I like the dungeons in GW2, but I would never run them with randoms. My experience is colored by the fact that I'm doing them with my friends, on vent, goofing off while we do them. That drastically increases my fun level no matter what I'm doing.
I absolutely agree that they could use improvement, both in the rewards you get(besides just the token gear), as well as just evening out the bosses so some are more fun. The boss in AC explorable that throws out the hooks and is a thief? Good fun design that keeps you on your toes. The last boss on the ghost eater encounter that spawns oozes? It's pretty much impossible to even get downed, so you just smack him for a few minutes and win. That's not good.
Also, story modes should be basically cannot fail just to see the story. The last boss in sorrow's embrace is fun as hell and impossible to fail. The boss with the golems right before him should've been in explorable mode for instance.
I agree with everything but that last paragraph... but hey! 2 out of 3 isn't too bad!
The one thing with which I wholeheartedly agree is that the difficulty curve in dungeons needs to jump less like it's seen a spider. It turns a run of a new explorable wing into less of a buildup and more of a series of rolls on the enjoyment roulette.
Roll up! Roll up! See that boss symbol on the map? Place your bets now as to how many pieces of armour you are about to break!
Of course, I like the variation in fights when it's there. It may be the intention of Arenanet's dungeon team that each encounter be different, as opposed to a series of steps up in challenge.
With the rewards you get for Story Mode I personally think that the trash in story mode should be on the level of world veteran mobs and the bosses a little bit tougher than world skill point mobs. That is how bad the RoI is for doing them. I would like to see the story attached with them but they are just not worth the time.
Each person is going to have a different experience because of the many various factors, and things can be made easier or more difficult depending on those factors. I had runs in the (pre-nerf) Magg CoF path with Shiashi, Paradelle, Mojojojojojojojojooojoojjojojojojjo, and Vorpal that were just CAKE walk easy 10 minute runs. Swap to another group of people who aren't as familiar with it, who may not have builds optimized for doing it, may not have any exotic gear or be sub 80 and it took 5-15 minutes longer per run.
I had fun on those because I was doing it with good people and it was fun trying to do it as fast as possible.
I was primarily in it for the tokens, so I was ok with them reducing the silver/exp rewards, and even for implementing diminishing returns for running the same path more than once (as long as they'd fixed the other paths at the same time)
I was not a big fan of them implementing the diminishing returns for clearing in 30 minutes or less because that seems to be harming people who do well.
I didn't feel they needed to make the magg encounter harder, except for the lava part. I thought that if the lava part was boosted up, it would be about right in terms of how much time you'd expect a dungeon to take when you needed to do it 70+ times to get the vanity gear from it.
With the rewards you get for Story Mode I personally think that the trash in story mode should be on the level of world veteran mobs and the bosses a little bit tougher than world skill point mobs. That is how bad the RoI is for doing them. I would like to see the story attached with them but they are just not worth the time.
I could go on for hours about how dungeons are their own reward. And I do believe that, truly.
But the honest truth is that I ran to 80 doing, maybe maybe 2-3 dungeons on the way up. My haste to get there was obviously a factor, but there you go.
It would be nice to have a bit more incentive to do the story modes as they come up.
That being said, the amount of experience you gain from the dungeon is just short of a level if you're appropriate for the story mode. So, it's not insignificant.
Correct, they're only attainable through the tokens from running those explorables. There's also a power/vitality/toughness exotic set from WvWvW, but the only version of i've seen is level 65 and not 80, so kind of pointless.
Also, I was under the impression that the dungeon armor sets were for aesthetics only, but it seems that this is not the case if the only level 80 vita/toughness armor I can get is from explorables. Am I overlooking a different set of rares/exotics with the same stats?
EDIT: A random forum post references an armor vendor in Ebonhawke that sells power/toughness/vita gear for (EDIT EDIT: JESUS. *119*) gold. Can anyone confirm/deny?
Poops. Any officers for NICE who are still at home please log in and start the 3 day magic find, 48 hour gather boost RIGHT NOW. I did this last week prior to leaving for work on Friday and today I forgot. Let dem EUs get in and start going right away. I would wait to start the 24 hour boosts until at least noon PST, but we can always just boost more of them out.
