AliamRationem.5172

Priorities vary, but if you want something with great sustain and probably the best DPS you can get in solo play its hard to beat power untamed. Here's a clip with build link:

Sustain on wilderness survival is a bit less effort as it's baked right into your rotation on every CC. On the other hand, marksman can just swap one trait to gain similar sustain by dropping ferocious symbiosis for restorative strikes. And when you don't need it (probably most of the time!) You get better damage.

The good news is gear hasn't changed. Ascended is still the best you can get and still only 5% better than exotic trash gear. As for reasons to buy the new expansions? I'll give you two: EoD elite specs and SotO weapons and weaponmaster training with new weapons for every class and the ability to use any weapon available to your class on any spec.

Do you mean core ranger? Because soulbeast, untamed, and even druid don't seem to have any problems dealing damage. All 3 show benchmarks in the 42.5-44k range, with druid and untamed both listed in the top 10 builds on SC. Further, soulbeast has been one of the best power DPS builds for fractals for years and Untamed has been the highest DPS build in the game in solo play since it released.

Your post is difficult to understand, but if I am reading you correctly you're only interested in raids/strikes/fractals and have little patience for anything else. GW2 is a poor choice of game for you as it prioritizes the "everything else" while providing very little of the content you're interested in.

Just check the trading post for exotic level 80 weapons with the stats you want. Some stats aren't available for purchase or cost a lot, but there should be some viable options you can use on the cheap.

Good suggestions. I don't see why you should have to choose between these functions. The only ones that should be restricted are the ones that provide extra loot of different types. Of course we wouldn't want (or maybe we would, but it wouldn't be a good idea to allow it!) the bonus loot modules of different types to be stackable. But I don't see why having the boost that lifts you while gliding should be mutually exclusive with making your skiff faster, for example.

FYI On king toad make sure you re-select him as the target before you throw the gem. That should avoid any issues with throwing the gem at...I don't know what, his necklace maybe? But he doesn't eat it when this happens!

It's good to have options!

Interesting. Hadn't thought of separating the maces. I like the flow of sword/axe, mace/mace but that could be good, too.

As a rule, I hate pet classes and prefer melee play styles and while this being GW2 there's no reason you have to adhere to a play style you don't like, ranger has always been haunted by that bearbow image for me. In any event, I recently started playing the class and found that the melee bruiser style of Untamed really suits me! So, I thought now that I'm feeling comfortable with it I might share my progress with my open world build as I seem to have gone a bit of a different route than SC or Hizen have with their open world builds. Here's a quick video clip with a full build link in the comments.

You'd think it would be obvious, right? What is the thought process here? Oh, B2P? That's pay-to-win because you have to pay for it. Subscription-based? Also, pay-to-win because you have to pay for it. If all pay structures fit the definition of "pay-to-win", then what is the point in even having names to describe them in the first place? It's all just pay-to-win!

No. The reality is you're interpreting that definition for yourself when it already has a definition which is not what you want it to be. GW2 is B2P, my guy. Facts.

So, because you want to interpret the words "pay-to-win" literally instead of using the commonly understood definition of the term "P2W", you get to institutionalize what P2W means objectively to everyone? Sure, bud. Whatever you say. 🙄

I think making a distinction between buy-to-play, where you pay for the full features of the game, and pay-to-win where you have to keep making microtransactions to realistically compete is more useful than describing both as "pay-to-win" on the basis that you have to spend money. The pay structure is completely different and it's much easier to tell what you're getting with a buy-to-play game. That's why pay-to-win has the negative connotation that it does.

I've tried the gazelle but not the polar bear. CC isn't much of an issue because I'm playing untamed with sword/axe and maces. But I doubt the pet damage is very significant either way.

I think the overall difficulty of open world content in the expansions is fine. I don't think that it's gotten all that much easier (aside from personal objectives like hero points) since HoT. If anything, I'd say the roving bands of ranged enemies that spam conditions and CC and often include elites in EoD are tougher than most of the normal enemies you encounter in HoT. SotO took a bit of a step back. Enemies seem to have more health, but are generally less threatening, which I don't feel is an improvement.

Is it really that frustrating to just look around instead of trying to figure out how to make a straight line from A to B on a map? It should be pretty obvious within minutes of exploring Tangled Depths that you just can't do that. But the moment you stop trying and use your eyes, you start finding things. Why is that updraft there? Why are there enemies over on that random ledge? Where does that cave entrance lead? Is there something in this pool of water? I think what they did there was really great and underappreciated.

It was a nightmare because you didn't know your way around. Like all the other maps, TD only requires updrafts and bounce mushrooms to access nearly the entire map. You can't full map complete, but it's no barrier to participating in most events and unlocking most objectives. That's just the reality.

I don't see the XP or mastery experience as an issue. You can walk on foot to every waypoint as well as accessing the next zone. There are plenty of mastery points available along the way and unlocking gliding, updrafts, and bounce mushrooms will allow you to access the vast majority of every HoT map. I also didn't mind the combat. Of course that's just me. I wasn't in any rush. I just enjoyed exploring the zone and unlocking the initial masteries felt impactful. It only became an issue due to the use of pointless filler masteries. Unlocking poison mastery, for instance, just felt like the game wasting my time.

That moment where you watch the cinematic and then set foot into the war zone of verdant Brink was probably my favorite early memory of this game.

Just my opinion, but I think they had the right idea, but being their first attempt at it they made some mistakes. Filler masteries and extreme mastery XP requirements being an example of that. I thought Verdant Brink was an amazing experience and I spent quite a lot of time just exploring that map, unlocking what I could, and completing the story before setting foot into Auric Basin. I think this is how they intended this expansion to be played. They clearly expected players to take their time. But this goes against the core model of rushing around map completing with take-it-or-leave-it events that aren't required for anything. So unless you enjoyed the exploration and associated mastery progression, HoT probably felt restrictive. Especially if you also hated the combat.

I think one problem with GW2 is if you're going to focus an MMO on open world solo and casual group content, you have to accept that players seeking any sort of challenge will quickly get bored. HoT, with the introduction of raids and more difficult open world content seems an attempt to address that. Naturally, not everyone is going to agree with that strategy. In particular, I think the freedom of GW2's build system sometimes works against them and new players in HoT is a perfect example of that. I can't tell you how many times I see a core staff elementalist with very low MP in the jungle and think "Oh, this guy looks like he needs help!" The addition of celestial gear to the boost helped a little, I think. But new players probably have to rely on outside resources if they want an easier time with HoT.

What would you use as the second pet to go with tiger? I've been using tiger and jungle stalker, the stalker seems nice for solo with that big might boost entering combat. I can't really tell what pets are doing outside of the basics of the tooltip, though.

My CM group doesn't gg at this boss, but I don't see why it matters enough to require a PSA.