Buran.3796

Yep. Aside from unbreakeable gathering tools tomes/scrolls of teleportation are one of the best items to put in shared inventory slots. By the way, in Lion's Arch there's a direct TP to Arborstone (I noticed that after I already had played the intro of the EoD campaing with several characters, which wasn't needed at all).

Core Guardian is popular in PvP, and at high level probably surpases Willbender in use. Is easy to understand, as was explained for others: for core professions, in order to be competitive vs specializations your third worst traitline must be stronger than a spec traitline, and that's exactly what happens with core Guardian vs Firebrand in PvP: Firebrand has a terrible traitline and useless mantras, and in PvP you don't have celestial stats to carry those lackings as happens in WvW. As result, people plays either Willbender, Dragon Hunter or condi core Guardian as dps and core Guardian as support in PvP, whereas Firebrand is a worse core Guardian.

If we are talking about soloing things, there's foes able to kill the mech and put Mechanist in troubles, a problem which Mirage doesn't have since can spam clones on demand. I would say that both are easy to play and effective, although the nerfs in Mechanist's rifle speed and the back pedaling of needing to precast mantras again reduced the quality of life of both specs compared to how they were 7-8 months ago...

Based on my new experiences in the latest two weeks I would like to re-do my list: 1) Celestial Vindicator, Hizen's build. Pretty much soloes and curbstomps any OW content with no sweat. Facing a dozen of upscaled lvl 84 charrs in Drizzlewood can kill you, but outside that or one-shoot mechanics, you're safe. Very simple totations, mid level of keystrokes x minute. 2) Celestial Herald. Very close to 1, similar damage, condi stacks, better cc and natural heals but a bit worse re-sustain. 3) Celestial Mesmer; damage can be higher and has the quality of life of being ranged and requiring very low key inputs x minutes, but the changes in mantras made the condition cleansing more convoluted. The re-sustain can't compare vs the Revs builds. 4) Celestial/TB Weaver; higher damage but harder to play and very intensive in keystokes.

To be honest there were 2 power Revs in the Saturday's MAT (a Renegade and a Vindicator, albeit not in the top dog teams and didn't do anything special). Now, the really interesting thing is that in the last patch ANet buffed condi Rev (for second time in a row) and a cRev was seen in a MAT, but didn't saw one last Saturday (not sure about the Monday). My personal take: I don't care. I'm 50 matches in the current ranked season (not very interested, anyway) and I'm playing two builds: a bunker power Herald which is totally off meta and won't go far (but I find fun) adn a power Willbender. I don't think Revenant will have any action in PvP soon, because is not that fun. The classic power Herald build which was meta since HoT has been nerfed not onlky in numbers but also in mechanics, and just feels clunky (and honestly I got bored of it). WB has more mobility and felxibility, and albeit some akward ticks, is still kore fun to play and a new and fresh take over the same gamestyle. And I won't play Vindi in PvP, no matter if is meta or as bad as a Firebranbd: I refuse to play spec with heals of 714 points each 30 seconds. But ultimately doesn't matter; PvP is essentially dead, and most of players won't even notice (is not like PvE is that "healthy", anyway).

I'm not against either options (boosting or leveling playing) since both have advantages. Boosting allows you to have a character ready to play in any map, so if you already known the class is perfect for alts. Manually leveling a character while playing the game and discovering the maps is also great, since you'll slowly unlock the skills and traits and that will allow the player time (~24 hours of gameplay) to become familiar with how the skill works. You also learn a lot about to deal with different OW foes, I have like 10 stacks of 250 tomes of knownledge and recently have been re-booting some old characters (some of 8-9 years old) playing manually instead of boosting them because is fun the contrast between how I played and striggled with them at the game release and how now can rise them 1 to 80 with almost no gear without much troubles. Yes, is most proficient IN GOLD using my 80s fully geared in legendaries tio farm Drizzlewood, Dragonfall, etc., BUT I'm just having FUN wrecking foes in a 60 level map with a core character wielding level 30 gear with only two trait lines available.

A small sample: * Instanced content (in order) :high level fractals, strike missions, raids, dungeons. * Open World meta events: Dragonfall , Drizzlewood South, Dragon's End, Octovine, Paladawan, Drakkar, Aetherblade Defense, Dragon Stand, Verdant Brink... * Farming raw stuff (rich mining ores of orichalcum, quartz...) gathering crops of high value as falx, seaweed, etc... * Alt parking near splendid chests. * PvP ranked matches and automated tournaments. * Crafting and selling stuff, specially time caped ascended components. * Trading (buying and selling from the Black Lion Market, but requires good knownledge of the market to anticipate forward demand since there's a 15% tax so can end in loses).