I just feel that ANet is being overly prohibabitve in any sort of what could be percieved as an advantage to the player. They obviously do not want people leveling in Story Mode dungeons. That is a choice they made but I just don't see why. If they were to nerf Story Modes that allowed people to level to 5 levels or so I do not see a problem with that. With downleveling it kind of puts them in a corner I guess on story mode dungeons.
Poops. Any officers for NICE who are still at home please log in and start the 3 day magic find, 48 hour gather boost RIGHT NOW. I did this last week prior to leaving for work on Friday and today I forgot. Let dem EUs get in and start going right away. I would wait to start the 24 hour boosts until at least noon PST, but we can always just boost more of them out.
This has been done. I also started building replacements.
On dungeons: I easily forgive the bugs and minor balance issues (HP pools being to large are a minor issue. It's something that is solved with time, and is not remotely akin to pulling teeth...as some seem to believe). What I don't like is the silly loot.
We ran HotW the other night, and with 165 MF, I was pulling 2 blues/1 blue 1 green out of each chest. That is unacceptable. The amount of time and effort that goes into a dungeon should net me some good loot...or at least loot I can sell for more than the cost of waypointing to the dungeon.
I think they swung chest rewards to far in the other direction. I felt bad for the rest of the group. At least I got a few greens.
Speaking of particular difficulty spikes, in Twilight Arbor story, is there a particular way you're supposed to beat the nightmare spiders dude? I survived by literally running in circles throwing down staff aoes and hitting the boss a few times on the way, hoping (because I couldn't see my allies much due to the game's low FOV) I was helping my allies. It seems like there should be a better way to do that. On the other hand, that was one of the most frantic, heart-pounding things I've done in GW2 so far. Usually as an ele you know when the battle's lost, but this wasn't like that at all.
On the other hand, the boss right after it was a TOTAL pushover. It didn't even deal damage outside of making you fight a 1v1 that was very difficult to lose.
With the rewards you get for Story Mode I personally think that the trash in story mode should be on the level of world veteran mobs and the bosses a little bit tougher than world skill point mobs. That is how bad the RoI is for doing them. I would like to see the story attached with them but they are just not worth the time.
I was very surprised to hear they nerfed the story mode rewards because they were too good. For level 80's in exotics I can see it, but when I did story modes at the intended level, in my blue gear, my conclusion was that story mode dungeons had a really cool concept, but that they were the absolute worst way possible to earn exp/time. Literally anything else gave a better return on my time.
Like...I got no good loot at all. I died tons of times in AC. At the end I got a yellow hat with very poor stats. That's ok, I thought, it will be the first piece of the vanity set from here! Finally a hat that looks cool! Only it didn't look cool. It looked like crap. Oh, well, this is the first dungeon, maybe the helm doesn't look cool. I did AC story mode a couple more times and each time the rewards were poor. I wanted to see what I'd get instead of a hat on subsequent completions and the answer seemed to be - nothing.
Then I did CM. While that was a cakewalk by comparison, it was an extremely lengthy cake walk due to the dungeon bugging out twice and us having to reform the party 3 or 4 times to get in. So I spent my whole evening doing it, basically. Again, no good drops - but I got another hat! I was so excited to see what it looked like...it not only had poor stats and a poor look - it was the *exact same look as the first helm*. That right there completely killed my interest in doing story modes before 80.
I've done a couple story modes after 80, and the helm I got from Honor of the Waves was at least useful in that it was a 70+ rare that I could salvage for ectos. How exciting. I really really think they need to just give you the vanity helm skin for completing the story mode so you feel like you got something.
As Jubal says..you can get equivalent loot out of any random chest guarded by a veteran or two out in the open world. And those take about a minute to kill. What you get out of your time in terms of loot/exp/silver when doing the story mode quests at the appropriate level is pretty bad. So you're doing it for the story, which is fine, except that everything past AC I have no idea what the story is because the cutscenes were perenially bugging out. I really really really liked the cutscene explaining what AC catacombs were all about and the history behind it. That stuff was REALLY COOL. I wanted to see that for the other dungeons but so far I mostly have little idea what the others are about. I feel that for me personally, my dungeon running enjoyment is enhanced if I can figure out what this dungeon is and where it fits in the world and why my character might actually wish to be here.
