Guild Wars 2

(English isn’t my native language, I hope everything comes across right.)

I recently played gw2 after 2 years not login in. Back in the days i played just randomly, lvl’ing to 80, doing some events… nothing special, but more important I did not run any dungeon/fractal at this time.

Today i watched some videos of dungeon/fractals and i have a serious question.

I’am trying to get it right.
- 95% of the boss fights or even just killing trashmobs are about abusing some form of line of sight, get mobs at a specific spot and zerg them down with blind/wall/stun etc.
- nearly everyone is using full dps gear and get one or two shotted
- no use of any defensive stat (2/3 of gear and stats are useless?) or aggro mechanics (does it even exist in gw2?)

Is this the way of doing it?
Getting berserk gear, adjust my build a bit and i’m fine?
Is a Guardian, who builds toughness/life etc. for dungeons completly garbage?
Or an Ele or whatever, who is building a support/heal gear/spec also?

I hope someone can enlighten me!

Dungeons are outdated content. Even the last touch-ups on dungeons are 1.5 years old.

Fractals have seen slight revamps, but in general aside from some bugs fixes (and introduction of new bugs) they are the same as 2 years ago when they got added.

Volthack.7312:

- 95% of the boss fights or even just killing trashmobs are about abusing some form of line of sight, get mobs at a specific spot and zerg them down with blind/wall/stun etc.

The mob AI is not as sophisticated as for example some HoT open world enemys have. The general approach is to stack enemys and kill them while using active defenses. If you consider pulling enemys around a corner an abuse, sure then let’s call it abusing the enemy AI.

Volthack.7312:

- nearly everyone is using full dps gear and get one or two shotted
- no use of any defensive stat (2/3 of gear and stats are useless?) or aggro mechanics (does it even exist in gw2?)

Defensive stats are nearly useless in any pve content where it could matter. Having 1,000 more toughness or vitality might allow you to survive 1 extra hit, while it extends the duration of the fight by a lot more allowing for more mistakes.

In general it’s: learn to not get hit while doing damage.

For this purpose parties usually have specific setups (dungeons are to easy for it to matter any more). For high level fractals (80+) you’ll want a combination of support (providing boons and reflects), damage multipliers (alacrity and quickness) and a good mix damage skills. Build parties accordingly.

But even here, the powercreep and outdated nature of fractal design allows for a lot of flexibility.

The only place where healers or tanks are needed is the raid. But that content is a completely different type of game.

Cyninja.2954:

For high level fractals (80+) you’ll want a combination of support (providing boons and reflects), damage multipliers (alacrity and quickness) and a good mix damage skills.

Expanding on this, support is both offensive and defensive. CC and weakness are easy forms of defensive support(applied to the enemy), as well as boons like protection & aegis(applied to group) and skills the can negate projectiles like Wall of Reflect or Feedback. Swiftness can also be considered a form of defensive support in some situations, likewise cripple, chill and immobilize in limited circumstances.

Offensive support can include vulnerability(up to 25% more damage to your party), might, fury, profession specific buffs like assassin’s presence, spotter or empower allies, banner of strength/discipline(tactics/defense banners are defensive), frost/sun spirits, grace of the land. As a note, these buffs multiply one another as do trait and gear multipliers like force sigils, scholar runes, berserker runes, and a plethora of individual major and minor traits.

Vampiric aura on necro can fall into both categories.

A final note on alacrity and quickness. These multiply the effects of everything else, but they require more skillful play to take advantage of. If you run around like a headless chicken, having skills come off cd faster won’t really matter, especially if you are using skills that have little to no effect on the enemy, or you’re using skills that aren’t as strong as other available choices.

And another note on alac/quick, they affect different classes in different ways and some of their potential may be wasted on classes/players. Thief damage can depend on endurance level and initiative quantity, both of which are unaffected by alac/quickness(outside source of vigor sold separately), engineer kit swapping can put in tiny one second kit cds that won’t always allow you to use a skill off cd because you may be stuck in another kit.

Alac/quick also rely on chronos/mesmers, with the ebb and flow of a battle, both buffs may vary in their uptime, your choice of skills will constantly change throughout a fight depending on previous skill use and how cds are coming off.