Guild Wars 2 Tools

The idea behind the game tools section of Tales of the Aggronaut is to have a simple way of compiling links and resources that are personally useful to me. At some point, I completely stopped using bookmarks, and as a result, I tend to just type in the sites that I am trying to reach. This is great until I shift games and immediately seem to blow everything that I once knew… out of my brain. The game tools then are an easy way of not only compiling links that I find useful but also sharing them with my readers.

The Official Wiki

The first and most important link for Guild Wars 2 is the official Wiki which is maintained by Arena Net. It is impossible to explain just how important this site is for understanding what things are and what you can do with them. Essentially this should be your go-to when it comes to looking up any information.

• Official GW2 Wiki

Guild Wars 2 API Key

A number of websites and applications will require you to generate an API Key. These grant external websites access to various components of your account through the Guild Wars 2 API. Essentially you can allow access to the trading post, characters, PVP, progression, wallet, builds, account, inventories, and what content you have unlocked.

• Guild Wars 2 API Key Management

Guild Wars 2 Efficiency

I am not even certain what to file this site under. In many games, there is the concept of an “Armory” site that shows information about your account. GW2 Efficiency does this, but it does so many more things. It will tell you whether or not it is more efficient to buy or craft a legendary. It can tell you the current value of everything in your bank. This is a weird one but well worth configuring.

• GW2 Efficiency

Game Guides

• Dulfy.net
  • Dulfy was the original one-stop source for information on many games but has taken a break from content creation. However, there is still a good deal of information available as the site is still running even though the updates are few and far between.
• GuildJen
  • GuildJen is basically the new Dulfy for lack of a better explanation. All the things that Dulfy once provided, GuildJen does now. Wide social media presence as well, so lots of ways to receive information.
• Mukluk Labs
  • While Mukluk is largely a YouTuber, he does maintain a very well-organized website that links to various guides he has created on different subjects. If video information is your preference this is a great resource.
• Into The Mists
  • While not necessarily a guide site, this is an excellent source of guild wars news and articles that dive into specific aspects of the game.
• GW2 Mists WvW
  • This site and the guides on it are largely focused on providing information for the World Vs World player.

Build Guides

• In-Meta Builds – Builds Designed for End Game Content
  • Meta Battle
    • The huge benefit of Meta battle is that it has builds broken out by type of content. Additionally, it has a number of “basic” builds that are designed to be immediately achievable upon hitting 80 with zero hero points trained into elite specializations.
  • Snowcrows
    • Largely focused on the Raid, Dungeon, Strike, and Fractal game this is the reference I see mentioned a lot in those circles. Meta builds are often way more challenging for new players to pick up so maybe not your best first source.
• General Builds
  • Vallun’s One Build Series
    • This is a series of excellent YouTube guides that dive into creating a single build that players can use for all modes of the game with no gear swaps or tweaks. These will never be the optimal “meta” build but are going to be good enough to get players into almost all content.
• Build Tools
  • Guild Wars 2 Skills
    • This seems to be the defacto tool for sharing build information. If you want to share your build easily with someone else, this is the place to start. I wish there was a way to browse the builds that have already been created and a ranking system for popularity or something to have a source for interesting off meta build ideas.

Event Timers

One of the huge things about Guild Wars 2 is all of the meta events and world bosses that spawn in the open world. These take place on a fixed interval and as such there are sites out there that grant you access to a rolling schedule of want events are about to take place. It is a good idea to be in the zone at least fifteen minutes (thirty minutes for heavily contested metas) ahead of the start of the event so that you can land on one of the more active maps.

• GW2 Timers

External Addons

Guild Wars 2 does not have support for in-game addons like World of Warcraft or Elder Scrolls Online does. However, there are a number of programs that run as a Direct X overlay and provide in-game access to different information. There is quite a long list of these but I am going to limit it to the ones I specifically find useful. For example, I am completely skipping over any of the real-time DPS meters because I am personally opposed to using them.

• BlishHUD
  • This is the most modern version of a total hud overlay for Guild Wars 2, and it utilizes a repository system that allows you to easily download and install new addons from within the game. Things that I use it for are event timers, visual waypoint pathing, and having a popup menu that shows all of my mounts allowing me to switch quickly between them. Terribly useful and needs to be launched first before opening Guild Wars 2.
• GW2 Taco
  • This is essentially the precursor to BlishHUD and there are many who prefer it overall. The problem is it does not function well with the DirectX 11 Client, and soon with the game going to that as the only option, it will be obsoleted.
• GW2 Radial
  • Say you really want the ability to rapidly swap between mounts, but you don’t want to deal with the rest of the HUD? We got you covered because this program is stand-alone and only offers you the ability to have a mount popup wheel.

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