Guild Wars 2

I have only been playing for less than a month, and I have spent most of my time trying the different races and professions. Soon as my characters get into the upper teens, I find myself dying constantly. Even as a guardian with a shield, I am dropping as fast as my characters in light armor.

I generally use the weapons and armor granted from quests or dropped from monsters. I carefully choose my skills and traits, yet still my health goes down faster than my enemy. Do I need to stack vitality while leveling? Or maybe I just don’t fully understand the dodge mechanic? I try to jump to the side when I see something big coming.

My friend I play with is having the same problem, so I was wondering if any other people had this problem when they were first learning the game and what they did to overcome it? Thanks!

Most common reason I was dying at those early levels is I was not Evading enough.

Adeptis.1742:

I have only been playing for less than a month, and I have spent most of my time trying the different races and professions. Soon as my characters get into the upper teens, I find myself dying constantly. Even as a guardian with a shield, I am dropping as fast as my characters in light armor.

I generally use the weapons and armor granted from quests or dropped from monsters. I carefully choose my skills and traits, yet still my health goes down faster than my enemy. Do I need to stack vitality while leveling? Or maybe I just don’t fully understand the dodge mechanic? I try to jump to the side when I see something big coming.

My friend I play with is having the same problem, so I was wondering if any other people had this problem when they were first learning the game and what they did to overcome it? Thanks!

Hard to provide constructive criticism without seeing whats going on or having a higher level of detail… any way you can share a video of said difficulties?

If not I can pop onto the game and see what’s going on firsthand should we be on the same server (I’m on Jade Quarry). You might be doing the dodge right – don’t want to blame it on skill if something else is to blame though.

I have a feeling it is my ability to evade/dodge. This active playstyle is why I love this game over other MMOs, but I feel it is also my weakness because I am used to the virtual rolling of dice for every attack.

Since I only get about two back to back dodges before my endurance is drained, how do I decide when to do it? Is there a way to tell a basic attack from a powerful one? Is it something I should be doing constantly?

Don’t have access to the game right now, but I can maybe try making a video or grouping with someone later.

Adeptis.1742:

I have a feeling it is my ability to evade/dodge. This active playstyle is why I love this game over other MMOs, but I feel it is also my weakness because I am used to the virtual rolling of dice for every attack.

Since I only get about two back to back dodges before my endurance is drained, how do I decide when to do it? Is there a way to tell a basic attack from a powerful one? Is it something I should be doing constantly?

Don’t have access to the game right now, but I can maybe try making a video or grouping with someone later.

If you’ve got a guild they might be able to help you learn – but each mob has a few attacks. If you try to dodge all of them you will run out of endurance fast… most of the harder hitting attacks will have a small animation during the swing that look like umm… energy being drawn in I suppose? It’ll be an off white color and you’ll have to just experience different mobs to see which ones do their big attacks with what animations.

I can tell you one thing though – bandits when they start spinning in circles it’s best to just step back and wait for it to end if you don’t have a way to knock them down/back or stun them. It is definitely a stronger attack and goes for 2-3 seconds.

Save dodges for those attacks that have starting animations. An alternative to dodging is using a skill that will interrupt the mob, such as one that will apply daze, stun, or knockback. If the animation is slow enough, then you can even just strafe (probably q or e for you if you haven’t messed with key bindings) around to the back side of the enemy.

One thing about dodging is that instead of dodging outside the area of effect (which can take 2+ dodges), time your dodge so that you will be in the middle of it when the attack’s damage would hit you. And you can dodge to the side or forward by double-tapping the appropriate directional key OR by holding a directional button and pressing v (of course, I’m not in front of the game right now, so I may be getting that slightly wrong).

If you’re on ET, I’d be happy to help try to troubleshoot!

Adeptis.1742:

I have only been playing for less than a month, and I have spent most of my time trying the different races and professions. Soon as my characters get into the upper teens, I find myself dying constantly. Even as a guardian with a shield, I am dropping as fast as my characters in light armor.

