Guild Wars 2 Catch All

danopian wrote:
AndrewA wrote:

I've had the most success with all of the classes that I've played (guardian, mesmer, engineer, and necro) when I'm constantly swapping back and forth between two weapon sets, and not sticking with just a single weapon. This essentially doubles the skills available to you at any one time, which increases your DPS (or survivability, depending on your weapon selection).

Question about this: with the Thief, skills cost "Initiative" from a pool that regenerates over time, rather than the skills individually recharging, so when I swap weapon sets I don't receive freshly charged skills but have however many initiative points I had available with the other set. Does this work differently with other classes? If all of your skills are recharging with one weapon set, can you swap and have a fresh 5 skills?

Yes - that's exactly how it works for the four classes that I listed - no "initiative" to worry about. So I end up cycling thru the skills on one weapon, and then assuming I'm in the appropriate range for my second weapon, I swap to it and burn thru its skills, by which point the weapon swap cooldown is usually up, so I can return to the first weapon and start all over again.

AndrewA wrote:
danopian wrote:
AndrewA wrote:

I've had the most success with all of the classes that I've played (guardian, mesmer, engineer, and necro) when I'm constantly swapping back and forth between two weapon sets, and not sticking with just a single weapon. This essentially doubles the skills available to you at any one time, which increases your DPS (or survivability, depending on your weapon selection).

Question about this: with the Thief, skills cost "Initiative" from a pool that regenerates over time, rather than the skills individually recharging, so when I swap weapon sets I don't receive freshly charged skills but have however many initiative points I had available with the other set. Does this work differently with other classes? If all of your skills are recharging with one weapon set, can you swap and have a fresh 5 skills?

Yes - that's exactly how it works for the four classes that I listed - no "initiative" to worry about. So I end up cycling thru the skills on one weapon, and then assuming I'm in the appropriate range for my second weapon, I swap to it and burn thru its skills, by which point the weapon swap cooldown is usually up, so I can return to the first weapon and start all over again.

I am running an axe/axe & -/mace warrior build that is build around swapping the offhand weapon as soon as the weapon switch is off cool-down. With a sigil in the mace (or the second axe?) that gives might in weapon switch I can keep myself stacked pretty high and also keep the auto attack axe1 working, since that is doing the most damage of all my skills.
In the beginning I only reluctantly switched weapons mid-combat, thinking that this was more a hindrance with the 10 (5 with the warrior trait) second cool-down, but playing Ele showed me that he has to switch as often as possible to get all out of his skills, so why not try it with other classes.

On a related note to that: Who gets as sad as me when you see an Ele running around in fire all the time, without switching to the other elements for utility (like water heals or something ...)?
I encountered someone a few months ago that had played his Ele up to lvl 24 without switching once to the other elements, wondering why the games was this hard ...

danopian wrote:

I have a confession: I play on a Mac and don't have immediate access to an F1 key without awkwardly holding the "Fn" key simultaneously, so I've never really...(cough) used my stealing ability (my thief is lvl. 65) except on my very first day, when I didn't see the point of it. I have no idea what I may have been missing. Only yesterday when I decided to make a Guardian did I realize that I could re-map the F1 keys to the very convenient Z,X,C row, so I guess I'll find out now.

You can change that in System Preferences -> Keyboard:
IMAGE(http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp106/dondesio/ScreenShot2013-02-09at84901AM.jpg)

Then it is the exact opposite. Press F1 to activate F1 and hold down function-F1 for the alternate function. Much easier.

I have a 80 engie and it was very fun. I played a max rifle/explosives w/ the rest in elixir. In PvE, killed everything with rifle skills. If you hit a group, just run around dropping bombs and you will live easily. In groups I would use my elixir gun and grenades. very fun in WvW and dungeons. The engie is very flexible and good for all situation

AndrewA & Plastefuchs: that's exciting. I can't wait to test that out with my new Guardian.

DonD: Glad to know that option's there, thanks! I use the volume-control functions of F10-F12 very frequently, though, as does my wife, so I think I'll re-map to Z,X,C for now since they're empty.

Well, I reached 75 tonight on my Guardian. Exciting stuff and I'm looking forward to hitting 80 sometime this week. It'll be the first time I've ever reached max level in an MMO, so now I'm a little lost. I want to go back and do the Dungeons story/explore mode, take a look at some low level Fractals and maybe dip my toe into WvW and see if I like it.

