Guild Wars 2

Hello. I am almost afraid to ask anything, but I don’t know what else to do at this point. So, please be kind.

I have never played a guild wars game. It has taken me a while to get the hang of the movement in combat, that my abilities work while I move. Have to say I kinda like it. But to be blunt….I am just beyond frustrated with dying. Now, don’t get me wrong. I have played the uber squishy classes in other games, death is part of gaming. Except it is very clear that other people seem to understand the mechanics of survival way better than I do. I have spent a great deal of time trying to find resources on builds, gear, rotations, best traits, best skills, etc. Something, anything that would help me figure out what I don’t understand. I have tried different classes.

I just participated in killing the Krait Witch in Caledon Forest. There were 6-8 people, and everyone died, multiple times. Maybe its not just me. But I am starting to avoid all events. My self heal…..is the most inadequate heal ever. Its half the size of the hits I take. And when I am downed, now all that movement and dodging is gone. I don’t understand this. If I am supposed to avoid damage by movement, how do I do that downed? I wish I could chose an option to just be killed outright so I could get on with playing the game.

I will beat everyone to the punch. I need to L2P. But I need to play guildwars to learn to play guildwars. I know I am not the best player, but I am not horrible either. Is Guild Wars only for L33T ZOMG players? Are there any mature resources to explain the mechanics so I might learn what to change in how I play?

<Gulp> please be kind.

save endurance to dodge…..and dodge a lot!

and also….“don’t stand in the fire” (aka red circles on the ground…some circles are designed so you have to have endurance to dodge out of them or else you’re automatically hit)

It would help if you posted your class.

You do have to realize that some heals are more pvp and others are pve, it depends on the class. Also realize that some weapons are better at pve than pvp, on that same note switch your weapons constantly in combat.

1 thing I do is once i pop my heal I start planning to drop. If there’s more than one enemy attacking me i try and make sure one always has low health for when i fall. I may actually switch off an almost dead target and start hitting a stronger one until i drop so i can target the almost dead one after I drop and get the rally. Condition damage is your friend here too. Sometimes when i’m tanking several mobs I’l drop and rally several times.

It’s a little strange to plan to fail in order to succede…but it works. I also spec for toughness and vitality a lot for solo play.

Sticking to it and trying to read the situation to know when to dodge, when to switch weapons (or other such skill changing tactics), if you lack survivability then perhaps you need more vitality/toughness/healing on your gear (can’t get all those on a single gear tho), trait into healing/survivability.

Theres lots you can do to help yourself but you have to stick to it if any of them will work. So don’t give up, don’t avoid content. Keep at it and one day it will probably just click and you’ll be wondering how you didn’t get it sorted earlier.

Im sure many people will give you advice. But it would help greatly to know what class you are playing.

I played GW1, a bit of WoW, and a ton of First Person Shooter CPU games like Counterstrike when I was younger, so for me the movement was natural and fluid. I was used to the ASDW and I was even used to having keys to turn with as I would always bind those myself. So first comment is, getting used to movement is a chore, and for many who seem to be natural at it, it is probably because they have obscene amounts of time in practicing lol. For instance, I am teaching my wife how to play, the closest game she has ever played is tetris, so lets just say, I have taken movement for granted up to this point lol. So point 1, just a lot of practice with the movement is needed, and thats okay.

In terms of the downed state, you aren’t allowed to move. The downed state is a transition state from alive and adventuring to dead and respawning. In the downed state, you have two options to get back up on your feet. Defeat an enemy, or bandage/heal yourself back to health. If you can’t do either, eventually your enemy will kill you. So, though the idea is to avoid damage, if you took it, the downed state is the last resort to get back up on your feet (Rally!) and you can do that by either killing an enemy (ideally its a low health since you have been fighting it) or being healed, whether by yourself or by someone else.

