Shortbow on Swap, I presume? I suppose that Greatsword has a bleed too, but Shortbow has it on Ability #1.

That being said, for some reason that trait setup just doesn't seem very coherent. I know that you took traits to complement your utilities, bot somehow it just seems all over the place. Well, it might be worth trying at some point. You could simply make a Ranger and take them to sPvP to be able to make a level 80 character build.(except that the whole charr racial skill part doesn't work, so you may want a second trap or survival skill to take advantage of your traits)

 

Focus on me is exaggerating it a little. Greatsword ability 5 every time it's up hardly counts. Still, it was fun, and after a little effort you get into the swing of things. Go in, attack until you drop under a comfortable amount of health, dodge away and heal, jump back in. Seems to work for me.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19543035

Just thought everyone should be aware of this. Be careful!

 

I haven't heard much raving about this game, after all of the hype that was leading up to the launch.

Is it living up to everyones expectations? I was expecting a lot more discussion on here tbh.

 

I'm too busy playing to discuss it. For me personally, it's amazing. Fully worth the wait and hype. That's my opinion, at least.

 

We're too busy being hardcore to waste our time explaining to you how great it is.

If you didn't even bother to pre-order it then I figure you're a lost cause.

 

Had to pay almost double to get the game shipped to India (due to dload limits on my connection), but having a great time. Taking it slow, trying to get every class to 10 before finalizing a main; and loved almost every class i've tried.

 

I didn't know that they had actually restricted further purchasing to help stabilize launch, until their latest news post saying that they just re-opened it.

Either way, aside from some bugs which haven't really had any adverse effect on my appreciation of the game, the only real issues that existed really, were the mail and Marketplace systems. Oh, and some overflow mechanics and how it influenced parties. I suppose the Marketplace still has rare but occasional maintenance, but they seem to have got the other stuff working just fine.

-----

That isn't to speak of first-time attempts at some dungeons(Explorable Mode, primarily) resulting in many wipes or near-wipes.

 

Staff Mesmer so troll.

Go into WvW and never fully die anywhere. Escape stupid situations with 500 HP left. Daze lock a guy for 7s when they're near death. Nose-diving off the top tower of a keep to escape enemy assault.

 

I must admit there are some downside IMO. Personally, I was really looking forward to WvW. Sadly my machine can't support the massive amount of player when there is something of interest going on.

I was also expecting much more in term of dynamic events. There are maybe a couple per map and they repeat themselves a lot.

It takes some time getting used to the leveling system since you have no real direction. Some time I find myself wondering where I should go next, especially when my personal quest is lvl 38+ and I'm only 34.

Otherwise, the system combat is awesome. You don't see what is coming at you except if you look at the enemy, which is amazing when you compared to WoW or SWTOR where you can see their cast bar, etc.

Like the game even though it has its flaws!

 

...>_>
At level 80, and my current Story Mission is level 38, I believe. I remember it being at 14 when I was in my 30's. The story missions are great fun most of the time, especially once you get the off-kilter Orders into play, but I mostly ended up playing in guild-parties in zones a bit beyond our level for massive experience. Trying to work around to getting back to my Story Missions though, since you can get some great rewards out of them.

Including guaranteed Black Lion Keys, which are either rather rare drops(Strikerlee's monstrous luck notwithstanding...), and also 1/150 or 5/450 on the Gemstore. Of course, I once got that 5/450 deal, and with random Key's from opening Chests, ended up opening all 11 Chests that I had, before my Keys ran out.

Either way, it's relatively easy to out-level your Story Missions(which you get down-scaled for, anyway, which can help them to remain a challenge), just as it is easy for them to out-level you, if you choose to focus on them.

 

So I've been doing some looking into this and thinking of jumping back into the pc market from being mostly console play the last couple of years and I was hoping you guys could give me a couple of solid reasons to pick this back up. Specifically, what has been more developed in this GW2 over the first 3 and what they've really kept similar.

