Guild Wars 2

My wife and I have been leveling and are now 60. She is a Guardian and I’m a Thief. PvE only. Love the game. We eventually want to do dungeons and realize our leveling builds will probably have to give way now to something more focused on sustained damage with higher survivability and better use of our mutual support abilities in a group (we have not grouped at all yet). As a Guardian she will probably be a welcome addition to dungeon groups, but my Thief will probably be tolerated mostly because we’re a package deal. ;-)

We would like to start using the builds we will eventually use in dungeons, to get familiar with their mechanics. Can anyone suggest a good couple of builds for us? I’ve studied the Thief forums and have some ideas for my build, but I’m clueless about Guardians and my wife doesn’t read forums lol. Basically, she’ll play whatever build I suggest for her and although she has years of experience MT’ing in trinity group HM/Epic dungeons and will learn her mechanics well, she’s not the type to go research it. Mostly I do that.

Also, we have been just using the best gear we’ve obtained as we leveled, under the assumption that we shouldn’t invest too much in gear until we are level capped. Does that sound wise, or should we gear up now that we have our GM traits? We haven’t spent any of our Karma and have some gold saved up, too.

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Stats are pretty much your priority. You can buy a new set of blues for just a handful of silver every 5-10 levels. Make sure to get a fair bit of vit or toughness in the mix, or you’ll drop pretty quick during dungeon encounters. Most importantly, keep all of your gear within, at worst, 10 levels.

Second priority is adaptability. While it’s true that certain builds overall work better in dungeons, few to none are unacceptable. More important than your build is your willingness to change traits or skills when necessary. If you’re packing a lot of condition removal in a dungeon that’s light on conditions, but high on control effects, you need to swap your skill set to include stability and stun breaks. If you’re fighting a boss that demolishes melee while ranged players get away without trouble, make sure you have a ranged weapon, at least as a backup alternative in your pack. People who adamantly stick to their build regardless of the situation are a much larger burden on the group than those who come in with non-dungeon builds, but are willing to adapt as needs change.

With those two things in mind, you should be fine.

I cannot help with the builds, I just play with what I got. I have been to all dungeons, but haven’t done all paths. Arah Explorable ‘did not end well’, as someone says.

Don’t fall into the trap that a certain class is wanted and another is not. Every kind has valuable skills and less valuable skills. Only once did I have anyone yell at me for not being ‘made right’. That was when my guardian was around lvl 40 and I was doing Ascalon Explorable. Somebody told me in a rather impolite way that I must have a cedrtain skill if I want to do a dungeon with a guardian. It felt unfair for at that level, I did not have enough skill points yet. The skill was either ‘Stand your Ground’ or ‘Hold the Line’, I’ve forgotten which.

More important than the build is knowing what needs to be done. That will only come by experience. I hope you can find members to join your group that have the expereince and are willing to explain what needs to be done, how and even why.

I’ll leave the more technical people to answer build questions. And will keep an eye on this thread for it might benefit my Siri too.

Yep, I agree that it’s the player more than the build/gear, and that’s always been a hallmark of GW. I also agree with the point regarding adaptability in this game. It appears to be more necessary than usual to be able to modify skills situationally than in most MMO’s we’ve played.

My wife is now playing an AH/Hammer build and it’s pretty impressive. Scales very well with additional team members, too, so we’re looking forward to using it in a dungeon. Now I need to refine my own build. I wasn’t a big fan of condition builds leveling, but I think for dungeons I’m going to need to go in that direction.

Hi there,

I also used to be in a similar situation to you. Me and my gf both leveled together, I’m a guardian and she played a ranger. Basicly in my opinion gear doesnt matter too much until you hit lvl 70 since the final areas can be quite tough without decent armor.

In terms of buying armor, you should always buy armor where the level requirement is a multiple of 5. This is because the armor and weapon crafting diciplines only allow the crafting of equipment with this level multiplier (hence a level 50 weapon has more options on the trading post than a lvl 48 weapon and will most likely be cheaper, since the level 50 weapon can be crafted whereas the lvl 48 weapon is a random drop). Now, most crafted items are usually of fine quality (blue) however every 15 levels they will be of mastercrafted quality (green), so levels 20,35,50,65,and 80. If you dont want to buy armor and weapons every 5 levels, I would recommend you at least get mastercrafted equipment on these levels. The reason is that lvl 75 blue armor is not much better than lvl 65 green armor, but there is a HUGE gap between lvl 75 blue armor and lvl 80 green armor. Hope this isnt too much to take in lol :p

Dont spend any karma until you hit 80 (except on food materials)

Now, if you would like to learn about dungeons, I wouldnt mind taking you guys through it (I’ll bring some guild members along to make it easier) you can add me in game and msg me when I’m online and I’ll give you a hand.

Jus try some dungeons storymode. Storymode is a good way to learn how to do dungeons. They are also a lot more forgiven. Besides that in storymode the pug’s are more forgiving too. Specially if you say beforehand you both never done a dungeon and when you show effort, I wouldn’t mind if you get lost in e.g. cm and I think most people don’t.

If anyone tells you you’re not playing your class right, or you’re not using the skills you “have to”, block them and don’t ever group with them again.

This isn’t WoW and the gameplay is totally different. The most important thing is that you’re playing a build for your class that you’re comfortable and confident with. There’s no cookie-cutter dungeon parties or builds. It doesn’t matter if I’m playing my engineer with high rifle damage in mind, or if I’m running with a tanky elixir gun build, I’m a credit to my team because I know how to play both of these styles well, and I’m also geared to excel at both.

Since every class has ways to deal, take, and heal damage, the traditional rules of a dungeon are much more relaxed in this game. It’s true that some dungeons have more of a focus on some gameplay aspects, such as condition removal or ranged damage over melee damage, but it is by no means restrictive. I’m not very familiar with thieves, but if you’re been doing a build you’re very confident with, roll with it and build your gear towards it. You and your wife will have an awesome time together once you begin running dungeons.