Blood Red Arachnid.2493

Getting to do things faster isn't "grinding". If you want to do one thing over and over again to farm some kind of currency, that is grinding. Merely killing things fast is of value, even if you're exploring maps, doing random events, jumping from content to content, and so on. Fact is that doing damage is how anything gets done in this game. A player should never want to be bad at damage. It isn't a job, either; wear offensive gear, choose offensive traits and utilities, and you're done.

Most training runs are done in guilds, or in discord. It's weird, I know, but consider it part of the vetting process to get somebody capable of winning a raid into a group. I've hosted a few pug training runs myself from the LFG, and until you do this you won't comprehend how bad players can get. There is a very large portion of the game, roughly a third I'm assuming, who are completely unfamiliar with how anything works in the game. They don't have a "build", their gear is whatever random rares they've picked up and their traits are also randomly chosen, if any are picked at all. They don't know how to dodge, what CC is, what the special action key is, they don't know how to put the squad UI into grid mode to see what group they're in, they don't know to huddle tightly for boons and heals, they don't know what most of their skills do, they don't know to split between either condition or strike damage, the moment anything happens they look at the keyboard in a confused panic, etc. and so on. It is a bit like training people for a marathon, but one out of every three people who lines up on that track are toddlers.

It doesn't have to do with grinding at all.

It's viable, but generally you'll want to kill things as fast as possible. This saves real world time, and also lets you move on and get more loot in the same timeframe.

I've always thought that GW2 could take inspiration from Smash Bros. and include maps with chaotic and random events to spice things up.

The price of items is determined by supply and demand. The less there is supplied and the higher the demand, the more the price goes up. Since all these are aesthetic, demand is finnicky to deal with, but supply is in pretty direct control by Anet.

I'd prefer it if they increased the drop of items so there was nothing worth more than the gold cap.

If you're referring to the staff mirage build mentioned easier... it is only easier to play in some very select circumstances. It is a condition build that requires maintaining clones to maximize damage, and it has a long ramp up time when doing damage. This makes it pretty good for any enemy that is elite rank or higher, but while fighting veteran and lower enemies you'll find yourself constantly running out of clones and getting clobbered by many enemies that die way too slowly. The main strengths of the build is that it is good for kiting enemies, as you can run away constantly while having clones do damage for you, and also it is relatively low maintenance once you've gotten all the clones out. A third advantage is the ability to equip Trailblazer Gear and still do most of your damage, creating a tank that is slow to kill things but also very difficult to get killed. For general overworld stuff, Chronomancer and Virtuoso are better. There are many enemies that will die to a single use of Phantasmal Swordsman, or a single full power shatter, etc. They'll die relatively quickly and with little fuss, so there's little reason to change over to staff mirage for them. There are power mirage builds out there, and they can work, but they're generally not as recommended due to being more heavily clone dependent than the other two elite specs. Bladesongs and Double-Phantasms are far easier to use than having to micromanage clones all the time.

Basically, anything that has a high loot output is going to give you a bunch of rares to salvage, or it is going to give you a bunch of stuff you can sell to buy Ectos. I haven't had to farm gold for awhile, but what I would do is run through all of the big map metas for HoT, PoF, and EoD. High end fractals are also great for loot, but the barrier to entry is pretty high. Many of the metas from Living World season 3 and 4 are also pretty good, but those maps tend to be abandoned on days where they are not part of the daily rotation. EDIT: Can't believe I forgot it. For the more unending grinds, two places to just camp and do stuff are the Silverwastes, and Drizzlewood coast. Dragon's Fall is also a good place to get loot, but it isn't always populated.

When it comes to gear, going full Berserker isn't always the best option anymore. Power mesmers generally go for a high number of Assassin Pieces, enough to get 75% crit chance (100% under fury). For Chronomancer and Mirage that is... nearly their entire set. Power virtuoso runs less, since they need only 60% chance to crit due to their innate traits. You don't lose much by staying full berserker, but if you never reach a point where you start updating your gear, consider consulting something like Snowcrows raid build guide for some specific tips. As far as weapons go, the "best' is to use Dagger/Sword + Greatsword, but that would also require purchasing EoD and SotO. For now, going with Sword/Sword +Greatsword or something similar will work just as fine. When it comes to priorities... that question is harder to answer. Reason being that most people here played the xpacs when they came out, so we didn't have to consider it. From HoT, the one mastery that you'll definitely want for everywhere is Gliding. The rest are used mostly in HoT and nowhere else. The mounts from PoF are far more valuable, however it can be quite difficult to get the Gryphon and the Skyscale. IF I were to try and optimize it without bothering with the stories, I would get the basic mounts (raptor, springer, skimmer, jackal) first, grind a bunch of events in those maps to level them up, then go to HoT. You could always do the expansions in order if you want the more authentic experience, but know that most of HoT was designed like a maze.

