• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Guild Wars 2 Launch Date announced: August 28th, 2012

Wanted to main Asura warrior and Sylvari Engie, now I feel compelled to try a Necro, which I actually never tried before, and I don't even like pets. Goddamn this wait.


Tell me cool stuff about Necros in GW2. Are they fun? What do they do?
 
Wanted to main Asura warrior and Sylvari Engie, now I feel compelled to try a Necro, which I actually never tried before, and I don't even like pets. Goddamn this wait.


Tell me cool stuff about Necros in GW2. Are they fun? What do they do?

I enjoyed it. I didnt play any spvp with my necro just a little dummy testing and mostly leveling, but I was a weird one and picked dagger/focus and minions. At first I tried conditions and picked up signet of spite, but honestly thought it was pretty dull. Got a minion and enjoyed it a lot more since I had fun roaming with a huge pack, syphoning life force, and blowing my minions up

I think that is what will keep my interest in minions since all of your minions have a secondary ability like the two cheapo minions you can blow up for damage.

I didnt try a heavy support necro with wells or a condition necro at 80 with all the abilities so maybe that gets more fun when you get more abilities
 
I enjoyed my time playing Necro in the last BWE. Didn't go for a condition build, but an up-close-and-personal approach with dagger/axe and a tricked out Death Shroud. Was surprisingly fun, especially compared to my experience with the class in the first BWE. I skipped it in the second, so this was a pleasant surprise.

I wasn't the most effective damage dealer in the game, but I held my own in PvP. Was a fairly effective capper and decoy, since I could keep myself upright long enough.
Death Shroud makes for a great gap closer. The extra health bar keeps you from losing any health of consequence, since whatever Life Force you lose in the short time you're in DS to throw out a Dark Path is regained when you close in, switch back and start hacking away. Plague was definitely a great crowd control and suppression tool, what with the cripples, blinds and constant heal suppression going on through the poison effect.

And I wasn't completely helpless, either. Axe does some decent damage, has a nice defense and cripple tool in the 3 skill and coupled with the dagger you can stick to a target fairly well, provided you pick your targets with some sense. I didn't like dagger in BWE1, but with a high enough crit in this beta weekend it felt nice and fast, probably great for capitalizing on on-crit effects, since the one skill hits fairly fast and seemed to trigger a crit pretty often.

I went with Spectral Walk for the mobility and unpredictability, and Spectral Grasp for closing distance and control. I switched out the third skill a couple times. Had Signet of the Locust, Blood Is Power and Spectral Wall in there alternately, but couldn't really nail down what worked best for me.
Just like I couldn't really decide what off-hand to pair with what main-hand weapon. Wasn't sure if I liked Focus or Dagger best with the axe, and which with the main-hand Dagger. Think I went with Dagger-Dagger and Axe-Focus ultimately, since they seemed to pair better in terms of number of targets, but was a tough call.

And of course, the hour after the beta ended, I settled on a build I would have loved to try. Close quarters again, but with an emphasis on wells - buffed to steal life, apply protection and have a shorter cooldown. Would have loved to see how that would have turned out in a few PvP matches.

Ah well. Just a month to go :(
 
I think I setteld on playing Engineer, what tips and suggestions do you have on the class?
I didn't play in any BWE, just joined the hypetrain recently. From what I read, it seems a terrific versatile class that can't switch weapons mid combat.

My suggestion would be to not settle on any class until you've played it. Before my first BWE I had the expectation I would be rolling a Thief and Necro as my mains, but now after playing all the classes I found Warrior, Guardian, Elementalist and Mesmer were my favorites (and I'm usually a player that never plays warrior classes). Start an Engineer at release but also use your other slots to try out some other classes to see what really sticks with you. Maybe you'll find Engi connects with you as you expected but maybe you'll find something else appeals even more.

Tell me cool stuff about Necros in GW2. Are they fun? What do they do?

