What am I doing wrong. Thrue in moste cases I am fighting mobs a level above me and if they get support, so I am outnumbered, I die pretty fast.
I am a new player and I am talking about the starting zones, level 1 to 10. If I stick to my own level I have to roam already explored areas. I know these low levels can be unforgiving. You have low hitpoints, low stats, everything is low, but to ‘build’ a character to just pass these level zones, feels a bit of a waste.
Learning to use your skills to the best advantage does take some time. Have you unlocked buttons 7 and 8 from spending skills yet? Have you been doing skill points?
Another thing. If you do feel overwhelmed by Mobs, feel free to run away. The have a limited follow range, and you can usually escape with ease.
The other thing is, if you have already fully explored the starting area of your level, you can always go to another starter area and explore that too. That way, you won’t have to take things on higher than your level.
To get to another starter area, click on WvW, choose any map, take the Lion’s Arch portal there, and it will take you to Vigil’s Keep. From there you have portals to all home cities.
This combat system in GW2 differs from most other MMOs out there so it may be some lack of knowledge that is your problem.
There is no TANK in this game.
Per above, while actively in combat, there is no way to absorb or take damage for an extended period of time.
Per above, the “defensive” attributes (Toughness / Vitality) can allow you take a few more hits, but cannot allow you to take continual damage (thus focusing on those attributes is NOT recommended).
Best way to survive is AVOID getting hit as much as possible.
Per above, KEEP MOVING (and learn to DODGE / EVADE).
BLOCKING is a good alternative (and is recommended to be used) but is also limited as damage mitigation (mostly due to cooldown of skills or other methods that provide it as an option).
DEAD foes cannot harm you. Out damaging a group of foes is better than trying to outlast them.
Per above, the OFFENSIVE attributes are the recommended ones to focus on.
Focus on KILLING more dangerous enemies first (the ones with control skills or area of effect damage / control skills). NOTE that if there is a bunch of smaller enemies and ONE huge one, it may be to your advantage to take out the smaller ones first (while actively avoiding the hard hitting boss).
Note that the above points are generally true of the game in general, not every situation requires them to be recognized as absolute law. Many lower level normal foes rarely presents a problem unless they have control skills (knockdown, stun, etc.). However, not learning to play with a “KEEP MOVING & DON’T GET HIT” mentality is the best way to learn bad habits that will certainly get you killed in more dangerous situations.
Even much lower level foes can become an issue if you become vastly outnumbered and are overwhelmed and lack area of effect damage or some form of control skills yourself. When a Veteran or Elite pops up with those mobs, it can turn to a very serious survival situation. If you ALWAYS fight like the next hit you take could kill you, when you face that Champion solo, you will at least have constantly trained yourself on how to survive the situation and come out with a potential victory.
Hope this helps.
We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
1. Eliminate weaker enemies first, their damage adds up. When they’re down it’s easier to take on the veterans/champions/legendaries.
2. Sustained survivability = toughness * heal per second. This is your effective hp replenishment rate. If it exceeds the damage per second enemies deal to you you will survive indefinitely. If it is smaller, you will survive until you run out of HP. Vitality increases your survivability against large hits, but does not change your long-term survivability by much at all (maybe 4-7 seconds at max). Sustained survivability is nerfed greatly by the Poison condition – do not use your heal skill when poisoned; wait for it to fade first before using it.
3. The main tactic most people use without understanding it is that the total sum damage per second dealt by mobs to players in large mob groups is often larger than your sustained heal per second. By eliminating all mobs except one (usually a champion class or above), the overall damage the mobs can inflict is reduced to a level that some classes can outheal without the need for survivability stats at all. But this is not always true. Play a full-glass thief or elementalist and you will quickly learn that soloing any ranged mob of champion class or above is generally impossible, while the warrior has no such issue even while in full-glass mode because its intrinsic toughness is so much higher that healing signet alone will sustain it permanently. However, if in a given situation against a champion class or greater the mob’s damage to you is greater than your heal can offset, you will always die. Some parties survive at higher levels by reducing incoming damage with projectile reflection, well timed blocks, 100% uptime on evade on every single boss attack (impossible on solo but not hard in a party of 5) in order to bring the incoming damage per second below the sustained heal of the party so that they can still stack full offensive stats without dying. Inexperienced players attempting the same but without the ability to do so are the main cause of wipes in high level dungeon runs.
There are builds capable of tanking, but none of them are in the damage-based meta for PvE. Some are used to great effect to hold cap points in PvP, while others are used as Commander builds in WvW. Due to the intrinsic importance of sustained survivability and spike survivability to these, they generally run Sentinel and/or Cleric gear (and occasionally Dire, in the case of the AED condition engineer); their use is generally frowned upon in PvE as they’re generally not needed outside specific defense/escort events (Temple of Balthazar, Temple of Grenth, Arah pre-event chain). If making one, bring it to a dungeon only when your party is incapable of surviving; otherwise, use another character with full damage gear for faster completion rates.
Like everyone else said, but let me add something that keeps it simple: You tend to get the stuffing knocked out of you from levels 5-10. It happened to me on my first couple characters. Part of it is gear. 1 or 2 points makes a difference at low levels — but, that said, don’t sweat it. Push through and you will find things getting much breezier once you start unlocking more stuff at levels 10-11 or so.
One tip: Lower level quest areas will scale you down to that level, but with stats around that level’s cap, and you will still get EXP appropriate to your real level. Don’t be afraid to do a level 4 quest when you’re 7, I’m saying. You’ll beat up everything and get good stuff for it.
If the map seems to ‘outgrow’ you (you can only find new content to explore that is higher than your character level) you can always go to another starter map and ‘start over’ there.
There are portals to Vigil Keep in every main city (Divinity, The Grove, Hoelbrak etc..), from Vigil Keep you can enter every other main city and from there the starter area. You’ll have a bit of advantage there if you already gained some levels. Exploring a main city also gives experience and doesn’t require any combat.
Like Ocosh said, don’t be afraid to level in a map lower than your own level. You will still get good experience since you’ll be scaled down. And those 2 – 3 levels you get there while exploring will be enough to continue the map you got stuck on
Evanny
[EU] Piken Square
Representing: ‘The Only One’ [One]
