GW2 Guide by Deckoly by GW2 PDF

GUDIES

Combat Basics         

Conditions Guide Boons Guide Guide to Conditions vs. Boons Attributes Guide Intro Guide to Builds Combo Fields and Finishers Intro Guide to Dodging and Vigor Downed State and Finishing Guide to Underwater Combat and Drowning

General Gameplay          

Guide to Earning XP Skill Points Guide Intro Guide to Karma and the Renown System Inventory Management Tips Trading Post Basics GW2 Currency Guide Guide to Traveling in Tyria Cities, Explorable Zones, and Dungeons by Level Bundle System Guide Norn Keg Brawl Guide

By: Deckoly

Source: http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides

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The Complete Ranger Pet Guide Portal Thief's Guide to Stealing Necromancer Guide Mesmer Guide Ranger Guide Engineer Guide Warrior Guide Elementalist Guide Thief Guide Guardian Guide

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WvW Stats and Bonuses Guide WvW Supply Guide Siege Weapons Guide Solo and Group Activities in WvW

By: Deckoly

Source: http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides

Conditions Guide Overview There are a total of 11 Conditions in Guild Wars 2, each causing a negative effect against foes through the use of your skills or traits. Each Condition has a specific effect and duration. When Conditions are reapplied to a foe that already has it, they either stack in intensity (increasing their effect) or duration, while some have no change. Conditions in Guild Wars 2 wonâ&#x20AC;&#x;t provide you with huge instant damage numbers but instead offer a flexible, attrition based play style that can cause serious misery to your opponents over a period of time. Condition damage is directly affected by your Condition Damage attribute and gains no numerical benefit from Power or Precision. In basic terms, the more Condition Damage you have the more damage all your Conditions will deal. Behind each Condition there is a maths formulae that allows you to calculate how much damage each Condition will deal, when you have X amount of Condition Damage. However, I suspect for many this is a daunting prospect and so the easiest thing I would suggest is you aim for a total of 1200 to 1300 Condition Damage if you are undertaking a Condition focused build. These values will guarantee you are dealing the height of what is possible, without overstretching yourself (and thus compromising other attributes). You can have less or more than this dependent on your build or play style but I found venturing over 1200 results in only minor differences in damage, for a lot more effort (At 1400 Condition Damage Bleeding dealing 113 damage instead of 110 at 1300 Condition Damage). Unlike direct damage skills, Conditions bypass an opponentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s armour value meaning you attack just their health pool rather than having a portion of it mitigated. You should also be aware that Conditions can be removed which can significantly reduce your damage output if they are stripped from the person you are fighting, so be wary of your opponent!

Bleeding - Inflicts X damage per second. Stacks in intensity. Bleeding, in many respects, is the bread and butter of Condition based builds. As it stacks in intensity this means you can apply multiple Bleeds, with each Bleed dealing a certain amount of damage. For example, if an Engineers Explosive Shot causes Bleeding for 4 seconds and each second of Bleed causes 100 damage, you would deal 400 damage for the duration. If you fired twice in succession, there would be two stacks of Bleeding active, with each stack dealing damage per second, causing a total of 800 damage over 4 seconds. In Condition based builds, it is paramount to achieve a large number of stacks in order to deal damage as quickly as possible. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t uncommon to see stacks of Bleeding in excess of 10+ stacks, but the total cap on a single target is 25.

Blind - Causes the target's next hit to miss instead. Almost all professions, in some form, have access to Blind. Some professions have a considerable amount of skills that cause Blind and effective use of it can be the difference between life and death. As the above suggests, when you Blind someone their next attack against you or an ally will miss. Skills that cause Blind tend to have long cool-downs due to their potency but can be vital in mitigating damage. For example, as an Elementalist if you see a Warrior about to aim Kill Shot, which has a clearly defined animation (the Warrior gets down on one knee) casting Blinding Flash will cause him to miss and likely prevent a huge amount of yours or your allies health disappearing. It should be noted that you can chain multiple Blinds but you have to reapply them independently after your foe has used each attack, otherwise your skill will be wasted. You could cast Blinding Flash > Warrior misses Kill Shot > Dust Devil > Warrior misses next attack. Casting Blinding Flash and Dust Devil after one another however, if your opponent has not attacked, will not stack Blind twice.

Burning - Inflicts X damage per second. Stacks in duration. Burning as a single Condition (versus 1 stack of Bleeding) offers the highest damage out of all Conditions (although 25 stacks of Bleeding would surpass anything) and is reflected in the fact you cannot stack multiple Burnings. If you apply Burning twice, you will prolong its duration only. In many respects, this causes several problems for professions and players that choose to use Condition builds, as there is inevitably a skill overlap that causes an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x;s skill/skills to become redundant. Effective skill rotation to keep Burning active on your foe is the best method to counter this and I would recommend that during fights, you open with any skills that Burn so that the damage to them quickly stacks up and over the course of the fight, will allow you to use any Burning skills again.

Chilled- Reduces movement speed and skill recharge by 66%. Stacks in duration. Chilled functions similarly to Crippled (see below) but could be considered its stronger counterpart. Rangers, Elementalists and Necromancers all excel at causing Chill while the Engineer through their use of Freeze Grenade can also cause it. Its ability to slow players by 66% and increase skill recharges by the same amount makes it incredibly potent as a control tool. Whether using Chill against a single opponent or a group, it allows for unrivalled opportunities to focus targets and bring them down. Skills such as the Engineers Freeze Grenade or an Elementalists Frozen Ground are excellent tools for diverting oncoming attackers or snaring them in place. A favourite combination of mine is to use an Engineers Freeze Grenade in a large group of enemies, followed by an Elementalists Meteor Shower to really deal heavy area of effect damage.

Confusion - Inflicts X damage each time a foe uses skill. Stacks in intensity. Confusion is a Condition originally intended to be unique to the Mesmer but was expanded to several skills on the Engineer as well as the Asura racial skill and a trait for the Necromancer (amoungst a few others). When you inflict someone with Confusion, each time that person attacks or uses a skill they receive damage based on your total Condition Damage attribute. Many Confusion skills only last for several seconds, with the Condition itself significantly reduced in recent updates due to the difficulties ArenaNet have faced in balacing it for both Player versus Enemy (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP). The primary skill on a Mesmer for causing Confusion is Confusing Images which inflicts the Condition for a total of 5 seconds. Unless you are a Mesmer, youâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll rarely encounter this Condition unless on the receiving end at which point Iâ&#x20AC;&#x;d simply recommend you resist using anything for its duration.

Crippled - Reduces movement speed by 50%. Stacks in duration. Crippled is arguably the lesser counterpart of Chilled but remains incredibly important as it is a little more widely available through skills and traits. Like Chilled, it too stacks in Duration so can be chained effectively to keep a foe with reduced movement speed. If you plan on taking part in Player versus Player combat having some form of skill to slow your opponent (whether Crippled or Chilled) is incredibly important. For any Longbow Rangers out there, Muddy Terrain + Barrage is a wonderful combination and guarantees a huge amount of damage against a single or multiple targets.

Fear - Causes the target to run directly away from the caster. Fear is a mechanic originally unique to the Necromancer but can also be used by Warriors and Mesmers. In the Mesmers circumstance, the Fear effect is as a result of Chaos Storm that causes random Conditions and so lacks the certainty of the skills available to the Necromancer or Warrior. When you‟re affected by Fear your character will run away for around 1 second. During this time you cannot move or use any skills and as a result, you are incredibly vulnerable. As a Mesmers Chaos Storm is obvious (a giant purple electric cloud on the floor) primarily you only have to worry about the Necromancer and Warrior. A Warriors Fear Me! has a very limited range while the Necromancer can only cause Fear when using a Staff (Reaper‟s Mark) that can clearly be seen on the floor, or when they are in Death Shroud. If they‟re in Death Shroud it is often better to just avoid them until it wears off.

Immobilized - Immobilizes and prevents dodge. Stacks in duration Immobilized is incredibly powerful and can, if timed rightly, result in yours or your opponent‟s death incredibly quickly. Immobilize prevents you from moving entirely, including dodging, meaning for a period of time you are open to all attacks without the ability to mitigate damage or heal yourself. Many skills that cause Immobilize, such as an Engineers Glue Shot or Rangers Muddy Terrain have clear indicators that for very brief moments afford you the opportunity to avoid them. Others, such as a Thiefs Signet of Shadows are incredibly hard to identify and as a result you are likely to be immobilized very quickly, with no ability to avoid it. Luckily, Immobilize doesn‟t last long and there are several traits you can take that significantly reduce the damage you receive when Immobilized. For anyone serious about PvP I really can‟t recommend these traits enough as they will save your life, especially against the dread Elementalist Dragon Tooth combination.

Poison - Inflicts X damage per second. Reduces outgoing heals by 33%. Stacks in duration. Poison stacks in Duration and is the only skill in the game that also reduces your opponents healing ability. Timed correctly, it can seriously hamper the opposition when they are low health as it significantly reduces a players ability to gain the most out of their heal. What I also love about Poison is that it deals a good amount of damage in a short period of time, though there are only four professions that have reasonable access to the Condition (Engineer, Necromancer, Ranger and Thief). As tempting as it is to simply use your skills, timing the use of poison can make fighting tough support professions such as the Guardian or Necromancer a lot easier.

Vulnerability - Reduces armor by X. Stacks in intensity. Vulnerability is a Condition that mainly benefits others in your party, as Conditions ignore the armour values of an opponent. In reality, Vulnerability is relatively weak in its current form only providing a maximum armour reduction of 30 at level 80, which in the grand scheme of things is ignorable at best. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x;d safely say that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x;s very little reason to pursue skills or traits that cause this if itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s at the expense of any other condition.

Weakness - Causes 50% of attacks to be glancing and reduces endurance regeneration by 50%. Stack in duration. Weakness is a Condition that causes attacks to result in a glancing blow (50-75% reduced chance to hit) while also slowing endurance regeneration by half. Against professions that hit hard and fast as well as use continuous endurance to their advantage (such as Thieves) it is incredibly useful in reducing incoming damage but also preventing foes from dodging as frequently. Using Weakness and Cripple/Chill is a sure fire-way of significantly hampering your opponent.

Conditions Summary  Conditions bypass armor and affect a foes health directly for maximum damage.  Dealing high damage with conditions is reliant on you having a large amount of Condition Damage.  Relying on Condition Damage can leave you vulnerable, as it can be easily removed by other professions.  Conditions you receive or inflict on other professions can be turned into Boons.  Conditions that stack in duration only, such as Burning, mean that two players cannot stack Burning on the same target twice but you can prolong the damage.  Conditions are an excellent form of control through their debilitating effects and ability to apply huge pressure to foes.

BOONS GUIDE Overview There are a total of 8 Boons in Guild Wars 2, each causing a positive effect on the recipient. Boons tend to be considered the polar opposite of Conditions with each Boon causing an effect for a limited duration. Boons stack in Duration but with the exception of Might, their effectiveness does not stack. You could not for example have two stacks of Protection (which would give 66% damage reduction) instead, you are limited to just one Protection Boon (33% damage reduction). Boons are designed to support any number of play styles as well as offer significant improvements to your character even if it is only for a short period. Almost all professions have access to several boons though some, like the Guardian, excel at creating or distributing them. Boons only tend to last several seconds due to their potency but this is often enough to provide you or allies with a significant buff. Unlike Conditions, many Boons (with the exception of Regeneration and Retaliation) function at their maximum potential without the necessity to invest in any attributes. However, Boons can still be stripped by other players, meaning Boon heavy builds (where a player relies on their continued benefits) can be left vulnerable should they come across an individual intent on removing them.

Aegis - Block the next attack Aegis is a Boon that for all intents and purposes is unique to the Guardian. Although the Mesmer can obtain it, this would be based purely on random acquisition rather than a guarantee (from Chaos Storm and Signet of Inspiration). The Guardian however can regularly obtain it through the use of their Virtues (Virtue of Courage) as well as a multitude of traits and a single skill (Retreat!). Aegis guarantees that the next attack on you is blocked (similar in functionality to Blind) making it incredibly powerful in mitigating damage and makes Guardians, who focus on its use, very difficult to damage if its use is timed right.

Fury - 20% Critical Chance increase. Stacks in duration. Fury provides a flat 20% improvement to your critical strike chance, allowing for some wriggle room in terms of your character setup. For example, if you know your profession can guarantee Fury in certain situations and you seek to crit regularly (50% would be more than sufficient) you could aim for a base of 30% in the knowledge that when a fight does break out, you can drink (in the Engineers case) an Elixir B to gain an instant 20% boost, taking your total amount to 50%. Alternatively, as there is no cap to your chances of landing a critical hit there is the potential to achieve a significantly higher value. In most circumstances, this Boon really has no negatives and will, irrespective of setup, provide you with a brief benefit to your damage.

Might - X damage & condition damage per attack increase. Stacks intensity. Might, unlike other Boons, stacks in intensity and so is similar in principal to Bleeding in that you can have more than one active. Instead of it being on your target however, it is cast on yourself. At level 80 Might provides 30 additional Power and 30 Condition Damage which in the grand scheme of things is negligible in small quantities and only results in a minor increase to damage output. For the most part, unless you are stacking significant amount of Might (10+) there really is little value in pursuing it. Even then, itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s so susceptible to being stripped by other professions that to rely on it would leave you incredibly vulnerable in many encounters. Enjoy it when you have it, but don't use it as a crutch for your build.

Regeneration - Regenerates X health per second. Stacks in duration. Regeneration is the only Boon that has its effectiveness determined by an attribute. Although attributes have been discussed in a separate guide, I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t consider it worthwhile to persue Compassion directly (Compassion affects the amount of health regenerated per second while the Boon is active). The results from heavy investment in Compassion aren't great in comparison to the significant investment required from the player, as PvP amulets that provide Compassion will suffocate your damage. For the most part Regeneration is negligible, though can amount to several hundred health per second and in some circumstances, will save your life in moments of desperation.

Protection - 33% damage reduction. Stacks in duration. Protection is once again, like many boons, primarily available to the guardian; they have four weapon skills and one utility skill that provide the Boon, as well as a couple of traits. Other professions do have access to it from several utility skills or traits but these are limited in comparison. Thankfully, many of the guardians skills can be projected to others, meaning itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s highly likely that even if your profession canâ&#x20AC;&#x;t cause Protection, you will receive it at some stage. The addition of traits that grant Protection when Immobilized, Stunned, Dazed or generally anything that stops you functioning will also see you receive the Boon. I really can't recommend enough the importance of obtaining such traits if you are serious about PvP. As Protection also provides the damage reduction for its entire duration (often 5 seconds) it really is invaluable in all combat situations.

Retaliation - Does X damage to an opponent each time they hit you. Stacks in duration. Retaliation is currently much underused and is only found in 4 weapon skills (2 in for the mesmer, 1 for the guardian and 1 for the necromancer) but more common in traits and provides a small amount of incoming damage back to attackers. Similarly to Regeneration, its values are small (but do scale with your Power) and when linked with the very limited skill sets that cause it, mean you will seldom encounter it. There are 8 traits in total that grant Retaliation but the majority are linked to the mesmer and guardians limited states (whether downed, blocking or upon reviving an ally) making the window of opportunity very narrow.

Swiftness - 33% movement speed increase. Stacks in duration. Swiftness alongside Vigor (see below) is probably my favourite Boon in the entire game. Speed should never be under appreciated in any encounter and the ability to move quickly, especially in Player versus Player, is so valuable. Although many movement effects in Guild Wars 2 donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t stack with one another, a 33% increase to your speed is significant and is not only a brilliant tool offensively (great for chasing someone down) but is also excellent defensively (great for running away!). When combined with Vigor, it really is formidable. If your profession is lucky enough to have a skill or trait that causes Swiftness, you should thank your blessings.

Vigor - Faster endurance regeneration. Stacks in duration. Vigor increases your endurance regeneration by 100% and without endurance you cannot dodge. Perhaps for the inexperienced it would be easy to dismiss dodge in Guild Wars 2 as a gimmick, but with time invested it quickly becomes apparent how fundamental dodge is to not only staying alive but remaining mobile. What vigor does do is allow you to dodge regularly, as your dodge meter will quickly refill while the Boon is active. Although Vigor can be removed like any Boon, it‟s highly likely that in a matter of seconds you‟ll have the ability to dodge again making the removal of it very minor. Traits such as Invigorating Speed when combined with Infused Precision will almost guarantee you permanent Vigor and thus an almost permanent ability to dodge whether the Boon is removed or not. In competitive PvP I cannot recommend Vigor enough, as not only will it save you life countless times but the damage avoidance it affords means you can be a little more experimental with your character setup when trying to balance out your toughness or vitality.

Boons Summary  Boons are valuable buffs that provide great benefits to you and your team mates.  Guardians excel at creating Boons, but most professions have some access to them.  Swiftness and Vigor combined will allow you to avoid damage for significant periods through your running speed and ability to dodge repeatedly.  Traits that cause Protection when you are Immobilized, Stunned or Dazed are invaluable in a PvP environment.  A 33% damage reduction will regularly save your life.  Boons you receive or pass on to others can be turned into Conditions by some professions.  Relying on Might stacking to achieve high damage is very risky as the single stack can be removed instantly by other professions.  The only Boon to rely on attributes is Regeneration, the rest all function at their maximum capability without any investment by you.

Guide to Conditions versus Boons Overview Conditions and boons can be removed in two ways: skills or traits, with this broken down into forced/direct removal, transfer or transform and skill combinations, through Combo Fields and Finishers. It should be noted however that there are no Combo Fields and Finishers that remove boons, as this only works for conditions. Every profession in the game has some form of condition removal whether from skills, traits or both, but not all professions have access to boon removal as this is predominantly the role of the Mesmer or the Necromancer. If you are keen to take part in structured PvP I would sincerely recommend you have at least one skill or several traits which remove conditions from you as this will make your life a whole lot easier if you encounter condition focused players. Where boons are concerned, unless you are a Mesmer or Necromancer you will struggle to directly counter professions that make heavy use of boons but that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t mean you canâ&#x20AC;&#x;t compete against them.

Conditions Removal The most common form of condition removal is from profession specific skills, which come in three forms: individual, area or passive.

Individual These are the most common of the three profession specific skill types and are often skills that can be used while moving and tend to remove some or all conditions currently affecting you, regardless of the amount of conditions you are suffering from. Dependant on your preferences, choosing an individual condition removal skill will save you considerable health loss against foes that are intent on stacking as many conditions on you as quickly as possible, because you can simply wipe them out (meaning they then have to reapply all of them). However, individual condition removal skills tend to have long cooldowns that will leave you vulnerable after their use, while some condition removal skills only remove certain types. For example, a Thieves Hide in Shadows will only remove Burning, Poison and Bleeding (leaving you exposed to many others) where as a Mesmers Null Field will remove all conditions you are suffering from. If you want to cover all bases in the Thieves example, you would need to pair this with traits or further condition removal skills to ensure all of them can be removed.

Passive Not all professions have access to passive condition removal as the skills tend to be unique to Signets, meaning if you choose a profession that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t have them youâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll have to make use of individual or area condition removal instead. I think passive condition removal skills are great as they can be relied on to always remove conditions from you, regardless of cooldowns. However, they only tend to remove conditions every 10 seconds meaning if you do come across a condition focused player, youâ&#x20AC;&#x;re likely to be overwhelmed in a very short space of time as your Signet struggles to keep up. Paired with traits however (such as those that remove conditions when you heal or when you use a skill) can be very effective at keeping conditions on you low. I have found that using a passive condition removal skill will see you never condition free in combat but it can keep conditions low enough to not have to worry about them.

Area Certain skills will only remove conditions in an area, at the point where you used the skill or manually placed it. These skills are great for encounters where you know you need to move very little or if you are fighting on a single location (such as a Capture Point). Still using the Mesmers example above, their Null Field is an area of effect condition removal skill and with its wide radius will guarantee (if you stay within its boundary) you are unaffected by conditions for its duration. What is also great about such skills is that they extend to other members of your party, meaning they too can receive its benefits if they dip in and out of the area. Area condition removal skills can be invaluable in PvP encounters where fighting takes place in close quarters as it will nullify any conditions you receive, while supporting your team at the same time (especially team mates who donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t take a condition removal skill!). Iâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve often found these incredibly useful in Capture Point scenarios, defensively or offensively, as approaching the Capture Point you can simply lay down the area condition removal skill and guarantee a large proportion of any incoming damage is mitigated. It should be noted however that area condition removal skills are often poor when moving from point to point as they rely on you staying within their boundary to receive their effect. A clever player tends to wait for the skill to end before attacking you if you use it too early, which will then leave you incredibly vulnerable.

Traits The only profession that doesn‟t have access to a trait that removes conditions is the Warrior (that may change) and most other professions can only remove one condition in a specific circumstance, when they actively trait for it. Some traits will only remove one condition per trigger and some up to three with these traits designed more as a support tool to existing condition removal skills.

For example, the guardian trait Inscribed Removal will remove one condition from you when you activate a Signet. As the guardian only has one Signet (which also removes conditions passively every 10 seconds) you can realistically remove two at once by activating the Signet. If you paired this Purity of Resolve, a trait that removes three conditions when you use Virtue of Resolve, you could within a very short space of time remove 5 conditions instantly (and still maintain the passive condition removal from the Signet). Pairing condition removal traits with skills in this manner is incredibly powerful and can make many professions and players who rely on condition damage incredibly weak, as they never have the opportunity to stack conditions on you to their full effect.

