Guild Wars 2 Roll Call

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yep, I've seen enough of the game to realise that the combat system is a lot deeper than it may look at first 

Anyway, I am in and have a beer at hand............but is Tyria ready for Cyrus Hermeticus, Asuran mesmer, motto "Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"?

[crazy canuck]

Yep, I've seen enough of the game to realise that the combat system is a lot deeper than it may look at first 

Yeah, at first I approached it like SWTOR or WoW.  Now I realize it is a different sort of game.

[crazy canuck]

Now that I understand the game mechanics a bit better I went back to try my ele, which I tried early on, and now it is much easier.  Attunement shifting may be a bit OP but I suppose it balances out by being harder to play - definitely not a class for the face roller.

[Martinus]

Yeah, I'm getting a hang out of mesmer, now, and it is a really fun class with a lot of tactics going on. For those who have not played a mesmer, his "gist" is that he creates clones and phantasms (copies of the mesmer, some weaker, some stronger) with different spells and abilities. You can have up to 3 of these active at a given time but they can't be all popped up at once - it's all based on cooldowns. They fight with you and are good way of mitigating damage, when the mobs focus on them and not you. Now, they all disappear when the mob you are currently fighting dies. The number of clones you have up determines how strong your very good, low CD self heal is. And on top of that, the key ability of the class is "shatter" which destroys your clones at once but in exchange for some effect, which again is stronger the more clones you had and is either direct damage, "confusion" (it deals damage over time whenever the mob uses an ability), daze or distortion (good damage evasion abaility). So you always have to keep on your toes whether to use shatter or keep the clones for a bit longer etc. and when to discharge them.

And on top of that, as CC said, you have to switch between two weapons (I usually go for a greatsword at first as it is a very good ranged weapon) and then switch to sword + offhand once in close range.

Still, it's easier than an elementalist where you have in practice four (rather than two) weapons to switch, so you have to remember 20 spells rather than 10.

Btw, I got the strategy guide and it has a lot of very useful tips.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I was wondering whether to get the strategy guide 

Maybe later, I rather enjoy the "bungling incompetent" stage of playing a game 

[Syt]

I really like that the game doesn't take you by the hand much and explain its mechanics a lot. It's pretty rewarding to be able to figure out stuff by yourself.

[Martinus]

By the way, it's really cool that you can find some interesting "fluff" stuff when wandering off a beaten path. For example, in Queensdale, where you help the fisherman with the lizards/the miner with elementals and harpies, if you go a bit down the river towards the starting town, there is a little cave (with another exit opening into the town). It has some harmless bats and a bunch of kids pretending to be the Destiny's Blade guild.

Also, mobs in remote locations give more xp - the bonus is greater the longer they are alive. For example, also in Queensdale, near the place where you help a moa farmer with bandits in a nearby cave, there is another smaller cave a bit to the North - it also has bats in it which gave me 5 normal xp per pop plus 18 bonus xp since noone bothered them for a long time. There is also a nice passage there leading into the ettin canyon which comes out into the farms near Claypool - but the ettins are level 11 so better come there later (there is a skill point location there too).

[Martinus]

Ok, so I've been reading the strategy guide and according to it at least, the "holy trinity is gone" is not exactly true. That is to say, in a dungeon party you are expected to have some character(s) focus on support ("healers"), some on control/damage mitigation ("tanks") and some on damage dealing ("dps").

What differs is that:
- everyone can perform every role, depending on weapon and utility skill choice
- you don't need the same composition for every fight (some encounters do not need "tanks", in others everyone should go "tank" and/or "healer" etc.)
- you can have characters perform hybrid functions (e.g. you can have only one pure dps, two healer/dps and two tank/dps just as one tank, one healer and three dps)
- unless you are really facerolling the dungeon, you are not really expected to go full dps with more than 1-2 characters

So I guess this will be very hard to PUG, as this will require a lot of tactics and discussion.

Also, no matter your level, they are saying that dungeons should not really be attempted by groups in which everyone doesn't have at least one elite skill.

[frunk]

Also, no matter your level, they are saying that dungeons should not really be attempted by groups in which everyone doesn't have at least one elite skill.

The dungeons aren't accessible until level 30, when your elite skill unlocks.  So I guess they want to emphasize that you should have one when you can have one.

[Martinus]

Also, no matter your level, they are saying that dungeons should not really be attempted by groups in which everyone doesn't have at least one elite skill.

The dungeons aren't accessible until level 30, when your elite skill unlocks.  So I guess they want to emphasize that you should have one when you can have one.

I know but I think it also means that you should save skill points to buy one - they cost 30 points a pop.

[Martinus]

Btw, I am wondering what my first non-human alt should be. I'm thinking either a Sylvari ranger or a Norn necromancer.

[frunk]

I know but I think it also means that you should save skill points to buy one - they cost 30 points a pop.

The upper level elite skills cost 30, the lower level cost 10.  Plus if you got the deluxe digital (collector's) you have the Mistfire Wolf elite.

[Berkut]

Speaking of skill points...I've been all careful spending mine, but I am guessing that maybe I don't need to be - is there really a limited amount of them compared to how many skills there are to spend them on, or will I eventually just get them all, hence don't need to stress that much over it?

[frunk]

Speaking of skill points...I've been all careful spending mine, but I am guessing that maybe I don't need to be - is there really a limited amount of them compared to how many skills there are to spend them on, or will I eventually just get them all, hence don't need to stress that much over it?

Between leveling and skill quests you should end up with enough skill points to get everything.  It's a good idea to save at least 10 skill points heading into level 30 so you can buy an elite, but other than that it's better to get a skill you want (particularly the one point ones) than to starve yourself.  There are items you can buy spending skill points for when you have already obtained all of the skills you care for.

[Martinus]

Wow, this game is deep.

I have been reading on the combos and it seems this is not just "flavour" stuff but an actual important part of mastering your class. For example, this is the summary of what just a mesmer can do on its own (with an access to only 2 types of fields - and there are actually 9 different fields creatable by different professions):

As Mesmer, we have 2 types of combo field, Ethereal and Light Field.

Ethereal Fields:
Chaos Storm
Feedback
Null Field
Time Warp

Light Fields:
Temporal Curtain
Veil

And 4 types of Finishers. Blast, Leap, Projectile and Whirl Finishers.

Blast Finishers:
The Prestige

Leap Finishers:
Illusionart Leap
Phantasmal Swordsman
Phase Retreat

Projectile Finishers:
Magic Bullet
Mirror Blade
Phantasmal Duelist

Whirl Finishers:
Phantasmal Warden
Phantasmal Berserker

Combo effects

Field + Finisher = Combo effects.

Ethereal Field + Blast Finishers = Area Chaos Armor (Best Defensive effect ever!!)
Ethereal Field + Leap Finishers = Chaos Armor
Ethereal Field + Projectile Finishers = Confusion
Ethereal Field + Whirl Finishers = Confusing Bolts

Light Field + Blast Finishers = Area Retaliation
Light Field + Leap Finishers = Retaliation
Light Field + Projectile Finishers = Remove Condition
Light Field + Whirl Finishers = Cleansing Bolts