I think they have some really awesome looking underwater skills. Sadly, I don't feel the same about a lot of their other weapon skills (more boring/bland skills compared to the other casters imo). It's kind of cool to see a horde of minions attacking an enemy, but currently I found the pets kind of weak and the AI pathing not all that great. I feel Necro is great if you value survivability in a light armor class. They definitely are ridiculously tough to take down in both PvE and PvP. But I just didn't really enjoy them in combat like the other "caster" classes.
 
I think I setteld on playing Engineer, what tips and suggestions do you have on the class?
I didn't play in any BWE, just joined the hypetrain recently. From what I read, it seems a terrific versatile class that can't switch weapons mid combat.

The class doesn't start to take off until you get access to your kits and utility skills. Your kits are essentially your other weapon choices. I only got access to bomb kit, med kit, flamethrower kit and grenade kit, but had a ton of fun mixing these kits together. The class has a lot of skillshot abilities, versatility and crazy hijinx.
 
Seems like a pretty good combo would be naplam, air blast and a mine. though I guess I could simply drop napalm at my feet and do a rocket kick, but that would mean less ping pongy fun :(

Yep, I was just talking about this exact combo with Welltall). This absolutely works, as I did it a few times on my Engineer in Baradin's Crypts (with all of those narrow doorways).

Having an Auction House has never prevented trade chat spam in any MMO.

Yes, because all MMOs have also allowed you to post purchase orders for things you wanted to specifically buy. Oh wait, most (if any) haven't.

I kind of want to run a Norn Necromancer, but Norn are so huge ugh

Their lumbering gait was a problem for me too, so I spent most of BWE3 playing one to see if I could get used to it. I am happy to report that not only did it not bother me after the first few hours, I actually started to enjoy being a giant sumbitch.

Tell me cool stuff about Necros in GW2. Are they fun? What do they do?

I haven't played one, but I have heard lots of people comment on one particular aspect; don't think of your pets as permanent. They're there to die for you, not to tank. The healing one (Blood Fiend) in particular is one you want to keep alive so i can heal you.
 
My suggestion would be to not settle on any class until you've played it.
Yes, that would be the best way to choose the class one would main; unfortunately I'm not used to try out all the available classes,
because I've always played a rogue-ish archetype for roleplay's reasons meaning that I always ignored mages and warriors like types.
I'm aware GW2 is a different beast and that means I could walk into new, different playstyles that I'm not used to and could potentially enjoy.

But keeping in mind the rogue-ish vibe I always looked for, my choices would be Thief, Ranger and the new entry Engineer.
One could argue that the Engineer isn't rogue-ish at all, but thing is that I'd really love to play a not-only-dps character that uses guns,
plus I always had a soft spot for healing capabilities: the Engineer seems to exactly fit the role, hence why I'd play this class at day 1.

This is all nice and rainbows, but since I haven't touched the game yet, it may be a kind of class I may end up hating with all my might.
Engineer looks also very complex with his various kits and possibilities; in my view this makes the class more intriguing.

So, yeah, if I won't change my mind again I'll probably go for Engineer. Then, if I'll hate it with all my might, I'll look for alternatives..!
 
Tell me cool stuff about Necros in GW2. Are they fun? What do they do?

loved playing as a Necro

their special abilities are life leaching, support (by removing conditions from your team/changing enemy boons into conditions), minions and inflicting high condition damage

you can have nearly twice the HP of low-health professions such as Thieves or Elementists, and their unique ability (death shroud) gives them an extra layer of protection
 
Yep, I was just talking about this exact combo with Welltall). This absolutely works, as I did it a few times on my Engineer in Baradin's Crypts (with all of those narrow doorways).

You should have gotten a video! That combo just sounds insanely fun - though id imagine it would be a bit hard for me to do as a controller user with all the ground targeting involved :( Give me native controller support Arenanet!!

I would also probably be wishing for an uppercut finisher for my engineer, or just some skill to lay him flat on his ass after he ping pongs back to me. I guess you could drop a Fire bomb and a big ol bomb to create another combo field after all of the action - though not really sure youd have the time for it, and it wouldnt be as satisfying as seeing my engineer doing a street fighter style uppercut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TdKHPNM2NE

Thats the video that got me interested in self-made combos. That just looks real cool, but not something that engineer can probably build around since ele just has a ton of different fields at his disposal while engineer you can really reasonably only get 1 or 2 - mostly fire
 
You mean like the Personal Battering Ram?

