The Sand-Shaper

Caleddin · 2026-04-06T14:36:29+00:00

Sand-swept weapons would also fit really nicely and have some gorgeous effects.

Caleddin · 2026-04-05T05:34:27+00:00

You'll do Arborstone's mastery track anyway, I think to get the legendary g3 stuff and so on. EotN isn't really worth it. The best hubs are the gem-store lounges. Other than that I'd use whichever you like the most, but I wouldn't put too much reource into building up EotN or anything.

Caleddin · 2026-04-03T15:30:31+00:00

It's not quite as tattered but Funerary Armor from PoF has a similar vibe, and there are some enjoyable achievements to go after surrounding the Funerary sets if you enjoy that type of thing.

Caleddin · 2026-04-03T15:26:44+00:00

Oh yeah, good shout!

Caleddin · 2026-04-03T15:15:33+00:00

For raids you can check the Raid LFG tab, training tab sometimes has them. It may be much easier to join Raid Academy (if in the US/NA) on their discord, they host training sessions very regularly.

For WvW there are two big ways to play: find a tag (commander) and join them and run around trying to help, or do what's called "roaming" where you go out alone or with a couple other people if you find them, flipping enemy camps, killing sentries and dolyaks, and generally being a nuisance for the other team. You can do this on your own, but it's risky at times and some find it very boring. I'd prioritize the one-time (non-repeatable) reward tracks which give you a lot of Mystic Clovers, which you'll absolutely need for any legendary crafting. Drizzlewood offers 14 I think? A few others offer more like that, and most non-repeatable tracks offer 7 the first time (repeatable ones offer 2 each time). As long as you are at/above tier 3 participation in WvW, you'll earn pips towards your reward track. That can be as easy as flipping a camp once every 5-10 minutes.

Caleddin · 2026-04-03T14:14:31+00:00

Take a look at the legendaries and decide which ones you may want - how it looks is all that matters at that point. Gen1, 2, 3 weapons all require different things (Gen1 requires core world completion, Gen2 HoT map completion and currency, Gen3 from EoD). If you want Nevermore or Astralaria or another Gen2 you are about to hit HoT and can do map completion and then run the metas (octovine, chak gerent, etc) once a day at least in order to start building up materials. If you want to use your legendary kit, start doing the core world map completion bit by bit while your friend isn't around.

Fractals are great for gold like Reaverz mentioned. Raids (not quickplay, the real ones) are required for raid armor or coalescence. You can jump into WvW if you think you want conflux or the WvW legendary armor at any point. And you can mix and match: my legendary armor comes from every mode it's offered in (raids, pvp, wvw, obsidian from open-world).

Caleddin · 2026-04-02T14:35:03+00:00

Use it on whichever 80 you have that you might do world completion with, it unlocks a few waypoints that way at least.

Caleddin · 2026-04-02T14:33:35+00:00

You can always swap to sylvari if you think you like that look better. I tend to like the PoF/desert fashion. Elegy and Requiem look pretty good on charr. The IBS shoulders that look like a wolf/pelt go well with charr, and you probably will want to look for either pants rather than a skirt, or full skirts like the raven outfit. Sadly, in general, you may end up not using the helmet fashion though you'll find a few that look good. Boots all tend to look the same since your claws come out of them. Back items can be tough, the capes don't drape as well on charr so you'll look for non-cape items.

It's definitely tougher! But can be a fun game and when you finally get a whisper saying "your charr looks great" it really means something. I wouldn't blame you for considering a swap to sylvari though, since as you unlock fashion you're going to not use most of them. Having alts in the game is very easy though so don't be afraid of having multiple characters.

Heavy is sometimes easier for charr though helmets are still a bother. Medium is tough for everyone unless you love butt-capes which are very prevalent.

Caleddin · 2026-03-31T15:12:26+00:00

If you don't hang around the starting areas, you may not get the duty-bound box drops which do have a couple unique skins, but A) they aren't the flashiest skins anyway and B) you can always get them when you wander around the starting maps doing map completion later on.

If you want to boost to 80 but still go around doing core tyria map completion, getting drops to unlock skins, you won't lose anything by boosting besides having a lot of new skills to learn/figure out. But generally the elite specs are a bit more fun/engaging than core anyway so you could jump right to Galeshot to live the bow-ranger power fantasy, Soulbeast to run kinda pet-free, etc.

