Finally picked up the game. I am Nimhloth.3260

Made a character on Tarnished Coast.

Here's my Asura Mesmer, Thwick, in Rata Sum.

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I'm thoroughly enjoying 4 classes, which is making deciding on an alt difficult. Warrior is a blast, but I feel like I lack the control my elementalist has, I don't feel like my elementalist hits as hard as my warrior, but gives me more options. Engineer and ranger are the other two I'm deciding between, ranger is a lot more fun now that pets aren't likely to get in the way, but the variety with engineer keeps me interested...

I might just say to hell with it and go back to the ele.

Hah, i'm the same way. My first character was a mesmer and I really like it at level 21. I just started a ranger, got it to 7, and am loving it. I actually like the melee over the ranged for the ranger. My only hesitancy with it is that I feel like it has the stigma of the Derp class for this game and everyone and their mother on Tarnished Coast seems to be a Ranger. I've also got a necro and thief currently made but not played. I played Thief in beta, but am also looking forward to those classes. Hard to say what i'll end up with.

The only thing I dislike is the anxiety of starting a whole new zone. There's just so much to do and crammed into these things. I'm OCD about completing/seeing as much as possible and it's almost discouraging for me when there's just all this space that I can go through.

First and highest character is a Ranger, but I realized the only traits/perks that really appealed to me don't happen until much later. I do like the pet swapping, though, and I'm going with a crit-focused build with some good DPS as a result.

I created a female human thief, though, just to get a taste of something different. Having fun with it but only level 8 or so.

I still want to try out Ele and Mesmer, and I enjoyed Engineer in beta and loved the amount of skills/kits they have to play with, so I'll probably create an Engie at some point, too.

My norn thief

Quite the swashbuckler!

I wish I could like this game more. But as it is, it just doesn't have the certain something to keep me interested. I have tried every class but Guardian and Necro, but I find I am forcing myself to level up (and it goes quick, not a good sign, aka feeling forced and quick). Once I hit about level 10, it just feels so bleh =/

Maybe after we come back from our vacation I can give it another try with fresh eyes.

Well, always keep in mind: you're not paying monthly.. so you can always take a break and come back later

Ele has the highest burst damage potential in the game, I believe.

Personally, I am loving the mesmer class.

Also, dungeons are freaking hard. Did AC story mode...we made it through but was definitely not expecting that level of challenge for the "easy mode" of the first dungeon.

Shmu Shamu the mesmer:

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Snibbs - I see you are Sword/pistol. What is your other set, Staff? That's what i've been running for the past, maybe 10+ levels, want to switch it up but nothing else seems as powerful/viable for leveling, other than putting in the focus for the pistol.

I've been toying with my offhand a bit. Always have staff on a swap as it is, by far, the single strongest mesmer weapon.

In the past, and I'll be switching back to it when I next get a chance to hop on, I sword/focus (I have sword/sword right now). The curtain from the focus has incredible utility--speeds you up, slows your enemies and shut it off to pull in range enemies towards its epicenter a SET distance (i.e. if they are RIGHT on top of it, it will throw them the max distance less a teeny bit over the line...if they are at max range, it throws them the SAME distance towards the center). Phantasmal Warden is also supposedly one of the highest single target phantasms (and it removes conditions from you!).

is a great video of why sword/focus and staff is such a strong build.

Pistol is a fun offhand...that stun and that duelist are nice. Scepter is a bit weak, atm, but I imagine if you scepter/sword, with having two blocks, you can become pretty beefy. I might actually give that a go just to see. I did sword/torch for a bit just because I like the entire concept but, like it says in the video, you need to spec it and it's very support orientated.

I will say that if you are hardcore about AEing packs. My recommendation would be greatsword and staff. Especially if you eventually spec to have an extra bounce on your bouncing attacks, you will shred clumps....I might actually try that as that does sound like a lot of fun as I write it out.

