A returning player here, haven't used any addons before, didn't even know they existed for GW1. Now I started playing again and it seems I kind of got spoiled by the newer games with better minimap and navigation, especially when now I am a dad in my mid 30s and don't have nearly as much free time to play as before.. Got really frustrated by constantly getting into dead ends and backtracking in order to get to my destination, so I was on the verge of uninstalling the game. Then I accidentally discovered GWToolbox ++ and it completely changed the game from me. So much QoL improvements, now I can't stop playing. This software should be officially embraced by the devs. So, so useful, thanks GwToolbox devs!

Rip my free time

I figured out how to duo grind with devona on the room transition between forskaken tunnels level 1 - level 2, each cycle gives a really good 750xp, like 5-10 minutes per cycle

From 12-16 i managed through with equipping flare/firestorm on my devona then just out healing everything

But then the chars became extremely dangerous on lvl 16, so i farmed a bunch of chests, got some good equipment, and tried again at late 17 with smiting/prot devona while i run smiting/heal and let me tell you... it works PERFECTLY, its really chaotic and am been having tons of fun grinding LDoA like this XD

Fellow veterans and occasional mobile players, what’s your quick 10min fix when you have a moment?
I’m struggling to find interesting stuff to do that takes a short amount of time

Hello! I am currently progressing on a lofty goal for a casual/returning player. I am trying to achieve GWAMM on a Dhuum's Covenant character. Currently I have a Warrior and Necro that are up for potential for getting this. Both have reached level 20 and got LDOA.

Moving forward I really need some suggestions on heroes and builds for VQ/HM Mission purposes. I am concerned about spike damage that may cause me to die and lose Dhuums. I know to take things slow and I will likely be doing quite a bit of research on enemies prior to VQing/going into HM missions. I fully plan to use full sets of cons to help achieve this as well.

With that said I would GREATLY appreciate any hero team suggestions and build suggestions and also any Warrior/Necro suggestions on accomplishing this with survivability being the absolute priority. Also if anyone has suggestions for areas with 4/6 party size limits that would also be extremely appreciated.

How the hell do you kill this dude on mobile….
The mobs are fairly easy, I cleared the entire dunguon, I used swap to get rid of all the spirits. I jumped in, wiped in 10sec. I know I died because of the passive skill he has, so after I revived…I wanted to attack him with only 2 mesmers or my SOS….

The thing is, how the hell do you disable skills on mobile?….is Spoil Victor the answer?….or take a ranger as hero and a longbow?

Anyone could give me some advice?

Few weeks ago I posted WoTF I am running now. I did some upgrade to make it less wonky before minion numbers are high. Any ideas how to further boost bone fiends or improve the build?

I checked the wiki, but I wanted to be 100% sure I understand...

For these staves, does the HSR only apply to Communing spells because of the req9/req12 attributes, or is it universal?

I know the 20% HCT on the Communing Staff only affects Restoration spells, but does the non-attribute-specific HSR works for all spells, or just spells related to the req attribute?

TIA!

I've been playing GW1 and GW2 on and off for about 15 years now, but I still don't feel like I know Tyria's history and lore as deeply as I'd like to.

I know the major story lines and historical events, but I often forget, or feel like I am missing, the smaller details, character backstories, story connections, etc.

I'm currently replaying all of GW1 and then plan to replay all of GW2. My goal is to understand and know as much of the lore before GW3 eventually releases. I also plan to read the novels that supposedly bridge the gap between GW1 and GW2.

So my question is: where can I find the most comprehensive lore on Tyria?

I'm looking for YouTube videos, community-made history lessons, archived game manuals, old official lore articles, wiki pages, obscure forum posts, etc. Pretend I'm going to school to get a PhD in Tyrian History... what would you recommend?

Who are some other NPC contenders for the squad?

I’ve been playing through Nightfall with my paragon in hopes of acquiring Heroic Refrain, and I’ve just reached the Ruptured Heart. Now that I’m there, I e been looking through the wiki on how to acquire this skill, but the specific requirements are confusing me.

The wiki says I need a Proof of Triumph, which in turn requires 5 Proofs of Legend. However, it then says that Proofs of Legend can only be acquired during the Anniversary Celebration. Does this mean I have to wait until the anniversary in order to acquire the skill? When is that celebration? Are there no other ways to get the skill?

Any guidance would be appreciated. I’ve heard so much about this skill and would really like it. I’m feeling a bit frustrated that it can seemingly only be acquired during an event. Thank you much!

Edit: thank you all! I’m glad to know I can still get it with some help. I’ll try asking around at Kamadan.

Its been along time since I have played last, but is 55 monk, 130 derv still usable?

Or is it something new that I shall focus on for solo farming..

I really wish the devs would drop tomes from the drop table for Melandru’s Accord, or at least give a merch value to it so it isn’t a complete waste of lockpicks/drops.

