Guild Wars 2

Mostly speaking from low level content and, could probably be eliviated later on but i’m curious is it me or…is melee just kind of screwed in GW2? seems like almost every boss i’ve seen will systematically one shot anyone in melee range, seems like Anet wants everyone to wield some kind of ranged weapon, and stay at a distance… curious what others think and have experienced on this matter, for me i typically play ranged but i’ve found i quite enjoy melee on a couple of my toons and it feels like i’m being punished for trying to play that way.

It’s been my experience that as melee, you do a ton of damage, but you have to actually pay attention to what the boss is doing. I felt the same mechanics, getting one shot in AC. Then I noticed the boss’s movements, and I could dodge backwards or spin through him to avoid it.

In GW2 you don’t stand still and run through a rotation.

As a scepter/dagger ele player, I know what you mean. That’s why you build tanky and put some trait points into tough/vit.

Melee is a lot harder to do in this game than any other MMO.

Basically you can’t tank in the traditional way. Most mobs will seriously beat you down for just standing there and taking hits. If you want to melee (and melee does higher damage on average) you basically have to move all the time avoiding the hits and dodge whenever a “big” attack is coming. So it is definately possible to melee with some practice.

It is difficult to react to what a boss or mob is doing when there are 30 people standing around casting, hitting it. I am obviously not talking about 5 player content. Same thing applies as a ranged player, the idea of players laying down abilities that benefits another player is great in theory but in practise its a complete mess as you really can’t see whats going on. I actually enjoy the game experience more with less players.

Yeah, that is a problem with big crowds. Often I cant even see mobs/boss I need to target ranged or not ranged…

Having option to disable non-beneficial effects from other players will be nice…

Salt.4621:

It is difficult to react to what a boss or mob is doing when there are 30 people standing around casting, hitting it. I am obviously not talking about 5 player content. Same thing applies as a ranged player, the idea of players laying down abilities that benefits another player is great in theory but in practise its a complete mess as you really can’t see whats going on. I actually enjoy the game experience more with less players.

I’ll agree with this. In an open world raid event it’s really hard to melee properly.
In the dungeons however, you can really shine.

This video kinda summarises melee in GW2:

All jokes aside I kinda enjoy it and playing a a D/D thief I really have to be on the ball or I will get wiped with one hit …

nesh.7234:

Yeah, that is a problem with big crowds. Often I cant even see mobs/boss I need to target ranged or not ranged…

Having option to disable non-beneficial effects from other players will be nice…

Absolutely mate, I am surprised this option isn’t in the game. I play a ranger as a main but when I am on my warrior or guardian I have next to no idea whats going on half the time in a zerg of players. It makes it difficult to dodge out of a boss/mob mechanic when you cannot see it, hence you end up eating the damage.

There are a number of bosses that give absolutely no warning that they’re about to do a high damage melee ability, as well as some ranged abilities that can’t be dodged, even at range.

Salt.4621:

It is difficult to react to what a boss or mob is doing when there are 30 people standing around casting, hitting it. I am obviously not talking about 5 player content. Same thing applies as a ranged player, the idea of players laying down abilities that benefits another player is great in theory but in practise its a complete mess as you really can’t see whats going on. I actually enjoy the game experience more with less players.

This is my issue when i am in a small group and i can see boss no problems …usually anyway, but with 30 particle effects plastering a boss..you just cant see whats going on, and then is whole one shot mechanic. I am not a fan of this… i get that are certain attacks that you must avoid or die, ie a big red circle of doom have a set time to avoid.

My BIGGEST beef with GW2 right now is that are many boss mobs that will just kill you randomly because they aggro’d you, its instant, no warning, no animation(or you cant see it clearly) and deals 90% to 100% of your life instantly. This is in my opinion not a good mechanic, especially when healing you gain is barely scratching over all damage you are taking.

I am enjoying the game but just feels like they designed it to have a tank/healer then removed the option at some point and didnt rebalance the game accordingly… when you do not have someone to absorb the blows you cant have enemies one shot players just with normal attacks heck even 50% health from an auto attack is just to much in my opinion.

