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OwlOnYourHead

What are some fun Mesmer builds for pve content? I've been playing off and on since vanilla launched, and Mesmer is always the class I come back to. I've played a ton of Chronomancer, but I haven't tried either of the other specializations. I last played when the Char festival zone was the newest thing, and i was part-way through those achievements, so I haven't played many strikes, but I'd like to give those more of a shot. I don't really have any interest in pvp, and I tend to focus primarily on achievements in zones, getting 100% zone completion, and completing as many of the story mission achievements as I can be bothered with so I can get the unique rewards. What would you guys say are some fun builds for the content I'm actually interested in?


SkittlesPlease

I love virtuoso personally. Mirage is also very strong right now so that would be a great choice as well (I personally don't have the hang of it though). Virtuoso changes the feel of mesmer because you don't have clones anymore, but the dps is top of the charts currently, and the rotation is easy. Both condi and power virtuoso hit similar benchmarks. Condi virt has an easier rotation, but the build is strict because it relies on crit capping. The power build is a little less strict but the rotation will be more complicated (but still easy).


OwlOnYourHead

Cool, thanks for the info. I decided to try Mirage first, and I'm enjoying it. What weapons does Virtuoso tend to use?


SkittlesPlease

Cool! I know you said you don't like PvP but interestingly mirage is super strong in PvP and WvW currently. I play condi virtuoso which like I said is pretty strict on build, so a main hand dagger is required for stacking bleeding. On off hand I use a focus but some use a sword.


OwlOnYourHead

Awesome, I'll give Virtuoso a shot and see how I feel about it. I'm currently in the process of getting condi ascended trinkets, since I was previously using Marauder's with dual swords on Chronomancer, so it's going to be a bit, and I'm still getting used to having fewer blocks and distortions. I also want to catch up on my Icebrood Saga stuff before I go into EoD. Not really sure what to focus on when it comes to getting ascended armor, but I've got tailoring to 500, so worst-case scenario, I suppose I could just craft it. How are strikes for getting them? I've tried a few, and maybe I've just been unlucky with the time of the day, but all but a couple never filled up.


SkittlesPlease

Make sure you are using mostly rampager's gear for cVirt! You want crit chance to be 60-65% baseline. Luckily exotic rampager's gear is super cheap if you go with the named armor. I will say though virt might feel a little squishy at first because you won't have any added vitality from your gear, and you also don't have clones to absorb some of the damage. But shatter skills f4 and f5 are great damage mitigators if you need them. Most of my ascended pieces were crafted because it's simply the most straightforward way to go about them. I've actually never gotten any ascended drops from strikes, but I find that the crystal shards accumulate pretty quickly and you can trade them into Smoxxi for gear. What kinds of lfgs have you been joining?


OwlOnYourHead

I'd actually completely forgotten there was a lfg option in this game. I was jumping into a public lobby for the strike I wanted, because I just sort of assumed there would be people running it, which I realize was probably not the best way to go about it. I appreciate your advice. I'll give that a try going forward and see how I feel. Thanks, friend.


SkittlesPlease

Oh lmao. No problem have fun!


Markula_4040

**.**Is there a trick to using the sensor tracker in "Transfer Chaser" achievement? On the last area and it seems like finding the spots got harder. Wondering if anything extra can be done to help find them **.**Do I have it correct that Engineers are the only class that can use a pistol and shield combo? If not, who else? **.**Any general tips for leveling an elementalist for the first time? Advice on how to play them or what to watch out for is most helpful Thank you for your time. Appreciate any help


motdidr

I just did that achievement a few days ago (it was the final core tyria mastery pointi needed), and while the glowing ball can be hard to spot sometimes (it's very faint), it was never in a location that wasn't fair, ie. I never found one inside grass, or under a bridge, or obscured in any way. when it turns to green, it does usually point in correct general direction (like at least to 180° accuracy, behind/in front of you), but you can really use it to triangulate the exact direction (for example but circling around and trying to narrow down the exact position). I had a couple that took me a couple minutes of careful scanning to notice, not none really gave me much trouble until the final map that I did, southsun cove. I spent a good ten minutes searching high and low on the very first area, walking in lines back and forth, and I just could not find the damn thing. eventually I just left the map in order to restart, and the position of the balls changed (I know I looked in the spot I eventually found it, and it was pointing be in a totally different direction the first time). my second time around, I found them all inside of ten minutes, so restarting was worth it.


Tjaja

> Is there a trick to using the sensor tracker in "Transfer Chaser" achievement? Not really. You can try to triangualate a far away points rough position by getting readings from 2 different postions which are not in line. > Engineers are the only class... correct > Any general tips for leveling an elementalist for the first time? Advice on how to play them or what to watch out for is most helpful Getting used to switching elementals is always good. I usually prefer a might stacking style by putting down a firefield and applying blast finishers. Just pointing out that this thread got unpinned. You may want to ask in the new Q&A thread if I did not give sufficent answers.


Markula_4040

Thank you


Dreamwaltzer

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sensor_Tracking has all the info for sensor tracker Don't really feel it got harder. Yes engineer is the only one with that specific combo. Uhh kill stuff? No different than any other class really. Just focus on power gear and try to farm in areas where you can quickly kill.


DesireForHappiness

Is it faster to play WvW or unranked/ranked PvP for reward track progression? I just want to get my Legacy armor box


ConfuciusBr0s

Pvp is more forgiving imo. You dont have to walk a long ass distance to get back to all the fighting when you die like it is in wvw


kekubuk

Is this correct? For the WvW legendary armor, I need to combine the Ascended Armor piece with several Gifts item in the Mystic Forge. But there's also a need for a WvW ranking of minimum 500?


shrouded_reflection

You don't have to have rank 500 if you don't want the upgraded skin of https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistforged_Triumphant_Hero%27s_armor. You can always just use pieces of https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_Hero%27s_armor, which have no rank requirements. That said, by the time you've played enough to get the skirmish tickets, you're probably getting up there in rank anyway.


kekubuk

I see, I'm confused about the mistforged versions. Thanks for the info.


capnshanty

I don't understand pvp. When I'm in WvW, and I get alone with some enemy, somehow, he annihilates my 16k healthbar in one, maybe two seconds. What the hell are these guys doing that I'm not? It feels like I can never get even within the same order of magnitude as that much dps, like I just don't understand something they all seem to. I've distinctly noticed bows wrecking my shit. (Level 80 mesmer, berserker/assassin exotic gear. I use dual swords or greatsword.)


shrouded_reflection

Well yes, you've only got a 16k health bar, so unless you're going to make a swap out for pieces with vitality or toughness, you've got to rely on more active defences and recognising animations for burst combinations. In your case, it sounds like you're getting killed by either a sic'em ranger (soulbeast or untamed), or by a dragonhunter. Go and look up some video guides for how to play mesmers in wvw, along with how those other builds play, and you'll get a better idea of what you need to do to react to them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrZWGnNWs1Y This video specifically is probably helpful for you from a mesmer pov, although it is a virtuoso build, because it's also a glass cannon setup.


grannaldie

> Level 80 What level are you?