Combo Fields and Finishers Although we‟ve already touched on Combo Fields and Finishers in the past, they aren‟t just used offensively but can provide condition removal to you and nearby allies. The two main combinations for this are Light + Projectile or Light + Whirl. The former will provide condition removal to anyone in front of you and the latter condition removal to anyone around you. Although I wouldn‟t recommend relying on Combo Fields and Finishers exclusively for your condition removal, it is a viable option to support your existing condition removal setup.

Boons Removal As mentioned above, very few professions have the skills or traits to actively remove opposing players boons. As a Mesmer or Necromancer you should be rubbing your hands together at the opportunities afforded to you in this department as you are the only two professions that do this job splendidly. The Mesmer has 4 skills that remove boons and the Necromancer has 3.

Transfer/Transform Archane Thievery and Corrupt Boon are formidable skills that will either transfer or transform any boons on a player into random conditions and although they both share long cooldowns, they are incredibly powerful against professions that choose to pursue boon orientated gameplay. There is nothing more satisfying than removing boons from a player you know is relying on them as part of their setup. Archane Thievery differs from Corrupt Boon in the sense that it sends conditions on you to your foe and you steal their boons, while Corrupt Boon directly transforms boons on a foe into conditions. The Mesmers Archane Thivery is obviously a lot more defensive than Corrupt Boon based on the fact you receive boons in the place of any conditions you passed on, but Corrupt Boon also has a significantly lower cooldown so can be used at least three times before Archane Thievery is ready again.

Forced/Direct Mind Stab, the last attack in the swords autoattack sequence, removes one boon from your foe. As the only autoattack in the game that does this, there is little wonder that 90% of all mesmers use a sword, as it allows for you to really cut through defensive boon heavy professions incredibly quickly. Paired with any other of the Mesmers boon removal skills, it leaves very little opportunity for your foes to actually maintain their boons for any length of time. Null Field, as mentioned above, is an area of effect condition removal skill, however it also removes boons to anyone within its field. As a Glamour skill there are also various traits that allow you prolong its duration and reduce its cooldown. Considering it only has a 45 second cooldown to start with, it really is an excellent skill to have in the Mesmers arsenal. Paired with Magic Bullet or Signet of Domination, you can quickly lock a player down inside the area for a long period of time to strip their boons completely.

Phantasmal Disenchanter summons an illusion to remove boons from foes and conditions from allies. As the Phantasmal Disenchanter only uses a skill once every 8 seconds, I‟ve often found it much more practical to equip Null Field or Archane Thievery instead as these aren‟t susceptible to damage from opposing players while Phamtasms can be overridden should you summon any other illusions. In the Necromancers circumstance, it has two skills available to directly remove boons from opposing players. Spinal Shivers is an excellent skill based on the fact that not only does it cause chill but removes 3 boons in the process and with a relatively low cooldown at 25 seconds there aren‟t many professions able to reapply boons quickly enough for you can use it again. Well of Corruption acts similarly to Null Field, where the player can place the Well down and anyone within its area will see their boons removed every 2 seconds. With an 8 second duration the skill is exceptional in a Capture Point scenario especially if you know that a Guardian is actively defending the point as placing it in the centre of the Capture Point will force them off it (if they know what‟s good for them). The fact it also acts as a Combo Field is an added bonus. I‟d recommend any Necromancer to take Well of Corruption in structured PvP environment.

Traits Only the Thief, Mesmer, Necromancer and Guardian are capable of removing boons through traits and each only have access to one capable of doing it. I personally don‟t use the boon removal trait on the Mesmer as I don‟t specialise far enough into the Domination trait line to actually use it (I prefer Crippling Dissipation) although Shattered Concentration can be incredibly powerful for those who don‟t use the sword. Where the Necromancer is concerned, their trait offers a 10% chance to removes boons every time your minions attack which is formidable if you take every minion available. But, with plenty of options already there to the Necromancer for boon removal, it might be worth taking other traits instead but it does afford you some flexibility. The Thief if specializing in the Trickery trait line can remove two boons by stealing from their target which can be useful if you open combat with a steal or save your steal for mid way through a fight. Lastly, the Guardian when using Searing Flames has a 25% chance to remove boons every time they burn an enemy. From virtues alone the Guardian has a high chance of causing burning but even more so when using Torch off hand and skills such as Judges Intervention or Purging Flames.

Conditions versus Boons Summary  Every profession in the game can remove conditions in some way.  Condition removal stems from skills, traits or combo fields and finishers.  Not all individual condition removal skills remove all conditions; some will only remove specific ones.  Area condition removal skills are great when defending or attacking a Control Point to mitigate your damage received and to help your party.  Passive condition removal skills are great for keeping minor condition affliction at bay but you can easily become be overwhelmed against condition specialized players.  Utilizing a combination of individual or area condition removal skills, coupled with traits, is the most effective way to neutralize condition specialized players.  The mesmer and necromancer are the only professions in the game that truly excel at boon removal.  The Mesmer is the only profession in the game that has an auto attack capable of removing boons.  Only four professions have traits capable of removing boons (Thief, Mesmer, Necromancer and Guardian).

Attributes Guide Attributes in Guild Wars 2 are the fundamental characteristics which improve your effectiveness in combat. Each profession can access ten attributes, with nine of those shared between all professions and the tenth unique to each profession. Attributes are subdivided into three types: Primary, Secondary and Profession. As you level up, your primary attributes will increase automatically. The total value of your primary attributes when you reach level 80 will be 916. Attributes can also be increased through items or traits as you progress through the game. In general terms, the higher your attributes the stronger you will be.

Primary Attributes The four primary attributes are split into two offensive and two defensive types. As mentioned above, these will naturally increase as your level progresses.

Power — every point increases attack by one point. Power, in its most basic form, determines your damage output as each point in it increases your attack by one. Without confusing you with the calculations or mathematics behind how damage is calculated, all you need to know is the more Power you have, the more damage you will deal. There are exceptions to this, specific to Condition Damage (see below) but for most professions and setups, if you want to hit hard, having items or investing in trait lines that increase your Power will see you deal high damage. From a personal perspective, if I‟m not running a Condition Damage build, I always try to aim for around 1900 Power and although this isn‟t the highest value you can achieve, it does ensure you deal a good amount of damage without sacrificing attributes in other areas.

Precision — increases critical hit chance. Precision increases your chance to critical hit and like Power, is an offensive attribute. At level 80, all professions have a chance to critical hit of 4%. This is incredibly low but it is easily increased through items or trait lines. The main benefit of Precision, besides the fact that critical hits are great for spike damage, is that many effects from traits or skills are triggered by critical strikes. Certain traits will directly increase your Precision attribute, such as a Mesmers Blade Training that provides +50 Precision, while skills such as an Engineers Infused Precision will only trigger when you critically hit. I always try to aim for around 50% chance to critically hit as many of my builds revolve around such trait triggers. With the rate of attack/fire from many skills or weapons it‟s almost guaranteed with such a Precision rate that you can keep trait triggers active. To achieve a 50% chance to critically hit, you would need a Precision attribute total of around 1800.

Toughness — every point increases armor by one point. Toughness is one of two defensive attributes. Each point spent in Toughness will increase your armour and your ability to withstand direct damage. Toughness doesn‟t affect your ability to mitigate Condition damage but only physical attacks from weapons or spells. Similarly to Precision, there are various traits for certain professions that provide a direct increase, such as a Warriors Shield Master trait which provides +90 Toughness while wielding a shield. There is no rule as to how much toughness, numerically, that you should aim for. With very little Toughness you can still survive a long period of time if you are clever with your positioning and use of dodging in order to avoid damage, but anything around 1600 Toughness at level 80 should see you withstand plenty of damage, when combined with your armour.

Vitality — every point increases maximum health by ten points. Vitality determines your total health pool and so it‟s important to have a good amount of it so you don‟t die in two hits. Vitality is also easy to calculate as one point increases your health pool by ten. We know that all professions at level 80 have base attribute values of 916, so simply multiply that by ten (9160) and you have your health at maximum level, when excluding items or traits. Vitality is also incredibly important when fighting against players who specialise in Condition Damage as Conditions bypass armour and toughness and will instantly eat away at your health pool rather than have some of the damage mitigated by your defences. In this circumstance it‟s obviously best to have as much Vitality as possible, however many builds are viable with as little as 17,000 health (when factoring in traits and items) as long as you avoid as much damage as possible through remaining mobile.

Secondary Attributes The five Secondary Attributes common to all professions, like the primary, are split offensively and defensively (three and two, respectively). Secondary Attributes, unlike primary, do not automatically increase as you level and can only be increased through specialising in trait lines or from items and equipment. To make things a little more complicated, Secondary Attributes also have names they are familiarly known as.

Boon Duration — Improves the duration of all boons applied by the character. Boon Duration is also known as Concentration and increases the duration of Boons by 1% per point spent in the specific profession trait line. If you were to invest 30 points into a Rangers Nature Magic trait line, your Boons would receive a 30% increase to their duration. Or if you were to invest 25 points in a Guardians Virtue trait line, you would receive a 25% increase to your Boon durations. This secondary attribute can be incredibly useful when running a supportive Boon heavy build, as it will elongate the duration of them significantly. For example, an Engineers Elixir B provides Might for 30 seconds, but with 30 points spent in the Engineers Alchemy trait line this would see its duration increase to 36 seconds. If you then combined this with the trait Potent Elixirs (which also provides a 20% duration increase) this would see Elixir B grant Might for 42 seconds; a significant improvement.

Condition Damage — Improves the damage done by conditions like burning, poison, confusion, and bleeding. Condition Damage is also known as Malice and is paramount for a multitude of skills that apply physical conditions. Contrary to the Primary Attribute descriptions earlier, Power does not affect the damage of a condition, the Secondary Attribute -- Condition Damage/Malice -- does. Without investment in Condition Damage, your conditions (such as Bleed, Poison, Confusion) will deal very little damage. If you do choose a playstyle that relies entirely on Condition Damage, it is absolutely vital that you achieve upwards of 1000 or your damage will be incredibly low. As Condition Damage isn‟t leveled naturally (unlike Primary Attributes) this can be difficult to achieve and will often leave you struggling to even out your other Primary Attributes. Luckily, most weapon sets have a clear focus (Power orientated skills or Condition Damage orientated) so it makes life a little easier in determining which path you want to take when investing in trait lines and items.

Condition Duration — Improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character. Similarly to Boon Duration and commonly known as Expertise, Condition Duration does just what it says; it increases the duration of all conditions you inflict on an opponent. Also similar to Boon Duration, each point invested in Expertise will see its duration increase by 1%. If you were to invest 30 points into a Necromancers Spite trait line, your conditions would receive a 30% increase to their duration. This would see a typical condition such as Bleed, caused from the skill Blood Curse, increased from a duration of 7 seconds, to around 8.5. Expertise is a strong secondary attribute when paired with other items that elongate the lifespan of conditions as while your conditions are active, they are often dealing damage or hindering your foe and as conditions tend to rely on attrition to wear down your opponent, having them last longer is never a bad thing.

Critical Damage — Improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes. Critical Damage is also known as Prowess and provides a damage increase to your critical hits, with each point invested in Prowess increasing your critical damage by 1%. It‟s a little difficult to describe this secondary attribute without some mathematics involved but in its simplest form, the more Prowess you have, the more damage you will deal when you critically hit. For those interested in some minor mathematics, critical hits by all professions provide a damage increase of 50%. For example, if your standard attack deals 50 damage, when you critically hit an opponent you would deal 75 damage. This is your base attack damage (50) including a 50% increase (50 + 25 = 75). By investing 30 points in Prowess (30% extra critical damage) you would actually deal 90 damage. This is your base damage (50) including a 80% increase, as you‟ve added 30% on top of your base figure. It should be noted that Prowess does not effect conditions, so irrespective of how much Prowess you have -- as conditions cannot critically hit someone -- there is little value in investing in it. However, for individuals who enjoy seeing large damage numbers, whom have a high critical hit chance and whom deal physical attacks, it can be incredibly useful for really high damage spikes.

Healing Power — Improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals. Healing Power is also known as Compassion and improves both incoming and outgoing heals that your character does, including healing from the Boon, Regeneration. Healing Power generally translates as one point invested provides one extra health point on your main heal, with varying differences for splash heals that provide regeneration. A simple example of this would be 100 Heal Power provides 100 extra health to your heal.

Profession Attributes Unique to each profession are eight attributes. Like secondary attributes, profession attributes do not automatically improve as your character levels and require investment on your part, into a specific trait line. Each unique profession attribute improves a key element of the profession. It should be noted that you do not have to specialise in profession attributes if you do not wish and won‟t be at any disadvantage over another who does. Profession attributes are there to support a specific style of play and if that style of play doesn‟t suit you, you shouldn‟t feel any pressure to invest in them. Below is a list of the profession attributes which we‟ll be covering in a little more depth in a future guide. Profession

Attribute

Description

Willpower

Reduces the recharge on all virtues; linked to Vitrues

Brawn

Improves the damage of warrior burst attacks; linked to Discipline

Ingenuity

Reduces the recharge on all tool belt skills; linked to Tools

Empathy

Improves pet attributes; linked to Beastmastery

Cunning

Reduces the recharge of the steal ability; linked to Trickery

Intelligence

Reduces the recharge of the four elemental attunemets

Guile

Reduces the recharge on all shatter skills; linked to Illusions

Hunger

Increases the size of the necromancer's life force pool

Intro Guide to Builds in GW2 As you progress your character in Guild Wars 2 either in normal PvE or World vs. World (WvW) gameplay, you will begin unlocking the core components that constitute a “build”. These unlocks occur through active participation in combat, character level milestones, or access to gear upgrades depending on the individual component. We‟ve broken down these core building blocks of GW2 builds below, in the order of when you‟ll encounter or unlock them in PvE or WvW gameplay. For quick reference, these are as follows:

Level Unlocks 1

First weapon skills, Profession Mechanics, Healing Skill

First Utility Skill Slot

Weapon Swapping

Second Utility Skill Slot

Adept Trait Tier

Third Utility Skill Slot

Elite Skill Slot

Master Trait Tier

Grandmaster Trait Tier

Please note that in The Heart of the Mists, GW2‟s massive structured PvP lobby, each of these components will automatically be unlocked and your character will be scaled directly to level 80. For more on this aspect of structured PvP (sPvP for short), be on the lookout for our complete guides to sPvP in GW2.

Weapon Skills The first, and most important part of your build that you‟ll have access to are your weapon skills. When you create a new character, you will have a main hand weapon equipped, with the first skill automatically unlocked. As you actively engage in combat and defeat enemies, you will progressively unlock the remaining skills for that weapon. Upon completion of the intro for each race, you will be rewarded with a choice of off-hand weapons. The off-hand weapon skills occupy the 4th and 5th skill slot on your hotbar, and need to be unlocked through active use the same as your main hand weapon skills. It‟s important to note that weapon skill unlocks are progressive. This means that you won‟t be able to unlock your off-hand skills (slots 4-5) if you haven‟t yet unlocked the second and third skills on your equipped main hand weapon (slots 2-3). You will need to complete this unlock process for each weapon your profession is able to equip. To see a full list of available weapons for your profession and a list of the associated skills, open the Hero window [H] and on the left side open the Skills and Traits tab (shown above to the right).

A full list of which weapons are available to each profession can be seen below:

Weapon Axe Dagger

Sword X X

Shield

X X

X X X

X X

Greatsword

Hammer

X X

Longbow

Rifle

Shortbow X

Spear X

Harpoon

X X

Warhorn

Trident

X X

Torch

Staff

X X

Pistol

Focus

Mace

Scepter

Profession Mechanics The second part of your build that will automatically be unlocked (either partially or in full depending on your profession) when you begin the game is a unique mechanic specific to your profession. In some cases these profession mechanics will also need to be progressively unlocked through active use, similar to your weapon skills. For example, new necromancers will be able to activate the Death Shroud mechanic [F1] once youâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve built up enough Life Force. This gives you temporary access to 4 unique skills, though only the first of these (Life Blast) will be unlocked initially. As you continue using Death Shroud actively in combat and defeating enemies, you will progressively unlock the 3 remaining skills.

Certain professions will unlock additional aspects of their unique mechanic through leveling. Examples here include the Warrior which unlocks the ability to build up to three stages of Adrenaline power as they level (shown above), or the Elementalist which unlocks additional Attunements after the first few levels of gameplay.

Healing Skills The third and final aspect of your overall build that will be automatically unlocked on newly created characters is your Healing Skill slot. This skill will appear on your hotbar in the 6th skill slot, located directly to the right of your heath meter as shown below.

Additional healing skills can be unlocked as you advance your character by purchasing them with Skill Points. Skill points are earned 1 per level upon reaching level 5, and can also be earned by completing various challenges found throughout the world in both PvE and WvW gameplay. All professions have access to 3 unique healing skills, with an additional healing skill available based on the race of your character (Human and Sylvari only). Once an additional healing skill has been purchased, you can slot it on your hotbar by clicking on the small arrow for that skill slot. A full list of skills available for that slot will appear, with locked skills being grayed out on the list. As there are no dedicated healing professions in Guild Wars 2, your healing skill will be a critical aspect of your build, regardless of which game type you choose to participate in. Please note that racial skills (including healing skills) cannot be used in sPvP. This helps preserve the balance between all characters in competitive PvP, while still offering you some unique gameplay options based on your characterâ&#x20AC;&#x;s race in PvE and WvW combat.

Utility Skills At level 5 you will unlock your first Utility Skill slot. Similar to healing skills, utility skills need to be unlocked for use by purchasing them with any skill points you‟ve accumulated through leveling or skill challenges. The available utility skills for your profession can be seen by opening the Hero window [H] and clicking on the Skills and Traits tab. In this view, left-click on “Slot Skills” to bring up the complete utility skills list for your profession. As you can see above, utility skills are broken down into three basic tiers. You must unlock 5 skills in each tier to progress to the next, and the skills in each tier will cost more skill points to unlock.   

First Tier Skills – 1 point each Second Tier Skills – 3 points each Third Tier Skills – 6 points each

As you advance your character‟s level, you will also unlock two additional utility skill slots. The second slot (skill number 8 on your hotbar) unlocks at level 10, and the third one (skill number 9) unlocks at level 20. You can swap out your active utility skills at any point so long as you‟re not actively engaged in combat. This process is the same as swapping your healing skills as described above. Finally, as with healing skills, all professions will gain access to unique utility skills depending on the race of your character. The same rule applies for sPvP here, so you will only be able to access and use your racial skills in PvE and WvW.

Weapon Swapping

With the exception of the Elementalist and Engineer, beginning at level 7 you will unlock the ability to swap between two unique weapon sets during combat. To equip a second weapon set, open your Hero window [H] and you will see a list of all items in your inventory that you are able to equip to the left of your character portrait. From here you can drag & drop weapons into your second weapon set slots. Once youâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve got a second weapon set slotted, you can quickly change weapons by simply right-clicking on any weapon from your inventory and select to equip it in your main or off-hand depending on the weapon. Please note that this will replace the weapons in your Active set only. To swap weapon sets either in or out of combat, press the [`] key, located directly to the left of the number 1 key on your keyboard. Outside of combat you can swap active weapon sets at-will, but during combat there will be a short recharge time each time you swap active sets.

Traits At level 11, you will gain access to Traits. Traits allow you to enhance the primary and secondary Attributes for your profession, customize how certain skills function in combat, and improve your overall effectiveness in combat. Beginning at level 11, you will gain 1 Trait Point per level, for a total of 70 points at level 80. Each profession has access to 5 unique Trait Lines, with each line consisting of 3 10-point tiers. The levels at which these tiers unlock is as follows:   

Adept – Level 11 Master – Level 40 Grandmaster – Level 60

To unlock each of these tiers, you will need to visit the Trainer NPC for your profession. These will be located in all major cities, or just outside of them in the starting explorable zones. To find the trainer for your profession, you can open your map [M], or they will also display a book icon for your profession over their nameplate. The cost of each training manual can be seen in the image below:

Elite Skills The final major component of standard builds in Guild Wars 2 is your Elite Skill slot (skill number 10 on your hotbar). Elite skills become available to purchase and use starting at level 30, and are more powerful than your other utility skills. As such, both the skill point cost and recharge times for elite skills are also much higher than other skill unlocks. The available elite skills for your profession can be found in the same tab of your Hero window as your healing and utility skills. There are also two tiers of elite skills; first tier skills cost 10 points to unlock, while second tier skills cost 30 points.

Armor and Weapon Upgrades The final thing to consider in your build will be the attributes or other enhancements gained by your equipped armor, weapon sets, and accessories. Most items in the game have Upgrade Slots that allow you to customize which attributes are enhanced, or add secondary effects. As you advance in levels, upgrades can be added that provide additional benefits for each piece of gear that uses the same upgrade. You can also craft armor, weapons, and accessories which gives you direct control over the exact attributes or enhancements you want to add to an item. To learn more about how Attributes impact your characterâ&#x20AC;&#x;s build and combat effectiveness, be sure to read our complete GW2 Attributes Guide.

Combo Fields and Finishers I never once noticed a combo field before the addition of the indicator, when field meets finisher. In the midst of all the particle effects on offer in Guild Wars 2, to pick out a pair of skills working in unison was often near impossible. After the symbol, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x;m constantly aware of their utility and power. For anyone who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t know, a combo field is a specific skill that creates an area of effect, of a particular type. The type tends to be elemental and this determines the effect they cause on a finisher. There are a total of 9 fields and 4 finishers that trigger the effects, as indicated in the wiki-table below. You can also check out LoreChief's Combo Highlights for a full profession breakdown of their specific Combo Fields and Finishers.

