Guild Wars 2

Hi! I’ve been trying to get into gw2 from time to time, but I just can’t properly grasp at the combat. Which is propably strange because I’ve first played the game from the actual launch of the original gw2, and still just feel like I suck so bad at the combat I’m having trouble even doing my personal storylines (10-80 lvl ones).

I’ve mostly played as engineer (main) and warrior. And I know how all the combos work, how to properly dodge, etc. but still feel like a total noob, for sometimes I just die without the faintest idea what actually killed me.

With good reflexes I can survive against single enemy pretty well with timed blocks, dodges, reflects, etc. But when there are like multiple enemies, even trying to stay alive becomes difficult. And when I’m trying to go offensive I usually die in a blink of an eye before I can do practically any damage. Sometimes enemies just seems way too frantic with their auto-attacks etc. that it feels like theres no way to dodge or timely defend against them.

Also it feels like the enemies hit like train (if it was first thrown by a chuck norris with the speed of light), so I don’t know am I supposed avoid all the damage or just somehow mitigate it and/or heal through it?

I’m not trying to complain about the combat, but it seriously stand in the way of whether I can keep playing the whole game

TLDR: Been playing for a long time and know how it works, still getting my kitten kicked.

So any tips would be appreciated.

edit: grammar.

How is your gear? You need to keep updating it so it stays within about 5 levels of you. The cheapest way is to use karma after completing hearts, or buying the stats you want in rares off the TP will give you some more oomph. Make sure you’ve got things like shoulder armor and trinkets equipped too.

This is the most common cause of new players struggling, if that’s not the case we can delve further.

Well the thing is, I leveled my engineer with the level 80 boost token (thou I have leveled both to 80 previously so it’s not like it’s suddenly too complicated to play, also considering the time I have spend playing engineer) so it has really good gear for that level. Also I was recently doing the ~40 lvl story quest with the level 80 engineer, but still struggled to not get killed against two normal enemies.

Huh, wasn’t expecting you to be in exotics.

Is it the story enemies that are causing you trouble, are you fine in open world core Tyria? Some instances are more difficult than others; if you’re ok in core Tyria I wouldn’t worry too much about it. You may be fighting an unlabeled “boss” or just in a story instance that is supposed to be slightly harder. The balance of them is often all over the place IIRC.

You can also do story instances with a friend or random stranger for help, although you may want to find the root of the problem so you do better in harder content like the expansion. If you see me online I’d be happy to play with you but not just explode the enemies for you and see if I spot anything obvious.

One final thought is to check your build. Are you pretty familiar with traits, have them all assigned, and in a way that makes sense? For example if you’re using a bunch of condi traits and skills/weapons in pure power gear, it’s not going to work.

I manage quite well against single/small groups of enemies in open world, but as soon as the fight gets thougher I’m kinda lost.

Also for my build, I have looked for some engi builds but I don’t understand that well how the meta builds work, but I tried to make my own build smartly.

My current build as engi is scrapper (for I like the hammer because it feels like heavy hitting, simple but versatile weapon with all the blocks, reflects, etc.). I usually use flame, rifle and healing turrets (for they are more passive instead of on long cooldown). the rest are elite kit mortar, and some other kit (which I usually try experimenting with). I’m almost always using the tools trait, for it boosts generally everything.

My current gear has power, tough, vitality. It doesn’t have much condition damage (at all) but other than the hammer, does engineers even have good non-condition damage dealer skills/abilities? Because I end up using a lot of fire fields and burning conditions because it still seems to kill enemies the fastest.

The warrior is another class that I like to play, because with greatsword it’s simple to play so I can focus more on the fight and reacting to enemies. Also I have heard that the warrior is generally the easiest to play, and engineer (with all it’s kits etc.). Is the gap between the skill required for some classes really that huge?