That's some Inspector Gadget shit right there.

Na, thats long range focused. Id want a satisfying melee option. I think the tool kit might have worked for this - like some skill that bashes a gigantic wrench over someone's head and slamming them into the ground, cracking it a little - but sadly, i dont see anything like it.

Tool kit in general seems a bit underwhelming to me, and I doubt i will use it much
 
Na, thats long range focused. Id want a satisfying melee option.

Ah, so you want a close-range knockdown, something to knock them down right at your feet? That seems kinda contradictory to the Engineer's focus on long range.

Tool kit in general seems a bit underwhelming to me, and I doubt i will use it much

Pro-Tip (courtesy of Weltall): The wrench can be used to repair sentries.
 
It seems the vast majority of people posting here is rolling either Engineer, Guardian, Necromancer or Warrior..!
I could be completely wrong ofc.
 
Ah, so you want a close-range knockdown, something to knock them down right at your feet? That seems kinda contradictory to the Engineer's focus on long range.

I'm assuming is looking for a "get off me" ability. Its quite common for ranged classes to have some sort of melee ability which provides some sort of control characteristic like a stun, slow or knockback/down.
 
It seems the vast majority of people posting here is rolling either Engineer, Guardian, Necromancer or Warrior..!
I could be completely wrong ofc.

I'm planning to reserve names for everything except a Necro and a Ranger. My biggest priorities are Guardian, Warrior and Engineer. Everything else is stuff I tried a little and might want to explore further.

I'm assuming is looking for a "get off me" ability. Its quite common for ranged classes to have some sort of melee ability which provides some sort of control characteristic like a stun, slow or knockback/down.

Right, but I can't think of anything that says "Get off me!" like a giant belt-mounted battering ram that knocks the enemy away from you. A stun and slow are okay, but I'd rather have a knockback (which this is) or an immobilize (which the Engineer has on almost all weapon setups; Glue shot (Off-hand pistol) and net gun (rifle). The Engineer actually has a ton of control options no matter what weapon setup you pick.
 
"It seems the vast majority of people posting here is rolling either Engineer, Guardian, Necromancer or Warrior..!
I could be completely wrong ofc."


Well that's half the class roster, that's not bad representation. Mesmer still has a lot of kinks. Thief has a lot of kinks. Ranger not so much, but I doubt rangers will be terribly underrepresented by the general public. There'll definitely be no shortage of Elementalists.
 
Ah, so you want a close-range knockdown, something to knock them down right at your feet? That seems kinda contradictory to the Engineer's focus on long range.

Oh, it was more of a wish for purely esthetic reasons since I think an awesome melee knockdown would look awesome after that ping pong combo madness


Pro-Tip (courtesy of Weltall): The wrench can be used to repair sentries.

you mean turrets? Or something else? Cause i thought sentries were WvW NPCs that you can kill for points
 
It seems the vast majority of people posting here is rolling either Engineer, Guardian, Necromancer or Warrior..!
I could be completely wrong ofc.

Warrior here. I've played ranged/caster for most of my MMO days. I will still have a Ranger and Engi tho.
 
I'm either going necro or guardian, I'll decide based on what anet ends up changing with the necro.
 
It seems the vast majority of people posting here is rolling either Engineer, Guardian, Necromancer or Warrior..!
I could be completely wrong ofc.

For release, I'll roll a Thief as my main (played this profession almost exclusively during the BWEs), Necro as my alt. Might try a Ranger if/when I make a third character.
 
I still can't decide what I'm going to start with. I got the warrior, engineer, and ranger up pretty high over the beta weekends and liked them all. I'll probably also try out guardian and thief, but the elementalist looks interesting as well, especially all the combo potential they have. I might just go ranger for my main because of the extra fun of finding and collecting pets. It was fun trying out the different pet specials (F2 key).

I have a backlog of games I want to work through before the launch but I can't stop thinking about GW2...
 
IF they fix the Thief and redo all the sword moves I'll gladly level one to 80. If not I'm looking at Ranger mostly.

