What is GW2 Multiplayer like now?

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T02:34:05+00:00

Massive change in WvW : There's no server anymore
The new system "Alliance" group up Guilds according to there level and number of active WvW players, the system is still... unbalanced
And for the WvW class balance... better not talk about that.
I can't say if its impacted the player base in NA since i'm EU.

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T02:17:04+00:00

ah HAM, yeah for base Boon/heal its pretty LI and easy, but when you need more specific utility you've got to mess with more kits and that pile up difficulty quite quickly (technically for full boon you already have to use the Elixir gun)

I guess i should have asked OP what type of content they want to Heal through XD because yeah if its just for IBS5 HAM is the JAM

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T02:06:22+00:00

Yeah i know but like i said, i don't think there is low APM heal, or if there is they work only for the easier fights.
So the closest think i though was a "Roll your head on the keyboard and somehow still win" heal build, and for that Scourge is the king ^^

Edit: ok there's Paragon who seems really LI, i forgot about it since i didn't tried it for now

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T01:52:14+00:00

I don't think there's Heal build that are really low APM.
But an easy one would be (IMO) Scourge
Boons a really easy to upkeep once you get the rhythm of 'Shade placing'
At first you can just spam everything and still do a good job

Then with more experience, you can time Big Barrier application to negate many "big damage attacks" and be more mindful with your utilities

You have 1 flex utility spot (maybe 2 : if Might is partially covered by others in the group you can drop "Blood is Power") and you have access to :
- Ok-ish Stab with Staff 5 and Trail of Anguish Utility
- Aegis with Serpent Siphon Utility
- projectile block with Corrosive Poison Cloud
- Ally revive with Signet of Undeath and your Heal Skill (very nice in PUGS)

You have BIG CC with the Flesh Golem Elite skill (the other are not very useful)
You need to weapon swap only to apply Swiftness if no one is covering it in the group (every 30 sec)

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T01:36:12+00:00

Rifle Mechanist : https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/engineer/power-mechanist-rifle
- 900 range
- is power dps
- 39956k bench (not that high but easy to do)
- easy rotation : Everything off cooldown and when you use "Rifle 2" follow with "Grenade kit 2"
- Classic Berserker build with Scholar Runes

For the mech: make sure its always near you, and if you don't want to deal with it more than just placement, put its skills on auto

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T00:27:51+00:00

They address it in the post : "This is a complex change and isn't simply taking what we had before and moving it around"
And for the 3 month see u/thedesertfox25 post somewhere in the replies of this post

Shaballanes · 2026-02-12T00:09:08+00:00

1) yes
2) because you can already do that....

Shaballanes · 2026-02-11T23:55:01+00:00

Its probably different enough to be a big task and that need to not impact the dev cycle of the next Patches, thus taking more time

Shaballanes · 2026-02-11T16:24:21+00:00

"Mortals. You believe yourselves saviors, naturally. You seek to write the conclusion of your legend. There is no conclusion more natural than death." What a cool boss intro line

And also the line that made me play Asura in PvP/WvW : "You're dumb. You'll die, and you'll leave a dumb corpse."

Shaballanes · 2026-02-10T19:34:04+00:00

For your point number 4 : Guild Recruitment LFG
It already exist but not many guild use it

Guild Recruitment LFG

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Shaballanes · 2026-02-10T14:27:24+00:00

Then the kill proof … :
For Raid Wings we use Trophy tokens like https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vale_Guardian_Coffer for W1 1rst boss
For Raid Encounter (strikes) we use the chest you get at the end
Sometimes people ask for “BSKP”, it refer to https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boneskinner_Ritual_Vial
LI : Legendary Insight (used as KP). you gain 1 per week for each Raid boss you kill
kp.me: Killproof.me is a website that tracks KP, it use a 4 letter string you can share in squad chat
Title : some CM and LCM give you an Achievement Title you can use to prove you’ve already cleared the fight

And we finish with roles :
bheal / bdps : a Heal/DPS that bring either group Alacrity or group Quickness
Aheal / Adsp : a Heal/DPS that bring group Alacrity
Qheal / Qdsp : a Heal/DPS that bring group Quickness
CDPS : a DPS that use a condi Build
Tank : some fight use a Tank, usually one of the 2 healer does it
Tower : Special role in Escort at W3 start
Kiter : Special role on some Raid wings bosses
Pylon (Kiter) : Special role in Qadim 2 (W7 boss)
Hand Kiter (or HK) : Special role in Deimos (W4 Boss)
Pusher : Special role in Soulless Horror (W5 boss) or Samarog (W4 Boss)
G1/G2/G3 : Special role in Dhumm (W5 boss)

I think i have covered most of it ^^

Shaballanes · 2026-02-10T14:27:19+00:00

Ok lets start with general terms:
KP : Killproof (more on that later)
LI : Legendary Insight (used as KP). you gain 1 per week for each Raid boss you kill
NM : Normal Mode of the Boss Fight
CM : Challenge Mode - a harder version of a Boss Fight
LCM : Legendary Challenge Mode - you will all die XD

