Buran.3796

To be honest the path is really really easy and starighforward, but takes 18 to 28 hours playing normally so I don't think you'll get a video of it since "speedrunning" still means some time: * Create a character. * Do the prologue. * Now you are at level 2 and in your first area. You're now allowed to play PvP and level up entirely with the tomes if you want, or to do PvE. Lets say you chose that last option: * Move across your fisrt map unlocking every waypoint, vista, point of interest and hero point. Don't waste time with hearts, since hearts are way faster to complete with level 80 characters, which can one shoot most enemies and complete the task in seconds. The main source of XP is exploration and the Raptor unlocked at level 10 will be crucial for speeding the proccess. * One your initial map is done (except hearts) go to the initial maps of other races and do the same. Then move to the secondary maps (level 15-25) and then higher. Always remain 3 levels behind the level of the foes in the zone of the map you are AT WORST, since beyond that your damage gets compromised and you'll suffer extra damage from them. Avoid falling damage, since falls and foes 4+ levels above you will be the main risk of deads. Also avoid fighting champs since the old ones are mostly easy (aside a few exceptions) but some added to the game over the years are dangerous to solo even for fully geared lvl 80 characters. * Aside for exploration a good source of XP when happens is OW events, so if they happen on your sight jump in. * Around level 55 you will find out that the maps with lower levels than yoiu are done and you'll start to face foes with 5+ levels above you. This is a good moment to go back and complete hearts in the initial maps to keep your level paired to your enemies, since there's a lot of low level maps in core Tyria but only a few high level maps. That's all. You should expect to buy gear 2-4 times from 1 to 80 and the total cost wouldn't exceed 4 gold coins. I've manually leveled all the professions recently and it tokk me 18 to 28 hours depending of the build.

Vindicator is rather easy to play and have some strong AoE burts (albeit used to be better). The celestial versions with condi damage are almost unkillable; the power builds are my favs but have much less self sustain. For support you can run Vindi or Herald, but I have no idea about thst variants... Celestial Mirage is very powerful at solo content and has great versatility in weapons of choice, but I'm not sure about the support variants.

My main source of gold is farming materials. In the past was iron ore, then quartz, then orichalcum... Nowadays is falx and seaweed but can change over time. Of course I take advantage over having 19 characters; Usually 17 of them farm this route and the other two are alt-parked. This gives me materials to sell for ~15 gold coins after 30-35 minutes of farm: Then is the PvP, I PvP a lot and just doing the daily (one or two matches) brings up another 5+in terms of Wizzard Vaul value. And bizantium chest at 50% w/l ratio are30+ gold coins after 24 matches, so is easily 6+ gold coins x hour of gameplay. There's methods with higher rewards but require a group. Some metas are also lucrative (I usually do Dragonstorml and Palwadan, or Dragonfall and Drizzlewood) Mukluk just posted a sueful guide of how He farms gold in 12 minutes, but of course requires specialized gear (or buying the volatile magic tools with karma). Related to the goal of the game, is quite simple: you should try to get full legendary gear for your main, then for your alts. Now that the legendary wardrobe exist to benefit all your characters, is the most convenient move. Legendary gear allows you to change your stats at will, so you no longer will be bothered with balance patches and changes in the meta. You can also will be able to change your skins at will, and add and retire runes, sigils and infussions without destroying them. I haven't crafted an ascended piece of gear in four years...

Hard to care about it after all the nerfs. What is staff for? * In PvE, you swap to staff to do two things: one is to deal massive defiance bar cc (150x9,) albeit with the root+ cast time is hard to land in foes with mobility or invuln phases; the second is to tank your dps. * In PvP/WvW is a shadow of what it was; the blind from Warding Rift used to be functional, the block was nerfed in duration and at WvW/PvP is maybe the only skill #3 in a two handed weapon which has longer cooldown than the #4. Warding Rift also doesn't work that well because aside of the lame damage, after the i-frames that root you, in the middle of the animation you have no stab, so a simple line of ward or well with fear will interrupt you, am I wrong? Meanwhile a Harbinger enters in Shroud, gains stability and cast Dark Barrage to corrupt you boons and deal massive damage at 900 range... Why you want a staff, to block unblockable wells? Compare it to the greatsword: much better damage, much better mobility, a longer block (which sadly was nerfed as counter starike) and a large AoE damage burst which forces foes to either endure the pain or spent defensive skills avoiding it. Should be tha same weapons as the greatsword? No, but staff was functional, and if deserved nerfs, were mostly in numbers (damage, cooldowns or energy costs) not in mechanics. So what should they do? Since they won't revert the mechanical changes, I just don't care about what they would do for support builds/roleplayers. I'm alreday used to not wield it in PvP/WvW/PvE and is a great feeling, like being carrying a boulder for long time, and being suddenly free.

