Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like I can only play this game in the starting zones. Even with characters ten or more levels over the new zone, with the best armor and weapons I can buy from the trading house, I just get destroyed over and over anywhere outside the starting maps. It’s getting really frustrating because until this point, I really loved this game. I’ve got multiple characters, three of which I have hit this wall with. I’m tired of the same old enemies/events/areas, I want a change, but I keep getting smacked down when I try.

You’re playing an ele? I tried an lvl 16 SP with my (then) lvl 22 Elementalist and got beat down time after time!

Give us an idea of what professions you are running, we may be able to suggest some tactics and weapon loadouts that could help.

I found this in my 1st lvl 80 area, southsun cove, my gear is average and I was doing 600 damage to karka, the problem was they were doing 1,900 back!

I have only taken my thief through Orr and generally thats a case of…

Run. Using a signet that grants swiftness.
Get attacked/chased? Lay Ambush.
Still getting chased? Thief’s Guild.
Desperate? Hide in Shadows.

But always, always keep running!

Yeah we’re gonna need a bit more info on what profession you are playing.

Make sure to read some guides on whatever prof you are, specifically ones that discuss pve and leveling builds.

Also, try getting with a group of people who are also leveling in the zone or ask a guild mate or two to give you a hand.

OP seems low lvl since he is talking about starter zones so Orr and Southsun doesn’t apply.
@OP What classes have you tried, what is your play style etc- as have been said, give us some info so we can give your better help

Have you tried professions like ranger or necro? Their ‘pets’ can quite easily take some of the aggro from you, often allowing you to kill you opponent before he has gotten around to you (also – second HP bar on necro ^^). Apart from that…circle strafing, watch out for “big attack tells”, avoid Ettins Also: try to hit enemies with blind.

Always strafe/kite/dodge out; disable the assist melee in options (f11) so you cna run throught mobs and attack their back while they miss you.

First of all, ever profession can play till the end of the game, and it doesnt have anything to do with superior gear or having more levels. This was the case with oldstyle mmo’s but not anymore. Gears and level make a difference, but not THE difference.

Your prolly doing something wrong in your playstyle. This means as above mentioned you could decide to play a different kind of profession. But wait, before you do realise why you hvae chosen the profession you picked. The other way to do it is to change your tactics.

a: always start at the lowest part of a zone. it is easily to wander into the hardest part of the zone. A good example is Kessex hills. If you enter from Queensdale Claypool portal its very tempting to go to fort Salma. On the otherside of fort salma is a part of the map that is really tuff, specially for low armor characters. Even my level 80 engineer has some problems there.

b: Avoid over agro at all cause. use ranged weapons for pulling and kiting before engaging the enemy.

c: unless your a warrior you should never stand still. always keep on moving using the dodge buttons or just wasd (or arrowkeys).

Even if you only use the left and right arrow key to patrol a defense line while attacking makes roughly 50% of all incoming damage a miss.

d: understand the downed mechanism

e: invest skillpoints in a good healing skill.

hope this helps

Movement

• It’s very important to keep moving in this game.

In 15 levels I realized this and went out and bought a razr nostromo. (it’s sold in best buy, looks like a cross between a mouse, a keyboard, and an xbox controller, probably get a good deal in the after xmas sales?)

This allows me to play the game with a similar control scheme to the halo series (run and turn camera with mouse, strafe with left dpad, use abilities with left hand). Much less clumsy and more precise than wasd

circle strafing – or – running, stopping as your dodge bar gets high enough, attacking, and dodging in the opposite direction will work.

Builds
After that, I’d choose a tankier build. (there should be a lot of bunker builds floating around on the boards, choose one and run with it, for my ele I went d/d.. the ele is now 30 with a sepc 0/10/0/10/0 and can really take a pounding.. just slaughter whole crowds, take down multiple vets solo).

Once you get the movement down and have a build planned, you’ll start to get more and more survivable as you level…

Ability Chains
as you level, learn how your abilities interact (again, there are whole threads on what people use to combo together). It reads like a complicated mess, but it flows naturally once you try it a few times.
There are certain abilities which are meant to chain together to help you put out max damage while avoiding incoming damage.

More foriving professions for people with low mobility
When all else fails (or if you feel you’re clumsy on the mobility), try mesmer with sword/sword and scepter/focus with heavy investment in inspiration, 20 in dueling (for clone on dodge), and the rest in chaos. This is, by far, the tankiest build in the game. It produces clones that take the hits for you constantly, has long periods of invulnerability you can alternate with blocks on short cooldown, and copious utilities and escapes. I’ve survived every group event which does not overwhelm you with dozens of adds using this build without having to move much at all.

I also notice staff necro is very good so long as you’re not ambushed. You just lay out marks and lead mobs through them, they’re almost dead by the time they reach you, and at the end of the day you have a menagerie of pets to help draw attention from yourself and hamper enemies.

I hope this helps a little.

Wow, a lot of helpful replies. The three builds I have gone the farthest with are Greatsword/Mace and Shield Guardian, 2 pistols/Sword and Dagger Thief and the one that inspired the thread is a Scepter/Dagger Elementalist. Turns out my biggest problem was indeed mobility. It’s taking some getting used to, but it’s made a huge difference. Most single enemies are easy enough with just the basic earth scepter attack and running in circles around them while they bleed to death. I guess Ive gotten to used to other games that I just overlooked the mobility aspect of the game. Thanks very much for the help!

Just to chime in….If you are good at the starter zone(s) have you gotten to Lion’s Arch, and leapt through the portals to the other races starter areas? I’ve found when starting, I’ll do all the starter areas for my race, then get to LA and leap into a different races starter areas and do them. Good practice and also helps get the map completion pumping along nicely