Guild Wars 2

I have a question: I’ve done all dungeons except 2 Arah paths and quite often, it wasn’t always viable to fight in melee range (warrior or guardian) because of the extremely powerful boss attacks . But in a lot of ‘builds for dungeons’ it’s suggested to have two melee weapons sets and not, like I do, pick one melee and one ranged weapon.

What do you do? Change weapons before you get to a boss encounter? Of am I doing something wrong and do I have to improve my survival skills?

It really depends on the kind of group you run with. If you run with experienced dungeon runners in a balanced group, there will be a lot of group buffs (protection, aegis, …) and boss debuffs (weakness, blind, …) that make staying in melee viable. On top of that, you still need to dodge and use skills that give you extra evade or invulnerability to avoid the larger telegraphed attacks.

Ideally, the group composition brings enough offensive power, buffs (might, fury, …) and defensive buffs/debuffs (see above) to down the boss before all defenses are on cooldown. This is the scenario most suggested dungeon builds are made for, and it works quite well in my experience.

I’m in the process of practicing dungeon runs with melee builds (on mesmer and ranger) myself, and from my experience, it really depends on your party whether it’s viable or not to stay in melee. If half your party plays from range and nobody uses the defensive buffs or debuffs, expect to go down in meta gear quickly, unless you are one of the uber experienced pro-gamers. If your whole party is in melee and know their group utilities, you’ll soon find melee much more painless than ranged combat.

I do dungeons on a ranger and I’m not sure how it’s different for a warrior or guardian but like Rasimir I find it depends on the path and the strategy your group is using. For me it’s not too much of a problem because I normally have a few different weapons with me anyway, both melee and ranged so I can switch as needed.

If you’re planning to do a specific type of run (like speed clears) then it’s probably best to find out whats recommended and the strategy that makes it work. Otherwise I’d suggest just making sure you always have at least one melee and one ranged set with you so you can switch if necessary.

Thanks for the reply! :-) So .. you equip two melee weapon sets and take a ranged weapon with you, “just in case” your team doesn’t play so well?

And aren’t there any bosses or mobs that are better dealt with by using ranged attacks? I can’t remember anyone fighting Giganticus Lupicus in Arah in melee range, for instance ..

I typically take Ranged and Melee weapons as “always equipped”… However, I have some spare ones in my bag as sometimes different weapons are just more useful.

This all comes from experience within the dungeons or fights.

Lupicus is a good example, since he’s got some attacks that you really need to dodge to be able to melee him, but if your whole team can do it and use their whole buffed melee powers, the fight is so much quicker than ranging. I’ve seen videos of melee groups taking only a tenth or even less of the time to kill Lupicus than I have experienced with (decent) ranged groups.

i assume your talking about Lupi since u mentioned Arah. I used to suck at him too, for the longest time (I think the first month or so) i would just range him with a bow, and get basically all useless utilities for my group and I’d end up dying anyway. you really have to know his attacks, but having 2 melee sets when fighting him (on warrior at least) is actually easier than with a ranged wep. Lupi I think is one of the only bosses who like to punish players who range him, so staying in close range and having a block etc. on a 2nd set is a good idea. I usually swap weps and retrait specifically for Lupi, and I know most others recommend you change builds when fighting him. For other bosses though, i always use melee weps once i know the fight. Also what boss encounters are you talking about? I usually do ones like AC, TA, COF, COE and Arah on warrior and I don’t need to retrait or swap weps for anything except Arah. most bosses should be easy enough for you to melee them.

It’s best to be able to roll with whatever works best for your group. But melee tends to be the way I go. Generally speaking, the only boss fights I range are Sure Shot Seamus in CM p3 (and that’s only if the reflecting goes badly when we try to stack) and the armored personnel carrier in SE p3. Oh, and Malrona in TA up if things start to go south.

When it comes to Arah, having all your options is the best way to go. Once you learn Lupi well enough to know when he’s about to do his big attacks, you’ll be able to melee him just fine.

FINY.4710:

Thanks for the reply! :-) So .. you equip two melee weapon sets and take a ranged weapon with you, “just in case” your team doesn’t play so well?

And aren’t there any bosses or mobs that are better dealt with by using ranged attacks? I can’t remember anyone fighting Giganticus Lupicus in Arah in melee range, for instance ..

Lupicus is actually easiest in melee once you know his tells because his most dangerous attacks (his single-target projectile, which moves extremely fast and is hard to avoid, and his AOE spray in phase 2) are basically totally negated at close range. The moves he gets as a replacement (the kick in phase 1 and the swipe in phase 2) do a ton of damage but are also highly telegraphed and easy to avoid.

Since pugs typically do not know these tells they opt for what seems like the safer route, which is basically ranging him and letting him repeatedly down people while you res them. It is slow and unreliable but it’s a better alternative than watching your entire pug get wiped out by a single swipe.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

FINY.4710:

Thanks for the reply! :-) So .. you equip two melee weapon sets and take a ranged weapon with you, “just in case” your team doesn’t play so well?

