Help an oldish player sort his vault

Poor, poor Koss is going to be tortured until I complete Factions.....lol

Thanks for the link, my W/R which is how I ran prophecies wasn't very optimal. Your guide has been helpful, I am sticking to an Endurance/sword build though. I kind of like the looks of the W/E build.

Will get to that soonish, just got done getting most of the skills I wanted to run the builds I want. I now just have to unlock more heroes and acquire some of the elite skills I am missing.

Going to get some elite skills first, Panic and Jagged Bones then going to play Factions so till I get to unlock Master of Whispers and learn Discord.

Will see what next once that is done.

Oh while I was making NF characters etc to learn some skill I noticed I had a second old character that had 4 birthdayboxes so got 4 more minipets!

fyi---when you go to collect Koss, he is dancing with his buddies there--so no worries about taking time to 'rescue' him.

and good job on the old minis!
(I also used to just make characters in factions and nightfall to unlock skills--you get a bunch when you make new characters, some are horrible while others can be useful until something better comes along---I would then delete those characters and make another new one of a different profession until I had done them all).

The free Koss quest is real easy to do and right away after you lose him basically so no worries. Glad you are doing so well getting back into the game.

As autumn starts, the festivals pop-up so plenty of free party items etc for the consumable titles will be coming up. Halloween has lots of drops. Thanksgiving has fewer but still some.

And the 2-week Wintersday in December is awesome. Especially at Eye of the North with a primary Ranger character (easiest of the professions by far to play this game and win constantly) with one of your necro heroes in tow. It can net you the Party Animal title in a few days with the tonics you can win alone in "Snowball Dominance." You can also easily earn the Vanguard title maxing it out this way too on him. (See wiki nearer the time for details, just get a Ranger created and to level 10 to take north before then). At the very least the price of buying those stacks of tonics goes way down then as lots of people have huge amounts to sell. You can also get enough canes for sweets title or close to it playing that game but canes are awesome to use on your characters as well.

So to re-cap, with a primary Ranger that can reach the North (level 10) with one necro hero and maybe a pet in tow for a shield ... 2 for sure titles there alone playing "Snowball Dominance" over a few days (Vanguard and Party Animal) plus possibly the sweets one as well. (Not to December, just a memo note for now to maybe get a Ranger character started a week or two before the event at least).

Finally got my protector of tyria title, thirsty river was much easier with more dps, I had an elementalist so gave him a searing flames build which made a big difference. I didn't even have to put anyone in the middle to protect the second ghost.

I also managed to get another flag for the HOM and did Wayfarer's Reverie quest thinking I will get one of them once only reverie boxes alas the stinking event is over even though you can do and complete the quest you can't hand it in for a reward......

Well at least I can run to King Jalis Ironhammer in Battledepths to get the last tapestry I need for the HOM since I also finished Northern Allies.

Made way up to Tahnnakai Temple and have done 3 sword or mastered the previous missions after a couple tries, I am having trouble getting master (3 swords) for the temple though.

I managed to get expert (2 swords) but for the life of me can't seem to get it done under the 20 min time limit.

Any advice?

Post your entire team build and we'll give you some build advice. To make it easier for you, feel free to show all your hero builds on your screen, take a screenshot, and upload that image to something like https://imgur.com .

Been using this and have tried a couple different thing on my character. Note Livia doesn't have discord yet. Have to admit I haven't really done anything with the hereos gear so maybe I should rune them up or something too.

In my opinion, you shouldn't need to rune up your heroes until you start doing Hard Mode or elite areas. So maybe wait until later so you can figure out which heroes you really like using.

Jora has a decent build but I wouldn't use a melee hero; especially since you're running a melee build yourself. I'd replace her with Xandra, who can bring spirits like Pain, Bloodsong, Shadowsong, Disenchantment, Anguish, and the Signet of Spirits elite (although she would be good without her elite too); and, if you don't have her yet, then maybe bring Pyre Fierceshot as a spirit spammer (as was suggested by Markaedw). Or you could bring Zhed as another Fire Ele but I'm not sure you got him yet. Alternatively, you could bring Olias with a Fire Magic build or an Energy Surge / Domination Magic build.

It's a shame to leave Livia's skill slot blank. You definitely need some kind of spirits in order to use "Mend Body and Soul" and "Spirit Light" to full effect so, if you still don't want to use a spirit spammer of some sort, then I'd bring "Recovery" or "Life" from Restoration Magic. However, if you do decide to use a spirit spammer, then you could just bring another minion skill, like Bone Horror or Bone Minions, since you'll probably have plenty of corpses available.

