Guild Wars 2

It doesn’t really matter what character I’m playing, whether it be my Ranger, Guardian, or Elementalist; I seem to go down a lot. Like, way more than other people. Because of this I’m discouraged to join groups with higher level people because I think I’ll just hold them back and they’ll get angry at me.
What I’m looking for are some gameplay tips, or something, to help me get better at mastering the game and not being a drag on my party.

o.o go Pvt set until you learn to dodge properly (power vit toughness) , fight at range so you can pay more attention to boss animations so you can dodge them better next time.

If you’re worried about grouping with efficiency-minded players, start your own LFG listing and say “Casual” or “Newbies welcome!” in the description. Elitists will steer clear, and you’ll be providing a group for others who worry about getting kicked or being dead weight. I don’t go down a lot anymore, but I still avoid elite groups because I’m so chatty.

Good luck!

I suggest watching videos of how the dungeon is run and figure out what you’ll be up against and how to fight it before going in. That could reduce some of the surprise in a dungeon and give you enough awareness to stay alive.

Also, when you go in with a group let them know you haven’t done the particular run very often or may need an explanation of what to do in a certain part and most groups will be fine to coach you through it. Being upfront about being less experienced is a lot better for the group than trying to hack it and figure things out on the fly.

If the issue is your health then try bringing some mango pies with you in the dungeon. You’ll have constant health regeneration as well as a small vitality boost. If you put Superior Runes of the Dolyak on your armors you’ll get even more health regeneration as well as toughness and vitality making you more durable. Both of these together mean:

115 health regenerated per second
120 vitality
165 toughness

If you’re still having trouble look into some sigils that give healing or steal life for some extra health gain.

My guild’s usual dungeon runners have been scarce the last week, possibly due to holidays. But if you’re on NA then check to see if I’m on and give a holler to ask if any dungeons are in the offing. We love helping new people through and we have zero requirement as to gear or level beyond needing to be high enough level for the particular dungeon. We can help with fractals too.

I expect to be around a lot this weekend, especially Sunday as we get a “wintry mix” descending on us. Brrr.

What gearsets and builds do you run? If you run mostly glass builds, swap to tankier builds until you’ve gotten more comfortable. Learning dungeons is tougher as glass.

Also, it may not entirely be your fault. The group makes a difference- some PUG groups will, to put it bluntly, utterly suck and die constantly. Rezzing them will put you at greater risk, and having them down means losing 1/5 of your party’s support, control, and damage, which is hard to make up. Some PUG groups also will stack for literally everything without understanding how or why- they’ll clump up on a boss and never dodge, and all die within three seconds. Most of my smooth runs come from groups where people don’t blindly stack for everything- they’ll stay close, but move around, disengage to recover, and avoid AoEs.

Are you on a NA server? If so, if it’s all right with you, I’ll add you and we can run some dungeons together with my group. I’ll be able to give more specific pointers then.

The first thing to do is check your gear. Are you using level appropriate gear? You can get away with using lower-level gear within 5 levels of your current level (level 75 gear if you’re level 80, for example), but anything less than that and you’ll start to notice a HUGE hit to your damage and survivability. Level scaling takes your gear into account as well; it assumes that you’re wearing gear appropriate to your level. So if you’re level 80, but still wearing level 50 gear, you’re actually operating at a huge handicap.

Second, what stat spread are you using? I know that Berzerker gear is considered the metagame king, but to be honest, unless you’re doing speedclear dungeons, Berzerker gear really isn’t necessary. If you’re not able to survive, you’re not going to be of any help. Switching to tankier armor like Soldier’s can make a lot of difference, and you’ll still be able to contribute effectively to your party.

Finally, a large part of surviving in dungeons or Fractals is just knowing what to do. Many boss attacks will rapidly kill even the tankiest player, so awareness of what strategies work is crucial to surviving. As an example, take the Legendary Captain Ashym at the end of the Urban Battleground fractal. He does a TON of damage, very quickly. As a result, most players do not stick around in melee range, instead opting to let the NPC allies occupy his attention while they attack from short – long range. You CAN melee him if you like, but be prepared to go from 100% health to downed in under a second if Ashym switches his attention to you.

Sounds like you aren’t max level yet by your statement of joining groups with higher level players. Being level 80 in a dungeon makes a big difference in survivability. So that’s one consideration.

Also, I highly recommend forming guild groups (or joining a guild that enjoys dungeon runs). Getting everyone into VoIP and running with players that know you are learning makes a huge difference, and they’ll be able to give you pointers. Once you get the dungeon mechanics down, you’ll find you’re on your feet a lot more often.

Good luck!

Thank you for the responses, everyone. And I’ll add you Donari.

Are you in a Guild ? I was nervous to try dungeons at all because I was afraid I would drag everyone down – but it has gone surprisingly well !

Are you with a guild group or people who will explain to you what to do at each “step” of the dungeon ? (it doesn’t have to be a novel – just “stack on me here” and “try to use cc on these mobs” or “leave those, follow me !”)

If you’re not – definitely look into joining a Guild – especially one that does dungeons and welcomes people new to them !

If you can, maybe try to think of the times you died and think about WHY – what happened ? What could you do to avoid that ? Everyone makes mistakes and that’s totally okay – but what I’m saying is think to see if maybe there’s a pattern of something you’re “missing”. Maybe you need to practice dodging ? Maybe it’s something class specific each time ? Maybe something else ?