Eqo

Those "guildies" sounded terrible, not everyone in a guild means they are good... because everyone is in a guild lol.

But organized groups and using voice chat really allows you to do a ton of things you can't do in PuGs without communication or ideal class comps.

Good guilds use teamwork and synergy across classes to make all dungeons trivial, including Arah. It's just less of a headache and you can speed run things that would take PuGs much longer, plus it's more fun trolling each other and joking around over voice chat while still being more efficient.

I would like it if they'd just add an AR check early on.

When proceeding from Mistlock to the first fractal, Dessa could say: "Hold on to your breeches, this transportation business may hurt a little." and have everyone suffer a few ticks of agony before teleporting.

Just so everyone in the party knows what's what. Better to find out about AR shortage sooner rather than later.

They should do it in tiers: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 etc. Painfully obvious to everyone except Anet apparently.

I'm a bit surprised that no one has come up with any guidelines for choosing between toughness and vitality yet, given that all the required info is already out there.

The info that I'm talking about is the damage calculation which can be found in this reddit thread (there are some misleading info such as 100 toughness blocking 34 damage per 1000, which we will correct below). For the lazy, damage is given by

Quote

I remove vulnerability from the formula since vulnerability has been changed. Vulnerability is now a multiplier on the total damage and has no bearing on our calculation below.

To simplify things, we will rename all the terms in the numerator as K and all the terms in the denominator as A (armor = sum of toughness and defense).

The question now is: If a player initially has A armor, what is the damage reduction achieved if the player adds X amount of armor either through toughness or defense? The calculation is actually straightforward:

Damage reduction ratio, R
= [(Damage taken with A armor) - (Damage taken with A+X armor)]/Damage taken with A armor
= [(K/A) - (K/(A+X))]/(K/A)
= 1 - A/(A+X)
= X/(A+X)

The formula implies that to reduce damage by 50%, you'll have to double your current armor.
Adding 100 armor for (note the diminishing returns)

• a soldier with 2127 armor gives 4.49% damage reduction
  
• an adventurer with 1980 armor gives 4.81% damage reduction
  
• a scholar with 1836 armor gives 5.17% damage reduction

To compare between the professions (with base armor),

• a soldier has an additional 13.68% damage reduction compared to a scholar
  
• a soldier has an additional 6.91% damage reduction compared to a an adventurer
  
• an adventurer has an additional 7.27% damage reduction compared to a scholar

Arm with this formula, we can now figure out the effectiveness of toughness and vitality. The effectiveness of the two attributes can be quantified by looking at effective hitpoints (EHP). Each point of vitality increases EHP by 10.

For toughness, EHP is a little more complicated. First, let's ignore healing and condition damage which bypasses toughness. If your hitpoint is currently HP and your armor is A, then

EHP increase for X points in toughness
= [HP/(1-R)] - HP
= HP*X/A

To incorporate healing and condition damage, you'll have to estimate two things

• The proportion of damage received which is condition damage before going down, say C
  
  
• The amount of healing received before going down, say H

I know that these estimation are iffy but this is not WoW where your DPS could be precisely calculated to the decimal points, so all these is more of a rough guideline than a precise method to gearing your character.

Then the estimated EHP increase for X points in toughness is
(1-C)*(HP+H)*X/A

In short, if you wish to know whether you should invest the next point in vitality or toughness, just check the following:

Quote

Calculation example
For a guardian playing non-dungeon PvE with 2400 armor, 14000 hitpoints, and estimated C = 0.1 (not much condition damage in PvE) and H = 12000 (virtue of resolve heals for a lot over time), we see that

(0.9)*(14000 +  12000)/2400 = 9.75 < 10

So the guardian is better off investing the next point in vitality.

Healing increases as EHP increases
As pointed out by Lumm at this post, toughness and vitality both allow you to survive longer and so as you increase either or both attributes, you are likely to receive more healing. That's why it's not optimal to use the formula to allocate the next 100 points in toughness or vitality.

How should the formula be used to decide how to allocate the next X points?
You allocate such that at the end of the allocation
(1-C)*(HP+H)/A = 10
where HP, H and A are values at the end of the allocation.

Now, tell me, is stacking toughness a good idea?
For GW1 players, you'll be disappointed. The answer is not as good as GW1 as armor increases EHP linearly in GW2 as opposed to exponentially in GW1.

In GW1, armor-respecting damage is halved for every 40-armor increase. This means that for a monk with a base armor of 60 and a HP of 500, the EHP is 1000 if the monk's armor is increased to 100 and the EHP is 2000 if the monk's armor is increased to 140. Basically, each point of armor increases the EHP more than the previous point and that's why stacking armor is prevalent in GW1.

In GW2, armor-respecting damage is halved when you double your current armor. If you disregard healing, then EHP increases linearly with armor.

Converting damage reduction to equivalent toughness gain
The conversion will be done assuming a 2600-armor character. The formula is A*R/(1-R).
50% = 2600 toughness
33% = 1300 toughness (Protection)
25% = 867 toughness
20% = 650 toughness
15% = 459 toughness (Signet of Judgement with perfect insriptions)
10% = 289 toughness (Signet of Judgement)
5%   = 137 toughness

Survivability Hierarchy
Here's a simple and crude way to determine your survivability against direct damage. Just take the product of your armor and HP. If you want to know how you rank against other builds/classes, here's a hierarchy for comparison. Note that you have to first divide the obtained number by 10000. Also, this hierarchy is only meant as a rough comparison and doesn't take into account traits, skills and utilities that provide additional survivability.

