stone cold.8609
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Posts posted by stone cold.8609
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Update: ANet support was able to resolve this issue for me today. I want to publicly thank the GMs for all their help and for working over the weekend to make sure our gaming goes smoothly!
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Thanks for the suggestions Illconceived Was Na. I just checked my account again. I completed all the HoT maps on the Engineer. I don't have the Engineer caches on any of my characters. I don't have credit for the Engineer cache in my collection log. Anyone have any ideas to resolve this that I can try while I'm waiting to hear back from CS support?
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I just noticed that for my Engineer, I did not receive credit in the Fix-R-Upper specialization collection log for the Engineer's cache. I 100% map completed all of the HoT maps, but the Engineer's cache was never properly credited to the log. Has this happened to anyone else? How can I resolve this, since it is blocking progress? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I have opened a ticket with CS, and they are reviewing.
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A couple of things come to mind that you can consider.
The new mantras are very powerful, but don't cast as quickly as the DH or core versions. You need to take into account this additional time and plan accordingly on when you use them. Also, try to never use the last charge and the cool downs are actually quite good.
Pay attention to keeping aegis up for the big hits. Guardians have low base health and can't face tank big spike damage, but are very well suited to handling smaller damage over time with the F2 skill. The new healing mantra and F3 should allow you to have aegis up when you need it so you can avoid the big hits. This, combined with dodging and proper positioning (i.e. don't stand in the red circles) are really the key to guardian survivability.
Switch out your off hand to either shield for more aegis on demand or focus for more blinds/blocks.
For what it's worth, I am currently running this build which is essentially the fairly standard retaliation power build with the DH trait line switched out for Firebrand.
I find that it is just as survivable if not more so than the DH version and it is much easier for me to keep my retaliation up (which translates into damage) with the FB version when running solo.
Good luck!
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No, legendaries are fine how they are. No stat increase is needed over ascended.
Ameepa is right. Legendaries were in the game with exotic stats prior to the addition of ascended gear. When ascended gear was shoe horned into the game, legendaries then received ascended stats. They were never meant (as per the devs comments back then) to have any stat increase over the top gear tier's stats. They were a cosmetic only upgrade so that you could show off how dedicated you were (or how much money you were willing to spend, since all gen 1 legendaries can be bought/sold on the BLTC).
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Thanks Aetatis! So it seems that this may be a feature then? Anyone know what is the angle that the target needs to be in front of you? It looks like maybe somewhere around 90 degrees?
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Welcome to Tyria and to Guardian! Here is a GS power leveling build for you to consider. I've only selected 2 trait lines, since I don't know what level you are and have only picked core utilities/healing skills. For the third one, think about virtues or one of the elite specializations when you get them. This will get you started learning the retaliation build, self might stacking, and aegis management. I also choose cheaper gear, weapons, runes and sigils (the superior sigil of strength can be substituted for a major, and rares can be substituted for exotics). The key to this build is to keep the retaliation up as much as possible to get the 65% crit chance from traits and the aegis up for survival. The might stacking is for damage. You will have about 87% crit chance when retaliation is up, and I used a bunch of Valkyries gear to bump up your health to over 16K (which is a lot for PvE guardians) so that you have more room for error when learning encounters.
Good luck!
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For the last couple of days, the Holosmith Photon Blitz skill is not activating properly for me. Sometimes when I press the key for the skill, it doesn't activate, and then immediately goes on either partial or full cool down. Sometimes I can see the animation for Photon Blitz begin, but then abruptly stop when this happens. I especially notice this when I try to use Photon Forge too quickly after Corona Burst. It sometimes happens when I'm moving while trying to use the skill. It is a bit frustrating and I am wondering if this could be looked into.
Other details: This happens in open world PvE, in the new PoF maps, and I've been playing solo. I'm running Explosives/Tools/Holosmith trait lines.
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I noticed this happening to me as well over the last week or so. When I activate photon blitz too quickly after using another forge skill or sometimes when I am moving when I try to use it, photon blitz won't activate but will either go on partial or full cool down. I agree that it is extremely frustrating and hope that this can be sorted out quickly.
I'll report this in the bug forum.
Edit: Bug forum post link
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Welcome to the Guardian profession! GS + Sw/Sh works very well with FB for PvE. I'm running this set up currently (with swap to scepter when situation calls for it) and it works very well for me:
This is essentially the power retaliation build with the substitution of the FB elite for DH. I run solo much of the time and wanted a build that could self stack high levels of might and keep the retaliation up near full time, which is the key to its DPS. I found that the FB mantras and heal were better at this than when I ran the DH elite. Defensively, besides dodging, learning how to rotate your aegis is another key to survival. Again, I found that the FB heal made this easier than the other options. Also, this build comes with 65% crit chance from traits, so you won't need a lot of precision in the build, which means that you could substitute Valkyries stats (Power Vitality Ferocity) for some of the Berserkers items to bulk up your health even more for a more tanky feel without sacrificing too much DPS.