I generally use the weapons and armor granted from quests or dropped from monsters. I carefully choose my skills and traits, yet still my health goes down faster than my enemy. Do I need to stack vitality while leveling? Or maybe I just don’t fully understand the dodge mechanic? I try to jump to the side when I see something big coming.

My friend I play with is having the same problem, so I was wondering if any other people had this problem when they were first learning the game and what they did to overcome it? Thanks!

Post the server that you are playing on.

under the mob type in the upper middle of your screen it says what type of attacks they do bandits, centaurs and risen are real good about ganging up on you. Oh yeah krait and inquest too.

Some questions that might help either self-evaluate or bring to light other potential causes:

Are you fighting level-appropriate areas or being downscaled? How does your gear stack up against your actual level?

In the late teens you should be rounding out your gear set with a full 6-piece set of armor and some progress on your rings and accessories.

Have you tried multiple weapons? Sometimes it is a matter of playstyle being at conflict with your skillset.

Are there specific areas/enemies that are problems or is it everywhere?

If you move using the arrow keys instead of the mouse, then there is your problem.

Treat combat movement more like an FPS game than a MMORPG.

And move move move! Shake that thang! Stay on the side or rear, learn the animations and work with them. One of the best trainer mobs is the earth elementals. Raptors also provide a good trainer. If you can’t slay one without getting hit then you aren’t there yet.

Depends on your profession though. At those levels, clothies are still squishy. Same for leather. Heavy armor is more forgiving.

That said, be sure you are fighting at least within 2 or 3 levels of you own. Its pretty easy to slide into the next area that might be too high for your toon.

Hit the Trading Post for gear. A lot of the early stuff is pretty affordable as people are crafting to level. Use the gems slots.

I had the same problem with my Guardian, but I know for a fact that it’s my own fault. I’m horrible at evading, and I can’t get my hands/mind around how you’re supposed to use the mouse to turn, instead of the usual WASD. Is there a good guide somewhere for that?

I’m noticing that I’m faring much better on my Ranger. I thought I wouldn’t like pets, but I’m really enjoying the fact that there’s something else for the mobs to attack when I’m soloing. That gives me a lot more time to react to evade. Since I can attack from a ranged position, it doesn’t really matter which direction I run/evade… I can still turn around and attack. I’m not forced to get back to where I was.

I learned to use the mouse well by playing borderlands for hundreds of hours. That probably isn’t a solution for you, but it is what I “cut my teeth on” so to speak.

You’ll want to keep the right mouse button depressed almost all the time and most importantly you will never ever need to click on a skill; use the number keys or otherwise map them. Once you get the hang of it you may develop a hybrid approach, but until then you’ll have to force yourself not to use the mouse to click on skills.

If you are a former LOTRO PvE player then clear your mind and take it slow; your muscle memory is corrupted from simple auto-combat and needs to relearn combat. Not bashing it, it is just different and what works there does not work here.

I’ve found that a backitten keyboard helps considerably as well. As does a 27" widescreen if you have tired old eyes. Another helpful learning technique might be to turn the graphics down to lowest quality/best performance. Visual artifacts won’t distract you as much that way and you can concentrate on movement.

It doesn’t happen overnight. My sister is still struggling, I may have to get her a copy of bioshock or something and make her relearn movement

1. Rebind A and D keys to strafe, not turning.
2. To turn around just hold right mouse button and move the mouse.
3. You won’t learn swimming by reading books or watching video about it. Practise movement and dodges. I find lone ettins quite good for learning.
4. Always move, try to circle around the enemies with strafe keys.
5. Watch your health, and if it’s low go for ranged(if melee) or simply run.
6. Try all weapons to look for the one you like the best.

As late teens you probably mean lvl 17-19. Try doing starting area of other races before going for these 15-25.

Btw I learned how and when dodge around lvl 60-70 And i still fail miserably sometimes.

does the word lit become kitten? LOL

Backitten?

@mapokl;
Thanks for the tips!

