[AMAZING fan cover of Fear Not This Night]

I applaud your guildmate's talent and effort that he put into this amazing cover of one of my favorite GW2 songs. Also, R.I.P. Tybalt.

[So Why Do Players Do World Bosses? [POLL]]

When I first started playing GW2, I did world bosses for the high level equipment, for dragonite ore and/or the rare gear that I salvaged to get globs of ectoplasm since I needed them for crafting. Nowadays, I do world bosses mostly for the dailies. And for fun.

[Spirit Watch]

I feel the same way. I never figured out why players seem to either hate this map or just ignore it entirely. Maybe it's because of the orb and how it slows down the carrier that other players have to protect the carrier at all times, resulting in both teams clashing against one another until the orb resets, wasting everyone's time. The second reason could be that both spawn points are relatively close to each other that within 10 seconds, some players are either going to begin the team fight or everyone starts attacking each other next to the orb instead of getting to the mid point and fighting there.

I for one, really like how Spirit Watch looks and how it is designed. It's not too big, it's got plenty of open space while also having enough teleport spots for professions like thief, mesmer and elementalist can use to traverse the map. It's not like Eternal Coliseum where there's so little cover especially on the mid point where ranged professions can almost shut down melee professions. It's got just enough that it doesn't favor ranged professions over melee professions or vice versa.

[Character Log In Screen Suggestion - Fixed Character Positioning]

Personally, I would rather have characters to be able to display their weapons and backpacks instead of only displaying the armor.

[How to turn off the fire UI animation for full adrenaline?]

Are you talking about the fire UI animation when you activate Primal Burst? If so, then I don't think there is a way to make the UI animation go away. The only thing you can do is scale the HUD until it no longer covers up the screen.

[How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]]

@Chaith.8256 said:Positive last patch, but babysteps

They nerfed core engineer with Thermal Vision. It was an unnecessary nerf and it has made core engineer even more difficult to play in fractals in raids. It's bad enough that you must memorize 30+ step rotations in order to be on par with other professions, but now it's a case of you are either a god as core engineer, knowing the skill rotations and swapping from one kit to another .

But I agree with this last statement, ArenaNet is playing very safe with these balance patches. They never take any risks with how they change professions and instead they only do minimal changes to professions or sometimes none at all. Herald was the main focus in this balance patch, but that doesn't mean you get to not give other professions the same treatment.

[[Suggestions]QoL (Quality of Life) Ideas [Merged]]

I can only think of three quality of life suggestions: show every piece of gear your character is wearing on the main menu screen, different keybinds per profession and build templates.

[Which professions go best thematically with which races?]

@Rise.8259 said:So you see my problem here. Everything seems to look good on a human, but I have trouble getting excited about playing some of the other races because I'm not sure what is a natural fit for them (aside from obvious things like Warrior Norn or Ranger Slyvari).

Humans go well with most, if not all professions. They are one of the most versatile races.Norns go well with ranger, warrior and guardian. Soldier professions fit Norns better because of their massive size. Eir is a ranger and Forgal is a warrior (R.I.P. Forgal).Sylvary go well with most professions, but mostly with scholar professions because of their sense of discovery like Sieran who's an elementalist (R.I.P. Sieran).Asura go well with necromancer, elementalist, thief and engineer. Zott is an engineer (R.I.P. Zott), Zrii is a thief, Zojja is an elementalist (lots of Z's, I know).Charr go well with engineer, warrior, guardian and ranger. Lore wise, charr invented the engineer profession, even Tybalt is an engineer (R.I.P. Tybalt).

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter which race you choose for your profession. Just play the race you enjoy the most, but since you're interested in having fitting races for each profession, hopefully my recommendations helped you.

[Concerns about Elementalist]

@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:Those of you who care about the ele and its balance, please join this thread and continue to add your thoughtful and constructive comments. Thank you.

