Guild Wars 2

Hi

I haven’t played Guild Wars 2 in over a year and had a sudden urge to play again. I have a 80 Warrior and 80 Ranger (must have used the insta level for ranger here from memory as I definitely cannot recall levelling her up – could be old age lol)

Note: I am only interested in solo pve open world with PQs and exploration. Fast killing is ideal as I have limited time and don’t want to spend too long fighting the same mobs if I can help it.

Anyway I decided to make a Guardian and made it to level 10. I recalled a couple of things very quickly about the game before, that is 250-300ms+ and dodging doesn’t mix well! Or fighting ranged mobs that keep running away after a hit or 2 is very frustrating with a laggy connection (right beside mob and not registering hits)

I immediately thought of the future if I level up my guardian with the inability to dodge most attacks and with no use of healing signet.. My warrior coped ok with healing signet and high base health from memory so it was less of an issue if I never dodged..

I am now convinced I need to find a class that is less focused on split second dodging (can basically withstand it mostly) and can deal with ranged mobs running away and not being able to hit them (see guardian example)

I have a few options:
- Forget other classes and just continue with warrior
- Delete ranger and re level from 1 (don’t like her appearance much anymore)
- Start a necro (although I want to see my character mostly and having not played one, don’t know if they rely on “forms” they morph into or not – been too long to remember)

If anyone has any advice here it would be greatly appreciated

Ranger and necro fits your requirements. Essentially having minions that can tank mobs while you range.

Is 250-300 your typical or best case ping? Australia always has 200-300 ping and most of us have got used to it. Pvp is where the main disadvatage is, but most pve including raids and fractals are doable.

Thanks for the advice onevstheworld.

250-300 is my typical ping and i realised i did not mention i am from Australia too – this is with spikes now and then. Where i live i cannot get internet connection due to being 8km from the exchange so i rely on a 20gb/month mobile plan (somehow can get 4g but occasionally drops to 3g). It is perfectly playable 95% of the time though.

I normally enjoy pvp but these days i just want to log in and explore/kill mobs so i am ruling that out from my decision. Even if i choose to dabble in pvp it will be literally <5% of my time spent in GW2.

Interesting about the raids/fractals being doable, i presumed they would be out of the question – not being able to dodge reliably and all (i have never done a single one before)

If i do decide to dabble in dungeons/fractals etc.. and i go with a Ranger, i have read in the ranger forums that alot of people “expect” you to be a druid and heal? i know most people reading this wouldn’t want a laggy player healing them.. nor does it suit my playstyle anyway. I won’t rule this out though as this would be a very minimal amount of my time spent.

So it is down to Necro, Warrior and Ranger then i think.. I should probably test this myself, but using a Longbow with a Warrior to handle the ranged mobs (when they are hard to target) is possibly viable too?

I can’t advise re warrior, I’ve barely played it. My regulars are guardian, necro and druid in that order. I think it mostly comes down to being on your toes, knowing the fight’s mechanics and reading animations. I usually turn down my graphics settings when dodging is super critical (raids, Mai Trin 100) so there’s less visual spam to distract me.

For druid specifically, you don’t need to be full healing spec in anything other than raids. Your unbuffed heals are mostly adequate. Only time I’ve run full Magi’s outside raids is for the migraine achievement, and even then it was probably overkill.

I enjoyed Guardian up until the Centaur archers were running away from me in melee and it was incredibly frustrating to kill them, no hits recorded whilst being right beside them. I wish i had a 3s stun or something i could initially trigger – does such a thing exist for them?

Thanks for the tips, i appreciate them.

Where are you in Aussie? Do you have Foxtel there? Id so, they have great net, can even get cable most likely and through your Foxtel. I’m in (near) Brissy and while NBN isn’t available yet dangit we run cable thru our Foxtel and its great. Well, still 200-300 ping but doesn’t drop or lag.

Joxer.6024:

Where are you in Aussie? Do you have Foxtel there? Id so, they have great net, can even get cable most likely and through your Foxtel. I’m in (near) Brissy and while NBN isn’t available yet dangit we run cable thru our Foxtel and its great. Well, still 200-300 ping but doesn’t drop or lag.

I live in Victoria and i cannot get foxtel where i live I have an option for Satellite, but financially its not that viable. I have no issues using my 20gb mobile plan for data (generally speaking) and even if i had ADSL1 (because of the 8km distance you wouldn’t get ADSL2 speeds anyway) the internet issues and pings would probably be worse than what i am using now.

I feel as though i am lucky to be sitting on 250-300ms, could be a lot worse :P

I read about a couple of Guardian skills that MAY help with the ranged runners?
- Hammer 40s cooldown (Ring of Warding: Create a ring around you that foes cannot cross. Trapped enemies cannot exit the ring while it is active.)
- Scepter 20s cooldown (Chains of Light: Immobilize and make your foe vulnerable with ethereal chains.)
- Greatsword 30s cooldown (Binding Blade followed into Pull: Pull your foes to you.)