When you play in WvW there's a number of reward tracks you can complete while gaining experience there (same as in PvP), some of those tracks are repeteable and others not. Every one has a final chest as a reward which provides different tokens.. Chose the one which provides that gift (and which is repeateable): https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/WvW_Reward_Track Easy ways to progress the experience bar of the reward tracks playing alone are flipping camps (capturing enemy camps), guards, killing dollyaks or the veterans. Doing the (3) daylies also provides potions which progress the track (80 potions complete a full track), but sometimes that would require to join larger groups to capture the keeps. As general rule: the larger the objectives you seize or defend, the larger is the amount of xp you get. Make sure you have selected this track: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gift_of_Battle_Item_Reward_Track

That makes sense since the booster provides you a full set of exotic celestial armor which is exactly what uses in that builds. Mind also that the recomended set of runes (Tormenting) are quite expensive, so don't hurry to try it if you're already enjoying other professions.

The items required for the achievements can be purchased in the Black Lion; I didn't complete any of the jumping puzzles.

"Be careful with what yiou wish for, it might just come true". Engineer's rifle got an amazing buff in both auto attack speed and dps, then ANet backpedaled. Now the damage is decent but the fire rate is so slow and so annoying to hear and play that I entirely ditched my two engies and their only function now is alt parking and muling stuff for the characters I really play.

I play mostly 2 professions yet I unlocked all the legendary armors "just in case". Even my alts (18 characters in total) have at least two sets of ascended trinkets + underwater respirator. Yes, exotics are valid for every content outside fractals ~25+ and maybe WvW, but a single piece of exotic berserker amor costs ~4/5 gold coins and a a viper one doubles that amount. For "stable" meta builds (as going berserker with Scholar runes) which remain BIS for years that approach works well, but for things as healers, offensive support and defensive supportr or just for trying solo builds in Open World, in which the balance patches oftenly make the preferences in runes to change is a PITA having to destroy or override a piece of gear just due you need to replace the runes. Again, both approaches to the dilema are plausible, but I think that going for the armor first is less expensive and more convenient. Also, for the cost of the two legendary rings + the two legendary accesories + one of the back packs, you can pay the whole 3 sets of legendary armors. Mines, from PvP, cost me ~4k gold coins in total....

Yeah, no. I understand the convenience of getting the legendary trinkets (I have some of them -Trascendence, Conflux, The Ascension-, and this year I will have the full set). But let me explain why the legendary armor (for your main and the other professions in the same tier of armor) has priority over the legendary trinkets: Option A: You craft the legendary armor, and at the same time you get your full set of ascended trinkets for 0 gold farming currencies in the maps I cited. So you only need to spent gold in ascended weapons (untill you chose to go directly for the legendaries). Each ascended weapon/armor piece usually costs ~40/60 gold coins, by the way. Also, the amulet, ring and back pack from Bloodstone Fen can be reset in stats for barely 100 unbound magic, which is almost nothing. Option B: You craft the legendary trinkets first (which takes longer and is more expensive than a single set of legendary armor, by the way), so now that gear is free for all your characters. Now you can farm ascended armor pieces in... 0 maps. You have to farm PvP, PvE or WvW content for tokens (oftenly capped by time) in content which is harder in time and requires WAY more effort than gathering winterberries or the icy currency from Bjora Marches, or rely in random drops of ascended gear from those content. So, you go for the armor for 1/3 of your roster and get free ascended trinkets, or you go for the trinkets which benefits your whole roster BUT you grind harder content or spent ~300 gold coins x each ascended armor set. And each different set of armor gear costs you the same whereas you can get ascended trinkets for almost nothing. That's my point of view. New players: prioritrize the legendary armor for your main, the ascended accesories are almost free in farmeable currencies from Season 3 & 4 maps. Edit: also, extra reason to go armor first: trinkets only can store infusions, and you can extract them with tools which require 24 silver coins x extraction. Armors can store infusions AND runes; while infusions can be removed the same way as in trinkets, runes require tools for extraction which are more expensive than any rune in the game (outside legendary runes). A legendary armor allows you to insert & extract both infusions and runes at 0 cost, infinite number of times.

Run a condition build to rise core Revenant to 80 (get cheap carrion stats at level 61 in the Black Lion market). Condition Rev (specially for core) works better as a bruiser than power since you have mace and axe have much better AoE cleave than the swords, Mallyx's Call To Anguish is phenomenal to stack foes and Embrace the Dasrkness + the mace skills will melt everything in seconds, ouside some Champions. The good thing about Rev is that you can run pretty much the same gear with the 3 specs and all of them would be tanky (you can also trade sustain for damage with power Vindicator) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAkeZlhQHMJyhFRNMI6hBSfMBKgjuSfKD-zxIY8o7vUSoA6KByMC6ME8fA-e Hizen made a great vid about it, albeit those are for OW solo PvE (you can run Alacrigade or QHerald for instanced content, albeit those aren't bruisers).