Thanks I'll have to give some other set ups a try, only level 21 so can't really spec into anything.

I'm quite enjoying the ranger. The pet is a bit crap for the most part, compared to WoW's hunger pets it feels made out of paper. The bow, while useful, also doesn't feel quite as 'weeeee' as melee. I've been having a lot of fun as a greatsword wielding ranger though, switching to ranged only when there's things that just aren't terribly safe to get close to. Also out of the class skills... a lot of the lower ones are such utter crap. Being able to summon a worm... ok that's good. having passive +10% movement speed... again, good. Most of the other ones I've tried have just been kind of meh. I figure there must be much much more interesting ones down the tree. I'm only 20th lvl so I guess the good stuff is further down.

As for gameplay, this game actually reminds me of Skyrim. That playstyle of ADD/OCD exploration where sure there may be a story but I'm just following the nearest shiny, whether that be a thing to harvest, a nearby event, a new type of enemy or a point of interest/vista. Love love love the ultra cooperative aspect of the game. Being able to rez anyone, including the npcs and not having to compete for resources... soooo good. The only components from other games this so far feels the game could use to me is AE looting, more interesting/varied class abilities and a more functional auction house (ok, that part is something they are working on. it just hasn't wanted to work for me at all).

One thing, this game, this is an ideal game to port to a console imo. The controls seem really really ideal for gamepad.

There is actually a 360 gamepad scheme on the subreddit, I believe. I don't honestly know a lot about rangers, but a lot of skills in general are designed to synergize with each other. So if it doesn't look good on face value, try checking if it offers a combo field or is a finisher or something else that might increase its potential when used with other abilities.

Also, trading post has been enabled the last few days...it should be working for you. If it isn't loading right away, just try giving it a bit--I know it lags a good bit for me sometimes.

Btw, Thwick, I recommend looking at the other video in that series. I just finished watching it and learned all kinds of crazy nonsense about mesmer combo fields. I.e. warden + null field will shoot out confusion bolts. Warden + speed curtain will shoot out condition cleansing bolts when it does its spinning attack.

Yeah I've noticed that with some skills... but others are just kind of ... meh. Like either the passive is good and the activated is utter sheit, or the activated is kind of ok but the passive is meh. Or the skill is just 'did that do something? I have no idea, it didn't feel like it so I"m just gonna smash this thing in the face with my sword until it dies' in terms of how it feels. Some are fine, but they don't seem to make as much of a difference as new abilities would in most other games. I'm told by a higher lvl friend that this changes later on and abilities feel more powerful/readily apparent in usefulness.

The AH was bugged somehow for me, as was guild. I couldn't even access guild bank (I did verify that it showed me in guild and being able to view and access). A friend has been having major issues with mail as well, mail sent to her simply doesn't reach her most of the time. Not a matter of mistyping either since we all use 'send mail' function from friend or guild list to try to send to her. It's just random little bugs like this that they need to clean up. Because the system seems very nice when it does work.

oh, in case anyone has trouble finding that last "shiny" (thanks Koru) in an area, here's a great map that might help:

http://www.guildhead.com/map#z:4;c:1...0.164794921875

Nope - Warriors have the highest burst potential in the game using a Rifle and their Adrenaline ability Kill Shot (15k+ damage just with that single shot), and also really top things with GS and dual-axe. Next to them Rangers and Thieves can both kick it out. Warriors also have the added bonus of better survivability, and support/utility.

Eles are actually very far down the totem pole.. but at least beat out the Necros. I think one of the big disadvantages with them is that while yes, they can switch elemental attunements, that doesn't allow them to switch *roles* as well as other classes. Their roles are weapon based, not element based.

Koru, remember you can switch out pets when one dies, and some pets are beefier than others. So having a paper pet isn't that bad when you just swap out to your backup when it dies.

Get the Boar ASAP IMO. It has high vitality so it lasts a long time and can be a good tank while you attack with greatsword or long bow.