The cooldowns are fairly long but this may alleviate some of the issues with these mobs running and looking like a fool chasing after them without hitting them for ages :P

There are several options. Ideally for that you would use a range weapon but you can also …

1) stand in place and kill them with retaliation
2) hammer 3 is an immobilize and 5 can be used to used to lock something inside the circle
3) scepter 3 is also an immobilize and scepter is a ranged weapon anywan
4) greatsword 5 can be used to pull them to you
5) sword 2 can be used to teleport you to a target
6) Judge’s Intervention is a utility skill that gives you another teleport to target
7) Bane Signet will apply a 3s knockdown, Hammer of Wisdom’s command skill will also apply a 3s knockdown
8) dragonhunter can use a longbow and the F1 is another pull

Have you tried a Dagger/Pistol thief? Shadow Shot is awesome.

Khisanth.2948:

There are several options. Ideally for that you would use a range weapon but you can also …

1) stand in place and kill them with retaliation
2) hammer 3 is an immobilize and 5 can be used to used to lock something inside the circle
3) scepter 3 is also an immobilize and scepter is a ranged weapon anywan
4) greatsword 5 can be used to pull them to you
5) sword 2 can be used to teleport you to a target
6) Judge’s Intervention is a utility skill that gives you another teleport to target
7) Bane Signet will apply a 3s knockdown, Hammer of Wisdom’s command skill will also apply a 3s knockdown
8) dragonhunter can use a longbow and the F1 is another pull

Have you tried a Dagger/Pistol thief? Shadow Shot is awesome.

Great info thanks I am starting to feel better with giving my guardian more of a chance now.

I haven’t tried a thief before, figured with the high pings and inability to reliably dodge attacks with the rolls I would be asking for trouble.. I will definitely read up on their skill set though

Don’t get satellite, my understanding is that it’s download speed is ok but uploads are terrible, and you need both for gaming.
I’m in Sydney on ADSL2+, no NBN for me either, but I doubt NBN will make a big difference to GW2 ping cos the data still needs to cross the pacific.

Another advantage of the thief suggestion is once you get the daredevil spec, you’ve got 3 dodges instead of 2, so you’ve got more margin of error if you mistime one.

Khisanth.2948:

Have you tried a Dagger/Pistol thief? Shadow Shot is awesome.

I looked at the skill set and decided to give it a try.. Having a ton of fun so far with thief D/P great suggestion thankyou

onevstheworld.2419:

Don’t get satellite, my understanding is that it’s download speed is ok but uploads are terrible, and you need both for gaming.
I’m in Sydney on ADSL2+, no NBN for me either, but I doubt NBN will make a big difference to GW2 ping cos the data still needs to cross the pacific.

I won’t be getting Satellite but makes sense what you say about the upload.. NBN would be amazing, maybe one day

onevstheworld.2419:

Another advantage of the thief suggestion is once you get the daredevil spec, you’ve got 3 dodges instead of 2, so you’ve got more margin of error if you mistime one.

I started a D/P thief just before and I had a great time.. The centaur archers were ALOT easier for me. I have a good feeling so far about this class.

Daredevil spec for the 3rd dodge sounds like a good idea as well

Thanks everyone for your help, I will play my thief and switch to guardian when I feel like a change

Thief can be a bit squishy especially against conditions but with D/P you have Black Powder(#5) which is an aoe blind. Doesn’t work against champions and legendaries but great for everything else.

Cortair.1279:

onevstheworld.2419:

Don’t get satellite, my understanding is that it’s download speed is ok but uploads are terrible, and you need both for gaming.
I’m in Sydney on ADSL2+, no NBN for me either, but I doubt NBN will make a big difference to GW2 ping cos the data still needs to cross the pacific.

I won’t be getting Satellite but makes sense what you say about the upload.. NBN would be amazing, maybe one day

onevstheworld.2419:

Another advantage of the thief suggestion is once you get the daredevil spec, you’ve got 3 dodges instead of 2, so you’ve got more margin of error if you mistime one.

I started a D/P thief just before and I had a great time.. The centaur archers were ALOT easier for me. I have a good feeling so far about this class.

Daredevil spec for the 3rd dodge sounds like a good idea as well

Thanks everyone for your help, I will play my thief and switch to guardian when I feel like a change

Nice! My first class to 80 was a thief and dagger/pistol clicked with me right from the start. I gave it up for staff in PvE once I unlocked daredevil (just hits harder and against more targets without much of a downside for PvE), but dagger/pistol is still a fun set and I hear it’s great for PvP, if that’s of interest to you.

In fact, I just did some testing last night and made some improvements to my solo open world daredevil build. You might give it a try once you get there. You can take on an army with this build once you’re comfortable with it. Works great for solo champions, too. High damage, high survivability via rapid healing on offense and evasion.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiqrnCgGYu63+yfLHHsqD-TBSBwAAeCAFV+hX3wN1fioE8xFB46+DIM/RKA9UGB-e

You can swap invigorating precision for no quarter to increase your damage output, but you’ll still have assassin’s reward for heals on offense and you can also swap out your heal for signet of malice if you’d like to increase that.

Stacking all 3 produces an insane amount of healing on offense. But channeled vigor will give you an extra endurance refill and a large heal on a short cooldown. I use either one, depending on the situation.

Great build AliamRationem. I will definitely give this a try once I hit 80. Tons of healing which I definitely like

Thank you for sharing it

If i do end up participating in some dungeons, does it matter much if a run them whilst in D/P? or should i weapon switch to D/D or P/P?

Thanks