Good luck!
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That build has fallen out of favor in PvE. The highest damaging build currently is a condi build using Sword/Torch + Longbow with Arms, Tactics (or Defense), Berserker. The new Warrior elite Spellbreaker and daggers weapon set are more of a PvP/WvW spec and fairly strong there, but are under tuned for PvE currently.
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You really can't go wrong with either - they are both strong elites. They both are about equally effective at open world farming, damage, and sustain in my experience. The biggest difference between the elites I've found is how the virtues play, whether you like mantras vs traps, and whether you build for condi or power damage.
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I see that you've figured out that Guild Wars 2 has it's own spin on the professions - Warriors play like mages, Thieves aren't really rouges, and Mesmers are raid tanks! For PvE, there are a couple of options that might work for you. Understand that you likely won't do optimal damage and may have a hard time getting into PUG raids/high level fractals, but will still be competitive everywhere else. In other words, likely 90% of everyone else in PvE will be running similarly effective builds to these so just have fun with what you like and what works for you!
Staff condi Elementalist camping fire attunement - Classic ranged caster archetype. Trait for a couple of elementals for meat shields and you should be good to go.
Greatsword power retaliation Guardian - Classic melee holy warrior/battle mage archetype. Only switch up to scepter rarely when can't go melee (still fits the archetype, especially with shield).
Longbow power Ranger - Classic ranged hunter archetype. Bring a sturdy pet like bear and good to go.
Sword-pistol power Thief - Classic melee bruiser/evasion off-tank. Stay away from the stealth traits, take sigil of Malice and the invigorating precision trait to give this build a lot of sustain. Can be combined with pistol-pistol as below for the rare times that you need to range. May be the closest thing to a classic warrior archetype that might work for you.
Pistol-pistol power Thief - Classic gunslinger archetype.
Minion master Necromancer - I'm not as familiar with this one, but it certainly fits the classic dark caster archetype and I don't think there is much weapon swapping.
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I tried it years ago before pistols were buffed. It didn't fit my play style very well and I wasn't very impressed by it. It is most likely better now. To be fair, PP wasn't impressive back then either. You are right that it is easy to land a CnD in PvE, but I gave up on using stealth (except for skips in dungeons/fractals) a long time ago, so this wasn't a concern for me.
The thing with PP and condi is that the pistol auto attack actually does respectable bleed damage now with Vipers armor and Krait runes. I typically only go to PP if I can't melee or am taking too much spike damage that I need to disengage briefly to heal using a couple of PP3s with the passive effect of signet of Malice. Mix in a couple of auto attacks to keep some bleeds going and then I switch to melee and steal back on target. So for me, it synergizes very well with condi DD.
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Aplier gave you a very detailed and thorough response. Unless you plan to raid or do high level fractals with PUGs, I'd suggest only using the meta as a guideline. Don't be afraid to customize the meta build to suit your playstyle. If you have a static raid/fractal group, you and the group will decide what your group's meta will be.
The only thing I would add is there is also a condi meta build that uses DD Daredevil build that uses bleed/poison damage, evades, and DD3 spam that you should check out as well (go to the mists and hit up the training golems). It feels/plays completely different than the power staff version and synergizes very well with DD and the DA and Daredevil trait lines. I've run both meta builds in open world PvE and well as Dungeons and Fractals and found them to be equally effective.
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Both SB and PP work well as the second weapon set in PvE and the choice depends on the situation. SB gives mobility (SB3, SB5) and AOE damage. PP gives CC (PP2, PP4) and blinds (PP5), might stacking, a strong ranged damaging skill (PP3) and a way to almost heal fully (PP3 x 2 + sigil of Malice), but is a single target weapon set. I run either, depending on what I need but mostly have PP equipped.
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Agree with the OP as well. There are a couple of mounts that I would pay for, but I will not buy any of them because of the locking them behind an RNG gambling adoption license scheme. Count me as another player disappointed by this.
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Something Asura themed, like golems please.
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For me it is simple. No nerfs intended to "balance" PvP or WvW DeadEye that screws up my PvE DD Condi Daredevil.
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For a condi DPS Berserker in PvE, Berserker or Renegade runes? I'll probably be spending most of my time running solo or in unorganized PvE, so I can't count on having raid level boons/buffs.