Your Fire Magic build is ok but I wouldn't split my attributes into Air and Earth Magic so maybe get Aura of Restoration and Resurrection Signet. In general, never split your attributes into 4 or more attributes. 3 should be the maximum and you already have Fire, Energy Storage, and Inspiration Magic.

Gwen looks good

Dunkoro already has a great resurrection skill through UA so take out Resurrection Chant and get any hex removal skill.

MOX has an interesting build but, like I said before, I wouldn't use melee heroes. They spend too much time running around, trying to find the correct path to their target, and not enough time actually attacking something.

Thanks for the input. I will have to go unlock Olias and Xandra as I don't have either yet and just got Pierce Fyreshot so will have a look at that.

I have taken your advice on the Searing Flames ele builds but I am wondering how you all split your skill point tween 3 skill. I have tried different combos between fire, energy storage and inspiration but always end up with points I can't use? Seems like the best I can do is 10-10-11 with 1 point remaining.

I will remove res chant and add remove hex in it's place for Dunk.

For Livia tbh I am not sure what to use till I get discord unlocked. Wen you say if I use a spirit spammer you mean as in if I replace say mox or jora with xandra? I have "jagged bones elite" Livia could try but I was kind of warned away from it, what do you think?

You are very correct about the melees running around far too much, it is very very annoying especially MOX, he hits hard but sometimes he can't seem to get the message when I crtl left click on a critter to make them attack it.

Since your most important attribute is definitely Fire Magic, I would put 12 in there and the rest can be whatever. I'd use 8 Energy storage and 10 Inspiration.
And yes, you will generally have just a few extra points that will go to waste. Don't worry about it since it's a very small number.
I would kick both MOX and Jora and add a spirit spammer (either Xandra or Pyre) and then Olias (with a Fire Magic or Domination build).
It's not a skill I would use but it's fine if that's the only Death Magic elite you have. I don't have any strong opinions about it.

What I really hate about Tahnnakai Temple (Factions in general really, but this mission in particular) is that to get it done in time you need to be an idiot. You need to do stupid things like overaggro. Thankfully it's less necessary with the absurd amount of power creep that's happened since 2006 but it's still true. Having said that, some build advice in no particular order:

-Your big issue is a lack of damage mitigation. Get some prots in. Damage mitigation is a far far better means of staying alive than healing. Dropping the redundant rez and interrupts on Dunkoro will allow you to slot Prot Spirit, Aegis and Glyph of Lesser Energy.
-Switching Livia to a minion master or bomber will provide space for prots too, if needed. In any case, a minion wall will help keep damage off of your squishies. Discord isn't anything to get excited about. As far as elites go, there are a ton of options. The build isn't dependent on it. Something minion themed like Jagged Bones is the most common option, but something like Empathic Removal goes really well too. If you end up putting mesmer stuff into the spare slots that'll open up a few options.
-You really need a cancel stance for Frenzy. It doesn't matter if it's not ideal; just find something that'll break the double damage. Or just get Flail.
-If you want a spirit rit, just grab Chiyo. Henchman bars aren't shit like they used to be. Melee heroes don't perform very well generally speaking, so I'd look to fit something else in.
-Not that this really matters given I'd recommend dropping her, but Jora's bar is terrible. There's a point where adding more of the same doesn't improve the bar; where you're much better off finding something that will improve what you already have or adds flexibility. In Jora's case, you're better off with 3-4 attack skills and "For Great Justice" to fuel them. Also, get an IAS in. It's really not optional. Also also, Endure Pain isn't worth running. It doesn't actually heal you. Lion's Comfort is better.
-A smite monk is always a good option for a melee character, adding buffs (Strength of Honor, among others), damage (Ray of Judgment) and healing.
-Regarding runes, it's worth buying a minor rune of each hero's main attribute - fire for the eles, dom for the mesmers, etc.

So all up I'd probably go with this:

-You
-SF Ele
-SF Ele
-Panic Mes
-UA Monk
-Smite Monk
-Minion Master
-Chiyo

Does going 11-10-10 instead of 12-8-10 nerf your fire damage much due to a single point? Asking as it seems like the loss of one point in fire to greatly increase the other two seems like it's worthwhile but maybe it's not?

I now have Xandra and will be working on getting Olias tonight, spent way too much time looking at gwpvx...



LOL


I agree about the how I dislike in faction the bonus swords are tied to completion times and I feel like I have too leeroy Jenkin missions all the time, much preferred the way it was worked in prophecies.