Yea, im going engineer and ranger. I thought i was going Charr engineer, but after people saying like 50% of all the engineers will be Charr I have been wavering a bit. I cant say i really understand the compulsion of being more 'unique' or rare myself, but whatever, i have it.

I really wish we had a character creator since fiddling around with that would better help me decide. I know ill be rolling a charr and a sylvari and they will either be an engineer and a ranger. I just gotta figure out what race is what class.

I quite like that my crafting will also be useable for my ranger alt. Ill eventually turn my ranger alt into a huntsman/jeweler, but pre-60-80 i think ill just have it fund my main's leatherworking craft.

I definitely think that i will be doing cooking on my main, but I dont think ill start leveling that until level 60. I think that seems like a good time to do that considering that cooking is apparently costly and you need a TON of ingredients to do anything with it. Hopefully by then I will have a wide variety of ingredients to make cooking easier and more fun to level
 
Engies can do a good amount of self-combos. Just by using the bomb kit, you can lay down The Big One for a blast finisher, then drop a few of the bombs with smoke fields, fire fields and such, and they can all combo together if the Big One goes off after the smaller bombs.
 
Am I the only one that is bothered by the fact that all of the Asura (and probably everyone else in this game) pronounce "Golem" as "Gollum"?

I thought maybe it was just a regional thing, but I've tried looking it up and I can't find any source for the "Ga-lem" pronunciation. Is it just a case of the voice director was a fan of Lord of the Rings, or is there something I'm missing here.

Plenty of people say "gaw-lum" instead of "gow-lum".
 
I'll roll a Sylvari Engineer, me thinks.

It's probably a common shared story by this time, but I wasn't that much into Sylvari when they first revealed them: they were green skinned humans with leaves on.
Videos of the last BWE totally changed my view and idea of them: ANet implemented some customization options to actually make them look alien.
Ofc not Alien's alien level (lol), but good enough to have that uniqueness flavor. Personally I would have focused more this path and used less human like appereances.

I also guess that being a man-plant wielding a flamethrower has its odd appeal.
 
Holy shit suddenly this game makes total sense OH MY GOSH

Spent BWE 2 and 3 trying to figure out what combos were.

While I already knew almost all about that video, one detail that had eluded me until I saw it was that Leap finishers (when they have a positive effect) only affect the player leaping, as opposed to Blast finishers who affect all players in their area of effect. Also, that Leap Finishers are activated by crossing a field, not necessarily ending within one; an important distinction with line-shaped fields.

What's your problem with huge necromancers?

Is there anyone in this thread that hasn't played Dark Souls? :)

It seems the vast majority of people posting here is rolling either Engineer, Guardian, Necromancer or Warrior..!
I could be completely wrong ofc.

I definitely plan to play an Elementalist, and when Mesmers were announced, I planned on maining one. The problem with this game is that all classes are so damn attractive; I want to play everyone of them. That's a great mark of distinction for ArenaNet; if you see class playing intent polls, all of them are very evenly distributed.

Derp. Yes, I meant turrets. I was thinking Sentry Guns from TF2.

Gee, I wonder what could possibly have made your mind slip to TF2 when talking about a wrench melee attack that can heal turrets... :D

Edit: Answering questions by a friend of mine, I just read something interesting. From this session of questions and answers:
http://www.arena.net/blog/jon-peters-answers-your-first-batch-of-healing-and-death-questions
Look at this:
Q: Can you choose to go back to a waypoint when you are downed, or can you only do this when you are defeated?
Jon: At any point while downed or defeated, you can bring up your map and go back to a waypoint.

You can port to a waypoint while downed! I really have to check how this works, but doesn't that imply you could in theory avoid armor damage by skipping going into defeated? In my mind there's three possibilities:
1) When you're ported to a waypoint while downed, you rally.
2) When you're ported to a waypoint while downed, you don't rally. This doesn't matter as, now without enemies wailing on you, you can simply use the 4 ability to rally yourself.
3) When you're ported to a waypoint while downed, you automatically receive armor damage. This seems somewhat counterintuitive, but it seems to be the only possible way to avoid people skipping armor damage entirely.
 
