Staff is the less interesting feature of Daredevil. It’s more about the way that dodge is reworked. You can become untouchable in plain sight.
And you can grind out hero points ten at a time in the expansion zones. Jump in, the water is fine!
Ok. Some things. First, Staff Daredevil is some of the most fun I ever had in GW2. Really. If you pair it with pistol/pistol, you’ll be nearly unstoppable. It’s just that good.
As for Hero Points: they are no longer tied at all to levels or XP. Beyond level 80, the only way to get HP is by doing Hero Challenges, so you’re not really losing anything. And if you want a bunch of them, you’ll want to go into Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire, since Hero Challenges in both are worth 10 Hero Points instead of just 1.
Oh, good info on the hero points. 10 at a time is definitely an improvement. Still, I can’t survive the expansion areas well enough yet, so there’s something I’m not doing right. Maybe I need to switch in Daredevil afterall and leave behind my dual-daggers, but I hate changing builds on a character. I suppose if I’m going to keep her interesting, though, I need to mix it up a bit.
On another topic, I think I’m missing something with the leatherworking craft. For cooking, it just makes sense, combining ingredients that I find everywhere and making new ingredients, meals, snacks, etc. For leatherworking, even though I have a lot of higher level components, I can’t find enough basics to make much of anything (I’ve struggled to hit 50 in leatherworking). I feel that I’m not doing something I’m supposed to do.
Level up your crafting through discovery, not grinding out the same thing over and over.
Edit - This site can tell you what you need for mats. http://gw2crafts.net/
The expansion zones are definitely more challenging than the original campaign zones. If your weapons and armor are not exotic (at a minimum), get them. But if you are level 80 with exotic gear, there is nothing else you need to do to prepare. There are some online guides that have build suggestions, which are at least worth considering.
If you find you are dying a lot, try working alongside other players. You don’t need to actually join a party if you don’t want to, but you should check the map to find where other players are and then go help kill whatever they are trying to kill. This is especially true of the new hero challenges, many of which are not meant to be done alone.
Yep, discovery is what I try to do most often, but I lack the materials to do anything. With cooking, ingredients seem to be everywhere, but with leatherworking, I only have a few items that allow me to create anything at the level I’m at. I’ll take a look at some guides. My inventory is cramped and it’s hard finding the spots to keep things I can’t put into the material storage.
@magnet I decided to switch away from my dual-daggers to give the staff a try and my survivability with Daredevil in play has jumped considerably. It’s a bit annoying, since I invested so much time into perfecting my dagger use over the first 80 levels, but I’d rather enjoy playing than not. I decided to just aim to finish my personal story first (I’m in Chapter 8 of it) then I’ll head back to the expansion areas and have a go with my altered build. Good advice on sticking with other players, although that goes against my solo style. Although, I have to admit, some of the most enjoyable times were when I came to the aid of others.
Yeah I think leatherworking is the worst for gathering. You just have to kill everything that drops the mats, over and over again. Or earn gold and farm them at the auction house
Rare (yellow) gear is enough, even for the expansion areas. Exotic is better, of course, but not mandatory.
Salvage everything that’s masterwork (green) or lower if you aren’t already instead of selling. You’ll end up with a hefty amount of leathers, wood, and ores. The basic template for discovery is Gear Component 1 + Gear Component 2 + Insignia/Inscription (ex: boot sole + boot upper + mighty insignia gives Mighty Boots) – at lower levels you can craft most of the insignias but as you get higher up some of them have to be salvaged from gear, meaning you’re better off buying from the TP.
Finished my main personal story today. What a crazy long ending sequence that was. Have to say, I’m not terribly keen on situations that take you away from using your character and skills to trying to figure out the mechanics of a situation, but in the end it felt epic in scale and it was a relief to have it over.
Now I can focus on getting my masteries unlocked (I have 10 points in one already) and seeing where I can take this character. Lots of places to explore, of course, so after the mastery unlock I might take it easy and see how the game keeps me interested with little character advancement beyond the hero points.
I called you on chat a couple times yesterday but I suppose you didn’t notice. Anyway, if you see me online, just ping me and I’ll help you with whatever you need.
Sorry! I have rarely looked at chat area and was probably so focused on the story and unlocking that Gliding mastery that I wouldn’t have noticed anything anyway. Kind of makes me wonder how many other chats at me I’ve missed; I feel like carrying around a sign that says “Unless you’re dancing in my face, I probably won’t notice you’re talking at me.”
So, now that I’ve unlocked masteries, I have to test out gliding and head back to the central areas for more exploring (the 100% explorer completionist in me feels good about that). Is the festival worthwhile checking out? I didn’t bother in the last few days (what with the personal story and all).
As an aside, I’m thinking I’m going to be annoyed with the HoT maps. Way too much up and down and, depending on how gliding works out, I can see this as hampering that side of the story. Although, working through a day/night cycle and building up rally points with supplies felt like a true test.
If it’s any consolation, the later HoT maps are less vertical than Verdant Brink.
Do I have to do the HoT story in order to unlock those later HoT maps? 'Cause I seem to be stuck in the first map otherwise.
But there’s Tangled Depths there. Ooooh boy. ;)
It’s not as bad/difficult as it looks at first, but yes, it can take a while to get used to it. Again, if you need help, I’ll help to the best of my ability. ;)
Once you get to Verdant Brink (which requires the first story mission) you can reach all of the other maps without doing any more story missions. Keep exploring!
If I was going to toss some money at GW2, what’s the best quality of life purchase I could make? I’ll be heading into PoE2 in a few weeks, but I can see keeping up with GW2 even so. And since I won these keys for GW2 and expansions (thanks anonymous donator and Tom!), only seems right considering the massive time sink this game has been for me. Things like unlimited harvesting tools caught my eye, but there are a badzillion microtransactions that I can look through. Thoughts?
Permanent crafting tools are nice. Also, there’s sometimes a pass for a permanent teleport to a blimp with a bunch of shops and crafting areas, so you never have to trudge back to a town.
Having sprung for the fancy edition of Path of Fire that came with a bunch of gems, I’ve found that there really isn’t very much of practical value in the gem shop. The permanent crafting tools seem to be the main thing.
Which is probably to the good overall, since it means you’re not really expected to spend money to play the actual game (aside from buying the expansions).
You can buy gold with gems, and buy stuff with that. I boosted a necromancer and bought a bunch of exotic gear with gold I had purchased.