BunjiKugashira.9754

> @Ohoni.6057 said:

> > @CedarDog.9723 said:

> > Re:Staircases to nowhere.

> >

> > The library is just the Winchester Mystery House of Guild Wars 2. :)

>

> Now I get it, the staircases are there to confuse the ghosts! They should have sold that by having various ghost NPCs wlking up them and just bumping against the wall for eternity.

Or what if... the staircases actually continue INSIDE the wall and only ghosts can use them (because they can pass through the wall)?

Elementalist is a very combo-heavy class. Especially in solo pve it's important to know your combo fields, finishers and what the combo does. Take a few minutes to read all your skills and try out the combos in a safe environment. For training: place a combo field and try to blast-finish as often as possible before it runs out.

Your best friend for survival is the glyph of storms cast in earth. It creates a pulsing blind-field and basically disables any mobs caught in it. Even a group of veterans and elites can't harm you if they're constantly blinded. (Disclaimer: does not work on aoes and champions / legends or dredge)

Choose a weapon that fits your playstyle. Elementalist is in the nice position that most weapon combinations are viable in some way. Staff is a very powerful weapon against sitting ducks. In zerk-content or if you are vigilant and always attack first, it is pretty easy to play. If you want to play more reactive, a different weapon set might be better suited.

The most important thing: Hit first and hit hard! A dead enemy deals no damage.

I voted no simply because I like my characters the way they are now.

However I can see why some people would want to change their race. If ANet ever finds a way to implement race-change I'm not going to oppose it. The big problem is: IF they ever find a way to implement it without breaking the story.

You might say "just disable the story, allow it only on characters that have completed the story, ..." but it's really not that easy. Apparently completing a story step doesn't just flip a bit that says "ok, chapter completed" but triggers all kinds of different things. In HoT there is a healer who will remember you if her husband died on your mission. Even in PoF there are references to choices you did during your personal story. Changing your race could easily result in a Charr with a human sister called Deborah.

The only reason you didn't get a combo that makes sense to me right now is, that your traps didn't trigger. Ranger traps only activate their combo fields once they are triggered by an enemy or neutral creature.

A skill that places an easier to experiment with combo field is [bonfire](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bonfire "GW2 Wiki"). It places it's combo field right after using it. Just weapon-swap to your bow and try your combos.

On one hand I don't really loose anything by Orichalkum loosing value. It's a good thing for all those who need it for crafting.

On the other hand, Orichalcum has always been THE high-end high-value metal. For years I've always harvested every Ori-Node because it was guaranteed to be worth it. I would even make a detour when I noticed a Ori-Node on my mini-map. Orichalkum loosing this position and becoming cheaper than Platinum and Iron feels really weird. In a few days we'll see its value drop below that of Copper. The T1 beginner metal will be worth more than the highest ranked, most difficult and dangerous to mine and most scarce (until PoF) metal in the game.

Until now I was happy whenever I found a Ori-Node. Now it has become just another node. By crashing the prices, ANet has basically removed the joy of finding a valuable node from the game.

Well, weaver itself is top dps. Staff-rotations have access to some extra ticking aoe-fields and reach higher numbers than ever.

It's the sword that hits like a wet noodle. The sword is slow and mostly single-hit. Elementalists usually draw their dps from a range of rapidly hitting aoe fields. Unless sword receives some significant buffs, the added risk and lost utility of going completely melee will prevent sword from being a real alternative to staff.

When subscribing to a topic, can we please get only 1 notification when something new was posted? I'm sure that 2 or 3 of the topics I've subscribed to have new posts, but the number 181 and the huge list of new comments don't really tell me which topics. I only know that 1 topic got a huge load of new posts, completely obscuring any other posts I might be interested in.


Can we please have the "Draft saved" pop-up not appear in the middle of the text we're currently writing or editing? Make the pop-up appear at the bottom-right corner of the screen or something, but not in the kitten middle of the screen!


> @joneirikb.7506 said:

> There are more sides to this problem.