Fields come in two forms, circular or wall based. If a player remains within a circular field any finishers they activate will trigger an effect, where wall based fields are concerned, only leaps or projectile finishers will combo but they have to pass through the field. In the current build however, it is possible to activate some finishers with wall based fields, though I'm unsure if this is intentional.

To provide two examples:  

If as a Mesmer you cast Chaos Storm (Field) and use Phase Retreat (Leap Finisher) you will trigger the combo field Chaos Armour on yourself. If as a Mesmer you cast Chaos Storm (Field) and use Illusionary Duelist (Projectile Finisher) you will trigger the combo field Confusion, per bullet that passes through the Chaos Storm and onto your target.

These two examples are specific to the Mesmer skills, but it is the use of cross-profession combo fields where things get really interesting, as not all professions have access to all combo finishers. A Mesmer has Leap, Projectile and Whirl but doesn‟t have access to Blast. Pairing with a Warrior, for this example, a Mesmer could cast Chaos Storm (Field) and the Warrior could use Stomp (Blast Finisher) which would result in Chaos Armour being applied in the area to all team mates.

Although some combo finishers only have a certain percentage chance of triggering, often 20% on projectiles (likely as a result of the rate of fire) some are certain, such as the Leap and Blast example I provided above. The potency of such cross-profession combo finishers is undeniable and offers a whole host of new approaches to the way in which certain professions and profession combinations can interact with one another. A specific example of where this worked wonderfully for me was during a structured PvP tournament match in the last Beta weekend. With a thief on our team, he would use Black Powder (Field) at the beginning of the match, and then use Cluster Bomb (Blast Finisher) to area stealth our entire party. This then allowed us to leap from the spawn point and run across the centre of Niflhel unseen, before working our way to Svanir or the Chieftain (dependent on which side we were). Another favourite combination of mine as a Mesmer was the use of Time Warp when paired with a Thief. Coupled with a Chaos Storm, a Thief‟s Unload would not only fire ridiculously quickly, but the bullets when traveling through the Chaos Storm resulted in stack after stack of confusion, dealing massive damage and killing Niflhel‟s NPC in around 3 seconds. This spike made stealing the NPC easy, but killing it as quickly as we did often freed up precious time to rush to and hold the Keep.

The main hurdle to overcome in using combo fields is remembering which of your skills offer the finisher, while remembering what finisher type it actually is. Almost all are sensible in design but it is worth remembering that not every single skill is a combo field. An Engineers Poison Grenade is, but an Engineers Freeze Grenade isn‟t, despite them both being area of effect spells that fall into the standard combo field rules (poison and ice elements). I‟m incredibly happy with the system in its current form thanks to the added indictor and I believe there is a great deal of tactical play yet to be discovered. The two examples I listed above show the real potential of combo fields. Many effects are obviously reliant on other players being aware of their surroundings and knowing which skills they can and can‟t interact with. However, I‟m confident effective use of combo fields is critical to gaining an edge over opponents. With all that in mind, what uses have you found for combo fields; is there anything you would want to change and do you rate them as highly as I do?

Intro Guide to Dodging and Vigor The ability to dodge during combat is a deceptively simple mechanic, but one that can be critical to your survival and overall effectiveness in combat. In this guide we walk you through the basics of dodging, and provide details on the supporting boon, Vigor. Early on in PvE you will be prompted with an on-screen tip that helps introduce you to your ability to dodge (shown below) and the default key mapping to do so. You can initiate a dodge roll by double-tapping any of the directional movement keys (WASD) to dodge in that direction, or by pressing the [V] key. The main benefit for doing so is that you will be temporarily invulnerable to attacks, so will not take any damage regardless of what skills an enemy uses against you.

This can really save your proverbial bacon in many situations as it allows you to avoid larger direct damage attacks, crowd control effects, or can even help you quickly move out of the radius of an area-of-effect (AoE) attack. A perfect example of the latter would be the massive damage dealt by the trebuchets in the Battle of Kyhlo structured PvP (sPvP) map. Before we get too far into any advanced usage situations or concepts, letâ&#x20AC;&#x;s take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of how the system works.

Dodge System Basics As noted above, the default key mapping for preforming a dodge is to double-tap one of the directional movement keys, or pressing the [V] key. You have the ability to alter this to another key of your choosing, which can also help you avoid accidentally dodging when you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t intend to. Nothing is worse than accidentally dodging off a platform it took you 20 minutes to reach while out exploring, after all! To alter the default mapping, open the Control Options window by pressing the [F11] key on your keyboard. From here you will be able to remap the dodge ability to another key of your choosing. For example, many players will map the dodge ability to one of the thumb buttons on their mouse which can be incredibly handy if you naturally prefer mouse movement to using the default keyboard controls.

Now that you have your preferred mapping set, I cannot stress enough how important it is to begin using the ability to dodge early on during combat. This is going to help you achieve two critical things: 1. Knowing how and when to dodge in combat can mean the difference between staying alive and taking an untimely dirt nap 2. It will give you a better feel for how long it takes the dodge meter to replenish Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x;s this about the dodge meter replenishing you ask? Good question, so letâ&#x20AC;&#x;s take a look at how this aspect of the dodge system works.

The Dodge Meter and Vigor Boon Located directly above your health meter are two small yellow bars. This is your dodge meter, and is split into two halves which represent your ability to dodge twice before depleting the meter. You will need at least one of these filled to be able to dodge; if it drops below that point from consecutive dodges you will not be able to dodge again for a brief period.

The meter will naturally replenish over time, but you can also speed this process up via a handy Boon called Vigor. Vigor increases endurance regen by 100%, and can stack in duration. This boon is often overlooked in builds, but can make a sizable difference in your overall survivability. Simply put, the more often you can dodge, the less often you will be hit by incoming attacks. To learn more about Vigor be sure to check out our Complete Boons Guide. You can also view a complete list of skills and traits for each profession that grant Vigor below:

Profession

Skills

Traits

"Save Yourselves!"

Vigorous Precision

Call to Arms

Vigorous Focus

Toss Elixir H (random)

Invigorating Speed

Lightning Reflexes

Primal Reflexes Vigorous Evasion

N/A

Bountiful Theft Martial Agility

Phoenix Heat Wave

Renewing Stamina Soothing Disruption

Siren's Call (random)

Critical Infusion Vigorous Revelation

N/A

As you can see above, necromancer is the only profession that does not have any skills or traits that grant Vigor, at least not directly. They can still randomly gain Vigor through the utility skill Well of Power which transforms negative conditions into boons every two seconds. Through Well of Power, Bleeding (a very common condition) will be transformed into Vigor, so necro builds do still have the ability to grant Vigor, albeit not in a direct fashion.

Downed State and Finishing Overview Unlike other games in the genre, when your health reaches zero in Guild Wars 2 your character enters a „downed‟ state. During this time your character cannot move or fight with their standard skills, instead they are given access to four skills that will allow you to rally and get back onto your feet.

Down and Out When you are downed, your character is in a debilitated state. As a result, you cannot move, dodge, activate any of your skills or undertake any of your profession mechanics. You can tell when you enter a downed state based on the fact your health will have reached zero and you are now stationary, in a heap on the floor. Thankfully this means that you don‟t yet have to give up the fight and although you are severely weakened, this does not mean you are finished. Enemies when you enter the downed state will continue to attack you, based on your inability to avoid them. Each time you are downed, whether from a player or enemy you incur one downed penalty. This downed penalty reduces your health when in the downed state by 25% for each point and will last for a total of 1 minute. After being downed 5 times within the space of a minute you will be defeated, resulting in you having to teleport to the nearest Waypoint. If you are downed underwater it is actually called drowning and you‟ll be prompted with a message stating “Swim to the surface!” while if you are downed on land the message will state “Fight To Survive!”

Downed Skills Each profession has access to four downed skills. Three of these are unique, based on the profession you play with the fourth common to all professions. Unlike your standard profession based skills, those available in a downed state are not powerful. In fact they are often pitiful. However, they are intended to buy you precious seconds to finish of your foes (and thus rally) or survive for long enough to heal yourself up and rally.

Skill 1 For all professions this is your primary attack when downed and allows you to feebly damage your foe. In many instances, particularly in PvE this can often be enough to see off the last few drops of health the enemy might have which will cause you to rally.

Skill 2 A skill based specifically on your profession, this can vary drastically. A ranger for example has Thunderclap which damages and dazes foes around their target (exceptionally useful for stopping people finishing you off) while a Necromancer can cause fear in their foes, causing them to run away. Used at the right moment, you can seriously hinder anyone wanting to finish you off.

Skill 3 The third downed skill tends to be offer defensive utility and again varies from profession to profession. Some are certainly better than others, but most can cause enough damage to finish off weakened foes. My particular favourite is the thieves, which allows you to drop a smoke bomb and vanish in stealth. The rangers ability to call your pet to your downed location, to revive you, is also incredibly useful.

Skill 4 Lastly is the universal skill available to all professions. Called Bandage, this skill calls your allies to help and restores your health while you channel it. If you manage to complete the channel, you will rally. You should be aware however that bandage is easily interrupted so can be made useless if you are still under attack.

Recovering and Finishing We've mentioned rallying a few times during the course of this beginners guide, but in simple terms, rallying is what allows you to get back up and back into the fight. You can rally in several ways but this tends to happen from killing an enemy with your downed skills or during you attacking them and if someone else lends a helping hand. As also mentioned above, you can rally by using Bandage. If you successfully channel skill 4 to the point where your health is restored, you will rally. If you are unlucky enough not to rally you will enter a defeated state. At this point you are considered dead and will need to return to a nearby Waypoint. There are two key icons you need to be aware of when playing, specific to downed. The first is Downed Ally indicated by a blue icon and Downed Enemy, indicated by a red skull icon.

In PvP (and unlike in PvE) you can actually finish players when they are downed. This will kill the enemy player and force them to return to a Waypoint, unless another member of their party resurrects them. You can finish another playing by pressing the F key but I should forewarn, you can be interupted when using the finishing move. When you are near a player you can finish, the message "FINISH THEM!! [F]" will appear on your screen.

Summary of Downed 1. You enter a downed state when your health reaches zero. 2. When in a downed state, your standard skills are replaced with 3 profession specific skills and 1 global skill all professions share. 3. You can rally when downed by killing your foe through using your downed skills (or if someone else helps) or by using your Skill 4 (bandage). 4. You can finish other players when they are downed by (default) pressing F next to their downed body. 5. Beware when finishing people as they will be able to fight back and disrupt your attempts with their own downed skills. Learning each professions downed skills is incredibly important (the guardians is a nightmare!)

Guide to Underwater Combat and Drowning Overview Unlike other MMOGs where your skills underwater remain the same as those on land, underwater combat in Guild Wars 2 is a different kind of fish (sorry). When you submerge into water your character will automatically use breathing apparatus (or rebreathers) so you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x;t have to surface to breath. As a result you can stay under water indefinitely. Your skill set will also change based on whether your character is using a harpoon gun, spear or a trident. Both the harpoon gun and trident tend to offer ranged underwater skills, while the spear is the on land equivalent of a melee weapon. Also unlike other MMOGs, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t suffer any movement penalties while underwater, meaning you travel at the same speed as if you were on the surface. It should also be noted that you can also dodge while under water although instead of rolling, this will make you swim quickly in the direction you are facing and still allows you to avoid damage.

There are considered to be three layers to underwater environments. At the surface, there are relatively few enemies so if you do need to get from point A to point B without fear of being attacked this is where you should stay. Towards the middle of underwater environments youâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll find a scattering of enemies, but with a little finesse you can also travel at that level with relative safety. At the bottom is where most underwater events occur and as a result, these areas tend to be littered with aggressive enemies that will quickly turn on you. As several last notes, you're are more likely to obtain rebreathers (as an armour upgrade) in underwater combat rather than on land. In addition (and this for many professions is a big deal) many skills from 7 to 9 on your combat bar actually have variances underwater or won't work at all. The Engineer in particular struggles in this area as many of their skills simply don't work, such as turrets or the flamethrower. We will however be covering this aspect in a lot more detail in a separate guide, in a couple of days.

Kill the Quaggan! Underwater combat functions in many respects, as if you were on land. However, there is a much greater emphasis on the use of the z-axis, with you able to fight enemies below you and above you. Many beginners can find underwater combat a little disorientating and confusing at first, with enemies coming from all directions but with a little practice youâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll quickly get the hang on it. The best method to approach this is to fight on the middle layer where there are fewer enemies, just until you are a little more comfortable. While you are underwater, there are also two additional effects some of your skills might cause; the first is sinking and the second floating. Sinking causes enemies to fall away from the surface and this can be incredibly useful in a PvP environment (such as in World versus World) to stop players escaping out of the water. The second, floating, causes enemies or opposing players to rise to the surface. Tactically this can be brilliant for moving enemies or opposing players away from your team mates. Unfortunately, sinking or floating skills are few and far between with the Elementalist the only profession capable of causing floating (with the exception of the Guardian and Engineer, who can cause it when drowning) and only the Guardian, Elementalist, Necromancer and Mesmer are capable of causing sinking (with the exception of the Engineer, who can also cause it when drowning).

Help Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Drowning! Similarly to on land, your character can be downed when your health reaches zero but this is replaced with a state called drowning. When drowning, you will have access to four skills that you can use to rally. The major difference however between downed versus drowning is that players can recover by swimming to the surface. When your drowning health becomes full, you with then rally with 25% health. You should be aware however that you can still be finished off while drowning so quickly making your way to the surface or fighting back with your drowning skills is your best hope.

Guide to Earning XP Getting your character all the way from level one to eighty requires a lot of time, work, and, of course, experience. Unlike most MMOs, Guild Wars 2 does not chain you down to just one or two methods to earn xp for your character. In fact, there are quite a few different ways for you to harvest those xps laying all around Tyria. Whether you use all of them, or just some of them, depends upon how you wish to play the game. Let's take a look at the multitude of ways to bring your character from zero to hero.

Killing Creatures The most obvious way to earn xp in Guild Wars 2 is to kill every creature you see. You get xp for every monster you slaughter, and with the game's scaling mechanism, everything you face will yield some xp. You can maximize your xp harvest from combat by traveling to out of the way locations in that Guild Wars 2 rewards you bonus xp if you kill a creature that's been alive for a long time. So it would behoove you to hit those lonely areas of a zone where few players travel.

Renown The second way to earn xp is to fill up Renown Hearts. These are fixed quest locations in every zone marked by a big heart on your map. You'll perform a number of different tasks associated with that area, and once you're finished with those tasks, you'll be rewarded with xp and some Karma you can spend at vendors.

Dynamic Events Dynamic events are quests that will pop up as you travel through the various lands of Guild Wars 2. These events will show up on your map and can different forms. One of the most common events is providing escort to either a trader or for some person looking to get from one place to another. Naturally, there'll be plenty of attackers spawning along the way. Other events include defending local citizens from attackers or helping to gather items that need to be turned in to an NPC. The more you participate, the more xp your character will earn.

Dungeons Players can earn xp by going into dungeons, which are instanced areas that are group-based. You can replay the various dungeons as many times as you wish, but there are two modes to them. The first time you enter a dungeon will be story mode. This mode has cutscenes and follows a linear path. Once you've finished story mode for a dungeon, then you can play it in explorable mode. This second mode tends to follow the events of the story mode and has more options open to the players as they explore the dungeon.

Personal Storyline Another obvious way to earn xp is to play your character's personal storyline. As your character plays through their personal storyline, you'll gain xp for each successful quest.

Skill Challenges Scattered throughout the lands of Guild Wars 2 are various skill challenges. These can take the form ranging from simple communion with an object to single combat to fighting through a mob of creatures to trigger an item. Completing a skill challenge will earn you some xp and, perhaps more importantly, a skill point to spend on your slot skills.

World-versus-World While normal PvP doesn't result in any xp gain, you can gain xp by partaking in World-versusWorld (WvW) PvP. You'll earn xp by defeating enemy players in combat, taking keeps, and doing dynamic events.

Exploration Guild Wars 2 definitely rewards players for exploring. You'll gain xp for discovering new waypoints and points of interest. You'll see points of interest on you map represented by small squares. The more areas you explore, the more likely you'll also come across or trigger an event.

Daily Achievements There are a number of daily achievements that a player can do to rack up some xp. These include doing a number of events, gathering a certain amount of resources, killing a specific number of creatures, and killing a number of creature species. These achievements reset each day so you can gain this xp every day.

Reviving You can earn a small amount of xp by reviving NPCs or other players. This is a nice touch as that it adds a little bit of incentive for players to heal each other as opposed to just running past their broken bodies.

Gathering/Crafting Our final method of earning xp in Guild Wars 2 is through gathering and crafting. What is nice about the system in the game is that gathering resources isn't tied to any particular crafting ability. All you need is a gathering tool (pick, axe, or sickle) to harvest resources. Once you have resources, you can earn more xp by crafting items and discovering new recipes.

While there are lots of different ways to earn xp in Guild Wars 2, the beauty of the system is how it works together. While doing an event will net you xp, you'll also gain them by defeating creatures during the event. Escorting a merchant might take you to a new area, which will result in more xp for discovering a new point of interest. Loot drops may contain resources you'll use to craft, thus reaping in more xp. PvE not your cup of tea? Then head off to world-versus-world and start gathering xp there. Guild Wars 2 allows you to earn xp depending upon your own particular playstyle and the result is a rather elegant system.

Skill Points Guide In Guild Wars 2, unlocking or purchasing new skills to use in combat is handled a bit differently than in more traditional MMOGs. Rather than requiring you to visit a static NPC trainer every couple of levels, instead you will gain new skills on one of two ways. Your weapon skills will unlock automatically through actively using a given weapon and defeating enemies during combat. Additional healing, utility, and elite skills, however, will be purchased by spending a pre-determined number of skill points. In this guide we‟ll go over what skill points are, how they are obtained, and how you will go about spending them to unlock new skills to use in combat. We‟ve also included details on skill challenges, and ways you can spend any extra skill points you earn once you‟ve finished unlocking all of the available skills for your profession or race.

Earning Skill Points Upon reaching level 5, you will begin earning 1 skill point each time you level, for a total of 75 points earned through natural character progression by the time you reach level 80. After reaching the level cap, you can continue accumulating additional skill points even though your character has reached the maximum level. This works similar to the way you can continue to earn skill points after reaching level 20 in the original Guild Wars. In other words, even at the level cap, you can continue earning XP through normal gameplay. Filling the XP bar at this point will continue to grant you 1 skill point each time the bar is filled. There is also a secondary method of earning additional skill points called Skill Challenges. Explorable PvE and WvW zones will each have a set number of these challenges marked on your map which can be seen by pressing the [M] key.

Indicates a skill challenge that has not been completed Indicates a skill challenge that has been completed

As seen below, in the upper right corner of the map you will be able to see how many skill challenges exist in the current zone, and also track your World Completion:

Each time you enter a new zone, at the bottom of the loading screen you will also see how many skill challenges are contained in that zone, as well as your current progress towards completion of that particular map:

There are a number of different types of skill challenges, some being more difficult to complete than others. Some of the more basic challenges will require you to interact with a friendly NPC and defeat them in combat. Others might require you to fight your way deep within a cave or structure, defeat a more difficult creature type, or even interact (commune) with a specific object. Many of these skill challenges can be completed while solo, though there will be cases where completing the challenge might require the efforts of a group. Since the more difficult challenges tend to be considered mini dynamic events and will also reward you with XP or even other rewards, you usually shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t have a problem finding other players to participate as they can still benefit even after having obtained that particular skill point.

Unlocking New Skills with Skill Points You could almost think of skill points as a form of currency, with the primary purpose of spending a number of points to unlock additional profession or racial skills to use in combat. There is also a secondary function which we‟ll go over in more detail later in this guide. For now, however, let‟s go over the process of spending skill points to unlock new healing, utility, and elite skills. Open the Hero window [H] (shown below) and click on the Skills and Traits tab found to the left. At the top of this view, you will see the number of skill points you currently have to spend on new skills. From here, you will want to click on Slot Skills which will open up a complete list of the skills you can purchase for your profession, as well as any skills based on the race of your character.

To purchase a new skill, move your mouse over its icon and a blue button giving you the option to “Buy” that skill will appear. Clicking on this will bring up a confirmation option to either complete or cancel the purchase.

Healing Skills All professions will start the game with one healing skill automatically unlocked, with two additional heals that can be purchased with skill points. The first of these will cost 1 point, with the second costing 3 points. Depending on your character race, you may have an additional racial heal skill that will also cost 3 points to unlock. Unlike utility and elite skills, there are no tiered restrictions on when you can purchase new heal skills. As long as you have enough points, you can unlock them in any order you choose.

Utility Skills You unlock your first utility skill slot at level 5, with the second unlock at level 10, and the final slot unlocked at level 20. The process of purchasing new utility skills is similar to healing skills, with one major difference. Utility skills are broken down into three tiers, and you must purchase 5 skills in a tier before you can progress to the next tier. First tier skills cost only 1 point each, with the second tier costing 3 points each, and the final tier skills will cost 6 points each. Please note that within a given tier, there are not restrictions on which order skills can be purchased. This allows for a certain amount of flexibility in terms of which specific skills you earn as you advance your character, rather than being a more rigid progression like you would see in most other MMOGs.

Elite Skills The final skill type you can purchase with skill points are called Elite skills. These are much more powerful than your normal utility skills, and won't unlock for you to purchase and use until level 30. Each profession has a total of 3 elite skills, with two in the first tier and 1 in the second tier. You will also have additional elite skills that you can purchase and use in PvE and WvW gameplay based on the race of your character.

Map and World Completion As noted earlier in this guide, each explorable map in Guild Wars 2 will contain a number of skill challenges for you to complete. Completion of these challenges will count towards your total completion for a given map, as well as your world completion.