- 3500   Break on touch
3501 - 4000   Fragile
4001 - 4500   Middle ground
4501 - 5000   Durable
5001 - 5500   Tanky
5501 - 6000   Built to last
6001 - Moving Fortress  

The description is for dungeon. From my experience, unless one knows the dungeon thoroughly, 4000 is the baseline that players new to dungeon should strive for, while 4500 is my personal recommendation. Just keep in mind that dodging is more important any number shown here.

Changelog (for the sake of those who have read this before)
10/13

• Added some additional information on converting damage reduction to equivalent toughness gain.
  
• Added a simple way to calculate and compare your survivability.

X Ghoul, on 19 December 2012 - 06:55 PM, said:

I'm well aware of how the Agony mechanic works. There are ways to avoid it sometimes, and ways to heal through it, but it is undeniably better to have 5-10 Agony Resistance than to have 0.

This post was to tell unlucky casual players how they can solo an essence, which is precisely why the word "solo" appears in the subject line. If you have a group of friends willing to farm a vial with you then obviously you will not be interested in this method.

Thaddeuz, on 30 January 2013 - 01:56 PM, said:

Sentience as in "I am myself"? Machines have that as well, called MAC-Adress in Networks ;-) Machines tell other Machines "Hello, I am 00-AB-CD-88-2A-FF, and I'm a Router", just as humans say "Hi, I am John Doe, and I'm a police officer"
Self preservation as in "Don't jump down that cliff"? Give a machine the input "Don't drive over cliffs that are more than 80m deep" and the ability to notice them, and it won't do it either (think for example Mars Rover). Just as you have to give children the input "Don't jump in that fire. It's hot"
Free will... see my above post. All we have is the illusion of free will, created by our brain, while in reality, all is a mere reaction on things around us. Empty white Room you sit in? Wait for X seconds, try to get out. If fail, wait another X Seconds, try again. If fail, overcome resulting bad feelings by crying/becoming angry (depending on how the input was in childhood/earlier phases), wait x seconds, repeat. Produce fake feeling of deciding for yourself, even though you are entirely driven by earlier experiences.

Thaddeuz, on 25 January 2013 - 03:24 PM, said:

Well, not the most profitable, but sufficiently profitable, then. For whatever definition of sufficient that you'd like.

CepaCepa, on 25 January 2013 - 07:00 PM, said:

No. Absolutely not, under no circumstances, do you believe that in an MMO or in life in general the more difficult thing will bring the greater reward. That is completely illogical in any way whatsoever. There are literally tons of very difficult things that you could do all around you - I look around this room and I can literally think of 10 different and very difficult things, none of which would bring any reward whatsoever.
Breaking your left arm using only your right is a pretty difficult task yet totally unrewarding.

What you mean is that most rewards that are easy to get are already claimed, so that going through something difficult is the only remaining viable path to the reward you seek. Yet, of course, if you don't seek the reward, you have no reason to go through the difficult thing. In other words, the perception of the reward always happens before the perception of the challenge. It is only after perceiving the reward that you will weigh the challenge and determine that the difficulty involved is something you want to get involved with, or not.
You do not want a broken left arm, so you never even considered the challenge of breaking it.

The expectation you talk about is the one that the donkey has when he sees the carrot dangling from the stick. If he can just get the carrot, it will taste so good. If he just runs a little faster, it will taste even better, won't it? Of course reward is expected, but why is it? You claim to bring in the assumption from the outside, but where did you get it from? Other games, perhaps?

And yes, we are just programs lol. If you think that humans are anything but biological machines then I don't know why I am talking to you.

Mesmer cuz Time Warp.

Monsters don't drop many coins. Events and the items you sell give me most of my gold.

Also, rings and backpack don't have an utility infusion slot so you are limited to the slot of your amulet for these infusions.

I would go for magic find if I was to pick one of these utility infusions.

Gerroh, on 30 January 2013 - 10:43 AM, said:

Exaggerate much? The only Guardian skills that take a percentage off of your HP as a bonus to healing are regeneration skills, Consecration skills, Symbols (when using Writ of the Merciful) and Bow of Truth.

Empower, Orb of Light, Virtue of Resolve, Heal Area, Merciful Intervention, Healing Breeze all gains a 100% benefit from HP.

Get your healing power up to 2k and these skills do a shit ton of difference. I believe only a ignorant person who truly hasn't tried to make a real healing guardian would believe healing power to be useless. And providing your allies with real healing is a lot more useful then adding a few stacks of might or giving them some retaliation and protection for a few seconds, after which they stand uselessly whaling at a boss doing so little damage it's sad. Which is what most guardians do.

You're a lot more useful keeping those warriors and theifs who can do 30k damage in a few seconds on their feet instead of building a tanky guardian and doing 8k damage in the same amount of time while not really helping your team much at all.

Also, tanks are overrated.

Gerroh, on 30 January 2013 - 02:55 AM, said:

Just because you don't use it or don't like it, it doesn't mean that Healing Power is worthless. I've maide countless good experiences with my support Guardian with high healing power on hundreds of dungeon runs. ;-)

I bet they'll do something we'll complain about it.

Signed,
/an elementalist

BuddhaKeks, on 22 January 2013 - 03:32 PM, said:

Quaggan milk, as a side note, is not FDA-approved.

Protoss, on 22 January 2013 - 03:44 PM, said:

Quite unlikely.
Everything else you can buy with tokens is account or character bound after all.

Thx, I have a friend that recently has had trouble with his hand and physically cant use keyboard and mouse, more specifically mouse. His hand will cramp up and he wont be able to move it. He was a huge PC gamer, and this has been a major setback for him. He played a ton of LoL which he cant play now, and was looking forward to GW2. But because of his problem, he wouldn't be able to play it. This will help him alot.