Misquesh.9504

For me Minion Necro was problematic in HoT and in some specific encounters exactly because of the minions. There are enemies that sap health out of them to heal and it doesn't work too well for me, same goes for enemies that create fields and have stuff like leap and projectile finishers. I still like it, it's just that in certain situations, compared to other professions it's less reliable because of it's core feature.

Have you even bothered to check out the link I posted? :s There is no longbow in that DH build. Dragonhunter is anything but weak, you just don't know how to play it. A lot of other stuff you posted leaves me thinking that you didn't even care to educate yourself on profession meta builds. Seeing your tone, I won't ever want to try out anything you post, really. And I won't even bother with a proper reply towards my experiences with that spec. Educate yourself about "subjective preferences" while you visit the dampest, darkest, and the most vile and populated place in the world, located right below your tailbone. :'(

Well, I have an update. On the 4th try I received a code. However, the SMS was missing a word "code" itself. Today 3 previous messages "updated" into proper full versions. So I suppose both waiting and trying again works.

2FA is acting up. So far I've tried to log-in thrice and received 3 SMS from different numbers. Messages themselves, however, were completely empty - no theme, no code. Should I just go for the good ol' reliable "ayo just wait for a day friend" or is it some kind of known issue that I should actively try to resolve because waiting won't help?

It hurts, oh God it hurts!

Ughhhhhhh, curses, my luck probably won't be so kind to throw out a stylist contract. Still, thanks for the reply, at least I can give up now.

I came back to the forums in order to ask a different question, but here I am reading the thread. Again, when I'm talking about "soloing the open world" I'm talking about soloing champion/legendary enemies and related events. Killing trash mobs or just tanking SOME damage is of no concern to any class, I believe, and it doesn't require any specific setup to pull it off either. I've been playing on and off as pretty much every class in the game aside from elementalist(my arthritis won't let me) and lately guardian(deleted) since I've made that post and I realized that for me the Deadeye is simply superior in every way possible. Insane amounts of sustain and damage, high mobility and boon generation, ease of use and ability to outright ignore majority of close-combat dangers - all in one nice package. CC is not too much of a problem since I learned to use stuff like Boulders and Planks, and also because I usually don't even need it in order to survive. Shortbow covers blast finishers and groups of enemies. Classes like Reaper, Mirage, Holosmith and Soulbeast are nice, however, in some situations using them is akin to having a death wish.Pets of Reaper and Soulbeast, or even some of Mirage's clones draw agro and that's great. However, what's not so great is when these pets cause an enemy drop a god damn fire/smoke/literallywhatever field at them. Since they attack in melee it will basically allow the enemy to utilize field combos with lethal effect. No amount of condi cleanse will save you from continuous status barrage every time AI decides to use the field ability. Certain abilities like Black Powder of Ezal The Quick will not only create fields, but also BOUNCE from your pets towards you, greatly increasing their effect against you.All of these classes rely on melee for maximum killing efficiency, that doesn't work well 100% of the time.As for the ranger specifically, it's just pukeinducing to me. Feels slow and weak. Chaining it with melee works better, but I'm not into trying to face-tank a champ constantly just to have okayish damage. The whole boonbeast act is boring, pretty much running signets instead of abilities - just activating timed "stances" is meh. It takes longer to kill things as a ranger and feels less enjoyable than ANY other class I've ever tried out. But I guess it's nice since you can survive a lot even if you fail miserably and get knocked on your bottom, since lick wounds exists. Right now I'm still forcing myself to play as one, but ooh boy is that a difficult and unenjoyable task. The only thing that moving me forward with that class is the fashion-wars potential.Renegade is a tough one for me, kind of gimmicky to use, but the build Eros.6801 has provided certainly seems interesting. Especially since I use the same "runes for heals" strategy on my Mirage.That being said, I still enjoy playing as Deadeye, Holosmith, Mirage, Reaper, Spellbreaker and Herald. I suppose everyone has their playstyle and certain professions require a different way of thinking in order to achieve success in every situation. With the recent A-mazing "champion killing event" testing stuff on my own is pretty difficult since champs just get gangbanged by mobs of ambitious adventurers, but it's going to end today and I'll continue my futile attempts to do everything on my own in a game that was not balanced for that. Thank you for the responses, it was interesting and insightful.