I feel they have alot of balancing to do… at the moment i see less and less melee because its just to dangerous…

Melee is decidedly problematic in mass event battles, boss battles, and certain dungeon fights. Soloing for renown hearts, melee works fine. You actually do more damage in melee than you do at range, and the danger of doing so balances it out. You just have to keep moving. The worst thing you can do as a melee class is to stay in one place for too long. That’ll get you offed in a hurry.

I think the real problem is with the overall MMO mindset created by almost 20 years of the ‘holy trinity". The trinity has existed in online games wince the beginning, and it has its roots in p&p games going back well over 30 years. Most people playing these games are used to the idea, and have a hard time overcoming the concept. GW2 plays with a lot more twitch than most other MMOs. It’s more of an action-style RPG and long time players have a hard time making the adjustment. Newer players, people whose idea of the MMO comes from mainstream versions like WoW, also end up having issues. The problem is not with the game itself. The problem is with the fact that the game is different from others in the same genre, and people are finding it difficult to acclimate themselves to the new style. Give it time, as players get used to it, things will get better, the fights will start to make more sense, styles will adjust, and life will get easier.

Just my 2 copper.

Godzillathon.8052:

Melee is decidedly problematic in mass event battles, boss battles, and certain dungeon fights. Soloing for renown hearts, melee works fine. You actually do more damage in melee than you do at range, and the danger of doing so balances it out. You just have to keep moving. The worst thing you can do as a melee class is to stay in one place for too long. That’ll get you offed in a hurry.

I think the real problem is with the overall MMO mindset created by almost 20 years of the ‘holy trinity". The trinity has existed in online games wince the beginning, and it has its roots in p&p games going back well over 30 years. Most people playing these games are used to the idea, and have a hard time overcoming the concept. GW2 plays with a lot more twitch than most other MMOs. It’s more of an action-style RPG and long time players have a hard time making the adjustment. Newer players, people whose idea of the MMO comes from mainstream versions like WoW, also end up having issues. The problem is not with the game itself. The problem is with the fact that the game is different from others in the same genre, and people are finding it difficult to acclimate themselves to the new style. Give it time, as players get used to it, things will get better, the fights will start to make more sense, styles will adjust, and life will get easier.

Just my 2 copper.

I sure as hell having a lot of trouble getting used to gw2. Not only that, but it’s also the first time I’m actually playing a melee class. I’m so confuse about what utility skills I should take. What do people expect from me?

A lot of people whining about how hard exploration dungeons are.. Couple that with trouble with gw2 mechanics, first time playing as a melee and confused about what I’m supose to do, I’m pretty scared to even ask for a party, lol.

I’m still having a blast of fun, butkitten everytime I think about my utility skills, I just feel like taking a break and do something else for a bit..

I just wish the tells for attacks you need to dodge were more noticeable – maybe have some flavor text attached or the like. I don’t mind needing to avoid the bad, but if that’s how it’s going to play out then you can’t give the bad a cloak of invisibility.

One thing I personally noticed, is that many players (mostly new players in low level areas) don’t try to help downed people get up before they die. Getting 1 or 2-shotted is fine, as long as someone helps you get up before you die for real. On our first run in dungeon story mode, we kept wiping until we made helping people get up high priority. It makes all the difference. Unfortunately, this is not as common with open world boss fights. Also, it is not entirely fault of players. Often, dead NPCs get in the way as well.

Another thing to realize, is that many people have offensive setups when they go to melee, especially when they come from questing to some dynamic event champion. If boss is scaled to say 50 people, getting 1-shot feels like a natural thing to do. There are many people that can help you get up.

Edit @Qelris:
I’ve been to dungeon with a guy who kept getting downed a lot and when we helped him get up, he was always apologizing for the trouble. I really didn’t feel like he needed to, and I think most players have this mindset (I haven’t met anyone who would complain so far). I don’t think you should be worried about it.

Melesie.5723:

One thing I personally noticed, is that many players (mostly new players in low level areas) don’t try to help downed people get up before they die. Getting 1 or 2-shotted is fine, as long as someone helps you get up before you die for real. On our first run in dungeon story mode, we kept wiping until we made helping people get up high priority. It makes all the difference. Unfortunately, this is not as common with open world boss fights. Also, it is not entirely fault of players. Often, dead NPCs get in the way as well.

