GW2: What you can do at Level 80 by MMOINKS

You can follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/mmoinks

Welcome back today we discuss what there is to do once you've hit level 80. I see this questions a lot for new or returning players. Lets talk about it.

"Produced with the help of Arena Net"

Guild Wars 2 - Chef Moon's Gathering Route by Dankies

Chef Moon's Gathering Route brought to you by Dankies!

Materials gathered in this route:
Iron
Platinum
Snow Truffles
Orrian Truffles
Butternut Squash
Orichalcum
Omnomberries
Ghost Pepper
Lemmongrass
Orrian Sapling

GW2 PvP - Ember Elementalist D/F Signet Build & Guide by CGSN

PvP build and gameplay guide!

This is a melee hybrid-damage (dagger/focus) build that offers high defensive options and incredibly high damage for how hard it is to kill.

Your enemies will be burning themselves alive attacking you. All the while, you will be locking them down to dish out heavy direct and condition damage!

Link to the build - http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJ...

GW2 HoT: Prepartion guide for HoT by mmoinks

Here are just a few idea that you can do now for HoT while we wait for more news and the expansion itself.

"Produced with the help of Arena Net"

You can follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mmoinks

Guild Wars 2 - Smart and Educated Tips for Investing by the_jimin

Speculation is one of the best ways to make money in Guild Wars 2, and much of speculation revolves around holiday exclusive items and skins. With this guide, I will show you a few tips and tricks to help you make smart and educated tips for investing.

INTRO Investing in video game economies is both similar and different than investing in real world economies like the stock market. The key difference is that in an MMO, you have the same access to information as the next player (Unless they got the ANET connections). You get news about patches and releases the same time as every other player, and best of all, all the information is located on reddit (leaks) or the gw2 website. How you use this information is a whole different matter, and this is what separates the kings from the peasants. 

Rules about Investing Here are a few general rules to remember when investing Time is Money Before every investment, you have to ask yourself, what is the time frame for when you expect a return, and compare that to your opportunity cost. If you have nothing to do with your money, then don't worry about this. But if you could be using your money in better ways (such as flipping the TP), then this is a very important note to remember. I have seen many people sit on items such as gold ore or silver ore expecting some magical patch to introduce 500 jewelry, only to wait forever because there is absolutely no information about the time frame for it to come. If you don't have a time frame, don't invest. If you hate flipping and have no other use for your cash, put the money into some historical investments which I will explain later. 

Supply and Demand Before you invest in an item, the first thing you must ask yourself is "what is, and what will be the supply" as well as "what is, and what will be the demand". Ask "what is" the supply and demand when thinking about actually buying the item. Will this item continue to be in demand in the future? How much supply is this item currently at, and what are the possibilities that this item will be reintroduced in the future? If you have increasing demand and decreasing supply, your item will naturally rise in price. The "Will this item will be reintroduced in the future" is a question that will be associated with gamblers, where I will explain later. 

When to Sell Are you a safe investor? Or do you like to take risks and gamble? A safe investor will sell when they receive news of any possibility that their item's supply might be increased, or something that could happen that will decrease the demand of their item. For example, the people who sold their wind/fire/lightning catcher skins when the news that the festival of four winds was coming back were the safe sellers. There was absolutely no wording in the announcement that those specific skins were being reintroduced, but those who sold took what they've already made and moved on to other investments. The rule of the thumb is to minimize your risks, and move on to other investments (which could be seen as new opportunities).

Analyze Historical Prices This rule could not have applied a year ago, but it does now since GW2 is now more than 2 years old. You know have access to over 2 years worth of data and statistics, and a lot of this could be utilized when making smart investments. For example, the general trend with many holiday items is that their lowest prices are during the middle of the events that introduced them, and their highest prices were the months that followed (new supply is gone, old supply is diminishing). This is what makes items such as BL Skins and Holiday skins/materials so valuable of investments. If you have nothing better to invest in, invest in holiday items because at most, they can only be reintroduced once a year. This means, the peak price will always occur somewhere between the date of the event and the date of next years event.