I haven’t played Engie but I have heard that it can be complicated to play it well because you have to manage switching kits all the time. The best advice I can give you is to not give up, because it sounds like you aren’t that familiar with the skills on your chosen classes. As you play more, you will become more familiar with the skills you can use, and know when to use them. Know which ones can push the enemies away from you (few open world enemies outside of HoT maps have threatening ranged attacks) if you need it, know your cleave attacks.

And knowing how to dodge is good (a surprising amount of people don’t seem to know how….), but knowing when to dodge is even more important. Its a limited resource on purpose, don’t be afraid to take a few smaller hits from enemies if you can use your dodge to dodge a much harder hitting attack that will be coming a few seconds later. Also pay attention to the red AoE rings on the ground, get out of them if you see them.

Learn to use conditions and boons, this ties in to learning your skills better. If you have access to skills that grant the boon protection know when you should use them to get that protection, don’t just spam them as soon as they are off cooldown. Similarly with skills that heal you, know when you should use them, don’t waste them as soon as you take your first hit.

Lastly, counter intuitively I would advise you to play a more glass cannon class for a bit. Play a full berserker elementalist. Its the squishiest class in the game by far, and it may be frustrating for you at first. Don’t be afraid to die. Because that class cannot take a hit the same way others can, it will force you to learn how to become a more efficient and effective fighter, and before you know it you will be able to take on 5+ mobs in open world with no problem

I used to play engineer quite a lot, and one thing I have to say is that most of your mitigation comes from blinding the enemies. As far as utilities go, I would have grenade and bomb kit pmuch always

Rotating mainly smoke bomb (bomb kit #4) and flash shell (mortar kit #4) on the enemies (remember that enemies from champ and above are immune to blinds), should leave you pretty much intact and the enemies permablind; add on that the block from hammer #4 and the blinds from grenade/flamethrower (skill#3/skill#5 respectively) and you should have no issues with staying alive.
Special mention to your cc skills which are mainly glue bomb (#5 bombs), endothermic shell (#3 mortar) and air blast (flamethrower #3)

Regarding direct damage engi, it’s viable.I believe the general consensus is that grenades is probably the best engi dps utility, followed closely by bombs. So generally spamming grenade #2,#4,#5 and bomb #1 (or grenades #1 if you want to stay ranged) along with grenade barrage and big ol’ bomb should be more than enough dps.

Anyways, that’s my opinion, hope it helps

One other thought which may be total basics that you already know: Engi and warrior have the two least intuitive heals in the entire game. Again you may know this but if not, don’t activate the warrior’s healing signet (usually), and the engi healing turret is dropped, overcharged, and then exploded. Really over the top weirdly designed healing skills that a ton of newer players use just plain wrong.

Do you move while you’re in combat, or mostly stay in one place?

Do you use keybinds, or click your skills?

Standing still and clicking skills can make combat noticeably more difficult. Constant movement makes enemies hit less often, and using keybinds means you can react better to what you’re seeing the enemies do.

Oh, and just in case, do you play in 1st or 3rd person? (I know it’s not likely you’re playing in 1st, but that can do it, too.)

~EW

It’s hard to give any advice when I haven’t actually seen you play, but here are some things that come in mind:

When facing multiple trash mobs (or veterans), blinds are really helpful. You can put down an AoE that will periodically pulse out a condition to enemies that will make them miss you with their attacks → you don’t get any damage. Your best blind fields are Smoke Bomb and Flash Shell.

Since a lot of engineer’s attack deal ground-targeted AoE damage, it might help if you stack enemies in one spot. You can do it either by LoSing them (corner pull) or with Magnetic Bomb if you have Streamlined Kits trait (under specialization Tools).

If projectiles are a problem, you can create a field that will protect you against them by using tool belt skill for Elixir U. If you’re fast, you can toss it before you get into combat, swap Elixir U for something else, so that you can use your desired utility skills and still enjoy the benefit of being covered from projectiles.

For champion-rank mobs, you can disable them (and also deal bonus damage to them) for 5 seconds by breaking their blue bar. Ever since the nerf of Slick Shoes this is significantly harder to do by yourself, but it’s still manageable if you learn all your CC skills and use them all in rapid succession.