Another thing to realize, is that many people have offensive setups when they go to melee, especially when they come from questing to some dynamic event champion. If boss is scaled to say 50 people, getting 1-shot feels like a natural thing to do. There are many people that can help you get up.

Edit @Qelris:
I’ve been to dungeon with a guy who kept getting downed a lot and when we helped him get up, he was always apologizing for the trouble. I really didn’t feel like he needed to, and I think most players have this mindset (I haven’t met anyone who would complain so far). I don’t think you should be worried about it.

While helping a downed player up is just part of the game mechanics i disagree on the " getting one shot by a guy scaled to 50 people" is a good mechanic. Are plenty of bosses in other games that are designed to be faced by multiple people yet generally they will not one shot everyone at a whim. Core problem is that one shotting leaves the players feeling helpless and generally cheated…

Bosses Damage SHOULD not scale massively with number of people, there health should and should probably unlock new special attacks that they didnt have before such as , aoe swipes, cleaves, and the like to deal with additional folks. I will never support idea that players should be insta gibbed because boss decided to swing in there direction.

Also additional problem of being a melee character, in melee, getting 1 shotted and now no one can rally you because doing so is a death sentence because YOU are still in melee range of the boss… are some ranged rez’s but they are on such a stupid long cooldown that i have to wonder if the slot is even worth it.

Is melee worth it? at the moment gonna say no… yes you deal more damage but that extra damage isn’t helping when every boss in the neighbor hood can insta gibb you… trust me in a month or so every major guild is going to require players to be ranged to do most of the content because melee just a liability and just way i see it right now.

As a long time player of many mmo’s from good to the bad… i find GW2 to be great fun but certainly needs some work still.

I like it as it is. I generally play melee. If you imagine bosses could never 1-shot, it stands to reason no smart player would ever die to a boss during a zerg. You would simply heal or back off until you regen a little. If there’s no risk of dying there’s really no challenge to the encounter, the players WILL win every time. I’ve been in a few boss encounters where the boss killed everyone. So when we win I feel like we actually had to work at it.

If you don’t like melee, switch to ranged for the fight.

polarity.8906:

There are a number of bosses that give absolutely no warning that they’re about to do a high damage melee ability, as well as some ranged abilities that can’t be dodged, even at range.

I’ve noticed that playing as a ranged dps the boss AoE circles need to be made more robust. They are there on the ground but very thin lines are used in the animation. I also think the boss should have some sort of visible channeling icon to give a clue to the player that things are going to get ugly real fast.

theamoebaman.5169:

This video kinda summarises melee in GW2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9VWofx5XG8

All jokes aside I kinda enjoy it and playing a a D/D thief I really have to be on the ball or I will get wiped with one hit …

THIS is your winning answer.

I melee with my ranged character. I play a sylvari ranger and use my longbow for opening combat. Soon after that I am using my longsword and dagger. Combat is WAY more realistic in GW2 IMO. In a real fight, im not going to just stand there and get beat unless the person is WAY weaker then me. I am constantly moving and dodging, just like in a real life fight. I have issues when i get mobbed by multiple enemies but RARELY in a 1v1 fight. I usually can melee down a single enemy (not always vetrans) that are 5+ levels higher than me. Its not easy, but its doable.

With bosses, you just gotta keep moving… the less you get hit, the less you will die.

My question is what is wrong with after you take a large hit backing up and going ranged?

anzenketh.3759:

My question is what is wrong with after you take a large hit backing up and going ranged?

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Just like there’s nothing wrong with making Ranged characters melee when a mob puts up a projectile reflection ability.

I just love noticing that most of the people saying “Dodge more, cry less” or any equivalent usually play with mostly, if not entirely, ranged options.

Some people actually LIKE to use melee weapons to attack things. I know, strange concept for an RPG, but it does happen.

anzenketh.3759:

My question is what is wrong with after you take a large hit backing up and going ranged?

Why should players with mostly ranged options not be forced to go melee but those with mostly melee be forced to go ranged?

Is it okay to need many options? Yes. But I don’t see players at a distance taking any sort of penalty for doing so. Just melee.

