Cool. Thanks, Rham!
I think it may be worth picking up HoT at least (it’s only ~10USD) so I can tool about with the Revenant. Either that, or go Necro, which I haven’t spent much time with in the past.
Here’s my build. It’s not a “MAX DAMAGE!” build; despite being mostly Berserker, it’s traited towards better survivability.
Against single enemies, I usually open with Phantasmal Defender (7) followed by Sword 5. Depending on the enemy, I use sword 3 and get close to hit with sword 2, or I switch to greatsword to use greatsword 4 and have a full set of 3 phantasms protecting me and doing damage. I’ll switch phantasms to do more damage or provide more protection depending on how the battle goes, and shatter them as needed. One good thing about this build is that you can shatter phantasms and they’ll just come back once; that means you can shatter phantasms pretty much freely and still count on their damage to remain more or less constant. I’ll also use wells as needed.
One nice trick against groups is that I approach them, cast 0 (horizon event) covering the group, and move to the middle, since Gravity Well pulls all enemies to the middle. I then go sword 2 for a big spike, and follow up with sword 5 if anyone survived, then 3, then shatter 1. It’s a huge burst that makes short work of many mobs; if you’re quick enough, you might even get two Gravity Wells if you use the Chronomancer power well.
Where is it $10 USD? Am I missing a special deal somewhere? I have Path of Fire and the base game, but all I see on the store is HoT for $30 USD.
cdkeys…
Or it was yesterday. Seems it’s gone up a couple of bucks.
Close enough, thanks.
Anyone have links for leveling builds, or just general explanations of the different classes, in broad strokes? So much of what I read seems like it takes a few years of playing the game for granted as a starting place and then goes into the ultra minutiae of a build. I’m sitting on 39 hero points on a low level character because I have no idea what the possibilities even are.
So should I just be breaking down yellows for ectoplasm? Why do I need ectoplasm?
And what are y’all’s thoughts on chucking stuff into the Mystic Forge? I’ve been throwing in minor runes and sigils to see if they upgrade to major. Mostly they don’t. When they do, it hardly feels worth it, because then I just sell the major rune or sigil for a silver or so. But what about yellow items? Maybe I should be saving them in sets of four to chuck into the forge in hopes of getting an exotic? Or are the odds too slim to make it worthwhile?
At some point down the line, I want to jump back into crafting, but for now, I’m just stockpiling scads of resources for lack of knowing what to do with them.
-Tom
I’ve looked at a couple of guides for different classes, and I get the same feeling. Generally, though, it seems like they all agree to gear for the same basic stats (power, precision, ferocity) and focus on getting skills and traits that have straightforward damage and effects. This gets you to a point where you do a lot of quick damage, which makes leveling go more smoothly, as opposed to building out, like, condition damage or something that takes time to ramp up on each kill.
Globs of Ectoplasm are used for a lot of things. Exotics crafting, as side currency to get ascended acessories (along with laurels), at some “bet” minigames in certain NPCs, in Mystic Forge recipes, etc etc. So yeah, breaking down level 70+ yellows for globs of ectoplasm is usually a good idea, since a single glob is going for 30+ silver on the TP currently.
Well, I’ll tell you what I do. For instance, after a full Meta event in Verdant Brink or Auric Basin, I’ll have lots and lots of blue and green loot. I check what sells for good value in the TP (and sell if it makes sense), and then I’ll throw blues in the forge in 4s (sometimes the result is a green), then throw greens (sometimes the result is a yellow), and, if I’m feeling lucky, I’ll throw yellows there too (because an exotic might come out). I got a good-valued exotic like that once, but since I’m usually low on Globs of Ectoplasm, I’ll usually just sell the high-valued yellows and salvage the rest for globs.
Well, resources do sell well in the TP. Right now, Hard Wood and Seasoned Wood have pretty good value if you want to make a lot of gold.
That said, crafting is very useful. Often, it’s the best way to get exotics with the stats you need. And ascended drops are rare, so crafting is pretty much the only way you’ll get decent ascended gear.
I need to go back into crafting. I would like to try celestial gear on my revenant, and since I’m not into fractals, it seems crafting is the only way for me to ever have that.
Power, precision and ferocity (usually referred as “berserker” or “zerker”) are the preferred stats for direct damage builds, or, as they call it, “power” builds. However, some of the most powerful builds currently are condition builds, and in those you want to boost your condition damage - which means other combinations are better, depending on the class. The favored combination for that kind of build, currently, is “viper’s”, which gives bonuses to condition damage, power, expertise (condition duration) and precision (critical chance).
Sure – That makes sense. I would think that for leveling to 80, though, you’d want something that allows you to kill, move on, kill, move on, as quickly as possible, and conditions seem like they take extra time to ramp up on each enemy.
I’ve been leveling my engineer with a condition build, and sometimes I wish I could just kill things faster instead of having to DoT them up every time. Although, the other side of the coin is that I can usually throw a few conditions on an enemy and then just move on to the next one while its health melts away.
Depends on playstyle and personal preference, I suppose.
Yeah, power builds tend to be easier to play and understand. Some condition builds can kill really fast though, specifically those with lots of burning.
Come to think of it, when I leveled my characters, I pretty much only used power builds. But I levelled them a long time ago, when you still had to buy tomes to unlock traits and such (and condition stacking was not quite the same, etc). I see condition builds for leveling being more viable today, especially for condition heavy classes like the Necromancer.
So now I have a giant cat/tiger, mounted on a raptor, and yielding a lightsaber. How awesome is that? :)
In other words, I’m just 50 HP away from fully unlocking the Holosmith on my Charr Engineer, and it’s pretty awesome. It’s my third elite unlock (the others being Mirage and Firebrand), and I’m probably unlocking Renegade next.
Fun fun fun. I’m loving the expansion so far. The story so far is great, the new maps are great (particularly the Elon Riverlands map), and the expansion has tons of references to GW1. Really enjoying it quite a lot.
Unlocked Scourge (almost completely). It was such a radical gameplay and survivability change that I freaked out and am now working on my Soulbeast. 70 HP away.
Yeah, after I unlock the Renegade, I’m going for Scourge and Soulbeast myself. Then Weaver and Deadeye. My warrior is pretty much a mule at this point, so I don’t think I’ll unlock Spellbreaker anytime soon.
The funny part is that I’m unlocking all that, but with the exception of the Holosmith, I haven’t even tried any of them yet. I guess I’ll only get to try most of them at some unspecific point in the future, but I’m looking forward to that. ;)
Soulbeast unlocked. Now I need gear for him.
Ok, I have something in my eye. (Warning: spoilers for base GW2 story, and you might not understand it if you never chose the Durmand Priory in the personal story in GW2)
Downloading now. I quit just before HoT launched, and I had max-level chars for Elementalist, Thief and Guardian. Some Q’s:
- Should I buy HoT or just PoF expansions?
- Is there enough population playing through HoT to get through the non-soloable bits?
- Any thoughts on the value of the Deluxe Expansion pack (is access to Lily of the Elon very useful)?
- For elementalists in particular, any thoughts on their specialized classes?
Thanks! May see you soon :)
Wait… isn’t cdkeys one of the places that Anet will ban your account for purchasing from?