Guild Wars 2 intro 101

Critical Hits give free bonus damage to all direct damage attacks. 60% is the ideal minimum Crit Chance you want to achieve as a baseline from your equipment. Having 60% is the foundation which 100% is built on. You get that lacking 40% from a well composed party.

Let’s start with Fury boon. Fury will give you a flat +20% Crit Chance increase. Many professions can maintain 100% uptime on Fury for allies. That gets us up to 80% Crit Chance.

Next is the Spotter trait that Rangers will grant to nearby allies. Spotter will increase allies’ Precision stat by 150, which gives a +7% increase. That gets us up to 87% Crit Chance.

After that is the Banner of Discipline (BoD) that Warriors will drop. BoD will increase allies’ Precision stat by 170, which gives an +8% increase. That gets us up to 95% Crit Chance.

To supplement your Precision stat, or if you really want to hit 100% crit chance, the final +5% increase can be achieved with many different ways. Consumable utility or food buffs can give Precision stat. Several signet utility skill passives grant bonus Precision. Many traits can situationally increase Crit Chance (like Thief’s “Gain bonus critical-hit chance when hitting a foe from behind or the side” trait).

Fun facts

49.7% base Crit Chance using ALL ascended berserker’s gear.

69.8% base Crit Chance using ALL ascended assassin’s gear.

Superior Sigil of Accuracy +7% increase.

Your ascended amulet can have a reward booster in the form of a UTILITY INFUSION. There are 4 reward boosters to choose from and are purchased with laurels. Your amulet *MUST* have a UTILITY infusion slot. OFFENSIVE and DEFENSIVE infusion slots need not apply.

By far and away, the most popular is the Karmic Infusion. 

Gilded Infusion: +20% Gold from Monsters

Magical Infusion: +20% Magic Find

Experienced Infusion: +20% Experience from Kills

Karmic Infusion: +15% Karma

There are many good reasons to stop attacking and de-target a foe, such as:

You are firing projectiles and your foe is reflecting. 

You are attacking and your foe has retaliation.

Your foe has a mechanic that buffs him when attacked.

No matter the reason, there's a very easy way to stop attacking and de-target that doesn't involve repeatedly slapping your ESC key.

Open your OPTIONS > CONTROL OPTIONS (key bindings) tab > TARGETING section > LOCK AUTOTARGET. Bind this to a key you can quickly press. A single press in combat and all attacking stops!

Did you know that most maps give bonus rewards for completing events, jumping puzzles, and mini-dungeons? It's true! You'll get a specific fine crafting material automatically deposited into your inventory based on the map and week you participate. Here’s a link with more info on map bonus rewards.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Map_bonus_reward

"One crafting material? Big deal." Let me show you how much currency you could make if you sold those map bonuses.

Now that I have your attention, let's talk about how to maximize those rewards. Rewards are given every 200 points.

Completing an event rewards up to 100 points for maximum participation (i.e. getting gold). Getting silver or bronze rewards less points. Point rewards will begin eroding if leaving an event prematurely or stopping participation before event completion. Here’s the live updated tables of what each map’s rewards are selling for (where I got the screenshot above from).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Map_bonus_reward/profit

There is a consumable item that gives up to a 10% bonus on map rewards points for 24 hours. It is available if your guild has unlocked the Guild Enhancements vendor. The bonus does not apply to the next consumable item I’m about to tell you about.

There are 6 different Pact Supply Network Agent vendors you can access if you have the tier 3 mastery “Supply Line Management” of the Central Tyria masteries. You can buy one item from each of the 6 vendors daily. The “Pact Scout’s Mapping Materials” (PSMM) consumable item is always sold at all 6 vendors. Each PSMM instantly rewards you with 200 rewards points (unaffected by any bonuses). If you have more karma than you know what to do with, visit each of the 6 vendors daily and stock up on PSMM. Hold them until you get to a map (central Tyria only) with rewards that you want, and then just blow the fuckin roof off them rewards, yo! Here’s a link with a live updated table of where the vendors are at.

The very visually impressive Mystic Forge (MF) in Lion’s Arch is a combination of a crafting station and a roulette table. You deposit 4 items in the MF and get 1 in return. Let’s start with the Vanna White of the MF.

Miyani

This vendor sells items related to MF recipes. She also combines Writs of Experience into Tomes of Experience at a 20:1 ratio (an equal conversion). Talk to her to shrink down those many stacks of writs into tomes and free up some bank space!

