Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I have a problem. I suck at this game.

This isn’t my first MMO, I’ve played just about everything out there including three games which I believe have very similar styles; FF14, Wildstar, and The Secret World. All those games have the whole broadcasts and dodging system. I guess my real problem comes from the lack of telegraphed attacks. If its not that then I’m taking a ridiculous amount of damage that I feel like I can avoid and I don’t know how to avoid.

I will take any and all advice I can get. And Id like to thank everyone in advanced for your help!

Iirc most attack are telegraphed. its actually seeing it (either through particle effects or it happening too quickly or simply not recognizing it)

what profession are you and what content are you having trouble with?

Most enemies do telegraph their attacks (aside from their basic attacks), so it may just be an issue of learning how the enemies move and act if it’s a general case. If it’s a specific case, then stating where you’re having trouble with may help in others giving more specific advice.

On a side note, what class are you running, and what stats do you have on your gear?

Most non-Defience mobs have a lot of small attacks with small tells and instead of dodging you’re better of dealing with them through Blinds/Weakness and simply killing them quickly, most classes have access to something. Certain attacks (like Ascalonian Catacombs gravelings) have big tells, it tends to mean a big hit or CC is incoming, those you might want to dodge. You’ll take some damage, but aslong as you’re not downed 24/7 it’s not a big deal.

Most mobs with Defiance (Champions, Legendaries) have big tells on their high damage attacks, which is usually all you need to dodge really. They do differ per enemy, but usually it’s either a big movement, some sound or a glowing effect. Even if it’s not obvious at first (like Lupi’s kick is almost impossible to judge from his legs, but you can see it in the way he moves his shoulders) with practice it will become easier. Watching a video on a specific encounter can also help and as last resort you can always ask information on the specific encounter in either the Forums, groups or guild/friends. Attacks with little to no tell generally are counter-able in a different way, be it Condition-Cleanse or Reflects.

The only real exception I can think of is the Champion Icebrood Wolf in CoE, who uses 2 PbAoEs that can easily down anyone in non-defensive gear with just one of them, but they have a long cooldown (~30s) and can be lured out during the pull.

Whilst practicing the encounters it might be worth wearing some more defensive gear, such as Knight’s or Soldier’s and swap in more and more DPS-stats as you’re comfortable with. Downside is that in certain fights that can lead to a lot of aggro and thus making the encounter more difficult, but from what I’m aware only Mai Trin and the Archdiviner would give a lot of issue with that.

For PvP encounters you struggle with I’d recommend to watch some streamers play the class and possibly play it yourself, like that not only the tells become easier, but you’ll often be able to predict when a certain attack is coming and also able to judge what’s worth dodging and what’s better off left alone.

I hope this helps.

It would probably be helpful if OP laid out a few specific examples

Playing the different types of professions extensively helps a lot. For example, the Ranger’s longbow skill 1 has something like a one second cooldown, so it becomes a lot easier to know when to dodge an attack successfully. However, some skills are executed instantly, like conditions, so those will be harder to evade. The good part of this is that the more you play, the more patterns you will notice on other player’s behaviours, and then it’s just a matter of preparing yourself to counter their abilities.

So, short answer: play a lot of each class or/and learn their cooldowns and cast times. Obviously this takes a lot of work and practice, but that’s PvP. You are always learning something new everyday.

Also, I’m assuming you’re talking about PvP, because that’s where the difficulty lies in this game.

Practice on champs; try soloing dungeons as far as you can go; attack large amounts of mobs at one time, particularly in high level maps; when the Gauntlet comes back (shame its not very often) you can try and go as far you can; go out to WvW.

The longer you can survive while doing these the better you’ll get. You may not even notice but you will.

Elsdragon.5109:

Most enemies do telegraph their attacks (aside from their basic attacks), so it may just be an issue of learning how the enemies move and act if it’s a general case. If it’s a specific case, then stating where you’re having trouble with may help in others giving more specific advice.

On a side note, what class are you running, and what stats do you have on your gear?

I’m running a dps build on a guardian but the problem continues with other classes.