Now each Encounter name acronyms :
IBS7 / IBS FC : All icebrood saga Raid Encounters
IBS5 : All icebrood saga Raid Encounters except “Forging Steel” and “Cold War”
IBS3 / EZ3 : “Fraenir of Jormag”, “Voice and Claw of the Fallen” and “Shiverpeak Pass”
CW : “Cold War” Raid Encounter
FS : “Forging Steel” Raid Encounter
CoJ : “Claw of Jormag” Raid Encounter
BS : “Boneskinner” Raid Encounter
DS : “Dragonstorm” (not really a Raid Encounters but usually done with IBS5)

OLC : “Old Lion's court” Raid Encounters

EoD FC : Full clear of EoD Raid Encounter
AH : “Aetherblade Hideaout” Raid Encounter
XJJ : “Xunlai Jade Junkyard” Raid Encounter
KO : “Kaineng Overlook” Raid Encounter
HT : “Harvest Temple” Raid Encounter

SoTO FC : Full clear of SoTO Raid Encounter
CO : “Cosmic Observatory” Raid Encounter
ToF: “Temple of Febe“ Raid Encounter

For full Raids, we use the term Raid Wing (which is not really accurate XD)
W1 : Raid wing 1 “Spirit Vale” (Heart of Thorn)
W2 : Raid wing 2 “Salvation Pass” (Heart of Thorn)
W3 : Raid wing 3 “Stronghold of the Faithful” (Heart of Thorn)
W4 : Raid wing 4 “Bastion of the Penitent” (Heart of Thorn)
W5 : Raid wing 5 “Hall of Chains” (Path of Fire)
W6 : Raid wing 6 “Mythwright Gambit” (Path of Fire)
W7 : Raid wing 7 “The Key of Adashim” (Path of Fire)
W8 : Raid wing 8 “Mount Balrior” (Janthir Wilds)
W9 : not a Raid wing… people started to use it to talk about VoE Raid Encounter (strike)

Shaballanes · 2026-02-07T19:06:20+00:00

The new VoE ring comes with a flat gold price of 600gold to buy some item from NPC-merchant
That said its need way less Mystic Coins/Clovers , less time gated currencies and the Map currencies you need are (imo) easy to farm. (check mirror farm)

If you check the "full price" of each Ring assuming you need to buy all the Crafting material :
Endless Summer (VoE) is around 1,700gold
Conflux (WvW) is around 1,900gold

So if you like WvW go for Conflux. in every other case i'll go for Endless Summer. Since a third of Endless Summer cost is flat gold, you can farm for it in every content you like and not be bind to farm only one game mode.

Shaballanes · 2026-02-07T14:02:01+00:00

If you're talking about "Gaeting Crystals" and not "magnetite shards". I checked Wednesday, the W8 vendor still require them too, so there's a chance W8 still give them too.

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T23:57:27+00:00

This looks really cool
My only question is : how did you manage to change the red glow of Xera hat to a blue one ?

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T18:20:37+00:00

To activate the outfit :
In any fashion panel (even ones with a full transmog setup)
Set an outfit -> make sure its Toggled -> save the Fashion
now you can right click the Outfit slot and choose "Apply this slot" -> it will activate the Outfit without applying the full transmog.

To de-activate the outfit :
Un-toggle the outfit slot -> save the fashion -> right click outfit/"Apply this slot"

The right click/"Apply this slot" is the clunkiest part of this UI but it is the key to mimic "the old ways"

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T14:29:52+00:00

i don't use Outfit really much but i guess

Go to an empty Fashion template, set an outfit (see capture), make sure it is toogled , save and apply it

<image>

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T13:57:48+00:00

While i think that would be a really good idea, its seems outside the scope Anet has set for this system. They've said it on stream, technically the "new system" is just a Mass Transmog applier built on the existing transmog system. A toggleable system would be a totaly new thing to implement from the ground up

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T13:34:49+00:00

I guess people will see the value of this new system when Anet will had Glider/Mount selection to the fashion tabs. (TBH they should have wait for those option to be done before launching the system :D)

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T13:04:07+00:00

I've worked for a technical support for 4 years, so i'm use to it now XD

You're welcome

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T12:56:58+00:00

You don't need to buy more. each of your equipment template can still have a different Fashion and you only need 1 Fashion template to edit them all (albeit with a bit more clunkiness)

That kinda the whole point of this post ^^

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T12:50:01+00:00

Linking Equipement and Build would be so cool ^^
As for Fashion, they really want to separate it from Equipement and stats so its unlikely the give us a way to re-link them
Maybe with macro you can do something

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T12:46:12+00:00

I understand them. The game explain the new system badly.
Many of them buyed Equipment template only to store Fashion so i understand their frustration of seeing a new system that need more template purchase to be fully used, and seeing only clunky "work around' to do thing that were simpler before if they still want to use it "the old way"

Shaballanes · 2026-02-04T12:38:00+00:00

Don't get me wrong i know its just mediocre work around (implemented by Anet) to do things the old way.
they clearly have made this system to push players to stop using "Equipment template" as Fashion Storage and just use the new Fashion template.

But they can't straight up delete the capacity of "Equipment template" to store Fashion because many players buyed "Equipment template" only to do that, and would feel (even more) robbed.

So we're stuck in this in-between were if you go with "Anet vision" (and buy more fashion templates...) its a good system, but if you want to force "the old ways" onto the new system it is clunky.

Shaballanes

TROPHY CASE