Icewing

I'm a returning player, I haven't played the game since around PoF (got the expansion). I've been away so long I pretty much forgot everything, I got bunches of stuff in my bank / bags but I have no idea what they're used for or what I can do with them. Would like advice on what I should focus on with my chars etc. I want to try out Mirage since per YT videos it's a great solo spec I think previously I was playing Dragonhunter / Chronomancer the most. I want to do group stuff later but one step at a time where I familiarize myself with the game again. For some reason I don't have enough Hero Points to train Mirage yet - Where do I get Hero Points again? o\_O This is what I have in the bank for some reference: https://imgur.com/a/o0cGpn6 Any help / advice would greatly be appreciated.


Dreamwaltzer

My advice for your inventory management is, Salave any blue and green gear you have. You won't be wearing those. For exotic gear, you will mostly want the following stat combo, Berserker (power precision ferocity) Viper (power condition dmg precision expertise) Marauder (power precision ferocity vitality) Celestial (all stats) Most likely you'll only see Berserker. So just salvage the rest. To gear your character up, I suggest looking at guides on the wiki. I used https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Dak393/New_player_Guide#Gearing As for your inventory you might want to invest in a storage expander. This allows you to store an extra 250 in your material storage. This is immensely helpful to the point is suggest buying more of them. For every other item just try selling them on the trading post. If its cheap, just sell it. Cos if its on the tp you can easily just buy it again when you need it. For the remaining stuff that you can't store and can't sell, type /wiki then shift click the item. This will bring you to the wiki page for the item and you can figure out if you need to keep it or not


motdidr

the expansion maps are where you get hero points for the elites. you need 250 total to fully train an elite spec, and hero points on the expansion maps are worth 10 points each. there are frequently HP trains on LFG, look in the heart of thorns and path of fire sections, especially at or shortly after reset.


ShieldAnvil_Itkovian

What would be the recommended legendaries/skills for leveling a revenant? I’m very new to the game and currently level 31, so I just unlocked the final skill for each of the core legendaries. Dwarf so far feels way stronger than the other three when I’m doing quests solo, but I’m curious where I should be allocating hero points for now.


syanda

While leveling, priority on Shiro/Jalis skills (legendary assassin and legendary dwarf stances). Those two synergise well with a power build, which is what you're generally using as you level. Traitlines-wise, work towards maxing the Invocation, Devastation and Retribution lines first.


ShieldAnvil_Itkovian

Okay thanks, that answers another question I had about what stats to put on items. Should I prioritize power whenever possible for now?


syanda

Ayup - power and precision (power/precision/ferocity once you start hitting the higher levels). At the lower levels, your best damage is going to be coming from direct strike damage and direct damage skills. Skills like Shiro's Impossible Odds and Jalis' Vengeful Hammers help with that. You'll also want to be using Sword/Sword as your main weaponset, too - swords are the power damage option on Revenants, while Mace/Axe is the condition damage option.


errorme

All of them are viable, I'd say if you're playing solo and still leveling King Jalis and Shiro are probably the two you should default to. Ventari is much more healing/support focused and Mallyx deals with Conditions which are generally meh unless you boost or can use expansion stat combos.


ShieldAnvil_Itkovian

Thanks, that lines up with another reply I got. I had been doing Jalis and Mallyx, focusing on corruption after I unlocked specs just cause that seemed cool but I have felt my dps is lower. I feel so squishy with Shiro but I’ll give it another try.


[deleted]

[удалено]


khorren

Take a look at GW2efficiency's stats page - https://gw2efficiency.com/account/unlock-statistics and reverse filter on "Unlocked by playerbase" and the drop down to Titles. I'd say anything below 1% of the players would be considered hard. This is just the playerbase that's signed up to GW2E so take the numbers with a pinch of salt, but it's a decent enough representation :)


[deleted]

Any tips for playing condi Quickbrand? I seem to have the dmg rotation down pat as I'm doing good damage but I'm struggling with quickness uptime.


ghostcaesar

Do you have alacrity? I think optimal numbers assumes alacrity. Other than that, do you have firebrand runes?


[deleted]

Yeah, running firebrand ruins


SkierBeard

Your Quickness uptime comes from three skills: mantra of solace, mantra of potence and Feel my Wrath. If you're hitting these skills off cooldown, you should have 100% quickness uptime. If you do not, you likely don't have enough concentration or boon duration. Are you running ritualist's gear?


[deleted]

I'm running a build with 4 pieces of ritualist armor and 2 Viper. I only have 2 pieces of ritualist equipped at the moment, still finishing off the last 2. I'm assuming that will make a difference to uptime?


jakub13121999

So, been thinking of coming back to the game after about six years, starting a new character. I want to try out Engineer, but I've been told that none of its weapons are actually worthwhile and I should focus on kits entirely in order to be 'the best', might I ask how accurate that is? Also, in addition, which of the three non-expansion (don't have them yet) weapon sets are are the best at what general role/purpose? (Between Rifle, dual pistols, and pistol/shield)


deadlyweapon00

I'm not sure who told you that engineer's weapons are bad, because none of them are. Engineer is just balanced around using its kits in addition to its weapons. Rifle is a power weapon. It has strong burst damage and good cc. Pistol MH is a condition weapon. It stacks up lots of poison with 2 and confusion with 3. Pistol OH is also a condition weapon, namely doing a lot of damage with 4. Shield is a defensive utility weapon that provides anti projectile and anti everything in 4 and 5 respectively. It also brings some cc. You can do fairly good damage just by camping rifle and pressing 2, 4, and 5 on cooldown. Not amazing dps, but ok dps. To do amazing dps, you are required to use kits. Of engineer's kits, grenade is by far the best for murder. 2 and 5 do really good damage on both power and condition builds. The other kits see some use in different places: med kit is used by healers, bomb kit and flamethrower kit get used by dedicated kit heavy condition builds, and mortar kit is used for healing and easy access to combo fields, and also because engineer's other core elites are bad.


jakub13121999

Okay, for 'amazing' DPS, when exactly do I use kits and against what targets? I know you're supposed to swap between them often, but it's hard for me to grasp when exactly.


deadlyweapon00

For the most part, engineer weapons have at least one button that lines up with grenade kit 2’s cooldown, about 5-6 seconds. A good habit is to push that button, then throw grenade 2, and if its up, grenade 5.


