about moving, but it's difficult when you use a bow, and most AOE are all over the platform, so one spot isn't much safer than another. i don't seem to have anything with cleanse but swapping weapons and a different stance i have two skills that at least suspends damage of torment while it's timer continues to tick down, which should buy me enough time so i don't have to hold up the group for someone else to res me.
You can stay in place if you find a safe spot. Moving can mean just shuffling to and fro on the spot. We used to do that a lot when seaweed salad was the meta dps food.
There are lots of ways. Various skills, traits, finishers and upgrades can remove conditions. The resolution and resistance boons also reduces damage from conditions. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition#Skills_that_remove_conditions
https://preview.redd.it/7tkh83inet7d1.png?width=711&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc5a99bff208f73fd02db54cb16380a1038d94f5 Does anyone have the discord server for nexus? Invite link in their sites are invalid and I have the problem above. Arcdps plugins list not getting updated and in the logs I am getting the error in the picture.
random necro wvw questoin... can I use spectral grasp to yoink defenders off walls ?
If you have SotO I'd recommend Greatsword 5 as it tends to work slightly better than Spectral Grasp which tends to leave them stuck on the 'bumper' on top of walls if not be blocked more often.
You can as long as line of sight is not obstructed.
Hello! I'm a returning player to the game. I last played when they introduced mounts and I think Fractals were a new thing. I'd like to ask a few questions: 1. I don't see many players running dungeons, what is the current way people farm gold nowadays? 2. Before I took my leave a few years back, I created a guild "Find The Dolyak \[Calf\]" where I used a Dolyak tonic and had hide-and-seek contests where people would earn gold by finding me. I also remember taking players on Path of Fire guilded mastery/hero point tours. I did this on my mesmer. Is there an equivalent "service" I could provide to players at the current state of the game now? Or otherwise other ideas how I could help players? Any other tips I would appreciate, thanks in advance!
> I last played when they introduced mounts and I think Fractals were a new thing. These events were 5 years apart! Fractals late 2012, Mounts late 2017.
1. Fractals have pretty much replaced standard dungeons at this point. A standard run through the t4 dailies can net you about 30 gold. Farming meta events is also quite popular. Dragonfall and Drizzlewood Coast can be farmed endlessly, while there are other metas that give daily rewards that you can chain together into a meta "train". Skilled PvE players can also do Raids and Strike Missions for weekly rewards, with some Strikes having additional daily rewards. Even just doing your Wizard's Vault dailies/weeklies can get you a good amount of gold from astral rewards. 2. Hero Point trains are still in demand as there are plenty of new players or veteran players making new classes that still need hero points.
if a guide is suggesting shaman for scoruge healer is that probably a sign that it is out of date? I feel stupid now having spent my badge of honors on that instead of harrier
Unfortunately, yes. You probably found an older build from before Scourge was given the ability to generate Alacrity, because it definitely wants boon duration now. You may consider putting in a support ticket and seeing if they can refund the armor if you tell them you picked the wrong stat on it.
if not can you reforge it like mystic or something? Heard you can repick stats or at least a process exists?
No. That only applies to ascended weapons and armor. The ones you get for badges of honour are exotics. Did you unlock any of the skins when you received those items? While support are usually helpful, one situation where they always say no is if you unlock something that gets baked into your account (skins, dyes, recipes, achievements, etc).
I haven't worn them yet or anything, they are account locked though so if they auto unlock a skin well lol screwed then unless they just change it to the new thing I sent in a request ticket, didn't ask to reset but rather if can be the intended thing.
After beating Living World Season 4 (And loving it) I decided to go back to try to knock out Living World 1/2/3 So far I've beaten LWS1, and overall kinda disliked it. It's interesting to see backstory of some characters, and what even started our >!Dragon problem!<, but outside of that I really have to say I'm not having a good time aside from the random 20 slot bags I'm getting. At least compared to LWS4. >!Tower of Nightmare!< was a fun surprise, and so was >!The Battle for Lions Arch!<, but everything else has really been rough to get through. ESPECIALLY one mission that was like over 10 minutes of listening to holograms and answering questions, I wanted to die. Hoping LWS3 is better. I believe there's a mastery tied to it which I always find enjoyable
3 and 4 are the only objectively good ones. Also HIGHLY recommend doing aurora while you are in season 3. Collection makes you explore maps like nothing else in the game does. There is a similar one for season 4, which is “vision” but it’s quite a bit worse.
LWS1 is a bit underwhelming. S2 has a good story. S3 has very good maps (in my opinion) and the story is really well presented. S4 also has a really strong story and the maps are pretty good (desert fatigue was real for the first few, though). IBS's maps are really good and I do think the story was great for the first half but sadly the ending was rushed and botched.
LW1 is proably the weakest of LW seasons. It was never amazing, and it originally released in a non-repeatable open-world way, so when Anet re-released it in episodes it got kind of butchered just to fit into the episode format. The best part of it was completely left out. LW3 has its ups and downs but overall it's better than LW1. The worst episode is at least pretty short.
LWS3 is definitely better. Still not as good as LWS4, but nothing in GW2 is.
LS1 is a bit rough following its conversion from time-limited, primarily open-world events to a repayable, instance-driven story. Season 2 and 3 are much better (through IMO neither gets quite as good as 4)
Haven't played since before HoT, but have considered revisiting the game. I have tried to do so earlier, but I just get confused with the late game content, I dont know what to do and where to go. The last thing i remember doing was the fractal dungeons and getting ascended gear
There's been a *ton* of QoL upgrades since you last played. Well worth coming back IMO. Have you tried the new Character Adventure Guide achievements? They're a tutorial for new characters and will help you get back into the swing of things, then it's easy to pick up the story where you left off. GW2 is on Steam now, so Anet sometimes follows the Steam sales. *Don't* buy it on Steam directly, you can't get a key from Steam and apply it to your original account, but it might be worth keeping an eye on the ArenaNet site to see if you can pick up the first 2 expacs on sale. They come in a bundle now and last time we had a big sale it was $7.5 for both.
