Guild Wars 2 - Sky Pirates Patch Preview/Guides/Achievements

Achievements

• Around 20 achievements, divided into 3 categories 1) Kill x aetherblade pirates in various regions of Tyria, 2) Achievements for getting aetherblade cache in 7 existing jumping puzzles/mini-dungeons 3) Achievements for the new dungeon - some are for completion, others are more skill based
• Kill based achievements require you to interact with the same hologram projectors you encountered in Dragon Bash. They now have a 50/50 chance to spawn Aetherblade pirates when you walk near them (some of them will still spawn holographic minions). You can also get these achievements by killing the pirates guarding the various caches if you don't feel like running around.
• Cache based achievements are basically a bunch of existing jumping puzzles/mini dungeons with a new cache (jumping puzzle chest) placed into them. They don't give any special loot but getting them give you an achievement. It is a way to recycle content basically. You will need to do Goemm's Lab, Obsidian Sanctum, Vexa's Lab, Fawcett's Bounty, Hidden Garden etc to name a few. Some caches are located near entrance but others are located at the very end.
• Dungeon achievements - some are the standard killing bosses achievements while others are more skill based (i.e. avoid a boss mechanic or kill the boss within a time limit).
• Completing 12 of the achievements will reward you with a mini pet modeled after a boss in the new dungeon: http://imgur.com/a/7yOu2

Dungeon - Aetherblade Retreat

• Like molten facility, if not harder. Very interesting boss mechanics not unlike raid boss mechanics seen in other MMOs
• Temporary dungeon, only here for the duration of Sky Pirates but may appear in some form later on
• You get a guaranteed rare from the boss chest and 1 gold every time you complete it. The dungeon is hard enough that Arenanet feels it is justified to give 1 gold for every completed run.
• 5 player dungeon, will upscale players to L80 but low level players may have a hard time.
• Boss chest has a chance to give you an exotic, tradeable monocle headpiece with berserker stats:http://i.imgur.com/MmLXHPW.jpg
• You may also find the recipe for an infinite tonic that will transform you into one of the bosses - you can jump with it and the tonic is tradeable once crafted: http://i.imgur.com/rYDUxRd.jpg

Aetherblade Armor (gemstore)

• I think alot of you have already seen this from datamining. You get 3 sets, one set for each armor type (i.e. light, medium heavy). They are suppose to be purchased from the gemstore I was told.
• Unfortunately both Charr and Asura uses the male model for both sexes.
• Here is a preview of some of the armors you can expect in case you can't access the link above:http://imgur.com/a/QKgRM

Scavenger Hunt

• Ingame scavenger hunt to promote the launch of Sea of Sorrows book, not really part of the Sky Pirates theme.
• Need to find 12 Marriner plaques. You can find all 12 of them using clues given inside the book (or just look for them blindly like I did) . You get an achievement and one time use consumable that give you 5 skill points.

Jumping Puzzle

• Not released until second week on July 2.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2

Guild Wars 2 - Mesmser Support Guide

Mesmer Support Guide by: Hiname

Hello and good day or evening.

Today I want to share with you with you my personal way of playing my mesmer.

People have two oppinions of the mesmer... They are either "zomfg OP!" in every PvP enviroment, or Time Warp bots in dungeons. Well, for the later category, you might be the people who have the most of a blast with this build I want to present today.

I don't know if it is new, I don't know if it is inovative in any form whatsoever, but I want to share my little piece of joy with you.

I call it, Boon-Booze... yeah yeah, I know, name pending.

So, what is this about?

Firstly, details of gearing.

You will need: Carrion equipment. Conditions will be something of a sideeffect of what you will do.

2 Superior Runes of Water - +25 Healing, +15% Boon Duration

2 Superior Runes of the Monk - +25 healing, + 15% Boon Duration

2 "MAJOR" Runes of the Sanctuary - +15 Vitality, + 10% Boon Duration

2 Superior Sigils of Battle - Gain 3 Might when switching to this weapon in combat.

1 Superior Sigil of Corruption - Gain condition damage upon slaying an enemy.

A scepter.

A staff.

A focus.

Everything together? Brilliant, then let us have a closer look at the traits.

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10 Domination

VI: Signet Mastery - Signets recharge 20% faster.

You will need your one signet a lot. This one will be your best friend.

Chaos 30

V: Debilitating Dissipation - Clones apply a random condition when they are killed.

Your clones will die, fast and ahrd and not always reach their target, they might just as well make some use for them.

X: Chaotic Dampening - +50 toughness while holding a staff, 20% reduced staff cooldown.

Your staff skills will be your bread and butter. Hands down.

XI: Bountiful Interruption - Gain a random boon when interrupting an enemy.

For that sweet little twist later.

Illusions 30

V: Master of Misdirection - Confusion you inflict lasts 33% longer.