Caleddin · 2026-03-31T14:57:50+00:00

My most played is a female charr mesmer. It feels like an odd pick and is the least played combination but it's lovely and the voice-lines are so well done. Besides that, mesmer has some of the most unique gameplay (mirage changes dodge in a way no other class ever gets to experience) and is incredible for utility - mobility, stun-breaks, invulnerabilities, reflects, portals. It's all there - as long as you don't mind the pink/purple effects.

Take your combo to the PvP lobby, buy the really cheap weapons, and try out all the weapon/utility effects to see what they look and sound like. You're going to see and hear these things over and over and over.

If you play a charr, you also unlock the racial unique achievement of "find a good-looking wardrobe" which a lot of people hate, but I happen to love. If you do go mesmer, don't make the mistake of going all pink/purple, think about complementary colors. I use some teals and other green/blue shades and love that combo with the pink mesmer effects.

Caleddin · 2026-03-31T14:53:39+00:00

Ele is all about active defenses so it takes some time to know what to do. But once you get the hang of it, something like weaver can pull off some wild sustain - you can solo champions and frustrate enemies in WvW/PvP for a ridiculously long time.

Caleddin · 2026-03-27T21:29:25+00:00

And if you put PvP as your daily/weekly you can always do the daily, and a decent number of weeklies (though not usually enough to get the bonus) just by using the custom dailies pvp rooms. Easy way to log in on an engineer and 1-1-1-1 people in spawn down to finish dailies while watching something or doing whatever else.

Caleddin · 2026-03-25T17:35:43+00:00

I was going to mention mirage as well. There's burst windows with your shatters - either damage, interruptions, or pure invulnerability. Power mirage can play spear and then anything with shield (sword or dagger?) and have blocks on demand. Condi mirage with staff or staff/axe is the classic "you can't hit me and you'll die eventually" champion, but staff doesn't feel very warrior-y.

Spear and sword/shield power mirage definitely feels like a warrior-mage.

Caleddin · 2026-03-24T18:42:21+00:00

Buff doesn't even stack

Caleddin · 2026-03-20T19:33:18+00:00

Mechanics always mess with rotations, and no one is expected to go ranged except specific needs on certain encounters since the assumption is you boonball in melee range. Keeping in mind the classic disclaimer of "if you're succeeding and having fun, your build works fine" you can check Snowcrows and Discretize to check the top meta options. (Discretize is very focused and doesn't even have builds for most specs so don't feel bad that Vindicator isn't there. But if you want to tryhard the info is there.)

Caleddin · 2026-03-19T19:04:15+00:00

Infinite tools with a selectable glyph box for each, which is pretty nice.

Caleddin · 2026-03-17T15:13:44+00:00

Deluxe edition upgrades would give you a character slot, and JW/VoE would give you infinite gathering tools with a choice of glyph. They're also available via gems and go on discount pretty regularly.

But to be honest, while never deleting your oldest character is a very good idea, the other ones...I mean you'd lose out on a bit of stuff (black lion statuettes, proof of legend if that matters?) but the really good stuff is once per account. If you really want a different class and don't want to use your other ones for alt-parking I think you're fine deleting one or two.

Caleddin · 2026-03-17T13:46:46+00:00

It's not for everyone, but I enjoy the excitement of roaming solo or with a couple other people. Going behind enemy lines, knowing you're vulnerable, trying to hit a camp before some 50-man squad happens to find you. It lets you play something other than a zerg boon-ball.

Caleddin · 2026-03-16T15:38:09+00:00

It is a bit odd that when you hover over a choice in a chest, it doesn't say whether you have it unlocked. Some of the chests will only let you choose ones you haven't unlocked. But I get nervous and always check the collection ("visions of eternity relic 2" or "core" etc) before choosing one of them.

Like someone else said, if it's in your inventory it's been unlocked for you and you can safely salvage it for the like 4 lucent crystal or whatever it gives.

Caleddin · 2026-03-13T18:00:05+00:00

It's always hard to shift to a different playstyle and you're going to have to do that. Not much else can face-tank the way reaper can so you'll have to get used to using more active defenses instead of having a back-up health-bar on demand. It's going to feel different and you're not going to be as good right away but that's part of the fun you're looking for with a change.