Azrael.4960:

It would probably be helpful if OP laid out a few specific examples

Its a general problem especially with event bosses.

Esmee.1067:

Most non-Defience mobs have a lot of small attacks with small tells and instead of dodging you’re better of dealing with them through Blinds/Weakness and simply killing them quickly, most classes have access to something. Certain attacks (like Ascalonian Catacombs gravelings) have big tells, it tends to mean a big hit or CC is incoming, those you might want to dodge. You’ll take some damage, but aslong as you’re not downed 24/7 it’s not a big deal.

Few examples...

hide spoiler

Elementalist: Glyph of Storms in Earth / Lightning Hammer for Blinds, Focus gives a small anti-projectile (Swirling Winds) Reflect (Magnetic Wave) and Immunity (Obsidian Flesh) and for defience mobs; Glyph of Elemental Power in either Earth for perma cripple so you can kite (our ‘max melee’ range is big, even in D/any) or Air for Weakness.)
Mesmers: Not a lot of Blinds, but Blurred Frenzy for Evades and access to Anti-Projectiles/Reflects (Focus Phantasm and Feedback.)
Necromancers: Well of Darkness, Death-shroud Tanking, Traits for Weakness.
Engineer: Smoke Bomb (Bomb Kit,) Flame Turrets activate skill for blinds, some Elixer has a Reflect/Anti-projectile + blind (forgot the name.)
Ranger: Take a pet with Toughness (I’d recommend Drake for survivability vs damage) when solo’ing and send them in first.
Thief: Black Powder (Pistol 5) gives a lot of blinds, Sword Auto-attack inflicts Weakness, also helpful.
Warrior: Healing Signet + High base Toughness should be plenty, if not, check out some defensive Utilities (Endure Pain for example.) Or AoE Stuns (Mace 5 for example.)
Guardian: With the right Traits (Blind on Virtue of Justice, Virtue of Justice Recharges on kill) along with Sword/Greatsword Blinds makes almost any hit miss, along with Aegis (Retreat, Virtue of Courage) and Wall of Reflection for some Reflects, you should be fine.

For every class, you can range and kite almost anything, but that won’t help you improve and is a bit boring in my opinion.

Most mobs with Defiance (Champions, Legendaries) have big tells on their high damage attacks, which is usually all you need to dodge really. They do differ per enemy, but usually it’s either a big movement, some sound or a glowing effect. Even if it’s not obvious at first (like Lupi’s kick is almost impossible to judge from his legs, but you can see it in the way he moves his shoulders) with practice it will become easier. Watching a video on a specific encounter can also help and as last resort you can always ask information on the specific encounter in either the Forums, groups or guild/friends. Attacks with little to no tell generally are counter-able in a different way, be it Condition-Cleanse or Reflects.

The only real exception I can think of is the Champion Icebrood Wolf in CoE, who uses 2 PbAoEs that can easily down anyone in non-defensive gear with just one of them, but they have a long cooldown (~30s) and can be lured out during the pull.

Whilst practicing the encounters it might be worth wearing some more defensive gear, such as Knight’s or Soldier’s and swap in more and more DPS-stats as you’re comfortable with. Downside is that in certain fights that can lead to a lot of aggro and thus making the encounter more difficult, but from what I’m aware only Mai Trin and the Archdiviner would give a lot of issue with that.

For PvP encounters you struggle with I’d recommend to watch some streamers play the class and possibly play it yourself, like that not only the tells become easier, but you’ll often be able to predict when a certain attack is coming and also able to judge what’s worth dodging and what’s better off left alone.

I hope this helps.

How does agro and tanking work in this game?

Brizmuth.3895:

Esmee.1067:

Most non-Defience mobs have a lot of small attacks with small tells and instead of dodging you’re better of dealing with them through Blinds/Weakness and simply killing them quickly, most classes have access to something. Certain attacks (like Ascalonian Catacombs gravelings) have big tells, it tends to mean a big hit or CC is incoming, those you might want to dodge. You’ll take some damage, but aslong as you’re not downed 24/7 it’s not a big deal.

