Guild Wars 2

I cannot find a single build that fits my playstyle in PVP or WVW. Every time I mention this I get told, “Just learn the build’s playstyle.” If it was that simple, there would be no scrubs or noobs.

I’ve scoured each professions builds and their kits. I CANNOT find anything of use that works well together that isn’t kittened in any shape or form.

Example: Necromancers have tons of things that hurt themselves to gain power, but then they end up killing themselves. Nowhere in anything I have studied about Necromancers, have I seen Necromancers that kill themselves to gain power. They kill others to gain power. So why have skills, and a lot of them too, that cause self harm? “I’m gonna hurt myself to hurt you” is quite frankly a dumb idea. The answer to every question of why they wouldn’t be able to use them without the “drawback” is simple. “It’s magic.”

Slow skills (skills that take time to go off instead of happening when you activate them), skills with really long cooldowns in fights that are over in seconds, build passives that proc, but have long cooldowns so they never happen when they are needed, flavor text that is terrible and confuse players, too many heals, too many dodges, too much grace for mistakes, too much burst, no useful tanks, etc., etc.

I personally do not have a playstyle that matches with ANY of the playstyles in the game. I NEVER use death shroud in PVE. The original death shroud put me off because of it’s clunkiness. So now I am learning reaper’s shroud, which I think is really good. But, no matter what build I put together, it just doesn’t seem to work. Try and kill someone and they just heal up like your 10+ second cooldown skills might as well not exist. I don’t know how people got around this, but it irritates the hell out of me.

Revenant Staff skill 5 is another one. Regardless of who you target, whatever direction you are aiming is where you take off to. I hate it. Warrior Greatsword skill 5 takes you to your target, so why not Revenant Staff skill 5? It’s like the skills are designed to not work in a kit and work in a system that doesn’t exist or something.

Drop something and they dodge out of it, like there goes half your kit. Nothing lands and there is another dodge ready to launch while the first is being reloaded. This, alongside healing, is a nightmare to play against. You can play all your wrong skills and misclick anything in the match, but as soon as you need a heal or dodge, you got one and it’s so annoying when the fight goes that way. I could stay in a fight for probably days with how healing and dodges are now. Just time it right, and you are set for life.

I personally have the playstyle of a HyperTank. Basically meaning, I like to survive bursts with plenty of health but still deal some damage. Impossible to have with all the healing in this game, which kittenes me off even more. Why does this game make me stressed out when it is one of my favorite past times? I feel like PVE is all that’s worth playing because the builds don’t make sense and their playstyles are so few and pre-selected. every kit I have seen does Berserker stats. Never have I seen someone use a different set of stats. If you build anything else, you don’t deal damage. If you build tanky, you might as well heal your opponent.

I’ve even tested my build against a friend to see if we are actually using equal builds and how they effect us. His condi’s heal him. Mine don’t. Same build, different players. Shouldn’t matter, but apparently it does. So how are builds made and is it possible to be tanky and fight someone that will heal up everything you do to them?

Learn to play. No, seriously. If your problem is that people dodge out of your AoEs, the point is to either have them burn their dodges on other things or disable them with CC so they have to use a stunbreak or eat the damage. If you play against bunker builds in PvP then of course they will have the sustain, but they will also lack the damage. That’s precisely their role. Either improve your playstyle or pick your targets better.

Berserker’s is the be-all-end-it-all in PvE because once you know the content you don’t need defensive stats when you can completely negate damage by correct dodging or active defense like blinds, etc. You CAN run any build in open world PvE (conditions do great damage these days and offer tankier stat combos with that, too), so that’s on you.

So yes, sorry, but your rant post only screams ‘I don’t understand how the combat works’ and you either learn it properly or you’ll haveto find a different game.

I’ve even tested my build against a friend to see if we are actually using equal builds and how they effect us. His condi’s heal him. Mine don’t.

If it were the same build (read: same stats, runes, sigils and traits), then this cannot happen, so I call bulldung on that one.

Wvw is more about numbers than a specific build though a build may help. And pvp sadly is all about specific builds.

Pve you can gonthrough with any buid, I am going minstral ele so my power will bebrock bottom yet I can manage well xD.