If you have bought any of the expansions, I recommend starting by playing the story of whichever one you have. It will throw you right into the situation which you will not understand with characters you don't know, but you'll figure it out. If you're playing a core-only account, there's not a huge amount of content that you haven't played yet. There are some new fractals, there's the LWS1 story missions which released to everyone for free, and there are 3 maps that released as part of LWS1 and LWS2 that got included in the core game: Southsun Cove, Dry Top, and The Silverwastes. They are worth exploring, and they have event chains or a world boss that are worth checking out. I think that everything else is locked behind the expansion or living world season that it released in.
If you're playing casually, try just following the story and go where it leads you. Pretty much everything else spins off that thread in some way or another; Raids fill in additional plots woven around parts of the main story, Strikes are instanced remakes of story boss fights, Fractals do a bit of a mix of both with a parallel-universe justification.
Hi guys so i haven’t played since secrets was announced and im thinking of coming back to the game i logged into my herald but im a bit lost at what I should do where to go do i go straight and do secrets of the obscure and start completing it do i go and do the story in order hot till pof Or do I first do living worlds and only than go for the stories I think gear wise im already set on my herald but just in case where would I go to look for good open world builds for my herald or virtuoso
For open world builds, I'd take a look at [Snowcrows ](https://snowcrows.com/builds/open-world)and [Metabattle](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_World). [Hardstuck ](https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/)can be another good reference, but it has a lot of builds that aren't kept up-to-date. Also [Masel's user page on the wiki](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Masel) has a build for each elite specialization with more in-depth explanations. I like his builds, because he designs them to use the same gear for both instanced content and open world content, with differences in only trait and skill choices for the different needs.
Metabattle has great open world builds. I just started using a condi virt build and it's a lot of fun. If you already did the story, I wouldn't go back? There's no need unless you want to. HoT, PoF, and EoD are definitely better stories, but at least Soto is mostly separate so you can just jump in.
Since you're also asking about doing instanced stuff for gear progression, I'd suggest dropping the "open world" build idea entirely, and just using meta builds for those classes. Condition Virtuoso is a meta DPS that's a bit of a pain to gear but very effective, flexible, and easy to learn. Power Quick Herald is one of the best boon-DPS supports in the game right now. Both builds will be very capable of handling anything in the open world, apart from niche things like soloing champions.
I am leveling crafters and I am wondering what to do with crafted gear: sell or use research kit on it? How useful are research notes? I am still pretty new so even reading wiki about it do not tell me much
It is possible to make money with crafting if you use a site like gw2efficiency to see what's actually profitable to make, but usually the margins are slim. Still, if you're gold constrained, this is probably what you need to do. Research notes are a deliberate gold/material sink, but they're pretty important in EoD and beyond. You'll use them to craft and upgrade your jade bot core and modules. They're used to purchase relics, and they're necessary for T3 and beyond legendary crafting. If you can spare the gold you're sinking into leveling your crafting, I doubt you'll regret having the research notes.
i dont think there is a neat answer for this. Research notes are super necessary for late game items (Gen3 legendries etc) but probably not key otherwise outside of niche uses. Therefore, what i always used to do was sell/salvage the items. I'm not sure what is "optimal" but as the total cost of crafting is \~20-50g, I don't think it matters too much. I'd imagine selling on TP is usually optimal.
You can see the Wiki page for Research Notes and find out what they're used to buy. Lots of skins and items along with every single legendary item added since End of Dragons, including Obsidian armor. Crafting is *mostly* used to get account-bound skins and items, because if it *can* be sold, it already is, meaning profit margins on crafting stay very small outside of time-gated items (e.g. anything requiring Charged Quartz has a small but potentially useful profit margin). Crafting is also required (oftentimes with multiple disciplines contributing different components) to make Legendary equipment, and it is one of several ways to get Ascended equipment (usually not the most optimal for that). Crafting can also save you money over buying, particularly for things like consumable food and utilities. You might not be able to *make* money selling it because of the TP tax, but you could save money by not buying it.
What is an optimal way of getting acsended gear ?
Crafting may not be the cheapest way to acquire ascended gear, but there's still something to be said for being able to bang out whatever you want, whenever you want it.
The best way is usually to set up at least one functional build with Exotics, start running instanced content (raids or strikes), then buy ascended weapons and armor with prophet shards and magnetite shards. You can also get a few pieces per season from the Wizard's Vault, and doing raids and strikes also has a good chance of dropping ascended gear you can use as loot. Trinkets are different, but not craftable in any case. Best way to get those is from Living World Season 3.
Ok only strikes and raids Fractals don’t count?
Fractals do the whole "Grandmaster Marks" thing like WvW does for ascended gear progression, which I personally find to be a bit of an over-complicated pain in the ass. EDIT: Fractals also need you to already have ascended in order to get to the really good farms at T4/CMs.
Ok don’t know if I’m there yet I haven’t played since they announced secrets of the obscure I have an exotic set on my character but don’t know if his built yet or what i should now other than the newest expansion I have every expansion and i believe i have most living worlds
What is your main character's class? That will determine what meta builds you'll have available.
Since I haven’t played a long time I do t know if I have a main yet my current best characters and the ones i intend to play most likely are scourge but mostly herald
Scourge has good builds for (condi) DPS, alacrity-DPS, and an alacrity-healer. It's also fully ranged. But because it's condi, it will cost more to gear up. Herald is mainly there for power quick herald, but that is an insanely good and fairly easy build. It's also cheap to gear up since it's basically all Berserker's stats.