And you do need to provide some incentive for people to go back and do storymode again. The way storymode is a gateway to explorable mode means you have to do story - but your pool of people who will also be wanting to do story for the first time, the same time you are, is incredibly slim. (And will only get slimmer as time goes by). So you'll probably have to/want to bring in some people who would otherwise do explorable runs.
What is the incentive for someone do story over explorable? Should there even be a reason? Maybe give a bonus if they are doing story with someone who hasn't done story yet?
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
Are engineers typically very squishy? Or am I running into some bad ones?
I had some of my first small scale PvP experiences yesterday (they happened in wvwvw as skirmishes), and each time the person that died the fastest and did nearly no damage to me was an engineer.
Speaking of particular difficulty spikes, in Twilight Arbor story, is there a particular way you're supposed to beat the nightmare spiders dude? I survived by literally running in circles throwing down staff aoes and hitting the boss a few times on the way, hoping (because I couldn't see my allies much due to the game's low FOV) I was helping my allies.
Strafing in circles spamming ranged attacks seems to work in almost every situation. It doesn't feel particularly exciting or clever, but then, that is how a lot of Pvp goes too That was how we finally beat the godforged greatsword guy in CoF story. The camera FOV prevents you from seeing where the swords are, so you just have to assume they are coming for you and always be moving to try to get out of the way of their whirlwind. That tactic worked admirably on all the other bosses there too.
The guy who burned you out to a certain radius made me realize how woefully short the guardians staff range is - everyone else was staffing him down with mad abandon and I couldn't reach him from outside the red ring of death!
Engineers if built properly can be one of the absolute tankiest classes. That said, I feel it's one of the hardest classes to get a handle on. Nothing like a warrior, for example.
Speaking of particular difficulty spikes, in Twilight Arbor story, is there a particular way you're supposed to beat the nightmare spiders dude? I survived by literally running in circles throwing down staff aoes and hitting the boss a few times on the way, hoping (because I couldn't see my allies much due to the game's low FOV) I was helping my allies.
Strafing in circles spamming ranged attacks seems to work in almost every situation. It doesn't feel particularly exciting or clever, but then, that is how a lot of Pvp goes too That was how we finally beat the godforged greatsword guy in CoF story. The camera FOV prevents you from seeing where the swords are, so you just have to assume they are coming for you and always be moving to try to get out of the way of their whirlwind. That tactic worked admirably on all the other bosses there too.
The guy who burned you out to a certain radius made me realize how woefully short the guardians staff range is - everyone else was staffing him down with mad abandon and I couldn't reach him from outside the red ring of death!
This tactic has worked on every game with a 3rd or first person perspective since they were made.
Circle strafing is a time honored tradition. It's the one reason I don't remove my backpeddal key which seems to be all the rage with the new group of pvper's. It's because I sometimes need to make a circle strafe course correction.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Correct, they're only attainable through the tokens from running those explorables. There's also a power/vitality/toughness exotic set from WvWvW, but the only version of i've seen is level 65 and not 80, so kind of pointless.
Also, I was under the impression that the dungeon armor sets were for aesthetics only, but it seems that this is not the case if the only level 80 vita/toughness armor I can get is from explorables. Am I overlooking a different set of rares/exotics with the same stats?
EDIT: A random forum post references an armor vendor in Ebonhawke that sells power/toughness/vita gear for (EDIT EDIT: JESUS. *119*) gold. Can anyone confirm/deny?
The appearance only thing refers to the fact that they're still just exotics so not a step up in stats, but not necessarily for the itemization. I also found the below in a list of armors, so apparently there is a karma set you can also get with vitality/toughness:
Heavy Auora Power Vitality, Toughness Melandru Karma
RE: the nightmare spider boss in TA, the spiders blow up on you if they hit you, so whomever is getting targeted runs around ape shit and either hits them with ranged or just runs for days. Everybody who isn't getting chased kills the boss. It's super hard until you realize this, and super easy after.