But for pvp you may just have to grudgingly accept a different build.
I played my Necro a certain way but I would get stompped all the time by a single person. So I had to use a different one and now I can fight about 3 people and hold my own or a good while before needig help.

To sum up, pve roll with whatever you enjoy and pvp go for a build that has worke for others like meta builds.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

Revenant Staff skill 5 is another one. Regardless of who you target, whatever direction you are aiming is where you take off to. I hate it. Warrior Greatsword skill 5 takes you to your target, so why not Revenant Staff skill 5? It’s like the skills are designed to not work in a kit and work in a system that doesn’t exist or something.

2 Different skills that work differently. Revenants staff 5 affects multiple targets and the inherent knockback works on breakbars. Warrior greatsword 5 is a single target rush. I’m sorry to say, but this is a clear learn to play issue since both of these skills are vastly different.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

Drop something and they dodge out of it, like there goes half your kit. Nothing lands and there is another dodge ready to launch while the first is being reloaded. This, alongside healing, is a nightmare to play against. You can play all your wrong skills and misclick anything in the match, but as soon as you need a heal or dodge, you got one and it’s so annoying when the fight goes that way. I could stay in a fight for probably days with how healing and dodges are now. Just time it right, and you are set for life.

If this were the case, pvp matches would go on for ever. They don’t. Reast assured, when facing opponents that know their class (and more importantly know their opponents class) you will get pressured and forced out of dodge and heal cooldowns. That is in fact your problem it seems, you go all out in the first few seconds of a fight not using proper pressure and skills to force your opponents to dodge and heal first before using aoe skills. Again, more of a learn to pvp aspect (and gain knowledge of every class) than it is a build problem.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

I personally have the playstyle of a HyperTank. Basically meaning, I like to survive bursts with plenty of health but still deal some damage. Impossible to have with all the healing in this game, which kittenes me off even more. Why does this game make me stressed out when it is one of my favorite past times? I feel like PVE is all that’s worth playing because the builds don’t make sense and their playstyles are so few and pre-selected. every kit I have seen does Berserker stats. Never have I seen someone use a different set of stats. If you build anything else, you don’t deal damage. If you build tanky, you might as well heal your opponent.

You do understand that itemisation in this game works as follows:

Damage <——————————————> Tank

The more you have of one, the less you have of the other. The main defensive mechanic of GW2, it being an action MMO, is the active damage mitigation (via dodge and skill use). If you require passive damage reduction on top of that via stats, your damage will suffer. More of an itemisation issue than build issue.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

I’ve even tested my build against a friend to see if we are actually using equal builds and how they effect us. His condi’s heal him. Mine don’t. Same build, different players. Shouldn’t matter, but apparently it does. So how are builds made and is it possible to be tanky and fight someone that will heal up everything you do to them?

Not sure what to make of this. First off: in general conditions do not heal. My guess is, since you sacrificed a lot of damage for tankiness, your actual damage is so low, he can outheal your damage. The best you can do is try running a condition build and get some toughness and/or vitality while getting high condition damage. Here agin though, every stat you spend on tankiness is a stat that is not contributing to your damage. You won’t get that “I can’t be killed but can kill everyone else with ease” statcombination because it literally does not exist ingame.

damage <—> tank
heal <—> support
control is in a league of its own.

that’s pretty much all there is to it. you can’t have the best of both worlds, no one perfect build. it’d be a pretty lame game where one build rules them all if it didn’t have a little bit of this balance.

when you think damage/tank in this game you can’t think tank as in the traditional mmo. you need to build a damage/heal build if you wan’t to play the style you’re probably thinking about. it’s what most players resort to, and why you see so much passive healing in most meta damage builds. being tank in gw2 is about sustaining your hp, with either high toughness or an excessive amount of healing. players that run those high toughness/tank builds along with healing skills are normally referred to as (unkillable and should be banned) bunkers.

if you’re complaining about necromancer corruption skills. it’s more of a L2P thing, sorry, but that’s pretty much it. necromancers have a great deal of condition transferring (their magic is all about manipulating conditions). you power yourself up while applying conditions to yourself and then you transfer your conditions all to your target in a huge condition bomb/burst. it’s pretty op once you get it down, because no build in this game has enough condition cleanse to counter it.