I haved dumped Jora, poor lass, lol and MOX as well and replace them with Xandra and Pyre. I think I will replace Pyre with Olias when I get him. I am also thinking of doing something different with my Character. Maybe an axe build? Not sure yet.


Eventually I would like to run this group for awhile and see how I like it: http://gwpvx.gamepedia.com/Build:Tea...ero_Discordway

To recap:

Vekk ~ Searing Flames fire 11, inspiration 10, energy store 10 for both
Sousuke ~ Searing Flames

Gwen ~ Panic Mesmer dom 12, fast casting 10, insp 8

Dunkoro ~ UA Healer divine 11, healing 10, insp 10

Xandra ~ SoSrit protection channeling 12, , spawning 3, protection 12


Livia ~ I basically took the Discord healer build and put in jagged bones instead death 12, restoration 12 soul reaping 8

Olias ~ Jagged MM death 12, soul reaping 8, protection 10 he lvl 15 right now but this is the plan

Schmerdro advised a spirit caller which is what I am trying to do with Pyre and Marty you saying I need more protection so should change dunkoro up some and dump the 10 point in healing prayer and put them in protection prayers? If so which 3 prayers should replace the healing ones?


Edit: Took out Pyre as Olias was so very easy to acquire, though it he would be longer to get too...lol

Well, you could check for yourself. Most of the damage is going to come from SF and, without runes, you're doing:
11 Fire Magic = 76 damage and 5 seconds of Burning
12 Fire Magic = 82 damage and 6 seconds of Burning
That's an increase of 7.9%
If you would be using a rune of minor Fire Magic and a +1 headpiece then you'd have:
13 Fire Magic = 88 damage and 6 seconds of Burning
14 Fire Magic = 94 damage and 7 seconds of Burning
Which is an increase of 6.8%

It's your choice but I think most people would tell you to have 12 Fire Magic.
This is coming from a guy who said he doesn't like playing melee characters, so bear that in mind :P But one of my favorite Warrior builds is using Warrior's Endurance along with Power Attack, Counterattack, Cyclone Axe, Furious Axe, a stance (usually Drunken Master or Burst of Aggression) and then 2 utility skills (Pain Inverter, Save Yourselves, I Am The Strongest, Wild Blow, Distracting Blow etc).

And using some Protection Prayers is indeed a good idea but I would keep them on a character that has good energy management, like from Soul Reaping. The 3 Protection Prayers skills, that you already chose, are good and I think the last team build, that you posted, is fine.

Ah yes why didn't I think of doing that...lol I think I will change the searing ele to 12 fire plus from helm etc like you suggested.

Might give that axe build a spin since Jora is benched and I have that nice axe I can use!


It was suggested earlier that I do some Kilroy punchout extravaganza runs to acquire rune and whatnot which is what I have been doing since last night mostly but tbh I am not sure what I should be keeping that is worth expert salvage and what should just be identified and sold.

White stuff I have been merching, blue/purple/gold I have been identifying and then salvaging/expert salvaging but which is worth expert salvaging and which do you just salvage.

I know I should keep survivor insignia,blood stained insignia, vitae rune, blessed insignia. What else do you guys keep?

How do you guys make/farm cold hard plat?

Also what about those runes insignia that give say +2/3 fire but have a -health penalty, are they good or to be avoided?

Right now I have been putting stuff in my bank and figured I will do a price check but I don't want to keep bugging over and over with price checks with stuff I should know is just merch junk. I would like to use the price check boards only for the better stuff.

Btw I have had 3 or so lockpicks which I have been merching for 750gold...

It's a damage bar. Have only as much energy management and whatnot as you need to get by, then pump as much as you can into killing things. That's their job.

I really wouldn't recommend you do this. When I play a new game I never look at any online resources until I've finished it. That way I have established a certain understanding of the game before someone comes along and tells me the 'correct' way to do it. What gwpvx doesn't do in the slightest is explain to you why the builds are the way they are. They might give you good bars, but they can't make you a good player. Focus on understanding the principles rather than finding some aspirational setup that will supposedly solve all of your problems. Your earlier builds (with the lack of key elements and empty slots) and that Discord setup you've linked tells me you have a long way to go. To be fair, I'm sure some of this comes down to heroes prompting you to make builds for professions you've never played. This is why I like to remind people picking up a henchie when you aren't sure what you're doing is a good idea. Rant aside, what you need to do is build around yourself. What the Warrior brings to the team, other than profession specific things, is the melee presence. It'll allow you to make better use of short range AoE's (due to good aggroing) and to use yourself as a platform to trigger things. For example, your Mesmer bar doesn't include Shatter Hex which, due to how grossly overpowered it is, is inexcusable for a melee character. If you want to pore over the wikis, you'd be better off looking at the skill lists and finding things that you think will fit your needs, not blindly copying meta builds. Other build criticisms:

-Don't run three single target heals on Livia. Like I said earlier, too much of the same thing ends up being useless. MBaS and SL are on three and four second recharges, meaning there'll be a single target heal available when she needs one. Adding a third just wastes a slot. You ought to do more with this bar.
-As far as Dunkoro goes, you don't need the insp skills. Look at your energy usage. There's next to none. You could remove PDrain and Leech Sig and there would be no difference in his effectiveness. Dropping them and one more (I'd say Remove Hex, given you should have Shatter Hex) allows room for Aegis, Prot Spirit and GoLE.
-If you're not going to run a dedicated smite bar, just try to have someone spec into it for Strength of Honor and ideally Smite Hex/Condition too. If you've gotten prots onto Dunkoro you'll have freed up room on one of Xandra or Olias.

Check a rune trader, which can be found in most city areas. A lot of them will be listed at 100g; these are junk and not worth salvaging (unless of course you want to use the rune/insignia yourself - prices reflect popularity/demand, not usefulness). Personally I wouldn't bother salvaging unless the trader price is at 200g or so. You'll get an idea over time of what to keep and what not to.

An age old debate. In a nutshell, pro-minor rune advocates say that the benefits of an additional rank or two aren't all that significant, especially when you consider the much more noticeable health drop. On the other hand, if you don't actually need the health you aren't giving up anything at all. For a new player I'd advise sticking to minors, though feel free to experiment. The only exception would be minion masters, for whom each additional rank of death magic provides a supralinear benefit. Bars with a lot of health sacrifice can benefit from lower max health too as it's usually done by percentage, but that isn't usually a concern for hero bars.

GWPvX is a decent starting point if you need a little inspiration but please don't think that it has the "best" builds. Because what is best will depend on what objective you're trying to finish and what capabilities you have as a player, meaning how you use your skills, not just having those certain skills and mods.
Like Marty said, identify everything except the whites, check the Rune Trader and see which runes have a much higher price than the armor, to which it is initially attached.
For mods, check Weapon Mods & Inscriptions Price Guide.
For weapon skins, check Rare Inscription Skins Price Guide.
Some people would use a normal salvage kit on weapon and armor drops to get common (or sometimes rare) crafting materials but I wouldn't bother with that.
I just do HM stuff and Zaishen quests. I'll let other people advise you on the their preferred farming methods.
In my opinion, it simply depends on the build. For Elementalists, I would always give them a +3 rune along with the +1 headpiece for their main element. For a Death Magic or a Domination build, I would do the same because I believe those are very powerful builds that greatly benefit from the extra attribute points. For every other build, I stick to minor +1 runes.
People tend to buy lockpicks from each other at 1.2k or 1.25k, but in large amounts. If you wanted to sell around 10 or less lockpicks, then you may have to reduce the price around 1.1k in order to find a buyer.

Aye I use sites like gwpvx as a starting point like you say, I find it easier to learn how to play if you start off with viable build that are known to work then afterwards you can tweak and experiment otherwise I feel to much time is spent trying to relearn what others have already spent so much time and effort to figure out.

So far that latest build seem to be working out fine and I vanquished one area in prophecies, think I will do more of that!

I have been looking at the traders but was hoping someone out there had "list" or something with the recent prices, I assume the prices of traders do not move so much considering there are less people than back when I played and traders prices fluctuate according to supply and demand. I did see those guides after I posted this and will refer to them. I noticed that fds sword are not in those list, are they not worth much anymore? I seem to remember back when I first played they were selling for a nice sum of plat?

Ah makes sense about the +3 runes, give them to squishy heroes that tend to stay in the back and avoid on melees and the like. I thought I might be wasting those lockpicks by merching them, will hang on to them in the future.


I think I will make myself a nice trader pricing list so I know what is worth salvaging and not when in the field!

Have one last question about loot farming and how drops work, I seem to remember farming feathers or somesuch and doing this solo because henchies and heroes stole loot or something. That said I googled loot drop mechanics and read up on scaling but can't seem to find any recent talks on the subject. It talks about loot scaling but it not very clear to me. Do heroes steal your green/gold drops?

While vanquishing Talmark Wilderness area I got like one or two gold drop max and was wondering if that becuase H/H etc?

Thanks again for the advice both of you.