Few examples...

hide spoiler

Elementalist: Glyph of Storms in Earth / Lightning Hammer for Blinds, Focus gives a small anti-projectile (Swirling Winds) Reflect (Magnetic Wave) and Immunity (Obsidian Flesh) and for defience mobs; Glyph of Elemental Power in either Earth for perma cripple so you can kite (our ‘max melee’ range is big, even in D/any) or Air for Weakness.)
Mesmers: Not a lot of Blinds, but Blurred Frenzy for Evades and access to Anti-Projectiles/Reflects (Focus Phantasm and Feedback.)
Necromancers: Well of Darkness, Death-shroud Tanking, Traits for Weakness.
Engineer: Smoke Bomb (Bomb Kit,) Flame Turrets activate skill for blinds, some Elixer has a Reflect/Anti-projectile + blind (forgot the name.)
Ranger: Take a pet with Toughness (I’d recommend Drake for survivability vs damage) when solo’ing and send them in first.
Thief: Black Powder (Pistol 5) gives a lot of blinds, Sword Auto-attack inflicts Weakness, also helpful.
Warrior: Healing Signet + High base Toughness should be plenty, if not, check out some defensive Utilities (Endure Pain for example.) Or AoE Stuns (Mace 5 for example.)
Guardian: With the right Traits (Blind on Virtue of Justice, Virtue of Justice Recharges on kill) along with Sword/Greatsword Blinds makes almost any hit miss, along with Aegis (Retreat, Virtue of Courage) and Wall of Reflection for some Reflects, you should be fine.

For every class, you can range and kite almost anything, but that won’t help you improve and is a bit boring in my opinion.

Most mobs with Defiance (Champions, Legendaries) have big tells on their high damage attacks, which is usually all you need to dodge really. They do differ per enemy, but usually it’s either a big movement, some sound or a glowing effect. Even if it’s not obvious at first (like Lupi’s kick is almost impossible to judge from his legs, but you can see it in the way he moves his shoulders) with practice it will become easier. Watching a video on a specific encounter can also help and as last resort you can always ask information on the specific encounter in either the Forums, groups or guild/friends. Attacks with little to no tell generally are counter-able in a different way, be it Condition-Cleanse or Reflects.

The only real exception I can think of is the Champion Icebrood Wolf in CoE, who uses 2 PbAoEs that can easily down anyone in non-defensive gear with just one of them, but they have a long cooldown (~30s) and can be lured out during the pull.

Whilst practicing the encounters it might be worth wearing some more defensive gear, such as Knight’s or Soldier’s and swap in more and more DPS-stats as you’re comfortable with. Downside is that in certain fights that can lead to a lot of aggro and thus making the encounter more difficult, but from what I’m aware only Mai Trin and the Archdiviner would give a lot of issue with that.

For PvP encounters you struggle with I’d recommend to watch some streamers play the class and possibly play it yourself, like that not only the tells become easier, but you’ll often be able to predict when a certain attack is coming and also able to judge what’s worth dodging and what’s better off left alone.

I hope this helps.

How does agro and tanking work in this game?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

You can get a mob’s attention by hurting it or by going near (if it’s name is red). But agro isn’t handled the same way as other MMOs at all, and tanking doesn’t exist in the same form because agro is different. Manage mobs with kiting, moving and choosing your ground.

I think your MMO experience may be hurting you here. Some of the mechanics here are simply different enough that the typical MMO roles don’t exist. I found it was especially helpful to pay attention the land around me and practice disengaging from immediate combat for a running battle (condition builds are especially effective this way).

Make use of Blocks to build a sense of when to time your dodges. The timing is easier than trying to time a dodge, especially if you suffer from lag/latency.

Blocks are more useful than Blinds, esp against Champs where Blind only works 10% of the time due to the Unshakable effect, and against Dredge who are immune to Blind.

Guardians have plenty of access to Blocks (as well as Blinds) so they’re a good profession to use when first learning the GW2 combat mechanics.