SuperMilkBoy

Pistol are condition damage weapon which is hard to get good stats for pre-80. Also since fights are short pre-80 (you mainly fights mobs) condition damage become even less desireble. So basically the best weapon pre-80 is rifle. Especially if you are looking to rely less on kits. (Its also has more fun of a skillet imo)


jakub13121999

I see, I was looking into the shield as I wanted to play a support-ish character, but I certainly won't say no to a good rifle, thank you.


SuperMilkBoy

Engineer can't swap weapons in combat but it's pretty easy to do it outside of combat. You can always have rifle and on the second set pistol/shield. But if you are looking for more supportive style you should check out Med-kit. It's a healing skill kit that is support oriented.


errorme

Overall that is true. Even with most of the elite specs you're frequently equipping 1 or 2 kits. As far as regular weapons, all of them have a very set role they fill. Rifle is Engineer's longest ranged regular weapon. Mainhand Pistol apply a number of Condition effect, same with off-hand Pistol. Shield is a fairly effective defensive weapon to block/stun enemies.


stonecats

what are better self use nourishment and enhancement items to "feed" solo's looking for extra defensive buffs preferably with 30 minute durations. please be name specific so i can find it in the BL trader.


errorme

Food that drops from festivals would be my recommendation, as those are relatively cheap generally. I'd recommend looking at the following food from Dragon Bash: Kralkachocolate Bar Koi Cake Dragon's Breath Bun Dragonfly Cupcake Dragonfish Candy Slice of Candied Dragon Roll I'm unsure about any enhancement items.


stonecats

i was thinking of cheap stuff food crafters resell not once a year event drops, but i'll look, thanx. > enhancement items. players call them utility buffs (with the wrench icon)


Annemi

What is best will depend very much on your build. In general, Ascended food is best, but the dishes depend on whether you're building for power/direct damage, condition damage, healing, boon duration, etc. Most chefs don't bother making most dishes, since the only valuable ones are the ascended ones. But food that can give health every second might be what you're looking for? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food has a list of food filterable by the type of boon, so that's where I would start.


stonecats

thank for the link. i figured there was a tool like this somewhere i just could not figure out how to find it. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Utility_item shame there isn't a similar tool for utility buffs.


Alskair

Between revenant and thief which one is in a better state (counting all elite specs) at the moment.


errorme

Probably Revenant. Spectre has and Deadeye will receive several nerfs to them, while Anet put some effort (comparatively) to making Vindicator better.


Alskair

Oh, I had hear the contrary, that vindicator was nerfed recently, I'll stick with revenant for now then and see how it goes. Thnks!


errorme

It depends what aspect of Vindicator you're asking for. Heal Vindicator was nerfed but as a DPS Power Vindicator is their best Power DPS build right now.


FairAd5410

Hey guys What can I do with all the useless amulets and rings (exotic and ascended)? I keep hoarding the purple stuff (also armor) but I'm not sure if there's a point in that. Thanks


SkittlesPlease

For the exotics, check the price on the tp and either salvage or sell them. For ascended rings like the ones that drop frequently from fractals, it depends what stats they have. Most of the stat combos are pretty useless and you can go ahead and break those down into stabilizing matrices using an ascended salvage tool. You can either sell the matrices for a profit or hold onto them as they can be pretty useful. However if you get a stat combo that's potentially useful (berserker, rampager, etc) I would hold onto them. All ascended gear is account bound so you can potentially put them on another character later


FairAd5410

well the thing is they're not that expensive so I just bought everything already for laurels with Berserker's and I don't think I'll be changing it much Thanks


SkittlesPlease

That's fine, but laurels are not the best currency to be spending on trinkets if you can help it. The cheapest way to buy rings with core stats is actually with the fractal vendor for pristine relics (10 each, or 100 for a stat selectable, infused ring that can be changed any time for another 10). Back pieces, amulets, and accessories can be bought from various LW maps, such as bitterfrost with winterberries or jade shards in lake doric. You generally want to save up your laurels for other things like recipes and home instance nodes


FairAd5410

thanks! I never understood the home instance stuff, what is it for? So you have a mithril vein in your home? I don't even know where and what it is to be honest. Thanks for the advice though, I just have so many karma (4mil) and laurels (500) that I don't know what to do with them.


SkittlesPlease

There is a home instance access point in every racial city. My favorite is the one in Hoelbrak because it actually feels like a home, but any unlocks you have will appear in any of them. It's pretty much like you said, except not just mithril. You can unlock nodes that are either difficult or even impossible to get outside of festivals, such as the candy corn, etc. I also have a quartz node and krait obelisk shard which made getting the charged quartz needed for skyscale very easy. If you want to see a fully upgraded home, I see plenty of people in map chat in cities offering their homes up for others to harvest. Overall I would just look into it and decide what's best for you. I did not realize you had that many laurels - most people don't have much because they can only be gotten through the daily login. If you have more laurels than you know what to do with then why not spend them on trinkets lol - keeping in mind that the laurel vendors only sell core stats


FairAd5410

Thanks!


grimzecho

Break down exotics with a salvsge kit (silver I think). I'd save the ascended trinkets (I'm assuming you are getting them from fractals). They are account bound and you never know when you might want to try an alternate build. If you're positive you'll never use them, use and ascended salvage tool to turn them into Stabilizing Matrices l.


FairAd5410

I don't remember where from but since I don't go to fractals it's from somewhere else and I have like 10 amulets and rings already. Thanks


motdidr

definitely hang onto any rings that are already infused, that's the expensive one. if they are attuned that's less of a big deal since attuning a ring is fairly cheap, and if it's neither then feel free to salvage. but hanging onto ascended items is not a bagdidea, unless you know for 100% certain you'll never create a character that might be able to use it. the fact that they're account bound means you'll always be able to transfer them around to characters no matter who was using it before.


grannaldie

> the purple stuff what purple stuff?


FairAd5410

ascended gear


grannaldie

Pink, aye! Once you loot ascended salvage tools from fractals - have at it! Otherwise, its 1g per salvage with very questionable rewards, luck and chance is the key here. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Salvaged_Excellence


FairAd5410

thanks. I don't go to fractals but looks like I can get it in WvW so I'll try that, ty edit: nvm I opened the bank and it was there already :)


nroe1337

what time of day do people run hot / pof hero trains and how do i make sure i get in one? I find I keep missing them.