Dear Gaile,

Here are my thoughts on how to improve elementalist, as someone who plays core elementalist a lot:

1. Make Lightning Flash a stun breaker

Lightning Flash is a 900 range teleport, 40 seconds cooldown (32 seconds if traited which most elementalist don't do that), it deals little to no damage and most elementalist use it for traversing maps and for the vertical mobility. On the other hand the mesmer has Blink, a 1,200 range teleport, 30 seconds cooldown (24 if traited which is very likely to be used) and the best part of this skill is that it's a stun breaker.

My suggestion is to get rid of the damage Lightning Flash does and make it a stun breaker. As for the cooldown, it all comes down to you choosing if you want to keep the same teleport range, but reduce the cooldown from 40 seconds to 35 or 30 seconds or increase the teleport range from 900 to 1,200, but keep the cooldown the same.

2. Revert the changes to Fresh Air

The damage nerf on traits like Electric Discharge has greatly reduced the damage that core elementalist can do. With the weak defensive skills, it has made core elementalist even more vulnerable. It doesn't need to be as high as it was before, but at least bring it close to what it once was.

3. Rework the scepter auto attacks and focus skills

I love playing core elementalist and the scepter and focus weapons are not only great weapons, but also fit the wizard theme of the elementalist perfectly. That being said, they are not perfect and could be improved. The air auto attack is the best auto attack for the scepter, the water auto attack can deal solid damage, but the fire and earth auto attacks are really lackluster and are never ever used. When you think about using fire or earth auto attacks, you'd think that they would deal more damage than the water auto attack, but they don't.

Not only do they deal pitiful damage, but they also scale with power damage poorly. I recommend you increase the damage on both auto attacks, reduce the cast time on the earth auto attack from 1.50 seconds to 0.75 seconds and maybe have it apply weakness on enemies, reduce the cast time on the fire auto attack from 1 second to 0.5 seconds and make it a ground targeted skill that can hit multiple foes and it applies strong burning damage. As someone who mains core engineer with the Grenade Kit, ground targeted skills would help core elementalist tremendously when it comes to kiting enemies while predicting their movement to deal damage.

As for the focus skills, most of them are fine as they are, but not all of them. For example, I would like to see Freezing Gust changed so that it can apply chill on foes behind you like you can do with Comet and increase the chill duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. The fire focus skills are the worst; you get a wall of flame that deals little to no damage and it only serves for might stacking which for core elementalist isn't worth doing most of the time and Fire Shield might as well not even exist as the burning damage you deal to foes that strike you is very weak.

I hope you take these changes into consideration and thank you for reading.

[best focus class?]

@bara yaoi.3824 said:so which class has better focus, mesmer elementalist or necromancer?

Elementalist. You get 6 great skills with the weapon that give you a lot of utility. I say 6 because the fire focus skills are not as good as the other attunement focus skills and need to be reworked. Mesmer's focus has good CC, guardian's focus is the only weapon that gives them a block skill and necromancer's focus has boon removal.

[Subject 7: Blobs, Schmobs?]

@Ashantara.8731 said:I am having a really hard time finding a profession/weapon combo that does exclusively single-target damage even with other enemies standing nearby (or even in the same spot) for this achievement.

So, what am I missing?

The best profession that I managed to finish this achievement is with core fresh air elementalist. Just keep the air auto attack active, don't use any projectiles like Arcane Blast and occasionally use Swirlwing Winds, Magnetic Wave and Obsidian Flesh. No matter what, never use projectiles so you don't kill any of the oozes that surround Subject 7. Since the oozes use projectiles to attack you, you can just spam your strafe keys and avoid getting hit.

[How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]]

@Chaith.8256 said:

@Hoodie.1045 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:

@EUmad.7645 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:

@PierPiero.9142 said:Putting incendiary powder back in explosive ?

nah, why? I think Firearms was supposed to be the condition damage traitline and they've kind of achieved that. Yes it was everything with Cele stats for core Engi when in explosives but that era is gone anyway, it would do nothing to go back :(

Problem is that now you have no good source of damage in condi engi with firearms alone . Nades and bombs not traited are not that great ....

• Moving Short Fuse to Inventions so you can run Firearms, Inventions and maybe even another defensive traitline.

So the problem you pose about there being no good condi damage with Firearms alone, I expect that to be fixed if enough of my suggestions were put in.