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> @Predator.1398 said:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'd like to gear my firebrand **for open world PvE and fractals** (don't care about PvP and WvW at all) and badly need an advice regarding to the build.
> I'm definetely not going to play glass-cannon berserker or viper due to guardian low basic health so having vitality/toughnes on the gear is mandatory for me. Here are the main goals I'd like to achieve:
> * Condition based (basically burning) damage since it's **fire**brand :)
> * Solid amount of HP (~18k or more) and armor
> * Comfortable gameplay for regular open world PvE and maybe T3/T4 fractals
>
> I'm not trying to achieve highest possible damage or ability to face-tank everything. Just want to find some good balance.
> I've been thinking about the build like that:
> * Dire gear and trinkets for survivalability
> * Balthazar runes for burning duration
> * Trailblazer amulet for extra expertise to achieve 99.73% burning duration
> * Sinister Axe and Torch to compensate the lack of power and presicion on the gear
> * Assassin Scepter and Shield for range
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> There is another option to use Carrion gear instead of Dire to have more power but less toughnes:
> The difference:
> * More power (**+585**) which should result in **30%** more pure power based damage
> * A bit more condition damage (**+59**)
> * Less armor (**-673**) which leads to **22%** more direct damage from enemies according to my calculations
>
> So if my calculatuons are correct it's **22%** more sustain vs. **30%** more direct damage. In fact sustain difference will be lower because damage from enemy conditions ignores armor. Still quite hard choose...
>
> I'd really appreciate any feedback and advice!
>
> Thanks!
Hi Predator!
Toughness isn't really needed in PvE. Of your two builds I'd go with the Carrion one with a couple of modifications (Viper's ammy for more precision/damage and the healing mantra for more aegis uptime since Guardians are all about the active defenses).
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> @"Cave Rock.4869" said:
> > @"stone cold.8609" said:
> > Hey phor! You are right. I just had some Marauder's stats ammy and rings in my inventory so used them and didn't pay attention to the crit chance of the build with them added. Valkyrie's or a mix with Maurader's would be better because you don't need much precision from gear in this build. I updated my build link above.
> >
> > Cave Rock - if you try it let me know how it goes! I may give it a try as well.
>
> I have added some extra pieces to your build. I wonder if it would be the same as you intended Stone Cold... Our would Maurader's be better? Cheers for the ideas from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.
>
Hey Cave Rock - that's the idea. Essentially, as long as you have high uptime on retaliation, you will only need 35% crit chance to reach the cap. Therefore any extra crit chance from gear, like precision stat, is just wasted and would be better spent on another stat like health, toughness, healing, etc. It gives you a lot of flexibility with the build, while keeping very good damage. I opted to keep the ferocity high to maximize the direct damage and buff up the health pool in my build.
I tried out the hammer and it worked ok, but I had a harder time keeping up the retaliation with it. I prefer, GS, Sword/Shield, and Scepter/Shield over it in this build.
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Hey phor! You are right. I just had some Marauder's stats ammy and rings in my inventory so used them and didn't pay attention to the crit chance of the build with them added. Valkyrie's or a mix with Maurader's would be better because you don't need much precision from gear in this build. I updated my build link above.
Cave Rock - if you try it let me know how it goes! I may give it a try as well.
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After playing PvE Firebrand some more, I found that when I went full condi I didn't like how it played - the damage didn't build as quickly as it did with my condi thief or condi zerker, the axe had a weird clunkiness/hesitation that would sometimes pop up (may be related to quickness, but not sure).
After more experimentation, I found a GS power based build focusing on retaliation, quickness, and might stacking that I really like and is working well very well for me. The tomes provide strong support in this build, with tome of justice bringing useful AOE damage. I have to say that I prefer the FB virtues over the DH or core versions.
(Edit: Updated build based on phor's comments below.)
The Valkyrie's ammy and accessories are for a little health cushion for open world PvE. You can also mix in more Valkyries and some Marauder's depending on how much health you want. The second weapon set is flexible and can be modified to fit your preferences.
Holosmith Sustain Question (new to engineer)
in Engineer
Posted
I've found that the key to sustain with the Holosmith is going in and out of Photon Forge as much as possible to get Heat Therapy to trigger. This combined with the healing skill (I prefer Coolant Blast) is usually enough sustain for me. If I need more than this, I also can slot in the utility Elixir gun for the tool belt skill Healing Mist and the 5 skill Super Elixir. You can also take Healing Turret as Ardid suggested above and blast water fields for healing. You are sitting on about 5K more life than the Thief (both in Berserker gear) which goes a long way to make the Holosmith inherently sturdy compared to the Thief.