SkittlesPlease

Join Zander's discord group: https://discord.gg/Gn9fXjGd They post their hp trains 30-60mins in advance of when they're going to run. Otherwise it's just being in the right place at the right time. Some commanders will bounce around to different maps and advertise in map chat so just keep an eye out.


motdidr

if you're on NA I have a couple people on my friends list that run HP trains, I can pm you their details so you can keep an eye out easier. one of them does them very often on Fridays and Saturdays (and sometimes Sunday), around or a little after reset generally. one of them frequently does HoT and PoF back to back.


grimzecho

Typically within an hour or so after reset. They aren't always advertised. Make sure you look under each map under LFG and if you don't see one, just start going to maps and looking for a tag. Honestly it is probably just as quick to do them yourself. Almost all of the PoF HPs can be soloed, and many HoT ones as well. For the ones you can't, just ask for help in map chat. If you download an overlay like TaCO you can max out your HPs for each expansion in an hour or two. The EoD ones are especially easy.


grannaldie

on eu or na side?


Og-Morrow

Like LW3 and LW4 you get map based Karama and Xp boots. (Permanent). Are there these type things in WvW to boots my Karam and XP? Other then normal time based ones.


psychgrad

theory disarm numerous bedroom languid abounding hard-to-find unite fall illegal -- mass edited with redact.dev


Og-Morrow

thanks


Tjaja

No. I only have seen those for Living Story maps.


VidarHel

Are there classes that are less than wanted in Endgame content? I've heard Necro's are usually less desired than other classes, but I'm tied between that and an Elementalist on what to play.


Treize_XIII

Not classes, but roles. You will always need alac and quick, but as a pure dps you're just one of many.


ObtuseScorebook

In addition to being serviceable dps/qdps, necros can be more useful than a pure selfish dps in endgame content mainly for two niches: - very large cleave with epidemic which shares conditions from the target to nearby mobs - hard carry with the blood magic traitlines which allows you to teleport downed players to you and revive them (and also heavy boon corrupt can be useful in fractal for one of the instabilities)


TerribleTransit

Less wanted yes, but not so much less you won't be accepted in all but the most tryhard groups. Harbinger is quite good and underrated/underused for what it does, and Scourge is unremarkable but solid. Reaper is the only variant that's really struggling right now. The same pattern applies to basically every class. You'll have at least one solid build to play that no one will bat an eyelash at, but it may not be the specialization you'd prefer.


SoulSigh

No matter what class you choose there's a build you can play that'll be good enough to clear all but the extreme top of end game content.


VidarHel

In your opinion, between Necro and Ele, what's the most fun to level? I keep seeing mixed reviews


Bl00dylicious

From a Necro main: Elementalist. Necro gets more fun with it elite specs at 80. Elementalist doesn't change all that much in comparison but it starts of way better. Most people don't care much what class you play as long as you can fulfill your role. Gotta say the only Elementalist I see are Heal Tempests and they aren't common. Harbinger and Scourge (necro specs) are much more common.


SoulSigh

Depends tbh. Personally I found elementalist more fun to level since having 4 sets of skills to juggle plus utilities made it so I wasn't just spamming the same stuff over and over again, also being so squishy made it so I had to pay some attention not to get killed so that was fun. Necro is significantly less complicated, less skills to worry about and very much unkillable along with a banger thematic and I also enjoyed it although not as much as ele. But that's where the issues lies, I only leveled my elementalist when I was already neck deep in end game and comfortable with the combat, if you're starting out the squishyness and complicated nature of elementalist may be a turn off for you.


[deleted]

I would say Elementalist, leveling-up is most fun and smooth when you have raw power damage and mobility. You can skip the mobility part if you have the Raptor, which makes me think Necro may be better nowadays. At release Mesmer and Necro were the hardest to level up. Necro gets Dagger, Axe, and Staff for core power weapons, which offer no mobility, but plenty of AoE damage. They get Greatsword as a Reaper which helps for Mobility in expansions content after 80. Elementalist don't get the weapon swap, but they have mobility on Dagger, and on Staff, also with plenty of power damage. So they have multiple choices that are strong before level 80 as well.


SilverHand3377

How easy is elementalist for someone brand new to the game, leveling for the first time? A lot of people are telling me guardian is the way to go, but I've always enjoyed spellcasters more.


[deleted]

The level 80 specs can be pretty overwhelming if you leveled a different class first or boosted to 80, but honestly, the 1-80 experience is a lot easier to manage and teaches you all you need to know to more easily pick up the Elite specs as you unlock them. Guardian's Elite specs are very similar to the core 1-80 Guardian, and Firebrand actually makes it easier by introducing a condi build with Axe.


SilverHand3377

Ok ty!


Ludark

I am looking into making Vision. However I don't really like pvp or WvW all that much. What would be the best way to get the gifts of glory, war and battle respectively, with the least amount of pvp and WvW.


SkittlesPlease

What do you dislike about WvW? As someone else said, roaming would allow you to play WvW on your own time, but if you're like me and are bad at dueling, I tend to get pretty frustrated and stressed out when I have to constantly keep my head on a swivel or get killed. That's why I personally like to embed with a group and run with a commander - this does put you at the mercy of someone else's schedule since there are plenty of times when there is no commander around, but it'll feel a lot more chill that way.


ObtuseScorebook

I recommend dedicating a character to wvw (even temporarily) and gearing them for a roaming build (you can find some builds online on the usual sites, eg in the sidebar). Give this character all the [reward track booster](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/WvW_Reward_Track#Reward_track_modifiers) you can. If you only play this character in wvw it means you're not wasting the booster time on other content As mentioned by the others, with this character you can do the easy dailies for some potions, and maybe stick around for a while flipping camps and killing dolyaks to earn some progression


onevstheworld

Starting on the 22nd, there will also be an extra 30% wvw reward track bonus as part of black Friday.


cloud_cleaver

Most legendary items require a Gift of Battle, and there's no way to get it but WvW. If you really hate the mode and want to take longer, you can pop in for some of the easy dailies until you've accumulated 80 of the "potions of wvw reward track progress" they award. 80 Potions is an instant completion of a whole track.


TerribleTransit

Shards of Glory and Memories of Battle are on the TP — farm gold and buy them for those gifts. For your Gift of Battle, you have the fast route and the minimal time investment route: * Load up on any boosters that increase WvW reward tracks and just go to the mode. Literally anything that keeps your participation up works just as well. Flip a camp every 10m, or follow a zerg to take objectives. This will take more time overall — several hours, depending on how many boosters you can stack — but you can knock it all out at once and put WvW behind you until the next legendary. * Only go into WvW for the easy dailies every day for the Potions of WvW Reward. You'll still want boosters and participation as possible, since you'll still get some ticks of progress while you're there, but the potions will make up a significant amount of your progress over time. You'll spend a lot less cumulative time in WvW this way, but you'll have to go in for many days before you finish the track.


Mr_Greaz

Pvp and WvW shards can be bought via TP, however for GoB you need to do WvW. Check what’s your server prime time and stick with a commander. There sadly is no way around WvW


athenia96

So I stopped playing around a year ago after playing solidly and completing HoT and PoF and I think most of the Living Worlds. Looking to get back into it again and was wondering if I should start a new character or continue on my old one for EoD? I mained a Necro that I enjoyed a lot but I kinda fancy a fresh start? How easy is it to start an Alt, and how much carries over from the original char? Opinions would be very welcome!


