Guild Wars 2 Roll Call

[katmai]

Dammit hasn't anyone told Pete the futility of trying to talk to Berkut in a game yet??!?

[crazy canuck]

Berkut, you are online but not responding to my pm,

Ah good, everything is normal.

[Berkut]

LOL

Damnit, when he said I was online, I wasn't even logged into the server! I was sitting on the character selection screen!

[Arvoreen]

And it is currently sold out/not available most places....trying local game stop tomorrow to see if they have it

[Martinus]

Berkut,

I think after playing some time with my mesmer, I am beginning to see a pattern when it comes to weapon choices, so here are my thoughts (btw, this does not apply to an elementalist* who is a completely different beast).

Essentially, if you imagine a chart with "ranged" and "melee" on the X axis and "damage", "control" and "support" on the Y axis, I think pretty much each weapon you have fits one slot.

Ranged and melee are self-explanatory. Damage, control and support are the new holy trinity of GW2 (with damage being essentially dps, control being a bit like tanking, although it is more about crowd control, debuffing the enemy, survivability and kiting than actual damage taking and support being a bit like healing although you heal less and buff more). Now, unless you are grouping exclusively (which you aren't) a rule of the thumb is that you want to go for the damage role.

This makes the choice of weapons much less daunting as suddenly you are left with maybe 1-2 ranged damage weapon and 1-2 melee damage weapons.

And that's the gist of it - if you are the damage role (which we are all until level 30 pretty much), you want to have one set of ranged damage weapon(s) and one set of melee damage weapon(s) equipped.

One handed weapons add the extra benefit of being able to actually go hybrid as e.g. if you find yourself dying a lot you can add e.g. a control (and not damage one) in the off hand.

If you really cannot figure out which weapon is the damage one, a quick rule of thumb is that it is the weapon that gets bonuses from talents in your first (Power) and second (Precision) talent trees.

But be careful with offhands - sometimes an offhand is actually not the same type of weapon as the main hand even if the weapon is the same (for example, for a mesmer, a sword in main hand is a damage melee weapon but a sword in the off hand becomes a melee control/damage mitigation weapon - so a full damage mesmer will go sword/pistol, and a mesmer who wants control will go probably scepter/sword for close-to-medium range control, or scepter/focus for long range control ).

So that's really it about weapon choices and switching. On my mesmer I have a greatsword (which, counter-intuitively for him, is a ranged damage weapon) and a sword/pistol (close range damage) equipped. If I close into an enemy from a range, I use whittle him down with the greatsword first. If he is a range/kiter type (like an archer) I continue using the greatsword throughout the fight. If he is a melee fighter I hit switch weapon and mow him down with my sword and pistol.

That's weapon choice 101.

*An elementalist is different because their attunements are actually related to roles - so fire and air is damage (fire more of direct damage and air more damage+control), water is support and earth control. So this adds an extra layer of complexity as weapons both add the ranged/melee element but also a hybrid element, being related to roles themselves. In essence then an elementalist has 4 active weapon sets rather than two, and all of them slightly different. That is why it is so difficult to master.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I've just been checking up on this playing with people in other worlds, it is not implemented yet but will be implemented at some time in the future :

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-world-of-choice-the-regions-of-guild-wars-2

That is good because it means we can get some transatlantic groups whilst spending most of our time in an area-appropriate world (thinking of ping and busy times here).

[Martinus]

Damn, now that I read a bit more about elementalists, I'm tempted to remake one. 

[Berkut]

I've been sticking with my mentalist so far.

I think it is because I heard they are supposed to be the hardest class. So it is kind of a challenge to me.

[crazy canuck]

I have now tried every class to at least level 6.  The thing about this damn game is that dont make it very easy to choose a class.

[Martinus]

Ok so I'm getting a hang out of playing an elementalist. So far two daggers serve me well - I can now solo veteran mobs. And I noticed that while you know how to play (an elementalist can't face-roll without stopping every once in a while to regain health) and know your spells (for example, in Fire attunement with daggers it's importent to apply burn and then finish the mobs off with extra-damage-on-burn abilities), constant attunement switching is not necessary. For example I keep in the Fire attunement 80% of the time (normal mobs die without me needing to switch an attunement). I also noticed you don't really need to "remember" all spells in each attunement - usually it's enough if you remember a couple from each attunement you are not actively using (so e.g. I utilize Fire to full capacity but only use two healing spells from Water, a couple of "get away" spells in Air and area of effect damage spells in Earth).

It seems to me that weapon as such are very easy to pin down for an elementalist. For mainhand:
- a dagger is short range
- a scepter is middle range
- a staff is long range/AoE focus
While for the off hand, a dagger is more firepower and a focus is more defensiveness.

That's really it.

Attunements, on the other hand, play the same role as role-related weapons for other classes. So Fire is damage, Water is support, Earth and Air is control.

You could view attunements as having four switchable weapon sets, rather than two the other classes have but the price for this is that you are limited in not being able to completely customize them unlike other classes.

[katmai]

So if the holy trinity is kaput doesn't matter what I pick come next wed in regards to playing with you dill holes?

[Martinus]

So if the holy trinity is kaput doesn't matter what I pick come next wed in regards to playing with you dill holes?

The holy trinity is not exactly kaput but you are correct. The roles are fluid and every profession can perform every role.

[Syt]

I've started trying out a necro. I'm not sure I "get" how this class should be played.

[Eddie Teach]

I've started trying out a necro. I'm not sure I "get" how this class should be played.

Sic pet, fear, dot, fear again. :

Well, probably not.

[Syt]

I've rolled a thief and like her so far a lot better. Though I think I'll mostly stick with my warrior.