if your friend’s condition was healing him, and your’s wasn’t. then you guys were definitely using different builds. he had 10% of his condition damage healing him, it’s a trait in curses (assuming you guys are necromancers).

if people are dodging your aoe’s, then you need more control (or maximize on a teammate’s control). when you make your build (damage/heal or whatevers), leave a little for some control skills. one of the reasons why necromancer main-hand dagger is so popular is for that 3 skill that immobilizes.

long cast time skills are uber power (normally) and are made intentionally easy to see and dodge. that means landing one takes more skill on the user and getting hit by one means you’re a scrub. all you normally have to do is pressure your target while keeping track of their dodges and heal skill and then bomb them when they don’t have a heal or dodge left (timing basically). and if you’re on the other side of it, you can’t panic and save your dodge/heals as much as you can because you know they’re gonna drop that bomb soon.

Pvp is about short fights to take a point or prolonged fights to keep a point.

Build for one or the other in pvp but remember that if you go for prolonged fights you team loses out on dps and reverse of you go for a damaged xD.

Also remember your classes strong points, for thief it is steath and powerful bursts, Mesmers rely on using their clones while they whitle you down or keep you busy.

onto your thing about the necto, in the minion specific traits you can take a trait the allows your minions to transfer your condis onto you enemy so they have things in place for that issue.

Now about long cast times, imagine if a Revenant could cast jade winds almost instantly? Or the big ole bomb for engi.

As for the healing if a class can do that it has been at the expense of good damage.
If you make a mistake against a thief then you are screwed, if you step into a fear ring from a necro it is costly, if you try to burst down a guardian and they use their dome and then come at you when all your skills are on cd you are screwed.

And you yourself have stated you are a tank with a little extra damage which means your best bet is to accompany a team mate and work together with someone more dps focused.

When you go into a fight take not of everything you enemy does, like how many runes they have, what unique buffs they get like revenants impossible odds and if they have many aoe skills or direct attacks.

When I fought people as a dragon hunter I would first attach them with my 5 greatsword skill, lay down my traps then pull them in. It is all about knowing your class and the other classes

Keira, here are a few tips for making a build.
1. Build synergy between equipment, traits, and skills. There are a lot of traits that support specific weapons or utilities. Try to get dual use out of as much as you can.
2. Build with a focus on something. There are many types of power builds and a few condition builds. Research what sounds good and try to at least partially optimize it.
3. Try builds posted by other players. These people put effort into developing those builds and sharing them for your benefit.
4. Recognize you cannot have everything you want in a build. There are trades that must be made. Learn which trades give you the best value. Your friend’s healing on condition damage cost something. Is it worth it?
5. Have more than one back up plan. Teleport, condition clears or transfers, stun breaks, invulnerability, things like that help keep bad situations from getting worse.
6. Post your own builds and ask for review and suggestions. It is rare not to have some truly constructive feedback.

Maybe these tips are too vague but I hope they help in some small way.

By my conditions do not heal me, I’m referring to Parasitic Contagion in the Necromancers kit. It is supposed to heal you 10% of your condi damage. It doesn’t work for me, apparently.

You can end a fight because of some form of cooldowns. If there weren’t as many dodges and heals, the fights would be short or cautious. This has basically been a giant assassin glass cannon free for all. First mistake loses. That isn’t fighting, that’s assassination.

I don’t want to be a tank that kills people with ease. I never said that. I want a tank that is VIABLE. A tank that is a meatshield, but does zero damage will lose to a glass cannon every time. My tankiness should be close to there damage in strength. My damage should not be more than their squishiness. THEN it is a match of skill. It is also healthy. If I fight against someone that builds a little less glass cannony than glass cannon and more tanky then I’ll have a harder time killing them. That is the point. It’s supposed to be a slugfest, not a instakill gig.

Sorry but you’re prob not going to find what you’re looking for as most of the defensive amulets were removed from pvp recently
Though there are a couple left you could try like clerics

Lots of classes have keyskills to deal damage. Dodge them, and they’ll deal a lot less damage to you. In pvp the dragonhunter can be outplayed by dodging his spear, giving the thief no chance to backstab you does the trick aswell. There are a lot more things to keep in mind, but yeah. If you want to go full tank, google bunker builds gw2.