Crafting

There are many known recipes wherein you deposit 4 specific items and get 1 specific item in return. Many websites list known recipes for the MF, such as Dulfy’s database. Here are two such recipes.

To get a Mystic Salvage Kit (full 250 uses, Master’s Salvage Kit stats), deposit these 4 items in the MF:

1 Fine Salvage Kit (full 25 uses)

1 Journeyman's Salvage Kit (full 25 uses)

1 Master's Salvage Kit (full 25 uses)

3 Mystic Forge Stones

To get a Recipe: Tray/Feast of food (of the same dessert or meal used), deposit these 4 items in the MF:

6-17 Bottles of Elonian Wine

17-50 Mystic Coins

9-20 Mystic Crystals

1 dessert or meal (chef rating 100+)

Roulette

And now you’ll learn why the MF is also known as the Mystic Toilet. I know users who have thrown TENS OF THOUSANDS of exotics into the MF only to lose their ass trying to gamble for a legendary precursor.

There are also many known recipes wherein you deposit 4 semi-random items and get 1 semi-random item in return. The information here barely scratches the surface. Please research more about this if you’re interested in MF gambling. Here is a cut ‘n’ paste from the wiki on the MF.

Fun fact: to split a stack of items, hold ALT key -> drag'n'drop stack.

Let's talk about some of the items types you'll come across. This is only a highlight of the major points and general rules. Like all rules, there are ALWAYS exceptions.

Junk - Its only purpose in-game is to sell for coin. Visit any merchant, click SELL tab, and click SELL JUNK at the bottom. CANNOT be salvaged.

Materials - (a.k.a. crafting materials, mats) These are used in crafting recipes as well as some mystic forge recipes. CANNOT be salvaged.

Equipment - (a.k.a. gear) This is anything that can be equipped like weapons and armor and shit. CAN be salvaged into materials.

Inventory

Each character has its own inventory which holds 5 bags and can be expanded (in-game purchase) to hold 8 bags total. Each bag can be up to 20 slots for a 160 slot inventory.

Instantly deposit your materials from anywhere in the world. Open your inventory > click options (top right gear icon) > deposit materials.

Shared Inventory Slots

The purchasable, account-wide Shared Inventory Slots are not considered bags and do not count against the 8 bag maximum. Their function is identical to your Bank, but appear in your character inventory.

Account Vault

Every account has a vault consisting of 3 parts. Your bank vault, material storage vault, and wardrobe storage vault. Each is shared across all characters and can be accessed from any crafting station or banker.

Bank

Each account has a private Bank vault. All characters have free access to the Bank. It has 1 pane (30 slots) and can be expanded (in-game purchase) to 14 panes (420 slots) total.

Material Storage

Each account has a private Material Storage vault. All characters have free access to the Material Storage.

You can store 250 of EACH crafting material and can be expanded (in-game purchase) to hold up to 2,000 of each material total.

The beauty of this system is that the unrefined materials are sorted separately from the refined. Here's an example. You can hold 250 green wood LOGS and 250 green wood PLANKS. It takes 3 logs to make a plank. Refining the logs into planks for later use lets you hold a lot more.

Wardrobe Storage

All weapon, armor, and back item skins can be viewed in the account Wardrobe Storage vault. Preview both locked and unlocked skins.

Guild Vault

The Guild Vault is an inventory storage space available to a guild that has researched the Guild Vault: Stash upgrade with the Guild Initiative Notary.

This Chat Command is so useful, it deserves its own entry. If you want to learn about ANYTHING in Guild Wars 2, learn to love this command. It opens up your web browser to the GW2 wiki entry for your chat command.

/wiki (anything you want to learn about)

Playing an elementalist and want to learn more about your Meteor Shower?

type /wiki meteor shower

Can’t remember what the vendor Miyani sells next to the Mystic Forge?

type /wiki miyani

Don’t know WTF the Mystic Forge is?

type /wiki mystic forge

In fact, if you can click an item on screen, you don’t even have to type the name! Type /wiki and then SHIFT+(left click) to auto-fill the name into the chat command.

Playing an elementalist and want to learn more about your Meteor Shower?

type /wiki and then SHIFT+(left click) on your skill bar.

Type these commands into the chat window and hit ENTER. Get full info about chat commands at the link - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chat_command

/age

Only you will see that info displayed for both the current character and all other characters.