Candy Corn vs. Quartz Crystals To touch off the previous point about holiday items and historical trends, the candy corn vs. quartz crystal example is one of my favorites when discussing what is the ideal investment. Both items are very similar (holiday exclusive materials), but there are key differences in why one is superior to the other. Quartz Crystal is reintroduced at least twice a year according to historical trends (Wintersday and Festival of Four Winds), though Wintersday is negligible given the little quartz it does drop. What is quartz crystals used for? Celestial armor (which is always in demand as new accs are made). Quartz is no longer obtainable in large amounts. Why is quartz a better investment than candy corn? To begin, lets highlight candy corn's good qualities. Candy corn is also used in large amounts, through the conversion to candy cobs which can be traded in for 20-slot bags (currently the cheapest 20-slot option). However, the glaring flaw in investing in candy corn is that it is easily available through maize balms, which turn ambients into monsters that drop trick'o treat bags, which drop candy corn. This is why even after the Halloween event, candy corn was still dropping, because new bags were still being opened. 
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/43773 http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/36041 As you can see, candy corn has remained relatively constant, and quartz has began a slow climb (But is still 300% of what it was when festival of four winds occurred). 

The Gamble Finally, if you like to gamble, I've got something for you. I will not call this investing, because at the end of the day, it is straight up gambling. As I explained earlier, the most volatile time for holiday items is right before the holiday event patch. I will use Light of Dwayna as an example. The lowest price of Light of Dwayna was Wintersday 2013, http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/49480, right when they were introduced through gift boxes. After the event ended, the price of the recipe began to climb (since it was removed from the contents of the boxes after the event, compare this to candy corn, which stayed in its container's drop tables). Since light of Dwayna dropped during wintersday, there is always a chance it will drop on the next years wintersday. When it was revealed that it was NOT dropped on the next wintersday, the price shot up nearly 500%. If you want to gamble, invest in items right before their possible reintroduction date, and depending on your luck, you will either go big or go broke (Light of dwayna could have easily dropped to 5-10g if reintroduced). 

CONCLUSION I know I only used a few examples for this post, but if you have spare time, study prices, because that is the best way to make money aside from flipping. Investing in items is always a risk, but depending on the magnitude of the risk, you could make a lot of money. That being said, there is nothing in GW2 that is a truly safe investment, because patches introduced constantly, and new possibly better items are added on the whim. The only safe investment I would consider is buying holiday items during their events and selling 6-9 months later when it is at its peak. The 15% TP tax is also a problem, because you have to make sure you make at least 15% of your investment back before you can count anything as profits. 15% in the real world is HUGE if you are dealing with stock markets (since the 15% capital gains tax is calculated from your PROFITS, not your initial investments). I also trade stocks in real life, but I am just a poor college student so I cannot compare those endeavors with the magnitude of investments I do on GW2.

SOURCE

Guild Wars 2 - Smart Salvaging and Forging Guide for max Profits by the_jimin

Since Silverwastes is the most popular farming method at the moment, I have a trick to make more money every hour. A lot of people merely sell/salvage greens, but there is a method that can make you more money if you use the mystic forge instead. A mystic forge conduit is best used in this case, but for most people the cost of one (800~g) is out of reach. However, over time, you can eventually make it back using this method.

THE MATH: To begin, the average vendor price of a green armor/weapon is about 1.7~s. The chance of upgrading from a green to yellow by putting 4 greens in the forge is 20%. This means, on average, to get a yellow, it would cost 3 * 5 * 1.7 + 1.7 = 27.2s for each yellow. You get a green back each time, so that is why I multiply by 3. Now the average amount of ectoplasm from a yellow is .89. So with this method, on average you will make 35 * .85 * .89 - 27.2 = -.7s. This may seem bad, but you have to factor in the materials you get from salvaging too (which averages out to be about 3 - 6s if you get ancient logs, silk, orichalcum etc.). Add this to the 80% chance of a major rune or sigil, and you end up with about 6s of profit with this method. Note: If you get a cloth green, always salvage for the silk.