So I started up a warrior the other night after getting tired of how squishy my other characters were during story quests ("We'll just put two mobs that do a massively damaging whirlwind attack they are invulnerable during next to your Mesmer in an enclosed space and follow them up with a champion mob that takes off half of your life in a ranged attack"). I'm curious what weapon setups people like with one though. I'm currently running around with a greatsword like pretty much everyone else apparently but I'm not fond of how you have to stay still during the entire length of the second attack for optimal results. If I have to move during it to avoid damage, I basically wind up just on autoattack for a bit.
When leveling I loved dual wielding 1hand axes. I did most of my leveling with 2h Hammer though and the main reason why was that 1) it was awesome and 2) Putting all your skill points into Str>Def>Arms means you will do some decent dmg but also survive longer.
This game pushes you into expiermentation so just try out different combinations and see if you like them. Axe Mace OH is fun too.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
So I started up a warrior the other night after getting tired of how squishy my other characters were during story quests ("We'll just put two mobs that do a massively damaging whirlwind attack they are invulnerable during next to your Mesmer in an enclosed space and follow them up with a champion mob that takes off half of your life in a ranged attack"). I'm curious what weapon setups people like with one though. I'm currently running around with a greatsword like pretty much everyone else apparently but I'm not fond of how you have to stay still during the entire length of the second attack for optimal results. If I have to move during it to avoid damage, I basically wind up just on autoattack for a bit.
Mesmer is OP solo. What weapons/skill set-ups were you using?
So I started up a warrior the other night after getting tired of how squishy my other characters were during story quests ("We'll just put two mobs that do a massively damaging whirlwind attack they are invulnerable during next to your Mesmer in an enclosed space and follow them up with a champion mob that takes off half of your life in a ranged attack"). I'm curious what weapon setups people like with one though. I'm currently running around with a greatsword like pretty much everyone else apparently but I'm not fond of how you have to stay still during the entire length of the second attack for optimal results. If I have to move during it to avoid damage, I basically wind up just on autoattack for a bit.
I just played one last night to test it out again. I unlocked all the weapon skills and here are some of my favorites.
Mace/Sword: Two active block skills some decent cc and damage.
Hammer: just do it and enjoy every AOE second of it.
Rifle: ranged kiting everyday.
Mace/Mace: more CC than Mace/Sword
Sword/Axe: sounds weird but there's a lot of mobility in sword main hand and it can get you to the enemy for a dual strike/whirlwind.
Those are a few of my favorites from about a 10 hour play session. I had the greatsword equipped long enough to unlock it all and get it out of my hands.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I ran sword/shield with sword/sword on switch for most of my run-up to 80. Signet of Might, Berserker Stance, Stomp, Signet of Rage. Spec into reduced signet/burst cooldowns, bonus damage for adrenaline, and bleed damage/bleed time. Power, condition damage, and crit/precision on your gear.
You get a good amount of mobility -- you can bleed people and then stun/immobilize them, then back off to let the bleeds do their dirty work. You have combo finishers in the sword "2" attack, offhand sword "4" attack, the shield bash, and Stomp.
EDIT: make sure you run the healing skill that removes conditions, as this type of build is pretty soft to condition damage.
So I started up a warrior the other night after getting tired of how squishy my other characters were during story quests ("We'll just put two mobs that do a massively damaging whirlwind attack they are invulnerable during next to your Mesmer in an enclosed space and follow them up with a champion mob that takes off half of your life in a ranged attack"). I'm curious what weapon setups people like with one though. I'm currently running around with a greatsword like pretty much everyone else apparently but I'm not fond of how you have to stay still during the entire length of the second attack for optimal results. If I have to move during it to avoid damage, I basically wind up just on autoattack for a bit.
Having just started leveling my warrior myself, I found it's better used to end fights than start them. I wouldn't be too afraid to cancel Hundred Blades if you need to, and since your other stuff is probably on cooldown, it's a good time to weapon swap. I like longbow secondary because those two are both great aoe damage and the adrenaline skill can be somewhat lacking for greatsword.
