So... erm... *twiddles thumbs nervously*

I recently made a mesmer. Then I ran around Magus Falls and turned her into a chronomancer. And then I gave her nice skins and dyes and now I entered her into a contestohshitohshit-

Yeah. My sylvari chronomancer is in the GW2Style contest for Wintersday -- and I'd be very much grateful if you'd upvote the reddit post on the subreddit. Most votes wins the 'fan choice' category; there's two categories and this is basically the only one I can (somewhat) affect.

So, if you'd like to vote for your favorite pick-up liner and quaggan hater, link's below.

TL;DR: I'm in a contest, please vote for my mesmer by upvoting this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/GuildWarsDyeJob/comments/3xnpcs/wintersday_ice_queen/

Hey folks, November's almost done and dusted with, and December is coming up.

And there's apparently this festive day some 25 days later where people throw presents at other people's faces (I wouldn't know, being Asian ). Which brings to mind a conversation I had with a lovely guardian of ours some months ago.

Two words: Secret Santa. Yes. Secret Santa.

We were thinking it'd be nice if the guild did something like that, where people could gift stuff to each other based on well, their preferences (and needs) in GW2. Say, someone who needs to make ascended armor could get jewelled damask patches, or even a recipe for an armor piece that saves some gold. Or perhaps you've always wanted that one legendary, and just lack a stack or two or ancient wood to make the gift for it... you get my drift.

Building on this, I was also thinking of a raffle where everyone would contribute one item of their choice, and then everyone gets to draw from the pot (excluding the item they gave, obviously)!

What say you?

So, I've been pondering some alternative builds for the necro after taking a look at the new traitlines and the upcoming Reaper skills, and I think Berserker's may well cease to be the agreed-on necro meta for any existing power builds, if my hunch is right.

Essentially, Berserker's gear may well fly out the window because of this Death Magic trait:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deadly_Strength

7% of your existing toughness as damage at all times, and 14% in Death/Reaper Shroud sounds incredibly tasty. Throw in some runes that increase toughness, and you get a hell lot of damage -- and also the ability to tank physical damage thrown at you.

The only downside to using toughness in your gear would be that you lack precision or ferocity, but the latter can be solved with Death Perception, which grants 50% crit chance in Shroud, and if you're a Reaper, Decimate Defenses, which grants increasing crit chance for every stack of vuln you put on an enemy:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Perception
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Decimate_Defenses

And there's always a problem with condi damage (but a necro can toy with condis anyway). I can forsee this build getting quite some use in PvE, maybe even PvP and WvW (I have no understanding of the latter two though, so don't quote me on that).

As for Valkyrie's, it'd increase the amount of life force you have, and therefore it'd allow you to stay longer in Shroud; you'd hit for less but have longer, more consistent damage, and be more resistant to condi damage. Personally, I prefer to go in hard and burst down the enemy with everything I have in a few blows.

So, thoughts? Is anyone interested in testing it out? You'd need Runes of the Brawler, I think. I'd do it now but I still need another set of ascended armor before I decide to test it.

Okay, so ever since I posted my last post, I may or may not have gotten somewhat decent-ish at doing the Aetherpath (at least, I have the know-how, although I can't carry a party through the dungeon).

But I'd like to do something for those guild members who'd like the achievements, but have not obtained it yet. And since dungeons is winning the guild night poll at present*, why not?

Essentially, I'd like to help some of you grab your Aetherpath achievements. All I ask is that you be on Teamspeak, and *maybe* read up on the walkthrough a little bit, so it's easier for me to go through the stuff you need to do

And even if you've already done the dungeon, it's fine too! Two experienced heads are better than one, in case anything goes wrong. But at most, I'd only want 2-3 experienced people, since this is about bringing other players in for their achievements.

If you're interested, comment below for the chance to loot an Aetherized Nightmare weapon!

*If it ends up losing, we can always do it whenever everyone is free.