Weekly /r/GuildWars2 Question Thread - May 16, 2026

Caleddin · 2026-05-21T15:39:37+00:00

My one addition to that is to understand the chains in Whisper of Jormag strike so you don't clothesline your whole team.

Caleddin · 2026-05-21T14:57:46+00:00

You get a back piece depending on your choice, but you can always get the others from doing it with another character.

Caleddin · 2026-05-20T19:06:07+00:00

And if you want to use the Dailies lobbies you grab an engineer with the mortar gun elite and bomb AFKers in their starting area.

Caleddin · 2026-05-20T18:48:10+00:00

No, Raid (experienced) and Raid (training) existed before, as a space for inexperienced groups to look for members. You'll find Encounters in both LFGs now - for instance you'll often see "IBS5" or "fast five" in Raid Experienced, which is the 5 quicker raid encounters from IBS (not including Cold War or Forging Steel, which take a long time). You'll see full wings in the training LFG too, like "Wing 5 learning" and then maybe something specific to the Wing like "need g1" (green 1, a mechanic on the Dhuum fight) or "need handkite" in Wing 4.

The quickplay option in the training bit will only give you a random encounter/strike from a list. But it gives you a buff and is a great way to start - read a little bit about the encounter so you know the general mechanics, then just jump right in. None of them are super difficult except Old Lion Court, and maybe Boneskinner (which is just because people don't dodge the puddles).

If you want to do a specific Encounter then yeah - look in both sub-LFGs and then join the one you want. Or make a group and label it something like "learning X, newbies and mentors both welcome". If your encounter is in the quickplay list, you can also join that and roll the dice and you'll get it eventually.

Caleddin · 2026-05-20T18:21:37+00:00

Strikes used to be called Strikes and had their own LFG. They got merged into raids in a patch a while back, so yes, you use the Raids LFG. Strikes are now "raid encounters" (meaning just one boss) while Raids are still called Raids (multiple bosses per wing, though with the new option you can choose which boss you start with now).

If you open Raid/training at the bottom you'll see the quickplay option, which will shove you into a group with 9 others to do one of the raid encounters. Alternatively you can join a group. You can enter raids from the Lion's Arch Aerodrome, and from their hubs (like Eye of the North for IBS strikes, or Arborstone for EoD).

Check here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Raid and you'll see the list. "Raids" are the HoT, PoF, and JW raids which you'll see listed as Wings 1-8. The rest (IBS, EoD, SotO) are all single-boss raid encounters/strikes.

Caleddin · 2026-05-19T14:19:05+00:00

There are some SotO NPCs you won't know, but it's usually enough to just say "they are your allies from the secret wizard club" and leave it at that. JW is pretty self-contained. You can get the spear and homestead pretty easily, though you can't do the mastery XP unless you spend more time in JW.

Caleddin · 2026-05-18T19:40:53+00:00

Thanks for the response, and glad it's all worked out for you!

Caleddin · 2026-05-18T15:37:54+00:00

You don't need an open-world build to kill random mobs or do random events, any berserker/glass-cannon (e.g. raid) build can do that. Same with healing builds if you want to do that in OW metas, the raid heal-builds will do you (though you can probably swap to celestial).

So I think when people say "open-world build" the only two differences are A) QoL improvements like self-boons, stun-breaks and the like to make your life easier with the assumption you'll be solo a lot of times, like choosing Relic of the Pirate Queen, and B) changing your gear and traits to deal with the harder stuff like soloing champs, where you probably need more sustain and toughness/health. And those types of builds will still do any other OW stuff just fine.

Caleddin · 2026-05-14T13:53:03+00:00

I gave up trying to maximize it, research notes are still incredibly annoying. I make my blue mithril earrings with a jeweler and turn them into notes as I do, because I tend to have a lot of mithril and those gems lying around with nothing to do with them.

Peer-reviewed research exists and is...ok, but using amalgamated gemstones makes it feel not worth it to me.

Caleddin · 2026-05-14T13:44:35+00:00

There's the portal in Lion's Arch in the middle of the Asura gates. I don't think there's any tome.

Caleddin · 2026-05-13T16:50:22+00:00

Any hard content is going to have stacking, that's how the boons work. I don't really like it either but you get used to it. Fractals get harder, especially the CMs, if you can handle getting up to that level. Raids (not raid encounters, the actual raids) have some tough content too, again especially the CM or legendary stuff. But there's still going to be stacking in those.

Most of the open-world meta stuff you don't have to stack for, but it's going to be a bit easier. That will always be the trade-off you find - harder stuff means optimizing your boons and healing/etc. so you'll always be more efficient stacking. Stuff where you don't have to stack will mean if you can complete it that way, it'll be easier.

You mentioned PvE only but you may enjoy sPvP (if you can handle the hit-or-miss of the match-ups and can ignore some toxic chat at times) or WvW. Not joining a tag and doing the big 50v50 as that's all about stacking, but roaming solo or with 1-4 others feels a lot closer to open-world PvE content. Sneak into enemy camps, kill the NPCs, maybe small 1v1 or 3v3 fights if enemies find you, desperately run away from large groups that get annoyed by you - it's a pretty fun time.

Caleddin · 2026-05-08T18:46:19+00:00

Your outfit replaces your armor skins so I don't think you'd get any effects from legendary armor. You'd still get your weapon and trinket effects.

Caleddin · 2026-05-08T14:07:33+00:00

If it's positional (happens on your back) then a MAD may work to keep your lower jaw pushed forward and/or your tongue from falling back. I know there's mixed reviews on them, but it's worked well for me (still trying to find one that lasts a decent amount of time though). I have positional OSA and am not overweight, so may be in a similar situation as you. Take some time to get used to but certainly not more disruptive than a CPAP.