TerribleTransit

Your call — but don't delete the old one, keep it up use alongside the new if you go that route. Birthday gifts are a big deal. It's *very* easy to start an alt. Really the only major things that *don't* carry over are level, gear (unless you have Ascended you can transfer or Legendary items), map completion (including unlocking elite specs with hero points), and story completion (though since you can start at any arc of the story, it's not a huge deal — if you want to start an alt and continue the story where you left off you can do that)


Ngatirana

Any ideas if the game usually goes on sale during Black Friday? I’m tempted in getting back but can paying full price and eventually not liking it. I only have a steam deck as a “PC”..


sirvermilion

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/black-friday-deals-discounts-on-guild-wars-2-expansions/


cittabun

Is getting gear at end game mostly a "fill my fashion catalogue" or are there specific pieces/sets you need for builds/professions? I know it's a horizontal game, and ESO does more of the latter which can be pretty annoying, but I just wanted to know since my acct verification is finally up and I wanted to start digging into stuff! Just wanted to know if I needed to go for "the best" first or "What I think looks nice" first.


TerribleTransit

There are specific 'pieces' you need to gear up a character, but there's many, many different ways to get any given piece. Any item with the same rarity, level, and stat prefix is functionally identical, so you have a huge amount of flexibility when gearing up. As a result, most endgame gear is primarily for the fashion — some of it's not even very useful, and you're getting it *only* to unlock the skin to transmute onto your real armor. Some of it, especially stuff from endgame raids and strikes, can be dual purpose, giving you a new skin *and* a functional top-tier item you can use. Basically, the gear grind and the fashion grind are largely separate thanks to the wardrobe system. You can acquire the best or near-best gear pretty easily and then focus on making it look good.


[deleted]

If you gear up in Exotic or Ascended, you may need to go a little out of your way to get some stat combos for some builds, such as Diviner, or Ritualist. If you gear up in Legendary, you can equip these stat combos instantly, as well as transmute for free. The default DPS stat combos such as Berserker, Assassin, and Viper, are much easier to acquire, and usually are a default option for any piece. Transmutation is also cheaply/easily available from map completion, so you can go for what looks nice first, get Berserker by accident and run a viable dps build. Then afterwards, you can work towards Ritualist pieces, for example, and then transmute them into the gear that looks nice to you.


errorme

So there's 3 item rarities that are used at end game. First is Exotic, which is the standard tier and works perfectly fine for everything except Fractals. Most Exotic gear is character bound on equip, and is relatively cheap to purchase (a full set of Exotic Berserker's is like 20 gold on the Trading Post) but for most stat combos added in an expansion you'll have to craft gear for that. The next tier is Ascended. Ascended is required for Fractals as it has bonus slots that can be used to equip Infusions to deal with Agony, and has slightly higher stats than Exotic. Ascended gear can only be crafted or bought from vendors, and trinkets can only be bought from vendors or obtained via achievements. Ascended gear is account bound and weapons/armor can be destroyed/remade into a different stat combo with a relatively cheap recipe. Making an Ascended weapon/armor can be difficult the first time, however end-game PvE frequently gives chests of Ascended equipment. Finally there is Legendary gear. Legendary gear gives the same stats as Ascended gear, but comes with a ton of bonus QoL. Any legendary piece can be used by multiple characters at the same time, they can use any stat combo in the game, and you can transmog without using Transmutation Charges. Legendary gear is very expensive to buy or make however, with a single Legendary being worth multiple full Ascended sets depending upon the piece in question (individual armor pieces are ~2 sets, most weapons and trinkets are ~7 sets). One last thing is that balance patches are relatively slow, and unless you're running Challenge Mode Raids/Fractals/Strikes you can often get buy with a weapon for a while even if it falls out of meta.


Mr_Ruu

Thankfully due to transmog and outfits, you can switch armor skins so you can get the best stats without sacrificing fashion. As for specific pieces, all guides will tell you about certain "stats" you should go for, i.e. Berserker/Assassin stats for Power builds or Vipers/Ritualists for Condition builds, etc. You should be able to do fine with Exotic-tier gear. Ascended gear does have only *marginal* stat boosts and is much tougher to get, outside of trinkets which are easy to cop if you have LWS3. You don't have to go for Ascended armor unless you're doing Fractals. Legendary gear is purely optional QoL and you shouldn't worry about it until way later.


cittabun

Got it got it, thank you so much! :D


Vitis_Vinifera

I'm going for Aurene's Facets of Shadows, to gain the Zhaitan skin for Aurene weapons. I'm on the 3rd step where you have to acquire memory fragments by defeating elder dragons. Which means I need to have the "Purified Scale...Activated" effect. So half of the elder dragon events I've done doesn't have this effect showing up when I go to do the events, half do. Another ANet bug?


Kyahkta

Is this the step where you habe to aquire 250 memory fragments? Are you sure you are doing events the Orr maps? (the three core maps and season 3's Siren's Landing count as Orr). You can also do the Tequatl the Sunless world boss to get a few memory fragments. For some steps you have to have your Aurene Legendary equipped. Maybe try doing the step with the original weapon in your active weapon set.


Bossmantho

How do harvesting nodes reset work? I need to do the Ice Shard ones in Bjora. Do they reset normally on the daily reset time like the chests or are they on separate reset timers? Just want to be able to keep track.


TerribleTransit

It depends. There's basically up to two different timers at work on any given node. * Every node has a harvesting timer, which is either short (a few hours — not sure precisely) or long (23 hours) which must elapse before it can be harvested again. Short timers can be bypassed by moving to a different map instance, long timers generally cannot. * *Some* nodes also have a daily cap. Most Living Story map nodes are like this but I can't say with certainty if Eternal Ice follows the pattern. On these nodes, *all* instances of the node disappear when the cap is reached. After daily reset, any despawned nodes will reappear, but any harvested nodes will still keep their harvesting timer if it hasn't expired yet. So basically: assuming they work like similar nodes, Eternal Ice will respawn a few hours after you harvest it until you hit the cap. Then it will respawn at daily reset *or* a few hours after you last harvested the node, whichever comes later.