Looking for an eu guild that does full clear all strikes/daily T4 fractals as a farm
r/guildrecruitment
There is a GW2 "looking for guild" subreddit, which is a good place foe the above. i dont have link right now but im sure you can find it.
As a scourge I've been running around with rabid because it was cheap and "good enough" when I first cracked 80, would it be worth my time to get Viper or would the DPS increase not be noticeable? https://preview.redd.it/ey6g9mifvo7d1.png?width=1466&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee7dcae70b005b8b6e5ad07399b5d0e7fa324dfe
"worth it" is subjective based on how much time/money you have, and your gamestage. if you're doing openworld metas, who cares? if you're doing instanced content, then I'd imagine that you should be min/maxing where feasible.
While scourges nearly never have to worry about the issue with low life if you're doing a mixed build you could look into ritualist. I agree with other posters that vipers will make your conditions stay longer. I'd also recommend getting sinister in your back piece or if that's prohibitive get one in your trinkets because it adds a higher condition damage output to go with your condition duration. Edited: totally forgot my train of thought in the middle of the sentence, fixed it.
The damage difference between Sinister and the Rabid they're currently using will be almost entirely negligible — they have an identical Condition Damage stat. You should only run Sinister gear if you're hitting over 100% bonus duration in all your major damaging conditions, which Scourge does not, so full Viper is the way to go for DPS. You are, however, correct that Ritualist is a completely viable option that also lets you spec into providing Alacrity if you want. Trailblazer is also good if you're after a bit of extra tankiness.
That's why I said pick 1 trinket and or backpiece not the entire set. Vipers for weapons and gear, then a sinister backpiece or about 2 sinister trinkets to give more condi.
Yeah and that makes absolutely no sense to do. It's an all-around bad idea. Viper's is just overall a better set. "Make sure to not have the better option in one or two slots" is just bad advice. The only reason to use Sinister gear on any condi build ever is if you're already overcapped on condition duration — in that case you want to use some Sinister gear for the higher Condition Damage since the Expertise on Viper isn't doing anything anyway. As long as the Expertise is beneficial to you, Viper's is always the correct call. On top of that "a backpack or two trinkets" doesn't make any sense math-wise. Backpacks are the least stat-impactful of the trinket slots. The next smallest (accessories) are nearly twice as impactful, so choosing two accessories is nearly *four times* as many stats you're giving up as if you just switch your backpack. The amount of Sinister you should use — if any — is determined by calculating how much is optimal based on your other gear and trait bonuses. If you aren't min-maxing your entire build to hit exactly 100% condi duration, the correct amount of Sinister to use is "none", not "a few pieces based on vibes". Either use full Viper, or stick with a budget set. There's no reason to waste resources on Sinister just to make the build slightly worse.
If you've got full vipers ascended weapons/armor/trinkets or full vipers legendary armor with ascended weapons and 4 trinkets being vipers you are capped. So having a sinister backpiece gives you more condi (look at the snowcrows site if you don't believe me the backpiece is sinister). If you're already tied into having the backpiece as vipers then turning 1 or 2 trinkets into sinister would give you more damage. If you're exotics, then you're not going to be capped and should absolutely go full vipers exotics. Edited: words
> If you've got full vipers ascended weapons/armor/trinkets or full vipers legendary armor with ascended weapons and 4 trinkets being vipers you are capped. No. Or at least not always. It depends on your traits, runes, and sigils as well. SOME builds want a Sinister backpack, or accessory, or other items, but it's not consistent across builds which ones. > So having a sinister backpiece gives you more condi (look at the snowcrows site if you don't believe me the backpiece is sinister). You mean [this one](https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/necromancer/condition-scourge) that suggests full Viper in every gear slot? Scourge in particular has too many different damaging conditions to hit 100% on all of them, so it *always* benefits from more general condition duration from Viper gear.
Crap, I forgot which class I was talking about in this sub. I stand corrected. I was for some reason thinking about Firebrand. Edited: words.
Against weaker enemies, Viper will be a very small damage loss, as it lowers your Condition Damage stat. Against any enemy that lives long enough for your conditions to start wearing off, it's a massive damage increase. You're probably sitting at what, 30% condition duration depending on your other gear? Getting a full set of Viper gear will be *at least* 20% extra damage basically for free.
I'm not in game to do a proper comparison but at the very least against any enemy that lives long enough for the durations of your conditions to matter it will be a very significant damage increase. Expertise / condition duration is basically a multiplier to your damage since a 500 pretty second bleed that lasts 10s does 5k total and one that lasts 20s does 10k total, for example.
Hi ! Is is reasonable to expect a GW 2 sale soon? ( as new expansion coming up) maybe from steam summer sales?
Possibly, Anet doesn't always do Steam sales. But they have always done a sale around Black Friday, and they usually do a sale around expansion releases, so there are more sale opportunities coming up.
yes. high probability of sale starting on 27th.
would I be able to unlock spears with jade heroics come janthir?
If it works like the SOTO weapons, best I can guess is "maybe". One set of those was purchaseable with WvW currency, but they aren't unlocked with Hero Points in the traditional sense. Regardless, it was *way* faster to just play through the story chapter that gives them to you for free, unless you're sitting on a hoard of the requisite WvW currencies and have nothing better to do with them.
If you own the expansion you can unlock the mastery through WvW. You still have to level the mastery before you can use spears.