Given enough time, a commander tag will pay for itself.

I'm going to second the advice to not pick a main. Just play a bit of all the professions, and do what feels right, Personally, I play 8/9 professions, and I couldn't see myself sticking with just 1.

For the elementalist, there's two caster builds that I would recommend. The easiest one is the fire tempest: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgEsEW2ALhdxqYk4oa12uA-DSRYmBRyGNcbjRiCIeC44YAAVA-e The exact distribution of stats isn't as important. Just make sure you've got about 5% condition damage from vipers gear, and the rest can be either Sinister or Griever. The gimmick of this build is that it doesn't leave fire attunement, so it is built to maximize as much burning and strike damage as possible. It summons a lot of lesser fire elementals, and the trait setup makes Arcane Power act like a burning version of a thief venom. You can use an off-hand focus instead of a warhorn for more damage, but warhorn has greater range and is easier to use. This is the closest thing to an LI build that elementalist can get. It does most of it's damage at range, has minions to distract enemies, and it caps might for all of your teammates. Failing that, know that the elite skill summon gives you an arcane shield when you activate its skill. The second one is significantly more involved, but it can accomplish more. That is scepter condi weaver: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgEsEWmBTidxmYm4o6Y+qA-DSJYmRD/ZEnEIXFgCPGAQFA-e Again, a focus can be used instead of a warhorn for greater damage and different utilities. The way this build works is it alternates going form Fire/Fire, to Earth/Fire, then Fire/Earth, and then back to Fire/Fire again. Doing this maintains all the trait buffs and gives it 100% global condition duration with food. Having access to Earth gives it a lot more defensive utilities that the Fire Tempest doesn't otherwise have, and it does more damage. Also, it is important to know that the utilities here aren't set in stone. You'll be changing the utilities based on circumstances: Primordia Stance does the most damage AoE with no animation, but is only good at melee range. Glyph of Storms does high AoE damage in fire and blinds enemies when cast in earth, but it has an animation time. Good against groups and mobs you'll want to blind. Glyph of Elemental Power is a stunbreak with no cast time that enhances the next few attacks, but it is only good against single targets. Glyph of Lesser Elementals is good if you're fighting in one area for a long time, as it takes along time to get all 4 elementals up and they die instantly when mounting. Signet of Fire and Restoration are generally anchored to the bar and aren't swapped out. The hardest part about this build is the Weave Self Portion. If you're trying to benchmark, it can takes many hours of training to get the right flow and sequence of elements, and even more to use it properly in combat. However, if you aren't particularly trying too hard, you can just alternate between Fire and Earth for all relevant buffs. This requires a lot of button presses, but it will surprise you with how much damage it can unleash at 900 range.

Took me a moment to realize you don't mean in raids. From that list, I'd recommend Scrapper. It has basically everything you want, except it uses a hammer as its weapon.

I don't think he's referring to transferring conditions to enemies, but transferring conditions from allies to himself. I can't find an exact source, but I remember vague conversations about it. When the condition is moved from an ally to yourself, it is technically re-applied, so duration reduction effects take place. I.E. a 10 second burn on an ally will turn into an 8 second burn on you when transferred under a -20% duration effect. Anyway, I decided to do a quick experiment. Using "Save Yourself!" on a guardian with Melandru runes and Lemongrass Poultry Soup, I transferred 6 seconds of poison from an ally to myself, and only got 3 seconds of it on my toon. Tried this again with a 10 second blind, and only got 6 seconds of blind on myself. Much thanks to the AFK weaver that I lured enemies to for these tests.

The reason why I don't trust you is because of this: You write this as if it is the first time you've ever considered pulsing blinds as a defensive option. You know, the trick that Necromancers, Thieves, Engineers, and Elementalists have been disabling groups with since launch? The one that's still being used in non-boss Fractals to this day? Even rangers got this option when the smokescale was introduced. See, a person who is really well versed and experienced with every profession in every kind of content is going to know this. Either you're interfacing with the game at such a low intellectual level that your experiences are all worthless, or you're not telling the truth.