So I started up a warrior the other night after getting tired of how squishy my other characters were during story quests ("We'll just put two mobs that do a massively damaging whirlwind attack they are invulnerable during next to your Mesmer in an enclosed space and follow them up with a champion mob that takes off half of your life in a ranged attack"). I'm curious what weapon setups people like with one though. I'm currently running around with a greatsword like pretty much everyone else apparently but I'm not fond of how you have to stay still during the entire length of the second attack for optimal results. If I have to move during it to avoid damage, I basically wind up just on autoattack for a bit.
I am running around as a mesmer main. I did a good chunk of my leveling with Sword/Pistal - Gsword. Though for the last dozen levels or so, I have been using Staff - Sword/Focus, and I must say Staff - sword/focus makes any fight so easy. its become super fun and super easy to take on Tons of mobs at once, and I've even managed to Solo a couple Champions. I am only level 62 atm.
So I started up a warrior the other night after getting tired of how squishy my other characters were during story quests ("We'll just put two mobs that do a massively damaging whirlwind attack they are invulnerable during next to your Mesmer in an enclosed space and follow them up with a champion mob that takes off half of your life in a ranged attack"). I'm curious what weapon setups people like with one though. I'm currently running around with a greatsword like pretty much everyone else apparently but I'm not fond of how you have to stay still during the entire length of the second attack for optimal results. If I have to move during it to avoid damage, I basically wind up just on autoattack for a bit.
I am running around as a mesmer main. I did a good chunk of my leveling with Sword/Pistal - Gsword. Though for the last dozen levels or so, I have been using Staff - Sword/Focus, and I must say Staff - sword/focus makes any fight so easy. its become super fun and super easy to take on Tons of mobs at once, and I've even managed to Solo a couple Champions. I am only level 62 atm.
i am also gonna vouch for staff + sword/____
not totally sold on focus, i basically only use it for the speed boost outside of combat.
Are engineers typically very squishy? Or am I running into some bad ones?
I had some of my first small scale PvP experiences yesterday (they happened in wvwvw as skirmishes), and each time the person that died the fastest and did nearly no damage to me was an engineer.
I have an engineer with traits focused on healing, tougness and condition damage, I believe.
Equipped with a shield, pistol and turrets, I feel pretty good defensively. There is also a major trait called Juggernaut that pretty much turns you into a beast with the flamethrower, 200 extra tougness and might every 5 seconds, it massively improved my opinion of that weapon kit.
Also, I was under the impression that the dungeon armor sets were for aesthetics only, but it seems that this is not the case if the only level 80 vita/toughness armor I can get is from explorables. Am I overlooking a different set of rares/exotics with the same stats?
EDIT: A random forum post references an armor vendor in Ebonhawke that sells power/toughness/vita gear for (EDIT EDIT: JESUS. *119*) gold. Can anyone confirm/deny?
Crafted stuff has a large variety of stats, certain combinations of stats aren't always available from crafted, karma, or dungeon tokens. Like some stuff is PVP only... if you want it on the same piece of gear. However you can just mix match pieces of gear to get the same end result. For example all my armor is toughness/healing/power and then my jewlery is healing/vitality/power. So this mix gives me a good ratio of toughness vs vitality.
Its also really efficient to pick up all your gear from various sources, since you might have enough karma for one piece, enough gold for some jewlery, enough mats to craft some and enough tokens to buy 1. Runes of course you want to keep the same, most aren't to expensive... I use the dwayna set for PVE and it was just some silver on the TP for 6 of them.
Are engineers typically very squishy? Or am I running into some bad ones?
I had some of my first small scale PvP experiences yesterday (they happened in wvwvw as skirmishes), and each time the person that died the fastest and did nearly no damage to me was an engineer.
I have an engineer with traits focused on healing, tougness and condition damage, I believe.
Equipped with a shield, pistol and turrets, I feel pretty good defensively. There is also a major trait called Juggernaut that pretty much turns you into a beast with the flamethrower, 200 extra tougness and might every 5 seconds, it massively improved my opinion of that weapon kit.