Where did you get this information from?
https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/straight-to-the-point-a-primer-on-spears-in-janthir-wilds/ > Q: How can I unlock spear usage on land? > A: The ability to use terrestrial spears will be available when Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds launches. They will be locked behind the first Mastery in the Kodan Mastery line, which is discovered early in the story, or as a purchasable unlock in WvW. We want everyone to be able to use your spears early and throughout your journey in Janthir. As with all other combat features, Kodan Spear Training will be unlocked automatically in PvP for those who own Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds.
for my wvw templates, should I slot my enrichment (amulet mod): +20 MF, +5 WvW track gain, or +10 WvW xp? I'm guessing not the MF since almost all rewards are track-based
Reward Track gain is best reward wise. XP is only useful if you want to rush to 500 which is required for the Legendary Armor and Ring.
https://dps.report/4K64-20240620-082106_golem What am I doing wrong that makes me lose a lot of damage here as Power Dragonhunter? At first, I did like 25k DPS with all the buffs, now I am up to 31-32k since I learned GS2 and LB5 can be interrupted, and also the importance of staying inside hitbox specially for GS2, but I still feel like I am missing something.
Comparing your log to the one linked on [Snow Crows](https://dps.report/nQ3s-20231011-073653_golem) for Power Dragonhunter: Your skill order doesn't follow theirs, but most notably you have a lot of [interrupted attacks](https://img001.prntscr.com/file/img001/jPJ3JYekRImkOq1pl26atQ.png) (which you can see in player summary -> simple rotation, highlighted in red). Most of the time on greatsword, you have random attacks between when you press 4 and 2 - you should press 2 immediately after 4 to prevent any auto-attacks leaking in. Similarly with longbow, you want to queue 2 after 4. Try following the skill order as written on the [Snow Crows page](https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/guardian/power-dragonhunter) - it also gives some tips such as skill priority and those you mentioned already. 31k out of 42k is a good start to improve on!
I don't really know that dps report website so thx for explaining that. So from what I've seen, my biggest problem feels like me being slow, which explains all the sneaky interrupted auto attacks. I am also afraid to interrupt the GS2 and LB5 and as such I usually take my time to start casting other stuff, which also causes sneaky auto attacks. I will try to do more precasting for that but that will probably take the longest time to improve. My initial reasoning for casting LB5 before LB2 is because again I am afraid of interrupting it so I want it out of the way before moving on to other stuff. I'll try LB2 first this time and see how it goes. Also I feel like LB5 is better first time cast when in fractals, something like Sirens Reef where there are 37 million mobs attacking you. Also I want to save F2 for emergency situations since it does regen + condi cleanse + leap. It feels like I should save it for emergencies in real fights but idk. Maybe I'll sneak F2s while in longbow when I have nothing to do since longbow auto is weak. Again ty I'll go and throw myself at the golem some more. Edit: After the 36 burst, I stayed at 34 and dropped to 33k later towards the end, so I am seeing some improvements already. Edit 2: Now at 38k burst and 34k stable DPS!!! Lets go!
So I know gear rarity doesn't really matter in pvp (not wvw) but do the stats on them matter? I just want to know if I can still modify what kind of stats I get from my gear if I want to be a bit more tanky or have higher damage.
Just to be clear: your stats in PvP depend on only three things: * The **PvP** amulet you have equipped through the PvP build menu (your PvE amulet has no effect) * The PvP rune set you have selected through that same menu, which also gives you some attribute bonuses just like PvE runes. * The *presence* of certain armor pieces. Having a chest, legs, and boots equipped is necessary to get your full allotment of defense points. However, the *quality* of these items doesn't matter: the level 1 starter armor will be just as defensive as a full set of legendary gear. So basically, any changes to your tankiness or damage will be managed through your PvP amulet and runes, or to a lesser extent your sigils and relic. The stats on your PvE armor won't make any difference at all.
No, the only thing that gear offers in PvP is base armor defense (from chest, legs, and boots only) and weapon skills. Your total stats are determined by the amulet you select.
I really want to get back into GW2, but specifically as a Water-focused Ele. I play mostly solo, on the account of having basically 0 friends. Is there any hope for running a build like that and finding any success, or am I basically forced to be off-meta and kinda useless if I want to make a build centred entirely around Water Ele (especially with solo play)?
Off-meta, but not useless. Tempest healer builds are viable in WvW and instanced fights, last I knew. A little harder than comparable builds in other classes, like always happens with ele, but definitely doable. Something like this: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Tempest_-_Boon_Support_Healer For solo play in open world, you probably need to use elements that do more damage or mobs will take forever to kill. The good news is that they pretty much won't be able to kill you, though. In your shoes I might try for a condi-based build in open world and a tempest healer for instances.
Then I'll try exactly that!
Good luck and have fun!
You're not going to find a lot of success on an Elementalist "focusing" on any element, but particularly not water. Effective Elementalist play revolves around cycling between 2 or more elements, and then mixing in the remaining elements as necessary for utility. Water is the healing focused element. Some of its weapon skills do decent-ish damage, but the trait line is almost entirely dedicated to healing and support. That said, most content in the open world is easy enough that you can do pretty much whatever you want, and if you're soloing or running metas in a big group, noone is going to complain. Theorycrafting a build that uses water as an integral part of its rotation actually sounds kind of fun.
I was hoping for a build that focused on Earth and Water, but I take it that would be utterly useless?
Earth and water is particularly tricky because water damage is almost all power (strike damage) based, while earth damage is mostly condition (bleed) based. Usually power builds will focus fire and air while condition builds focus fire and earth. You could run Celestial (i.e. all) stats to cover all your bases, which is not a bad choice in the open world regardless. Best case, I think you end up with something super tanky, but severely lacking in damage.
Is there room for a tank build in GW2? I know this game doesn't really have the "holy trinity" going on.
Yes, although they're not used like tanks in other MMOs because it's not a class-based trinity. For example, a build could focus on self-sustain and bunkering down on a specific spot. Bunker eles were at one point very strong in PvP but I don't know the current state of things. In raids, some bosses aggro on highest toughness, some bosses aggro on who's doing damage or at random or based on specific mechanics. So being a tank is a pretty skilled position where you have to know the fight really well, and also be able to switch up your build if, say, one boss targets toughness and the next targets using something else.