/deaths

This chat command displays total number of deaths only for the current character. Note that it’s plural - typing singular /death does nothing.

/rank

You can call down a PvP banner for your current rank. More about PvP ranking at the link - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Rank

Emotes

Islands

The various FRACTALS are referred to by the developers as ISLANDS (a.k.a. zones, instances, or mini-dungeons). All islands have VERY SPECIFIC mechanics which MUST be followed in order to progress. You can learn about the mechanics for each island at this link.

http://gw2dungeons.net

Walking into the Fractal gate will take you to the staging island. This island is safe and has merchants. Feel free to go through the fractal gate and look at what the merchants have to offer in exchange for Fractal Relics and Pristine Fractal Relics.

Difficulty

The difficulty scale of a Fractal starts at level 1 and can be increased up to level 100. Increasing the difficulty scale will make enemies hit harder, have higher toughness, have more health, and even give them new attacks. Getting into the higher difficulty scales will make some enemies so powerful that they will one-shot you, no matter how defensive your attributes are.

Agony

Agony is a unique effect similar to Poison condition. 

Agony only starts being applied at difficulty scale 20.

Agony will remove a flat percent of your max health every tick. Increasing difficulty scale will increase the percentage. (approximations)

Difficulty 20+ tier = 10% health loss per tick

Difficulty 30+ tier = 31% health loss per tick

Difficulty 40+ tier = 53% health loss per tick

Difficulty 50+ tier = 74% health loss per tick

Difficulty 60+ tier = 95% health loss per tick 

Agony stacks INTENSITY. 

Agony reduces ALL healing you receive by a fixed 50% (Poison by 33%), including reviving heals received when downed. Fun fact: the massive revive heal given by certain skills (like Warrior's elite banner skill) can be reduced by Agony (and Poison) to the point where the downed ally is not revived. 

Agony CANNOT be removed, but will expire. 

Agony is occasionally applied to everyone in an area and CANNOT be avoided. 

Certain enemy attacks will inflict Agony which CAN be avoided with a well timed dodge, block, or reflect.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony

Agony Resistance

“Madness! How can I defend against this?!?”

You can add Agony Resistance (AR) to your Ascended equipment (weapons, armor, trinkets, back item). AR can reduce damage dealt to you down to 1% health loss per tick, but no lower. Here is the amount needed to get down to the 1% minimum. (approximations) 

Difficulty 20+ tier = 25 AR

Difficulty 30+ tier = 40 AR

Difficulty 40+ tier = 55 AR

Difficulty 50+ tier = 70 AR

Difficulty 60+ tier = 85 AR

Difficulty 70+ tier = 100 AR

Difficulty 80+ tier = 115 AR

Difficulty 90+ tier = 130 AR

Difficulty 100 tier = 145 AR
 

Buy Versatile Simple Infusion from a merchant in the Fractal staging island using Fractal Relics currency. Combine (+1) Agony Infusions with an Artificer to put into (Infused or Attuned) rings or back items.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony_Resistance

Personal Rewards Level

Your account has a Personal Rewards Level (PRL) which starts at level 1, just like the Difficulty Scale. When you complete a Fractal (set of 4 islands) Difficulty Scale which is AT or ABOVE your PRL, your PRL will then increase by 1. I will give examples.

Your PRL is 10. You complete a Fractal Difficulty Scale 2. You receive PRL 2 rewards. Your PRL does not increase.

Your PRL is 10. You complete a Fractal Difficulty Scale 10. You receive PRL 10 rewards. Your PRL increases to 11.

Your PRL is 10. You complete a Fractal Difficulty Scale 33. You receive PRL 10 rewards. Your PRL increases to 11.

Every island will reward you with a chest. In each chest will be Fractal Relics, (+1) Agony Infusions, and other items.

Mistlock Instabilities

Starting at Difficulty Scale 31, wild card effects are introduced into Fractals known as Mistlock Instabilities (MI). The effects of MI are on a pre-defined list at the link below. MI will make you rethink your weapons, utilities, traits, positioning, play style... everything... Here are a couple of examples.

MI for Difficulty Scale 51 will cause enemies to explode when you kill them, dealing severe damage to you AND knocking you back (avoid standing near cliffs, lava pools, traps, et cetera)!

MI for Scale 31 strips all your boons when you dodge.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists#Mistlock_Instability

BE WARNED

Be Warned! Difficulty Scale is NOT downscaled, no matter what your PRL is.