Conditions, hooo!

VII: Illusionary Elasticity - Bouncing attacks gain an additional bounce.

For your bounding staff goodyness.

VIII: Dazzling Glamours - Glamour-Skills blind enemies in their radius.

Because Feedback, Null-Field and all the others are cool.

---

Now, where does all this take us?

With your runes, your traits and an active Signet of Midnight, you stand at 80% Boon Duration. Now pop a Omnomberry Chocolate Cream and you have +100% Boon duration!

---

Execution

Now, after combat against a group of enemies has been initated, a good pattern of actions could look like this:

1. Run up to the enemy, drop Chaos Storm so it does affect you,the enemies and every character in melee range.
2. Let the random boons stack on you while you summon your Phantasmal Warlock.
3. Use Phase Retreat to summon up another clone.
4. Shatter the clones to trigger Shattered Strength.
5. Swap to your scepter and focus while the clones shatter.
6. Drop down Temporal Curtain.
7. Trigger it again to pull enemies towards the rupture.
8. Gain random boons by, hopefully, interrupting as many of them as possible.
9. Steal some boons via Arcane Thievery.
10. Hit your Signet of Inspiration.
11. Squeel in joy when seeing your array of boons pop up in the entire group, putting your stacks of Might on top of theirs.

You might not be a tremendous DPS-Beast, but with this, you should be able to easily uphold ~10 Might in the group and let the rest of your companions show the enemies who is boss around the dungeon.

Me, as a person who has a genuine blast from playing support-heavy characters in my games and MMO's specifically, I can say, that this build is likely the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2

Gw2 -Tips for Toypocalypse

Here are some tips that may help you and the rest of your pug party to get the Toypocalypse canceled achievement (survive all 10 rounds with all 5 dolyaks alive changed to 1 dolyak alive). Feel free to add your own below.

• Build Build Build - use the toysmasher and smash buildings & trees. Grab the scraps and snow
• You can upgrade all the defense structures to the super and the mega level by using scraps/snow on them. This will heal them and upgrade them to the next tier.
• You can hire skritt mercs on the west side of the map by bringing them 3 scraps. They can be handy
• When fighting Toxx, take your time. Have one or two group member kite her around (use the rifle) while the rest of your party build and upgrade defenses.
• Watch where the toys are coming from and then build ice walls along their path. Build catapults behind the walls.
• Pistol is quite important as you can perm stun some toys and turn them on each other.
• Every even round, you get some hay spawn on the outer edge of the circle, grab them and feed the dolyak with the lowest health
• Once you got enough defense stuff around the dolyaks, you can build mini forts (some walls, some catapults, snowmen etc) elsewhere on the map. This will stop groups of toys if they spawn near and distract them from the dolyaks.
• Do not fight Toxx near the dolyaks, she will rip through all of your defense structures, leaving you unprotected for the next round.
• Round 1 is probably the hardest as there will be new players not knowing what to do and you don't really have time to set up defense before the toys swarm in
• Build the ice walls on the ramps that lead to the circular thingie that the dolyaks are standing on top of. The toys cannot jump so they will try get to the dolyaks through the ramp http://i.imgur.com/DZsRV.jpg

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2

A few helpful tips for newbies and the uninformed

Without further ado:

• To set a ping on the map, simply shift + left click on a location on your map/ minimap. may be helpful while partying
• Draw on the map is simple as well, simply shift + hold the left mouse button and drag it on the map/minimap. many people know this but I figured I'd throw it in for the uninformed
• You can also put a personal marker on the map for your party members to see. To do this, simply use alt + left click. very useful if I was the party lead and needed to gather everyone in a central place
• If you get bored with clicking the same button to fire off a skill or spell, you will be happy to know that there is an autoattack option that you can utilize. Simply ctrl + right mouse click a skill and that skill will then become your autoattack letting you repeatedly use the skill without you having to press any buttons. very helpful and something I didn't know about or somehow missed out on
• To call a target, target something and then press Ctrl + T. This will give party members a message that will allow them to press T to target the same mob. Very helpful for party leaders, don't know if many people utilize this
• Shift + left clicking an item will link them in the chat. You can also shift + left click a waypoint or skill to link them in chat. I've still seen in chat where people didn't know how to link, so I figured I'd throw this in as well
• This one is definitely a timesaver for some of us: To take a quick screenshot WITHOUT the UI, simply use Shift + Printscreen. Saves the extra step of hitting Ctrl + Shift + H to disable the UI then hitting again to reenable the UI. The most helpful of all tips, I'm now going to snap screenshots a lot more. Definitely helps speed things up
• Alt + Left click on an item, skill etc to automatically put it in chat. Instead of shift clicking which just places it in the chat entry box. Alt + click puts it into the chat window without having to hit enter - Special thanks to aNERDon for pointing this time saver out
  
  
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