Well, first of all not every build that performs well is equally easy to play and sometimes a build can work well, be easy to play and still be boring. For example: my fav build to play in OW PvE is power Vindicator with greatswords + swords, but ceslestial Vindicator with mace & axe + short bow is more powerful (close enough damage with x10 the sustain) and easier to play, so usually I run celestial there. In WvW instead celestial Vindicator with greastword + short bow is just the best, and more fun to play than the full condi variants (power Vindi is also fun but much weaker in terms of survability). For PvP I mainly play power Vindi with gs + sb since there's nocelestial stats there and the condi variants are easier to counter. On the other hand, I like a lot Firebrfand in PvE, either celestial or pure condi, but albeit is great to clean weak mobs, is worse vs bosses. So I play either celestial or condi Willbender in PvE more oftenly than Firebrand despite I like more the Firebrand gameplay becuase WB just performs better. In WvW roaming Willbender is stronger thsn Firebrand and in PvP Firebrand doesn't even exist. So likes and results aren't going in hand. With Warrior, I play mostly condi Berserker in PvE 8Bladesworn is stronger and I like it but is harder to play), whereas in PvP I can play either condi Berserker or stunchain Spellbreaker. I usually don't play Warrior in WvW. So: I play mostly my main, but with different buils and sometimes specs based on how they perform in each game mode. And even there there's differences: PvE can be split in solo OW, cooperative OW and instanced content; WvW can be split in solo roaming, small scale skirmishing or large zergs combat; equally PvP's Conquest and 3 v 3 and 2 v 2 have different requirements.

That was fantastic! Which weapon combo did you like the most to pair with pistols and why?

Context: the first 3 fights are from the week before the patch (Nov 28th), then the next 3 are after that date. First Mesmer fights goes in the usual way: high initial Chrono burst and strong condi pressure that can be endured and allows to recover if not too much mistakes are made (still exposing my weak use of Kurzik), then the we enter in a plateau in which I gradually gain advantage. The second Chrono is way weaker and falls faster; a Harb arrives and is though but the thing was balanced; the Reaper forces me to step back and I make the mistake of insisting in the Harb instead of the much worse Reaper; two more arrive and the fun ends... The Mirage follows similar path as the Chronos: condi overload and high initial burst, He uses well its blocks, reflects and mobility but eventually my AoE cleans its clones and its abilities start to enter in cooldowns; they punch hard even in downstate as the Ranger tasted in the firt clip, but I'm aware of that. The Holosmith fight was one of my two fav since the patch (sadly didn't record the other one): a frentic 4 minutes battle which started from a mutual warclaw charge: tons of AoE, cc and constant pressure from diamond player running a power build; that allowed me to ditch Kurzic and to focus in reacting to the Holo moveset and patterns. The environment wasn't perfect to the use of my bow but my build is versatile enough. The condi Herald wasn't a fast skirmish but was easier than the Mesmers: my HP never fell below 13k. This was a hard counter since that build can't really damage Vindicator, specially giving up the short bow (even then Vindi's cleansing game is just superior). I don't think the Spellbreaker was running a proper roaming build. The second video is post patch. The first fight is really bad gameplay on both sides: the Vindi and the Necro are low ranked and they probably don't known much about how to use their skills outside a zerg; I wasted too time downing the gs/hammer vindi, did decent defense but it should have lasted much less (again, did chose the wrong target to focus). The Daredevil in the camp was much more interesting: She dazes, immobilizes, burst, disengages and contest the camp to prevent the capture and spawn the guards; pre-SotO weapon mastery's would probably crush my full mele build, but with short bow now the constant pressure is bidirectional and I've cleansed camps below heal Scourge supports, so once his last burst fails and the guards are down again just choses to retreat. The last two fights are very different: a full ranged condi pistol Daredevil which smartly uses stealth and relocation to break my targeting and daze, blind and fill me with conditions. Toys with me and utterly destroys me, remaining almost untouched. The second encounter is barely better due I finally use some blue skills, so it last longer but I spent most of the time blinded (22 times in less than 150 seconds), dazed or in retreat so never got his HP below 58%. Super annoying and humbling, but I see ways to improve. Just only hope ANet never provide Revs stealth: I don't want to be part of that lame circle. So how has been the patch? So far, Vindi nerfs, no more vigor and might stacks (doesn't matter in PvP), much less fury (doesn't matter in PvE). Haemmer buffs but I have to test yet in WvW.