I've been going for completion on this character too (which I'm enjoying), with around 57% of the map done, I haven't yet set foot in a 70 zone. So I'll need to re-gear, and that stuff is expensive ... I have around 4 gold, around 75,000 karma and 400 gems that I *could* sell for gold. Is it worth going straight to exotics, and if so do I go for a Greatsword first, or armor? Not many heavy armor sets suit Asura, and the T3 cultural at 119 gold is out of the question (not to mention it apparently has a lot of clipping issues). I like the Whispers set, and that's my order, but Power/Precision/Vitality probably isn't what I want for a Guardian. My build so far has been aiming toward 30/30/0/0/10 utilising burning damage, aegis and blind/vulnerability. It's worked fine for PvE while levelling up but I probably need to think about survivability for dungeons.

Any pointers gratefully received.

Depending on your current gear, you may want some more level-appropriate stuff with complementary stats for your spec before you hit Orr, but just go for whatever best fits your wallet at the moment. Once you hit Malchor's Leap and Cursed Shore, the value of random drops rises considerably and the money will start rolling in.

My guardian was equipped in Gold armor for the longest time and did well in dungeons. The right exotics for your character could get expensive. I spent around 12 gold to craft my exotic armor when I finally did get it- it would have cost twice that to buy it at asking price on the TP. I used gold weapons to start as well, but soon sprung for exotics for the weapons.

Exotics do get expensive...especially if you're looking for a full set. When I hit 80 I bought myself an exotic weapon and all rare 80 armor. The rare 80 armor was a whole lot cheaper than full exotic. As time went on I eventually upgraded to full exotic and salvaged the old armor for ecto to help offset the cost.

Signus-X wrote:

Exotics do get expensive...especially if you're looking for a full set. When I hit 80 I bought myself an exotic weapon and all rare 80 armor. The rare 80 armor was a whole lot cheaper than full exotic. As time went on I eventually upgraded to full exotic and salvaged the old armor for ecto to help offset the cost.

Gold (rare) gear is more than enough for dungeons.

The best route to get exotics is to do the dungeon runs, get the tokens, and make those into exotics you'll actually "make" money doing it.

Wee! Engineers are loads of fun. Tonight I got to lvl20 with this alt and unlocked the battering ram and the tool kit among a few other skills. I actually cackled the first time I used the ram on an enemy. And the tool kit- nice assortment of conditions, plus I get to repair turrets with the wrench! It's almost like I'm playing TF2 (well, not really, but you know). And I may have said this before, but getting the underwater kills daily achievement is actually fun when you pull out the grenade kit.

As for my guardian, I've now completed all of my personal story up to the point where I need to do Arah. And I'm down to only 2 PvE maps left to do for map completion- Fireheart Rise and Cursed Shore. After those, I'll focus on getting the WvW maps which could prove to be challenging. Although, I was trying out going all ranged using staff and secpter/focus today and it worked pretty well. That may be the route I need to go when I take him into WvW.

babakotia wrote:

I NEED GEAR

I can't give any specifics until you come up with the attribute set you want for your build, but other than running dungeons, it should be noted that you can get two pieces of orr armor with 84,000 karma (42,000 each) which you are close to.

The attribute set are listed in http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-temp...

You'll generally want to get chest piece and shoulder piece from these, as they cost the most tokens if you were to get the same thing dungeon wise, but karma wise are uniform.

If you are unsure about build wise, get a full set of greens, they'll clock in at probably roughly 2-3s a piece, which is pretty light on the wallet, and gives flexibility to test out builds.

I also would not suggest investing in exotics until you do some 70+ content including dungeons, and have a good idea of what final build you are going with.

mooosicle wrote:
babakotia wrote:

I NEED GEAR

If you are unsure about build wise, get a full set of greens, they'll clock in at probably roughly 2-3s a piece, which is pretty light on the wallet, and gives flexibility to test out builds.

This is what I did. Full greens, exotic weapons. Bought runes that gave magic find (scavenger/traveler) and put that into the armor set. With the money you get from running dungeons and the gear you find along the way (99.9% gets sold, not used), you can then work on collecting a little nest egg for when you are finally ready to pull the trigger on an exotic set.

Dungeon tokens (from explore mode) can also be used to buy armor and weapons, though it costs a ton to get a full set of armor. I bought weapons with the dungeon tokens since it was much more reasonable.

DonD wrote:
mooosicle wrote:
babakotia wrote:

I NEED GEAR

If you are unsure about build wise, get a full set of greens, they'll clock in at probably roughly 2-3s a piece, which is pretty light on the wallet, and gives flexibility to test out builds.

This is what I did. Full greens, exotic weapons. Bought runes that gave magic find (scavenger/traveler) and put that into the armor set.

If you're just trying to test out builds, I'd caution against putting magic find runes on your stuff. Instead, but cheaper versions of the exotic runes that would work for the build you're testing.