Redscope.6215:

anzenketh.3759:

My question is what is wrong with after you take a large hit backing up and going ranged?

Why should players with mostly ranged options not be forced to go melee but those with mostly melee be forced to go ranged?

Is it okay to need many options? Yes. But I don’t see players at a distance taking any sort of penalty for doing so. Just melee.

You haven’t fought Earth Elementals yet then. They have a projectile reflection ability that they will randomly toss up.

Melesie.5723:

One thing I personally noticed, is that many players (mostly new players in low level areas) don’t try to help downed people get up before they die. Getting 1 or 2-shotted is fine, as long as someone helps you get up before you die for real.

The problem is that anybody trying to revive you is in considerable danger of receiving a one-shot kill themselves.

Somna.5168:

Redscope.6215:

anzenketh.3759:

My question is what is wrong with after you take a large hit backing up and going ranged?

Why should players with mostly ranged options not be forced to go melee but those with mostly melee be forced to go ranged?

Is it okay to need many options? Yes. But I don’t see players at a distance taking any sort of penalty for doing so. Just melee.

You haven’t fought Earth Elementals yet then. They have a projectile reflection ability that they will randomly toss up.

I have, and I know exactly what you’re trying to do. Think about this though: What makes you WANT to walk up and melee the elemental? The fact that your projectiles could, at some RANDOM point, be reflected at you? That’s what dodge rolling is for.

You’re not forced into melee range with an elemental because he (probably only once if your DPS is good enough) throws up a shield and reflects a few times. As a matter of fact, you’re better off staying at an even greater distance to get a better chance of rolling out of the way of your reflected projectiles.

shaidyn.4016:

In GW2 you don’t stand still and run through a rotation.

This

Learn to use dodge and pay attention to your opponent.

I think melee in GW2 is awesome. Of course I have a range weapon, too.

Stack toughness and vitality for better survival, for when you oops. Mobs rarely hit you unexpectedly if they’re not facing you, so keep circling.

Redscope.6215:

Somna.5168:

Redscope.6215:

anzenketh.3759:

My question is what is wrong with after you take a large hit backing up and going ranged?

Why should players with mostly ranged options not be forced to go melee but those with mostly melee be forced to go ranged?

Is it okay to need many options? Yes. But I don’t see players at a distance taking any sort of penalty for doing so. Just melee.

You haven’t fought Earth Elementals yet then. They have a projectile reflection ability that they will randomly toss up.

I have, and I know exactly what you’re trying to do. Think about this though: What makes you WANT to walk up and melee the elemental? The fact that your projectiles could, at some RANDOM point, be reflected at you? That’s what dodge rolling is for.

You’re not forced into melee range with an elemental because he (probably only once if your DPS is good enough) throws up a shield and reflects a few times. As a matter of fact, you’re better off staying at an even greater distance to get a better chance of rolling out of the way of your reflected projectiles.

So you’d keep firing projectiles that aren’t going to do any damage so that you can waste your dodge rolls dodging an attack that wasn’t going to work anyway? You’re not forced into melee, no, but continuing to use projectiles instead of doing something about the buff…sounds pointlessly stubborn.

Stick and move!

Get in there, lay down the pain, then quickly back out when it starts getting out of hand. Then switch to a ranged weapon and when you see its safe to move in again, switch back to your melee weapon and get in there again to lay down some more pain. Then back off again when it gets to be to much to handle again.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

This complaint is just a phase you are going through as you withdraw from other MMOs. In the other MMOs, the bosses did 1 shot you, every-single-time, unless you were the tank. But because there was so much control over the boss, and because the boss was a scripted fight where you just needed good reading skills to learn what to do before going into the fight, you felt like he wouldn’t one shot you because all the fancy glitter kept you busy dodging fire.

It will pass, this thought of how it should be, and GW2 does it better.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the target – I will give everyone that fact. However, it’s not impossible to see who he’s attacking, or his ‘back’. You then have the option to switch to melee and go in and hit from the back, allowing almost all attacks to be inconsequential to your more damaging melee attacks. And then when he faces you, you have the ability to dodge away, switch to your ranged weapon, and position yourself better to get behind and melee again.