In terms of help surviving, I don’t have any resources to offer, just advice. I don’t know what class you play, so some of this might be different, but let me give you an example, for me, I play an engineer and I love the class. I love the class for a variety of reasons, but the top of the list is survivability. I feel like my engineer can take on 3 or 4 mobs no problem most of the time. The reason I say this is because I have a lot of defensive type abilities at my disposable. I have all of my abilities that have some element of control. Something like a knockdown, a snare, a stun, a blind, etc. All of those things keep enemies away from me, and allow me to continue to use my abilities. On top of my abilities (both weapon and utility), I have my dodge, I have heals (my self-heal and my elite is a healing skill), and I have pretty good means of escape if things get too hairy. All of that allows me to live through some things I don’t think other classes could as well as engi’s do. So from that the advice is, get to know your class. What do your skills do outside of damage. Do they add conditions, if so, what kind of conditions do they add. Do you have any mechanic in your class that can take some attention from you, pets, summons, or for engi’s – turrets. Can you give yourself boons, if so what? Getting to know those things will really help your ability to survive.

Lastly, Dodge… dodge is your best friend, and something I haven’t even started talking to my wife about lol. But getting to know when an enemies BIG attacks are coming, normally seen with a wind up or some other kind of animation, and dodging the crap out of the way will go a long way in saving your rear in most situations lol.

Rehashed Jibe Tube.7102:

1 thing I do is once i pop my heal I start planning to drop. If there’s more than one enemy attacking me i try and make sure one always has low health for when i fall. I may actually switch off an almost dead target and start hitting a stronger one until i drop so i can target the almost dead one after I drop and get the rally. Condition damage is your friend here too. Sometimes when i’m tanking several mobs I’l drop and rally several times.

I laughed when I read this, that is great. I always look for a near-dead immediately when I go down, but I never thought of switching off of one to have a rally monkey so to speak if I go down.. will have to remember that one lol.

Most people say to “dodge alot” but I believe the opposite. I say “dodge sparingly” only dodge the big hits (when the enemy looks like he’s absorbing power right before he unleashes an attack). If the enemy is a melee type you can simply MOVE out of the way of its big hit and not waste a dodge. I have found this keeps me alive much longer especially if you’re not already spec’ed to have an increased endurance regeneration rate.

The combat definitely takes some getting used to, regardless of your class. I think the hardest thing to learn is the visual cues and what you should do in response to them. You have to keep a close eye on what you’re fighting, and not just its health. You don’t have to dodge to avoid an attack if you’re paying attention – you can step out of the way of projectiles if you move after they’re released, and you can step behind melee attacks to avoid them (little harder to side step them as they seem to have a bigger hit area than projectiles).

You need more than damage skills on your bar – everyone should have a stun breaker and an interrupt in my opinion. You should be able to recognize when someone drops a water field so you can shoot projectiles through it and get that added regeneration from the combo effect.

When I’m fighting regular mobs in this game, I very rarely use more than a couple of my skills, where in other MMOs I used most of my skills every fight. You have to know the side-effects of your skills so you can apply them at the right moments, where in other MMOs I just needed to remember where I was in my rotation.

I found this is the one game that has put a serious damper on my alt-itis I’m too old to be able to keep track of the differences among them, so I tend to play one profession for really long stretches. I think time and practice will help.

Some tips

• Always keep a food buff on – I like pies that give you health regen, because they help you get out of the downed state.
• Fight in areas where you’re down-leveled until you start getting the hang of your profession. The lower level mobs have fewer abilities that do nasty things to you.
• Make sure your weapons are all current to your level. I found early on that getting my DPS up had a huge impact on my ability to survive.

And one more thing – never ever stand still. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

OMG….I am surprised and very pleasantly so for all your responses. If you think I am an idiot, at least no one said it out loud! Thank you very much for that.

I apologize for not identifying class and maybe I did it on purpose. I have been trying to find the one that matches my play style. When GW2 first came out, I leveled with a friend, on an elementalist, he on a thief. He was fabulous, I was always embarassed. But I managed to do whatever healing could be done to help him and he kept me alive. We explored the game, and then RL wrestled him to the ground.

I have a ranger that I have mostly warzoned with. In the open world I don’t do too badly because….I have a pet as meat shield. But I have never been a hunter kind of player. I am now trying a guardian, frankly because they have lots of healing buffs etc. And its very fun – until I get overwhelmed and overrun. And then I just want to give up.

