Guild Wars 2 Rainmeter Themed Skins

Soul Step 8/24/2012

I've been busy lately so I can fully enjoy the release of Guild Wars 2 tonight! Something I've been working on the side are Guild Wars 2 inspired Rainmeter Themed Skins:

They are essentially the same skin, except one is using New Krytan as the text. Once I have cleaned up the code, I will make it as an available download.

Guild Wars 2 Weapon Table: Trident

Guild Wars 2 Weapon Table: Spear

Weapon Table for the Spear

Guild Wars 2 Weapon Table: Harpoon Gun

Weapon Table for the Harpoon Gun

[50] Guild Wars 2 Build - Engineer: Theme - Heimerdinger the Revered Inventor | PVE

By: RenDevilRun (8/4/2012)

(View Build)

Second of the themed Engineer builds tonight: Heimerdinger the Revered Inventor. Here we focus on the Tool Kit and turrets.

Weapon Set:
Primary: Rifle


Healing, Utility, Elite Skills:
Healing:
(6) Healing Turret

Utility:
(7) Rifle Turret
(8) Rocket Turret
(9) Tool Kit - you can used another turret, but the Tool Kit provides a Wrench skill which is like Heimerdinger.

Elite:
(0) Mortar

Traits: 10/0/30/0/30

Explosives:
(VI) Exploit Weakness - a good utility trait to have to make finishing off the enemy easier

Inventions:
(III) Metal Plating - Gives your turrets a defense boost
(X) Deployable Turrets - another utility trait for your turrets
(XII) Rifled Turret Barrels - extra damage and range for your turrets!

Tools:
(V) Adrenal Implant - nice to have if you're going to move and dodge a lot
(VIII) Power Wrench - works with your wrench skill
(XII) Autotool Installation - great utility for your turrets to provide survivability.

Again another straight forward. Position and drop your turrets to your liking. Then use your Tool Kit, Rifle skills.

[49] Guild Wars 2 Build - Engineer: Theme - Ziggs the Hexplosive Expert |PVE

By: RenDevilRun (Updated 8/4/2012)

(View Build)

One of two Engineer builds with a League of Legends Theme. First is Ziggs, the Hexplosive Expert. Name says it all as this build focuses on anything and everything that has to deal with explosives.

Weapon Set:
Primary: Dual Pistols
*Weapon choice isn't too much a focus here as the build focuses on the chosen kits

Healing, Utility, Elite Skills:
Healing:
(6) Elixir H - an overall nice healing skill as it grants you a random boon

Utility:
(7) Bomb Kit
(8) Grenade Kit
(9) Throw Mine
* Two kits to play and mine is a great utility providing a good gap closer and distance creator.

Elite: 
(0) Supply Crate - my favorite elite for the Engineer class as it does damage and provide help for your allies

Traits: 30/0/30/0/10

Explosives: 
(III) Forceful Explosives - a larger blast radius is always appreciated
(VIII) Short Fuse - a must have for using bombs and grenades as it shortens your cooldowns
(XI) Grenadier - extra range and throwing an extra grenade? YES please!

Inventions:
(II) Explosive Descent - definitely fits the theme of this build
(IX) Elite Supplies - anything extra to go along with your elite skills is worth using
(XI) Elixir-Infused Bombs - Bombs for damage and healing! It's a nice trait since you're fully investing in Inventions giving you +300 in healing.

Tools:
(III) Speedy Gadgets - 30% cooldown reduction for Throw Mines!
* You get 10% cooldown reduction on your Tool Belt Skills for investing 10 points in Tools

Build is pretty much straight forward. Pick grenades or bombs and start blowing sh*t up! This provides a lot of Power with Toughness and Healing for survivability.

[48] Guild Wars 2 Build - Ranger: Longbow & Shortbow |PVE

By: teaandbickies (Updated 8/4/2012)

.: Ranger Build :.

Main Weapon: Longbow

Alt. Weapon: Shortbow

.: Utility Skills :.

Healing Spring

• Create a healing spring that heals you and your pet.  Once placed, the spring applies constant regeneration and also periodically removes conditions from allies within its vicinity.

Sun Spirit

• Summon a sun spirit that grants allies a 20% change to inflict burning.

Signet of Stone

• Passive: Improves toughness of you and your pet.
• Active: Your pet takes no damage from incoming attacks.

Signet of the Wild

• Passive: Grants health regeneration to you and your pet.
• Active: Your pet grows larger, dealing more damage and gaining stability.

Spirit of Nature

• Summon a spirit that heals allies.  Command the spirit to revive and remove conditions from nearby allies.

.: Traits :.

Marksmanship – 30 points

Attribute Bonuses:  +300 Power, +30% Condition Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Opening Strike

• Case vulnerability with your first strike when entering combat.