1) If you have old characters keep at least the first one since there's annual rewards for longevity (for the alts it stops afterv the 8th year, so you can reset those if you want). 2) There's 9 professions and 5 races of two sexes, each one with a different voice actor. Unless you want to play each profession as the same avatar I'll advice you to rely on variety, since having the same voice with each character ends being annoying. Speed is shared across races, but smaller characters make easier to do jumping puzzles and larger characters make easier to cover your captain in WvW. Racial skills are subpar and irrelevant outside the lore. 3) Alts are useful even if you only main one spec since they provide a lot of space; in terms of both muling and alt-parking they are one of the best inversions in the game (plus you can try new gamestyles): 4) At mid term focus on trying to get a full set of legendary armor for your main (you can get the pieces from PvE, WvW, PvP or a mix of all of them. Legendary armors allows you to reset the stats at no cost, change the skins at no cost, and insert and extract runes and infussions at no cost without destroying them. Ascended trinkets can easily be farmed in Bjora Marches, Sandswept Isles, Dragonstorm, Bloodstone Fen and Bjora Marches, so in my opinion legendary trinkets aren't as important as the first legendary armort set. 5) For gathering the best option is to buy either the Infinite Unbound Magic Gathering Tools or the Infinite Volatile Gathering tools (IMO Unbound + Consortium Molten Sickle are the best since the faster animation, glyphs can be purchased apart). Shared account slots are high value to use with those tools and some teleport devices. 6) Mounts and Masteries provide high quality of life. Get them ASAP. In core Tyria masteries get the auto loot ASAP. 7) Leveling is fast an you can 1-80 in ~24 hours just exploring the core maps.

About the gold, ways to make it (liquid gold is stuff than can be sold or crafted to sold and then converted to raw gold; raw gold is direct sources of gold coins): * High level fractals (specially the daily ones) > fractals > strike missions (Dragon Storm, Marionette) > raids > dungeons. * Farmeable map meta events, specially Dragonfall, Drizzlewood (South), Dragon's End, Gyala Delve, Aetherblade Assault, Octovine, Palawadan, Drakkar, Dragon Stand... * PvP ranked reward tracks and automated tournaments. * Farming raw materials (mining rich ores like orichalcum and quartz, gathering valued crops as falx and seaweed, choping ancestral wood, etc). * High level fishing. *Crafting and selling stuff (specially time-locked ascended components). * Trading (buying materials at low price in anticipation of higher further demand; this is risky and requires to outpace the 15% tax system, so works better for players with lots of gold and good knownledge of the market): * Daily activities. * Alt parking characters near to rich mining ores, chests of rewards, etc.. Mind that some of those ways require specialized tools and knownledge to get the best liquid gold x hour. There's specialized pages as fast framing which would give you an orientation of the max potential gains in those activities: https://fast.farming-community.eu

Dire, Celestial or Trailblazer would work perfectly. You can buy exotics of Dire at low cost, or get the armor chest from WvW and PvP reward tracks, or craft them. Balthazar runes are dirty cheap and perfect for pure condition damage, but Fireworks should also work very well with Celestial stats and would provide the quality of life of having a faster movement. In terms of builds and weapons, there's plenty of options. The build from Hardstuck is solid, running axe + torch & staff to bring up support and quickness and oriented towards group events: https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/guardian/booster-firebrand/ For solo I ran axe + shield & scepter torch for a while, but lately I just prefer axe + shield & greatsword: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAc6FlVwqYdMM2IW2WfvUA-z1IY1o7/USQBkpQoCRQHSAFPLPKtBA-w I still prefer condi Willbender for PvE (Dire + Trailblazer stats), because the insane burst of burns, whereas in WvW I run power Willbender (Marauder + Dragon), but Firebrand has more tools which means superior cc and the ability to reflect projectiles on demand with Valiant Bulwark.

If Firebrand didn't exist Guardian still would fill exactly the same role, since the whole reason Guardian is meta at PvE and WvW (zergs) is "Stand Your Groud!" As long as Guardian remains as the only class with a instant cast share of stability it would be better at support than anything else.