Now to the interesting part. Forging armor actually nets you more profit overall, since armor have a 33% chance of getting an item that can be salvaged into silk, which could be between 2s-10s profit depending on how many pieces of silk you receive. Add this to the fact that major runes are 1s more expensive than major sigils. This means that armor is always better to forge. Now if you mix and match armor and weapons in the forge, you will now have a chance of getting either. So to maximize profits, mix 3 weapons with 1 piece of armor so you get a .5 * .33 = 16.5% chance of getting a cloth yellow or green. Once again, always salvage the cloth for silk. 

Using this method, you can be sure to make at least 6-20s every 15 green items. If you do not have a mystic forge conduit, simply save your bags of gear when you are near a forge. As a general tip, it is better to sell the blue non-cloth armor/weapons. Also sell high demand yellow items such as Greatswords, swords, daggers, staves on the TP instead of salvaging. Best place to forge and sell is Lions Arch (sell blues to the chick next to the forge). If you have a forge, there is a lot of downtime during Silverwaste events, so you can just open your bags there and never leave Siverwastes. 

http://imgur.com/HfoOeKh

This image shows what a mystic conduit looks like, as well as an example forge. 

TLDR: Forge greens into yellows. Salvage yellows. Mix 3 weapons with 1 armor. Always salvage cloths. Profit. 

SOURCE

Guild Wars 2 - Cursed Shore Event Farming Flowchart by mrbubblesort

I too have been farming CS since the beginning, so I decided to put down the path I usually follow into a flowchart:

http://i.imgur.com/VGvsyVC.png

Now for an explanation of my reasoning:

Minor Events

These are the quick, one time events that pop up at random times on the map. I ordered them based on their restart cycle vs. difficulty vs. rewards.

1. Champ Giant - It finishes fast and has a very fast restart cycle
2. Penitent / Shelter Defense - One of these is usually up at any given time. Lots of waves for lost of bags.
3. Jorfast escort & defend - Takes time & hard difficulty, but if scaled it will usually give 4 - 6 champs (2-3 on escort and 2-3 on def). Start Fiona as well for extra fun.
4. Rotbeard & Ooze - Easy, but doesn't restart as often
5. Sharky & Broodmom - Do these if they're up, but take a long time to finish (Sharky would finish in like 2mins if people would just pull him to the beach, but we never do ... -_-)

Major Events

Mel is my #1 go to event chain if it's up. Wave after wave of mobs and a Glorious Chest / Account Bonus Chest at the end. However, if you're in the middle of another event, the march to the first beacon can be safely ignored until you finish up what you're doing.
So on my chart, if you're in an event chain but on the LEFT side of the dotted line when Mel Beacon 2 starts, you should stop what you're doing and go to Mel. If you are on the RIGHT side, it makes more sense for you to finish the chain then go to Mel.

1. Mel - This is where the loot is, but can only get final chest once per day. Beacon 2 has constant waves of mobs. If you're staff ele, jump on top of the small tree at the North side of the event ring and you can reach them all with Lava Font & Meteor Shower. On the march to priest event, rush to the temple itself and get the mobs right when they spawn.
2. Arah Offense - Great loot and Glorious Chest, but rarely up since few people let Arah Defense fail anymore.
3. Grenth - Decent loot and Glorious Chest. Can safely abandon before priest since it'll start again within a few minutes (Jonez likes his naps). Finish up though if at Priest when Mel starts.
4. PLINXABOMAGE - Decent loot and two champs, Abom & Mage, at the end. Starts about every 30mins, and people often throw down karma / mf banners at the start.
5. Arah Defense - You should really let this fail, but if you do do it, lots of waves for lots of bags.
6. Megil - Burn Corpses is the only event worth it here. Lots of maggots for lot of chances at loot. Over quickly though.
7. Loana - Good chain, but rarely up.

Source

Guild Wars 2 - Lockdown Mesmer, the Mantra variant: A Brief Guide by 6xFPCs

Introduction: Counting might in fives

The lockdown mesmer is a mesmer that relies on phantasm damage (or more rarely, shatter damage) and interrupts from Mantra of Distraction to defeat a foe. The core build uses two traits that improve interrupts, Bountiful Interruption and Halting Strike (which were heavily buffed a long time ago). From these traits, the mesmer derives significant benefits from performing an interrupt, beyond those inherent to the interruption of an enemy skill.