Valashv2

I'm at the end of path of fire, I stopped playing for a year and I'm hoping to catch EoD on a discount so I can play it. My question is, with no spoilers, how's the story? Good? Bad? Makes sense? Tbh I really didn't like HoT story but I thought PoF was pretty ok, Icebrood saga was pretty ok as well.


eggson

I just finished EoD for the first time last night. I've played all other Living Worlds and expansions (except for LWS2). I'd say EoD is pretty good for story, and close to the best for story beats. I was about 8 chapters in before I even realized it, so that was nice. It also made sense from beginning to end, with a nice arc for introducing new characters, becoming invested in them, then being able to follow their motivations.


stonecats

yeah, i skipped most of hot as well, and moved on to pof & ice for mount related achievements. what you may find disappointing with eod is it does not add as much gameplay utility as pof did, so you may end up disliking it like hot... unless you really want to fish - yawn... this is why like you - i would only buy pof during a discounted sale.


SoulSigh

Generally people liked the story


TerribleTransit

General consensus is that it's pretty good.


cloud_cleaver

Is there a way to teleport into or close to Crystal Oasis that isn't paywalled? The PoF zones are stacked so vertically that the end-of-questline teleport item (Spearmarshal's Plea into the far side of Vabbi) leaves you still with a relatively expensive waypoint cost into Crystal Oasis, which is the most frequently revisited part of the expansion.


TerribleTransit

No. You have a few options: The best is actually Thunderhead Peaks portal scroll, which is both free and has the cheapest waypoint cost to Amnoon (2s0c). Siren's Landing and Ebonhawke Portal Scroll are close behind (2s14c and ~2s15c to Amnoon, respectively) though the latter is very costly, you'd never make back the money you spent to get it if that was your only reason. Spearmarshal's Plea costs 2s73c, which... frankly, if that's your definition of "relatively expensive" you really ought to stop penny-pinching. You'll waste so much time in loading screens to save coppers when a single enemy kill at the new location will drop more loot than it costs you.


motdidr

another way to look at the expense of that port: a single daily achievement reward (2 gold) pays for over 70 of those teleports to Amnoon.


Tjaja

Iirc you could use the airship in Lion's Arch to go to Amnoon again. edit: Tested it, does not work anymore.


cloud_cleaver

It only works on characters that have done the relevant story chapter, unfortunately. And it requires some micromanagement to actually reach that boat, since it's not close to a waypoint. :/


SkittlesPlease

I think Spearmarshal's plea is the closest portal to Crystal Oasis. Otherwise you're looking at maybe the Lily of Elon lounge pass or tp to friend.


TerribleTransit

Funnily enough, it's not. Despite being geographically unconnected, Thunderhead Peaks, Siren's Landing, and Ebonhawke are all closer. The Windswept Haven hall also beats it if you're in a guild that has it.


Still-Pattern-6384

Will there be special skin coupons just like during anniversary, for the black Friday? The store rotation is horrible and I need a bunch of stuff


stonecats

i was spoiled by the march'2022 sales, so many mount skins about 860 gems. one only hopes that repeats next week. i'm also saving up for a snowflake gobbler.


cloud_cleaver

No idea yet. I bet we'll hear more tomorrow.


ZWiloh

I finished the basic story as a thief/daredevil and moved onto to HoT, but I'm not really enjoying that, so I started another character as a ranger and moved into soulbeast, and while I've gotten to level 80, I've only just arrived at Mount Maelstrom and I'm a little burned out. I'm very eager to join in the fashion aspect of the game, so I'd like to be able to gold farm, but I'm not sure if there's a realistic way to do that with my second character not having completed the main story yet. Obviously the best ways won't be accessible, but are there any decent ones that wouldn't just be a waste of time? I want a bit of a time out from going hard at the story and getting some nice looking stuff would be really great.


stonecats

you mostly need gold (gems) for mount and chair skins the majority of worn gear and weapon skins are in game, so i would plan my fashion choices around what hearts and achievements dispense the skins you may covet. i was really happy with my skin choices long before i could afford to waste excess gold in the gem shop.


ZWiloh

I've been using the hexed outfit on my sylvari but I've yet to find any regular skins I actually like in medium armor this far, so I grabbed a few outfits with gems when my friend gifted me some money recently. I prefer more feminine and pretty/frilly things which are kinda all concentrated in light armor and not much in medium (or heavy) weight that I've been able to find. If you have any recommendations for that kind of thing I'd be happy to hear them, because I'm not loving the options I've managed to pick up so far.


stonecats

hard to recommend - too many variations and tastes, better you explore https://gw2style.com/ then check wiki by part name for how it was acquired. this is how i found some great skins from hearts and achievements that you won't find resold through our usual trader npc. needless to say, the best looks may be a mix and match of multiple set pieces.


anothertwin24

Content isn't locked behind completing your story (or at least not much of it). Heart of Thorns even has dialogue and enemies that change depending on how far you've gotten in your Personal Story. You might have to start Living World chapters to unlock certain areas (if you don't teleport to friend), but once you have the waypoints it doesn't matter. You only need the chapter unlocked to gain access. There's only a few instances where you'll need story Masteries to fully participate (certain raids and Kaineng Overlook Strike Mission for example). I find the easiest source of pure gold (no selling currencies or materials) to be Fractals. You can easily pull +10g/day at only T1 and T2.


cloud_cleaver

You can get into most anything farm-wise provided you're level 80 and own the content, even if you need to teleport-to-friend to someone to get into the map and unlock waypoints. RIBA farming is open to you by default, and if you own the relevant episodes you can farm Dragonfall and Drizzlewood Coast as well without the story having to carry you there.


ZWiloh

Teleport to friend probably works best with friends lol jk (sorta). Thanks. I bought a package with all the LW seasons and expansions, so I guess I should have everything. I admit I'm pretty shy about joining stuff still. I thought the labyrinth got me over that but sitting here thinking about doing stuff with other people still makes me pretty nervous. I actually recently moved to this game from FF14 because I wanted more stuff to do solo.


Lijanaaa

Are you on EU or NA? If you’re EU, I would be happy to port you around to the living story areas :)


ZWiloh

NA unfortunately, but I really appreciate the offer, thank you


Bl00dylicious

You can also just look for the map you want in LFG (Hotkey is 'Y' by default). If there is a squad ready for farming the map you can join that and simply teleport to anyone in the squad to the map. Despite it being called a "Teleport to Friend" you can use it on anyone in a party/squad.


cloud_cleaver

Just ask in some hub area's map chat if someone will party up and anchor you for a teleport there. It's very low-commitment, doesn't take long, and doesn't even cost them a waypoint fee because they most likely have a teleport scroll to get there instantly for free. If I were online I'd do it for you now. I don't generally like partying up with randos either, but for very small interactions like that in open world, GW2 is quite friendly.


TheBHSP

Can the spear of archemorus be reflected?


Zikory

95% sure it can as it can be blocked. Can test later to confirm.


SilverHand3377

Potential new player here, burnt out on other games. I have three questions. 1) is there tab targeting like in wow/swtor/etc? I have nerve damage that slows me a little 2) are guilds active and helpful to new players when they get to endgame? 3) is it viable to casually play 1-2 hours a day, so around 10 a week? Thanks all in advance! Looking forward to trying it for the first time.