Juggernaut used to only be useful for preventing a stomp because it came with a built in cripple+stability as opposed to the might. It's nice to see they've attempted to make it more useful in general play.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Decided to pick this up earlier this week, rolled on Kaineng for now. Enjoying it a lot, especially since I figured out some of the leveling... and have been trying different classes.
The one thing irking me is that I keep getting random disconnects (error 7:something).
With Forceful Greatsword trait all your cooldowns refresh 20% faster. Losing the channel on it means very little as the cooldown is like 6.5 seconds.
Of course, when people bash your enemies out of 100 blades you just cry/scream and wish /duel was a thing. @Geod
Yes, I run hammer specifically to aggravate you Why else run hammer? They said dueling would be in eventually, so you'll get your wish someday!
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
edited September 2012
Finally manged to roll an sylvari I was happy with keeping.
Still surprised I don't have a thief in my roster yet. That and necro were the classes I was hyped for the most before release (this might be the first game where I didn't just immediately roll a rogue) but I keep finding myself gravitating other classes.
I suppose thats ultimately good. GW2 taking me out of my comfort zone and learning to love the meat shields like warriors.
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
More great moments in making people feel bad about themselves as a mesmer in wvwvw.
So I was auto-running across the wuvwuv fields with my map up and watching some lol streams on my laptop (woo ADD) I galnce at my map to see my progress and... well it doesnt seem like im moving too qucikly. I drop the map and see a Guardian or Warrior or something is wailing on me! How rude! I am auto-running here!
At about 40-50% HP I fight back!
Man... that cannot be a fun fight to lose... Poor fellow!
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I agree with everything but that last paragraph... but hey! 2 out of 3 isn't too bad!
Roll up! Roll up! See that boss symbol on the map? Place your bets now as to how many pieces of armour you are about to break!
Of course, I like the variation in fights when it's there. It may be the intention of Arenanet's dungeon team that each encounter be different, as opposed to a series of steps up in challenge.
Stonemist Castle
I had fun on those because I was doing it with good people and it was fun trying to do it as fast as possible.
I was primarily in it for the tokens, so I was ok with them reducing the silver/exp rewards, and even for implementing diminishing returns for running the same path more than once (as long as they'd fixed the other paths at the same time)
I was not a big fan of them implementing the diminishing returns for clearing in 30 minutes or less because that seems to be harming people who do well.
I didn't feel they needed to make the magg encounter harder, except for the lava part. I thought that if the lava part was boosted up, it would be about right in terms of how much time you'd expect a dungeon to take when you needed to do it 70+ times to get the vanity gear from it.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
I could go on for hours about how dungeons are their own reward. And I do believe that, truly.
But the honest truth is that I ran to 80 doing, maybe maybe 2-3 dungeons on the way up. My haste to get there was obviously a factor, but there you go.
It would be nice to have a bit more incentive to do the story modes as they come up.
That being said, the amount of experience you gain from the dungeon is just short of a level if you're appropriate for the story mode. So, it's not insignificant.
Also, I was under the impression that the dungeon armor sets were for aesthetics only, but it seems that this is not the case if the only level 80 vita/toughness armor I can get is from explorables. Am I overlooking a different set of rares/exotics with the same stats?
EDIT: A random forum post references an armor vendor in Ebonhawke that sells power/toughness/vita gear for (EDIT EDIT: JESUS. *119*) gold. Can anyone confirm/deny?
Path of Exile: snowcrash7
MTG Arena: Snow_Crash#34179
Battle.net: Snowcrash#1873
This has been done. I also started building replacements.
On dungeons: I easily forgive the bugs and minor balance issues (HP pools being to large are a minor issue. It's something that is solved with time, and is not remotely akin to pulling teeth...as some seem to believe). What I don't like is the silly loot.
We ran HotW the other night, and with 165 MF, I was pulling 2 blues/1 blue 1 green out of each chest. That is unacceptable. The amount of time and effort that goes into a dungeon should net me some good loot...or at least loot I can sell for more than the cost of waypointing to the dungeon.
I think they swung chest rewards to far in the other direction. I felt bad for the rest of the group. At least I got a few greens.