It kind of seems odd to move an Explosives trait to Inventions. Maybe Chemical Rounds in Firearms could be buffed to increase condition duration on all skills instead of only the pistols?

Inventions has (had more) bomb traits.... AutoBomb dispenser, elixir infused bombs...

What kit would you say corresponds with Inventions? There's only one, bomb kit.

Explosives- Nade/MortarFirearms- FlamethrowerAlchemy- Med Kit/Elixir GunTools- Tool KitInventions- ???

I remember Elixir-Infused Bombs and yes I do agree that the bomb kit corresponds with Inventions, at least only with Autodefense Bomb Dispenser. I think it would be a good idea if Bunker Down was replaced with Short Fuse and in Explosives they could replace the current Short Fuse with the old Short Fuse which reduced cooldown on grenade and bomb skills, but I guess in this case it would only benefit the grenades, so maybe a 10% increase on grenade skills and reduced cooldown?

[How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]]

@Chaith.8256 said:

@EUmad.7645 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:

@PierPiero.9142 said:Putting incendiary powder back in explosive ?

nah, why? I think Firearms was supposed to be the condition damage traitline and they've kind of achieved that. Yes it was everything with Cele stats for core Engi when in explosives but that era is gone anyway, it would do nothing to go back :(

Problem is that now you have no good source of damage in condi engi with firearms alone . Nades and bombs not traited are not that great ....

• Moving Short Fuse to Inventions so you can run Firearms, Inventions and maybe even another defensive traitline.

So the problem you pose about there being no good condi damage with Firearms alone, I expect that to be fixed if enough of my suggestions were put in.

It kind of seems odd to move an Explosives trait to Inventions. Maybe Chemical Rounds in Firearms could be buffed to increase condition duration on all skills instead of only the pistols?

[Anet; what is your goal for elementalist?]

@Chasind.3128 said:What do you guys think about elementalist in its current state and soon to be future state?Please share your thoughts/ suggestions and opinions!

I think that the elementalists' current state is still good even for core fresh air elementalist. I play core professions for the most part and I still managed to reach platinum 1 this season as a core elementalist. It's not an easy profession to play especially core elementalist, but it's certainly one that is satisfying when played right.

Unfortunately, ArenaNet doesn't seem to like the elementalist a lot. A few balance patches ago core elementalist got nerfed, not so much that they made the profession unviable, but rather not as strong as it used to be. It's definitely a profession that is located at the bottom of their favorite professions list, mesmer being at the top.

[In-depth PvP guide]

It was worth the effort you put into this guide. Nicely done.

[E-Spec: Mechanist]

The name Mechanist reminds me of the Mechanists from Thief 2: The Metal Age.

[Tips for warrior in PvP/WvW?]

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@Hoodie.1045 said:Warrior is by far the easiest profession to be kited. No matter what you do, you'll easily get kited especially if your opponent is good at kiting.

Thanks for all the tips! This part however is disheartening despite all that. I'm still trying to find my pvp class and maybe warrior isn't good for that if in the end I'll just be led around in circles and pecked to death. It seems being locked into melee for the most part, despite how fun it is, it won't be the most effective for pvp/wvw. Theif or ranger maybe a good alternative?

I'm not saying that you shouldn't play warrior, far from it. In fact, it's one of the best profession for PvP/WvW, even core warrior. You don't have to worry about being kited. That part only comes from a core engineers' perspective. Ranger isn't exactly the best at kiting. All you can do is close the gap and force them to switch to greatsword.

Keep playing warrior. It's got good survivability, condition resistance and just about anything to fight against most professions. If you're a new player and if you're interested in playing multiple professions, ranger would be your next best step and leave thief for last.

[Tips for warrior in PvP/WvW?]

@"Zexanima.7851" said:(runing core warrior with shield/axe gs, I could go sb but I want to learn core first)

Keep playing core. It has more sustain than Spellbreaker due to the Might Makes Right trait.

0. Condi; Other than weapon swap and berserker stance do we have any way to deal with it or should that be enough?

The Cleansing Ire trait from Defense is one of the best ways to cleanse conditions and the best part is that it has no cooldown. Three adrenaline bars result in cleansing three conditions.