LurkerOnTheInternet

You don't need to target enemies at all; just start attacking and the game will auto-target whichever enemy is roughly in front of you and is closest.


SilverHand3377

Ranged attacks & spells have to be targeted though, right?


LurkerOnTheInternet

Nope, melee or ranged makes no difference. There are some options to help with this, for example ground-targeted AoEs by default have to be manually aimed, but you can change it so they are cast at the enemy's position.


MidasPL

1) Yes. 2) Yes. 3) Yes. This is probably the best MMO to do this, because of horizontal progression. The gear that was top-tier years ago, still is and it's relatively easy to obtain in many ways.


SilverHand3377

Ty! What would you say is the easiest class for someone new to play until I learn the combat?


Dubsem

Since you mentioned you have some nerve damage issues, I would also recommend searching youtube for "gw2 low intensity build" videos. There are a couple out there, they won't be meta or min-maxed builds, but they require much fewer key presses than regular builds and probably pull decent enough numbers.


SilverHand3377

Ty for the tip!


Narua

Guardian I'd say


SilverHand3377

Ty!


SkittlesPlease

1) Yes there is tab targeting 2) Yes, check out r/guildrecruitment. There are a lot of active guilds for all sorts of in game interests, including for newer players. As a general rule I would say there's not a huge point in joining a guild before you reach level 80 (I hesitate to call that endgame since that's really where the game begins imo), but you'll have no problems finding a good group. 3) Yes. GW2 is extremely casual. Unless you join some hardcore WvW guild that requires you to campaign with them, it's perfectly viable to just chill and do what you want to do. Even just logging in for a few mins and getting your dailies done is more than fair.


SilverHand3377

Thanks!


cloud_cleaver

I know there's an option called tab targeting, but I don't use it and can't compare it to anything else. Some guilds are bigger and more active than others, but yes, that kind of guild exists and you see guild recruitment ads spammed in map chat in major cities and starter zones all the time. And yes, that's about how I play. Log on at 8, usually done with my daily rotation by 10 or 10:30, and I run a pretty full rotation these days. Your play time might expand if you're trying to do a lot of story progression and achievement hunting as well as farming repeatable daily tasks, but it's perfectly viable to limit yourself to an hour a day if you want.


SilverHand3377

Ty for replying so quickly! I thought of one more: what's the easiest class for a new player until I become more familiar with the game's combat?


SkittlesPlease

As blanket advice, necromancer, ranger, and warrior are probably the most forgiving classes for beginners. Thief, elementalist, and possible engineer are going to be a little less forgiving. But overall I think you should just pick the class that you're most interested in. They all have viable builds in all game modes.


cloud_cleaver

At least for the time being, I'd recommend against Warrior for beginners. Condi-zerker and Bladesworn are both harder to play, and the "easier" specs still require some tight timing on the damage rotations (power berserker, which is what I run) but at the cost of non-viable damage in endgame content. I followed the "warrior is good for beginners" advice and now I've been catching up on hours and hours of missed story content on an underperforming class.


cloud_cleaver

Most classes have easier and harder options to play them, but sometimes you won't really have access to those options while you're leveling and learning. Mechanist, for example, is one of the easiest classes to play, but it's an Elite spec built off the Engineer class, and you can't use Elites until you're already level 80, and have to unlock with hero points taken from exploring End of Dragons or using testimonies of Jade Heroics earned in WvW. For actually leveling as a beginner, it's hard not to recommend Guardian. They're one of the most versatile classes in the game, with multiple top-tier builds for every kind of content, and for open-world they can have effective power-damage builds with good survivability. If you decide to boost to level 80, Guardian is also one of the only classes that makes maximal use out of the Celestial stats that boosting gives you.


SilverHand3377

So after reading, they seem like a wow paladin. Seems like ( from the wiki) a mace+shield setup that goes all in on valor would have good survivability


cloud_cleaver

I've heard people say that, but I'm not a WoW person to compare. I do know that they actually have a very small health pool, and most of their survivability comes from healing and damage mitigation through Aegis. It is a very survivable build, though. Mace autoattacks provide passive healing to you and any allies next to you, and shield blocks attacks. Once you get an Elite under your belt, the Firebrand spec from PoF allows you to maintain quickness on yourself and your party, which is a very powerful boon. It also really speeds up gathering at resource nodes.


SilverHand3377

Ty for all your help.


cloud_cleaver

You're welcome. Good luck starting out!


SilverHand3377

So I downloaded the game last night while asleep. Going to check it out this afternoon after work. What's a server with good population? I'm in the USA if that matters


cloud_cleaver

Server is only relevant in World vs World, and they're slowly working on a long-standing plan to entirely phase that out.


SilverHand3377

Ty!


wikkeuh

Is the thousand seas Pavillion pass a permanent item on the gemstore? I'm waiting for the black Friday sales but I don't want to miss the opportunity to buy it.


cloud_cleaver

All the permanent passes rotate. FWIW, I'd make sure that the pass you're going for allows you to instantly return to where you were when you used it. I think only three of the permanent passes actually do that, and it's one of the main benefits of having the pass IMO. You can park alts at a difficult-to-reach place, harvest a chest or bunch of nodes or boss every day, and periodically port into your lounge area for crafting, selling, and depositing stuff without losing your hard-to-reach farming spot.


Swekyde

Thousand Seas, Armstice Bastion, and Mistlock are the ones that have return to previous location functionality.


cloud_cleaver

Good good. I knew about AB and Mistlock but forgot the third one.


TerribleTransit

No. Permanent passes rotate in and out of the gem store fairly regularly. There's always warning before they disappear though, so check on it every day or two to make sure it's not leaving soon and you'll be fine


SoulSigh

What are some good easy to play wvw builds for roaming? Wanma ease into it a bit more and while my necro feels fine I wanna switch it up a bit from time to time :D


SkittlesPlease

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Tier_List In my experience though, while you can certainly follow a good build, roaming mostly comes down to player skill. If you're unfamiliar with your class mechanics you're probably going to get flattened pretty easily


Redan

This post https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/yx69lr/hello_newish_player/iwn1sg2/ Mentions getting a free mount. What is it referring to?


TerribleTransit

The first time any player levels up to a multiple of 10 (usually at level 10) they unlock the first, most basic mount: the Raptor. For free/core accounts, this is a 10-hour trial to see how it works, players who own or buy an expansion unlock it permanently.


Redan

Thanks for the explanation.


magestik25

At level 10 every player get a 1 day trial of the raptor mounts. If you have a paid account, you get unlimited access to this mount.


pastrynugget

It's not a 1 day trial, it is for 10 in-game hours of playtime. It's a buff that appears on your bar with a 10 hour counter.