Major Trait: Signet Mastery (IV)

• Signet recharges are reduced by 20%.

Master

Minor Trait: Alpha Training

• Pets have Opening Strike.

Major Trait: Eagle Eye (X)

• Increases longbow and harpoon gun range.  Increases longbow and harpoon gun damage by 5%.

Grandmaster

Minor Trait: Precise Strike

• Opening Strike always critical hits.

Major Trait: Signet of the Beastmaster (XI)

• Active effects of signets affect you as well as your pet.

Skirmishing – 0 points

N/A

Wilderness Survival – 20 points

Attribute Bonuses: +200 Toughness, +200 Condition Damage

Adept

Minor Trait: Natural Vigor

• Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.

Major Trait: Expertise Training (V)

• Pets deal extra condition damage.

Master

Minor Trait: Companion’s Defense

• You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.

Major Trait: Hide in Plain Sight (IX)

• Apply camouflage when you are dazed, knocked down, launched, pushed back, or stunned.  This effect cannot trigger more than once every 30 seconds.

Nature Magic – 20 points

Attribute Bonuses: +200 Vitality, +20% Boon Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Rejuvenation

• Gain regeneration when your health reaches 75%.

Major Trait: Nature’s Protection (VI)

• Receive protection for 5 seconds when you take more than 20% damage in a single strike.  This effect can only trigger once every 30 seconds.

Master

Minor Trait: Fortifying Bond

• Any boon you get is shared with your pet.

Major Trait: Nature’s Vengeance (VII)

• Spirits activate their toggle skill on death.

Beastmastery – 0 points

N/A

.: Commentary :.

This build is more of a balance between offense and defense, as well as sharing benefits with my pet.  Opening Strike has proven to be very useful when I start attacking foes, decreasing their defenses to allow me to use my more powerful attacks to try to severely hinder it before its defenses go back to normal.

Also, for my ranger, I only use a longbow and a shortbow as my two weapon sets, so having more attack power and longer, more damaging conditions were an essential thing for me to have.  A longer range for my longbow and harpoon gun too will definitely be useful if I’m trying to pull enemies away from a massive group.

In terms of signets, I always equip Signet of Stone and Signet of the Wild, both of which have excellent active effects for my pet.  Also, SotW automatically revives my pet for me in its passive state, which definitely gives me (and my allies) less work to do when I’m trying to fight something!  :D  So, I wanted to make sure I have the trait that spreads the benefits of active signet effects to myself as well, just to make us even stronger.  ;3

Also, the camouflage skill sounds very useful (and fun!), so we’ll see where that goes.  XD  That, and automatically toggling spirit skills on death will definitely prove useful as I tend to forget to activate them to begin with.

[47] Guild Wars 2 Build - Necromancer: Scepter/Focus & Staff (Minion Master) |PVE

By: teaandbickies (Updated 8/4/2012)

.: Necromancer Build :.

Main Weapon: Scepter and Focus

Alt. Weapon: Staff

.: Utility Skills :.

Summon Blood Fiend

• Summon a blood fiend that transfers health to you on each attack.

Summon Bone Minions

• Summon two bone minions.

Summon Shadow Fiend

• Summon a shadow fiend to attack foes.

Signet of Undeath

• Passive: Generates life force while in combat.
• Active: Revive up to three downed allies in the target area.

Lich Form

• Assume the form of a lich for a brief time.

.: Traits :.

Spite – 5 points

Attribute Bonuses:  +50 Power, +5% Condition Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Parasitic Bond

• Gain health whenever you kill something.

Curses – 10 points

Attribute Bonuses: +100 Precision, +100 Condition Damage

Adept

Minor Trait: Barbed Precision

• Critical hits cause bleeding.

Major Trait: Hemophilia (II)

• 20% increased bleeding duration.

Death Magic – 30 points

Attribute Bonuses: +300 Toughness, +30% Boon Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Reanimator

• Chance to summon a Jagged Horror whenever you kill an enemy.

Major Trait: Minion Master (III)

• Minion recharges are reduced by 20%.

Master

Minor Trait: Protection of the Horde

• Gain +20 Toughness for each minion under your control.

Major Trait: Fateful Marks (VIII)

• Marks are unblockable.

Grandmaster

Minor Trait: Deadly Strength

• 10% of toughness is given as a bonus to power.

Major Trait: Death Nova (XI)

• Whenever a minion dies, it explodes in a cloud of poison.

Blood Magic – 20 points

Attribute Bonuses: +200 Vitality, +200 Healing Power

Adept

Minor Trait: Full of Life

• Gain 5 seconds of regeneration when your health reaches 90% (30-second cooldown).