Henge of Denravi 0-6: Lost against -Yak's Bend , Gate of Madness, Tarnished Coast, Ehmry Bay, ?, ?.

Ya, let's not go to henge, anything but. It's the losers server. Dead fucking last and it was high pop.
 
While I already knew almost all about that video, one detail that had eluded me until I saw it was that Leap finishers (when they have a positive effect) only affect the player leaping, as opposed to Blast finishers who affect all players in their area of effect. Also, that Leap Finishers are activated by crossing a field, not necessarily ending within one; an important distinction with line-shaped fields.

Some leap finishers definitely apply to all allies in the area. Ranger for example can use Monarch's Leap (chain skill off Hornet Sting on sword) or Swoop (Greatsword) through a fire field, like Fire Trap or the Torch skill Bonfire, to give himself and allies a fire shield.

In fact, looking through the wiki shows quite a few Leap finishers affect allies.
 
Also I just realized thief has barely any weapons compared to others. 3 main hands, 2 offhands, and 1 dual wield. Compared to say warrior with 3 main hand, 5 offhands, 4 dual wield. Man thief really got the short end of the stick.
 
Holy crap! Did anyone know about this?!:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/44303-crafting-stations-banks-was-this-helpful-to-you/
Apparently, you can now access bank storage on ANY crafting station, including ones in zones with no actual banks! It's funny because we were complaining earlier that we couldn't craft from the bank, this is the very next best thing. Awesome if this sticks!

Incidentally, I realized early in the betas that you could access your bank pretty much from whenever you wanted, simply by going into WvW (which has banks at its access points; regular, non PvP-ones) then porting back via "leave WvW".

Some leap finishers definitely apply to all allies in the area. Ranger for example can use Monarch's Leap (chain skill off Hornet Sting on sword) or Swoop (Greatsword) through a fire field, like Fire Trap or the Torch skill Bonfire, to give himself and allies a fire shield.

I see! I guess this is way too specific a question for you to have tried it, but did you see if it gave fire shield to allies in an area around the target point, or to allies in the path of the leap?

In fact, looking through the wiki shows quite a few Leap finishers affect allies.

It doesn't seem to imply anywhere that those affect allies, though... unless I'm missing something.
 
Plenty of people say "gaw-lum" instead of "gow-lum".

Can't say I've ever heard the former, except for people who were confusing the pronunciation of Gollum. I'm sure there are people who say it that way, but is that actually considered accepted anywhere? That's what I'm trying to find a source on, and so far the only accepted pronunciations I can find are Go-lem and Goi-lem (the Yiddish pronunciation).

I would guess a lot of people had seen the word in writing long before hearing it spoken, and that would contribute to differing pronunciations.
 
Also I just realized thief has barely any weapons compared to others. 3 main hands, 2 offhands, and 1 dual wield. Compared to say warrior with 3 main hand, 5 offhands, 4 dual wield. Man thief really got the short end of the stick.

it's quite unfortunate, yes. I think the mace would be quite fitting for a thief weapon, and our profession really could do with some stuns and knockbacks.

well, I guess this issue will be fixed when they introduce new weapon types
 
I see! I guess this is way too specific a question for you to have tried it, but did you see if it gave fire shield to allies in an area around the target point, or to allies in the path of the leap?

It's in the area around the target location from what I've seen when playing my Ranger. I don't recall seeing anyone behind me in my leap path get the fire shield.

It doesn't seem to imply anywhere that those affect allies, though... unless I'm missing something.

Click each Combo Field type. Ethereal, Fire, Ice, Light, Lightning, and Water leap finishers all affect allies.
 
Can't say I've ever heard the former, except for people who were confusing the pronunciation of Gollum. I'm sure there are people who say it that way, but is that actually considered accepted anywhere? That's what I'm trying to find a source on, and so far the only accepted pronunciations I can find are Go-lem and Goi-lem (the Yiddish pronunciation).

I would guess a lot of people had seen the word in writing long before hearing it spoken, and that would contribute to differing pronunciations.