Be Warned! AR on weapons and armor is only active if the equipment is active. Some examples.

Your staff has AR, but your hammer does not. AR will be lower when using the hammer.

Your head armor has AR, but your breathing apparatus does not. AR will be lower when under water.

Your terrestrial weapons have AR, but your aquatic weapons do not. AR will be lower when under water.

Your armor piece has AR, but is broken. AR will be lower until it is repaired.

Be Warned! There are NO repair vendors once the Fractal has started. If you are defeated so much that your armor is broken, you have three options. Reminder: Your first 7 defeats will DAMAGE your 6 armor pieces and back item. Any subsequent defeats will BREAK your armor and back item, nullifying them.

Be gimped.

Use an Instant Repair Canister.

Ascended trinkets can be purchases using Laurels. You can receive 55 Laurels from Login Rewards for every four week cycle (35 for the cycle and a bonus 20 from the Chest Of Plentiful Laurels).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Login_rewards

Purchasing all 5 trinkets from a Laurel Merchant would cost 180 Laurels and 100 Globs of Ectoplasm.

30 Laurels for 1 amulet

70 Laurels for 2 rings

80 Laruels for 2 accessories (+100 Ecto)

All is not lost! There are cheaper alternatives. Participate in Guild Missions to earn Guild Commendations. Participate in Fractals to earn Pristine Fractal Relics. Participate in WvW to earn Badges of Honor.

Purchasing the same 5 trinkets can be cost as little as 20 Laurels.

1 amulet = 20 Laurels + 250 Badges of Honor

2 rings = 20 Pristine Fractal Relics

2 accessories = 24 Guild Commendation + 10 gold

Ascended (highest tier) equipment is slightly different from all other equipment only available at level 80.

It is Account Bound and can be freely swapped between your characters. All lower tier equipment is Soulbound to a specific character.

Ascended Equipment has a new Infusion Slot available. Infusion Slots will hold a single stat-boosting Infusion. The majority of people will use the Versatile Simple Infusion which can be put into any Offensive, Defensive, or Utility Infusion Slot. A full list can be found at the link below.

All Ascended Equipment has either an Offensive or Defensive Infusion Slot. Only the Amulet can have a Utility Infusion Slot.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_equipment

Ascended Trinkets

Ascended Trinkets and Back Items lose their Upgrade Slot, but gain the stat points. In the example above, the Ascended has more Power while losing the Upgrade Slot.

Ascended Trinkets are Unique and you CANNOT have more than one of the same item. You CAN have the same stat family, but they MUST be different items. Using the example above, you can use Solaria AND Lunaria together, but NOT double Solaria.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_ascended_trinkets

(Infused)

Ascended Rings and Back Items can be upgraded to give a bonus Agony Infusion Slot. The new title will say (Infused) at the end. The only items that can go into the bonus slot are Agony Infusions. These Agony Infusions are earned by completing Fractals, or purchased on the Trading Post. Agony Infusions start as +1, but can be combined with an Artificer.

combine (+1) with (+1) = (+2)

combine (+2) with (+2) = (+3)

combine (+3) with (+3) = (+4)

This exponential combination makes higher stats very expensive.

(+5) = 16 (+1) infusions

(+10) = 512 (+1) infusions

(+15) = 16,384 (+1) infusions

Have you ever seen a light brown heart with a word or phrase flash randomly on your screen and didn’t know what it was? You contributed to a COMBO and you didn’t even know it!

What is a combo? Imagine shooting a wooden arrow through a bonfire. The arrow catches fire as it passes through the fire. On impact, the arrow itself does a fixed amount of damage to the target whether it’s on fire or not. The flame from the arrow will ignite the target to burn after the impact. This is a real world example of a combo. The bonfire is the COMBO FIELD: FIRE. The wooden arrow is the COMBO FINISHER: PROJECTILE. The target catching fire is the COMBO EFFECT.

PUZZLE HEART

The representation of combos in game are PUZZLE HEARTS. The heart is only whole when the two opposite halves fit together!

COMBO FIELDS

The very first thing needed is a combo FIELD. A combo field is an area that will imbue a future attack with the field’s juicy goodness. There are 9 different field types. The field must be friendly and deployed before the finisher. Enemy fields cannot be used by you. Area skills create borders on the ground around the effect. But not every skill that has a border on the ground is a combo field. You see fields every time you’re in combat, and there’s a VERY EASY way to identify what skill is a combo field. Look for the colored borders and patterned halos.

