Guild Wars 2 : Random Question Thread

[Aevis]

How are most rangers playing?

Longbow? Shortbow? GS? Been running around with a longbow up to lvl 50...

I started my PvE ranger with a longbow/shortbow condition build. add a cripple / chill trap and you're pretty much invincible, at least up to 45, my current level. got a bit bored with it and started to toy with other builds. my favourite is this now (traits for level 45, not 80): http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMAQ...HWhD9Kg+TeVhWB

longbow / sword + horn crit build. you tear through PvE mobs like butter with this and if some mob turns out tougher than it looks, use hornet sting to get away, swap your tank bear in and pull out your longbow. signet of the stone and rampage as one are your emergency buttons and should get you out of any PvE situation, tho I mostly use rampage as one whenever it's up. have to admit, the build doesn't really feel like playing a ranger but it works too well to ignore and it's a nice break from your range combat.

had my first dungeon experience yesterday doing CM story 5-6 times and explore asuran path once. since I have no active guild on this server atm, it was all pickups so planing a specific build ahead wasn't possible or was useless because of non-existing group play. decided on tank double bear build with 10 points in nature magic, since full spirit build isn't worth it until higher level as you need the grandmaster nature magic unlocked for spirits unbound.

I'd say my bears could tank everything in CM story except the golem at start by themselves. with support from others, they can tank even that but that's where it really depends if you are in a guild pt or not. I had one great run with an ele, a mesmer and two engineers. no headless war or thf storming into every mob to die simply because they "have to" as melee class. these guys had great area control on multiple mobs and buffed my bears, which were tanking the elite/champions with the npc.

[Alderaan]

Our guilds rangers swear by shortbow, axe/warhorn for PVE and shortbow, greatsword for WvW. They constantly laugh at how broken the entire class is. It does everything well in every situation.

[Ayuriae]

As Thief (lvl 32), I've been stacking Condition Damage because it humors the mess out of me I can train shit, Death Blossom twice, then walk around as they slowly die. Does Condition Damage even matter later on as I level to the 60's and above? Also, should I bother with crafting? I'm at 99 Jeweler and 25 Leathercrafting but I'm constantly hovering around 20 Silver because I keep floodng anything over 20 silver into Jeweler. Should I even bother or am I crafting wrong to where I should be making some sort of profit?

[Alderaan]

Condition damage is freaking great since it ignores armor. P/D is your best bet as it applies stacks the fastest without running out of initiative like you do with D/D.

The problem i personally have with condition damage on thief is that lots of other professions can apply stacks much faster than we can.

[Ayuriae]

Efff. What is P/D? I'm too durr to find the ability.

Edit - Silly me, you meant weapons, not an ability.

Edit 2 - Fuck yeah, I didn't notice the auto-attack inflicted bleed the first time I did this. Unfortunately, it's not fun for training stuff and laughing while they die. I did find my new set for soloing Veterans and the like though. :D

[Arcana]

Pistol/Dagger

[Kiarax]

As Thief (lvl 32), I've been stacking Condition Damage because it humors the mess out of me I can train shit, Death Blossom twice, then walk around as they slowly die. Does Condition Damage even matter later on as I level to the 60's and above? Also, should I bother with crafting? I'm at 99 Jeweler and 25 Leathercrafting but I'm constantly hovering around 20 Silver because I keep floodng anything over 20 silver into Jeweler. Should I even bother or am I crafting wrong to where I should be making some sort of profit?

Condition damage is great even at 80. As Alderaan said, it ignore armour so there's actually a lot of situations where it's by and far the strongest build. However it does have an issue in stuff like DEs where there is a lot of players. Bleed has the least issue here, but if there's a few people specced for stacking bleeds (Necro and Mesmer especially) then it's gonna hit the 25 bleed cap pretty fast, where you can no longer stack more and are stuck just dealing standard attack damage. Poison and Burn are very meh in groups too, as they don't stack intensity, you're essentially only getting 1 persons damage in constantly (though duration stacks). Don't let that put you off though, there's nothing more annoying in PvP than getting loaded with DoT conditions. If you can force people to pop cleanse cooldowns and then load them up, they're just gonna melt without being able to do a damn thing about it. It especially blows on Guardian, where we can get a ton of armour, but suffer from the lowest health in the game.

[Fereydoon]

As a Mesmer, what should I be doing in the Catacombs? Traits/Weapon Combination/Skills. I assume I should be distracting things/deflecting arrows and such?