It’s not stand-still-and-tank or stand-still-and-dps. There are ways for you to improve beyond that stagnant gameplay. The current mechanic where you get 1 shot is, in almost every case, avoidable, and the only reason it doesn’t seem that way is because you haven’t learned that boss well enough yet. It will come in time, and you too will learn how to ‘get out of the fire’ GW2 style.

I don’t find it too bad, but it is sometimes hard to see the target performing animations.

A couple of things I noticed after my first dungeon run.

People don’t dodge. They get hit with an ability or trap and still stand still. They dont recognize that getting hit once probably means that you are aggro’d and will be hit again. So they stand there and wonder why they were downed.

People don’t necessarily build correctly if they are melee. if you are in close you should be building in such a way to provide decent survivability for yourself. This either includes building tanky or building to block/prevent negative abilities (shields, blinds, boons, heals). Every class can heal, grab one and use it when you or a teammate makes a mistake. Gone are the days that the thief can just slash at the mobs while never getting any attention. Everyone should have some utility in their builds to help the TEAM, not just your DPS rating. there are no taunts so the option of just building straight up tank makes no sense either. you cant guarantee that you will get aggro. Best bet is that melee build tanky/support (which will decrease dps but greatly increase team survivability). Range should build more DPS, but again have some utility to keep yourself and those around you alive (cripples, immobilizes, stuns, healing/rezing abilities). Also check your armor and stats. if you are rolling into a lvl 30 dungeon at 55, but have lvl 40 armor, you are nerfing yourself.

People don’t pay attention to boss mechanics. Fighting the lovers in AC, and when the chick started throwing balls of energy, one of my teammates just ate 3 of them in the face and didn’t move. The balls move so slow and are so easy to avoid. They ignored the little lightning storms that popped up and were chewed away by those all the while range attacking the dude with his shield on. Expecting to face roll any dungeon is the norm and people are being torn apart.

People don’t know all the boss mechanics. Walking into each of the fights in AC was brand new to me which was awesome and frustrating. Awesome because it was different, frustrating because after the first 3 deaths at the lovers boss I had no idea why i was dying so quick. But its to be expected, it was a tough fight to learn and win. But people have to start at the learning stage. Be more cautious. Watch what the bosses are doing. Use LOS points to your advantage. Use resources (such as boulders) to your advantage.

People don’t focus fire. First 3 pulls last night people were not focus firing at all and didn’t understand why they were dying. The “tank” would run in, cast a few abilities, eat some shots in the face and then everyone else would charge in. Aggro would shift and everyone would be attacking whatever.

Vexus.5423:

This complaint is just a phase you are going through as you withdraw from other MMOs. In the other MMOs, the bosses did 1 shot you, every-single-time, unless you were the tank. But because there was so much control over the boss, and because the boss was a scripted fight where you just needed good reading skills to learn what to do before going into the fight, you felt like he wouldn’t one shot you because all the fancy glitter kept you busy dodging fire.

It will pass, this thought of how it should be, and GW2 does it better.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the target – I will give everyone that fact. However, it’s not impossible to see who he’s attacking, or his ‘back’. You then have the option to switch to melee and go in and hit from the back, allowing almost all attacks to be inconsequential to your more damaging melee attacks. And then when he faces you, you have the ability to dodge away, switch to your ranged weapon, and position yourself better to get behind and melee again.

It’s not stand-still-and-tank or stand-still-and-dps. There are ways for you to improve beyond that stagnant gameplay. The current mechanic where you get 1 shot is, in almost every case, avoidable, and the only reason it doesn’t seem that way is because you haven’t learned that boss well enough yet. It will come in time, and you too will learn how to ‘get out of the fire’ GW2 style.

I cannot think of a better response to this… seriously. Vexus has said it perfectly, and for the sake of just posting “+1” I wanted to share my agreement with his post…

I also think that people play too far zoomed (at times) to see the tells of bosses. I get the mass of players in events, but that will subside as players naturally spread out a bit i think.

The only dodge issues I’ve had, so far, have been mid-animation – trying to get that one extra shot in – and being unable to roll out. I’m aware that’s on me but I swear there have been a couple of times where, during the autocasting of the “1” ability, it just won’t go. That quarter second is brutal.