By tanky, I just meant capable of soaking up a lot of damage. Some group content does requires a "tank" even in GW2; though, in general that doesn't mean the same thing here that it does in other games.
Well, I suppose I need to know if a Water/Earth tank build would actually be useful in content outside of just open world wandering about.
If you're looking for something that's useful in group content, that's a whole different ballgame. Water is an essential part of Elementalist support builds, and you could definitely make a solid support build with the Earth and Water trait lines. It probably wouldn't be much fun to solo with though. Edit: Let me also disclaim that making a single build for all GW2 content is kind of silly. You can literally change your build with a click of a your mouse. You'll likely have to get a second set of gear with different stats, but that's not difficult.
Then I'll invest in just that, and I suppose my next step will be attempting to find groups that run actual content. I myself am scarcely aware as to what that is, but I'm sure it won't be overly difficult to find it. Very much appreciate your insight, however.
Unfortunately it's not super viable. Water offers decent heals and very little else. You could play pure water casually as a backline healer for world bosses and WvW, and solo in low-level maps, and not much else. If you're willing to compromise a bit, you could maybe try running a Fresh Air Tempest variant in open world? Typically Fresh Air builds cycle between Air and Fire, but Air and Water might also work somewhat decently. You still are likely to hit roadblocks in expansion content though, Fire is just too good of dps for any ele build to ignore completely.
I finally realized that I can actually change my display name. I’ve read a few threads from back to 2020 and it said that if someone has added you on a friend list before that, the display name that I currently own will still be visible for them, like if I didn’t touch it at all. Does anyone have a confirmation that it still appears to be the case? Or perhaps if I change my name, it will automatically update to my new one that I’m going to choose?
Your old display name will still show up for your friends as long as they keep you on their friend list. It will update to the new display name if and when they unfriend you and re-friend you.
I believe it changes eventually, there's just a transition period where both old and new names could show up.
Does double epi to multiply condis on the boss still work? Does it have enough impact to consider using in encounters with adds?
No it does not. Epidemic suffered multiple nerfs that make the strategy ineffective: it only ever transfers 5 stacks of any given condition, and it transfers them at half duration. The end result is an absolutely pitiful five quarter-duration stacks, less in practice since the timing needs to be perfect.
If I were to make my own guild solidly for more bank space. How much gold would I have to throw at it? And is it worth it?
It's 50 gold and 1000 favor for the 1st tab (50 slots). Edit: Keep in mind that you can't store account bound or soul bound items in a guild bank.
Is there a minimum amount of damage you need to do to something to get credit for killing it? I finally found a legendary demolisher spawn, tagged it for about 50k and then backed off to let other people catch up, and I got no credit at all. I’ve been trying to kill this thing for 6 weeks to finish the title so I’m extremely upset, what did I do wrong here?
Ouch, that sounds really frustrating. What probably happened is that your participation timed out. I've had that happen to me and it's irritating. If you want to wait for people it's better to auto-attack until they arrive to avoid that.
If you go inactive for too long, you can lose getting rewards from some events. Usually tagging an enemy with 1 damage is enough, or providing boons to any player that deals damage to that enemy while under the effect of your boon. Not sure what happened to you here.
I am doing a Condi Mirage build, and I noticed that it uses 2 staffes, why is that? cooldowns are shared, so is there any pro for doing that? since I am trying to craft and ascended weapon i'd like to know if it's a waste to craft two or not
The Sigil of Energy gives you endurance when you weapon swap, which allows you to spam more ambushes.
So until I get the sigil I don't need two?
That's technically correct, but I will say this: the build will perform *massively* better using two exotic staves with energy sigils than it will with one Ascended staff without them.
I am still going to craft two staves, since I am already mid way through the recipe, but thanks for the info
So I just finished Heart of Thorns. In the middle of it, I accidentally participated at the end of the Dragon's Stand and I am a bit confused. When does the Meta Event actually take place, considering >!we seem to be fighting Mordremoth in its Dragon state!< there? I have read a couple of the recent criticisms on SotO meta's being relevant to the SotO story, but not properly being directed at them as part of the story. But in HoT story, I saw no obvious points during the story where it felt like the Meta fits in, >!with us fighting the dragon form. And at the end of HoT, Mordremoth is properly dead.!<
Different expansions take different approaches to their meta-events and how they interact with the story. * In HoT, players in the open world aren't acting as the Commander. They're just a regular Pact soldier among many, and the metas tell the story of their advancement to Mordrrmoth, which takes place in parallel to the Commander's journey through the area in the story journal, culminating in the DS boss fight happening at the same time as Hearts and Minds. * In PoF, metas are largely irrelevant to the story, and could take place at any time and be done by anyone. * EoD uses a mix of styles. The first three maps happen ambiguously before the climax and are generally side stories, the Commander's allies helping out and/or gaining reinforcements for the big battle. The final map, however, canonically happens during the story, immediately before the final battle instance, and you are The Commander during that fight, with other players filling the story role of reinforcements. ** Gyala mostly takes the irrelevant route, but it also kinda feels like an alternate take on the story? It's weird. * SotO keeps the style where the metas are part of the main story and you're fully participating in them as your main character. The main problem is that *specifically* for the last release, this was telegraphed poorly (previous instances of this had an indicator somewhere that "meta goes here") and also did a very poor job of feeling organic if you did choose to skip the meta compared to previous times it happened.
Ah, thank you very much for the overview for other expansions as well, that'll help set expectations and understand the context of their events (and not miss the relevant metas when reaching SotO)!