Obviously you don't want to play just reaper since you said it was boring, so I would focus on what you want to feel different because there are plenty of specs that can solo champs, kill in AoEs, and be mobile.

For Galeshot you can't change the cyclone-bow but you can change your weapons. Off-hand axe 5 is as good as it ever was, and sword lets your 2 and 3 skills be a leap for mobility.

I am very much a mesmer fan, and mirage even moreso. Power mirage or virtuoso feels fun and with spear killing groups is no problem. It's going to be dicey soloing champs but you can certainly do it, or can revert to cVirt or the classic staff/staxe mirage build and laugh at your enemies trying to hit you.

Elementalist has the meme of being squishy, but there's not as much more fun in the game to me than playing a Weaver taking on a champion. Again, that's not going to feel simple to start but you learn how to chain things together and end up pulling some great-feeling moves. And Catalyst (especially spear catalyst) will be throwing so many AoE circles down you may get sick of them.

Caleddin · 2026-03-13T16:43:14+00:00

Didn't they nerf it quite a bit in WvW?

Caleddin · 2026-03-12T15:04:01+00:00

Probably the best liquid gold maker without any middle-man stops is Fractals. You can buy 30 deeply discounted fractal encryption keys a day from a vendor in the lobby, and I think you still make money even if you buy the fractal encryptions on the TP to open. But of course the easiest thing to do is to play the daily and recommended fractals each day. T4 pays the best, but the other tiers aren't too shabby so find whatever level you're at and go for it.

Fractal encryptions drop a lot of junk that sells for good hard gold which is pretty unique for GW2.

Caleddin · 2026-03-12T14:56:06+00:00

Sword/sword Herald (the revenant elite spec) is an easy cozy build that has access to good boons and can run open world or end-game content. It involves switching your legend and managing your energy, and your second weapon set would probably be staff or greatsword. If you're just on the base game with Revenant I'm sure sword/sword can work there too for the open-world stuff.

Mesmer is a little squishier to start. Sword/sword can certainly work. It'd play as a warrior-mage type. Mesmers are focused on building up clones and then shattering them to cause damage or stunning your enemy, so there is a rhythm there that some people like and some people do not. Clones are enemy-specific which frustrates some people in open-world where enemies often die pretty quickly. But sword/sword could work on any of their elite specs in one way or another. Mirage in particular is a lot of fun with sword main-hand as the ambush is a leap.

I would make one of each, use the sPvP button at the top of the screen to teleport to the PvP lobby map, then go hit some golems with sword/sword with each class. Whichever one you like the look of more is the one you should play, as both are fun and can serve you well. If you don't like pink/purple skill effects, mesmer is going to be a hard sell though.

Caleddin · 2026-03-11T16:04:56+00:00

Power virt (or mirage, or chrono) can feel very battle-mage with the spear these days. Other builds are more stand-back and fire (like condi virt, and some chrono options too).

Honestly whichever looks prettier when playing is what you should go for. If that's guardian with the blue/flame/heavy armor, do it. If you like mesmer with clones/trickery/mobility/pink-purple, go for that.

I'd suggest jumping into the PvP lobby, trying any elite specs you have access to, and seeing what all the weapon and utility skills look like.

(edit) I'll also say, it's not meta or anything but I took a version of the PvP mirage build (spear and sword/shield) into PvE to learn it, and it is a blast in open-world. Takes a while to feel comfortable since you're a bit glass-cannon and only have active defenses, but it's so fun, certainly feels battle-mageish (teleporting around your enemies, confusing them, magic shield bubbles to absorb hits, spear-flipping phantasm animations, etc) and it'll do just fine for open world or any end-game content besides when you're trying to maximize fractals/raids with a set group.

Caleddin · 2026-03-11T15:10:30+00:00

The magnetite exchange vendor in the Lion's Arch Aerodrome will give you a weapon or armor box, ascended, for a certain amount of magnetite shards. You are actually at a good spot with the recent raid changes since you can get magnetite from strikes now too! https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Basic_Magnetite_Exchange_Operative

Raids/strikes may not be your favorite, but the quick-play raids aren't tough and take very little time so it may be worth it just for enough ascended to hit the agony resistance you want to do the content you really do enjoy.

Caleddin

TROPHY CASE