Two things:
-That thread is for rare inscribable skins. Generally this means items that only come out of the end chest of a specific dungeon or UW/FoW. The FDS drops inscribable all over the place.
-Generally speaking, insc items aren't worth much. Staves aside, the only aspect of them that cannot be changed is the requirement (and the damage range/energy/whatever, but that's only a concern if you're hunting max req 8 items or whatnot), meaning it's very easy to find ideal ones. Easy to find = high supply = low price. With a non-insc item you need to hope that the inherent mod is good and that it's max, in addition to the req. Some items, like shields, foci and staves, have multiple inherent mods and thus have a very small chance of having perfect stats. Hard to get = low supply = high price. Point is, inscribable FDS's probably won't get you more than a bit of pocket money, while a non-insc 15^50 version could be worth a handful of ecto.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Loot_scaling

-Loot is split evenly between all members of the party. This includes heroes and henchmen.
-When farming solo the total amount of drops is reduced. For example, if you cleared an eight man area solo you'd get more drops/cash than you would have with a full team, but not eight times as many. This is to prevent solo farming from being too lucrative.
-Items listed in the link above are exempt from the party size scaledown. You ought to get eight times as many rare items (or whatever else) by clearing an eight man area solo than with a group.

That's my understanding anyway.

Yeah I read that but it's not very clear and seems like old info from 2007, if you click the anti farm code link at the bottom there some player confirmed, disputed and speculative theories. I was hoping that some of the older players that didn't stop playing would have more concrete info or methods/theories.

Anyways I think I am good to go and at the end of my questions and just want to thank all of you here that posted for helping me back into the game!


Happy Hunting!

Good luck. Glad to see you having fun and making progress.

About runes I always do minor runes for professions. In backliners. Cause then I can do Radiant for extra energy instead of Survivor on the chest and legs say. And some runes are very cheap so you can rune out some skills nicely through the rune trader. Obviously some are really expensive.

But you can get runes of Minor Vigor (+30 to your health) for free with about 15 to 20 minutes work. Endlessly. Great for all your heroes to have.

1. Create a new character in NF and you take a first quest of "Armored Transport" given by armorer Mehinu in Kamadan right after tutorial mission. That's where you escort the guy over to the Sunspear Hall easy peesey.

2. After you collect reward for same that opens up "Stolen Shipment" quest from Kailona the rune trader in Kamadan (she is kind of near the front gate). Map to Sunspear Hall and run around the back and pick up the stolen shipment and she will give you a free Minor Vigor rune just like that.

That Minor Vigor rune cannot be sold to anyone including in game rune traders (prevents using it as a cash farm) but works the same as a Minor Vigor you would buy otherwise. Anet is fine with you farming it for use on your characters in other words. Also if you score a Minor Vigor rune at Kilroy's or whatever you can sell that one for a decent profit to the Rune Trader.

Like I say, Minor Vigor is great for heroes instantly giving them +30 health points and even new characters (you) until you can afford Superior Vigor or even Major Vigor. (BTW Superior Vigor is the best rune going in my opinion).

Rune out your heroes as much as possible. You just need an expert -- not perfect -- salvage kit to remove a rune from one of them and move to another since their armor (unlike yours) isn't breakable. And the tokens you get in NF for the 2 quests above can help pay for expert salvage kits. Win-win.

Also salvage all items in higher end areas like the North for iron, dust and even bone I'd say. Feathers absolutely. Even stone and wood have their uses. 50 wood + 50 iron = perfect salvage kits. Grail of might = 50 iron + 50 dust for example. The AI characters to trade with for these can be found in the middle of Embark Beach.

Look up feather farm on wiki. Feathers are usually the most expensive item of the lot. (Used for Essence of Celerity with dust). It's right on the island where Shing Jea monastery is. You want money? These materials go into making con sets (also read wiki).

You can also sell the raw materials for cash even to the common raw material trader or people in Kamadan looking for the materials to build their own con sets if you only have material of one kind say. And you just use regular salvage kits to salvage them too so it costs next to nothing and you make nice money from it.

You have that storage pane you can open up for 50 gold is it to store the materials in too. Though I usually have a storage character just to carry around the extra stacks I make. I pretty much have always salvaged stuff from 8-party areas in all campaigns. That's how I made money to start with since I'm not a farmer other then some feather farming and Kilroy's rune farming so that is how I made my money in the game.

Other money maker I used was with Z missions, Z bounties, Z VQs. You can sell Z Silver Coins in Kamadan too if you get a surplus but I use them for lockpicks and tomes more. And the big 15 slot equipment pack all my toons use cause I like weapons and different armors for them.

And I usually merch higher priced items if I don't think the salvage is greater for them. Never really looked to make money. Money just gets made as you play along in the game I find. It just adds up over time.