>

> They (ANet) also wants all classes to play similar in all game modes. So that what you learn in PVE (timing of attacks, a general feel of range, what a skill can do etc, what to expect of builds) will translate into WVW/PVP. And also the other way, so that a PVP player can go to PVE and not feel like his build plays entirely different and has to re-learn his own build etc.

>

> In a similar vein, it is also so that as you use a class, and get used to the skills and abilities, you learn their weaknesses, so you can better play against it.

>

> If you divorce PVE entirely from PVP you will end up making people have to learn both separately, and have to relearn to play each one. That is a major dis-service for everyone that plays both modes.

>

> Also, remember that WvW is actually stuck following the PvE mode, not PvP. So if they did this, it would make even larger difference between PvP and WvW that we already got.

> @joneirikb.7506 said:

> There are more sides to this problem.

>

> They (ANet) also wants all classes to play similar in all game modes. So that what you learn in PVE (timing of attacks, a general feel of range, what a skill can do etc, what to expect of builds) will translate into WVW/PVP. And also the other way, so that a PVP player can go to PVE and not feel like his build plays entirely different and has to re-learn his own build etc.

>

> In a similar vein, it is also so that as you use a class, and get used to the skills and abilities, you learn their weaknesses, so you can better play against it.

>

> If you divorce PVE entirely from PVP you will end up making people have to learn both separately, and have to relearn to play each one. That is a major dis-service for everyone that plays both modes.

>

> Also, remember that WvW is actually stuck following the PvE mode, not PvP. So if they did this, it would make even larger difference between PvP and WvW that we already got.

The idea behind that "other side" is nice and good, but practically speaking classes already play completely different in PvP and PvE. The reason is that PvP builds are total crap in PvE and PvE builds lack the survivability for PvP. Among the classes I play there is not a single build I could play in both game modes.

Example: Elementalist

Elementalists in PvP have to play very tanky. Water traitline is a must-have. The fire traitline on the other hand is pretty useless in PvP.

In PvE on the other hand eles play pure damage. Fire traitline is a must-have. The water traitline on the other hand is pretty useless (except for the 10% dmg buff).

Currently every class has some skills, traits and even complete traitlines that shine in one game-mode, but are totally crap in the other two game-modes. As long as skills are not split across game-modes, the split will instead be in the used builds. Which makes the difference in feeling and role of a class a lot bigger than splitting the skills and traits would.

Hmm, I guess one way to implement such a player finder would be to allow players to define their own roles. The leader would open up the player finder and start looking for roles like "dmg", "condi dmg", "healer", "cps". Each player who is looking for a group could then assign keywords to themselves. For example "engi", "dmg", "condi".

Only if a player has all the keywords for a slot (for example condi and dmg in the second slot) is the player added to the group. Of course this does not guarantee that the player actually is what he claims to be. An elementalist with the cps tag is not a cps. But if everyone only uses the tags that apply to them, this could work.

Still, it wouldn't be much better than the lfg tool. You would still wait a long time because some roles just take so long to fill.

> @Ayakaru.6583 said:

> All except the Norn, that race has been watered down so much they're normal, plussized, humans

I fondly remember when Norn were first introduced in EotN. Ogden wanted an army against the destroyers, but the Norn's culture doesn't know such a thing as an army. They don't even have any real leaders. In the end he got a hunting-group of 3 or 4 Norn.

I think it's kinda sad, that the Norn mentality got dumped in GW2 in favor of quicker and easier story telling. Why was Knut able to represent all Norn at the summit? Why are there so many Norn enlisted as regular soldiers in the pact? Where are the random hunting-groups traveling through dangerous areas and searching for the ultimate prey? Where is any interaction with the spirits of the wild that are supposed to be everywhere? The bear, raven, etc are supposed to be the biggest / main spirits, but supposedly there are many more local spirits to be found. What happened to the transformation that was the pride of every Norn in GW1?

> @Maunzi.3764 said:

> > @Feanor.2358 said:

> > The thing is, if they're "stepping on you", you have already stepped on them.

>

> Whiny people joining a below-80 dungeon run and crying about the DPS of the people inside are not "stepped on" by the evil below-80s they joined. Sorry.

And full bunker guardians that join a group that advertised as "lf dmg dealer" are not stepped on when they get kicked. The game goes both directions.