Once again, though, the concept of stop doing damage to be able to continue doing damage prevails.

I’m a lvl 40 guardian, and I’ve got no problem with this. I only die when I’ve pulled too much or it’s a champion. If it’s a champion, then there’s always 20 other people around and one of them ALWAYS helps me up.

Bosses will be more visible as time goes on. Right now, lots of people are in the same level range because we all started at the same time. That means more people doing events than we can expect in the future (which means they’ll likely have to scale down the difficulty to compensate).

I think some people are missing the general point some of us are making, idea that you should instantly die because, you chose to be a pure melee character seems a bit silly. Saying you should be ranged or just deal with it is also silly… most of us arent asking for the bosses to become easy, are just asking not to have every boss be a corpse run fest or be downed everytime the boss decides to sneeze on us…that doesnt make us feel epic or awesome…just makes us feel like tissue paper.

Frankly i love melee toon but as it stands i feel forced to be ranged because while sure i can avoid some of damage from boss types, the risk isn’t worth the profit… dealing with huge repair costs, being downed every few seconds, ect i mean come on! we are talking about DPS here, and every second i am downed is a second i COULD be dealing damage as ranged. If want to make damage the deal better increase melee damage by 150% because dealing 50 extra damage as meleee is laughable.

I stand by my assessment melee is just a liability, go into a dungeon with a group of ranged characters and will never worry about being downed or taking damage as bosses will NEVER get close enough to worry about it. Meanwhile melee toons will become less and less played.

if the attacks were telegraphed more it wouldn’t be a problem the issue is that they aren’t! normal melee damage shouldn’t be killing us instantly should be reserved for special attacks. Even Dark Souls doesn’t make enemies one shot you with out some chance to avoid it… and saddly right now… are many enemies just have no tells.

Vexus.5423:

This complaint is just a phase you are going through as you withdraw from other MMOs. In the other MMOs, the bosses did 1 shot you, every-single-time, unless you were the tank. But because there was so much control over the boss, and because the boss was a scripted fight where you just needed good reading skills to learn what to do before going into the fight, you felt like he wouldn’t one shot you because all the fancy glitter kept you busy dodging fire.

It will pass, this thought of how it should be, and GW2 does it better.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the target – I will give everyone that fact. However, it’s not impossible to see who he’s attacking, or his ‘back’. You then have the option to switch to melee and go in and hit from the back, allowing almost all attacks to be inconsequential to your more damaging melee attacks. And then when he faces you, you have the ability to dodge away, switch to your ranged weapon, and position yourself better to get behind and melee again.

It’s not stand-still-and-tank or stand-still-and-dps. There are ways for you to improve beyond that stagnant gameplay. The current mechanic where you get 1 shot is, in almost every case, avoidable, and the only reason it doesn’t seem that way is because you haven’t learned that boss well enough yet. It will come in time, and you too will learn how to ‘get out of the fire’ GW2 style.

Problem here is, like many have said, boss mechanics are the same than in traditional tank heal dps mmo. If you get hitted by boss or silver mob, you are dead. That leaves the only viable tactic to be ranged and kite them. To me, it feels like we are missing some important tools to fight in dungeons. Also in world bosses I just tend to switch to my ranged weapon, it just works so much better. This is my opinion after completing the first two dungeons in story mode and tried some exploration mode.

A lot of people are forgetting about blocks, parries, blindness condition, invulnerability abilities in addition to dodging. If you time these right melee can hold up to mobs pretty nicely and do a whack of damage.

That being said you have to watch the mob’s animations a lot more closely and react a lot more quickly or face a gruesome death.

If i can do it as a mesmer clothy, the rest of you heavier armored folks should too with a bit of practice.

Marxo.3829:

A lot of people are forgetting about blocks, parries, blindness condition, invulnerability abilities in addition to dodging. If you time these right melee can hold up to mobs pretty nicely and do a whack of damage.

That being said you have to watch the mob’s animations a lot more closely and react a lot more quickly or face a gruesome death.

If i can do it as a mesmer clothy, the rest of you heavier armored folks should too with a bit of practice.