This is worth noting, as skill challenge completion not only grants you skill points to spend, but will contribute to your overall map completion which will grant your character some additional rewards.

Spending Extra Skill Points It is possible to earn more skill points than there are available skills to spend them on. At this point they can also be used as a currency to purchase additional items, such as components used to craft items in the Mystic Forge. An example of some of the items you can currently purchase with skill points can be seen below:

Bloodstone Shards can also be purchased for 200 skill points each, and are used in the creation of Legendary Weapons. As additional information on these weapons, or other items that can be purchased for skill points becomes available we'll be sure to update this guide with the full details. In the meantime, also be on the lookout for our complete guide to the Mystic Forge!

Intro Guide to Karma and the Renown System Guild Wars 2 offers quite a few unique mechanics and one of those can be found in how the game handles normal questing and rewards. Instead of hordes of NPCs with question marks floating over their heads, Guild Wars 2 has a more centralized system of questing known as Renown with rewards in the form of Karma. To fully explain these mechanics, Guild Wars 2 Hub offers this intro guide to Renown and Karma.

Renown We're all used to the standard MMO fare of grabbing quests from multitudes of NPCs in an area and then running off to do them. Guild Wars 2 handles this aspect in a different way. Instead of multiple NPCs that give quests, there are a handful of fixed locations in every zone that are known as Renown Hearts. These are marked by heart-shaped icons on your map and will be highlighted by any scouts (people marked with the telescope icon) you interact with, along with what is need to complete each Renown Heart and its level. Each Renown Heart is associated with a specific NPC (those with hearts floating over them), and those NPCs will ask the players to help them. However, a player does not need to talk to the NPC to get the quest as just moving into the area will have it automatically show up on your screen.

To help a Renown NPC in Guild Wars 2, the player will need to perform a variety of tasks. Being able to fulfill a quest by different means is a refreshing change from the typical MMO. In the image below, you can see that I'm involved in helping Farmer Diah. The various ways that I can help her are shown along with a bar showing how much I've completed for this Renown task.

As you will notice, I can gain progress by watering corn, stomping wurm mounds, feeding cattle, and defending the fields. Each task you do will increase the total in the progress bar. You can choose to do the same task over and over again (allowing for respawn) or do a multitude of different tasks. It does not matter which task you choose and the choice is up to you.

Once you've completed the Renown tasks and filled up the bar, you will get rewarded with some XP and Karma. You will then also receive a letter from the NPC that includes some money as a reward. Fulfilling a Renown Heart also counts towards the total completion of your map.

Once you have finished the Renown tasks associated with a specific NPC, the heart floating over them, as well as on your map, will be filled. Once this is accomplished, the NPC becomes a Karma Merchant, which leads us to...

Karma Karma is a form of currency in Guild Wars 2 that you can spend at Karma Merchants for a variety of goods. Every Renown NPC becomes a Karma Merchant once you've completed all their tasks, but there are also other Karma Merchants scattered throughout Tyria. For example, there are Karma Merchants located in each major city that will sell you a variety of crafting materials, and even certain crafting trainers, such as the Chef trainer, will sell materials for Karma.You can gain Karma from completing Renown tasks, dynamic events, and through personal storylines (both yours and other players if you're grouped with them). Karma Merchants can sell everything from weapons and armor to potions to food. Usually, the items that a Karma Merchant carries is of higher quality than items dropped by creatures of a relative level range. Naturally, the better the item, the higher the cost. Below you can see some items carried by a Karma Merchant in lower level zone in Guild Wars 2. As you can see, Renown and Karma go together, hand-in-hand. Completing Renown tasks rewards you not only with XP and money, but also with Karma points and the ability to spend those points from the NPC you've just helped. Overall, the Renown and Karma systems in Guild Wars 2 is a different take on the quest/reward mechanic. Instead of running willynilly all over a zone looking for quests, you automatically know where to go, what you need to do, and what level the challenge is for the Renown tasks. Wasting time is irritating and Guild Wars 2 really keeps that to a minimum. Now get out there and start making those hearts glow!

Better Living through Inventory Management Obtaining piles of shiny loot can be awesome, but figuring out what to do with the spoils of war after the fact can be a total drag. In fact, the most common MMOG inventory management systems could easily go by the alias D.R.A.G. – Doesn‟t Respect the Average Gamer. While there are still some aspects of inventory management in Guild Wars 2 that could be improved upon, overall ArenaNet has done a great job of giving players plenty of tools to work with. To that end, we‟ve put together a collection of tips to help keep the inventory management mini-game from critting you for too much damage, and keep you out enjoying the rest of the game instead.

Stock Up on Salvage Kits Perhaps the best purchase you will ever make in your journeys throughout Tyria, Salvage Kits are one of the absolute “must haves” for effective inventory management. GW1 players will already be familiar with the basics of salvage kits, but for those of you just joining the party in Tyria, here is a quick rundown of how they work. While out adventuring, you‟ll see certain loot drops labeled as a “salvage item”. Using a salvage kit on these will return a number of common crafting materials, but you can also salvage other items too. Armor and weapons that you don‟t need or intend to sell should all be salvaged. Depending on the quality of salvage kit you use, you‟ll have a progressively better chance of gaining rarer crafting materials, or recovering upgrades from the item. You will obtain Crude Salvage Kits early on through your personal story, but will want to purchase more kits whenever you‟re at a vendor who sells them. Most general vendors will sell at least Basic quality kits, including the crafting vendors found in cities. However, as soon as you can afford to, you‟ll want to begin stocking up on better quality kits. A vendor that‟s universally easy to reach regardless of which race you‟re playing is Salty Emil, located at the entrance to Hooligan‟s Route in northwest Lion‟s Arch.

Bag Upgrades When you first exit the intro for your chosen race, one of your rewards will be a shiny new 4 slot bag. Not bad to start off with, but you‟ll want to upgrade this and any other smaller bags you obtain through personal story or as drops early on. The concept here is pretty simple; the more bag space you have, the less frequently you‟ll have to seek out the nearest vendor to clear more space. Perhaps the easiest way to increase the size of your bags is through crafting. Armorsmiths, Tailors, and Leatherworkers can make new boxes or bags fairly cheaply, and can be a good choice for one of your 2 trades depending on which profession you‟re playing since it will allow you to craft armor upgrades as you level. With little cost and effort you‟ll be able to upgrade to 8 slot bags, and will probably even be able to craft the 10 slot bags within the first few days of playing depending on how quickly you choose to advance your crafting skill level.

It‟s worth mentioning that bags do require a Rune of Holding (shown above) to craft. This is smart for a few reasons, perhaps the biggest one being that it puts a base value on bags and helps keep the Trading Post pricing of bags somewhat in check. For example, it costs 2 gold for a Greater Rune of holding, so crafted 18 slot bags will most likely always sell to other players for at least that much.

Storage Vault One of the very first waypoints you‟ll want to unlock in the major cities will be the ones located next to the bank. This will allow you to quickly travel there to drop off crafting materials, item upgrades for your alts, or other collectables you want to store. Storage space is exceedingly limited though, but it can still serve as a handy overflow for your bags if you‟re a giant pack rat like me and hate to get rid of anything that might be useful at some point over the next 20 years. Thankfully there is a very simple way to increase your available storage – all it takes is a little dedication and time. Under the Architecture category of the guild management Upgrades tab you‟ll find a number of guild storage upgrades that can be researched. Regardless of what size your guild is, this should be the first group of unlocks you spend your Influence on. Larger guilds will like have them unlocked in a solid week of playing, but even smaller guilds should be able to unlock at least the initial Guild Stash fairly quickly.

While some guilds might scoff at the idea of letting their members join multiple guilds, allowing members to occasionally accrue some Influence towards a personal guild isn‟t a bad idea as far as inventory management is concerned. Guild leaders who would deny their members such an obvious benefit via the multi-guilding system could really stand to learn a thing or two about keeping their guild members happy in my humble opinion.

Cosmetic Items, Consumables, and Collectables This is really more a word of advice than an actual tip, but I thought it pertinent to mention regardless. In your Hero window, you‟ll notice that you‟ve got a separate tab for your Town Clothes. This is a cosmetic set of gear that you can swap out for various items such as the costumes that can be purchased for Gems. Some of the costumes are pretty cool, but don‟t forget that a 5 piece set equals 5 inventory or storage spaces you‟ll have to account for. If you‟re the type of gamer who likes to collect minipets, don‟t forget that your account vault comes equipped with a dedicated section to store them in. You‟ll only be able to store one of each type here, so if you ever obtain duplicates your best bet is to place them up for sale on the Trading Post. In fact, you should get into the habit of using the Trading Post as another method of getting items out of your bags and account vault that you don‟t have a personal use for, and have a greater value to other players than what NPC vendors will offer.

A Word about Weapons Before I scamper off into the aether, there is one final thing worth keeping in mind when it comes to inventory management. At present, weapons don‟t have any form of dedicated inventory space, so the more weapons your profession can use, the more bag space you‟ll need to sacrifice to keep a full set handy. This shouldn‟t necessarily influence which profession you choose to play, but it‟s something to remain conscious of all the same. The total number of weapons each profession can currently use is as follows:

       

Elementalist - 5 total weapons / 6 total combinations Engineer - 4 total weapons / 4 total combinations Guardian - 11 total weapons / 14 total combinations Mesmer - 9 total weapons / 12 total combinations Necromancer - 8 total weapons / 12 total combinations Ranger - 10 total weapons / 13 total combinations Thief - 6 total weapons / 9 total combinations Warrior - 11 total weapons / 21 total combinations

As you can see, there is a pretty major difference in the amount of bag space weapons will take up depending on your profession. I keep hoping ArenaNet will create a dedicated weapon inventory container to account for the massive disparity here, but so far no dice. At present, a warrior is far worse off than an Elementalist in terms of inventory space, and that honestly makes no sense on any level. So until the above is address in some way, it is worth keeping in mind when first starting out. Think of it this way: your warrior will start with a 20 slot backpack + 4 additional slots from your intro reward. Of those 24 slots, you‟ll be left with a scant 13 open slots if you want to have 1 of each weapon available to unlock skills or try out different builds. Thankfully there is a bit of relief at level 7 when your second weapon set unlocks, but it still makes little sense that weapon storage should be a major concern for some professions, and not at all for others.

Trading Post Basics Overview Technically an auction house (for anyone familiar with other massively multiplayer games) the Trading Post is Guild Wars 2‟s player to player trading system. The major selling point of the Trading Post is the fact that it‟s global, meaning all items bought and sold on it are across different Worlds. In traditional style, the auction house is where players can buy and sell items at their own leisure without the need to trade directly with a player or find an NPC. Unlike in other MMOG‟s where you would be required to physically travel to an auction house to list your wares or buy from others, you can buy or sell from the Trading Post anywhere in the game world, meaning for players like me who find the whole system hugely addictive, the draw of making money is only a click away, regardless of where you are. One thing that you should be aware of is the fact that you need to travel to the Trading Post to collect an item you have bought or to receive the profit from something you have sold. I do find this a little odd as I can‟t understand why the items or money earned aren‟t mailed to you but I eventually learned the hard way by buying 5 Greatswords, thinking my purchase and personal mail was lagging. For anything you do sell on the Trading Post there will be a 15% fee based on the items total sale price, which is a relatively large amount.

Buy low, Sell high! The easiest way to go about selling an item on the Trading Post is to simply right click an item in your inventory and select “Sell at Trading Post”. The Trading Post window will then appear in the middle of your screen and will display the various options available to you in terms of sale or buying price as well the value of other items in your inventory. Under the “Sell” tab you will be able to specify your unit price as well as list the quantity of an item you wish to sell. Alternatively and often the easiest method, you can always choose “Meet highest buyer” which will automatically set the value you of your item based on the price currently set by the highest bidder at the Trading Post. You can also select “Match lowest seller” which will only sell the item when a buyer meets your sale price.

Based on my Beta experience there was never a shortage of players willing to buy even the cheapest of objects so rather than making your way to vendor with your items, take a look at the auction house first as you‟d be surprised how quickly your money can stack up even when selling for a few copper at a time. Under the “Buy” tab you‟re able to search for any specific items you need but you are also able to rick click on the item in your inventory (similar to “Sell at Trading Post”) and select “Buy at Trading Post”. Selecting multiple items from listings available will also provide a total price for the purchase or sale of the items with you then able to complete the action based on an offer you make or a seller‟s willingness to part with their goods for the price specified.

Trending and Gem Trading Two of the key elements of the Trading Post are trends in buyer and seller behaviour based on item values over a period of time and Gem Trading. The first and arguably most important aspect for anyone intending to take the trading post seriously is Trending. Allowing you to track market data it lists everything from Top Trade Items to the pricing trends of specific items. Staying ahead of the game is all part of the fun in an auction house so analyzing this actively and reacting to it will be key in earning money. For example, if you see one specific item is selling well and you know how to obtain it easily and quickly, it‟s a common tactic to scoop up all those items already being sold (if you can afford it) before re-listing them at an inflated price, bolstered by the additional ones you‟ve obtained. This will create a new market price people will have to meet if they don‟t want to farm the item themselves. Many people may frown at this tactic, but it‟s incredibly common (and does work).

Last but not least is Gem Trading. Through the Currency Exchange window you can trade gold for gems or gems for gold based on the current market price. The Currency Exchange window will also display recent gem sale prices, the average price as well as the highest and lowest over a period of time. For anyone wishing to convert their gold or gems, it‟s well worth keeping track of the market data rather than exchanging them instantly as you might get a little more bang for your buck if you play it right.

Trading Post Summary  The Trading Post is Guild Wars 2‟s equivalent of an Auction House.  You can list or buy items on the Trading Post from anywhere in the game world by simply right clicking on the item, in your inventory.  Always check the Trading Post prices of items you have in your inventory before you sell it to a vendor, you might make more money.  If you have bought or sold an item from the Trading Post you will need to travel to the physical Trading Post (most commonly in Lions Arch) to collect your earnings or the item itself; it will not come to you!  Analysing Trading Post Trending is key to staying ahead of the market paying close attention to this will provide a clear indication of what players are after.  The total listing fee for any sold items is 15% of the total sale price.

GW2 Currency Guide While there are plenty of things you can purchase in Guild Wars 2 with the MMO staples of gold, silver, or copper, the game also utilizes a number of different currencies that can be earned and spent in different ways. In this guide weâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll go over each of these unique currencies, how they are obtained, and the types of items they can be used to purchase.

Gold, Silver and Copper Coins The main form of currency in Guild Wars 2 is the traditional coin breakdown of gold, silver and copper. Most general PvE activities such as participation in dynamic events, completion of Renown objectives, completing Daily Achievements, or defeating certain creature types will award you with varying amounts of coin based on your character level, and the relative difficulty of the task. Coins can also be earned and spent in World vs. World, so you will not be forced to participate in one game type (PvE) for the sake of earning money to spend in another (WvW). You will be able to view the amount of coin you possess at any time by opening your Inventory [I] where your current wealth will be shown on the bottom right corner of the window. Examples of how coin is earned and items types it will allow you to purchase can be seen below. Please note that the lists are not exhaustive, but will at least give you a general idea of ways coin can be earned and spent.

Earned by...

Purchased with...

• Defeating creatures

• Training Manuals

• Completing Dynamic Events

• Waypoint Travel

• Completing Renown objectives

• Crating Materials

• Defeating enemy players in WvW

• WvW Siege Weapons

• Selling items to merchants

• WvW Commander rank training

• Selling items on the Trading Post

• Armor and Weapons

• Completing Daily and Monthy Achievements

• Item repairs

Karma Karma is another form of currency that you will be able to earn and spend similar to gold, with a few key differences. While you can obtain Karma through many of the same activities, you will not earn Karma directly by defeating normal creatures. Likewise, you cannot purchase items on the Trading Post for Karma. The primary method of earning karma will be completing dynamic events or Renown objectives, though karma can also be earned by map completion, or completing all tiers of daily and monthly achievements. Upon completing all objectives for a Renown NPC, they will become a merchant who will sell you a variety of unique items for karma. You can view your available karma at any time by opening your Inventory [I] where it will be displayed on the bottom left corner. Examples of how karma can be earned and item types it will allow you to purchase can be seen below. Please note that some items may have both a karma and coin cost to purchase.

Earned by...

Purchased With...

• Completing Dynamic Events

• Crating Materials

• Completing Renown objectives

• Gathering Tools

• Completing WvW objectives

• Salvage Kits

• Map completion

• Transmutation Stones

• Completing Daily and Monthy Achievements

• Rare Armor and Weapons

Badges of Honor Badges of Honor are a currency that is unique to World vs. World gameplay. Unlike coins or karma, these badges will be looted as physical objects, and will take up a free slot in your Inventory [I]. So if you plan on spending much time in WvW, you will want to be sure to keep at least one free inventory slot open for badges, otherwise you will not be able to loot them. The primary method for obtaining Badges of Honor will be through defeating enemy players, though they can also be obtained by defeating NPC creatures in WvW. Given the often chaotic nature of WvW gameplay, any loot you are rewarded will spawn at your characterâ&#x20AC;&#x;s feet, so you will not have to worry about running into the thick of combat to open a loot bag. Badges of Honor can be used as an alternate form of currency to by Siege Weapon blueprints instead of coin. This allows you to still purchase blueprints but retain enough coin to purchase other high priority items such as Trait training manuals, or armor repairs.

Glory Glory is a currency that is unique to structured PvP. You will be able to earn glory through participation in either hot-join or tournament matches, with the amount earned based partly on your personal contributions during a given match, and whether your team was the victor. You can view how much glory you currently have by opening the Hero window [H] and clicking on the PvP tab. The amount of glory you have will be seen on the left side of the screen in this view as shown below:

At present, the main items you can purchase with glory include a variety of Reward Chests, and a unique type of Salvage Kit that is used specifically for breaking unwanted PvP items down into components that can then be used in the Mystic Forge. Glory Merchants can be found near the Asura Gates and training NPCs in the Heart of the Mists, the main PvP lobby. An example of the items they have for sale and the associated glory costs can be seen to the right (click to enlarge).

Dungeon Tokens Tokens are a currency type that is unique to playing through dungeons in GW2. Rather than having to repeat dungeons in hopes of obtaining specific armor or weapon drops, you will instead be able to earn tokens that can then be spent on the items of your choosing at special dungeon vendors. Each dungeon in GW2 will have an associated type of token, with vendors for all dungeons centrally located in Lionâ&#x20AC;&#x;s Arch near the asura gates in Fort Marriner. The items they have for sale will allow you to complete a set of armor or obtain weapons that have a unique cosmetic appearance associated with that particular dungeon. In general, players will need to complete a given dungeon in both Story mode along with multiple runs through in Explorable mode to complete a full set of armor.

Gems Gems are a special type of currency that can be used to purchase items for sale in the in-game store. This includes things like non-combat cosmetic items or costumes, consumable boosts, extra character slots, or account storage upgrades. Gems are also the currency type that is used to transfer your account to a different home world, with the associated cost dependent upon the population of the world you wish to transfer to. In general, transferring to a low population world will cost less gems than if you wish to transfer to a high population world. Gems can be purchased in one of two ways; real world cash, or in-game gold. You can also purchase gold in-game with gems, based on the current market value. The current rate can be seen in the Black Lion Trading Company window [O] by opening the Currency Exchange tab. Please note that the real cash purchase cost for Gems remains static; only the gold exchange rates will fluctuate based on market trends as shown below:

Purchasing gems for cash can be done in-game on the main tab of the Trading Company UI window. Your current gem total will be displayed here in the upper left corner, and to purchase gems you can click on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Get More Gems+â&#x20AC;? button located directly beneath your current total gems. From here you will have a number of different options for the amount of gems you wish to purchase, and once your purchase has been completed you will be able to immediately begin spending them in-game.

Guide to Traveling in Tyria Guild Wars 2 has a refreshing perspective to traveling throughout Tyria in that it becomes incredibly easy to move around the world once you've unlocked various travel points. I find this rewarding for two reasons. First, exploration provides tangible results by unlocking waypoints that you can instantly travel to from anywhere in the world. Second. you don't waste tons of time running from the far side of a zone to the opposite side to do a quest or take part in an event. I hate the slow traveling methods in most MMOs in that I want to spend my time heroically playing and not feeling like I'm playing Never-Ending Sprinting: The MMO!

Active waypoint

Locked waypoint Contested waypoint

Waypoint Travel Traveling in Guild Wars 2 is simple and relies upon two types of transport: waypoints and asura gates. Waypoints are fixed locations throughout a zone that are unlocked when a player moves close to it. They are marked on your map with a diamond shape and are filled in when discovered. Waypoints appear as a floating stone marker that has a glow around it. Whenever you load into a zone, you can see the number of waypoints you've unlocked at the bottom of your loading screen. Once you've unlocked a waypoint, you can always travel to it by opening your map and clicking on the particular waypoint you wish to go to.

There is a monetary cost to travel to a waypoint and the cost increases the further away the waypoint is from you. You are not locked into any particular zone with waypoints and can travel to other zones by use of waypoints. Traveling within a city by using waypoints is free. Some waypoints may become contested if there is fighting going on in the vicinity and you will be unable to use them. You also cannot travel whilst you are in combat. If you die in combat, you can be revived at any waypoint by paying the associated travel cost. If you have no money, you'll be revived for free at the closest waypoint.

Waypoints on your map and up close.