Imagine being so salty/kitten of achievements from others long time ago to try to be both dimissive and jealous in a single line.

There's plenty of problems with Renegade in PvP. To start, Renegade is mostly oriented towards condi/hybrid damage but in PvP Renegades usually had to run power stats at which is lackluster compared to Vindi. Vindi also has better mobility and condi cleanses, plus lower overall energy costs and better sustain. Since mobility is hard to fix the available legends my suggestion would be to either buff Renegade's damage or improve their sustain, or a mix: * Halve energy cost of F skills. * Grant Orders from Above protection. * Use the three last traits to improve physical damage, condition damage and barrier, so players could chose to either get more dps or more survability. Finally, buff the might aplication and duration: 1.5 seconds on average is really lame. You get might and the casting animation for your next attack already eats the stacks you got.

I'm using the fastest sickle (Consortium) with the Reaper glyph (cost me ~325 gold coins at the time, paid himself in weeks, current cost ~270 gc) with a combo of upgraded mounts. Several tactics can be used to speed up the process in case of enemy foes (since not entering in combat is usually the key): Guardians benefit for a bug which grants aegis every time they mount/dismount, Thieves can abuse stealth or you can just run a glass cannon and one-two shoot everything in 3 seconds. This farming is ultra popular and at peak times everything will be dead due concurrent players... So yes, my farming is optimized, but an average player with a raptor and yellow gear will do it in 8 minutes, because as I said the key is just avoiding combat and farming the berries (no wood, no enemies, etc.). @hudisgreat.8492: I agree, people unlocking central Tyria mastery points should spent them first in unlocking the auto loot since is a quality of life ability which is free and not paid locked as in most of MMOs.

^Ok, thank you.

I just finished crafting the 6 astral weapons for the Visions of Istan achievement required to make the legendary trinket Vision (was really fast, by the way, 0 kralk farm needed!), and now they sit in my inventory. Have they any use or can I safely salvage them? I'm mostly in legendary gear and seems that the ascended stellar weapons don't require the astral ones as "precursors" or anything like that...

I have Eternity. My first legendary crafted was Twilight when Guardain and not Rev was my main, and later ended crating Sunrise and melting both to get Eternity. At the time did mean to have a single legendary greatsword but three cool skins to use, but with the legendary wardrobe it turne it into having 3 legendary greatswors. Albeit I still love Eternity and is my fav legendary skin in the game, if I had to re-start I would craft instead the Aurene greatsword and then unlock the Jormag skin, because for me is almost as cool, and I would save the resources of the second legendary into crafting a different weapon. Some players prefer Exordium due the morphing and Iwould conceed that albeit the animations are cool, the weapons itself seems plasticky and imported from a Barbie movie.