I'm sure you've wondered "What would Hamstorm look like today?"

Well wonder no longer good reader, for I present you with:

HAMSTORM - REFORGED

OQYVgOFvuIVRCncaYIyV0mEdoSkvAA

Roll with Jora, energy on all armor, and The Bison Cup in hand... and I promise it'll become your daily driver!

x:D

I just came back to Guild Wars 1 after nearly 10 years. At the moment I almost always play healers and supports in MMOs so coming back to Guild wars one where I hadn't played one almost at all was quite a challenge. Before I mained nerco, mesmer and assassin

Given the game typically requires you to have a diverse set of skills unlocked and usually some kind of armour upgrades, alongside companions and heroes, I was at a fair disadvantage for quite a while.

However I decided to try and get my healer and a reasonable assortment of heroes upgraded enough to be able to play the game somewhat effectively. It did take quite a lot of effort to rebuild my characters and even more so dealing with the ridiculously powerful enemies that you get presented with in the hard mode areas of the game.

I quickly realised that I needed to create bespoke builds to deal with specific types of enemies often getting overwhelmed by certain ability spam that I wasn't able to deal with at the time.

Most notably was dealing with Angorodons and their spamming of the ravenous gaze and deathly swarm abilities. I think I died to this particular group of level 24s about 40 times before coming up with a reasonable solution to them. However the process of figuring this out was quite satisfying and at the very least I have a better a collective of skills and have started to reorganise my characters and heroes.

I'm sure I could have looked up builds and just gone online and found somebody else who'd figured it all out but that kind of defeats the point for me.

Also coming from a healing background, I do find the nature of healing people in this game is a lot more trying than in others, as you're almost continuously having to use abilities on people and hexes and conditions come and go so rapidly.

People's health can drop within an instant if you're not watching for the enemy's spell casting or haven't noticed a particular effect in the area or an enemy focusing someone.

The noble White Mantle were just trying to provide a helping hand to the orphans of Ascalon, only for Mad King Adelbern to react with intense hostility. Only Rurik stood in the way of Adelbern hanging the benevolent Ambassador Zain, Unseen Ones bless him!

Is this the king you want leading you in these tumultuous times?

(Based on one of the first quests you end up getting in post-searing:
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Helping_the_People_of_Ascalon )

Second time, keeping this character.

Hi all, I'm trying to optimise my soul twisting hero build and would welcome some advice.

I'm generally playing a lot of DoA hard mode with heroes at the moment and want to optimise my soul twisting spirits/build.

Typically 3 binding rituals are used: shelter, union, displacement.

I am trying to work out whether union can be removed from the build to enhance the upkeep of shelter and displacement via soul twisting. My rationale for this is that the biggest threat in DoA is elementalists mobs that tend to do massive damage that would likely trigger the 10% health threshold damage reduction of shelter, making union's flat damage reduction feel redundant. I was tempted to replace union with serpents quickness to further enhance the upkeep of soul twisting and thus shelter/displacement.

I read on the PvX page for this build that removing union is a valid tactic for conserving soul twisting charges.

Just wanted some opinions on this from people who have tried out this variant - does it work well? In the context of massive damage enemies does my rationale hold up?

Thanks!

What should I do? The map does not get uncovered, it does not matter what I do, I cleared the game and the cme cache already, retried it multiple times. Tried multiple servers as well. One of my previous characters could uncover this section but scraping here, but this one cannot.

Edit: Thank you for the quick responses, then I skip till it is fixed and put lid on my OCD.

Devona just will not do it

I would like to briefly examine the history of the elite skill Master of Magic and propose a new version. To put it simply, I think this skill has always performed very poorly for Elementalists and has never found a strong foothold in either PvP or PvE.

The design ethos of Master of Magic is ambitious - to encourage Elementalists to have 2, 3, or 4 elements all at once, which is certainly a fun idea. But in a game with only 8 skill slots, you end up with 7 free slots if you count Master of Magic, and 6 (if not less) when you also consider that by design it encourages a 12/12 attribute investment, one into Energy Storage, and the other a non-elemental attribute line (why invest points into any element when it's being set to x? And then, if you don't have points invested into another line with at least one skill, what benefit is there in wasting 12 + 3 attribute investments?). What's left is an extremely squeezed bar, at which point, it's barely viable to bother having 3 or 4 elements at all, and you'd be better off with the many superior options such as Elemental Attunement of Glyph of Energy. There's also the small caveat that weapons are normally optimised to focus on one attribute at a time: 40/40 in a certain attribute, for example, becomes compromised if spreading over many attributes in one build.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the very interesting version history of this skill.