“But what do I do with these amazing combo fields???”

COMBO FINISHERS

There are 4 different FINISHERS that can be used in FIELDS.

Whirl and projectile finishers that create positive effects will affect a single ally within a 240 unit splash radius of the target. No ally within 240 units? No benefits.

FINAL NOTES

BE AWARE! Only one combo field can be proc’d at a time.

Finishers use the oldest field. What happens when a second field is plopped down on top of an existing field? Let’s say that a Necro lays down a DARK field on the ground first. Then a Mesmer comes up and lays down an ETHEREAL field on top of the dark field. Any finishers used will trigger the dark field since it’s on the very bottom. After the dark field expires, any finishers will trigger in the ethereal field until that expires, too.

Leap and projectile finishers created outside of a field will proc the first field they cross.

Life leeching from projectile/whirl through dark fields will life leech back to the projectile creator.

Whoever creates the field doesn’t have any influence on the effect created. Here are two examples.

An Ele creates a water field. A Warrior blasts the water field for area healing effect. The healing attribute of the Warrior is what will increase the heals done since the Warrior used the finisher, not the Ele.

NOURISHMENTS (CONSUMABLES) grant special effects and appear next to boon effects on the skill bar. Consumables can only be removed when they expire or are replaced. Consumables are in either the FOOD or UTILITY category. Both categories can be active at the same time. A food will only replace another food.

The duration of these effects counts down only while the character is logged on. If you switch characters, the timer stops.

FOOD All food grants +10% experience from kills for the duration, unless otherwise noted. This link shows all foods listed by category and is a terrific resource.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food

UTILITY consumables are most often seen as slayer potions. A full list of the different types is in the link below.

CONTROL EFFECTS (also known as CROWD CONTROL or CC) are negative effects with gray-ish icons, but deal no damage. They all immediately DISABLE any skill use for the duration and INTERRUPT the current action. All CC can be broken with STUN BREAK skills.

CC cannot stack in either intensity or duration. If one type of CC is on a target and the same CC is applied an additional time, the original CC duration will be overwritten with the new duration.

CAN MOVE

DAZE will disable skills, but allow human players to move freely. NPCs will be STUNNED by a daze.

CANNOT MOVE

STUN will disable skills and all movement.

DEEP FREEZE is most commonly encountered when using an Elementalist’s Frost Bow (Ice Bow) by using the #5 skill. Deep Freeze encases the target in a solid block of ice for the duration.

PETRIFIED is most commonly encountered when a Thief uses Basilisk Venom skill.

KNOCKED AROUND

FLOAT up while underwater.

KNOCKBACK (PUSH) along the ground away from the caster.

KNOCKDOWN to the ground where you stand.

LAUNCH (BLOWOUT) up in the air and away from the caster.

PULL to close the distance between the target and caster.

SINK down while underwater.

FEAR is a condition (stacks duration) that behaves like a CC. It can be removed with either a condition removal or a stun break. Fear causes a foe to uncontrollably run the opposite direction from the caster.

All of the conditions listed here are affected by the attributes from the player who CREATES the condition. All conditions can be removed. A single condition removal will strip the entire stack, no matter the duration or intensity.

STACKS INTENSITY

Stacking intensity is when a single effect is applied multiple times and its effects run CONCURRENTLY.

BLEEDING (stacks intensity) deals damage every second.

BURNING (stacks intensity) deals damage every second.

CONFUSION (stacks intensity) deals damage every second AND deals damage every time a skill is activated.

Note that ANY skill activation (including a heal, utility, or elite skill) will deal damage. Confusion deals significantly less damage in sPvP and WvW.

POISON (stacks intensity) deals damage AND decreases all incoming healing by 33%. It’s recommended to remove poison before activating a heal skill.

TORMENT (stacks intensity) deals damage every second when standing still or deals 200% damage every second when moving.

VULNERABILITY (stacks intensity, max 25 stacks) increases damage received by 1% for each stack.

STACKS DURATION

Stacking duration is when a single effect is applied multiple times and its effects run CONSECUTIVELY.

BLIND (stacks duration) causes the next attack to miss. Will be removed when the attack missed.

CHILLED (stacks duration) slows movement speed and skill recharge by 66%. Note this does not affect skills with no recharge (like most weapon #1 skills).

CRIPPLED (stacks duration) slows movement speed by 50%.

