Guild Wars 2

Hello. Can someone give me any tips on how to explore Verdant Brink. I’m having a really hard time doing it with my engi, the monsters in VB are really strong for some reason, I’m dying constantly. I’m new to this game, and engi is a really hard class to play. So if you have any advice please tell me them, I really need help with this thing.

I’d advise staying in Core Tyria until you have mastered your Profession.

Heart of Thorns is, for the most part, designed for more experienced players.

Good luck.

They’re going to be hard by design, and naturally you’ll need to bring stronger builds to compensate. HOT maps are also designed around different principles then the base game….. if you have not played the base game for a decent amount of time, I would NOT recommend trying to do HOT content without an extensive understanding of how your class works.

This isn’t really a case of what build to run, so much as having to not only learn the major difference in how combat in Guildwars 2 works… but having to relearn them again, as Heart of Thorns goes out of its way to test you on your understanding of the game’s combat system. Action has to be measured, understanding the limits of your class, and where/when its safe to engage enemies, is critical to doing anything in those maps. While this makes it sound hard…. its actually not. The problem with Core Tyria is that the AI behavior and encounter designs don’t really test the player beyond very basic actions. This has lead to a habit of novice players just face tanking like any other MMO, and DPS them until someone dies.

But as players gain experience in harder content, it reinforces the strongest aspects of the game’s action combat system….. the active mitigation and AVOIDANCE of damage, complimented with class build synergy.

I know it sounds kind of vague- but there is a massive amount of information that has to be conveyed to understand what makes HOT maps so difficult. And none of that makes any sense unless you can understand why fights in the base game content landed up being so easy. I’m sure other people will just drop a ton of instructions and hints to help…. but I want to get across that point that simply following the advise, without understanding the “why” tends to get you stuck more often then it helps.

So here is what I can suggest to help with context. Heart of Thorns is built around the advancement of Mastery tracks (which enable mobility within the maps) and Elite Specialization (which a form of power creep required to keep pace with the new map’s spike in difficulty). You need to be aware of both of these, and seek to advance the early levels of these as quickly as possible. Without them, travel is incredible difficult… but with them, it eventually becomes trivial. Elite specializations in particular are important for most classes, because it gives access to skills tailored to handle fights against Modrem and other mob types you’ll encounter in later maps.

Also keep in mind that most of HOT is meant to done as a group…. so you WILL be at a disadvantage without nearby players to lend help. But as your experience with a class improves, you can progressively become less dependent on help, and can solo the less difficult content without much struggle. But to get there, you need to learn the ins and outs of what your class does, and what they’re strengths and weaknesses are.

Now Engineers are inherently a hybird support class… one of, if not the most versatile class in the game. However, you’re not designed to be front line brawler; and the Scrapper spec is more PvP focused. That said… you can leverage scrapper for its burst damage, which is something the base class makes very complicated. You CAN make it work… but harder to accomplish on Engineer.

So heres what you should look into doing. Your first major goal is getting Hero points to unlock Scrapper. Verdant brink usually has a lot of Commanders doing hero point trains, whose goal is to help guide you to all the Hero points on the map, and help do the challenges that are difficult to solo. However, to keep you with them, you need Gliding mastery ( level 2) and Itzel 1 (for jumping mushrooms) unlocked. So the first thing you need to do is work on Gliding Mastery. Since these are progressed through Experience points, you should stay on the East side of the map and do nearby events to get XP to fill the track. There are also enough easily reached Mastery points on that side of the map to get you started. Its a pain to get started on, and will take a couple hours (minimum)…. but once you’re past that hurdle, moving forward will be a lot easier.

Assuming you got through a Hero Point train, you should have most of the Scrapper line unlocked. For an easy build to work with, take Explosives, Firearms, and Scrapper (or Tools in the interim), and focus all your traits on direct damage, explosives and bomb kits. This will give you a huge bump in direct damage to kits things that try to follow you, while the scrapper line introduces a mix of offensive and defensive traits to make you a bit more survivable. The Hammer has a strong stun, a block skill, and enables a combo to chain daze on a target by using skill 5, and then skill 3 inside the lighting field.

For gear, most people run all berskers…. I would recommend using mixing in either soldiers or knights stats trinkets to boost your survivability, until you can get a handle on dodging. Also try to avoid fighting more then 2 things at a time, and make as much use of the CC skills at your disposal.

Other people can give more specific tips, and answer other questions…. but I’m hoping this post gives you at least enough insight into the situation to start becoming aware of the game’s approach to play- and through that awareness, start taking advantage of the tools the game gives you.

Verdant Brink (and the other HoT zones) are designed for people who have completed the base game, so it’s intentionally harder because they’re expecting everyone who goes there to be familiar with their profession and the game mechanics.

If you’re new to the game I strongly recommend you focus on the ‘core’ Tyria maps first and leave the expansion until you can confidently handle any other area of the game.

But if you really want to do Verdant Brink now here’s a few tips:
1) Don’t try to move in straight lines. It’s probably the most complicated map to navigate (some people say Tangled Depths is worse, but I’m not convinced) – you often have to go around your target location to get to it, or go up a level and glide/drop down, or go under it and climb up, or a mix of them all. It’s much better to take your time and simply explore – follow a path and see where it takes you – rather than setting off with a precise goal in mind and expecting to get there directly.

2) Many of the enemies have specific mechanics that you need to use when fighting them. For example Pocket Raptors are individually weak but there’s a lot of them and they hit hard, so AoE is a good way to fight them (takes them all down quicker than trying to kill each one individually) and if you can immobilise them too that will help a lot. Whereas Stoneheads are tough and hit hard when they charge but move slowly, so your priority should be to dodge their attacks and then keep chipping away at them in between. Smokescales can avoid almost all direct damage so AoE or applying conditions is your best bet to fight them. And so on.

Some of this the game will tell you (via the buffs on the enemies), some you need to learn by fighting them and watching what happens, and to do that you need experience with the games mechanics.

3) You need a good build. I’m guessing you used the level 80 boost so you’re using the default exotics it gave you and possibly the default skills too. Those are ok, but it’s well worth experimenting with other options to find what works best for you.

4) Verdant Brink is much easier to navigate once you can use gliding, especially once you’ve got updrafts and ideally Advanced Gliding. But to do that you need to get XP in the HoT maps and mastery points, so you’ll have to spend a while doing whatever you can reach while collecting XP and mastery points to train it up and more easily access the rest of the map.

If your’e on a US server, hit me up in game. I can show you how to better survive the jungle.