The Bitfrost. Still waiting for the improved versions: Bitefrost, Kilobitfrost, Kilobitefrost, etc.

> @Panda.1967 said:

> > @Carighan.6758 said:

> > To which I have to wonder: Where were you before DPS meters? Did you genuinely prefer getting kicked over not having 300 LIs or 22k AP over getting kicked over not doing 35k DPS? I mean the latter at least has a passing resemblance to actual ability as a player, so as silly as it is to just blindly kick over it, it is much preferable to the previous reasons people would just kick over.

> >

> > And it happened just as much. Elitists existed **long** before DPS meters.

>

> I feel it's worth noting... prior to DPS meters, I personally NEVER ONCE got kicked from a group, never personally saw any of the arbitrary requirements to join groups, never once got asked to provide proof of kills or anything of the like. Never even got harassed over my builds. However, as soon as DPS meters showed up I started getting denied from groups left and right simply because I'm not running a meta build. This happened so frequently that I gave up on finding groups for endgame content. I havn't got to do any endgame since DPS meters were added. I can't even find groups to run old out dated dungeons to get some armor/weapon skins anymore. To make matters worse, all my friends have quit, so I don't even have the option of running content with people I know. I've tried joining other guilds, and so far my experiences have been finding out that most of the people in the guilds I joined are entitled jerks who, go figure, won't run any content with you unless you run their approved meta builds. And yes, this happened when I joined guilds that advertise as "casual guilds".

>

> So, in my experience, DPS meters have caused a lot of harm and practically ruined the game. Before I had no issues finding parties, now i can't get a group for anything unless I give in and switch to a kitten meta build. Which will **NEVER** happen. I do not enjoy meta builds.

What about AP requirements and gear-ping? I remember having people in dungeon pug-groups that would initiate a kick against anyone below xk AP even if the lfg didn't state any AP requirement. It was a widely spread practice to instantly kick anyone who doesn't meet a certain AP threshold. Personally I never had to ping gear, but that's because I avoided such groups. Then came raids and with them the requirement to ping a certain amount of kill-proofs.

Before DPS meters you would get kicked as soon as someone notices that you're not running the exact meta build. And the meta build was whatever pulled the highest golem-numbers. Now, with DPS meters, it became possible (in theory) to run whatever build you want as long as you still do your job. As a damage dealer this means dealing >x kdps, as a support this means having almost full uptime on the buffs you're supposed to give, as a healer this means keeping the group >90% life most of the time, etc. All of these are figures that can be read from a DPS meter, not just the DPS.

Since OP is asking for a leveling build, I don't think tempest is an option.

For utilities I would recommend:

* Lesser elemental: Takes some aggro off yourself and helps defeat veterans without much trouble.

* Glyph of storms: If you cast this while attuned to earth, you get a blind-pulsing field. Enemies within this field are basically unable to hit you except with some aoe attacks.

For a heal skill I know many people who like the heal signet. It's completely passive heal, so 1 less button for you to press. Personally I prefer arcane wave. If you're surrounded by enemies (which is the only situation where you really need a heal skill) it heals by an insane amount. Also it's a blast finisher and it's always fun to play around with combo fields.

Try every weapon there is. I can't really recommend a weapon to you. They're all good. Back in my leveling days you would have to use a weapon to unlock its skills. Even with that mechanic gone you should still try out every weapon and find the one that suits you.

Stat-wise I recommend going for damage. Power, Precision and Ferocity: Get equipment with these stats with Power being most important, then Precision and finally Ferocity. Though if you get a higher level piece of equipment with different stats, that's good too. Higher level is more important than correct stats. Especially for the weapon.

In PvE the most important trait lines are fire and earth. Once you've got them maxed, go for water or arcane. Arcane only really shines if you switch elements often and work with many buffs. Water works best if you stay full-life most of the time.

As most people have mentioned: Exotic armor and weapons are easier to aquire than ascended. And for open world they're more than sufficient. You can slowly switch parts for ascended quality once you have the materials (especially the time-gated ones).

Trinkets are a different matter. I wouldn't bother with exotic trinkets. Especially not if you have 75 laurels.