Because lockdown centers on interrupting enemy skills, strong lockdown play requires an understanding of all other professions and builds, or at least their core skills. As such, lockdown is recommended for players with a broad knowledge of Guild Wars 2 professions and skills.

The mantra mesmer uses Mantra of Recovery, Centaur Runes, and the trait Mender's Purity to eliminate two key mesmer weaknesses: lack of swiftness and lack of condition cleanse. This particular build goes further by taking the trait Harmonious Mantras to mitigate a serious problem inherent to mantra skills: the inability to sustain mantra use over the long term due because of the need to rechannel before the active skill is available again.

This particular variant is optimized for WvW roaming and havoc. It solos camps just fine (especially now that the daze mantra is AoE), it gives group swiftness, it has a skill slot for portal/veil/feedback when those are needed, and it can fight it out against any other build you encounter. No need to run from condi necros, no need to run from d/p thieves. You can even go toe-to-toe with your local twice-told legend of a d/d ele, though at a disadvantage (as should be expected when using a non-PvP build against an sPvP meta build).

About me: I have played more than 500 hours of WvW using a lockdown/mantra mesmer, about 300 of which are using this exact mantra build in a roaming or havoc setting. I play on the character Beatrice Vita Nuova on the Dragonbrand server. Possibly you know me because I routinely attempt to solo towers with an alpha golem. I wrote this short guide because after playing several builds for each profession, I keep coming back to play this particular build. It is a unique style of play that is very, very fun, comparing favorably with such awesomeness as d/d ele and SD engi. I am sharing this build because there has been a constant clamor for non-shatter mesmer builds, and because I want you guys to experience the fun, too.


 The Build, the Traits, and the Reasons

2/6/4/2/0 Weapons are zerk. Armor and jewelry is 70-30 zerk-soldier. You can tweak this to your tastes; the goal is to be deadly without insta-dying to glass builds.

While weapon choices are more flexible for a lockdown mesmer than for arguably any other build, my personal choice is greatsword and sword/pistol ("gs", "s/p") by a large margin. Feel free to swap the off-hand to focus, especially if you are addicted to pulling people off walls and cliffs. Swap out sword or gs at your peril.

Ok yeah, I know 2/6/4/2/0 sounds like weird, off-brand crap. But please read at least the next part on traits before you start screaming about my commoner status (or whatever the insult du jour is).


Trait explanations:

• No Shattered Concentration: Shatter mesmers shatter. Lockdown mesmers keep phantasms up, and thus do not shatter. Plus, you're running mainhand sword and greatsword, probably the two best boon-stripping weapons in the game, so pushing for a boon-strip trait is a weak choice. An easy no, but one that needed to be said.
• Duelist's Discipline over Deceptive Evasion: probably the most controversial choice at first glance, but I stand absolutely firm here. pistol at 1200 range (up from 900 untraited) gives you incredible initiative when starting a fight, and the 1200 range stun acts as a ranged snare, a fast interrupt (focus 4 is beyond slow now that the chain skill has a short buffer cooldown), and one of the hardest CCs in the game (so your phantasms actually hit). The recharge reduction on top of this makes for an impossibly good trait, and it edges out deceptive evasion because lockdown doesn't shatter, so we could care less for clone generation.
• Harmonious Mantras over Furious Interruption: 3 seconds of quickness every 15 seconds can be crazy good, I admit. Quickstomp, quick mantra channel, phantasms that come out too quickly to dodge, a quick sword autoattack chain to strip a boon, it's all wonderful. However, Harmonious Mantras not only increases your mantra active skill count by 50% per channel, but it also front-loads that benefit. Furious often activates at inopportune moments--in the middle of an enemy distortion or endure pain, for instance. The unpredictability of the quickness proc makes it worth much less than the potential 20% uptime would otherwise suggest. If you play around the quickness, then it might be worth it. But rarely does the cooldown AND enemy skill use AND quickness benefit line up so well in fights.
Finally, in my experience, the third mantra uses (heal and daze alike) often make the critical difference in a fight, while the quickness rarely does.
• Phantasmal Fury over Desperate Decoy, Far-Reaching Manipulations, or Blade Training: your phantasms are almost half your damage output, and this an important way to increase your offensive pressure, especially with air/fire sigils and the Sharper Images minor trait. All three other traits are decent, but my experience suggests that PFury is difficult to pass up.
• No Chaotic Interruption: A great skill at first glance, immobilize is awesome. then you realize that ALL the random effects have an overlap with the immobilize. The blind is quite short and immobilize often stops them from hitting you anyway. The chill only lasts the length of the immob, making the snare component worthless. And the cripple only lasts 1 second longer, do you really want an extra second of cripple? And this is a grandmaster trait!
So all things considered, I would not trade out Harmonious Mantras or Mender's Purity for it. Also note that the associated minor traits (Confusing Combatants and Vengeful Images) are better than Chaotic Transferance (you don't have the toughness to benefit much, and you don't really want condition damage).
• Illusionary Defense over Debilitating Dissipation: We keep illusions up all the time. Debilitating is only ok for a power build (vuln and weakness are nice, bleed not so much), only helps when you're losing illusions, and is less useful because phantasms have retaliation from the Vengeful Images minor trait anyway. And the first time you have two phantasms idling while you wait for a thief to backstab you, you will remember this trait and you will be very, very happy. Leave Debilitating Dissipation to the PU clonespam guys, we are busy actually killing things.
• Mender's Purity: with Mantra of Recovery, this trait gives you two (or three) instant condition clears that remove two conditions each (note that the channel part doesn't cure conditions, despite what the tooltip says). You can eat a necro's signet of spite and come out fine. You can clear a shatter mesmer's immobilize without blinking (literally or figuratively). Fear means little to you; likewise chill. Make no mistake, this trait turns the mesmer into one of the best condi-cleansing professions out of the box, no poultry-based food necessary. In this build, this adept-level trait becomes one of the best in the game.
• No mantra recharge reduction, no toughness during mantra channel, no heal at end of mantra channel: No room for mild benefits that only help after you've used up all charges. There is more to say on the subject, sure, but it really comes down to the fact that these are a bit lackluster, and we have no room left.


Skill Choices

First, a quick word on mantras. Mantras suck because they don't recharge normally, they also require rechanneling to become anything more than a dead skill slot. Mantras rule because they are instant activation. That is, the active skill can be used at any time, and cannot be interrupted or prevented via stun.
More succinctly: they are amazing until the active skill runs out.

Heal: mantra of recovery First utility: blink Second utility: mantra of distracction

The heal mantra and daze mantra are core components of the build, and blink is an integral part of all mesmer play. Don't touch those unless you know what you're doing.

Third utility: Signet of Midnight is my personal default choice--short cooldown stunbreak and blind means you often nullify a big CC and a big followup melee attack with one skill use. In addition, the +10% boon duration is nice for Bountiful Disillusionment procs, and to a much lesser extent for the swiftness from Centaur runes. Don't forget the insta-blind for stomps. Also don't forget that it applies a 360 radius PBAoE blind--that downed guardian's buddy might catch a blind, too, if he's not careful while running up to CC you. Also the blind is unblockable, and the skill is instant like all stunbreaks. What a great skill, despite the fact that it seriously looks like every low-tier benefit was shoved together in a box and someone put a stunbreak bow put on top to try to make it look respectable.
Other viable fight-oriented choices include Mantra of Concentration (many stunbreaks and short stability, but beware the triple mantra recharge situation!) and signet of domination (ridiculously offensive, and makes for a great 3.9s stun).
Decoy is a bit worse than signet of midnight for this build because it lacks the damage mitigation of the blind and has a longer cooldown. Run if it you want, but I can't say I recommend it.
Viable WvW support skills should be put in this slot. Strong choices include portal, veil, feedback, and null field, taken as appropriate.

