Guild Wars 2

I understand the aggro system in game. I just don’t understand why Gaurdians don’t have a signet that generates threat such as the paladins do in WoW. They’re Guardians after all, but the way the aggro works in this game, anyone doing more damage then the Guardian takes aggro. The aggro in PvE in this game would be a lot better if one of their signets generated threat, that way the squishy dpsers don’t get two shot by a skill they can’t dodge. All I’m saying is that the Gaurdians need more tanking ability, and the aggro system needs to be better.

It seems like you don’t understand the aggro system.

It’s based on proximity (with a bit of LoS), stats (in some cases), damage, control, and utility.

If you want to ensure aggro, root/cc your opponent and stand next to him while bursting him as much as possible while they are rooted/cc’ed. This will make yourself a very large target in the AI’s eyes.

Esplen.3940:

It seems like you don’t understand the aggro system.

It’s based on proximity (with a bit of LoS), stats (in some cases), damage, control, and utility.

If you want to ensure aggro, root/cc your opponent and stand next to him while bursting him as much as possible while they are rooted/cc’ed. This will make yourself a very large target in the AI’s eyes.

Unless someone goes down. A downed player seems to draw tons of aggro.

Can you please tell me what the point of that mist form ability Elementalists have when they’re down? By the looks of it, it would appear to be a skill used to drop aggro and get a few seconds to move away from danger, but it’s anything but that. Either I’m using it wrong, it’s use is completely counter intuitive or it’s broken.

Euthymia.4807:

Esplen.3940:

It seems like you don’t understand the aggro system.

It’s based on proximity (with a bit of LoS), stats (in some cases), damage, control, and utility.

If you want to ensure aggro, root/cc your opponent and stand next to him while bursting him as much as possible while they are rooted/cc’ed. This will make yourself a very large target in the AI’s eyes.

Unless someone goes down. A downed player seems to draw tons of aggro.

Can you please tell me what the point of that mist form ability Elementalists have when they’re down? By the looks of it, it would appear to be a skill used to drop aggro and get a few seconds to move away from danger, but it’s anything but that. Either I’m using it wrong, it’s use is completely counter intuitive or it’s broken.

It’s a disengage. You can use it to avoid skills and re-position yourself (preferably behind allies or into some water). By yourself, it’s somewhat useless, but can be a decent stall if you have conditions on the enemies.

From what i noticed primary target for AI is a player whit highes toughness, im playing tanky engineer whit 3300 armor and i use rilfe, my damage is really low, so im usualy at range whit mobs while the melee users are up in the face of the mob and yet im the one that get 90% of the aggro.

Esplen.3940:

Euthymia.4807:

Esplen.3940:

It seems like you don’t understand the aggro system.

It’s based on proximity (with a bit of LoS), stats (in some cases), damage, control, and utility.

If you want to ensure aggro, root/cc your opponent and stand next to him while bursting him as much as possible while they are rooted/cc’ed. This will make yourself a very large target in the AI’s eyes.

Unless someone goes down. A downed player seems to draw tons of aggro.

Can you please tell me what the point of that mist form ability Elementalists have when they’re down? By the looks of it, it would appear to be a skill used to drop aggro and get a few seconds to move away from danger, but it’s anything but that. Either I’m using it wrong, it’s use is completely counter intuitive or it’s broken.

It’s a disengage. You can use it to avoid skills and re-position yourself (preferably behind allies or into some water). By yourself, it’s somewhat useless, but can be a decent stall if you have conditions on the enemies.

Most of the time I’ve used it. It’s completely useless. Mobs will follow you even when you’re in mist form, and I’ve seen mobs leave fighting parting members to go after me instead. Then there’s a bunch of mobs attacking the mist, so I die pretty much as soon as it ends.

Then you’re using it incorrectly. I’ve seen plenty of Elementalist use it to move their butts into a safer spot so I, or others, can res them.

Esplen.3940:

Then you’re using it incorrectly. I’ve seen plenty of Elementalist use it to move their butts into a safer spot so I, or others, can res them.

I can move to a safer spot all I want, but the aggro follows. Logically, it should drop aggro or at least blind foes as you transform so that they don’t follow you.

Euthymia.4807:

Esplen.3940:

Then you’re using it incorrectly. I’ve seen plenty of Elementalist use it to move their butts into a safer spot so I, or others, can res them.