* Amulet: Buy the amulet from a laurel merchant in WvW. That way you can save some laurels and supplement them with badges. If you don't have enough badges, go for the normal laurel merchant.

* Rings: Buy the rings from the fractal vendor. If you don't have fractal tokens, buy the rings from a normal laurel merchant. Rings are rather cheap.

* Accessories: Buy the accessories from a guild token vendor. If you don't have enough guild tokens, you can also buy them from a normal laurel merchant, but they're rather expensive.

* Backpack: I hear there are some cheap ascended backpack options in the new LS3 maps. You can also go for the exotic fractal backpack and upgrade it to ascended later. If neither is an option for you, just postpone the backpack purchase for later.

__Reminder: You can not equip 2 unique items that have the same name!__, so don't buy the same ascended ring or accessory twice. Instead buy two different ones with the same stats.

You mentioned raiding in your opening post. If raiding is your goal, I recommend getting familiar with a raid build early and getting the stats that are required for raiding. You can find raid builds for Guardian for example here: https://qtfy.eu/guildwars/guardian/

Good luck and happy crafting.

I would like to see Largos playable. The thought of having an entire racial capital under water seems fascinating. Though I'm painfully aware that this would require finally fixing / finishing underwater mechanics, which equals a complete underwater overhaul. So my hopes are on an expansion that focuses on underwater content mainly, which would make perfect sense when we're facing Steve.

Annotation: The underwater dragon was first dubbed Bubbles by the community, but when ANet revealed that the first Letter of his name is an 'S', he was renamed to Steve.

Wait a moment, you made it to lvl 80 and gathered the materials / gold to max armor smith and craft an ascended armor without noticing that there are 3 different weight classes for armor? I already knew GW2 does a shady job at teaching it's mechanics, but this...

Well, at least you have some heavy ascended armor now. If you ever create a Warrior, Guardian or Revenant you can equip it on them.

In my opinion minions currently lack a skill curve. In PvE minions are way too easy. They're easy to maintain and even easier to fight along with as they take all the aggro from you. In PvP on the other hand minions are too squishy and no matter how skilled you are, the cooldown will prevent maintaining a standing army. Even if you retreat to restock on minions, the next aoe will just wipe them all out again.

I believe the only way to make minions viable is to introduce a minion-focused elite spec. Deathshroud would be replaced by a set of skills that spawn temporary minions, heal minions, or buff minions at the cost of some necromantic energy.

Engineer turrets imo are just too weak. In PvP again they are cleared by throwing 1 or 2 aoes at them. In PvE their damage and utility just can't compete with the toolkits. My suggestion would be to make carrying them around possible. Like warrior banners. Any ally can pick them up (and use some skills while carrying them) and place them somewhere else by dropping them.

The biggest issue for all summons though is, that they don't scale with player stats. I believe this is a problem both in PvP, where a player can go full tank and still have his summons deal damage, and in PvE where summons are just too weak without the added stats from equipment. This is especially a problem for the scrapper's gyros. When scrapper was first released I immediately tried to build a condi-scrapper by placing the whirlwind gyro in a fire field. But with the fiery bolts scaling with the stats of whoever does the finisher instead of whoever placed the field, they were scaling with the gyro's stats. Which were 0. After getting a huge amount of burning stacks with a pityful amount of damage, I had to scrap this build (no pun intended).

Originally my goal was to complete all HoT and Ls3 Achievements before PoF hits (Except the gold achievement for some Adventures). Well, yesterday I finished TD. Out of the Ls3 maps I've only completed Bloodstone Fen. I don't think I'll finish everything in a week...

The whole mind / dream theory seems convincing when talking about living Sylvari. But what about dead ones? Shouldn't the domains of plants and death be the perfect combination to create Sylvari zombies? We know that Jormag and Kralkatorrik used to primarily corrupt living organisms, but that was before Zhaitan's death.

So I believe the dead will rise again. This time reinforced by ice or crystals. And the Sylvari are not safe.

Yes, ANet finally added this feature after hearing our requests. It's been there for a while now and was announced in the patch notes.

I guess I'll test the image functionality of the new forum with this thread.