Asura Gate Travel Asura gates are the other side of the travel coin in Guild Wars 2. They are free to use and provide instantaneous transport to other asura gates. Most asura gates are found in the cities, with Lion's Arch having a particularly large number of gates, but can be found in the wilds. In appearance, they are circular gates that have a glowing purple circle in the center. Unlike waypoints, you don't have to rely upon discovering asura gates to use them. You can travel from Divinity's Reach to Lion's Arch without ever having stepped foot into the latter city before. Asura gates are also used to transport players into World-versus-World battles. You can find asura gates on your map as they're shown as a purple swirl.

Asura gates.

Direct PvP Travel and General Notes While you are able to use asura gates to travel to both the Heart of the Mists - the main structured PvP lobby - and World vs. World zones, you can also do so more quickly through more direct travel methods. To travel to the Heart of the Mists to test your build concepts on a variety of target dummies and NPCs, or to participate in either hot join or tournament PvP games, you can do so via the Hero window [H]. In this window you will want to open the PvP tab which will be found on the left side of the screen. In this view, there will be a clickable button towards the top labeled "Go to the Heart of the Mists". Clicking on this will instantly transport you to the PvP lobby from anywhere in the world. The direct travel method for World vs. World zones is similar, only it will instead be found in the World vs. World Stats and Bonuses window [B]. Clicking on the "Go to World vs. World" button at the top of the window will bring up a drop-down list, allowing you to select whether you want to travel to the central contested map (The Eternal Battlegrounds), or one of the three Borderlands maps. The last mode of traveling in Guild Wars 2 is your humble feet. Yes, while waypoints and asura gates allow for instantaneous travel, the sad fact remains that you will have to explore the world of Tyria mainly on your feet. You'll have to walk many a league to unlock the various waypoints in each zone, but the lure of exploration is its own reward. Who knows what you'll find as you explore the nooks and crannies of the world? While the bulk of your traveling time will be spent on foot, the ability to use waypoints and asura gates allows you to travel quickly across the world once you've unlocked the various waypoints. This allows you to quickly get to the action, especially if you're doing your personal storyline, and not waste time tramping from one side of the map to the other over and over again. Spending a few coins is a small price to pay to instantly travel to another waypoint. Playing Guild Wars 2 should be about taking part in a glorious epic fantasy, not wasting time trudging around to get to the adventure.

Cities, Explorable Zones, and Dungeons by Level Knowing what content is available for your current level is an important part of character advancement in any MMO. To help guide you as you travel throughout Tryia in Guild Wars 2, weâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve put together complete lists of explorable zones and dungeons by level. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve also added details on the total number of renown hearts, waypoints, points of interest, skill challenges, and vistas for each explorable zone and major city in the game.

Zone List Icons Renown Hearts Waypoints Points of Interest Skill Challenges Vistas

Major Cities City Name

Race

Black Citadel

Charr

Divinity's Reach

Human

Hoelbrak

Norn

Lion's Arch

Neutral

Rata Sum

Asura

The Grove

Sylvari

Explorable Zones by Level Zone

Levels

Caledon Forest

1-15

Metrica Province

1-15

Plains of Ashford

1-15

Queensdale

1-15

Wayfarer Foothills

1-15

Brisban Wildlands

15-25

Diessa Plateau

15-25

Kessex Hills

15-25

Snowden Drifts

15-25

Gendarran Fields

25-35

Fields of Ruin

30-40

Lornar's Pass

30-40

Valley Headland

35-45

Blazeridge Steppes

40-50

Dredgehaunt Cliffs

40-50

Bloodtide Coast

40-50

Fireheart Rise

45-55

Timberline Falls

50-60

Sparkfly Fen

55-65

Mount Maelstrom

60-70

Frostgorge Sound

70-80

Dungeons by Level Dungeon Name

Level

Location

Ascalonian Catacombs

30 / 35

Plains of Ashford

Caudecus's Manor

40 / 45

Queensdale (Shire of Beetletun)

Twilight Arbor

50 / 55

Caledon Forest

Sorrow's Embrace

60 / 65

Dredgehaunt Cliffs

Citadel of Flame

70 / 75

Fireheart Rise

Crucible of Eternity

Mount Maelstrom

Honor of the Waves

Frostgorge Sound

Arah

Ruins of Orr

General notes on dungeons in Guild Wars 2:  All dungeons have a Story mode and an Explorable mode.  Story mode must be completed before you can access the explorable mode.  Apart from the level 80 dungeons, the explorable mode of each dungeon is intended for players roughly 5 levels higher than the story mode version. This is represented above in the level listing for each dungeon, with the first number representing the story mode level, and the second representing the intended level for explorable mode.  Vendors for unique armor and weapons for each dungeon are located in Lion's Arch.

Bundle System Guide Guild Wars 2 introduces a lot of new mechanics to online gamers, ranging from changes to normal auction house transactions to the Thief's ability to steal useful items. One of the most intriguing new systems is the bundle system. What's the bundle system, you ask? Well, it has nothing to do with raising political campaign donations. A bundle is an item that you can pick up or is given to you by an NPC that will replace the normal skills of your character.

How the Bundle System Works The range of items that are bundles in Guild Wars 2 is quite large. They can range from planks of wood to boulders to diving goggles. Some of the bundle items you pick up can be used for harmless fun while others can be used for completing various tasks, or even grant you temporary weapons to use in combat. For example: an early Renown Heart task for human characters is to aid one of the local farmers. One thing that you can do to complete the task is to water their crops. In order to water the crop, you'll need to pick up a bucket, and once you have the bucket, you'll be able to water the various shriveled crops around the farm. Bundle items have a sparkly glow around them as they lie on the ground. Once you click on them or interact with them using the [F] key to pick them up, you'll notice that your character's weapon skills (the 1-5 slots on your hotbar) have been temporarily replaced with one or more new skills. You can drop the item you've picked up by clicking on the green arrow to the left of the hotbar, or using the default weapon swap key [`]. Once you've done that, your normal weapon skills will return. Most bundle items have a limited duration and will disappear on their own after some usage.

Some dynamic events or personal story missions in Guild Wars 2 will require you to use the bundle system. One example that sticks out in my memory took place during the first beta weekend. My personal storyline had me trying to infiltrate a circus. One of the tasks given to me in order to worm my way into the confidence of the circus was to follow the directions of the mime. I had to replicate his movements in order to further the quest, and, initially, I was confused. After a minute, I realized that all my weapon skills had been replaced by mime actions, which I then used to complete the quest. I was bummed afterwards because I no longer had the mime actions available to me and I desperately wanted to hang about Divinity's Reach performing as a mime to drive people crazy.

Why the Bundle System Rocks I love the bundle system in Guild Wars 2 for several reasons. The first reason that it allows you to interact with the environment. While such interaction isn't earth-shattering, it adds another dimension to the gameplay. The second reason is that allows you to have more options available for doing various event tasks. Instead of the normal "go kill 10 boars" option in most MMOs, you now have more choices in completing Renown Hearts or dynamic events in that you can kill creatures, but you can also tend crops or feed cattle. One Renown Heart had me practicing with the local militia of the Township of Claypool by using various weapons and shields. The more choices you have for completing tasks, the better. The bundle system also leverages the ability to change your active weapon skills on the fly to add interesting new elements to combat, or even solve various puzzles and disarm traps while exploring one of the game's many dungeons. A great example here would be in the Ascalonian Catacombs where picking up boulders not only allowed our group utilize pressure pads to progress further into the dungeon, but later on they proved to be a vital part of defeating a particularly difficult pair of bosses. My final reason for enjoying the bundle system is that it's fun. The circus example above illustrates this point. Another example that I stumbled across was a pair of swimming goggles. I had worked my way up to the top of a mountain in Kessex Hills that overlooked the sea. Laying on the ground at the edge of the cliff was a pair of diving goggles. When I put them on, my character's appearance changed to where she was wearing a swimsuit. I decided to dive off the cliff to see what would happen. As I cliff-dived towards the ocean, two options became available: spin and flip. Did this alter the game in a significant way? No, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to do. Another fun bundle item was a bomb that you can pick up and once you use it, it'll explode in 10 seconds. Who doesn't love walking around with a giant keg bomb?

Picking up the diving goggles puts you in a swimsuit.

The amount if bundle items seems to be quite large and there is a variety of uses for them, ranging from hitting other people or consuming the item in question. Below is a partial list of bundle items discovered so far.

Bundle Item Examples Keg of Ale

Garden Hoe

Shovel

Champagne Glass

Branch

Mug of Ale

Empty Bottle

Bottle of Rum

Ice Bow

Tree Branch

Rusty Scrap

Splintered Rack Piece

Boulder

Wooden Plank

Metal Bar

Broken Plank

Diving Goggles

Water Bucket

Poison Pod

Bomb

Wooden Sword

Egg

Splintered Gate Piece

Meat on a Stick

Cow Pie

Training Rifle

Shield

Pile of Snowballs

"The Fixer" Wrench

Bag of Feed

The bundle system in Guild Wars 2 is an interesting mechanic that not only allows for more options for combat and events, but also adds interaction with the environment as well as some fun. From throwing cow pies to whacking enemies with a plank of wood, the bundle system is one of those quiet, under-the-radar game mechanics that adds a refreshing air to the game.

Norn Keg Brawl Guide Forget namby-pamby games like football and focus instead upon the most brutal Guild Wars 2 mini-game played upon a real frozen tundra - Keg Brawl! The hellacious game where bones are broken, throwing a punch is part of the rules, and precious ale is poured onto the ice in order to gain victory. Rugby? For wimps. Football? Put on a tutu. Soccer? Don't make me laugh. To prepare you for this brawl in the blizzard, we've put together this guide to the joint-shattering mini-game of Keg Brawl. If offering multiple ways to gain xp or engaging in some World-versus-World doesn't do enough for you, Guild Wars 2 offers some mini-games to offer an entertaining diversion. One of the mini-games that will most likely be extremely popular will be Keg Brawl. This crazy, violent game pits two teams of five players against each other while kegs of ale serve as the scoring object.

Where to Play Keg Brawl To play Keg Brawl, you'll have to head to the Norn city of Hoelbrak. The icy lake where you'll play the mini-game is found in the northwest section of the city, just east of the Biergarten waypoint. Just run out on the frozen lake and you'll come across the Brewer, an NPC who'll introduce you to Keg Brawl. The Brewer is marked with crossed flags (red and purple) on your map. Talk to him and he'll give you the option to either jump straight into the action or practice a bit first. If you choose to practice, you'll play against computer opponents and can choose whether or not to carry a keg. If you decide to play for real, then you'll head straight into a match. You can always choose to leave a game in progress by talking to the Brewer again on the sideline.

How to Play Keg Brawl Keg Brawl is a fine example of the bundle system in Guild Wars 2 where your normal hotbar actions are replaced with new abilities. Keg Brawl is played between two teams of five players. Kegs will appear in the center of the playing area, and there can be more than one keg. The goal is to grab the keg and carry it back to your ale collector, which results in a point. The first team to 11 points is the winner or until time runs out. Each player gets abilities to play the game, but the abilities vary by whether you're carrying the keg or not. If you're not carrying the keg, you get the Swiftness boon. This means that if you're carrying the keg, everybody else is moving faster than you. If you're not carrying the keg, you gain the following abilities:

Abilities When Not Carrying a Keg Punch

Punch your competitor to Daze them. 4 second cooldown.

Disarm

Smash your target to knock the barrel from their hands. 4 second cooldown.

Dive Roll

Dive forward to close distance or evade attacks. 12 second cooldown

Charge

Rush at an opponent and kick them; be careful not to miss. 20 second cooldown.

Stomp

Stomp the ground to launch opponents. 90 second cooldown

If your team has the keg, you goal is to prevent the other team's players from hitting your keg carrier and getting the keg. Your main job is to run interference for your keg carrier. If the other team has the keg, then your obvious goal is to stop them from scoring by getting the keg. You can make the opposing team drop the keg by hitting the carrier or intercepting the keg if they're throwing it.

When you pick up the keg, then your abilities change and you no longer have the Swiftness boon. While carrying a keg, you'll have the following abilities:

Abilities When Carrying a Keg Throw

A short, quick throw that is easily intercepted.

Lob

Lob the keg. Less accurate, but longer range and hard to intercept.

Dive Roll

Dive forward to avoid attacks. 10 second cooldown.

Head Crack

Hit your opponent with the keg to stun them. 18 second cooldown.

Pour Ale

Dump out some ale, freezing the ground around your location. 90 second cooldown.

Strategy for Keg Brawl If the opposing team has the keg, you'll want to disrupt their carrier by using your abilities. The more powerful abilities, such as Stomp, have a longer cooldown. Disarm is your guaranteed method to force the carrier to drop the keg. Plus, it's a lot of fun to see your character wind up and attempt to punch the keg carrier in the head. Honestly, I never got tired of it. If your team has the keg, then you'll want to run interference for your keg carrier. Punching the opposing players will daze them. Stomp is really effective for launching players into the air and knocking them back. Charge also does a knockdown, but you'll do nothing if you time it wrong. Be prepared to switch from offense to defense and vice-versa as the game has an extremely quick pace as the keg bounces from one team to another.

If you have the keg, your goal is to get to your team's ale collector (you interact with him normally using the [F] key). You will want to avoid attacks from the opposing team using Dive Roll. You can also evade attacks by dodging normally as well. You can smack other players with Head Crack, which will stun them. Pour Ale is exactly what it says: you pour some ale on the ground causing an ice slick. If the other team runs over it, they'll be knocked down. This is a great way to give yourself some breathing room, but the cooldown is pretty high. You can also pass the keg with two different passes. Throw is a shorter pass and is more easily intercepted. To be honest, I really sucked at passing the keg.

Keg Brawl is a hell of a lot of fun to play. The game is brutal, quick-paced, and provides a nice alternative to normal gameplay of PvP or PvE. Guild Wars 2 is really giving players a lot to do in the game and the various mini-games will definitely garner a lot of interest. Keg Brawl promises to be an extremely popular mini-game full of action and good old-fashioned violence. Head on over to Hoelbrak and play the most bone-crushing game on a real frozen tundra.

Thief's Guide to Stealing Every profession in Guild Wars 2 has some unique abilities that set them apart from other professions, and in the case of the Thief, that unique talent is the ability to steal. The Thief's ability to steal allows the player to steal something from an opponent and then use that item. Most of the time, the item gained is some form of weapon that can be used against the opponent, but sometimes it can be in the form of a boost. To steal, the Thief activates the ability by pressing F1, which allows the Thief to shadowstep up to the foe and steal the item. The range for stealing is a healthy 900 with a cooldown of 45 seconds. Once you've stolen from a foe, you can use the item gained by hitting F1 again. Each creature that you face in Guild Wars 2 seems to have certain items associated with them. For example: moa birds tend to give feathers that you throw or eggs you can eat. Please note that you don't have to use the item you've stolen right away. You can store it for later use, but you'll be unable to steal again until you've used the item you're holding. However, once you've stolen from an opponent, they are aware of you so be prepared to start throwing down.

Stealing is a fun mechanic for Thieves and introduces a random element into combat. You should definitely be attempting to steal as often as possible as that the effects from the various items gained can be quite beneficial, such as causing blindness, bleeding, or going into stealth. Experiment with this ability and see what you can steal from the various creatures in the game. Also take heed that quite a number of stolen items have a decent range associated with them, like rifle shot or throw feathers.

The items that you can steal as a Thief vary quite a bit as you can see from the miscellaneous items shown below.

All in all, the ability to steal is a fun, and useful, ability for a Thief in Guild Wars 2. You automatically gain something useful to use in combat and it costs nothing in initiative to use. Plus, you're a Thief so you should be stealing from your enemies whenever you can!

Necromancer Guide The necromancer in Guild Wars 2 draws plenty of thematic inspiration from the traditional caster archetype of being a practitioner of the dark arts who can control the dead, drain life force from the living, and use poison and cold based attacks to slow and wear their foes down over time. While each of these rings true of the necromancer profession, in GW2 they are also built for high survivability, and are one of the game‟s best examples of what is possible with Conditions as the cornerstone of damage output rather than larger direct damage attacks.

Necromancer Quick Facts        

One of Guild Wars 2's three Scholar professions Able to wear Light armor Able to summon a variety of undead Minions Makes effective use of Conditions Uses a unique mechanic called Death Shroud Can fight a short, mid, or long range Can fulfill a tanking role in dungeons thanks to high survivability Makes an excellent point defender in Structured PvP

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Necromancer Themes and Combat Roles The necromancer makes heavy use of Condition damage to drain the health of their foes over time rather than focusing on direct damage attacks. Most of the necroâ&#x20AC;&#x;s weapon and utility skill lines take this into account, and also provide plenty of opportunities to transform Boons into Conditions on foes, or benefit from the presence of Conditions in various ways. The necro breaks away from the archetype by being a strong melee- or mid-range combatant, but can also be played at range depending on which weapons you equip. They also offer high survivability which can be augmented through a combination of the Toughness attribute, Life Stealing abilities, the Death Shroud mechanic, and the ability to summon minions.

This helps make them a great profession for solo PvE, but the necro also stands out as one of the best tanks in dungeons, and offer strong defense in structured PvP. On the flipside, in World vs. World the necro does tend to suffer from a lack of long-range offensive capabilities, and often functions best in a support role in that game type.

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Necromancer Weapons Starting at level 7, the necromancer is able to equip two unique weapon sets. These can be actively swapped by pressing the [`] key at any time out-of-combat, though there will be a short cooldown after swapping weapon sets during combat before you will be able to swap back again. For more information on how this system works, please refer to our Intro Guide to Builds. The weapons that necromancers can equip along with their associated skills can be seen in-game by opening the Hero window [H] and selecting the Skills and Traits tab on the left. You can see a list of available weapons for the necro below, or also by clicking to view a larger version of the image shown to the right.

Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Axe

Dagger

Staff

Spear

Dagger

Focus

Scepter

Warhorn

Trident

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Life Force and Death Shroud The unique profession mechanic for the necromancer is called Death Shroud. This is a temporary state that you can enter that will grant you access to four additional skills both on land and while underwater. You can activate Death Shroud at any time by pressing the [F1] key, though first you must have built up sufficient Life Force. Life force can be gained through active use of weapon and utility skills which can be further augmented through Traits. Your total life force will be displayed directly above your weapon skills as shown in the image below.

Upon entering death shroud, your life force will slowly drain over time, but will also serve as a temporary secondary health pool. In other words, instead of taking damage to your health while in death shroud, incoming damage will instead reduce your available life force. Once your life force has been depleted you will automatically exit death shroud, but can also do so at any time by pressing the [F1] key again. This mechanic can be used to greatly enhance your survivability, and there are a number of traits that provide additional benefits to using death shroud, slow the rate at which life force drains, or even factor in strong team support components. For more details on death shroud, life force, and supporting skills and traits be on the lookout for our Complete Necromancer's Death Shroud Guide.

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Necromancer Trait Lines Upon reaching level 11, you will begin earning Trait Points (1 per level for a total of 70 at level 80) that can be spent in any of the five available Trait Lines. Each point spent will increase 2 primary or secondary attributes, with every 5 points spent unlocking either a Minor or Major trait. The trait lines for the necromancer are listed below, along with their associated attributes and weapon or utility skill type associations.

Spite   

+10 Power per point spent +1% Condition Duration per point spent Improves - Signets, Death Shroud (minor), General Damage

Curses   

+10 Precision per point spent +10 Condition Damage per point spent Improves - Warhorn skills and the Wells, Corruptions, and Spectral utility skill lines

Death Magic   

+10 Toughness per point spent +1% Boon Duration per point spent Improves - Staff skills, Survivability, Minions and Wells

Blood Magic   

+10 Vitality per point spent +10 Healing Power per point spent Improves - Dagger skills, Marks (staff skills), Wells, and Minions.

Soul Reaping   

+1% Critical Damage per point spent +1% Life Force Pool per point spent Improves - Death Shroud (major enhancement), Spectral skills

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Additional Necromancer Tips The necromancer can be incredibly fun to play, and is easily one of the most durable professions in Guild Wars 2. To account for a naturally larger health pool and high survivability, however, necros are focused primarily on using condition damage to slowly wear down foes rather than being a major direct damage dealer. As such, regardless of what weapon sets, traits, and utility skill lines you focus on, you will want to make sure you also factor increased mobility into your build. For example, you can gain Swiftness both in and out of combat via the Warhorn skill Locus Swarm, or via the Focus skill Reaper's Touch during combat. The Spectral and Minion skill lines also offer some interesting mobility options worth considering. The spectral skill Spectral Walk can be used as an escape mechanism, while the active skill gained from summoning a Flesh Wurm, Necrotic Traversal, can provide you with a short range teleport. You will also want to get used to entering and exiting Death Shroud early on, as it can not only be critical to survival in sPvP and dungeons, but can also greatly enhance your direct damage output for a brief period thanks to the Life Blast skill. Be on the lookout for more detailed guides to the necromancer profession, and don't forget to check out our regular necromancer column, Grenth's Grog, for plenty of necro build analysis and discussion.

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Mesmer Guide Overview The mesmer uses magic that is intended to confuse, disorientate and control the opposing player. Their unique mechanic is the ability to summon two types of illusions (clones and phantasms) and shatter them to create unique effects on yourself or your foes. As a scholar profession, similarly to an elementalist or necromancer, mesmers wear light armour and because of that could be considered fragile. However, with their use of illusions to distract enemies and to act as cannon fodder as well as having several cloak abilities, they can survive for long periods of time. Contrary to stereotypical views of caster type professions, mesmers can also excel in melee combat.

Mesmer Quick Facts       

One of Guild Wars 2's three Scholar professions Able to wear Light armor Able to summon Illusions and Phantasms to confuse and damage foes. Can make effective use of cloak abilities to escape or disorientate your enemies Uses a unique mechanic called Shattering Can excel in melee combat Can turn foes into a Moa bird!