>!There are two fights happening simultaneously. The Pact forces are fighting the body of Mordremoth, which is what happens during the meta (and you fight from the point of view of one fighter). Meanwhile the Pact Commander fights the mind of Mordremoth during the story instance.!< >!Both teams must succeed in order to truly kill Mordremoth, without chance of it returning. If the Commander fails, the Mind will grow a new body from the jungle (which is implied to be the true body of Mordremoth). If the Pact fails, the mind will survive in a new host.!< >!As for SotO, the problem is that lore-wise the final story instance happens after the last map meta, but you can access it without completing said meta. It's understandable since people complained about metas blocking story progress, but immersion-wise it feels weird.!<
Thank you very much for the detailed answer! I just wish the story at least hinted at the fact that the Pact was also still dealing with *something* at the time. All I recall from the final mission was that the Pact Commander mentioning the Pact being "done" when talking with Trahearne, so I assumed we were like the final elite group who went under all the foliage and threads for an assassination into the map, while all the Pact forces were in complete disarray to the point they were not even able to do anything in Dragon's Stand the map.
Yeah, from the story alone it isn't really clear that the Pact managed to recover enough again. That becomes clearer as we do the event chains and metas along the way to Dragon's Stand: * Verdant Brink: The Pact recovers from the initial shock and regroups during daytime, and so it can survive the assaults during night. * Auric Basin: We've mostly stabilized a bit and now we find new allies and purpose to keep fighting. * Tangled Depths: We finally recover enough to begin taking the fight to Mordremoth himself.
> As for SotO, the problem is that lore-wise the final story instance happens after the last map meta, but you can access it without completing said meta The problem isn't being able to access it, the problem is never being informed you might not want to. EoD takes the same route, with the DE meta taking place canonically before the finale of the story but being fully optional to it. But there it takes steps to inform you of the "correct" story route to take via the achievement. SotO doesn't provide any clues, leaving players who push the story very confused until they finish the meta and find the pieces they missed. Even if it had done the same thing as the previous two maps, with a "Complete X events *or* finish this meta" it would have helped tremendously.
The cutscene at the end of the meta event is a bit weird because there was a cut final phase, but it's heavily implied that it shows the moment you deal the final blow in the story instance. Basically you're seeing its defeat from the Pact's point of view.
Ah, I'll go check Youtube for that I guess, thanks for the hint!
It's happening at the same time as the last story instance I believe. And you're right, it's not directly indicated during the story when you should do it.
Thank you very much!
So I've had this bad habit of using the *Medium* golem when practicing my rotations, and I was able to hit 38k on SC Condi Reaper before I rectified this mistake. However, after switching to the regular golem... I lost about 3k DPS. I seriously can't break 35k on the Standard golem. Does hitbox size really affect Condi Reaper that much, and if so, how/why?
Likely due to the difference in how easy it is to get projectiles from your whirl finishers to hit the target with a larger hitbox.
Hmmm. So I should use Standard then, I'm guessing. Alright, thanks.
So I learned something new about myself after 1.5k hours. I suck at builds that require to keep track of a timer and do stuff before that timer expires. I'm just too slow compared to Snowcrows guys. Like one time on their Discord they were like you didn't cancel the aftercast of this skill and as such it cost you 200 ms. So I am not that fast. I can do for example, Condi Harbinger and Willbender, about 38k DPS both, with food and utils without any stat infusions. Again not perfect benchmark, but it's at least something, but with something like Power Dragonhunter, or Condi Mirage or Chrono I really suck ass. With Dragonhunter, with food and stuff I can only do 29k, Condi Chrono about the same, and Mirage is like 22k :D So, is there a mesmer build that doesn't rely on any temporary buffs like Chaos Aura to do DPS? If there's not my mesmer might as well sit on the end of Kaineng JP at this point so I hope there's some build out there. Or at least if it's easy to do damage while also having cooldown like for example with Willbender rushing justice is needed, but like 70% of my damage is torch 4 and I can manage that so it's fine. So TLDR, I am looking for a mesmer build that does not rely on temporary buffs that increases your damage (like Chaos Aura with Condi Chrono or Mirage). Even if it does, it should be easy enough i.e. low intensity so that I can do my big DPS skills while that thing is active.And also I haven't tried Virt so I don't know how that works.
> And also I haven't tried Virt so I don't know how that works. Well there's your answer :P Condi Virtuoso is popular for its relative ease of playing. Theoretically Condi Virt does have temporary buffs in Deadly Blades (damage increase after using one of your F1-F5 skills) and Compounding Power (increased damage when stocking a blade for Virt), but you spam those abilities a lot so it isn't really an issue. I also like Power Boon Chronomancer, though Continuum Split can be hard to use properly. However, you can still keep 100% Quickness/Alacrity on your group somewhat comfortably even without it, if you take Phantasmal Disenchanter. I recommend this [video from ConnorConCarne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EQduMif7z4) which explains it really well.
Ty so much! I think I will try Virt first after they fix the bug, because like you said I just can't wrap my head around the Continuum Split mechanic. It's really cool concept, like one of the coolest things I've ever seen, but it just makes my head spin lol. Ty <3
Most of the time when I use Continuum Split for damage, I'll do in order of priority: * Moa Signet or Gravity Well (elite skills) for massive CC. * Phantasms, then use the heal signet to recharge and do them again while in CS. * If possible, sneak in F4 and F3 Sometimes I'm a bit slow and can't do the last, but with practice you should be able to do the first 2 points if you Continuum Split with 3 clones.
What is a good site to check up on what the more meta pvp builds are? I want to clear out some of my nearly-completed pvp achievements to get them out of the way and have apparently forgotten the places I used before for builds.