First off, I don't know where else I could ask this question, so excuuuuuuuuuuse me if I'm banging on the wrong door. So, is there a way to preview hairstyles outside of the "preview/edit" tool? I would like to use twintails and ponytail hairstyles, however, there is an issue - most of them have wonky physics or clip terribly during movement. During the selection process character does not move much and no amount of spinning the model immitates real movement. I can just create and delete characters to test out vanilla appearance options, but I'm not rich enough to do the same with exclusive stuff. When I search for demo videos of hairstyles I get results like "TOP 10 HAIRSTYLE BATTLES CHAD PINK CHARR VS GOTHIC ASURA" or straight up 20 minutes of someone using the preview tool to show off all of the existing appearance options, so it doesn't work.

I'll just mention here that a core guardian with decent traits is probably the most OP and efficient profession there is for open world pve, so you might give them another look. Oh, when I said "I almost gave up on the Guardian because of how bad it was." I was talking about Dragonhunter Guardian. I know that core is good, that's why Dragonhunter was even more disappointing to me.

A lot of time has passed, I've been busy working on 6 characters simultaneously, but I'll share some of my experience for those interested. Dragonhunter was terrible. Bow is just too weak and relies too much on CC that doesn't work well against champs. Or anything, really. I almost gave up on the Guardian because of how bad it was. I found Firebrand to be a much better spec. I use a Greatsword and Scepter/Focus as my weapons and Zeal+Radiance trees. And it's pretty good. I replaced berserker gear with valkyrie gear and feel pretty tanky now. Constant Retaliation + Fury provide good damage and max out my crit, mantras provide a lot of condi cleanse, stun breaks and blocks. Tomes are kind of wonky though, but still, they provide some help and you get to keep passives going even when they're on cooldown. A great class in most situations. I changed my opinion on the Warrior. I still consider it to be on the weaker side (and I guess I'm not alone, since I checked out the warrior sub-forum and a lot of people there are very upset with the current state of the class), but after giving it another go, I realized that it's not too bad. Very good damage and decent CC. Survivability is kind of on the low end imo, since you have to be in melee to deal good damage, which usually is a very bad idea, and makes soloing phase-shifted bounties pretty much impossible. It's very weird to me that Warrior only gets 7% life leech in PvE from crits and only with a dagger off-hand, while Deadeye can easily have 20% life leech with ranged and melee weapons due to perma-Fury, I suppose people at Arenanet know more than me about the Risk and Reward principle. Ranger on the other hand disappointed and confused me. Right now I have only used the Soulbeast elite spec and it just feels weak to me. Sustain is great, yes, but damage is just "meh". Daggers just feel weird to use and require condi gear. Stances are cool I guess, but compared to other classes it's just disappointing and boring. I haven't played much as a ranger though, so maybe I will discover it's greatness later. Holosmith was a surprise for sure, but a welcome one. Never expected to have a shield hero experience as an engineer, heh. Very tanky due to all the damage resistance, blocks and dodges you can get. Good sustain due to water/light fields combos, CC and health regen from heat therapy. And good damage too. A little bit lacking in terms of ranged options while in Photon mode though. Still, it's a very fun class to play as in solo. And it's very good in groups too, since you can share boons, healing and condi cleanse with other players easily. Plus a cool factor of being a kitten knight if you equip a shield. I also got myself a rune of the Ogre, since it provides decent damage and a pet. Works pretty well, Rock Dog draws agro and, as I already said, can be easily sustained due to AoE nature of Holosmiths survivability. Deadeye, Reaper, Mirage and Holosmith are the easiest and most effective classes/specs to use while soloing ANYTHING. At least from my casual experience.

Thanks for the info, people. It's very useful. I tried out Mirage and even though I was not a fan of the idea at first(mostly because of how much you have to invest into Viper gear) I really like it now. Still getting used to juggling my illusions around but even so, it feels good. Tried Necro with minions as well and it was good too due to all damage reduction and agro. Kind of sad that shouts don't have much use aside from the "Rise!". Still didn't like it as much as Mirage, as sometimes I would feel like I have nothing to do in the middle of the fight aside from spamming the second ability on my greatsword and there are also moments where amazing minion AI just makes them kamikaze into enemies. Currently leveling up Ranger and it looks very promising so far, it feels that enemies pay more attention to your pet 99% of the time, so it's a rather relaxing experience. Warrior on the other hand really disappointed me, compared to all the other classes mentioned it's just meh. It works good against trash mobs but doesn't even stand close to Mirage, Deadeye and Necro when it comes to surviving against all odds for long periods of time. Maybe I'm playing it wrong, maybe exotic gear is just not enough and ascended might help, but it's just "meh" at best.