Elite skill: Mass Invisibility ("MI") is the most flexible elite skill, and my default choice. Hide whole groups of friendlies for an ambush, secure stomps, deny stomps, escape foes, save dolyaks, sneak up to the enemy for a supply trap or disabler. Hard to argue with it, especially on a 90sec cooldown.
Time Warp ("TW") admittedly does the stomp stuff of MI (differently), AND it has direct combat benefit. Plus, TW makes golems attack faster. It's a solid choice if you like it.
Polymorph Moa ("moa") is great way to secure a kill. But ineffectiveness of its transform (doesn't really help with killing, the best use is simply to stop another elite, e.g., lich form), coupled with the fact that lockdown mesmer shuts down a lot of stuff anyway, means I never use it.


Runes and Sigils

Centaur runes are a core component of a mantra mesmer in WvW. Effective roaming is about moving fast. Centaur runes are the difference between perma-swiftness and zero swiftness.
Non-roaming or sPvP players could consider other runes (i.e., probably Strength or Hoelbrak). I can't say that I would recommend a non-power rune, and I can't say I'd pick anything but Strength, even after the recent nerf to might.
Air/fire on gs is hard to argue with, because the autoattack's triple hit makes both sigils proc rather consistently. I have never replaced them, nor have I felt the desire to.
Air/paralyzation on s/p is very flexible; you could swap them both out if you like. Paralyzation makes pistol 5 stun for 2.6 seconds (tooltip displays 2.5s), up from 2.0s, which can be an extra 4k or more of phantasm damage. While it's apples to oranges, my experience suggests that fire isn't objectively better, just different (more offensive and bursty, to be precise). I can definitely see some people wanting fire instead. And I can also see arguments for energy, and for renewal. Pick your favorites and enjoy.


How to Play

Always prep both mantras when you zone in. When your swiftness has less than 4 seconds left, activating your heal will refresh swiftness (rechanneling the mantra will always refresh it due to the mantra and rune bonus both having a 10s cooldown). Your swiftness is applied in 600 range PBAoE, so make sure to give friendly stragglers some swiftness, and whip any nearby yaks into a run.
To get back to full charge on mantras without triggering full cooldown: swap to another skill, then swap back to the mantra. wait out the 5 second cooldown that might have been triggered. channel mantra.
Make sure you also go underwater somewhere and set your water skills to the correct mantras, in the same slots. This way, you will maintain the active skills when you go in and out of the water. Otherwise fighting in bay becomes a nightmare.

Start fights in s/p, and start off by using your duelist--1200 range makes this easy enough. Immediately follow up with pistol 5, then swap to gs and get berserker in there, too.
The rest of the fight varies wildly depending on the matchup, but as you might expect, it revolves around landing interrupts on key skills and getting phantasm attacks to hit. Every interrupt you hit with is like a third-chain autoattack hit, plus a huge boost of might. But those benefits aren't worth it by themselves, so you must still aim to interrupt key skills.
Balance your weapon swaps between constant swapping to get as many phantasms as possible, and having the defensiveness of sword ready when you need it. Sword 2 beats most other 2 skills (guardian whirl, warrior 100 blades); sword 3 is your fastest access to a clone, for that emergency distortion or daze, and the sword 3 chain skill is a stunbreak. Yes, that's right, an extra stunbreak.
Remember that you have three mantra uses before you need to rechannel. That is the window in which you gain all of the benefits of mantra activations without any of the drawbacks of rechanneling. Mete out your uses intelligently. Do note that a three-illusion Distortion (F4) is three seconds long, and mantra channels take 2.75 seconds. In addition, traited and sigil'd pistol 5 stuns for 2.6 seconds. You can use those to reset your mantras if necessary.


That pretty much covers it. I will add a few more sections on fighting specific builds in the comments. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the Mists.

Source

Guild Wars 2 HoT: Masteries Explained! by WoodenPotatoes

Today we had a new blog post from Arenanet detailing many more juicy details on the top of Masteries and endgame MMO progression! I'm here to explain the system in full, enjoy!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news...

To buy the game:
http://guildwars2.go2cloud.org/SH8

I'm often on our Subreddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/WoodenPotatoes/

My twitter is a GREAT way to get in contact!:
https://twitter.com/WoodenPotatoes

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns - First Look at the Wilds of Maguuma Jungle

Get your first look at the setting for Guild Wars 2's first expansion, from the highs of the canopy all the way down to the roots... and the monsters that dwell there.