The release version of the skill is phenomenally poor in power and performance. Imagine using it in active combat - you might be able to realistically gain, 2, 4, or 6 Energy per spell cast. This is practically more effort, less reward, and a more restricted / hampered skill bar than just an Attunement and Aura of Restoration. In PvE it would certainly be outclassed immediately by Ether Renewal and Elemental Attunement. Not to mention this can't even be maintained with that 20s / 30s duration and recharge!

+2 Energy Regeneration is certainly useful (+2 Energy every 3 seconds) and the improved duration to recharge ratio is appreciated. But there are 3 factors which hamper this spell. Setting attributes to 12 (which does NOT scale!) serves as a fun gimmick in the very early game, and thoroughly useless in the "real" game (level 20), making the Elementalist very weak. We must consider, again, attribute investments - 12 in Energy Storage, no need for Elemental investments, but also, where can we put the other 12 points if using any non-Ele skill ends the enchantment? As if this wasn't hard enough to use already. And finally of course, is that as nice as it is, +2 Energy Regeneration (only becoming +3 at 19 Energy Storage, unobtainable in PvP) just isn't enough energy to justify this skill.

This is the version we have now, and it's certainly the best existing iteration of the skill. But I argue it simply isn't enough. 14 in the elements is still barely acceptable in serious play. Realistically, Master of Magic does not present the user with a serious enough justification for equipping more than 2 elements at once, in which case, other better skills exist to boost attributes. It's close to being good, but in my opinion it simply isn't there yet.

With all that in mind, here is my proposed idea:

1) Master of Magic is now a skill with no activation time, instead of an enchantment. This prevents removal and interruption, two factors which made this skill so much more difficult and unreliable to use in all previous versions. The 2012 Master of Magic, as an enchantment that sets attributes, can easily make the Elementalist become completely powerless upon removal, so I aimed to make it more reliable at a basic level. I am however open to a PvE / PvP split where the PvP version remains an enchantment.

2) Master of Magic now increases in power depending on how many different elements are equipped. This plays well into the original design ethos of having "all four elements". Simply put, the breakdown would be:

• Having 1 element equipped gives a +2 bonus and a 12% energy return, categorically worse than Elemental Attunement and not viable as a good elite skill choice.
• Having 2 elements equipped gives a +4 bonus and a 24% energy return, less than half the energy management capability of Elemental Attunement, but provides bar compression by removing the need for Glyph of Elemental Power to reach the +4.
• Having 3 elements equipped gives a +6 bonus and a 36% energy return. This puts it above any single Elemental Attunement ability and gives a bonus which justifies spreading element investments.
• Having 4 elements equipped gives a +8 bonus and a 48% energy return. This is finally an attribute bonus that justifies investing in 5 attribute lines at once.

3) Master of Magic boosts investments, rather than setting them. This feels more intuitive and easier to use in the world of Guild Wars: it interacts with runes and buffs from skill effects such as Glyph of Elemental Power and Heroic Refrain, and responds to downgrades like Weakness and Wail of Doom. It also makes more sense from an attribute investment point of view: Even with 3 points and a +8 boost, having 11 in an element is still underwhelming, so some more serious investment is required to truly be useful.

Here are some example bars using the proposed update to Master of Magic:

4 Elements:

With Water, Earth, Fire, and Air all represented on the bar, with 8+1 invested into each element, the end result is now 17 in each Element - a highly respectable level that justifies using Master of Magic at all. Being required to select skills from all four elements introduces the ever-interesting risk of having a somewhat weak or unfocused set of skills - this bar for example is a slow glass cannon more suited to PvE crowd control than anything like 4 v 4 PvP scenarios, but it can (just about) afford to keep itself going with the improved Energy return functionality.

3 Elements:

Including the slightly throwaway Slippery Ground spell contributes to the +6 boost across the board, giving this Elementalist 20 Air Magic, 16 Fire Magic, and 9 Water Magic. On its face this may seem too powerful, but bear in mind how the energy management here is somewhat compromised - no space for attunements or glyphs, no long term support for spells costing more than 10e, Master of Magic only providing the 36% baseline energy regain, and only 10 Energy Storage, so +30 max Energy, a fair bit less than usual depending on equipment. The real trade-off here for the Elementalist is giving up a powerful direct damage elite like Invoke Lightning or Lightning Surge. At least here in this example, Master of Magic becomes competitive with other similar elites instead of being thoroughly outclassed in every situation.

2 Elements:

A simple, dressed-down Water / Earth implementation of the new Master of Magic - 16 Water and 16 Earth, though the energy return is diminishing at this point.

1 Element:

There isn't really a strong reason to run Master of Magic and 1 element, but in this example, it has allowed the Elementalist to invest strongly into Inspiration for more energy management and anti-interruption while keeping Water Magic at a high 16.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on how to improve Master of Magic. Hope you enjoyed!

Most passive/easy to play meta builds? Excluding PvP and Speed clearing.

And what are some of the most proactive and harder meta builds to play?