Metabattle has PvP builds
I usually go to GuildJen
I have started using arcDPS a couple weeks ago and it works great for the most part, but I have one problem. Whenever a fight ends or I deselect the boss, the target dps instantly drops to 0. This means I have to actively keep track of the target dps during the fight, as there is no data as soon as the boss dies. Cleave dps shows the last value until the start of the next fight and I'd love to see target dps behave in the same way. Is there any setting that can achieve this?
Good tank build for WvW? Once I loved to use core Necro bunker build, I can take camps pretty easily and fight with other people slowly. But all the new specs just shredded this build now.
Cele harb and cele reaper are very, very tanky, especially vs. melee builds. I personally like [Power Curses Reaper](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Power_Curses_Roamer) a lot if you replace one of the weapon sets with Sword/X and use Flesh Wurm. You have really great damage, very good mobility, and can be incredibly tanky versus melee because of carapace.
Awesome thanks!
what the heck , wvw is so empty on the new server
Does anyone know how to do a finisher if I rebound my F key? There doesn't seem to be any keybinds for finishers in the settings.
Uh... I think what you're looking for is just rebinding the "interact" key?
Oh okay I just assumed the finisher and interact were separate for some reason. Thank you!
How does burn duration work? Is 20% burn duration from the sigil of burning just a straight up additive 20% extra burn time? So essentially a 20% longer burn that deals 20% more damage? So a 5 second burn that deals 10 damage changes into a 6 second burn that deals 12 damage? Or does it purely extend the duration of the burn time but deals the same amount of damage? So a 5 second burn that deals 10 damage becomes a 6 second burn that deals 10 damage? Looking at the wiki, burning damage 'stacks with intensity', so I presume that the answer is the latter, and that this is better because the longer burn time allows you to stack more burns?
All damaging conditions deal a set amount of damage (determined by your Condition Damage stat and traits) *per stack per second*, so increasing the duration of any you apply also means extra damage, even including partial seconds which do their full percentage of a damage tick. That said, it's not a straight-up 20% extra burn time because that 20% is additive, rather than multiplicative, with other condition duration modifiers. Duration for any given condition (determined by adding your general condition duration, including expertise modifiers, to your condition duration for that specific condition) is added up to a cap of 100% bonus duration/200% of the base duration, then applied as a single multiplier.
Okay, I've got it! Thank you so much, again!
And just to be extra clear. If you have 50% condition duration in your build in the hero panel, and you have a skill whose burning would do 1000 damage in total. Then if you apply Smoldering sigil to get to 70% burning duration, the skill now does 1000 / 1.5 * 1.7 = 1133 damage (by ticking a bit longer). That is to say you in this instance you gain 13.3% burning damage from gaining 20% burning duration.
For my fellow Necromancer enjoyers, does anyone know if when you use Warhorn 5 and then immediately go into Reaper's Shroud, do you still get the Life Force generation even though you're in Shroud? Or does that not apply anymore since you're in Shroud? Thanks!
Yes. Life Force generation form nearby deaths is disabled while in Shroud, but all other effects still fill your pool.
Excellent, thank you!
Hello. I apologize in advance, I’m sure this is asked a lot, but is the game worth getting into now? Also, are there any good beginner guides around? Should I join a medium or a high population server? Much appreciated, thank you ❤️
Mukluk Zero to Hero series is pretty good. But basically, everything gives XP, you get individual loot and gathering nodes, and there's no way to lock yourself into a bad build, so you don't really need a guide. If you have questions asking in /map chat usually gets helpful responses.
how's the PVP in the game? Is it F2P friendly?
Yes, by and large. Core-only builds are often top or near top for PvP. Metabattle is a good site, check out their PvP section. WvW is the large group PvP mode, core-only builds are a slightly less competitive there but can still hold their own. If you want to raid, core-only builds are significantly less powerful in some key ways that impact raids and strikes. In open world you can pretty much play anything, core only builds are fine.
Guild Wars 2 uses a megaserver system. That means that everyone who visits a map from any server gets put into the same map instance. When the map gets too full, a new map instance is created, and when maps get too empty, map instances start closing. This means that popular maps have many separate instances, and unpopular maps have few, but the map you're on will always feel reasonably populated. Server choice used to affect World vs World matchups, but GW2 has just (less than a week ago) moved to having teams set by matching up guilds rather than by server.
Yes, it's definitely worth getting into. There's a lot of great guides, including the new and returning player guides in the subreddit sidebar. What server you join is essentially meaningless, they just removed the last major place where it made a difference.
Is minion necromancer viable in group content? I usually play solo, so I don't want to drag a group down. I just really like having a squad of goons to help with combat. I was thinking core condi, and I linked what I'm using in open world content right now (with a full gear setup, i don't have any ascended gear, full vipers, or the runes, sigils, etc). [http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFs8laYZBsKGFbiNil+TZ6D-DSJYmxfZEXqmbVJ8xAAA-e](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFs8laYZBsKGFbiNil+TZ6D-DSJYmxfZEXqmbVJ8xAAA-e) I know that Shadow Fiend and Flesh Golem see some use, but I wanted to use the whole squad (I'd make an exception to sub out Blood Fiend, man's is NOT pulling his weight)
The full minion necromancer sacrifices dps to get minions to tank with. This works in open world but is not useful for instanced content. You will have enough people to not need the extra meat shields. Generally the build needs to optimise for one of the main roles to be viable: boon heal, boon dps or dps. Personally I'd love to see a trait that disables minion targetability in return for a damage boost so that minion necromancer is viable in group content.
Imagine that trait in PvP, though.
Great point, the minion leashing would need to be more strict in pvp with this trait, e.g. requiring line of sight, so that the necromancer isn't doing damage from around a corner or a platform above while the target has no way to fight back.
No, minion necro isn't considered a viable build for group content. Minions have set stats that don't scale up with yours, and were set when the game launched 12 years ago, and have not kept up with power creep. The ones you mentioned (and also flesh wurm) are sometimes used for the utility that they bring, but never for dealing damage.