[Pendas]

Question to all you Rangers out there, have any of you noticed a severe lack, or non-existent, build up of pet threat? Seems like for the last two days my pet has been unable to build any threat. I tested it today by aggroing a mob and standing there while my pet wailed on it, yet it never attacked my pet once. I've repeated this same effect over 20 times. Additionally, I tried sending my pet out to attack a mob with F1, and without me taking any action towards it whatsoever, the monster attacked my pet once or twice, then immediately ran towards me, completely ignoring my pet from then on. It's pretty aggravating considering the 2 most efficient ranged DPS weapons require a mob to be either far away or not facing you to be effective, both of which are negated by this bug.

[ClarkSammich]

As Thief (lvl 32), I've been stacking Condition Damage because it humors the mess out of me I can train shit, Death Blossom twice, then walk around as they slowly die. Does Condition Damage even matter later on as I level to the 60's and above? Also, should I bother with crafting? I'm at 99 Jeweler and 25 Leathercrafting but I'm constantly hovering around 20 Silver because I keep floodng anything over 20 silver into Jeweler. Should I even bother or am I crafting wrong to where I should be making some sort of profit?

I'm going to write a brief Thief thing for you and whoever else, because it sounds like you might enjoy a certain style of play I've found really useful.

Spoiler: show

I present unto the counsel, for your supreme edification, what I like to call... THE MECHA-POISON-SUPER-COOL-THIEF BUILD. (Note: You can swap some stuff around here, namely slowed pulse, ice drake venom for shadow refuge, dagger for sword, etc.)

In years past, the role of support has taken on a bad name in MMOs; many believe it to be a punitive or subservient role. They are wrong. Fuck them.
As the mecha-poison-super-cool-thief, you will carry their bitch asses to glorious triumph, whether they like it or not.
Imagine yourself in the following all too common situation.

Warrior: Wow this dungeon sure is tough! Good thing I have five signets and greatsword, I'll surely lead us to victory! BTW Does anyone know why I roll when I press V?
Champion Separatist Brain Splatterer: LOL headshot
Warrior:

What. An. Asshole. He must not want to win at video games and should be shamed. Fear not, for history will paint him a fool and you a hero should you heed my words.
"But what does this build really do for me?" You might be asking. Well, I'm glad you asked.

A.) You get mad heals, son. You see that there "leeching venoms" trait? That bastard will heal you and your party members from anywhere between 300 to 450 per hit depending on gear. Let's break it down: At say, 410 per hit (what I'm at now with sub-par healing gear) that's 4,150 HP restored from a full set of venoms. For all ya'll. Plus, the debuffs. It's some fly-ass weakness duration due to the lotus poison minor trait, which is extremely helpful.

B.) Remember when I just said "fly-ass weakness duration" just now? Imagine that, but AoE. Awe shit. Choking gas is an AoE poison you can maintain 100% of the time, and that means an AoE weakness you can maintain 100% of the time. Monsters will tickle you as you and your compadres brutally penetrate their organs with all matter of weaponry.

C.) Cluster Bomb. You blow it up prematurely? No biggie, pal. Three stacks of AoE bleed, moderate direct damage, and the fucking coup de grace: blast combo finisher. Ever see an elementalist (or ranger) throw down a water field while looking forlorn and misty eyed? Like they were just waiting for a big strong man to sweep them into his arms and whisper silent nothings into their ear? Today, you will be that man. You will finish what he started, by spamming the ever living shit out of cluster bomb in that water field, healing all surrounding allies for like 1,500 per shot because initiative is overpowered by design.

D.) Stealing shit applies buffs and vigor to your party, while removing boons. You can also steal a chaos combo opener to create boss AoE chaos armor, or confusion. You can ALSO steal lengthy stuns and dazes. You're the man now, dog.

"Wow, what a great class thief is! It's all I ever wanted!" You must be exclaiming to your dim, empty room and empty soda cans.

Just slow down, Brokeback, we haven't even gotten to your second weapon set yet.
That's right, you get two. See that pistol 5 skill? Black powder? That right there is the most OP shit in the game, because initiative, etc. Ever wonder why Guardians are such tremendous assholes? No, it's not because they're vicariously living out their holier-than-thou white knight fantasies in a video game.