As title says, I would like to know what is the best class to solo open world content. Or at least what classes can handle it. I'm talking about soloing champion enemies(bounties in PoF) or just doing group events on my own. So far I've been playing as Deadeye and it works out just fine in most situation, but it kind of get's old and I bought that sweet gem aura outfit and now I want to play as a female character because ungh dat sweet booty and voluptuous personality. I'm currently working on 3 characters - a mesmer, an engi and a ranger. I saw some people solo champs as these. What was your experience with these classes? Are there better alternatives? I also tried playing as a Reaper because of 2b cosplay, but I didn't like it much and it didn't work out when soloing champs.

Greatsword would be nice. But not Necromancer style of greatsword. I want thief's greatsword moves to be fast and whirly, like Artorias' sword moveset from Dark Souls. Or maybe precise strikes, like jumping on 1 enemy and dealing heavy damage with multiple vertical strikes. Or maybe a shield that would allow parrying and blocking. Or maybe a spec for already existing weapons that would change up their set/do something with initiative. Just not the torch. I don't like torches.

Hmmm, now that my experience, but I think that Deadeye is better than Daredevil in general. But not in all cases. Thief is indeed squishy. Deadeye, as well as Daredevil don't really fix that. Instead, both specs add more options to evade damage.-Daredevil increases effectivness of your dodges and provides evasion on staff skills. It also greatly improves your mobility overall, so sometimes you can just run away from damage.-Deadeye grants stealth on rolls with rifle and provides a lot of vigor, so your endurance regens really fast. It also has a dodge move on rifle, that you can spam through initiative, but it's kind of clunky. "Only 1 target at a time"-Daredevil reigns supreme in terms of cleave. A lot of staff moves and even dodges deal AoE damage.-As Deadeye, managing multiple targets can be rather difficult at times. It can even reduce your damage output because you don't generate Malice unless you hit the marked target, so if it's blocked by another enemy - too bad, I guess you gotta do something about it. Best solution to this problem that I've found is to use dual daggers. They have an AoE-like move, a ranged attack and an attack that stealths you, so it just works(praise be to Godd Howard). "Malice"-It's kind of stupid. I love my Deadeye, but malice just doesn't work in PvE and against squishy targets.-You generate malice by damaging the marked target. Then you use your first weapon skill FROM STEALTH and all Malice points increase damage you deal. Basically, it's only really useful against Veteran and above enemies and works as a glorified warrior adrenaline bar. Deadeye was nerfed not long after it came out of beta because PvP crowd was crying about it if I recall correctly. So I guess ArenaNet decided to share the pain with PvE players and nuked Deadeye from the orbit in all game modes.I deal with squishiness by being an absolute coward. During events, for example, I just take my rifle, kneel somewhere and while everyone get's decked I just dish out damage. Game has a lot of spots where enemies can't reach you, so I get there with my mount and snipe stuff while fellow elementalists tank damage, heh."Invigorating Precision" from "Critical Strikes" tree helps out A LOT too, I'm constantly in Fury due to "Trickery" tree and "Maleficent Seven" and crit pretty much all the time, so even if enemy manages to damage me, I can just outheal it. And if even that doesn't work, I have tricks to help me out - Withdraw, Roll for Initiative and Haste. All on shorter cooldown. If I get dead, it's usually when everyone else is dead. Or enemy reflects projectiles and I didn't notice it/Arenanet forgot to add it to enemy description. :^) And tbh I don't know about P/P, I tried it with my build and didn't like it, as it didn't fit my playstyle. And I can't let my gems that I spent on Zafirah's Rifle skin go to waste. I use Dual Daggers as my backup weapons and it seems to work fine. If you don't like Deadeye, I would recommend to play as Daredevil. It's very fun since it allows you to fight crowds of enemies and is much more mobile than Deadeye. Damage output is a little lower though. I don't like it personally though, probably because I'm bad at dodging. It also forces you to constantly be near your enemies(at least if you use a staff) and it brings it's own set of problems to the table. Oh, and I'm a casual player, so I don't min/max my stuff, so I might be wrong in a lot of what I've written here, no hard feelings if you get killed by following my advice, buddy.