Guild Wars 2

So far I’ve got an Elementalist to 40 and it’s been slow frustrating work. Aside from one truly ridiculous mission I’ve gotten to the point where I can do story content dying only occasionally. I can handle 3-4 mobs reasonably well and 6-8 if I pop my Elite.

Thing is there are still areas in the game where I’m getting absolutely savaged. For example the Heart “Help the Priory stop the dredge encroachment” in Lornar’s Pass ends up with my being attacked by a truly staggering amount of enemies, even if I stand stock still in an attempt to avoid picking up aggro. The respawn rate is so fast that I can’t possibly use caution and creep on the edges, pulling them to me.

Are these zones designed to be handled by groups of players, or do I need to up my game? I’m starting to feel I’m absolutely at the limit of what I can do with an Elementalist and my income is really struggling to keep up with repair and waypoint costs in attempting this kind of scenario.

Some encounters the enemy is supposed to more or less own the place, so trying to solo it will likely mean your death unless you can kill them very quickly as they do respawn quickly. Best to do these when other players are attempting them.

LOL, I wish my toon could handle more than 2 at a time… 3 is pushing it… any more and I’m dead.

A lot of this game is not designed to be solo’d which is stupid because majority of people play solo unless by chance someone is around and you join them,people that send random invites for their party to complete quests are called trolls and people seem to turn into confused zombies as to why someone sent them a invite. I think if the game somehow adjusted to the fact you are fighting something solo and lowered its HP and if more started attacking it the HP went down slower,no idea really I just know some areas of this game are impossible without at least 5 players.
Seriously though the fact you die so quick and fight that pathetic “downed state” sequence of crap you would think they would allow you to repair your own armor without spending 100’s in copper waypointing to a repairer because your undies got damaged..

One thing I would look at is your mobility skills – I always liked lightning+dagger. “Stand still” is rarely the right answer in GW2. I have survived getting too many mobs dropped on me multiple times simply by constantly moving. It was touch and go and I had to rally sometimes, but it was doable.

You can make melee mobs miss you by moving out of their range or getting behind them. I mapped “about face” to my keyboard so that I can instantly switch directions and run back through a mob. The goal is to minimize getting hit while your skills are recharging and try to get the mob’s health down enough that it is easy to rally if you’re downed.

You don’t need to invite anyone… just being in proximity of another player groups you up… just no official party interface.

If you need help and no one is around, there is nothing wrong with asking for help in chat… “Hey, anyone near X that wants to help me on this DE?”

I am a level 63 Elementalist. I’ve fully completed every zone I’ve leveled in (sitting at over 50% world completion now). I’ve had a blast and haven’t thought leveling was too slow (actually, quite the opposite). It took a little while at first to learn how to play the class efficiently, especially while being so squishy, but once I got the hang of it I loved it.

There will be times that you come across a heart that is difficult to solo. Most of the time somebody comes along to help. If not, you could always try switching to another server. Most of the content is definitely soloable though.

When I was leveling up to 80 with the majority of other Gamers we would call out what DE was going on so that other players had the opportunity to join in so they wouldn’t miss out. I don’t know if that’s changed now or what but it was rarely a problem to complete the events.

Now it’s pretty much 3W or farming CS for more money to 3W.

@OP

Upgrade to another class and your issues get immediately sorted.
Even playing my necro (arguably not the most OP class) it’s 3 times as easy to deal with mobs and PvE in general than with elementalist.

This does not mean you can’t solo everything on the Ele. I have soloed my way up to 80 including vets and some champs, so it’s doable. It just requires 3 times as much effort (not saying 3 x time) than playing basically any other class.

I have an elementalist in the 42, 43 range. Fun profession. Tough profession. Fragile profession. But over all, very satisfying.

There are a couple of things about my ele’s build (and ele’s in general) that make it challenging, which is just another way of saying “difficult to keep alive”. I play using a staff, because I find that the selection of AOE available in the different attunements to be pretty effective in overall PVE play. So, open areas with low mob density and plenty of room to dodge run circles and cast AOE damage between spamming the primary attack, little problem..

That said, while there are any number of good skills available, there is no quick swap between melee and ranged staff. I’m not even sure I’d want to go toe to toe in melee in any case as flimsy as my ele is. So there are certain situations where I’m just going to die, and that is that. Tight caves with high mob density: death. Tight spaces where dodging aggros more mobs: death. Areas with high mob density and quick respawn rates: death. Mobs which surround me in numbers: death. Bridges: death. Narrow ravines: death. Too far from other players during a camp invasion: death.

But the game does of really good job of reminding me at all times how flimsy my ele is, being as the most powerful armor at this point looks like a slightly naughty prom dress.

Dogsmack.4910:

A lot of this game is not designed to be solo’d which is stupid because majority of people play solo unless by chance someone is around and you join them,people that send random invites for their party to complete quests are called trolls and people seem to turn into confused zombies as to why someone sent them a invite. I think if the game somehow adjusted to the fact you are fighting something solo and lowered its HP and if more started attacking it the HP went down slower,no idea really I just know some areas of this game are impossible without at least 5 players.
Seriously though the fact you die so quick and fight that pathetic “downed state” sequence of crap you would think they would allow you to repair your own armor without spending 100’s in copper waypointing to a repairer because your undies got damaged..

Actually, most of the game is designed to be completed solo, except for dungeons, certain Champions and events specifically labled “Group Events”. ArenaNet have stated from the start that this should be a game that people can play by themselves.

It takes some practice, though. Some professions are currently having an easier time than others and there are still areas that need some tweaking here and there.

What you’re suggesting, the game already does by itself. When you’re solo, the content is easier, fewer enemies spawn and they take fewer hits to kill. When more players join an event, more enemies spawn, with higher health, etc.

If there’s something you find that’s absolutely too difficult to solo, make it known to the devs! It’s important to be specific about it. Tell them exactly where you are, what you’re playing with, which enemies you’re facing and what it is that makes the content too hard to solo, so they can review it.

Hmm, this is a little ambiguous then. In theory hearts should be soloable but in practise maybe not? I guess constant streams of mobs in these places is pushing the boundaries, but I might still be better swapping characters.

Oh and I agree that standing still is rarely the right choice, but I can’t kite ranged mobs and in densely packed areas the slightest movement can get 3-4 adds. In those situations standing still does generally seem to be better than trying to dodge attacks. Large quantities of Dredge is the worst possible situation because all my blinds are worthless, my static defence is weak and kiting is no help.

Oh and make it known to devs? That makes sense if these aren’t designed to be group only content. I guess I’ll drop something in suggestions.