Major Trait: Mark of Evasion (III)

• Leave a Mark of Blood when you dodge.

Master

Minor Trait: Vampiric

• Siphon health whenever you hit an enemy.

Major Trait: Vampiric Master (VII)

• Minions siphon health and transfer it to you.

Soul Reaping – 5 points

Attribute Bonuses: +5 Critical Damage, +5% Hunger (Life Force Pool Size)

Adept

Minor Trait: Gluttony

• Life force fills faster.

.: Commentary :.

I love my minions.  With my necromancer, I always have a bountiful amount of them available at my will, so making them more powerful and useful was essential.  Having the additional abilities to siphon health whenever I kill a foe or having my minions do it for me, on the other hand, is also very useful.  It both heals me and helps to deal damage to foes, so it merges both offense AND defense together.  >W<

In terms of stats, I wanted to make sure my toughness and health were increased to give me more survivability.  Although I have two health bars as a necromancer per say, some more defense and health wouldn’t hurt.  Also, I primarily use a staff and a scepter/focus combination of weapons, so I typically focus more so on applying conditions to foes than trying to damage them (especially with the latter weapon set).  Thus, adding more stats to increase condition damage was important as well.

Using a staff also equals a bountiful amount of marks for me to cast, so that’s why I made sure to add the trait that would make them unblockable.  Sorry foes, but it looks like you’re going to get a lot of conditions if you step on my marks.

[46] Guild Wars 2 Build - Engineer: Dual Pistols & Rifle |PVE

By: teaandbickies (Updated 8/4/2012)

.: Engineer Build :.

Main Weapon: Dual Pistols

Alt. Weapon: Rifle

.: Utility Skills :.

Healing Turret

• Deploys a turret that heals you briefly, then continues to apply regeneration to you and nearby allies.

Rifle Turret

• Build a rifle turret that shoots at foes.

Flamethrower

• Arm yourself with a flamethrower that replaces your weapon skills.

Rocket Turret

• Build a turret that fires rockets.

Supply Crate

• Request a massive supply drop, complete with turrets and bandages.

.: Traits :.

Explosives – 30 points

Attribute Bonuses:  +300 Power, +30% Condition Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Evasive Power Keg

• Creates a bomb when you dodge.

Major Trait: Forceful Explosives (III)

• Bombs and mines have a larger explosion radius.

Master

Minor Trait: Reserved Mine Deploy

• Release a number of timed mines when health reaches 25%.

Major Trait: Explosive Powder (VII)

• Improves damage from explosions by 10%.

Grandmaster

Minor Trait: Steel Packed Powder

• Explosions cause vulnerability.

Major Trait: Accelerant-Packed Turrets (IX)

• Turrets explode when killed. When your turrets explode, they push back enemies.

Firearms – 0 points

N/A

Inventions – 15 points

Attribute Bonuses: +150 Toughness, +150 Healing Power

Adept

Minor Trait: Low Health Response System

• Gain regeneration for 10 seconds when you are attacked while under 25% health.

Major Trait: Metal Plating (III)

• Reduces damage dealt to turrets by 30%.

Master

Minor Trait: Automated Medical Response

• All heal skills recharge when health reaches 25% (90 second cooldown).

Alchemy – 20 points

Attribute Bonuses: +200 Vitality, +20% Boon Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Hidden Flask

• Drink an Elixir B at 75% health.

Major Trait: Self-regulating Defenses (IV)

• Drink an Elixir S at 25% health.  This effect cannot trigger more than once every 90 seconds.

Master

Minor Trait: Transmute

• 3% chance to convert incoming conditions into boons.

Major Trait: Deadly Mixture (VII)

• Deal 15% extra damage with a flamethrower or elixir gun.

Tools – 5 points

Attribute Bonuses: +5 Critical Damage, +5% Ingenuity (Tool Belt Cooldown)

Adept

Minor Trait: Adrenaline Pump

• Using toolbelt skills restore 10% of your endurance.

.: Commentary :.

There were three main principles that I based my build on: survivability, firepower, and what I like to call ‘Revenge of the Turrets’.  Playing the engineer, I found that, while my attacks were powerful, my survivability was quite low despite being able to dodge well and having the proper armour.  So, I wanted to make sure to include traits that could help increase my chances are survival.  Thus, the health regeneration and the elixirs at 25% and 75% health will definitely be useful, in my opinion.

Also, I found that my turrets were often being targeted and were dying off quicker than I could kill those who were attacking them.  So, decreasing the damage dealt to turrets and adding the effect of their explosions pushing enemies away, in my opinion, are necessary to help give me some extra time to keep them at a distance while I regroup and to give me enough time to kill them.  Plus, a little extra firepower to help increase the range and damage of explosives is always handy.  ;3