Also the Burst Mastery trait from Discipline restores one adrenaline bar after you swap weapons meaning you can land your Eviscerate, deal a lot of damage, cleanse three conditions, swap to greatsword and cleanse another condition. It's better to swap to greatsword because axes' damage scales with adrenaline.

1. Dragonhunter; with traps and longbow I get block/melted if I go in and pecked down from range if I don't

Use cover to LoS (line of sight) ranged professions. It's the best way to avoid being shot to death from range. Shield Master reflects projectiles, grants you might when you block attacks, heals you and grants you endurance from the Might Makes Right trait. It also reduces the cooldown on shield skills which is always appreciated.

When it comes to fighting Dragonhunters on capture points, expect for their traps to go off. You can use Whirlwind Attack from greatsword to trigger the traps while evading them. The only way for a Dragonhunter to deal a lot of damage with traps is if they're running full trap Dragonhunter which even by todays' standards is ridiculous.

2. Mesmer; I can never pin them down, but when I do they just evade-evade-evade-invis then we are back to square one or I'm dead cause they burst me down

Ah yes, the classic burst shatter mesmer. I know that it can be quite infuriating fighting them or better said not fighting them because you can't fight them when they've stunned you and pretty much one shot you. The best advice I can give you if you're fighting shatter mesmers are as follows:

• Be aware of your surroundings. If you're defending a capture point and you see a mesmer from the distance like in Legacy of the Foefire and you see the mesmer enter stealth, expect them to burst you at any moment. Running away to waste their stealth isn't going to help much because they have teleport and overall better mobility than a warrior. Have the axe/shield weapon set prepared and be ready to dodge or block once the mesmer appears. Have some stun breakers that grant you stability like Dolyak Signet or Balanced Stance. I recommend Balanced Stance due to the critical hits immunity.

• Condi mesmer can also be annoying, but keep in mind that landing your Eviscerate or Arcing Slice on a clone/phantasm still cleanses conditions. Combine that with Berserker Stance and you shouldn't have a lot of problems with conditions.

• Keep pressure on the mesmer. What I mean by this is if you swapped to axe/shield, keep auto attacking and using Cyclone Axe to deal a lot of damage. Once the mesmer dodges, use Shield Bash just as they're about to end their dodge and follow it up with Eviscerate. Eviscerate deals a lot of damage to a mesmer, especially if they're not using something like Demolisher's Amulet.

3. Ranger; I don't always have a problem with them but I've run into a couple that I just could not deal with. Invis/kiting were giving me grief and would bait out my reflect

Reflecting their shots and LoSing them is the best way to fight a longbow ranger. Greatsword can help you close the gap and once you do that, expect for the ranger to switch to greatsword. You've got the advantage because rangers can't swap weapons as fast as a warrior and they don't have a shield which they can use to block attacks. If the ranger uses Signet of Stone, wait for two seconds and continue the pressure.

4. Necro; If they kite me hitting me constantly with cc and condi I just get kind of shut down.

If you're not running Berserker Stance with Cleansing Ire, you're not going to have an easy time fighting necromancers.

TL;DR I seem to have trouble with condi and getting kited despite my gap closers.

Warrior is by far the easiest profession to be kited. No matter what you do, you'll easily get kited especially if your opponent is good at kiting.

[How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]]

@"Chaith.8256" said:A few people liked the idea of a unique Engineer transform instead of the coin flip Rampage/Tornado.

I fleshed out the suggestion more:

1.) Elixir X: New: Drink Elixir X to become a monstrous alchemical being. (Bar icon mouseover: Test Subject X). Transform looks like a potion/alchemy re-skinned version of: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Subject_Alpha.jpg . Engineers while transformed into Test Subject X gain 2,000 toughness and vitality, a similar durability compared to Rampage. Stability x2, 3s, boon interval: 3s.

I never liked the RNG aspect on Elixir X or just elixirs in general. From your suggestions, you get a evasive teleport that blinds foes, quickness that applies bleeding and cripple, an AoE immobilize and a 10 seconds poison, most of which have a really short cooldowns.