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Mesmer Themes and Combat Roles The mesmer can make use of both direct and condition damage in order to defeat their foes but its primary play theme revolves around shattering (which weâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll describe in more detail below) and the use of Illusions and Phantasms to damage or confuse enemies. Dependent on the weapon set you choose, the mesmer can excel in almost any role based on the fact they have access to a huge array of skills that support their allies and which cause significant problems for the enemy. Illusions created by the mesmer look identical to the caster and as a result the profession is great as a solo profession, especially in Player versus Player as opponents can quickly become overwhelmed by the illusions you create. The difference between illusions and Phantasms is that illusions appear as a physical character while Phantasms are pink and translucent. Phantasms are single use summons, usually with one Phantasm skill available per weapon set, that have a specific repeatable attack. For example, the skill Illusionary Duellist will summon a Phantasm that has two pistols, which will fire phantom bullets at your target until the Phantasm is destroyed or shattered. Careful use of their cloak abilities when combined with their illusions summoning is also an excellent way of fooling your opponents, maneuvering away from them or going in for the killing blow. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x;s nothing more satisfying than creating an illusion and cloaking before watching your foe attack the illusion you left behind. If the mesmer has any downsides it would be that the profession is relatively complex to play and master and requires a great deal of timing and awareness in managing all your skills effectively to ensure you max maximum use of your illusions and phantasms without wasting either. As the profession also relies on illusions to act as distractions with a limit of 3, if these are killed quickly you can be left vulnerable with the inability to Shatter them.

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Mesmer Weapons In the table below are the combinations of weapon sets that the mesmer can use. Contrary to traditional weapon and skill designs within the genre, the greatsword is actually a projectile weapon meaning the mesmer only has one melee weapon. Like all professions the mesmer unlocks their second weapon set at level 7. Once you‟ve equipped a second weapon set you can press the [`] key at any time when out-of-combat to change weapon sets without cooldown. If you are in combat there will be a short cooldown after swapping sets. For more information on how this system works, please refer to our Intro Guide to Builds.

Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Scepter

Focus

Greatsword

Spear

Sword

Pistol

Staff

Trident

Sword Torch

Greatsword As briefly mentioned above, the mesmer greatsword is actually a projectile weapon. You won‟t be jumping into melee with it and instead will be firing off a range of spells that cut through the ground or send purple lighting through the air, from afar. The greatswords autoattack, Spatial Surge, deals more damage to your foes the further away they are while the Phantasm for the weapon has a whirling attack which cripples foes. It also has an awesome knockback!

Staff The Mesmers staff is the only one specifically designed with Condition Damage in mind. With the ability to grant you Chaos Armour (that causes boons on you and conditions on foes, when struck) as well as having one of the best area of effect spells in the game (Chaos Storm) the Staff is a great weapon. Even if you don‟t specialise in Condition Damage the ability to use it defensively with skills such as Phase Retreat combined with Chaos Storm (which can cause fear) makes for an excellent escape tool.

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Sword Available as a mainhand and offhand weapon, the main hand sword is excellent. Providing an immobilise and a high burst skill in Blurred Frenzy (which also allows you to avoid damage) it really is formidable. The fact that the main hand sword also removes boons during auto attacks makes it the weapon of choice for most Mesmers. In regards to the offhand sword, Illusionary Riposte is relatively weak but the Phantasmal Swordsman can deal heavy damage. In reality it‟s much better to take any other offhand weapon and avoid offhand sword all together.

Pistol As an offhand weapon, the pistol is currently the staple of most mesmer builds. Based on the fact Illusionary Duellist not only deals excellent damage but is also a truly ranged Phantasm. The pistol also provides one of the few stuns available to the profession, making it invaluable at keeping foes glued in place especially if you are using a sword.

Torch The torch allows the mesmer to blind nearby foes before cloaking and on reappearance cause burning. This can be an incredibly useful escape tool if you don‟t wish to take a utility skill that cloaks you. Its Phantasm, Phantasmal Mage, creates an illusion which confuses enemies. Compared to other Phantasms (such as Illusionary Duellist) at times it‟s actually quite poor and relies on you have plenty of Condition Damage for it to be worthwhile.

Scepter Like the sword, the Scepter is available as a mainhand.The main hand scepter is thankfully a little better and is intended to be a defensive weapon set. Its main attack causes confusion and creates a clone on the final skill of its attack chain while its channel skill, Confusing Images, also causes confusion and deals quite a large amount of damage.

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Focus Arguably the worst offhand of them all, the offhand Focus allows you to lay down Temporal Curtain that cripples foes and provides swiftness to allies. Its Phantasm, Phantasmal Warden, is designed to protect allies by creating a defensive bubble. In reality, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t work in practice and can easily be avoided by opposing players. The speed buff provided by Temporal Curtain is nice however in World versus World.

Shattering and Illusions The unique profession mechanic for the mesmer is called Shattering. Shattering is one of four skills [F1] to [F4] that effects your illusions and phantasms. Pressing any of the corresponding Shatter skills will cause your Illusions and Phantasms to run to your target and destroy themselves, causing an effect on your foe or you. Each of the four Shatter skills causes a different effect and all four have independent cooldowns, so you can choose which to use dependent on the circumstance. Unless you have active Illusions or Phantasms however, you cannot use your Shatter skills.

Mind Wrack Arguably the mesmers most practical Shatter, Mind Wrack it is all about raw damage. As [F1] by default, using Mind Wrack will cause all your illusions and phantasms to run to the target and shatter, dealing a damage spike based on the number of illusions and phantasms (to a maximum of 3). Using Mind Wrack to finish a player off or as an early warning shot is its common use while its damage is determined by your Power.

Cry of Frustration Using Cry of Frustration causes confusion on your opponent based on the number of illusions you Shatter. Each Shattered illusion causes 4 seconds of Confusion with each stack dealing 65 damage per skill use. Generally Cry of Frustration is considered quite weak but can still be useful if your Mind Wrack is on cooldown.

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Diversion Diversion causes your opponent to be dazed based on the number of illusions or phantasms you Shatter on your target. A single Shattered illusion will cause 1 second of daze, with 3 seconds being the maximum (for 3 illusions/phantasms). If you don't use a pistol offhand, Diversion is an excellent tool at disrupting your foes, especially if paired with Imbued Diversion to make the daze effect multiple targets.

Distortion Last but not least is my favourite Shatter: Distortion. Some might argue its lack of worth, but the fact it provides invulnerability to the mesmer for 3 seconds (if you shatter 3 illusions/phantasms) can be invaluable. The mesmer has limited tools to mitigate damage so this can work wonderfully to buy you precious time if your heal isn't quite ready.

Mesmer Trait Lines Domination   

+10 Power per point spent +1% Expertise per point spent Improves - General Damage, Signets and some Shattering

Dueling   

+10 Precision per point spent +1 Prowess per point spent Improves – Pistols, swords and Illusions as well as Mantras

Chaos   

+10 Toughness per point spent +1% Concentration per point spent Improves - Conditions, Survivability, cloaking skills

Inspiration   

+10 Vitality per point spent +10 Healing Power per point spent Improves - Phantasms, Glamour skills and Shattering

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Illusions   

+10 Malice per point spent +1% Guile per point spent Improves – Shatters, Confusion and Glamour Skills

Additional Mesmer Tips 1. Illusions are only designed to be a distraction and deal little to no damage. Phantasms are there to really hurt opponents. 2. Illusions can over-ride your phantasms so be careful when summoning them. Over-riding your phantasms with illusions that deal no damage will see your damage output seriously reduced. 3. The staff is an amazing tool for escaping players who are attacking you. Simply cast a Chaos Storm at your feet and use Phase Retreat. Not only will you teleport backwards, but also obtain a Chaos Armour as part of the Combo Field and Finisher. 4. Using cloaking skills doesn't just have to be an escape tool, use it to maneuver around your enemy to strike from behind or their side! 5. Don't waste your Shatter skills. Timing their use based on the circumstance is incredibly important as they have relatively long cooldowns.

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Ranger Guide The ranger in Guild Wars 2 excels at both melee and ranged combat, and is the game's only true pet class. Rangers also make effective use of a suite of Traps that are capable of crippling foes, or spreading various Conditions to further augment the damage caused by their core weapon attacks.

Ranger Quick Facts       

One of GW2's three Adventurer professions Able to wear Medium armor Able to charm Animal Companions to fight beside them in combat Offers a highly mobile, evasive combat style in melee Able to equip both short- and longbows to excel at ranged combat Uses a variety of Traps to cripple and damage foes Can summon Spirits to support allies

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Ranger Themes and Combat Roles Unlike the necromancer which deviates from its traditional RPG archetype in some significant ways, the ranger in Guild Wars 2 neatly incorporates many of the hallmarks of a more traditional ranger. More so than any other profession, the ranger is in tune with nature, and able to summon temporary Spirits that augment their allies' combat effectiveness, a variety of animal companions, and even set a variety of traps to hinder and damage their foes. We'll take a closer look at each of these core aspects of the ranger below. In terms of combat roles, the ranger excels in two important areas: direct damage output, and group support. For damage output, the ranger uses a fair amount of direct damage skills that can be further augmented by plenty of Condition based attacks. Your choice of focusing on melee or ranged combat will largely help decide which Attributes will be the most vital for your overall build. For example, the necro benefits most from increasing Condition Damage, while the mesmer tends to focus a bit more on increasing the Power attribute. For the ranger, the choice isn't quite so cut and dried. Both greatsword and longbow attacks tend to focus on direct damage, or conditions that hinder rather than damage foes. As such, builds focused on these two weapons can greatly benefit from increasing Precision for a higher crit chance, and Critical Damage. On the flip side, the sword and shortbow main-hand weapons rely far more on condition damage to wear enemies down over time, and can greatly benefit from increasing Condition Damage, especially if you utilize traps for your utility skills to deal even more damage through conditions.

Eir Stegalkin, shown above, is a norn ranger that characters from that race will interact with throughout their personal story in Guild Wars 2

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Bear in mind that these are not hard rules to follow, but rather a more general thing to be conscious of while getting a feel for which combat style - melee vs. ranged - you prefer the most. Rangers are also capable of providing plenty of group support through traps and spirits, and excel in World vs. World, PvE, and structured PvP equally unlike many other professions. Before moving on to other aspects of the ranger profession, I would also note that they tend to be one of the less complex professions to play and eventually master. As such, they can be an excellent choice for both traditional MMO gamers, as well as those a bit newer to MMO combat mechanics.

Animal Companions (Pets)

The unique profession mechanic for the ranger is its ability to summon a persistent Animal Companion (also simply called pets) to fight alongside them during combat. During character creation you will be able to select from a few different pets that you will begin the game with, with the available options dependent on your character's race. There are no wrong decisions to be made here, as you will have the opportunity to charm or tame all available pet species through normal gameplay. To see a complete list of the ranger pets currently available, be sure to check out The Complete Ranger Pet Guide Portal. From there you can view a mini-guide for each pet species with full skill descriptions, locations for where to charm them in-game, and any additional notes for each specific pet. We've also put together a listing of the starting pet options for each race below:

Asura

Human

Norn

Sylvari

River Drake

Brown Bear

Fern Hound

Moa

Whiptail Devourer

Brown Bear

Alpine Wolf

Jungle Stalker

Snow Leopard

River Drake Red

Charr River Drake

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Red Moa Jungle Stalker

The skill bar for your active pet will be displayed directly above your weapon skills (shown below), with the F1-F3 keys used to command your pet to attack your current target [F1], activate its unique skill [F2], or toggle between passive and aggressive mode [F3]. Each pet species has 1 unique skill (activated by pressing the [F2] key) with the remaining three shared between other pets from the same family. This unique skill should be considered an active part of your normal skill rotation during combat, and as such you will want to use a pet that compliments your overall build in some way.

Once you've tamed at least one additional pet, you will be able to switch between them during combat by clicking on the small arrow icon to the right of the pet skills. You can have a total of 4 pets slotted; 2 for combat on land, and 2 for underwater combat. Your slotted pets can be changed at any time by opening the Pet Management [K] window. To tame new pets, you will need to locate a "juvenile" version of that animal type in PvE and WvW zones. They will be easily distinguished from other creatures both by having "juvenile" in their name, and their nameplate will also be green.

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Once you've found a juvenile animal you would like to tame, simply walk up to it and interact with it by pressing the [F] key. This will bring up a window that tells you a little bit about that particular pet, and also gives you the option to equip your new pet at that point as shown above. Once equipped, you can also give your pet a new name by opening the Pet Management [K] window, and clicking on the small quill icon located at the top of the window.

Ranger Weapon Sets Starting at level 7, the ranger is able to equip two unique weapon sets. These can be actively swapped by pressing the [`] key at any time out-of-combat, though there will be a short cooldown after swapping weapon sets during combat before you will be able to swap back again. The weapons that rangers can equip along with their associated skills can be seen in-game by opening the Hero window [H] and selecting the Skills and Traits tab on the left. We've also added a list of available weapons for the ranger below:

Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Axe

Greatsword

Harpoon Gun

Sword

Dagger

Longbow

Spear

Torch

Shortbow

Warhorn

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Ranger Trait Lines Upon reaching level 11, you will begin earning Trait Points (1 per level for a total of 70 at level 80) that can be spent in any of the five available Trait Lines. Each point spent will increase 2 primary or secondary attributes, with every 5 points spent unlocking either a Minor or Major trait. The trait lines for the ranger are listed below, along with their associated attributes and weapon or utility skill type associations.

Marksmanship   

+10 Power per point spent +1% Condition Duration per point spent Improves - Longbow and Harpoon Gun range, Signets

Skirmishing   

+10 Precision per point spent +1% Critical Hit Chance per point spent Improves - Axe and Shortbow, Traps

Wilderness Survival   

+10 Toughness per point spent +10 Condition Damage per point spent Improves - Sword and Off-Hand skills, Traps, Survival skills

Nature Magic   

+10 Vitality per point spent +1% Boon Duration per point spent Improves - Greatsword, Boons, Spirit skills

Beastmastery   

+10 Healing per point spent +1 Empathy per point spent (improves pet attributes) Improves - Greatly enhances pet usage and skills

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Additional Ranger Notes While many professions have high survivability due to large health pools or the ability to mitigate incoming damage in some way, for the ranger this is caused by a combination of high mobility and avoidance capabilities. For example, the Sword / Warhorn set offers an extremely evasive combat style through sword attacks, while offering Swiftness via the warhorn skill Call of the Wild. In terms of utility skills, the ranger has some of the most clearly defined skill lines in GW2. For example, Traps can allow you to slow your foes, and cause a decent amount of condition damage while Spirits provide excellent group support. As noted above, the ranger can be one of the easiest professions to learn early on, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have plenty of subtle complexities that can take a while to properly master.

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Engineer Guide Overview The engineer uses various tools and elixirs to overcome their enemies. They can take control of entire areas with their use of turrets while providing direct support through their use of various kits. Combined with their use of mines, bombs and grenades they can be formidable in the right hands. As an adventurer profession, similarly to a ranger, engineers wear medium amour and because of that can withstand reasonable amounts of damage. Their ability to use a shield however, the only adventurer profession able to, significantly improves their survivability. Engineers are considered a relatively complex and challenging profession, yet once mastered, can be incredibly powerful.

Engineer Quick Facts       

One of Guild Wars 2‟s three Adventurer professions. Able to wear medium armor. Able to use various weapon kits such as a Flamethrower or Bomb Kit to harm and immobilize foes. Can make effective use of Elixirs to create random, beneficial effects. Uses a Tool belt to obtain extra utility skills based on those you currently have equipped. Can excel in Capture Point defense with their use of turrets. Can be incredibly powerful when specializing in Condition Damage.

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Engineer Themes and Combat Roles The Engineer can make use of both direct and condition damage in order to defeat their foes, while the profession can be broken down into three key areas: weapons/kits, elixirs and turrets. Engineers are limited to three types of weapon: pistols (both main and offhand), rifle and shield and cannot have a second weapon set equipped like other professions. They can however make up for this by having access to various weapon kits that they equip on their skill bar: Flamethrower, Elixir Gun, Grenade Kit, Bomb Kit, Tool Kit and Med Kit. All of these weapon kits (or heal kit in the Med Kits case) provide different functions and skills, but we‟ll cover that in a little more detail below. The Engineer also has access to an array of Elixirs. Elixirs are skills which when consumed create an effect on you, often with a predetermined or random outcome. For example, using Elixir S will shrink you to the size of a mouse for several seconds allowing you to evade all incoming attacks. Elixir C will remove all your conditions and turn them into boons or Elixir U will grant you haste, allowing you to attack at rapid speed for several seconds. In total there are 6 Elixirs with one of those being an Elite skill.

Turrets are stationary objects that the Engineer can place down with all of them serving different functions. There are 5 turrets in total, ranging from a Flame Turret (that sets players on fire) a Net Turret (which immobilizes them) to a Thumper Turret that damages all enemies in an area. Turrets can also be “overcharged” which allows for additional effects. For example, if you overcharge a Net Turret it will fire an electrified net at your foe, or if you overcharge a Flame Turret it will blind all those nearby in a cloud of smoke. Carefully using your overcharge abilities, while placing turrets in the right positions, can make all the difference in Capture Point defence. If the Engineer has any downsides it is in its limited weapon sets (if you don‟t like Kits or Turrets) while Elixirs random effects are not for everyone, especially if you want guarantees from your skills. Engineers also have a high skill ceiling as they are often managing multiple kits or tool belt skills.

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Engineer Weapons and Kits Unlike other professions the Engineer can only equip one weapon set at a time. They can‟t equip dual pistols and a rifle for example; they can only choose one or the other. As briefly discussed earlier, they make up for this by being able to equip multiple kits in skill slots 7, 8 and 9. Although many Engineers wouldn‟t, you could for example use Rifle, Flamethrower, Bomb Kit and Grenade Kit which provides a total of 4 active weapon sets. However, many people don‟t do this simply because of the practically of managing all of them and the skills each has. Utilizing just one kit on top of your standard weapon is often the most common setup, with many people (including myself) avoiding kits all together due to preferring elixirs and turrets. In the table below are the combinations of weapon sets that the Engineer can use.

Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Pistol

Rifle

Harpoon Gun

Shield

Rifle Benefiting primarily from pure power, the rifle doesn‟t by default offer as longer range as the Warriors and tends to be more akin to a shotgun in play style than offering sniping opportunities. Many of the rifles skills benefit from you being up close and personal to your foe with most of the skills such as Blunderbuss, Overcharged Shot and Jump Shot requiring you to be right next to your foe to really cause serious damage. The primary problem with the rifle is because of its short range play style you are forced to fight close to your foes, which can leave you vulnerable. The weapon set also requires heavy investment in power and precision attributes to really get the most out of it.

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Pistol Available as a main hand and offhand weapon, the pistol is all about condition damage. The main hand pistol is incredibly popular as with the right setup it allows you to stack bleeding incredibly quickly from its Explosive Shot, while it also allows you to poison foes to seriously reduce their healing capabilities. Its third skill, Static Shot, also allows you to blind and confuse enemies. The offhand pistol has two skills available: Blowtorch and Glue Shot. The former applies burning to your foe and deals more damage to them the closer you are, while Glue Shot immobilises and cripples foes in the target area. Using both pistols at the same time will allow you to apply a huge amount of conditions to the enemy while dealing a great deal of damage because of it. The offhand pistol can take some practice as Glue Shot has to be manually targeted and is quite a slow projectile while Blowtorch is a cone effect, so you'll need to be careful with your aiming.

Shield A favourite weapon amongst many Engineers, the off-hand shield plays for a more defensive setup, however, because of its skills it can cause some serious damage back at your foes. Magnetic Shield allows you to create a bubble around yourself that reflects all incoming projectiles back at the attacker. You can also release it to knock back foes who are next to you. Its second skill, Static Shield, comes across all Captain America and allows you to electrify your shield to stun your foe if you are struck or throw it at your target to daze all foes hit on the way out and back. I absolutely love the shield based on the fact it really can be used offensively as well as defensively. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x;s nothing more satisfying than reflecting your enemies spells back at them using Static Shield, before throwing your shield at their face.

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Bomb Kit The Bomb Kit will grant you access to various types of stationary bombs that you can place on the ground. You can place bombs while moving which are great to use while running away from someone or at the feet of players standing on a Capture Point to really cause them problems. With the right setup the Bomb Kit can deal massive damage and with its combination of knockbacks, immobilise and burning it can be formidable in the right hands. A common skill combination when using the Bomb Kit is to use Slick Shoes to knock players down, use Glue Bomb to immobilise them followed by Big Old Bomb (the Bomb Kits tool belt skill- see below). Do be aware however, that when you plant a bomb, your enemy will see a red ring on the floor showing its blast radius. Many experienced players can easily see this and will often leap away to avoid the damage unless immobilised.

Elixir Gun Arguably the most supportive of all the Engineers kits, the Elixir Gun provides various skills to debilitate opponents and heal allies. Its primary attack bleeds and weakens your foes while its secondary skill, Elixir F, cripples foes and grants swiftness to you and allies. It also has a brilliant leapback for when you are in trouble and can apply poison and vulnerability to a large group of enemies with Fumigate, while also removing conditions from allies. Finally, its fifth weapon skill, Super Elixir, fires an orb at the ground that heals all allies on impact and continues to heal in the area for several seconds afterwards. Personally the Elixir Gun is one of my favourite weapon sets in the game based on its leap back, its ability to cripple and its tool belt skill (see below) which also heals you. For anyone that specialises in condition damage it really is a great second weapon set, alongside dual pistols or pistol and shield.