Reaper loses offensive power by taking hits in shroud, which very much loses the rotation. You're missing the forest for the trees, here. To get all of the defenses you listed in specific elite specializations, you have to trait that specialization over something else. You mention Bladesworn having Aegis, but what does Berserker get? Nothing. Your whole case is "other professions get defenses when they equip defenses," which contradicts your initial claim that they don't. Irrelevant. Ele has enough to survive well, and that is all that matters. Somebody has to. No they aren't. This is all wrong. Weaver and Catalyst go through every element quite quickly. Tempest generally doesn't, except that it has only 2 seconds on changing attunements, which is how long it takes to swap to Earth/Water, use the defensive skill, use the highest DPS skill in that attunement, then get right back to the fight while losing almost nothing. Most of Ele's functions come from it's weapon skills and it's traits, as well as utilizing the combo system. You're not looking in the right place if you focus on utilities and nothing else. Ele has a higher skill requirement than most professions, which is why it isn't played s much. This isn't a failure of design. Yes. I regularly give advice on how to play ele well. I do this because ele is, IMO, the most fun profession in the game. And I can do that for every single profession in the game. I don't believe you. From the way you write and the things you say it reads as disingenuous. I have had other people tell me not to bother speaking to you, and I have yet to see evidence against this assertion.

Other professions also have to use defensive skills. It is a pretty big myth around here that other professions just get free survivability options. There's only one that does (mesmer), and even then the distortion comes at the cost of illusions. Everyone else has to slot a defensive utility/trait, get animation locked into a block/evade (which ele also has in many skills), or pay some kind of additional cost that hurts their performance anyway (initiative, illusions, life force, etc). Fire/Arcane tempest gets a free Arcane Shield every 20 seconds thanks to it's summons. Magnetic Aura also happens to work on all projectiles, and not just ones targeted at a specific player. The advantage to magnetic aura is that it sticks to the player, letting them move while also reflecting projectiles. I bring up Arcane Shield because it is core, has no animation time, and is quite useful. However, that's not the only options Ele has. Depending on the weapons, they'll have: STAFF: Burning Retreat (evade), magnetic aura, unsteady ground + frozen ground (regular mobs) DAGGER: Burning Speed (evade), Updraft (evade), Earthen Rush (evade), Steam Surge (evade, weaver), Mud Slide (evade, weaver) FOCUS: Swirling Winds (projectiles), magnetic wave (projectiles), obsidian flesh (invulnerability) WARHORN: Sand Squall (projectiles), Dust Storm (blind spam) SWORD: Riptide (evade), Earthen Vortex (evade) HAMMER: Crashing Font (large self-heal), Immutable Stone (block + magnetic aura + barrier) This isn't including all of the one-time blinds, and all of the crowd control both soft and hard. To give a build example, one of my favorite specs to run is Fresh Air Sword/Dagger weaver. On this spec, I have an evade in every attunement but fire. I heal 202 health every time I attack, which is a lot because of how fast I attack. I gain 523 barrier in an AoE each time I use a dual attack. My Dual attacks inflict weakness on enemies for a high uptime. I start the fight with Lava Skin, giving myself 3k barrier. I can blind foes for 10 seconds with Sandstorm, or just do a lot of damage in other attunements. When I need to CC, I go through a chain rotation that inflicts 732 Defiance Damage on top of all the weakness, chill, and blind I inflict passively. With Reinforced Armor and a tier 10 core I'm sitting at 14.6k starting health, even in full glass. I also have a condition cleanse in water, if I hold the rotation but for a fraction of a second to use it. This is all a lot of words to say that Ele isn't defenseless. Not by a longshot.

One of the things I've learned as a full glass ele in group PVE is that Arcane Shield is a greatly underrated skill. The snowcrows rotations will have something like Arcane Blast on, but that is only a 700 DPS increase overall. Arcane Shield will still do damage when it blows up, but the handy combination of stunbreak and several blocks with no animation makes for a great emergency button that will save you from all sorts of problems. It isn't hard to run an Ele in full glass... so long as you properly utilize their defensive abilities. Glyph of Storms, Arcane Shield, and the various ways of gaining Magnetic Aura will handle the threats ele faces, even in CMs and raids. It is rare to ever need more than those two utilities.

Good question. I believe that it does.

All of that stuff isn't exclusive to raids. In the overworld there are still meta events with timers and harder bosses (Dragon's End, Bounties, Serpent's Ire, etc). The game's population gets thinner over time, and even now many group events that were formerly zerged down now have only a handful of players to complete them. Regardless, DPS is still proportional to the rate that loot is gained, and the ability to efficiently do damage is still a factor in survival.

Yes. What we're seeing here is the reduced version of the ticket grind, from just before EoD was released. You have to play WvW, but in the weakest sense of the word. To get Conflux and the WvW Legendary Armor I did the lazy method of sitting hidden behind an enemy camp and just taking it every 10 minutes or so. So long as you take a camp or stomp a fool every once in awhile, you'll maintain participation, which will then give you all the skirmish chests.

Well, it's been a day. You haven't gotten an answer, because that's backwards to the way the game works. We don't pick professions based on their weapons but we pick weapons based on what is good for our favorite professions.

Anything that can't last forever, won't. Everybody is going to get bored or move on with their life eventually. To put this into perspective, the real question isn't why other people leave, but why we've stayed, because we're in the minority here.