Guild Wars 2

I promise to try to keep this short. My wife and I have played MMO’s for many years and my shortlist is EQ, Lineage, EQ2, DAoC, WoW, LOTRO, and Guild Wars 2. We have been away from them for over a year for various reasons but we are finally at a place where we can get back to them. My wife does not like GW2 so I reactivated our WoW accounts and also fired up my GW2 client and promptly bought HoT.

I much prefer GW2 to WoW so I will play that when she isn’t playing and play WoW with her. My main is a level 80 Guardian, he is around 97 percent of world completion and sits in the mid 400’s in Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing. I jumped into the HoT content and got quickly reminded that I have no business there.

In reading up on some of the changes I have found that I really have no idea what I am doing or what I need to be doing. Do I need to scrap HoT for now and level up crafting first? Should I be working on masteries? I don’t need a lot of detail, I just need a direction from people that have already been through it. Or is it possible that this is a knee jerk reaction and I should be doing exactly what I want to do. I want to experience the new content but it needs to be enjoyable.

To begin with, i think u should play the story of HOT, it is nice and well done. u will have fun and slowly progress trought the new maps, masteries and unlocking specialisation.
Then u will have a better understanding of game new-tools and get your direction.

Also if you feel lost you can always start up a second character and level it whilst you catch up with the game. Having more then one class in this game is very rewarding.
As for your guardian, then maybe start with relearning your skills and which skill do what and just try it out in the core game. Making the HoT story will get you in to the new areas, but you should probably be aware of that the new areas are a bit harder then old GW2 so make sure you really are up to date with your class.

You do belong in HoT, you just need to step up your gameplay a bit. Figure out what is killing you, and then make sure your utility skills and weapons can deal with that.

For example you almost certainly want a stun breaker, which isn’t needed in the core game PvE. You probably want some condition removal. You may want a defensive skill like an invulnerability. You most likely want a melee and ranged option because some enemies have anti-meleee/range abilities. And so on.

Or travel with a friend, that makes everything much easier.

I’m new to GW2, just reached HoT a couple of weeks ago on my first 80 (a thief). I think I know what you mean on “having no business being there.” Moving from the areas around Orr to the Verdant Brink was quite a step up in difficulty. I was slaughtering everything in sight, then all of a sudden I’m dying left and right!

I figured it out by making some changes. Specifically, two areas:

1) You need a ranged weapon set in HoT, whether you like it or not. I can’t see any way around this. Certain enemies are simply a lot more dangerous at close range, while being quite easy to kite. But then again, you are a guardian and I’m a thief. Maybe you have some way around that? I couldn’t find one for my class.

2) Trading hits is a bad bet. I could get away with it and come out ahead in Tyria. Not in HoT. The name of the game in HoT is dealing damage while avoiding incoming damage. For my thief, that means relying heavily on evasion and interrupts to prevent damage.

I run DD/DA/Tr with d/p, p/p. So I have mug and impacting disruption. That’s my favorite move because I can interrupt to prevent damage while dealing two unblockable hits for solid damage in return. I pair that up with near-limitless endurance and basically never stop moving in combat.

I know that won’t necessarily translate into anything you can use directly as a guardian, but it’s just an example of how you need to look at HoT (as far as I can tell!). You can’t trade hits routinely. You need to adopt the mindset that damage is to be avoided and think about how you can accomplish that goal while simultaneously eliminating threats quickly.

I don’t know guardian or I’d offer more specific advice. But that’s a new player’s perspective on how to handle HoT!

The friend thing is the safest bet due to those pesky contested wp’s. though solo is way more fun.