It's because they have AEGIS. What's aegis? It's a 100% chance to negate an enemy attack every X seconds. Now, what's blind? It's a 100% chance to negate the enemy's next attack (not on champion enemies, but fuck them). So think of it this way: Blind is an offensive version of aegis. Now, black powder. Run up to a generic douche enemy, blast that son of a bitch in the face with your powder, and watch him miss for four seconds. Then do it again, because you're real as these streets and he would do the same to you if he could. You just stopped Mr. I-only-wear-precision warrior from getting stuffed into his own ass infinitely by fodder enemies.
"But what about champion enemies like you said?" Headshot them and laugh. Thief has a plethora of both ranged and melee interruptions. Use them. You can swap dagger for sword, and pistol whip some fools like you're bonafied member of the NYPD.

Gone are the days of wimpy bullshit thief classes, gone are the days of TH bitches and plebeian supports. The sun rises on a city of light and gold, where the glories of thief and support live and thrive in harmony. Take my hand, and let us walk through its streets together.

(Note: You should probably wear cleric suffix gear/accessories, and use runes of lyssa because it's a full condition removal on elite skill use and you don't get shit for condition removal with this build.)
(Note 2: Also seriously though, thief is fucking sweet and only gets better as you get higher leveled and understand the mechanics more, get hype.)

[volcanicweather]

As Thief (lvl 32), I've been stacking Condition Damage because it humors the mess out of me I can train shit, Death Blossom twice, then walk around as they slowly die. Does Condition Damage even matter later on as I level to the 60's and above? Also, should I bother with crafting? I'm at 99 Jeweler and 25 Leathercrafting but I'm constantly hovering around 20 Silver because I keep floodng anything over 20 silver into Jeweler. Should I even bother or am I crafting wrong to where I should be making some sort of profit?

80 Thief / 400 Jewelry so I'll help

There are a few ways to play thief - precision/crit glass cannon, conditions, and stealth/survivability. I personally prefer to play the third way with decent condition damage stats as most armor gives you power which still allows you to do decent damage. Try out all three and see which playing style works best for you.

In regards to crafting I would definitely recommend it but wait until you get to higher levels (50-60 range) to dive into it. You get XP scaled to your level by crafting and you will have more money then, I went from 72->80 leveling Huntsman. Regarding Jewelry there is some money which can be made there but overall it's not very profitable. A bonus though is when I leveled it I didn't lose a lot of money like when I leveled Huntsman. Just make sure you buy recipes from the karma vendor as you get a lot of XP and levels for discovering recipes which use their components.

My one tip for leveling would be to NOT salvage everything you get but sell almost all drops at that level, especially medium armor and weapons made from wood as both markets are saturated with materials.

[Sci]

Did they reset 100% Monthly achievements again last night? Not that I mind getting the bonus for a 3rd time this month, but I don't see any notice from them this time.

[Rhyis.]

Did they reset 100% Monthly achievements again last night? Not that I mind getting the bonus for a 3rd time this month, but I don't see any notice from them this time.

Not for me, no.

[Arcana]

Did they reset 100% Monthly achievements again last night? Not that I mind getting the bonus for a 3rd time this month, but I don't see any notice from them this time.

Yes it reset, i've gotten it for the second time this month.

[Amiricle]

My Guardian is getting close to 60 and I've got a few questions;

What skills present an optimal build for different situations? Right now I use the cone of healing, burning circle, "Save Yourself!" arrow shield, and the elite golem-summoning skill. That's mostly for running around completing maps. What should I be focusing on for WvW?

Also, as I close in on 60, I am going to be seriously strapped for cash if I buy the trait book and won't be able to upgrade my equipment. Should I just suck it up and get the traits and keep gearing myself based on enemy drops until 80?

I don't know guardian so can't answer that, but as for the trait book, do you really need/want to go into tier 3 for anything asap? If not wait and buy it at 80. On Mesmer I spread out a bunch of T2 while leveling and got my book at 80 when I figured out a different build I wanted that used t3 traits.

[sedna]

Yes it reset, i've gotten it for the second time this month.

Mine isn't reset >_>;;;

[Arcana]

It only reset if you completed it i think. i had it done within 3 days of the reset last week.

[arus2001]

That's a lot of salvaging in 3 days. x.x

[Kachiko]

Grind bandits, in Queensdale? They drop a lot of salvageable stuff, plus you get a bunch of low level starter mats, if you want to sell. Could do it in a day, if you got down to it.

[Eanae]

Anti-farm code would prevent straight grinding it.