While your suggestions on the Subject Alpha transformation sound nice and making it not RNG is a step in the right direction, what do you think the cooldown on the Elixir X should be? 90 seconds? Maybe longer? Also, any toolbelt skill changes or should it remain how it is?

[Toggle Action Camera..]

@vaalix.4913 said:I was just about to uninstall this game until I found this option.. The combat seems 100x better with this option on.I would seriously consider including a short tutorial on that option for new players as soon as possible because other wise the combat system seems clunky and very annoying..

Here's a short tutorial: Left click attacks, Right click selects targets.

[Male Sylvari or male Human Thief and why?]

It doesn't matter which race you pick in Guild Wars 2. All of the races are the same. The choice comes down to you choosing between a race that is trying to bring back their home after it's been destroyed by the centaurs or a plant race that hates the Risen and it also British.

[Professions you enjoy the most and the least ?]

I have only played 5 professions throughout the years of playing Guild Wars 2. Here are my favorite professions:

1. Engineer

Core engineer has been the profession I played and enjoy the most. It's a profession that is so addicting and rewarding, especially when you use kits properly. It is regarded as lackluster by many, but not me. I love core engineer and just how diverse the profession is. It needs buffs and big buffs at that if ArenaNet wants build variety. I want build variety, but it can't be achieved if you only make one build objectively better than the rest which is similar to revenants' current state.

Ever since the Med Kit rework, I switched my core engineer to support engineer. I use Rune of the Pack and Mender's Amulet. I prefer Pack because with Water or Monk I lose damage. Playing core support engineer is almost as good, if not just as good as support Scrapper and I've managed to carry teams by constantly healing them. It's not as effective as Firebrand, but it's good enough. For PvP season 11, I managed to reach platinum 1 until I lost it and was brought back to gold 3. But I don't care, reaching gold 3 as a core support engineer using 4 kits (yes, 4 kits, I'm that big of a nutcase) has been the most challenging and worthwhile experience.

2. Elementalist

Core elementalist is doing just fine even though it got nerfed not too long ago. Playing core elemetalist isn't as easy as some players might say, but it certainly is rewarding to multitask when playing Fresh Air. Keeping the air auto attack active while switching to different attunements and keeping the high damage consistent is key to playing core elementalist.

It's a glass cannon profession, but due to the low health and light armor, it was intended to be a glass cannon. It has low survivability when not played right, but in the right hands, core elementalist can be really deadly.

3. Guardian

Not many people play core guardian, but those that do know how to play the profession. Core guardian is the purest example of a fighter and a team supporter. It can fight foes while protecting allies.

The different weapons types from swords and shields to scepters and focus, guardian has a fairly solid weapon variety.

(It's funny how the professions that have the biggest support capabilities happen to be my top 3 favorite professions)

4. Thief

By far the best core profession in the entire game. Core thief has been in the meta and for good reasons. D/p Daredevil is still good, but since I'm a core player and I'm talking about core professions, s/d core thief is doing amazingly well.

5. Warrior

Good old warrior. The first profession I started playing Guild Wars 2. I have a lot of fun playing core warrior even in PvP and it's still viable. Too bad so many players play Spellbreaker because it's the new kid on the block.

While I do like playing warrior, it is by far the easiest profession to be kited by other professions. I kited warriors with engineer, elementalist, thief and guardian. Warrior is indeed a beginner friendly profession that has skill to be mastered, but it's very limited in terms of fighting their opponents.

[What order should I play the story?]

@someshta.3809 said:Hi everyone,

I just got back to Guild Wars 2 after a few years doing other things. I'm a little overwhelmed right now with the sheer amount of content in the game. I really like the story though and I was wondering what order I should complete the story in. There are a lot of characters and background (Glint, Kralkatorik, Taimi, ...) that I just don't understand what's happening. Can someone give me the order of how to complete the stories in the character panel so that they are in chronological order?

If were including the Living World stories, it's personal story > Scarlet's War (Living World season 1) > Living World season 2 > HoT story > Living World season 3 > HoT story > Living World season 4.