 

I'm sure that somebody else will come up with a more elaborate answer(maybe myself, later), but in short, the core concepts which carried over from the original series are:
--Lore: (textual, locational and visual aspects) although it's 250 years later now, and all that entails.
--Class Concepts: with the Mesmer perhaps being the most modified, but it still feels rather 'Mesmery' anyway.
--Skill Deck: insomuch as you have more abilities, than you have skill slots to place them, and have to choose wisely at times, especially in Dungeons, what you wish to take at a particular time. Your choices can be changed out of combat, although Trait Point distribution will likely influence your choices if you choose multiple Traits which modify a particular subset of Utility skills.

 

Most god damn important part. As a mesmer, I'm changing my skills and weapons almost every fight in a dungeon to maximize my efficiency against whatever I'm fighting.

Vs projectiles? Feedback

Conditions? Null Field + Cleanse Mantra

Pulls/Knockbacks? Stability Mantra

Boon users? Null field and maybe arcane thievery/signet of inspirations.

Anti-conditions? Great sword and scepter+Pistol/focus

Speed kills? Time warp

Kiting? Veil + Mass invis

1v1 Bosses? Moa Morph + Stuns + Dazes + Confusion spam + Staff

Different skills for every situation with nothing be the "best of the best" like some builds were in GW1.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax-_06Acj8Y GW2 recommended review
He's talking about the pros but he doesn't shrug the cons, maybe even exaggerating, plus it's entertaining.

 

Heh, that was an amusing review... and obvious negative aspects aside, I don't completely mind being on a server where our WvW performance has usually been second place(we have been first a few times though). I've had to deal with a queue to get into a map once and only once. Certainly no three-to-five hour queues. Although there have been options for a queue, where I simply chose a different map.

Of course, as one of the commenting posters for the video mentions, going into the Eternal Battlegrounds would probably be the most likely to have a queue, and a longer one at that. I've only gone into the Borderlands.

As a side note, for those that haven't used it, and don't mind the loading screens. A nice way to save money when you are away from town and wanting to go back, is simply to enter WvW/sPvP and then go through the portal into Lion's Arch from there. From there, you can sell, craft, bank, and whatever else you want to do, before taking an Asura Gate back to the closest capitol to where you want to go.

 

I can't figure out what I want to do with my mesmer.

AOE Nuke Dueling + Illusion with Staff + Sword/Focus that vacuums all enemies into range for massive damage off insane crits of Warden + Chaos Storm + Mind Wrack + Cry of Frustration + Blurred Frenzy. All triggering inside 6s.

Insane bounce + Might stacking Domination/Illusion with GSword + Sword/Focus that lets me ramp up 12 stacks of might stupid easy then explode people with Warden, Berserker, and Frenzy.

Inspiration with 20 Illusions and 10 a piece in Domination + Dueling that focuses on making phantasms survive while ripping apart bosses with a Staff and Dual Sword build.

And my current build is a Chaos/Illusion Staff + Scepter/Torch build that runs off clones and condition spam to inflict massive amounts of DoT damage while making me almost as durable as Warriors before they activate their Endure Pain and lets me escape out of almost any situation.

So many builds to choose from and different items to buy....

All of them are god damn amazing and what they do and can tear apart mobs relatively fast. All could theoretically use the same gear set, except Chaos/Illusion.

 

I randomly discovered something nifty last night.

Apparently, dye settings on particular pieces of armor are saved to that armor, as when I went to show my brother my alternate set of Condition Damage gear, in regards to the particular gear style, it immediately had the gear in the color scheme I had on it before I replaced it with my current gear, without me having the manually change it.

Just something to think about if you happen to store alternate sets of gear for whatever reason.

 

Well, I posted this on the other site, but for those who don't think to go there, here is an interesting post:
The Recipe for Crafting Your Legendary Weapon

 

I was actually thinking about putting together an excel spreadsheet, but this is much better. The only complaint I have is that unlike many MMOs, the weapon you choose has a much, much bigger impact than stat bonuses - scepter/dagger plays very differently than staff for my ele, and mace/shield is a completely different beast than greatsword or hammer for my warrior. Due to the sheer amount of materials and time, you are really dedicating something as your only play style for that character for the bulk of your play.

Oh, I started a character on a friend's server, but he isn't playing much these days - how hard is it to swap servers, is it still free, and how is your world typically in WvW?