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Flamethrower The more offensive variant of the Elixir Gun, the Flamethrower does exactly what it says on the tin. It causes burning to your opponents through its weapon skill 1 but can also be used as a powerful control tool. Using Napalm, which places a wall of fire on the floor, and Air Blast to knock opponents back, it can be a real nuisance to fight against Engineers using it skillfully. The latest addition to the Flamethrower has seen its fifth skill blind nearby foes which can be incredibly useful if you find someone too close for comfort and have your knock-back on cooldown. The Flame Thrower, like the Elixir Gun, also benefits from you specialising in Condition Damage. A great trick is to lay Napalm just in front of you, quickly change back to Pistol and then fire through the flames at your opponent, causing your bullets to burn them as they pass through the wall.

Grenade Kit When traited the Grenade Kit has a huge range and is exceptional when used in World versus World during keep defence. It can be a little tricky to use, based on the fact you need to manually target each skill, however, Shrapnel and Poison Grenades are excellent against large groups of players. Freeze Grenade and the fact it reduces player speed and cool downs by 66% also make it invaluable. In encounters where you need to remain mobile however, the weapon set can be difficult based on the fact you can only throw grenades if you are holding the right mouse button down and press the skill twice (once to get the reticle, once to activate). Practice makes perfect with this one.

Med Kit The Med Kit (unlike the Elixir Gun) is the Engineers only pure healing kit (which fills slot 6 on your skill bar). The kit grants you access to an array of healing tools and stimulants to aid you and others. When you equip it, you can drop bandages for others to pick up as well as antidotes that remove conditions or stimulants to grant fury and swiftness. In combat situations it is great for supporting others, the fact its main healing skill is linked to your Tool belt (see below) also makes for some interesting possibilities, as you can significantly reduce its cooldown with traits.

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Tool Kit Last but not least is the Tool Kit. In principal the kit is all about control with a knockback, a pull, and a block. It can also cripple and bleed enemies with Box of Nails. Most of its skills benefit from specialising your attributes in power meaning that it compliments the rifle really well. The fact you can use its block (Gear Shield) while moving also makes it an excellent tool when running away. Pry Bar also knocks your enemy back a considerable distance while Magnet pulls players to you can be incredibly valuable when attacking a Capture Point, giving you the ability to remove players from the point for quite some time. It should also be noted that the Tool kit repairs turrets for any defensive engineers out there.

Tool belt The Tool belt is a little hard to describe on paper, but in simple terms it is four utility slots above your skill bar for keys F1 to F4. Each of the Engineers skills that you use on slots 6 to 9 has a corresponding Tool belt skill. For example, if you equip Elixir H (one of the Engineers heals) your Tool belt skill will be â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toss Elixir Hâ&#x20AC;?. If you select F1 you can then throw Elixir H to cause an effect. It must be noted however that all Tool Belt skills are completely independent from your main skills, meaning if you did Toss Elixir H, you could still use your main heal. Another example would be if you equipped the Flamethrower, you would gain the Tool belt skill Incendiary Ammo which when used causes your next three attacks to cause burning.

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Including weapon kits there are a total of 20 Tool belt skills, linked to 20 Engineer skills. Every Tool belt skill is vastly different and offer a tactical approach to many of the choices you might make. For example, many people equip the Bomb Kit because its Tool belt skill, Big old Bomb, launches foes back large distances. Even if that individual never equips the Bomb Kit, they can still use its Tool belt skill (though that might be considered a waste). Or you could equip the Elixir Gun because you know its Tool belt skill provides regeneration to yourself and allies. Factoring in the Tool belt skill available is a key part of putting together an effective Engineer build.

Engineer Trait Lines Explosives   

+10 Power per point spent +1% Expertise per point spent Improves – General Damage, Bombs and Grenades.

Firearms   

+10 Precision per point spent +1% Malice per point spent Improves – General condition damage, rifles and pistols.

Inventions   

+10 Toughness per point spent +10 Compassion per point spent Improves – Turrets, healing skills and shield use.

Alchemy   

+10 Vitality per point spent +1% Concentration per point spent Improves – Elixirs, damage avoidance and some kits (Flamethrower, Elixir Gun)

Tools   

+1% Ingenuity per point spent +10 Prowess per point spent Improves – Toolbelt skills, standard abilities (endurance regain) and some kits (Tool Kit).

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Additional Engineer Tips 1. You don't need to equip every engineer kit to be effective. Choosing a single kit based on your playstyle and setup can be the most effective way of managing your skills. 2. Each weapon kit has a unique focus and leans towards a certain set of attributes. The Tool kit for example works best with power while the Elixir Gun works best with condition damage. 3. The Tool belt provides an additional utility skill (4 in total) based on the current skills you have equipped in slots 6 to 9. Even if you don't use the kit itself, you can still benefit from its Tool belt skill. 4. To be effective with an engineer you don't have to use any kits. Using turrets, elixirs or both is just as effective but will offer a different play style. 5. Equipping a shield and several turrets will see you excel in Capture Point structured PvP maps. Placing your turrets in the right positions will cause serious trouble for people trying to attack you.

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Warrior Guide Warriors are an incredibly versatile profession that benefits from the ability to wield a wide variety of weapons. While some weapon sets may give a polite nod to the more traditional warrior archetype of a sword-n-board melee combatant, the warrior in Guild Wars 2 can be a major damage dealer in both melee and ranged combat. They also have excellent survivability, can grant positive benefits to allies, and really ruin their enemies day through a variety of negative conditions and crowd control abilities.

Warrior Quick Facts        

One of Guild Wars 2's two Soldier professions Able to wear Heavy armor Can wield a large variety of weapons Builds Adrenaline to unleash powerful attacks based on their active weapon set Able to focus on both melee and ranged combat styles Uses a strong combination of physical and condition damage Can create a variety of Banners to support and bolster allies Can be highly mobile, while greatly reducing the mobility of foes

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Warrior Themes and Combat Roles Thanks to the ability to wield the largest variety of weapons of all the professions in Guild Wars 2, the warrior also tends to offer some of the most diverse options for how you choose to approach combat. While they can certainly be played with a more traditional sword-n-board approach befitting of the typical RPG warrior, they can also be a DPS powerhouse, crowd control specialist, or masterful ranged combatant. Don't let the use of heavy armor fool you; the warrior can also be one of the most highly mobile professions, pairing particularly well with their ability to hinder the movement capabilities of foes. This combination greatly reduces the all too common issue for melee classes in MMOs where you can dish out a lot of damage, but tend to get kited by ranged attackers to the point of uselessness. Another thing to note about the warrior is that most of their weapon sets focus on a very specific theme or damage type, perhaps more so than any other profession in the game. This is partly due to the fact that the warrior in GW2 draws heavy inspiration from many of the strongest primary / secondary skill synergies in the original Guild Wars. As you'll learn below, these concepts aren't necessarily limited to GW1 warrior skills. For example, the longbow skills draw heavy inspiration from ranger skills that focus on inflicting the Burning condition.

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The warrior is a solid option for solo gamers thanks to a combination of being able to equip heavy armor, remain highly mobile both in and out of combat, and deal heavy damage through normal attacks and their unique Adrenaline mechanic. The learning curve does tend to be a bit steeper than other professions, however, because you will have a lot more weapons to learn and eventually master. In group settings you can approach the warrior in a number of different ways. While you could certainly fulfill a more traditional tanking role, you will also be equally capable of providing strong melee or ranged DPS. This versatility also tends to make the warrior a strong choice for any game type, be it general PvE, dungeons, structured PvP, or World vs. World.

Warrior Weapon Sets Starting at level 7, the warrior is able to equip two unique weapon sets. These can be actively swapped by pressing the [`] key at any time out-of-combat, though there will be a short cooldown after swapping weapon sets during combat before you will be able to swap back again. The weapons that warriors can equip along with their associated skills can be seen in-game by opening the Hero window [H] and selecting the Skills and Traits tab on the left. We've also added a list of available weapons for the warriors below:

Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Axe Mace Sword

Axe Mace Shield Sword Warhorn

Hammer Greatsword Longbow Rifle

Harpoon Gun Spear

As you can see, the warrior has a sizable list of options for weapon sets, so you will want to acquire plenty of weapons early on to begin the process of unlocking all available weapon skills. While doing so, be sure to pay particular attention to any weapon sets you naturally gravitate towards, and don't be afraid to "think outside the box" when it comes to your overall build concept. For example, just because you notice that many warriors are using sword / sword and greatsword for their weapon sets in sPvP, don't feel as though you need to follow suit. Remember, the warrior can be just as viable when played as a ranged character, and it can always be a good thing to keep your enemies guessing as to your personal combat style.

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Given the overall depth to the weapon set options (the warrior has a total of 19 possible combinations - more than any other profession in GW2) and the thematic nature of many sets, there is simply too much to cover for a basic guide.

Adrenaline The unique profession mechanic for warriors is called Adrenaline. As you attack foes with your weapon skills, you will begin building up adrenaline which can then be used to unleash a more powerful attack based on your current weapon set by pressing the [F1] key. You should consider this skill an extension of your normal weapon skills, and will want to get into the habit of utilizing it in combat early on. You will start out with 1 level of adrenaline, which will be displayed directly above your weapon skills as shown below:

Within the first few levels you will unlock a total of three levels of adrenaline. You must fill at least one of these to use your [F1] skill, but the more levels you fill, the more poweful your [F1] skill will be. The results for having 1, 2, or 3 levels of adrenaline will be shown in the tooltip for each of these skills.

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A complete list of adrenaline skills and their associated weapon sets can be seen below:

Weapon

F1 Skill

Description

Axe

Eviscerate

Leap at your foe with a devastating attack. Effect increases with your adrenaline level.

Greatsword

Arcing Slice

Strike your foe with an uppercut that grants Fury

Hammer

Earthshaker

Jump to the targeted location and slam your hammer down, damaging and stunning foes.

Harpoon Gun

Forceful Shot

Fire a forceful shot. Damage increases with adrenaline level.

Longbow

Combustive Shot

Ignite target area, Burning nearby foes. Effect increases with adrenaline level.

Mace

Skull Crack

Stun your foe with a skull crack. Effect increases with adrenaline level.

Rifle

Kill Shot

Fire a powerful shot. Damage increases with adrenaline level.

Spear

Whirling Strike

Strike all foes around you. Effect increases with adrenaline level.

Sword

Flurry

Immobilize your foes with a flurry of strikes. Effect increases with adrenaline level.

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Warrior Trait Lines Upon reaching level 11, you will begin earning Trait Points (1 per level for a total of 70 at level 80) that can be spent in any of the five available Trait Lines. Each point spent will increase 2 primary or secondary attributes, with every 5 points spent unlocking either a Minor or Major trait. The trait lines for the warrior are listed below, along with their associated attributes and weapon or utility skill type associations.

Strength   

+10 Power per point spent +1% Condition Duration per point spent Improves - Banners (minor), Greatsword and Spear, dual wield damage

Arms   

+10 Precision per point spent +10 Condition Damage per point spent Improves - Greatsword, Spear, and Harpoon Gun, Bleeding damage and duration

Defense   

+10 Toughness per point spent +10 Healing Power per point spent Improves - Hammer and Mace skills, survivability

Tactics   

+10 Vitality per point spent +1% Boon Duration per point spent Improves - Longbow and Warhorn skills, Shouts, Banners

Discipline   

+1% Critical Damage per point spent +1% Burst Skill Damage Improves - Adrenaline skills (burst damage), weapon swaps, Signets, adrenaline gain

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Additional Warrior Notes Along with the adrenaline mechanic, the warrior also has access to three unique skill lines; Banners, Stances, and Physical. Banners are physical objects that can be summoned and placed on the ground to grant different benefits to allies during combat. They can also be picked up and physically carried by any allied player, so in a sense they could be considered a form of mobile AoE (area of effect) buff. Stances are a utility skill type that grants a direct benefit when used. While stances tend to be used a bit more situationally than other utility skills, they can also be incredibly powerful skills. For example, Balanced Stance grants Stability which means you can't suffer from negative crowd control effects for the duration, while Endure Pain will negate incoming damage for a few seconds. Finally, the Physical skill line is all about providing various forms of crowd control. Physical skills can also be incredibly powerful, particularly in structured PvP combat situations as they can help you keep enemies physically impaired while you smack them over the head with your weapons. If you intend to focus primarily on melee weapon sets, the physical utility skills can be a great way to augment your overall effectiveness in combat.

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Elementalist Guide The elementalist is skilled at mid and long ranged combat, using the elements to their advantage to decimate their foes and help their allies. While having no “true” role, the majority of elementalist skills focus on raw damage (fire), burst/spike (air), control and conditions (earth), defense / support (water), and utility (arcana). Those are generalizations, of course, but ultimately the elementalist can carry on many different roles and switch between them fluidly, thanks to the unique elemental attunement ability.

Elementalist Quick Facts    

One of GW2‟s three Scholar professions. Able to wear Light armor. Can switch between four attunements, changing the weapon skill bar, at the cost of not being able to change weapons in combat. Can equip staves, daggers, foci, and scepters and switch between four sets of skills on each using the attunement mechanic.

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Elementalist Themes and Combat Roles The elementalist remains true to its roots from the original Guild Wars a pure caster profession that utilizes different elements to deal damage to their enemies and support their allies. Thinking on the Guild Wars analogy, the Guild Wars 2 elementalist is like an e/mo or elementalist/monk, thanks to the heavy focus on healing with the water element. The conversion was also a very literal one, with many of the same skills and the overall playstyle following along in the transition. However, donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t fret, there is a lot more to the elementalist than casting Fire Storm, thanks to the attunement system. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x;ll talk more in-depth on the attunement system later, but for now letâ&#x20AC;&#x;s do a quick overview of how the elementalist profession differs from everyone else. First, they wear light armor like the other two scholar professions, but they differ greatly because they do not focus heavily on survival and conditions like the necromancer nor do they focus on control and illusions like the mesmer. Elementalists focus on variety, switching between different roles on the fly by attuning to different elements.

Elementalists can rain death from the ramparts.

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There are only four weapons in the elementalist arsenal, one two-handed weapon (staff), dualwield (dagger/dagger), main-hand (dagger, scepter), and off-hand (focus). There is no in-combat weapon set switching either, like every other profession. Instead, each weapon has four sets of skills that are attuned to a specific element. The elementalist can switch between the different elements at will, giving them a total of four weapon sets they can switch between. The tradeoff is that each set of skills, while having a different purpose, still follows the general weapon theme (AoE/ranged/close combat). Like other professions, the elementalist comes with its own set of unique skills. Glyphs mostly give passive bonuses for the element that an elementalist is attuned to. Conjure skills can summon weapons for both the elementalist and its allies, these weapons have their own unique skill bars. Cantrips give the elementalist additional survival. Auras provide a positive passive benefit to your character. Arcane skills are non-element magic based skills. The elementalist is a direct damage support profession, half of the skills focus on dealing direct damage; while a fourth focus on healing, and another fourth focus on control. This makes them a jack of all trades and a master of most, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s important to know that while capable of a lot, knowing what to be capable of when is the primary finesse of the profession. Another big theme with the elementalist is combo fields. Many of the abilities an elementalist have create combo fields, which synergize with other professionsâ&#x20AC;&#x; abilities. For instance, a Ranger who shoots an arrow through a Fire Wall will gain burning on their attacks. This gives their attacks additional utility when combined with others.

Elementalist Weapons As mentioned previously, the elementalist only has access to four different weapons, although daggers double as a main-hand and off-hand. The strongest weapon is the staff, which while focused primarily on AoE abilities, has the most complete set of tools available. Scepters serve as a primary single target build, while daggers focus more on close range combat. You can read more about forming builds in our Intro Guide to Builds.

The weapons that elementalist can equip along with their associated skills can be seen in-game by opening the Hero window [H] and selecting the Skills and Traits tab on the left. You can see a list of available weapons for the elementalist below.

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Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Scepter

Dagger

Staff

Trident

Dagger

Focus

Elementalist Trait Lines Upon reaching level 11, you will begin earning Trait Points (1 per level for a total of 70 at level 80) that can be spent in any of the five available Trait Lines. Each point spent will increase 2 primary or secondary attributes, with every 5 points spent unlocking either a Minor or Major trait. The trait lines for the elementalist are listed below, along with their associated attributes and weapon or utility skill type associations.

Fire Magic   

+10 Power per point spent +1% Expertise per point spent Improves - fire element, grants might, burning

Earth Magic   

+10 Toughness per point spent +10 Malice per point spent Improves - earth element, toughness, signets, protection

Air Magic   

+10 Precision per point spent +1% Prowess Improves - air element, critical hit, swiftness

Water Magic   

+10 Vitality per point spent +10 Compassion per point spent Improves - water element, regeneration, condition removal

Arcana   

+1 Concentration per point spent +2 Intelligence per point spent Improves - all elements, AoE attacks, attunements

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Attunement

The unique mechanic for the elementalist is attunement, which allows you to have four different weapon skill sets per weapon, at the cost of not being able to switch weapons in combat. You can change attunements freely, although the attunement you‟re changing from will have a 15 second cooldown and a two second cooldown for the remaining available attunements. The biggest thing about attunements is knowing what element serves what role and when that role is needed. For instance, if it‟s about constant damage, odds are you‟ll want to be in fire, while burst / spike damage will want you to be in air, support will be water, and control is earth. For instance, if you need to heal yourself or others, then you can switch to water will provides various support abilities. If you need to apply conditions, earth is the go to element. It works pretty much like traditional weapon switching, you switch to the skill set that you need, except you have two additional skill sets to pick from. Since you can‟t switch weapons, you will be at a disadvantage if you need to switch from say a super defensive build to a super offensive build, like a warrior going from a two-handed weapon to a sword and shield. Understanding that, it‟s important to pick the right weapon type before battle and the accompanying skills to form your build. Thankfully, skills like glyphs will apply themselves depending on the active element, making it easier to build out an elementalist.

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Additional Elementalist Tips The first thing you‟ll want to do is rebind the keys for each attunement. You‟re going to be switching a lot, so having them closer to your fingers than F1, F2, F3, and F4 is probably wise. Unless, of course, using function keys is part of your normal routine. If you‟re looking at making a Swiftness build, then choose a staff for Windbourne Speed and Glyph of Elemental Harmony. You‟ll be able to maintain Swiftness for 20 seconds every 30 seconds. Updraft can be used as well, but it has a 40 second cooldown. Signet of Air is another good choice, as it gives you a passive 10% movement speed increase. Since Swiftness is so valuable, you may want to have Glyph of Elemental Harmony if you are not going to have Windbourne Speed or Updraft in your build. Mist Form is great both while alive and while downed. While alive it can get you into keeps or through a rough spot where you're about to die. When you're downed, you can use it to get out of harms way, back into a keep, or just in a better spot to be resurrected later. Remember how fragile elementalists are compared to say, necromancers or guardians. Keep distance between yourself and your target is usually a better option than trying to soak up the damage. Be sure to use the different forms of crowd control to kite enemies around while you focus on killing them or rely on your allies to guard you in combat.

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Thief Guide The thief is a deadly profession, proficient at stealth and surprise. Using a variety of weapons, they can strike from up close or far away. While not heavily armored, they do have good survivability through their agile fighting style and can use traps, tricks, and venom to ensure their victory.

Thief Quick Facts       

One of Guild Wars 2's three Adventurer professions Able to wear Medium armor Can wield both melee and ranged weapons Uses Initiative to use a flurry of attacks Can use traps and venom to hinder foes Can Steal from enemies to gain an advantage Uses Stealth to strike from ambush or sneak away

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Thief Themes and Combat Roles Like most MMOs, the Thief in Guild Wars 2 can act from both melee and range, thus allowing a greater flexibility in combat. While being able to put out a lot of DPS, they are designed to strike quickly and move on. Limited to wearing medium armor, you don't want to get bogged down in a grind-fest. The thief is excellent at roaming the battlefield and attacking when opportunity arises. The thief can be an infuriating foe, shadow stepping from place to place or using stealth to change position. A smart thief chooses when and where to fight. The thief is also adept at using conditions to damage their foes, especially bleeding and venom. Many of the thief's skills and traits enhance these damaging conditions, so you'll want to experiment to see what style suits your gameplay.

The thief is a great solo profession in that you can dish out a lot of damage and have a lot of mobility to dance around your foes or to put some distance between you. Having the ability to choose between melee or ranged attacks is a luxury that similar professions in other MMOs do not have. When grouping with other players, the thief is best used as an opportunistic combatant, or support specialist. Let warriors and other meat shields be the focus of attacks. Use stealth to move from the flank or rear to unleash a devastating assault. Keep mobile and attack where you're needed. Get into position, attack, and then move on.

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Thief Weapon Sets Starting at level 7, the thief is able to equip two unique weapon sets. These can be actively swapped by pressing the [`] key at any time out-of-combat, though there will be a short cooldown after swapping weapon sets during combat before you will be able to swap back again. The weapons that thieves can equip along with their associated skills can be seen in-game by opening the Hero window [H] and selecting the Skills and Traits tab on the left. We've also included a list of available weapons for the thieves below:

Main Hand

Off-Hand

Two-Handed

Aquatic

Sword

Dagger

Shortbow

Harpoon Gun

Dagger

Pistol

Spear

Pistol While thieves don't have a huge variety of weapons, they have a good mix for both melee and ranged. In addition, special attacks become available for different weapons when the thief is in stealth. Other special attacks are also available through dual-wielding. These dual-wield skills vary by combination of main and off-hand weapons. When dual-wielding, these special skills will appear in slot 3 of your hotbar. The thief uses initiative to make most of their attacks. While none of your attacks have a cooldown, most of your weapon abilities require a specific amount of initiative to use. If you run out of initiative, there is always an attack available that does not require any to use. A thief starts out with a total of 12 initiative, but this number can be bumped up to 15 through the Trickery trait line. Initiative is shown by the diamonds on top of the left side of the hotbar. Initiative replenishes at the rate of 1 per every 1.67 seconds.