I can move to a safer spot all I want, but the aggro follows. Logically, it should drop aggro or at least blind foes as you transform so that they don’t follow you.

Hey guys, I know I’m downed but could you completely forget that I’m here? kthx

Talk to a WvW player about ele mist form. It’s a whole different game. In PvE you’re probably boned if you’re downed and by yourself, as are a lot of classes. Just use it the best you can in that situation.

Vapor Form makes you invulnerable, allows you to move (out of AoE at least, if not to a truly safe spot), and resets your downed state so you don’t die. It has saved many, many lives, even in PvE.

They got rid of Tanking in that sense. You use your abilities to Control the enemy.

Besides, you don’t need aggro to help your Downed team-mates, or team-mates that are in trouble.

As a Guardian, Hammer has a knock-back and a ring that can trap them for 6 seconds.

Knock them off of your teammate, and then trap them while other team-mates help revive.

TheAnythinger.8160:

I understand the aggro system in game. I just don’t understand why Gaurdians don’t have a signet that generates threat such as the paladins do in WoW. They’re Guardians after all, but the way the aggro works in this game, anyone doing more damage then the Guardian takes aggro. The aggro in PvE in this game would be a lot better if one of their signets generated threat, that way the squishy dpsers don’t get two shot by a skill they can’t dodge. All I’m saying is that the Gaurdians need more tanking ability, and the aggro system needs to be better.

Because doing that reverts GW2 to the standard trinity instead of it’s improvised trinity.

I understand the OP’s position though. The aggro mechanics in the game are not very transparent, and controlling aggro is made difficult due to this fact. And while the game maintains this philosophy of any class being able to fulfill any role, I think we all know this isn’t true. Guardians do make much better tanks than most other classes.

Stack toughness and watch everything try to rip your face off. My elementalist runs mostly knight’s gear and has armor at ~2800. At Melandru for example, the boss and most vets & champs target me over the 5+ zerk warriors pounding on them when I’m kiting with a staff. Toughness seems to take priority over damage when it comes to aggro for some reason. Just my personal experience.

ExTribble.7108:

Stack toughness and watch everything try to rip your face off. My elementalist runs mostly knight’s gear and has armor at ~2800. At Melandru for example, the boss and most vets & champs target me over the 5+ zerk warriors pounding on them when I’m kiting with a staff. Toughness seems to take priority over damage when it comes to aggro for some reason. Just my personal experience.

I have a Ele bunker to, the boss always targeted the lvl 35 ranger in AC, just think it hate some1 and keep on hating them, its probably not because of toughness, since I cant see it, seems mainly random, if you really want to get its attention, it sometimes is possible, but mainly seems like it just want to atk everything, but main whoever it targeted first i guess. CoF P2 is a pretty good example of that, tried to hold the last boss from the others, have only succeded in doing it 100% 1 out of 8 times, even thoug i was close, and the only one atking it, while everyone else was far away from the boss.

TheAnythinger.8160:

I understand the aggro system in game. I just don’t understand why Gaurdians don’t have a signet that generates threat such as the paladins do in WoW. They’re Guardians after all, but the way the aggro works in this game, anyone doing more damage then the Guardian takes aggro. The aggro in PvE in this game would be a lot better if one of their signets generated threat, that way the squishy dpsers don’t get two shot by a skill they can’t dodge. All I’m saying is that the Gaurdians need more tanking ability, and the aggro system needs to be better.

The answer is simple, you’re not supposed to be tanking them in the first place. Guardians are not paladins.

While you might be able to tank from time to time, there’s no reliable way to get agro because the game wasn’t designed around the traditional trinity (with mixed success). Instead it’s supposed to use a soft trinity of damage, control and support, control being the closest one to tanking.

Using the guardian as an example, you’re not meant to be taking all the hits like a traditional tank, instead you should be trying to control the enemies so they’re not hitting your allies, and the guardian has plenty of tools to create builds to do that. Knock them out with hammer’s banish (actually one of my favorite guardian skills), zealot’s embrace to inmobilize them, create a ring of warding to either prevent them from getting to your friends or trap them in a specific area, along with other weapons like line of warding from staff (creates a line foes cannot cross), chains of light from scepter (inmobilizes foes), shield of absorption from shield that pushes foes back, and utility skills like sanctuary, wall of reflection and so on.