In my opinion, the Living World stories are nice little story bits that are worthwhile if you enjoy the story, but the major stories and the most important ones are by far the vanilla, HoT and PoF stories.

[Change downed skills for Warrior]

@"Skill.3260" said:We have had the same downed skills since 2012 (with an addition to PvE with season 3). But we have gotten 1 new profession and 18 elite specs since then and I personally, think it would be nice with some new downed skills.. or at least, make some changes to the ones we currently have. Would like to hear other peoples opinion on this.

The only thing that could improve the warriors' downed skill is to make Vengeance not having to rely on RNG. Let's say you get downed, you use Vengeance, you kill someone and the timer on that condition no longer ticks for you to die. This would be far better as I have had many instances in PvP where I used Vengeance, I killed someone and I survived. Another thing is to remove the Hammer Toss skill and replace it with the shout skill "Fear Me!". Sure, it's a useless shout skill, but I think it would be a lot better than Hammer Toss as a downed skill rather than a utility skill.

[How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]]

@Chaith.8256 said:

@Hoodie.1045 said:

@Vagrant.7206 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:

@coro.3176 said:Not in the sense that it breaks the build or anything, but that amount of cleanse effectively means you can't play condi engi (or any condi build that isn't mesmer or scourge) in pvp because there will be opponents that you can't ever hope to touch with condi damage except with an unreasonable amount of focus or luck.

Very easily fixed by a number adjustment

Edit: There are still many problems with playing a non-necro/mesmer condi class in PvP.

Things like Conversion Holo and Firebrand exist, the condi hate is pretty real. However, no matter how insane a few builds can stack condition removal, there will be ways for condi builds to carve out viability by countering the prominent builds that have no/little condi removal.

Overall, I think the way condi is applied and condi cleanses work needs to be changed. The system of removing a whole stack of condi at once is a weird holdover from GW1.

Instead of condition removal, how about condition damage reduction? The only trait that accomplishes this is Iron Blooded. The problem I have with that trait is that it's reliant on you having multiple boons. The Holosmith can easily stack boons like might and other boons thanks to utility skills like Hard Light Arena. Combine that with Spectrum Shield and you've got a fairly sustainable Holosmith.

I remember Chaith mentioning the trait Orbital Command to be changed so that it increases the Mortar Kits' projectile velocity. I was thinking why not change the trait Iron Blooded to reduce physical and condition damage by 10% while using the Elixir Gun, as well as reducing Elixir Gun skills cooldown? Similarly to the Juggernaut trait, this will mean that you have to camp the Elixir Gun when you're under heavy condition pressure or when you're focused by power professions like warriors and thieves.

The engineer already has traits that require kits in order for them to be worthwhile, like Grenadier, Short Fuse, Power Wrench and Juggernaut. They could be better, but still they require those specific kits. Holosmiths have nothing to lose when they choose traits like Iron Blooded, so changing the trait to benefit core engineers and even Scrapper for using the Elixir Gun could reduce the sustain that Holosmiths currently have.

I have a couple problems with iron blooded being the eGun trait.

HgH is also the Elixir Gun improving skill, reducing CD and granting might on Toolbelt, #4, #5. I think compared to HgH and Purity of Purpose, which are very flexible grandmasters, your E-gun trait sounds more like a Health Insurance-esque adept trait.

Your uptime of eGun should honestly be from 10% to 40% depending on your role, a trait that only works while camping eGun, that's the same problem I have with Juggernaut. Kit camping traits when you're supposed to be playing the dynamic kit-swapping Engineer. ?

I know that camping a kit like with the Juggernaut trait can be boring and would affect core engineers' overall damage. So, I thought instead of camping the Elixir Gun, Iron Blooded can be changed so it grants you protection and resistance for 5 seconds every time you swap to the Elixir Gun with a 10 seconds cooldown. The cooldown wouldn't be too long so that you don't have to wait for it to be applied again in a fight.

The same thing can be done to the Juggernaut trait, having a 10 seconds cooldown and it applies might and stability for 5 seconds when you swap to the Flamethrower, the Grenade Kit or the Bomb Kit.