Guild Wars 2

At high level fractal (like 40-49) he is, to me, an absolute nightmare. Groups who don’t glitch him usually wipe several times and I don’t find many useful tips at all. Are we supposed to murder all wolves immediately? Because dodge all you want when they swarm you it’s over. And people often just ignore the veteran wolves. Secondly, when there are no reflects up, is ranged as a Warrior still a viable option?

the strategy for mossman which we tend to use on 49/50 is we have a guardian in knights who tries to hold aggro, chaining aegis (focus 5, retreat, f3, renewed, f3, etc.) while the rest of the team wail on him. We put reflects/absorption up to deal with the dancing dagger, and keep him perma-crippled/chilled so the guardian can backpedal. if he switches aggro, the person taking it backpedals and we get behind mossman again. whatever you do, don’t dodge in to your party or he’ll just cleave and throw them all in the trash can.

i’m pretty sure you can’t expect pugs to do anything like this though, the fight will be too chaotic to control since nobody will be aware of what they should be doing.

maha.7902:

the strategy for mossman which we tend to use on 49/50 is we have a guardian in knights who tries to hold aggro, chaining aegis (focus 5, retreat, f3, renewed, f3, etc.) while the rest of the team wail on him. We put reflects/absorption up to deal with the dancing dagger, and keep him perma-crippled/chilled so the guardian can backpedal. if he switches aggro, the person taking it backpedals and we get behind mossman again. whatever you do, don’t dodge in to your party or he’ll just cleave and throw them all in the trash can.

i’m pretty sure you can’t expect pugs to do anything like this though, the fight will be too chaotic to control since nobody will be aware of what they should be doing.

Awesome answer, thanks. I guess I need to find a Fractal Guild that uses TS3 and whatnot.

Anyway, what about wolves? Do you guys ignore them or do you burst them down asaply?

the wolves are normally just cleaved as part of attacking mossman but one or two will always linger so we can basically score rallies off of them. if they end up being an issue, guardian blinds or thief blinding powder could be a decent tactic.

if you can’t get in to a decent dungeon/fractal guild I suppose you’ll just have to do what you’re most comfortable with in a pug situation – i’m stubborn so i’ll melee everything (even if it means meeting the dumpster in se p3 dredge clown car) but if you had more common sense than I do and decided to go 1 melee and 1 range set I suppose that would be fine too.

Definitely slot a ranged weapon if you are stuggling with melee. Dead zerkers players deal no dps … Maybe best to keep fast hands for that.

I haven’t found any ways to make the fight particularly easy for warrior, but if you have a guardian, bully him into ask him nicely to trait for spirit weapons (longer duration + shorter cooldown), master of consecrations, and go spirit shield + wall.

Suns Dusk.7201:

Definitely slot a ranged weapon if you are stuggling with melee. Dead zerkers players deal no dps … Maybe best to keep fast hands for that.

I haven’t found any ways to make the fight particularly easy for warrior, but if you have a guardian, bully him into ask him nicely to trait for spirit weapons (longer duration + shorter cooldown), master of consecrations, and go spirit shield + wall.

Wut.

Bingo.

Suns Dusk.7201:

I haven’t found any ways to make the fight particularly easy for warrior, but if you have a guardian, bully him into ask him nicely to trait for spirit weapons (longer duration + shorter cooldown), master of consecrations, and go spirit shield + wall.

That must be the first time I hear someone talk nicely about Spirit Weaponry. Last Guardian was kicked (not by me) for using Spirit Weapons.

ThirdSketch.7139:

Suns Dusk.7201:

I haven’t found any ways to make the fight particularly easy for warrior, but if you have a guardian, bully him into ask him nicely to trait for spirit weapons (longer duration + shorter cooldown), master of consecrations, and go spirit shield + wall.

That must be the first time I hear someone talk nicely about Spirit Weaponry. Last Guardian was kicked (not by me) for using Spirit Weapons.

Shield of avenger has always been awesome, for its reflect and such. I don’t think I have ever used any of the others or seen them be used. Except for the occasional encounter which pets are handy (I’m thinking thaumanova anomaly).

ThirdSketch.7139:

Suns Dusk.7201:

I haven’t found any ways to make the fight particularly easy for warrior, but if you have a guardian, bully him into ask him nicely to trait for spirit weapons (longer duration + shorter cooldown), master of consecrations, and go spirit shield + wall.