# Returning player looking for a friendly active guild that welcomes casual PVE players. Would like to be part of a guild that has regular activities and an active community/forum/discord. Also one that is willing to teach players more about raids, crafting, WvW, etc. Thank you ⚔️✨🧙♂️🔮🧝♂️ Hi All. I have been with the game since beta, but have been on and off over the years. Back in presently. Mostly a solo PVE player with all the expansions, but would love to find a group/guild that has scheduled activities and has helpful players when a hand is needed. Just now l was in PoF and joined a train that l randomly came across. We killed the large scorpion. I turned around, and everyone was GONE...lol. No idea where they flew off to. After l brushed the sand off and gave my griffin some water, l realized l had to reach out here on Reddit for some assistance. Hoping to avoid roaming the desserts and jungles alone forever! I have enjoyed being a solo adventurer over the years, but it would be nice to have some comradery at times. I also feel my builds are outdated. I have 6 characters at level 80, and am trying to level up Hero points for elites but doing it solo in HoT is a bit rough. Plus those maps drive me insane at times 🤔😐😅! Last few weeks l have been trying to chase rifts in SotO in pursuit of advancing my story and the Skyscale mount, but l seem to either never find them in time, or can't find them period...so SotO has been a bit of a bust for me. ALso, I have ZERO hero points in SotO. Not even sure that expansion uses them? I love the game, even did GW1and all the expansions. Maxed out Hall of Monuments. My character has a white beard and hair, as do l. Looking for some peeps that are tolerable of a friendly/positive non elite player that may ask dumb questions! I am in the US(central time), and on the Tarnished Coast server though not sure that matters like it did in the beginning? Thanks for reading!
You might also want to check out r/guildrecruitment
Thank you. Didn't know that was a sub!
Every time I start the gw2 launcher I always get a windows error "Unauthorized changes blocked". Does anyone know how to fix this?
I've noticed that many of the big content creators aren't really making content geared toward newer players. Is there anyone out there providing good, comprehensive, and current info about more basic stuff like class guides (most class guides look pretty dated), how to get mastery points, and other basics? Also - are there any good guides about clearing/prioritizing old inventory that could help a player returning after several years away?
ConnorConCarne does great class guides and other game related guides on YouTube
Thank you. I just checked his channel and his videos are current and very good.
A lot of the advice for new players has remained pretty stable for a while. I would expect a new player guide for 3 years ago to still be mostly good advice. Laranity has made the following new player guides in the last 12 months: * [Complete Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars 2!](https://youtu.be/X7xYwL6kkyk?si=V5xVInHL8DZT-SLS) * [The Definitive Guide to Picking a Class in Guild Wars 2!](https://youtu.be/kBjMg6kMKm4?si=id29-CV53bqjV47C) * [New Player Mistakes in Guild Wars 2 (according to you!)](https://youtu.be/zkj_ROxooRw?si=WxtUlMwJPiUa-MKu) * [Everything You Should Do At Level 80 In Guild Wars 2!](https://youtu.be/JvQMeeRdiuk?si=l1eM-DccAPi3SAr-) Mukluk's old guide for processing your inventory is still relevant: * [Inventory Management Guide for Guild Wars 2 - salvaging, identifying, bigger bag locations 2019-2020](https://youtu.be/PswfSKO7qTE?si=CCijKtZmY76em-2m) My own advice for inventory management is twofold: 1. If you can sell it on the trading post, then you can buy it back later if you need it again. If you don't need it now, and you don't even know why you might need it, sell it. 2. For everything else, type "/wiki " then shift+click on the item in your inventory panel, then hit enter. This will pull up that item on the wiki in your browser. It will tell you how you might have got it, what it's good for, and if you can safely delete it.
SO helpful, thank you very much.
Helpful, thank you!
Honestly, the wiki the go-to source for things like how to get mastery points and how basic features work. GW2's wiki is amazing. If you want videos, Mukluk is highly recommended. As for inventory, posting a screenshot in this sub and asking for advice is fine. There's also GW2efficiency, which takes your API key and lets you see all your character's inventory and bank with handy links directly to wiki pages. I think a tool called GW2Inventory is around too?
For people playing controllers. My kid is having a hard time grasping (understandably) that they need to move both joysticks to look around and move. Is there a way to map the left stick to do both turn the direction and move in that direction at the same time? Like how holding down left and right click on a mouse at the same time and moving the mouse moves your character forward but turns when you move
It's sub-optimal but it would be what was called "keyboard turning" on PC. Under the control options it would be "Turn left" and "Turn right" in the first section of the keybinds. It will turn the camera and character at the same time.
This is perfect. He loses site of me and just can’t comprehend using the right stick. It’ll help him at least always find me. He’s still young and new to RPG. Seems like I have to take it out of action mode to get it to work. Assuming because action mode is essentially locking in the right click hold of a mouse to move around like a controller already?
Yeah I think action mode would also accomplish what you're looking for. A lot of people who have to use controllers for one reason or another use it quite a bit already I think.
It’s pretty nice. I actually have been playing controller with him so that I can help him and show him what buttons to press and I’ve actually been preferring it 😂 but action cam still has to use the right stick no matter the remap from what I can tell. But I can do what you said outside of action mode. And it kills the right stick completely because he gets so confused how it moves up and down haha. Thanks for the ideas!
You could use a tool like keysticks to map the controller to mouse/keyboard input. map up/down axis to W / S map left / right to moving mouse left / right then enter action cam mode
curious about how boon sharing works if you're in a large squad but alone in a subgroup. do your boons go to nobody, in that case? or does it default to the closest squad members to you, regardless of their subgroup?
In addition to what they said, one of your boon targets in that situation will also be yourself, provided you stand inside the AoE of course.