Anchoku.8142:

Keira, here are a few tips for making a build.
1. Build synergy between equipment, traits, and skills. There are a lot of traits that support specific weapons or utilities. Try to get dual use out of as much as you can.
2. Build with a focus on something. There are many types of power builds and a few condition builds. Research what sounds good and try to at least partially optimize it.
3. Try builds posted by other players. These people put effort into developing those builds and sharing them for your benefit.
4. Recognize you cannot have everything you want in a build. There are trades that must be made. Learn which trades give you the best value. Your friend’s healing on condition damage cost something. Is it worth it?
5. Have more than one back up plan. Teleport, condition clears or transfers, stun breaks, invulnerability, things like that help keep bad situations from getting worse.
6. Post your own builds and ask for review and suggestions. It is rare not to have some truly constructive feedback.

Maybe these tips are too vague but I hope they help in some small way.

Most helpful I’ve seen beyond “get gud scrub” comments. I usually have several stun breakers etc. However, No matter how I test my build it falls short of any and every build of solid damage I put it against. I get deleted by the dumbest builds of pure raw power. It’s like 2 naked people fighting each other with the sharpest blades. It’s very heavily a risk-free game. You can escape almost any and every form of damage with dodge rolls, teleports, etc. No commitment to combat. Face rolling on keyboard gaming at it’s finest. I don’t get it.

So what builds actually make sense and don’t require 3 keyboards of hotkeys to play? This really shouldn’t be that complicated. When looking through the builds, I found like over a thousand different ways to build a build. I build the most synergetic and get crapped on in seconds. That’s too complicated for little to no results. I prefer to play a utility character that meatshields for my team as they faceroll the opponents. Unfortunately, I’m garbage if I can’t handle the top meta builds one on one.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

So what builds actually make sense and don’t require 3 keyboards of hotkeys to play? This really shouldn’t be that complicated. When looking through the builds, I found like over a thousand different ways to build a build. I build the most synergetic and get crapped on in seconds. That’s too complicated for little to no results. I prefer to play a utility character that meatshields for my team as they faceroll the opponents. Unfortunately, I’m garbage if I can’t handle the top meta builds one on one.

Ah, the problem may be that there are no true utility or tanking professions in this game. All professions have a little of everything but there is no such thing as a meat shield. There is only maximizing dps while surviving on the minimum possible defensive stat’s and utilities by skill alone. There are no real roles like some other games.

More skill means less defense is necessary and more offense is possible. The professions have been balanced to all be roughly equal against each other provided you get lucky choosing a build your opponent’s build is weak to.

There are no builds that enable your char to just stand there and take hits. If you do that, you die. Tankiness comes mostly from evades, blocks, blinds etc. High vitality and toughness helps of course, but getting hit is still bad. If you fight a burst build, negate their burst, their damage will drop significantly after that. You can then start hitting back and wait for the next burst. Conditions are your friend.

For WvW, you could give this a try:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_PU_Condi_Roamer

It’s not for necros, but could suit your playstyle. Dire gear is also rather cheap.

it seems to me that this game was built on the premise that active defense and team support replaces tanks and healers, even thought both still exist within the game. i wonder what the game would be like if tanks and healers didnt exist… i dont know if that would be a good thing or not.

This might be a bit too stupid/obvious a suggestion, but not knowing how new you are, as far as Parasitic Contagion “not working”, I feel I should confirm whether you’re aware that PvP and PvE are given separate builds. The traits and equipment you give your character on the Hero screen do not transfer to PvP, the PvP build has to be configured separately, there’s a button to access it at the top-middle of the screen while you’re in the PvP lobby. I’m not trying to be patronizing with this, but the only possible reason I can think of for Parasitic Contagion not working is thinking you have it equipped when you don’t. As an additional aside, the healing from that trait does NOT count as life siphoning, and so will not work in shroud.

As far as being tanky, most of the damage-absorbing stat amulets have been removed from PvP. Damage mitigation in PvP that’s not dodging is usually based on exploiting things like invulnerability with mesmers or constant protection with engineers, more than straight up damage-eating stats. If you want to play as a tank in PvE, though, it’s certainly possible with nomad stats.