That must be the first time I hear someone talk nicely about Spirit Weaponry. Last Guardian was kicked (not by me) for using Spirit Weapons.

I am not talking about spirit weapons in general, only the shield … Although I admit I hate it too as it is so weird. But not using it while your party is getting destroyed by Mossman is just plain stupidity.

Suns Dusk.7201:

I am not talking about spirit weapons in general, only the shield … Although I admit I hate it too as it is so weird. But not using it while your party is getting destroyed by Mossman is just plain stupidity.

Aha! He was using Spirit Sword for some reason, not the Shield.

You could always reroll to advoid him considering swamp is always first you only really wasting what 2mins to avoid a fight you don’t want to fight.

you know to use mini map to avoid his back stab and agony right u can track him when he is stealthed.

Fafnir.5124:

You could always reroll to advoid him considering swamp is always first you only really wasting what 2mins to avoid a fight you don’t want to fight.

And an unknown time rerolling.

Mossman is honestly one of the reasons I prefer to start on underwater Fractal.

Mossman is one of the best encounters in the game imo, aside from the fact that Arenanet still hasn’t come up with a way to get people to stop bugging him in the water. I immediately leave if I’m in a party and they do this.

I thought he spawns a TON of adds if you lure him into the water, or does it still work?

Lindbur.2537:

I thought he spawns a TON of adds if you lure him into the water, or does it still work?

A bunch of skelk spawn in the water if any player is nearby. Unfortunately, those only attack swimming players, and there’s a really small bit of terrain on which people can stand and range the Mossman from there, safe from the skelks, wolves and the Mossman himself.
On the bright side, people fail to glitch him properly most of the times and end up sharing a delicious bouncing blade to the face until everyone is downed.

Edit: I just joined a party that’s trying to glitch him. I’ll come with updates!
Round 1: Got destroyed by bouncing blades.
Round 2: Normal kill. They resigned to fight him without glitching him.

FenrirSlakt.3692:

A bunch of skelk spawn in the water if any player is nearby. Unfortunately, those only attack swimming players, and there’s a really small bit of terrain on which people can stand and range the Mossman from there, safe from the skelks, wolves and the Mossman himself.
On the bright side, people fail to glitch him properly most of the times and end up sharing a delicious bouncing blade to the face until everyone is downed.

Huh! Most groups I join try to glitch him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. However it usually doesn’t work when we’re on that small patch of land, since Mossman reaches us there, how come? Instead, the group usually pulls Mossman in the water while standing on the patch, only to move to the other side where they range him. Another group today morning tried to camp on that one tree but that didn’t really work out either haha….

learn to melee it, as easy as that.
(special hints: stay behind mossman and dodge when he turns around to attack)

a group that insists on glitching mossman, is a group i would leave just because i wanna see how they play. if you wipe multiple times at mossman its probably best to either practise or look for a better group since you will struggle with them anyways if you can only do it with glitching.

NOIZERRR.3079:

learn to melee it, as easy as that.
(special hints: stay behind mossman and dodge when he turns around to attack)

a group that insists on glitching mossman, is a group i would leave just because i wanna see how they play. if you wipe multiple times at mossman its probably best to either practise or look for a better group since you will struggle with them anyways if you can only do it with glitching.

Since the posting of this thread I’ve done Fractal 49, 3 times now with Mossman every time. I looked at some other guides that told me to kite backwards when I’ve aggro, and tail behind him when I don’t. This works quite great, unless I’ve teammates who don’t do the same OR when there is not enough Zerk.

The most annoying part however, is that most groups require apparently 5k or more achievement points, and don’t even care how much Agony Resistance I have or how many Fractals I’ve completed. I wouldn’t say I’m bad, and I have friends with a lot more achievement points who are absolutely atrocious at Fractals. But this is just general kittening.

But still. Guardian is so much easier I think.

Everyone wears full zerk and runs meta builds. Guardian with hammer gives protection, chain reflects/absorbs with ele and/or thief. Ele summon earth elemental, everyone keep up cripple. Use consumables, dodge the agony Axe throws, rally on wolves. Its that easy. Just don’t run clerics kitten or tanky gear its gonna make you preserve your mistakes.

Veydar.5017:

Everyone wears full zerk and runs meta builds. Guardian with hammer gives protection, chain reflects/absorbs with ele and/or thief. Ele summon earth elemental, everyone keep up cripple. Use consumables, dodge the agony Axe throws, rally on wolves. Its that easy. Just don’t run clerics kitten or tanky gear its gonna make you preserve your mistakes.