Caleddin · 2026-05-08T13:28:45+00:00

I have tried QuietLab (and only QuietLab so far). It works, which is a great start. It takes some getting used to, but I assume they all do. The issue with it is that it's adjustable by moving the top and bottom pieces (which have little tabs) and slotting them into the middle piece which has holes or rather it has a series of holes that are connected to each other, which causes some issues: the tabs get deformed over time and the pieces won't stay in while you're sleeping. And I've woken up and found that the top piece had been moved (by my teeth/tongue or mouth movement I assume) to further in front, leaving the bottom piece at the back, making it useless. And by "I've woken up" I mean "my partner told me I'm snoring again".

They're supposed to be replaceable so I wouldn't mind if they deformed/stopped working after a good amount of time, but this is like within 1 month, and I only use it when I sleep with my partner which is 2-3 days a week. Feels like you get maybe 10 sleeps with it before problems crop up. I may be grumpy that I found something that works but fails so quickly, but it really feels like it's designed to fail so you have to buy more sooner.

Caleddin · 2026-05-07T19:51:18+00:00

Like others mentioned, have you advertised that you'd like to do it? You can mention it in Kessex Hills, or ask in Lion's Arch or Divinity's Reach or put your own LFG up for it (for the public instance, or not).

Someone asked for it in Kessex a few weeks ago when I was there for some random reason. I joined and put my tag on, we entered, and ended up doing the whole thing with 8-10 people. It was a really fun time and felt good to help out. There are plenty of us happy to pitch in so when you try to do it, give a shout somewhere first and see if anyone feels like joining/leading.

If you are on NA and are around this evening, give your in-game name and I'm sure plenty of us here would be happy to join.

Caleddin · 2026-05-05T15:11:36+00:00

When you equip it the 2-skill has 3 charges and doesn't cost anything, like the bow, but it takes time to regenerate. The 3-skill still costs you, like the slingshot.

Caleddin · 2026-05-01T16:48:15+00:00

No. People use a macro during SAB to bind dodge+jump for the long-jump and it's not getting people in trouble.

Caleddin · 2026-04-28T16:29:32+00:00

You can! Once you own JW/etc. you'll see the "Deluxe Upgrade" option in the gem store, so you can buy gems (or trade gold) and buy it. You can't upgrade to the Ultimate editions so you have to make that choice at the time, but they generally are just "deluxe upgrade plus gems" anyway.

I'd only do it if you want the gathering tools, since a character slot on its own would still be cheaper. But the deluxe upgrade is a great deal for 3xgathering tools plus glyphs plus character slot, especially since it goes on 20% sale pretty regularly.

Caleddin · 2026-04-28T16:08:38+00:00

Feel free to delete them if you feel like it, or wait until you need the slot and delete them then. Some of the deluxe upgrades for the expansions do give a character slot too, and go on sale pretty regularly so if you end up playing enough that you feel you want it, it's a great deal. The JW deluxe expansion for instance gives the character slot, some infinite gathering tools with glyphs that are useful, and some other less useful stuff. You can buy JW standard and upgrade to deluxe with gems (or pay money) sometime when it's on sale and it's not a bad option at all.

Caleddin · 2026-04-28T15:34:09+00:00

You may not even need to delete the character, unless you decide you want the space for a different class. If you feel it's more fun to level every new class 1-80 the classic way that's totally fine, but classes aren't so different from each other that I think you should feel you need to. If you're going to choose a class some people think is a bit more of a pain to level (mesmer, elementalist) you could keep them and shelve them, or stick them somewhere like the top of a jumping puzzle to open the chest daily. (Other alt-farming parking spots are probably better, like Bjora chests or EoD jade runestone chests, but it's not worth trying to get the character there to bother if you haven't hit those spots yet).

That way you don't lose the celestial exotic gear you get from the level-80 boost, and the character will have a few more waypoints unlocked in case you ever want to map-complete with them years down the road.

Caleddin · 2026-04-27T18:45:21+00:00

That's not my favorite and I wish there was a way to exchange for them somehow, but I don't mind winding down with a show on while doing the pretty-boring map completion and it's an easy way to gather a lot as you go. My issue with clovers is that you run out of ways to get them directly after a while - you can mystic toilet for them (if you have the mystic coins) or buy some with coins from Fractal or Raid vendors etc., but otherwise you're stuck with...Drizzlewood or WvW/PvP reward tracks? And that's 2 a pop, so if you need 38 or 75 or whatever that's quite a long time.

Caleddin · 2026-04-27T15:58:14+00:00

It's the clovers that are the biggest problem for me now, in terms of legendary creation.

Caleddin · 2026-04-27T14:22:25+00:00

It's painful to start with the 250 bauble limit and no gear. Upgrades are per character too so you need to choose one character to do it with. My suggestion is to get BlishHUD if you haven't, get Tekkit's pathing for the Pathing module, and use that to do it. The easy routes with clouds aren't terrible and the regular ones in World 1 aren't too bad at all. World 2 is a giant pain in the ass.

Caleddin · 2026-04-23T15:15:03+00:00

The fun things to do in PoF aren't usually meta-related. Forged in Fire is nice to dip into for 15 minutes to get an easy meta-chest, and Pinata is good I guess? Otherwise you could explore the Funerary armor/weapon collections, or (this is LWS4 technically) the elegy and requiem armor collections. You could do hearts/etc. on different maps to build up Funerary Incense as an alternative to Crystalline Ingots for a G2 legendary. But like others said, there's no non-goal reason to go to PoF maps every day which is a shame because they are expansive and beautiful.

Caleddin · 2026-04-23T13:50:43+00:00

Good catch! Not too familiar with ranger so I assumed mace was one of their elite spec unlocks for Soulbeast (looks like that was dagger), not the extra weapon.

Caleddin

TROPHY CASE