I have 19 characters maxed out and despite I have like 15 stacks of knownledge tomes and could level up them from 1 to 80 in minutes I chose to level manually the latest 10 of them so I have planty of experince doing that (albeit I'm only proficient with some professions). I leveled them following a simple rule: complete all PvE core maps except the hearts, doing no WvW, no PvP and no instanced content (they can accelerate the proccess), and also try to die the least amounts of times. This is what I found: * Now that the raptor mount is available from level 10 from purchasers of the game, a player which already knowns the game can rise a character from 1 to 80 in less than 18 hours. Some classes are better than others but I would say that the difference could be from 18 to 24 hours. And I'm sure that better players could do it even faster. * A free account only has access to raptor for 10 hours after reaching level 10 (less than 2 hours), and lacking the raptor makes things a bit slower, so a player familiarized with the game using the raptor only for 10 hours will usually reach 80 in 24-28 hours. * In my easiest runs In did die like twice (fall damage and over leveled foes as main couases) and in the worst maybe 6-7 times. The things will be different for entirely new players: since you don't known how your profession works, how the combat mechanics work and how to face certain enemies you will play slower, you'll experience more difficult facing some challenging foes, etc. Guild wars 2 has some verical progression (masteries, mounts and specializations makes your character stronger) and sells some items of convenience and even some power through the gem store, BUT the ceiling in gear has been the same for 10 years and is relatively easy to achieve. The PvP has entirely standarized stats and you can get max stats gear in PvE/WvW in weeks with no random chances of success as in games as BDO. Is not a pay to win but you can be tempted to pay for convenience and/or looks.

Absolutely. Had a blast roaming WvW this weekend (albeit I think that didn't record the best 1 v 1) and I'm also finishing Vision in PvE (almost done, alreday crafting the Istan weapons and I'm like 15 achievements away from "A Star Guides Us" to have everything done). The builds are weaker but still strong. I'll up some videos as soon as I could. But I was so busy with my Revs that after breifly testing the scepter in the beta I came back to my farmings and didn't touch any other beta build...

You can equip two Bitterfrost rings if you attune or infuse one of them, since becomes different. But you can't do the same with the earing, so you need to get the second earing from other map.

Each time you complete a map you have ~33% chances of getting a Black Lion Chest key, opening chest grants the Statuettes. You can get one extra key a week completing the level 10 personal story with a character and then delete it and repeat the next week. Really there's no way to obtain them fast.

Get the ascended trinkets from the seasonal maps, specifically Bitterfrost Frontier (ring, earing, back piece and underwater respirator, extremely fast to farm: around 50 winterberries x day x character in 5 minutes). Bloodstone Fen (way harder to farm but you can re-spec the stats with a minimal cost in magic, provides amulet, ring and back piece), Bjora March (after two quest opens access to amulet and earing, very fast to farm but limited to a single character x day), Sanswept Isles (ring, earring) and Dragonfall (amulet, ring earing and one of the most lucrative Open World metas in the game). Example of farming map currencies in Bitterfrost Frontier: Related to other goals: unlock EoD and Soto specs, mounts and masteries and start to work in unlocking the legendary armor sets; then legendary trinkets and then weapons. Legendary gear is now shared across characters though the legendary wardrobe so you can equip those items across all compatible characters and swap stats, runes, sigils and skins at no cost so they are the ultimate quality of life convenience stuff.

In WvW short bow is overall stronger (specially at roaming) not by itself but because can take advantage of celestial stats, which are wasted in a hammmer build, so a celestial short bow build would have always advantage over a power hammer build given the same amount of skill. But in PvP where celestial stats are not available short bow Revenants usually run power stats anyway, and in that landscape hammer could be competitive. Hammer also has more defenses than short bow and in a teamfight Field of the Mist could provide more value (I mean, in a universe in which professions didn't spam anti-projectile skills kin a blink). Imo the solution to really improve hammer should be making CoR a volumetric effect: you cover a volume and if there's a wireframe/hitbox contat it should be detected. The same with short bow #4 and #5 (and most of AoE in the game: Spirit Crush sometimes doesn't allow you to place the AoE in the floor in some PvP maps just because there's a sligh slant or a small 3d object protuding in the topography). Is incredible that the game sometimes doesn't allow you to use fairly those skills but still you can use the downstate push to place people inside the walls and ruin a match...