On the other hand, the boss right after it was a TOTAL pushover. It didn't even deal damage outside of making you fight a 1v1 that was very difficult to lose.
I was very surprised to hear they nerfed the story mode rewards because they were too good. For level 80's in exotics I can see it, but when I did story modes at the intended level, in my blue gear, my conclusion was that story mode dungeons had a really cool concept, but that they were the absolute worst way possible to earn exp/time. Literally anything else gave a better return on my time.
Like...I got no good loot at all. I died tons of times in AC. At the end I got a yellow hat with very poor stats. That's ok, I thought, it will be the first piece of the vanity set from here! Finally a hat that looks cool! Only it didn't look cool. It looked like crap. Oh, well, this is the first dungeon, maybe the helm doesn't look cool. I did AC story mode a couple more times and each time the rewards were poor. I wanted to see what I'd get instead of a hat on subsequent completions and the answer seemed to be - nothing.
Then I did CM. While that was a cakewalk by comparison, it was an extremely lengthy cake walk due to the dungeon bugging out twice and us having to reform the party 3 or 4 times to get in. So I spent my whole evening doing it, basically. Again, no good drops - but I got another hat! I was so excited to see what it looked like...it not only had poor stats and a poor look - it was the *exact same look as the first helm*. That right there completely killed my interest in doing story modes before 80.
I've done a couple story modes after 80, and the helm I got from Honor of the Waves was at least useful in that it was a 70+ rare that I could salvage for ectos. How exciting. I really really think they need to just give you the vanity helm skin for completing the story mode so you feel like you got something.
As Jubal says..you can get equivalent loot out of any random chest guarded by a veteran or two out in the open world. And those take about a minute to kill. What you get out of your time in terms of loot/exp/silver when doing the story mode quests at the appropriate level is pretty bad. So you're doing it for the story, which is fine, except that everything past AC I have no idea what the story is because the cutscenes were perenially bugging out. I really really really liked the cutscene explaining what AC catacombs were all about and the history behind it. That stuff was REALLY COOL. I wanted to see that for the other dungeons but so far I mostly have little idea what the others are about. I feel that for me personally, my dungeon running enjoyment is enhanced if I can figure out what this dungeon is and where it fits in the world and why my character might actually wish to be here.
And you do need to provide some incentive for people to go back and do storymode again. The way storymode is a gateway to explorable mode means you have to do story - but your pool of people who will also be wanting to do story for the first time, the same time you are, is incredibly slim. (And will only get slimmer as time goes by). So you'll probably have to/want to bring in some people who would otherwise do explorable runs.
What is the incentive for someone do story over explorable? Should there even be a reason? Maybe give a bonus if they are doing story with someone who hasn't done story yet?
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
I had some of my first small scale PvP experiences yesterday (they happened in wvwvw as skirmishes), and each time the person that died the fastest and did nearly no damage to me was an engineer.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Strafing in circles spamming ranged attacks seems to work in almost every situation. It doesn't feel particularly exciting or clever, but then, that is how a lot of Pvp goes too
The guy who burned you out to a certain radius made me realize how woefully short the guardians staff range is - everyone else was staffing him down with mad abandon and I couldn't reach him from outside the red ring of death!
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
This tactic has worked on every game with a 3rd or first person perspective since they were made.
Circle strafing is a time honored tradition. It's the one reason I don't remove my backpeddal key which seems to be all the rage with the new group of pvper's. It's because I sometimes need to make a circle strafe course correction.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
The appearance only thing refers to the fact that they're still just exotics so not a step up in stats, but not necessarily for the itemization. I also found the below in a list of armors, so apparently there is a karma set you can also get with vitality/toughness:
Heavy Auora Power Vitality, Toughness Melandru Karma
I'm not sure about ebonhawke though.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
This game pushes you into expiermentation so just try out different combinations and see if you like them. Axe Mace OH is fun too.
Mesmer is OP solo. What weapons/skill set-ups were you using?
Which quest was this?
I just played one last night to test it out again. I unlocked all the weapon skills and here are some of my favorites.
Mace/Sword: Two active block skills some decent cc and damage.