When GW2 was released the Guardian has an elite skill which was a tome, which swapped your weapon skills to spells to cast (with cooldowns but not cost in pages). Then ANet ditched that elite, which was appreciated in both terms of lore and utility. After HoT, in PoF they come back to the same concept but this time making an entire specialization focused on it. The spec was broken overpowered, but the same could be said about the Spellbreker, the Scourge, the Mirage or the Holosmith. Some nerfs may have been required, but that could have been done easily polishing the numbers (less damage or heals, longer cooldowns, slower cast times... ). Instead, they gutted everything (no damage, no sustain, aegis removed, less support that core Guardian -which anyway is mediocre next to a Tempest- ). Firebrand also didn't "had everything": didn't had corrupt boons, alacrity nor ranged attacks, and the mobility remained as bad as it can be until the arrival of the Willbender. What stand the most about Firebrand is how cohesive was both the artistic design (visuals, sound effects) the lore and the performance, and that's something most of classes and specs should aspire to. Now, is not only terrible in PvP, but will also remain in that state for long, because the last revamp of the mantras made it useless in PvP (I deleted one of my Guardians and changed the build of my Mesmer due how putrid and anoying they are now even in PvE!). By the way, I say this while maining Rev since HoT; I focus on PvP and roaming and as an ex-guardian main has been a shame that such well crafted spec as the Firebrand has remained useless at competitive gameplay for more than half of the life the game has. And say what you want about how unbalanced or stacked the FB was at PoF release, but at that time at least this game has a PvP scene isntead of the dead game mode that is now...

Specs (core included) doesn't need to shine in every game mode (in particular in PvP at which there's only 5 slots x team and 3-4 roles available), BUT there's a big difference between not being the top choice and moving from being amongst the best class designs ever done in PvE in GW2 and even compared to other games and at the same time being the absolute useless bottom tier for PvP. Since the change is so radical, a lot of Guardian players which main Firebrand just don't step in PvP due how bad his spec is at that.

I recently "manually" leveled a Mesmer, since I wanted to swap the race of the one I had, and chose to not use a boosters or tomes of knownledge. I knew some basics of the Mirage, but never played a Mesmer from 0. I did chose greatsword + staff as weapons, and bough cheap gear at level 30 and 61, running a condition build, and was extremely easy. You have plenty of cc, projectile blocks, clones to tank and most of your damage is at range, very safe and relaxed to play. I plan to do the same with an Ele soon, but based on my experience doing the same recently with a Rev and a Thief... The Ele probably will be harder: really low base HP, and despite having some ranged weapons, most of the choices are AoE mele skills. This doesn't mean that one choice is better or more fun to play than other, es matter of choices and tastes, but Mesmer is arguably easier to level... Ele gained downstate meme tier category for a reason.

You don't need to play parts of tghe game that you don't enjoy. At the end the goal is having fun, not doing a second job. I ended the EoD campaign this evening, almost 14 months after the EoD release. Why? Because usually I don't find the story mode very interesting in this game. There's have been exceptions (I liked PoF the best in that sense), but usually the pace is a bit sluggish and some episodes have weird mechanics or some puzzles which aren't present in the normal combat system, and I'm not fan of that. So I focus on the parts of the game that enjoy and delay the ones which not. In EoD delaying the story mode was particulary easy since ANet chose to make the masteries character-bound, so I had no much interest in bringing up alts to Cantha outsiude my main.

Is possible that the next expansion doesn't bring up any new specializations, and even that instead of a new core weapon x profession ANet just choses to allow the spec weapons to be wielded for the core Rev (or all specs, albeit the more you open the hand, the harder is to keep the "balance"). So I won't put much % in the chances of getting an specific weapon. Definitely open spec weapons to the core profession would be nice, since the core builds are oftenly weaker and forgotten in balance patches, and also because a lot of the spec weapons would be weaker than inside the spec (example: shortbow's performance relies heavily in all the traits the Renegade line provides), so those additions wouldn't instantly make the core classes broken.

Hi. 1) No. 2) Rapid Flow, but has its own flaws. 3) Sigil of Agility, runes of Pack, Evasion or Centaur (each one with pros and cons). Is a tradeoff (mobility instead of more damage). At the end, if pace of the movements bothers you that much, I do prefer Fireworks rune over any other choice for power Vindi, but that would ruin the chance to match the max dps perfect potential of your Vindi (which anyway you wouldn't achieve outside of the piñata golem).

For ranged damage at PvE the best choices would be probably Mesmer (Mirage or Virtuoso), followed by Necro (Scourge, Harbinger) and Renebow. For PvP scepter Catalyst or Harbinger (that last one is solid but nowhere as powerfiul at the moment as the Ele specs). So Mesmer and Necro or Mesmer and Elementalist would probably provide you the best choices given your choices and preferences about fighting at range.