A significant challenge for me is that I am left handed, so the keyboard is not my friend. But that is true for all games, and I do “figure” out where to put everything eventually.

It is actually nice to hear that I need to not give up yet. I will put in the work. I honestly still don’t find dodge useful at all. But I will keep trying. Thank you all – especially for being kind! <3

There have been a lot of helpful tips here, but I will add a few more. As was mentioned, open up your Hero panel, [H] by default and look at the Skills and Traits tab. Read through each weapon abilities description. Remember which ones mention Combo Fields or Combo Finishers, because Combos are good! (Especially the Pizza/Pretzel ones, mmmm)
Also while you are there, make sure that you are utilizing all of your earned trait points. The trees that tend to help the most with survivability are usually the 3rd and 4th tree line, or the ones that have a Heart and a Shield next to them.

Now, once you see which abilities lay down combo fields, practice using those, and then follow them up with the abilities that are labeled as combo finishers. You’ll know you are doing it successfully if you see a greyscale heart above your head after using the ability that looks like 2 puzzle pieces assembled. When these abilities are used together like this, they tend to create much more powerful effects that can be beneficial in killing an enemy before it kills you.

Additionally, look at your options carefully for utility skills, mobility and damage are fun, but until you get the hang of combat, try taking utility skills that provide you with boons such as Aegis, Protection, or Regeneration. If you don’t have any available to you, are there any that apply conditions to your foe? Particularly look for Blind or Weakness/Fumble as these will assist your survivability the most.

Keep your armor and weapons upgraded! I made this mistake on my first character, and its easy to do because you don’t always realize how easy it is to level in this game. I kept dying the further I progressed, and realized that I was level 30+ and still in lvl 14 ish blues. You can typically get nice gear on the Trading Post, and it lower levels it is just a few silver for a full wardrobe. Try and prioritize Vitality and Toughness on your gear and Power/precision on your weapons (depending on class and play style, of course) but this will usually give you a decent balance of survivability and damage output.

Be social! I’m not saying to pull a Baby Huey on random strangers, but if you come up on an event and it looks like there are some competent players involved, try to keep pace with them after it is completed, explore with them, watch how they play and see if you can synergize. Use combo fields! This will not only give you additional avenues to learn through observation, but it will increase your survivability having people close by that can help you rally if you need it. And you might just make some friends!

All that being said, if you’d like to tag along in game sometime, I am available most evenings on the Sea of Sorrows server, and I’d be happy to help you out where I can. Name is Trïkk, or Trikke. Guardian and Thief, respectively.

Best of luck to you!

Hmmm… I think the best is to do is just keep playing. Seriously!
Also note to learn what your skills do exactly like others have already pointed out. Just taking some time out to read the description help a lot.

You say you’re playing a Guardian? They’ve got some awesome skills. Skills and virtues are really awesome. You got a lot of boons like protection an retaliation. I recommend reading up on boons and combos.

Also may I ask what sever you’re on? Maybe I can get some people to help you out.
(Or click on the link in my Sig)

Over and above what the other posters have mentioned I will add a few points.

1. Don’t let your gear get too under leveled in this game. Update it often. When I find I am taking a lot of damage or seem a bit squishy, I look at my gear first.

2. Sometimes to spec for all damage is not your best friend. While a lot of power, precision and condition damage will help you kill things faster, sometimes you have to add some toughness(think damage mitigation) and vitality(more hit points) too.

3. As others have said learn to dodge. (Default is"V") use it often and try to get used to it.

4. Pay attention to boss mobs in particular. Most will give indications of casting or using a big damage skill before they actually use it. (ie the giants stomp) When you are at a stage where you can recognize that you might be in the target of a big damage skill then you usually have time to make distance or dodge away from it.

If you’re left handed you might try changing the keybindings to the NUMPAD or to the right side of the keyboard. Experiment and find something that works for you. For myself I have my skills on 1-5, then my healing, utility and elite skills on SHIFT+1-5, and then my profession skill bar on ALT+1-4. They’re still bound to their default places as well so I can use either location. I find this works beautifully for me, but I’m not left handed. A combination of modifier keys and NUMPAD bindings may work wonders for you.