Hammer: just do it and enjoy every AOE second of it.
Rifle: ranged kiting everyday.
Mace/Mace: more CC than Mace/Sword
Sword/Axe: sounds weird but there's a lot of mobility in sword main hand and it can get you to the enemy for a dual strike/whirlwind.
Those are a few of my favorites from about a 10 hour play session. I had the greatsword equipped long enough to unlock it all and get it out of my hands.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
@Steel Angel
I ran sword/shield with sword/sword on switch for most of my run-up to 80. Signet of Might, Berserker Stance, Stomp, Signet of Rage. Spec into reduced signet/burst cooldowns, bonus damage for adrenaline, and bleed damage/bleed time. Power, condition damage, and crit/precision on your gear.
You get a good amount of mobility -- you can bleed people and then stun/immobilize them, then back off to let the bleeds do their dirty work. You have combo finishers in the sword "2" attack, offhand sword "4" attack, the shield bash, and Stomp.
EDIT: make sure you run the healing skill that removes conditions, as this type of build is pretty soft to condition damage.
Path of Exile: snowcrash7
MTG Arena: Snow_Crash#34179
Battle.net: Snowcrash#1873
Having just started leveling my warrior myself, I found it's better used to end fights than start them. I wouldn't be too afraid to cancel Hundred Blades if you need to, and since your other stuff is probably on cooldown, it's a good time to weapon swap. I like longbow secondary because those two are both great aoe damage and the adrenaline skill can be somewhat lacking for greatsword.
I am running around as a mesmer main. I did a good chunk of my leveling with Sword/Pistal - Gsword. Though for the last dozen levels or so, I have been using Staff - Sword/Focus, and I must say Staff - sword/focus makes any fight so easy. its become super fun and super easy to take on Tons of mobs at once, and I've even managed to Solo a couple Champions. I am only level 62 atm.
Of course, when people bash your enemies out of 100 blades you just cry/scream and wish /duel was a thing. @Geod
i am also gonna vouch for staff + sword/____
not totally sold on focus, i basically only use it for the speed boost outside of combat.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Queue-size-data-from-9-14-to-9-18-NA/first#post200124
It looks to me like fort aspenwood has one of the more active wuvwuv populations, going by size of queue wait.
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
Equipped with a shield, pistol and turrets, I feel pretty good defensively. There is also a major trait called Juggernaut that pretty much turns you into a beast with the flamethrower, 200 extra tougness and might every 5 seconds, it massively improved my opinion of that weapon kit.
Crafted stuff has a large variety of stats, certain combinations of stats aren't always available from crafted, karma, or dungeon tokens. Like some stuff is PVP only... if you want it on the same piece of gear. However you can just mix match pieces of gear to get the same end result. For example all my armor is toughness/healing/power and then my jewlery is healing/vitality/power. So this mix gives me a good ratio of toughness vs vitality.
Its also really efficient to pick up all your gear from various sources, since you might have enough karma for one piece, enough gold for some jewlery, enough mats to craft some and enough tokens to buy 1. Runes of course you want to keep the same, most aren't to expensive... I use the dwayna set for PVE and it was just some silver on the TP for 6 of them.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Juggernaut used to only be useful for preventing a stomp because it came with a built in cripple+stability as opposed to the might. It's nice to see they've attempted to make it more useful in general play.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
The one thing irking me is that I keep getting random disconnects (error 7:something).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Yes, I run hammer specifically to aggravate you
Still surprised I don't have a thief in my roster yet. That and necro were the classes I was hyped for the most before release (this might be the first game where I didn't just immediately roll a rogue) but I keep finding myself gravitating other classes.
I suppose thats ultimately good. GW2 taking me out of my comfort zone and learning to love the meat shields like warriors.
So I was auto-running across the wuvwuv fields with my map up and watching some lol streams on my laptop (woo ADD) I galnce at my map to see my progress and... well it doesnt seem like im moving too qucikly. I drop the map and see a Guardian or Warrior or something is wailing on me! How rude! I am auto-running here!
At about 40-50% HP I fight back!
Man... that cannot be a fun fight to lose... Poor fellow!