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Stealing One of the unique profession mechanics for the thief is their ability to steal from an opponent, be they wandering creature of other player in PvP. Stealing allows the thief to shadow step up to the foe and steal something off them. Normally, this item is a weapon, but can take the form of a boon. You activate the steal mechanic by pressing F1 to steal from a targeted foe and then pressing F1 to use the item stolen.

Stealth Another profession mechanic for the thief is the ability to go into stealth. When in stealth, the thief is invisible to their opponents (players and in PvE) and are seen as an outline by allies. The thief has a number of special weapon attacks that can be used in stealth and there are a number of skills and traits that allow the player to go into stealth, gain additional benefits while in stealth, or increase stealth duration. Once you attack, the thief will lose stealth and be unable to return to stealth for a few seconds. Afterwards, there are a number of skills and traits that allow the thief to return to stealth. While in stealth, you cannot be targeted, but you can be hit by AoE attacks.

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Thief Trait Lines Upon reaching level 11, you will begin earning Trait Points (1 per level for a total of 70 at level 80) that can be spent in any of the five available Trait Lines. Each point spent will increase 2 primary or secondary attributes, with every 5 points spent unlocking either a Minor or Major trait. The trait lines for the thief are listed below, along with their associated attributes and weapon or utility skill type associations. For more information on attributes, check out our Attributes Guide.

Deadly Arts   

+10 Power per point spent +1 Expertise per point spent Improves - traps, stealing bonuses, poisons, dagger damage

Critical Strikes   

+10 Precision per point spent +1 Prowess per point spent Improves - critical hits, pistol damage, signets

Shadow Arts   

+10 Toughness per point spent +10 Compassion per point spent Improves - stealth, shortbow and harpoon gun damage

Acrobatics   

+10 Vitality per point spent +1 Concentration per point spent Improves - dodging, trap regeneration, initiative regeneration

Trickery   

+10 Malice per point spent +1 Cunning per point spent Improves - initiative, stealing bonuses, damage for flanking and initiative

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Additional Thief Tips 1. Use your Steal mechanic often. You will usually get a good weapon to open up the fight with and it's a lot of fun to use stuff from your foe against them. 2. Experiment with the different weapon combinations (main hand/ off-hand) to see what special attacks fit with your playstyle. 3. Stealth is your friend. Use it as well as shadow-step to dance around your foe and drive them crazy. 4. Never be afraid to run if you're losing. Go into stealth and get the heck out of Dodge.

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WvW Stats and Bonuses Guide In this guide we break down the World vs. World (WvW) Stats and Bonuses window and explain what each section means for new players, or those who may not actively participate in WvW but are still interested in understanding how well their home world is doing. While many aspects of the WvW scoreboard are fairly easy to understand, being able to tell at-a-glance what the details mean can give you a deeper understanding of the overall WvW system. We've broken down the Stats and Bonuses window into 6 distinct parts, followed by a detailed section for each, along with explanations for some of the less obvious icons or naming conventions.

Accessing the WvW Scoreboard [B] To begin with, you can access the WvW scoreboard in-game at any time by pressing the [B] key, with a couple of notable exceptions: 1. While in structured PvP, the [B] key will instead display the scoreboard for your current sPvP match 2. At present, if you are in an overflow zone in PvE, you will not be able to view the WvW scoreboard for your homeworld. Traveling to a new zone or major city via waypoints can serve as a temporary workaround until this issue is addressed by the developers.

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With consideration to the above, the default scoreboard view can be seen below:

Let's take a more detailed look at each of these sections.

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1. Quick Travel and Point Tally Countdown Depending on where you are in the world when opening the WvW Stats and Bonuses window, this bar will present you with one of two unique displays: ď&#x201A;ˇ

PvE Zones - The default display from PvE zones (shown below) is a clickable area that will allow you to fast travel to any of the four individual WvW maps (Eternal Battlegrounds + the Borderlands for each of the three participating worlds)

Please note: It is entirely possible that one or more of the WvW maps will be at maximum player capacity for your world when you attempt to quick travel from the PvE zones via the Stats and Bonuses window. A small window will appear on screen to inform you if this is the case as shown below:

ď&#x201A;ˇ

WvW Zones - Once you've traveled to one of the four WvW maps, this bar will present you with a new display as shown below. This countdown monitor will inform you how much time is remaining until the next point tally which is impacted by, and can impact most other parts of the Stats and Bonuses window display as described in the following sections for each.

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2. Current World Scores The next section, shown below, displays the cumulative scores for the three participating home worlds for the current tournament period. This number will change over time at set intervals each time the point tally countdown reaches zero.

As seen here, the three competing worlds are represented by a specific color, each with a corresponding Borderland zone. Your own home world will be distinguished by a small building icon, as shown next to Sorrow's Furnace in the example image used above. Knowing which world is represented by which color can be critical, as it will let you know exactly which world is in control of various structures when viewing the map. Enemy players from each world will also have a generic nameplate based on their home world color. In our example here as a player on Sorrow's Furnace, Jade Quarry players would appear in-game as "Green Defender" while players from the Maguuma home world would appear as "Blue Defender".

3. World Bonuses As each WvW match or tournament period progresses, your home world will be able to unlock a number of temporary bonuses for all players on your world as shown below:

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Descriptions for each of these bonuses are as follows:

Artisan

2% increased chance of crafting critical success

Energetic

1% Endurance bonus

Scavenger Robust Gatherer Defender Wisdom

1% Bonus coin per kill Maximum health increased by 1% 2% chance of additional gathering node uses 1% increased defense against monsters 1% bonus experience per kill

Medic

Healing effectiveness increased by 1%

Please note that each of the percentages listed above are per tier unlocked for a given bonus. For example, in the World Bonuses image above, the second tier of Artisan had already been earned, giving PvE and WvW players on that world a +4% increase to crafting critical success.

4. Points Needed for Next Bonus As your world continues earning points in WvW, you will be able to unlock one or more tiers of the bonuses listed above. Located directly beneath the current bonuses for your world, you will see a progress bar indicating how many points are needed to unlock the next bonus as shown below:

In this example, you can see that the Next Bonus that can be unlocked for PvE and WvW players is +2% Energetic which is the second tier for that particular bonus. Please note that this bonus is not additive, but rather the cumulative percent bonus you stand to gain by completing the current progress goal.

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5. Territory Control Ratio At-a-Glance The pie chart shown below offers a basic view of the ratio of territory each of the three home worlds currently controls. For the most part, this is simply a more graphical display of the totals shown in the next section of the Stats and Bonuses window.

6. Contested Areas Controlled Per World The sixth and final section of the WvW Stats and Bonuses window we'll be looking at displays the current Contested Areas controlled by each world, as well as how many points each world stands to gain at the end of the next point tally countdown. As you can see in the image above, there are four distinct control point types tracked. From left to right, these are:    

Resource Camps - worth 5 points each every 5 minutes controlled Towers - worth 10 points each every 5 minuts controlled Keeps - worth 25 points each every 5 minutes controlled Stonemist Castle - worth 50 points every 5 minutes controlled

The point values listed provide a good indication of the relative difficulty (or number of players needed) to successfully capture and control each type. For example, resource camps are worth the least points, but also take far fewer players to successfully capture than a tower or keep. At the end of the point tally countdown, the points your world will earn will be based directly on your areas controlled.

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WvW Supply Guide World vs. World (WvW) in Guild Wars 2 is a war for dominance. Like any good war, soldiers must be properly supplied for battle and this goes above and beyond weapons and armor. Towers, Keeps, and Siege Weaponry needs resources to repair walls, build upgrades, and construct powerful offensive and defensive weaponry. These resources are called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Supplyâ&#x20AC;? which is a resource used in WvW for construction and repair.

Supply serves three major purposes in WvW. The first is a means of construction, as previously mentioned, and the second as a way to give smaller groups a way to break away from larger forces and contribute to the battle. Towers and Keeps that are under siege require supplies in order to keep the walls and doors from falling while attackers need supplies to build rams and other siege weaponry to break into the keep. The third is as a way to break a Keep or Towers defense, if said Keep or Tower is heavily defended. Supply starvation is a viable tactic whenever a stalemate arrives.

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Supply Basics Each player initially spawns with 10 supply (located in the top / middle section of the U.I.) which is also the maximum amount any player can hold. Supply is replenished at Supply Depots located in Resource Camps, Towers, and Keeps. Supply is generated at Resource Camps and transported by Pack Dolyak Caravans, which spawn from Resource Camps and move on designated routes to allied Keeps and Towers, where they replenish the supply. The amount each caravan carries depends on the upgrades of the Resource Camp.

Supply Depots

Supply Depots reside within Resource Camps, Towers, and Keeps. They each can hold up to 100 supply before upgrades (Resource Camps receive a 25 supply limit increase with each personnel upgrade). Friendly players can receive up to 10 Supply by interacting with the Supply Depot. However, itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s important to note that only Resource Camps automatically resupply themselves. Towers and Keeps rely on caravans to replenish their stock. NPCs and Quartermasters utilize supplies for repairs and upgrades, meaning that sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s better to leave a depot alone than to restock there. On the other hand, if a keep is about to fall, getting as much supply out of the depot is crucial as the supply trades hands when the keep is taken.

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Utilizing Supply With all of this talk about supply, we haven‟t talked about the fun ways to use it. You can‟t really judge the importance of a resource until you understand how it is utilized in the field of war. There are only three uses for supply – repairs (walls and doors), upgrades for Resource Camps, Towers, and Keeps (via Quartermasters), and siege weaponry (both defensive (noblueprint) and offensive (blueprint required). Players can only use their Supply to build siege weapons and repair structures while the Supply in the Supply Depots are used for upgrades.

Repairing Structures You can use supply to repair walls and doors within Towers and Keeps. You can repair even if a structure is under attack, negating ongoing damage. However, you may not be able to out repair multiple Golems/Rams – in these instances it‟s much better to fall back to the inner keep (within Keeps) or try to focus the siege weapons down.

Structure Upgrades Supplies are used for various upgrades at Resource Camps, Towers, and Keeps. The supply used for upgrades comes directly from the Supply Depot, meaning that the Supply must first exist in the depot for the upgrades to be purchased. Players cannot refill supply depots, as previously mentioned, so making sure not to take from a keep where players are going to purchase the upgrades is important.

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Siege Weaponry

There are multiple types of siege weapons that you can build. They come in two forms, offensive (weapons that players can build within the world) and defensive (stationary weapons usually bound to a structure). It‟s extremely important to understand that only Siege Golems can be moved. Any other siege weapon will be affixed to the location. Whenever you utilize a blueprint, a build site will appear that allows anyone to use supply in order to build the siege weapon. It‟s another important note that the last person to supply a build site will get the first chance to use a siege weapon. Offensive Weapons      

Arrow Cart (30 Supply): Anti-player weapon, fires arrows at the target on the ground, but does not damage structures. Ballista (20 Supply): It fires a large bolt that does damage to structures and players, but is difficult to aim. Catapult (50 Supply): Does ground targeted damage to walls, gates, and enemies, but only does moderate damage. Flame Ram (40 Supply): Deals heavy damage to gates, but is very weak to oil and attacks. Alpha Siege Golem (100 Supply): Essentially a portable ram, a player can load themselves into it and move it / assault sturctures. Trebuchet (100 Supply): Long range siege weapon, great for taking the walls down on heavily fortified Towers / Keeps.

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Defensive Weapons  

Boiling Pot of Oil: Does massive damage below the pot of oil and inflicts Burning. It must be focused before players can begin building rams / assaulting the door. Cannon: It can fire three types of ammo (normal, Bleed condition, and Freeze condition) and works similarly to the Arrow cart.

Running Supply As mentioned above, it‟s a really bad idea to take supply out of Stonemist or any Tower/Keep that needs to be upgraded. It‟s also tough sometimes to get enough supply to keep a sieged keep standing or to get the siege weapons up to knock the door down. That‟s why you‟ll need people running supply. The best way to go about it is to focus on a swiftness build that can maintain swiftness and have enough defensive abilities (like Mist Form) to get you through the attackers and in through the gate.

It‟s best to take supply from the following locations first: upgraded Resource Camp > upgraded Keeps & Towers > Resource Camp > Towers > Keeps. It‟s best to let Keeps upgrade the most, as Towers are fairly disposable (there are twice as many and they count for less). There is a lot to such a small mechanic and many players overlook the importance of Supply, but hopefully you understand how viably important those 10 Supply points you have are.

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Siege Weapons Guide It‟s tough to take a humongous brick fortress down with nothing than an enchanted blade, a warhorn, and spirit. That‟s why Guild Wars 2 embraces siege weaponry, the fun and powerful way to raze keeps, topple towers, and punish players who joyfully run through choke points. There is a lot to the siege weapon system, including proper placement, but for now let‟s talk about what siege engines are and how to build them.

Siege Weapons Basics Siege weapons are devices used to deal massive damage to players, walls, and gates. They are expensive to build, easy to destroy, and can unleash death and destruction to unsuspecting players. To get started, you‟ll want to visit the Siegemaster at your spawn point. There you can buy Blueprints for gold or Badges of Honor and Karma. Once you have a blueprint, walk to where you‟d like the siege weapon and use the blueprint. You‟ll get a ground target selector to place and locate the siege weapon. Click where you desire to place the siege weapon and a build site will appear. Players will need to bring supply to the build site in order for the weapon to spawn.

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Siege Weapons There are currently six siege weapons in the game, each with a specific role and purpose. It‟s important to learn what each siege weapon specializes in before heading out into WvW, because some of them can absolutely ruin your day if you‟re not looking out for them. Alpha Siege Golem (1 Gold or 40 Badges of Honor, 100 Supply) The Siege Golem is the most expensive weapon available and the only one that can relocate itself. You may think it‟s designed to topple towers quickly, but it‟s designed more to be used in situations where building a build site on top of the door isn‟t possible. Of course, it‟s still very powerful and capable of toppling gates very quickly.

Unlike other siege weapons, you “mount” the golem and can walk while inside of it. The only problem, of course, is that if the siege weapon is destroyed, then you will be downed. On top of that, it moves slower than the average player and cannot be healed. It can Punch (the default attack), Whirling Assault (an AoE knockback, used to push enemies away from gates), Shield Bubble (to protect it from damage, or oil attacks), and Pull which drags an enemy to the golem. The 100 supply is a substantial amount and you should only place the blueprint down at the behest of your world.

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Arrow Cart (4 Silver or 2 Badges of Honor, 30 Supply)

This is an anti-personnel weapon, best used to defend choke points and push enemies away from gates. It has three abilities: arrow cart, crippling arrows (that apply crippling), and barbed arrows (that apply bleeding). It does most of its damage against enemy players. The most effective way to use an arrow cart is to set it up to target a bridge, gate, or choke point and use it to keep players from moving through (forcing them to take an alternate route and/or split up). You can also use it to keep enemies from the gates. Ballista (6 Silver or 3 Badges of Honor, 20 Supply)

The Ballista is another anti-personnel weapon with anti-siege capabilities. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s best used to take out enemy siege tanks, since it requires a target to attack (unlike the rest which usually have AoE targeting reticles).

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Catapult (8 Silver or 4 Badges of Honor, 50 Supply) This is the general purpose siege engine, capable of taking down other siege weapons, players, NPCs, walls, and gates. It has a larger targeting reticle than an arrow cart, but has more moderate damage. It‟s great for assaulting a wall whenever you‟re closer (whereas the Trebuchet is good for long distance wall razing).

Flame Ram (4 Silver or 2 Badges of Honor, 40 Supply) The Flame Ram is used to destroy gates, but must be built right beside the gate or wall to be destroyed. It can take a gate down in no time, but is an extremely vulnerable structure. You‟ll want to have players set to protect the ram and watch out for the burning oil above the gate.

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Trebuchet (16 Silver or 8 Badges of Honor, 100 Supply) Let‟s say you have a heavily defended keep or tower and you need to bust a wall down, but getting too close will result in instant death. That‟s when you build a Trebuchet, which is a long range general siege weapon that can do heavy damage to structures and moderate damage to everyone else. It differs from the Structured PvP Trebuchet slightly, as it‟s buildable and contains the ability to cause poisoned clouds.

Siege Weapon Placement It‟s important to note that placing a siege weapon is a huge undertaking, you‟ll need the world to supply “Supply” to it, which is a very valuable resource. There is only 100 Supply in some Keeps/Towers and if it runs dry, then you‟ll need to run for more. That same Supply can be used to repair doors or for upgrades as well, so you‟ll want to communicate with your World before you spend the money to spawn a siege weapon. Remember that enemies will be attempting to take them out and if you‟re up against a siege weapon, you should focus on it before the nearby players as well. They are powerful and take a lot of effort to get setup. Taking one out is like robbing a team of Supply and can remove a lot of pressure from your team.

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Solo and Group Activities in WvW World vs. World in Guild Wars 2 can seem like itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s a game of numbers, with large groups of organized players bashing into one another for dominance. However, donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t think that the game is won just by zerging. Objectives such as Resource Camps and Mercenary Camps can be taken with just a handful of players and contribute greatly to the overall war effort. Everything from a single player to a small group has things to do that can turn the tides of battle. A lot of it involves supply lines and smaller objectives that contribute to the greater good of the world.

Supply and Ganks Each keep must be supplied in order for the keep walls to hold under heavy assault and for counter siege weaponry to be built. Without the supply, the keep will eventually fall. To that end, destroying the roaming supply dolyaks can help and taking the supply camps can cripple the opposing army. Likewise, supply is required to maintain a siege (to build siege weaponry), so having a renewable source nearby can help a lot.

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The same works in reverse. Defending siege camps can be the difference from a keep falling and a keep standing, especially Stonemist. PvE objectives can be the difference between a strong push and a stalemate. There are a lot of mechanics at work out in the Eternal Battlegrounds and borderlands in WvW. Many of these only require a few people to take care of, but have a big impact on the larger battles. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x;s go over the different objectives and a rough count of people needed to handle each type.

Solo and Small Group Objectives in WvW Sentries (Recommended: 1-2 Players) Sentries stand and guard random locations throughout the map. You can either attack or defend a sentry. To capture a sentry point, slay the sentry and then stand in the capture point until the progress bar (displayed in the upper right corner of the screen) indicates that it has been captured. To defend a sentry, keep your sentry from perishing and hold the capture point. Generally, itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s not worth it to stand around and defend the different sentry points, but capturing them provides points for your world and is something a smaller task force can easily accomplish. To defeat a sentry solo, you'll want to make sure your build can kite. Snares and speed buffs are a must. Then engage the soldier and begin to attack and move, the soldier can take you one on one without much effort. However, with two players, it becomes trivialized. Dolyak Delivery / Dolyak Defense (Recommended: 1+ Player) Dolyaks bring supplies from supply camps to towers and keeps. Without supply, the towers / keeps will be unable to withstand an attack unless there is an overwhelming number advantage. Players will have to go to a different supply location and return to the keep, which is often impossible given how players camp the entrances/exits. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s important to keep friendly caravans alive and enemy caravans dead. The Dolyak does not attack; it walks from point A to point B on a set path. To attack a caravan, you simply just need to DPS the Dolyak down before it reaches its destination, it'll kind of start running whenever it comes under attack. To guard a Dolyak, you simply need to follow it along its journey. Both spawn smaller dynamic events that have appropriate rewards for successfully attacking or defending the dolyak.

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Mercenary Camps (Recommended: 1+ Players) Mercenary Camps require you to complete dynamic events in order to gain their â&#x20AC;&#x153;allegianceâ&#x20AC;?. Many of these objectives can be soloed, although the larger the group, the faster it moves. Helping out with obtaining and maintaining mercenaries can make a major difference in both offense and defense, since the camps are constantly spawning fresh troops to move into battle. There are two events, the first is the "gain the loyalty" event, in which you'll need to kill enemies, ressurect allies, and more, easily soloable. The second is the "decrease their morale" event (when one world has their loyalty), which is a bit harder to complete solo and will need a small group. The borderlands have all of the mercenary camps in the middle.

Supply Camps / Resource Camps (Recommended: 5+ Players) Supply camps can be assaulted by a group of just a few players. Five players should be sufficient to take out an undefended supply camp (although upgraded supply camps may prove tougher for just five). Taking these out not only grant your world supply, but deny the opposing worlds access to supply from that location.

On the flip side, the NPCs found in resource camps are tougher than standard mobs, and will be either Veterans or Champions. If a camp is under attack, joining the battle may flip the tides. If a small group is attempting to take a camp, a few defenders is all that is needed to repel them and keep the supply held firmly given the relative strength of the NPC defenders

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Other Events There are a lot of other things a solo player or small team can do. The mini-dungeon under the battlegrounds is something that you can explore and running supply around and repairing walls is another task that only a few players are required to do. Scouting enemy movements and reporting them is another important task, although one without an immediate tangible reward. To serve as a scout for your world, consider bringing a character that‟s a high enough level to have access to numerous sources of the Swiftness boon. While high mobility builds won‟t be optimal for combat, they can allow you to traverse the map quickly, and avoid combat when necessary. WvW isn‟t just about large scale siege battles. As a matter of a fact, if teams of players don‟t split off and take supply camps and hold towers, then the defenders will always have a substantial advantage. Regale us in tales of heroism in the battlefield or share your own neat tips and tricks for involving yourself in small scale battles in the comments section below. If you‟re logged in, feel free to bookmark this page below and return when you need more tips on small scale WvW battles.

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