FEAR (stacks duration) interrupts any skill and causes target to flee in the exact opposite direction of the caster. Fear is unique in that it can be stripped with either a condition remover or a stun breaker.

Note that Necromancers can trait fear to inflict damage per second or 150% damage per second if another condition is present.

IMMOBILIZED (stacks duration) stops all directional movement and the ability to turn.

SLOW (stacks duration) increases the activation time of skills and abilities by 50%.

WEAKNESS (stacks duration) decreases endurance regeneration by 50%. (Endurance is your dodge roll power.)

Weakness ALSO causes half of all outgoing direct damage hits to be GLANCING BLOWS. Glancing blows cannot critical hit and will only deal 50% of normal damage. Weakness also 

All of the boons listed here are affected by the attributes from the player who CREATES the boon. For example, Player A grants regeneration to everyone near him. Player B will receive regeneration that’s based on Player A’s boon duration and healing power. All boons can be removed. A single boon removal will strip the entire stack, no matter the duration or intensity.

STACKS INTENSITY

Stacking intensity is when a single effect is applied multiple times and its effects run CONCURRENTLY.

MIGHT (stacks intensity, max 25 stacks) at level 80, each stack will give 30 points to BOTH power and condition damage attributes. At the maximum stack, you have 750 bonus points in both of your DPS attributes. This is called "might stacking" and is VERY desired.

STABILITY (stacks intensity) is a sacrificial boon that will block the next CONTROL effect (CC) you receive. For each control effect applied to you, one stack of stability is stripped from you. For example, a stack of 3 stability would require 4 CC to affect you.

STACKS DURATION

Stacking duration is when a single effect is applied multiple times and its effects run CONSECUTIVELY.

AEGIS (stacks duration) is a sacrificial boon that will block the next single attack of any kind that you receive. Aegis will be stripped when the single attack is blocked.

For UNBLOCKABLE attacks, aegis will not trigger. Let’s say you have aegis and an enemy Mesmer throws his greatsword at you (this Mesmer skill is unblockable). The greatsword will hit and damage you. Your aegis will still be on you, waiting patiently to block an attack that is blockable.

FURY (stacks duration) increases your CRITICAL CHANCE by 20%.

PROTECTION (stacks duration) decreases any incoming direct damage by 33%. It does not mitigate fall damage or condition damage.

QUICKNESS (stacks duration) increases attack and action speeds by 50%.

REGENERATION (stacks duration) grants a gentle heal over time. At level 80, this is 130 + (0.125 * Healing Power) per second. (reminder: uses attributes of the player who created the boon)

RESISTANCE (stacks duration) temporarily negates the affected target of all effects caused by conditions.

For example, if a character affected by fear condition, they'll stop running in fear when resistance is placed on them. When resistance ends, they'll resume running in fear if the condition is still in place.

RETALIATION (stacks duration) will damage any foe that damages you for each attack. At level 80, this is 198 + (0.075 * Power) per attack. (reminder: uses attributes of the player who created the boon)

Be VERY aware if your foe has retaliation on itself. Players who have repeating fast-attack skills can deal MASSIVE damage to THEMSELVES very quickly (such as Ranger’s longbow skill #2 RAPID FIRE or Thief’s pistol/pistol skill #3 UNLOAD). I have seen many a player down themselves making that mistake.

SWIFTNESS (stacks duration) increases all movement speed by 33%. (reminder: only the highest increase in movement speed will be applied)

VIGOR (stacks duration) increases all endurance regeneration by 50%. Endurance is your dodge roll power. Endurance regeneration is capped at a bonus 100%.

GLAMOURS

Mesmers have utility skills that put GLAMOURS on the ground. They’re very hard to miss and each have very different uses.

Feedback

FEEDBACK is a pink sphere of reflection cast directly on the ground at the enemy position, but does not follow the enemy. The enemy can walk out of it. Don’t think of the sphere as hollow, but as filled. Any enemy projectile that is cast towards the sphere from the outside will be reflected at the outermost edge. Any enemy projectile that is cast within the sphere will not travel any distance. It will instantaneously reflect and damage the enemy. Standing inside the sphere is the safest place from projectiles, but not from melee attacks.

Null Field

NULL FIELD is a pulsing field. Every second, it strips one condition from each ally (up to 5) AND strips one boon from each enemy (up to 5)

Portal

PORTALS allow instantaneous bi-directional travel over HUGE distances (around 5,000 units). Portals expire after 10 seconds or 20 uses, whichever comes first.