Also read up on runes before buying them. I bought a full set of mad King runes only to have the 6/6 function not work for me

Thanks for the advice, guys. In terms of build it seems that what I had thought levelling up was fairly okay (zeal and radiance) has a pretty poor rep. Many seem to consider 0/0/30/30/10 to be mandatory for guardians to have decent survivability and some dps through altruistic healing and empowering might. The fact that it's so widely used would seem to suggest this is a good place to start in terms of effective builds.

Browsing around though I found an interesting alternative which used the staff primarily and with traits 0/30/0/30/10 to give high critical chance and vitality rather than toughness. The thread is here for anyone interested.

This is the 10/30/30/0/0 build that I'm using for my guardian. It's all about burning things, and healing myself while doing so.

I learned long ago that there isn't a perfect build for a class. The trick is to know how you play the class and build to suit your style.

I tried a large number of builds on my ranger, mesmer, and thief. Every time I would change to another build, I would do much worse. That's because the new build would use different skills than what I had chosen as my favorites and depend on conditions and timings that I was unfamiliar with.

It was much more effective for me to roll with the same style I had leveled to 80 with, rather than try to take a class I had memorized and toss my preferred play style out the window.

Spend some time in the heart of mists reading and practicing each of the skills. Make a build that favors your style and your favorite utilites. I am sure I've pvp'd against builds considered far more popular than mine, but I win more often than not, so it's more about strengthening your strengths rather than trying to mimic someone else's style.

babakotia wrote:

Browsing around though I found an interesting alternative which used the staff primarily and with traits 0/30/0/30/10 to give high critical chance and vitality rather than toughness. The thread is here for anyone interested.

I use an 0/30/0/30/10 build on my Guardian with shouts and soldier runes. Staff primary is ok for general PvE, but if you do something with tougher mobs, you"ll want to go sceptre/focus. It's versatile and rock solid and works well in WvW too (ground targeted wall of reflection = yummy).

Yeah thanks for all the advice on engineers - I just rolled one and am having a lot of fun. My new engineer is an Asuran and I love their starting area. Almost made me regret staring with a Charr.

I love the asura so much; except for the camera, which has given me a lot of problems. But the characters, the voices, the emotes, the storyline...it's by and far my fave. Next time you're playing him/her, do /laugh. They roll around on the floor giggling. It's hysterical.

And I started an engineer too. I love her. Although, to be fair; I went into WvW at like lvl5 or 10, and haven't done much else but WvW with her.

I've made 3 Asura and tried each of the colleges and personal storylines. All were great (especially the infinity ball). I was so sad to realise the storyline became generic from Claw Island onward.

I haven't /laugh ed yet. Must try that

So apparently pet evades count towards the daily dodge goal? Normally I find a solitary ranged mob and painstakingly grind out the dodge goal whenever it pops up, but I recently rolled a ranger alt and maxed out the dodges tonight over the course of several battles, without doing any actual dodging myself. I didn't even notice I was accumulating score until the little achievement bubble appeared.

duckideva wrote:

I love the asura so much; except for the camera, which has given me a lot of problems. But the characters, the voices, the emotes, the storyline...it's by and far my fave. Next time you're playing him/her, do /laugh. They roll around on the floor giggling. It's hysterical.

And I started an engineer too. I love her. Although, to be fair; I went into WvW at like lvl5 or 10, and haven't done much else but WvW with her.

Oh my gosh, I hadn't tried /laugh yet, thank youuuuuu!!!!! (I had done /dance for all my characters, though that was the first thing I tried when they were "born")

A very easy way to complete dodge is to find a mob that creates fields and roll through them a time or two.

The robot dancing suits Asura perfectly

ok, I don't play much, but I want at least a level 80 one day.

Do you know your average time spent to get to level 80?

And is there maybe a somewhat quick way, beside putting money in for Xps Jug.

Badferret wrote:

A very easy way to complete dodge is to find a mob that creates fields and roll through them a time or two.

Grubs shoot a slow moving projectile and have a visable windup to it. I usually find one and keep dodging their spitballs.

Manach wrote:

ok, I don't play much, but I want at least a level 80 one day.

Do you know your average time spent to get to level 80?

And is there maybe a somewhat quick way, beside putting money in for Xps Jug.

Maybe a month or so, playing once a day for an 1-1.5 hrs. When leveling an alt I generally just play until I complete my daily achievement... the Xp gained from the dailies is a huge boost to leveling.

Note that once you get to level 70, you can blow through the last 10 levels in 30 minutes for ~5g by leveling cooking from 0-400 following a guide online. (Or, you can just craft more normally as you level up for significant Xp.)

babakotia wrote:

The robot dancing suits Asura perfectly

That's because it's golem dancing. You'll notice that when they start they "activate" like the golems do.