And aren’t there any bosses or mobs that are better dealt with by using ranged attacks? I can’t remember anyone fighting Giganticus Lupicus in Arah in melee range, for instance ..

Lupicus is actually easiest in melee once you know his tells because his most dangerous attacks (his single-target projectile, which moves extremely fast and is hard to avoid, and his AOE spray in phase 2) are basically totally negated at close range. The moves he gets as a replacement (the kick in phase 1 and the swipe in phase 2) do a ton of damage but are also highly telegraphed and easy to avoid.

Since pugs typically do not know these tells they opt for what seems like the safer route, which is basically ranging him and letting him repeatedly down people while you res them. It is slow and unreliable but it’s a better alternative than watching your entire pug get wiped out by a single swipe.

IIRC:

1. The kick has a very short telegraph animation, but he turns to face the target a second before he actually kicks.

2. The phase 2 spray, while seemingly random, actually attempts to hit specific targets by focusing a large number of the projectiles at their position. It is by no means totally negated simply by being close to him.

The kick in phase 1 is actualy not that telegraphed, its hard to avoid unless you can guess at the timing and can move out of melee range so it won’t hit you. Another clue is that he looks in the direction he is goin to kick, so if you are not in front you won’t be hit. The one in phase 2 however, should be telegraphed enough that you can avoid it. His aoe spray is still hard to avoid at melee range, but the trouble for those ranging starts from phase 2 to end. In phase 3 he will actually start chasing whoever is ranging or running away from him, so if you are in melee range you will be safer. You should also not move around, or he will put you in his bubble that will do a lot of dmg unless u have stability to dodge out of it.

FINY.4710:

Thanks for the reply! :-) So .. you equip two melee weapon sets and take a ranged weapon with you, “just in case” your team doesn’t play so well?

And aren’t there any bosses or mobs that are better dealt with by using ranged attacks? I can’t remember anyone fighting Giganticus Lupicus in Arah in melee range, for instance ..

Ya for pretty much all profession you should ideally bring 2 melee weapons and only have a backup range weapons in your inventory just in case.

The just in case for me is like the cart in SE or the Dredge Fractal Boss. I never needed a range weapon because of how my team is bad (except in fractal). It more about your own survivability skills.

nagr.1593:

The kick in phase 1 is actualy not that telegraphed, its hard to avoid unless you can guess at the timing and can move out of melee range so it won’t hit you. Another clue is that he looks in the direction he is goin to kick, so if you are not in front you won’t be hit. The one in phase 2 however, should be telegraphed enough that you can avoid it. His aoe spray is still hard to avoid at melee range, but the trouble for those ranging starts from phase 2 to end. In phase 3 he will actually start chasing whoever is ranging or running away from him, so if you are in melee range you will be safer. You should also not move around, or he will put you in his bubble that will do a lot of dmg unless u have stability to dodge out of it.

The p1 kicks are actually about reacting to what he doesn’t do. He never does two of the same move in order (I think because his kick has a CD) so if he kicks once, he won’t do it again. If he does any other move and doesn’t immediately do the other non-kick move after (which starts its animation sooner), it’s going to be a kick.

The P2 spray is in fact easier at melee range because it makes Feedback work on it (if you’re a mesmer) and otherwise it puts the timing on the explosions closer together. If you’re in melee range all the AOEs will land on you pretty much immediately after he animates the spray so you can just dodge once and avoid all of them. If you’re at range the pattern of the projectiles becomes much more random and you may be looking at an interval of as much as 2-3 seconds between the first and last explosions, making them very hard to hit. Also, if someone is standing too close to you, the timing on his explosions will be slightly different as well so that just adds to the total “danger window” that you have to be invulnerable for to avoid the full spray.

The only thing you should need a ranged weapon for is fractals, particularly mossman, the hammer guy, and definitely grawl

RoseofGilead.8907:

It’s best to be able to roll with whatever works best for your group. But melee tends to be the way I go. Generally speaking, the only boss fights I range are Sure Shot Seamus in CM p3 (and that’s only if the reflecting goes badly when we try to stack) and the armored personnel carrier in SE p3.

Sure Shot Seamus cannot be reflected but it’s ridiculously easy to melee kite him without taking any damage and for the carrier in SE P3 it’s easy to melee with a decent reflect guardian.

For fractals also, you don’t need ranged not even at mossman, archdiviner with a decent group, as for the shaman it’s easier for me to go 50% melee and 50% ranged to heal up if I mess up the dodges…

I’m using mostly war, ele and guard all zerker and all melee sloted. If a group decides to use ranged, then I swap for that fight only before the fight, so it’s useless to carry ranged weapon with you all the time…

After an Arah run, I found out you need ranged for the 3rd power core. Can’t get close to the eyestalks without being massacred and can’t hit the giant flying thing with any melee weapon (flies away). Lucky me, I don’t carry ranged because RP!