Yup, been using it to great(er) success. It still feels a bit squishy, but it's slightly better. Yeah I know about switching them out, pets in this game just don't feel particularly durable to me. They aren't awful, but at the same time I find I simply don't care to keep my pet alive a lot of the time because it's too damned difficult and that's focus away from me smashing the mobs in the face with a giant sword. Which is significantly more satisfying and effective most of the time so it's not really a major issue.

SX thanks for that link, that is awesome. When it comes to finding the path to some of these vistas or skill points the worst thing for me a lot of the time is trying to figure out ok, which of these 3-4 ones that look like they might possibly be the one is the last remaining one that's actually in this zone? This helps a lot with that.

Have I mentioned how much I absolutely adore the way everyone has their own loot? Running up to a tree and seeing three other people run up to it my MMO instincts are to yell, but there's no need! Everyone gets their full share of wood! There is enough wood for everyone! This greatly excites me. Every game should have that.

Enough wood for everyone gets Koru excited! Well, small surprise there

Really? I thought there was some crazy AE build for eles that just devastates PvE atm?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...2_combat_mode/

Thought some people might like that. It's a script that creates a action-game combat mode toggle. Haven't tried it quite yet but looks pretty great..

So GW2 went straight to the 'time to slay the dragon' style advertising...

So far I have been enjoying thief and ranger. Not sure what to try next..I was thinking maybe mesmer or guardian.

Sorry, I was referring more to the PvP side of things. Eles do well in PvE because the mobs aren't as likely to move out of the ground target spells. They're fairly useless in PvP though because every one of them has a couple seconds of buildup, with obvious graphics, so people just step/dodge right out of them.

The warrior Frenzy/Adrenaline abilities with Rifle and GS still kill them though :P

Ah, yea, eles seem weird to me for sPvP. I've seen some really beefy builds where it is VERY difficult to move them off a point but certainly nothing near the sheer instapop burst of a thief or war.

My guess is it is in relation to the fact that "SLEEPER'S TOMB!!! has opened in EQ2". lol. I mean, it was exciting to me and I don't even play anymore ^.~

Here's a pic of my adorable Asuran thief:

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Sweet eyepatch!

I put my level 26 Mesmer down for a little while to level up a rogue. I played one in beta and i think they tuned them up or maybe i am just more used to the game. Either way, i'm loving it, gonna be hard to go back to mesmer.

Still enjoying this game... I'm following this guide (loosely) for my condition damage necro, and it's amazing.

http://lopezirl.com/2012/12/19/a-con...-guide-to-pve/

I haven't had time to play it in forever, but would love to get back into the world. Ended up only getting to level 28 or so with my highest guy, got two mid teens characters with him.

I have a crapton of free time the next couple weeks so I'll be on quite a bit if people want to tun run AC or CM dungeons or sPvP or something. I suppose I could even dip my toe into WvW. Have a mid-40s engie and mesmer atm--mostly focused on my engie.

Wouldn't mind a weekend dungeon run here or there, I can babysit with my shout warrior :D.

I just got back into it last night with a couple of hours into the game, levelled up twice from 26 to 28 as my mesmer! Anyone else still playing?

Played yesterday for the first time in a long time on my alt human Thief character. Level 13 or 14 I think.

I'm still logging in regularly/when I have time. I'm mostly playing my Mesmer in PvE these days while I sit my engie in HotM for sPvP but I can always hop on the engie to run through dungeons and whatnot.

I'm totally going to try this on my mesmer, "Turing Test" (greatest name for a mesmer ever.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=QT9CQJq9M_4

Is the guy fighting morons, or legitimately wrecking good players?

It's WvW so a mix of both.

The first bit is a lot of stupid, though. Engineers do it pretty well, too. Don't fight classes that can throw you off cliffs on....cliffs unless you have stability (guardians) or are confident you can instagib (thieves).