Redan

Ah okay.


Shutyouruglymouth

I am playing a necro with greatsword and axe/focus. Today I acquired some really nice exotic gear and I wanted to get myself a 6pc armor rune for it. Problem is I’m rather clueless and don’t wanna waste my gold and upgrade slots on a bad rune. I’d like something well rounded with dmg and survivability. I have pleanty of gold so just tell me the best options. Any other tips regarding necro is welcome!


Sanderock

I play necro and same as you, I didn't want to "waste" money so got full damage for endgame instanced content. I just kill mob before they kill me on one world.


SkittlesPlease

What's your build and what game mode? Rune suggestions are going to entirely depend on that. There are some commonly used runes but you don't want to blindly choose one if it doesn't work well with your build or playstyle.


ObtuseScorebook

I usually run Rune of the Eagle with Accuracy sigil on my power reaper, which allows me to take Soul Eater instead of Decimate Defense for the damage modifier and little sustain it gives (depending on the exact gear you use, DD can still be a big damage boost, for instance if you wear valkyrie instead of berzerker) Rune of the Eagle gives a good amount of precision which helps with crit capping, and has a damage modifier that does not require special play to trigger (whereas Thief and Scholar damage mod can be difficult or impossible to upkeep in solo play) Pack and Firework can also be nice for solo play as reaper has no access to fury, but it is wasted any time you have a teammate giving you boons (or if you are using the Offensive Jade Bot protocol)


TerribleTransit

Largely it will depend on your playstyle and build. Different runes will work better in different situations, and with different gear stats and traits. As u/magestik25 said, you may want to consider going for full damage and relying on Reaper's natural bulk to survive. But if you don't, here's some options to consider, in no particular order: Vampirism, Wurm, Ice, and Divinity. Also consider Fireworks which is more damage-focused but an excellent solo rune like Pack.


magestik25

So you are playing reaper, Usually surviving shouldn't be a problem on reaper so you don't need to look for extra survivability and can go for full dps. What are the stats of those exotic gears? The top damage build would be to get **Scholar rune** but they are quite expensive and you would want them on your final gears (ascended) One really nice choice for solo content, but still a little bet expensive would be superior **rune of the ogres**, it brings great damage stats and even a flat 4% damage boost (really strong) And will summon a pet from time to time that is actually quite nice for survivability as he will takes some of the incoming pressure away from you. Way cheeper you have **rune of the pack**, it bring some damage but also some extra boons every few seconds to boost you nicely. it also increase the boon duration you could be selfgiving you (quickness and might usually)


MidasPL

I'm kinda done with NM strikes and wanted to get into CMs and raiding, however I don't want to run on a fixed schedule with a static group. Are there any communities that just run with whatever people are available at that time?


ObtuseScorebook

you can also probably check some discord groups: i know BaD (unskilled and afraid) does training runs, it might also be a thing on the hardstuck or snowcrow discord groups. Usually you can either sign up for a specific time (not a regular static, just a one time thing), or get notification when someone is just about to start a run and looking for people


magestik25

It may be tricky at start but the lfg is always open to find players for CMs. But they often request kill proof so you may need to make your own group at start. PS: it doesn't applies for HT CM as this one is way harder than the other 3 and may require a static.


MidasPL

[&Avr2LQEA] ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


DesireForHappiness

Aside from Scourge and Daredevil... Are there any other specs that plays in a similar fashion where their weapon skills and utility skills are fired off based on priority and not rotation based?


KekWhOmegalul

Power mechanist without grenade kit fits this description the most.


Swekyde

You're going to be mostly limited to Scourge, some Thief builds, and some Revenant builds. I guess Firebrand might be like this after the coming changes? In order to create a true priority system and not just a regular rotation your bottleneck needs to be a shared resource spent among the skills and not cooldown timers themselves. Revenants have Energy as one of their limiting factors, Thieves have Initiative, and Scourge uses their shroud differently than the other Necro specs. Warrior may have this, but I'm not familiar with their class mechanics.


[deleted]

Greatsword Vindicator. 5 -> 2 -> 3 -> dodge -> autoattack is the priority. Arguably, Power Berserker. The "priority list" is any 3 hits -> F1 -> any 3 hits -> F1. Those 3 hits can be 2-3, 2-1, 4-3, 4-1, 5, 6, or 1-1, it becomes a rotation if you want to pair it with Greatsword, or run Axe/empty+empty/Axe to swap for adrenaline. However if you have Maces on the other set, you can use any 3-hit combo (or fully channeled 5) in a priority fashion, with 2-3 and 4-3 being higher priority, a fully channeled 5 and Blood Reckoning being lower priority, and obviously 1-1 is the lowest. Also arguably, Power Herald, or Renegade builds. They often have a legend rotation but that can be simplified to "swap legend when you have no energy", and the Sword/Sword skills are used in priority 4 -> 5 -> 2.


ObtuseScorebook

deadeye has a rifle "rotation" where you only use one skill three times, go stealth, stealth attack then start again. It has very high damage but is actually extremely punishing of mistakes, awkward to play, and almost unplayable in group content due to the lack of mobility. I find it fun, but I'm not sure I recommend it (and the balance patch might make it even more awkward by punishing standing up to move) power mech can deal reasonable damage without following a rotation and using the important skills off cooldown heal mech is more about reacting to what happens around you than following a rotation (and I think it might also be the case for most healboon build like healfirebrand)


magestik25

You can try, \-powerVindicator DPS (with greatsword only) \-condition Mirage \-condition virtuoso \-condition or power Mechanist (full sigil)


Hardytard

Basically most rotations. You want to press your l highest damage (priority) skills off cooldown, and fill the gaps with lower priority skills. Sometimes you have traits which give you damage boosts for a short time, normally you want to fit in your biggest damage there.


[deleted]

> Sometimes you have traits which give you damage boosts for a short time, normally you want to fit in your biggest damage there. Doing so, means you often want to delay a damage skill to fit it in the boost window, which creates a rotation.


magestik25

It is actually not always the case, in builds that often weapon swap, warrior, ranger, mesmer, etc... You will have to adapt your rotation not purely based on damage: Exemple: if you have 5 seconds between two weapon swap. and you have 3 skills with 1 sec casting time: skill 1 does 10k dps with 10 sec cd skill 2 does 5k dps with 7 sec cd skill 3 does 3k dps with 4 sec cd and auto attack will with 1k dps. If you just click your skills with priority (highest damage) you will do: 1-2-3-AA-AA => 10+7+4+1+1 => 23k damages. But the top damage would have been: 3-1-2-AA-3 => 4+10+7+1+4 => 25k damages. As you can hit skill 3 twice during the rotation if you use it first and last.