I've heard it both ways pretty much equally. Besides, Asura don't even spell "crew" correctly! You think they can pronounce words right?!
 
Also I just realized thief has barely any weapons compared to others. 3 main hands, 2 offhands, and 1 dual wield. Compared to say warrior with 3 main hand, 5 offhands, 4 dual wield. Man thief really got the short end of the stick.

Well, that is probably to counter your changing 3rd ability and your energy mechanic

Ya, let's not go to henge, anything but. It's the losers server. Dead fucking last and it was high pop.

Agreed, and it just sounds so stupid
 
I've heard it both ways pretty much equally. Besides, Asura don't even spell "crew" correctly! You think they can pronounce words right?!

Fair enough. Plus, according to the wiki, Golem is an acronym for "Genius-Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation", so there might be a justification for it.

It just sounds wrong to me. Like if you were talking about an ugly beast that lives under a bridge and you called him a "Trawl". But I guess for all I know there are people who do that as well.
 
Sanctum of Rall also ended up 0-6, btw. Reading the thread, it seems they didn't have any large guilds on that server.

WvWvW was also kinda broken on the first day though
 
Fair enough. Plus, according to the wiki, Golem is an acronym for "Genius-Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation", so there might be a justification for it.

It just sounds wrong to me. Like if you were talking about an ugly beast that lives under a bridge and you called him a "Trawl". But I guess for all I know there are people who do that as well.

I just realized MIG is an acronym within an acronym "Massively Impressive GOLEM"

I will say that I say "gaw-lem", and I've been saying that for like, 25 years, so I can't say the LOTR movies ever had a bearing upon my pronunciation. I will concede that it's incorrect, but it's hard to change your pronunciation when it's so automatic.

At this point, though, it's hard to get all up in arms about that when people commonly pronounce niche as "nitch". That drives me fucking nuts.
 
Well, that is probably to counter your changing 3rd ability and your energy mechanic

I don't see how it counters anything, just gives us less options. Having a another weapon set to choose from doesn't make a character more powerful, just more options in playstyle. Other classes just seem to have a lot more flexibility in what they can do.
 
Ya, let's not go to henge, anything but. It's the losers server. Dead fucking last and it was high pop.

For once, I think we may actually agree on something server-related!

Also I just realized thief has barely any weapons compared to others. 3 main hands, 2 offhands, and 1 dual wield. Compared to say warrior with 3 main hand, 5 offhands, 4 dual wield. Man thief really got the short end of the stick.

Warrior is supposed to have a ton of weapons, that's sort of their 'niche'; being able to recognize your needs and swap out weapons (and thus, Adrenaline attacks) is going to be an essential skill.

Thief needs Offhand Sword, and probably should have Staff (just because they need a non-ranged full-bar changing weapon, and because the idea of having a staff as a thief sounds cool).
 
For once, I think we may actually agree on something server-related!



Warrior is supposed to have a ton of weapons, that's sort of their 'niche'; being able to recognize your needs and swap out weapons (and thus, Adrenaline attacks) is going to be an essential skill.

Thief needs Offhand Sword, and probably should have Staff (just because they need a non-ranged full-bar changing weapon, and because the idea of having a staff as a thief sounds cool).

Warrior is the opposite on the spectrum yes, but lots others have way more skills. Next closest to thief is necro, but they have 1 more offhand.

I should look up the possible steal skills, not knowing what you'll get from your target sucks. Always steal then have to hover over to see wtf it is i got.
 
Jade Quarry and Isle of Janthir might be the right population size for a GAF guild. There's other guilds and communities on these servers, but not monstrously huge groups that would create population issues.
 
Jade Quarry and Isle of Janthir might be the right population size for a GAF guild. There's other guilds and communities on these servers, but not monstrously huge groups that would create population issues.

I was actually thinking about those two as well, specifically isle of Janthir
 
Jade Quarry and Isle of Janthir might be the right population size for a GAF guild. There's other guilds and communities on these servers, but not monstrously huge groups that would create population issues.

Reddit is rolling on Darkhaven and Isle of Janthir according to their recent server poll.
 
Top Bottom