You can pre-stack might before the combat begins (by performing a specific rotation of your skills that involves changing utility skills on the fly) and then swap into your standard build, which makes your attacks hit MUCH harder during the first seconds of the fight. This also helps you out defensively, because enemies dying faster means you being in danger for much less time.

And of course it helps immensely if you know your enemies. Know what to look out for, anticipate their attacks and know how to counter them. If you’re new to the game, there’s a lot of stuff you don’t know, which is fine. Experience will come with time. Don’t expect to be the best on your first day.

If you can name some specific problem you have, I might be able to give you some better advice. But this is all I can think of if you have general difficulty with the game’s combat.

Tarasicodissa.7084:

When facing multiple trash mobs (or veterans), blinds are really helpful. You can put down an AoE that will periodically pulse out a condition to enemies that will make them miss you with their attacks -> you don’t get any damage. Your best blind fields are Smoke Bomb and Flash Shell.

this is class-specific sometimes like warrior can’t blind at all afaik, they are just so useless atm they can’t even reflect or self-apply boons like regen and prot like rev have now. But one thing they have that’s highly useful in trash mobs is invuln, they have Endure pain which is just awesome if u wanna stick in one spot and bash some annoying trash mobs down (im looking at u tiny raptors trying to bite my face off). Sometimes u don’t even need it if u learn the class like GS evade and stuff honestly this is basic stuff u need to stop complaining abt individual classes its not fair to ppl who main it and don’t have as many problems as u do. I run zerk on warrior for open world and while I down a couple times when fighting 4+ mobs I rarely (if ever) actually die. Most times even vengeance helps greatly if there are significant amt of trash mobs theres like 2% chance u wont rally at all. You need to learn your class, learn your stuns like your elite one, and if u need help post on class forums cos we cant help u without more specifics tbh.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Do you move while you’re in combat, or mostly stay in one place?

Do you use keybinds, or click your skills?

Standing still and clicking skills can make combat noticeably more difficult. Constant movement makes enemies hit less often, and using keybinds means you can react better to what you’re seeing the enemies do.

Oh, and just in case, do you play in 1st or 3rd person? (I know it’s not likely you’re playing in 1st, but that can do it, too.)

~EW

I’ve set my keybinds properly atleast for me (they might be strange but I’m a left hander anyway)

• weaponskills, 1-5
• utility, Ctrl+1-5
• and as engineers have all 5 prof. skills, Alt+1-5
  So I can really quickly get the skills I want, thou with engineer having so many skills hidden behind kits, turrets, etc. that’s propably causing the most trouble.

Also I haven’t heard much about whether people generally use the Action camera feature or not, but I’m using it which imo gives much more maneuverability. I would appreciate some opinions on the whole action camera feature?

I generally tend to move around with melee mobs, like when they are clearly powering up for a massive attack. Also I’m not playing in 1st person :P

One thing I’m having trouble with is that many enemy attacks (even when I’m kinda focusing on dodging their next attack or something) seem so fast, that it feels like it’s impossible to react to them with timed dodge, block, etc. It’s not problem with latency or anything because generally this game feels extremely responsive when it comes to server interactions. Also my reflexes are quite just fine.

Try turning off action camera. I can barely play with it on, it messes with me so bad It might help you, it might not

I use the action camera all the time, and love it, playing without just feels weird now. Some thing you should consider is whether your trying to face tank the enemies or if your sticking and moving. the hammer has a leap skill and a stun as well as combo field that applies dazing strike.

i think you prob need to work on your skill rotation.

when i play i generally accept that auto attack should be my dps and other skills such as utility skills, should be used for utility. leaps are range/distance modifiers, or for combo fields same thing with blasts skills, the opportune moment to use abilities will decide your survival.

Kiting, use it, it works.

Don’t face roll.

Be precise. the difference between a pro and an armature in all things is how precise they are.

Don’t face roll. Button mash just cause it s off cool down.