While this sounds valid the problem lies that most of these buffs/debuffs don’t last long enough to matter, by the time you apply the debuff its consumed instantly. And unless have everyone in the group timing these debuffs precisely then generally speaking its gone before it made an impact. Also the whole " hope these pugs are using debuffs…" because unlike in normal mmo’s a vast majority of your quests are in open world, doing dynamic events WHICH frankly should be the games focus.

That said a nice easy solution would be to change weakness to just deduce damage of the target while its active, or add a new condition given to heavy armor wearing classes use certain weapon(say mace on a guard).

Choirboy.7562:

Problem here is, like many have said, boss mechanics are the same than in traditional tank heal dps mmo. If you get hitted by boss or silver mob, you are dead. That leaves the only viable tactic to be ranged and kite them. To me, it feels like we are missing some important tools to fight in dungeons. Also in world bosses I just tend to switch to my ranged weapon, it just works so much better. This is my opinion after completing the first two dungeons in story mode and tried some exploration mode.

Well that isn’t exactally true…the old trinity is in fact gone…however… GW2 does have a trinity and if its not present going to get trashed.

1: Support
2: Debuff
3: Damage

This is trinity in GW2 and for most part it functions in alot of the same ways. Support buffs, your party and helps prevent damage to your group. This is done through defense buffs, blindness and healing. While not always a single class has these always that spec focuses on it. Example a water ele is a support spec. A staff using Gaurdian is a support spec, a mesmer with a staff is a debuff spec and while EVERY class has a little bit of this focusing on applying specific debuffs will be a major thing.

Basically, either bosses need to have damage brought down or players need a way to reduce there damage. Could also be fixed with late game gear, has toughness but at early level at least have to make such a drastic choice its hard to stack enough toughness or vit to matter… is why games like WoW typically have 1 stat for damage and hp…while giving some perma buff gave armor for squishier classes.

I’ll end by saying, nothing wrong with a hard game is FAIR and JUSTIFIED when you die. The issue i have is that many of deaths i’ve experience have resulted from random massive damage spikes seem, to just come out of thin air. With no warning or tell. I quite love Demon/Dark Souls and when i die in that game, usually feels justified since i miss timed something, or screwed up. GW2 on other hand feels like bosses just cheesing to victory.

When playing as a Melee character, you need to be concious of your surroundings. Watch your enemies and look out for their attacks, when you see them coming, roll out of the way. This is what makes combat in Guild Wars so dynamic, instead of just sitting there pressing a rotation of 1,2,3,4,5 over and over again.

Also I forgot dazes, knockdowns and stuns. Add those to my other list and you can see the things you should be doing to survive as melee.

Raithron.1582:

When playing as a Melee character, you need to be concious of your surroundings. Watch your enemies and look out for their attacks, when you see them coming, roll out of the way. This is what makes combat in Guild Wars so dynamic, instead of just sitting there pressing a rotation of 1,2,3,4,5 over and over again.

Again you are assuming that people like myself are just standing there like in WoW and doing nothing. I was an AVID player of DCUO i understand what dynamic combat is, DCUO was alot more involved then GW2 is and i am talking tankless/healerless fights doing solo stuff not group content which was lame.

Just give a GREAT example of a situation i ran into tonight facing a malfunctioning golem boss during an event. I move in and attacked with my daggers he IMMEDIATLY turns and charges up a rapid fire attack…can not simply dodge once from it have to double roll away. So what happens? he runs at me after since NO way to break aggro even with 10% movement speed SMASHES me with his basic attack dealing 75% of my life bar in damage.

Idea that a boss should 1-2 shot players with basic swings, and unavoidable attacks, when you force them to dodge twice is just broken. again i cant stress enough that i understand how combat works…just not that fun facing enemies can kill you in a single blow or two…and with NO abilities to break combat or reduce aggro from yourself…anyone has a damage centric build is just going to end up frustrated and dieing alot.

Marxo.3829:

Also I forgot dazes, knockdowns and stuns. Add those to my other list and you can see the things you should be doing to survive as melee.

Bosses are immune to control effects… so is hardly viable tactic, any boss can one shot you has perma CC immunity effect.