For WvW/PvP and even solo PvE Salvation has become prety much what Defense is for Warriors: it provides so much value in terms of defensive abilities and self sustain that is almost mandatory unless you're playin in a party in which other allies provides the support. You could do ok running against pure power builds and not having Salvation, but if you face hybrids or heavy condi builds you'll miss a lot not running Salvation. Take also in consideration that the removal of breakstun at legen swap in Rev was made at the same time it was nerfed across all the professions in the game, in a time in which was considered that having more than 2 breakstuns at our dispossal was unhealthy. Now take in consideration that we have already power creeped close to the past: Vindi can use up to 3 breakstuns in a row, and albeit is not as easy and cheap as just swapping legend (you need to spent energy) those breakstuns provide more effects that just removing your impairment.

In coordinated teams core Guardian is still very, very strong, as the last MAT showcased. Some other core builds as Necro can do well, albeit the power creep nature of the specs means that usually the latest additions have advantages over the older designs, yes.

Talking of PvP, some people is running Angsiyan's to get more energy to enable combos. Personally in WvW I'm still running Song because in find the extra endurance more useful (but I don't use it). In PvP I run that trait column empty. Invocati'n's Spirit Boom also provides vigor, but at WvW falls from 4 seconds to 1, so is almost nothing and Rapid Flow or Incensed Response are stronger options. Mirage and Dadedevil also get special benefits from vigor, since as the Vindicator they both have special evades and traits and skills playing with it.

Well, changes in short bow made it viable, but at the same time changes in Coalescence of Ruin botched that weapon and changes on staff, Shiro or Retribution made me abandon Herald. Changes not always means "nerfs" but oftenly means "you no longer will have fun with this build", so overall yes, I'm sceptic to changes.

Marauder gives more precission than Berserker. Eagle runes provide precission and ferocity and Ranger runes provide even more precission and some ferocity.

I've tried the hammer in a beta character with marauder weapons + armor and dragon trinkets (one marauder to cap the crit chance), with force sigils and a pure dps PvE Vindi build (100% cc and ~230% cd). Tried the damage in the starting area (the shore near the waypoint) in Siren's landing. The attacks hit high and albeit not as high as my Deadeye with F1+kneeling + rifle #3 the autos pushed near 4k against the zombies. So maybe not as fast, but you can delete trash mobs in a couple of autos at no energy costor a single higher cooldown skill (#3, #5). So in PvE has some farming usage. Now what intrigues me is the WvW: obviously you need a power build since the hammer wastes any stat related to conditions, and that means no celestial, so you can get good HP with around 22k in marauder + dragon and still cap crit chance and have like 220% crit damage with ~2450 to ~2650 power in WvW depending on rune (Dragonhuner or Scholar; you can also run Surge for mobility at the cost of lower crit chance and crit damade but still cap cc swaping some infusions from power to precission). But to reach high damage numbers you need to run Invocation for Roiling Mist and Devastation for the damage traits. That will mean no no Salvation for the defensive buffs and cleanses unless you take the PvP approach: since you can't max crit chance there some players run vision sigils for granted crits on swap (but only for 3 attacks). So that leaves me with some questions which I would to ask to some hammer enjoyers, as Shao, Azaroth or even Justine: * Which mele weapon/s to run? I'm slanted towards greatsword due the mix of mobility, block and high burst... * Which legends? For core Shiro + Jalis seems the natural choices; Herald opens Glint and Vindi the alliance. * ...And that brings me to the final question: to the specs worth to be taken? I don't see much value in Renegade with hammer since its damage is hybrid in nature and is reflected in the traits, and alacrity has low impact and small duration in WvW (at least at roaming). Herald increases base HP (probably uneeded) and Glint would provide mobility, easy access to fury and good cc, but I'm not sure if will be enough even against the core (maybe stronger vs power builds, but core would have free car with either Salvation or Retribution). Of course I maybe wrong and Devastation or Invocation aren't needed... Finally, Vindicator has some tradeoff, but it can absolutely deal vs condition based builds, specially paried with Salvation. I don't think that power hammer Rev would be as powerful at WvW roaming as cele Vindicator or even cele Renegade (and maybe condi Herald), since despite the range advantage those builds have more armor, more boon duration and better self sustain. But maybe after this changes could be in a better place, specially Vindi variants due the resilience vs enemy condi builds. Thoughs?