Yeah I myself run pure Zerk. But you never know with pugs. Sometimes you rock 49 without any problems and other times we get stuck in a Fractal rank 19(!) or so. I try to get random people into Mumble or TS but they NEVER want that. And I have yet to find an active Guild that runs Fractals every day, like I do. So I figured I’ve to get extra super duper skilled. And I’m faaaar from that.

I love Fractals though. So fun.

Veydar.5017:

Everyone wears full zerk and runs meta builds. Guardian with hammer gives protection, chain reflects/absorbs with ele and/or thief. Ele summon earth elemental, everyone keep up cripple. Use consumables, dodge the agony Axe throws, rally on wolves. Its that easy. Just don’t run clerics kitten or tanky gear its gonna make you preserve your mistakes.

It’s “that easy” he says.

Let’s cut out the tryhardism please. Mossman is already unforgiving in organised groups, in pugs he’s harder because you can’t perform the correct tactics.

This thread.

In any case Shield of the Avenger is a nice staple for guardians in FoTM, I myself run it at high level. You may also consider a reliable and constant source of protection, chill, and weakness.

Even in full zerker, properly stacking these boons and conditions you can literally face tank his auto attacks. Immobilize him before he goes into stealth and he won’t move until he gets out and does the teleport dual strike which has a very fair chance of not doing a lot of damage even on 50 in full zerker with the proper conditions/boons.

Smart use of deflection is nice icing on the cake to prevent his axe toss from bouncing and instagibbing people if they can’t dodge. The axe toss travels slowly and can be tracked clear as day, if he’s warming up get ready to dodge it, you can hear it very clearly.

Keep people close and around reflections, use the proper group utility, AoE wolves, and even in full zerker he’ll hit like a wet noodle while you chop him down in mere minutes.

Perma-weakness is a nice way to keep him under control.

Pretty much everything has been said about Mossman, but I’ll just add that you can fgs rush him if you have elementalists (might not be a good idea with pugs though). At low level, even 1 elementalist (or 2) are enough to kill it, but you need multiple rushes and chain aegis / dodge while waiting for the next rush. Keeping reflects up are a good idea too

http://youtu.be/Ll55RA5kU3o

did a 49 last night with a pug group that slapped him down good. Though the engi was spamming nades like no tomorrow and between him and the ele they littered my monitor with so many particles I’m glad I don’t have epilepsy.

Axe toss when you’re in melee can be a pain. There’s basically a lot of praying when you go in that you have aegis or packing a block. Off hand sword for warrs is great for that since it doesn’t end on a ranged block so if the axe comes back it blocks again and if he melees you after that you get a nice hit in. Somewhat OP.

The wolves can be a pain, but having a non-vet wolf in their as a rally bot is a life saver.

I recently started doing FGS mossy with my guild, if it’s sub-30 then we usually only need 1 ele and 1 guard, but having 2 ele or 2 guard works, anything above 30 though you start needed both 2 ele and 2 guard.
Try and time your dodges one or two seconds after he disappears. Also try and give weakness if you can (and the guards should of course use prot) to him so that double-axe doesn’t one down anyone who’s not wearing an aegis as often.

One thing I can’t believe hasn’t been noted is skale venom. If even two or three of your party members use this you get a very high uptime on weakness, usually permanent if the full party uses it. Weakness is essentially a 25% damage reduction (50% chance to proc 50% less damage), so it’s a huge help. If you’re using FGS and having issues I believe this will provide perma weakness with even one person using it (with an FGS rush).

Weve found that using 1 ele and 1 guard for fgs’ing mossman isnt usually enough for 38 (most of the time you get him to about 20% hp before people run out of blocks/evades). Unless you get lucky and manage to see whats going on. 2 eles and 1 guard should be plenty for both 38 and 49. But having 2 eles and 2 guards is pretty much guaranteed to get the kill. My group rarely stacks classes so we tend to fgs to start if we have an ele and then fight normally. More fun that way anyway.

but fgs is really interesting

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you know you’ve done something right in your game when bad players complaining about stacking in corners pressing 1 skill is the truth.

maha.7902:

but fgs is really interesting

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you know you’ve done something right in your game when bad players complaining about stacking in corners pressing 1 skill is the truth.

Well I’m just saying another way of doing it, we usually don’t do it (unless at the start of the fight), who run 3 ele / 2 guardian in fotm anyway :>