Also, I asked if anyone had a guide for learning how to strafe and use the mouse, and I found one that cleared things up for me quite a bit. It’s a video guide that basically just tells you how to circle strafe and kite, while showing you why it works and what it’s supposed to look like. For people who know how to do these things, it will probably seem painfully simple, but for those who are struggling (like me), you might find it interesting. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sUKWeaXZeOY

RollingBob.8502:

does the word lit become kitten? LOL

Backitten?

It’s not lit, but k + lit. And k is similar to c if you still wonder why. Yeah the censorbot is so stupid.

In addition to evading, you can often simply move out of an attack. A really obvious example of this is drakes and their breath abilities. They just stand there, gathering energy for an attack. You have all the time in the world to simply walk behind them without using up your endurance on an evade.

Some of your profession’s weapon skills and trait skills may actually include an evade/reflect/absorb component. Know what abilities do this and know how to use them (Sorry I can’t be more specific because it’s so different for each profession).\

You will likely have signets or other trait-related abilities that affect your endurance. Check them out and try them to see how you like them.

Sigils, which are used to upgrade your weapons, can be bought very cheaply on the trading post. Some of them give you an endurance boost upon swapping to the weapon you put it on. Some of them give you endurance upon killing an enemy.

You can stack power, precision and/or condition damage (depending on how you want to play) and hope to kill mobs way faster than they can kill you, but then you’re squishy and will die easily if they catch you (even if you wear heavy armor). You can stack vitality and toughness and be more survivable, but it will take you longer to kill foes (and it will also take allies longer to revive you and healing will seem less effective unless you also build up healing).

Your healing abilities affect health regeneration and many professions have a healing skill which includes regeneration, plus abilities which grant regeneration for a period of time. So bumping up your healing stat might be a good thing. Condition management is your friend. If you find yourself dying because you’ve been crippled, stunned, poisoned, or bled first, then you need more than just healing: you need condition removal/mitigation. Your profession’s abilities and your gear can help with this.

Overall, knowing how you want to play (survivability, glass cannon, support) is key because all your trait, gear, and weapon choices need to synergize with each other for maximum effectiveness. You then play in way that caters to your advantages while minimizing your disadvantages, and you should die far less often.

Hope you find this helpful.

mapokl.3167:

RollingBob.8502:

does the word lit become kitten? LOL

Backitten?

It’s not lit, but k + lit. And k is similar to c if you still wonder why. Yeah the censorbot is so stupid.

LMAO!

okay I see it I guess. Never encountered it before, and seems overreaching but hey, their call and not unreasonable.

I have one of each class. I solo all of them using WASD…(never got the hang of the mouse thing and too old & hardheaded to give a kitten anyway). Mostly though, you need to realize that you can’t stand still and hack / cast away at things in this game like other games.

You can also dodge using WASD by double tapping those keys.

New question: Now that I’ve started trying to use the mouse, how do you target? I know that T and Ctrl+T are the default targeting keys, but what is the difference? How do you avoid targeting things you don’t want? Is there a way to untarget everything without clicking the mouse? Any other general tips?

I map the center mouse button to the ‘1’ key, and that also generally autotargets as well. If it targets on something further away the swing still hits, and most swings cover all targets in the way. When I notice this a tap on the ‘tab’ key with my pinkie usually fixes it (tab is by default mapped to “choose next target”)

That works well for warrior but for necros and such you might find it better to map the center mouse to “target nearest enemy”. That function is unmapped by default and that may be what you are looking for.

between those three options you should be able to map a setup that targets for you and gets you rolling. Each class plays differently of course, depending on your preferred outfitting, but i think you’ll find something that works.

I tried mapping the caps-lok key and it took it but does not seem to work right. I may play with my keyboard’s internal mapping and see what i can do. s an aside, in this day and age, I wish someone would create a keyboard wirth a mechanical switch to disable that stupid key; after all it started as a mechanical lockout itself….

This is perfect! I’m playing a Ranger, so “target nearest enemy” was exactly what I’m looking for. I think I’ve got everything figured out now… All I need is some practice! I’m already seeing where this will be a huge improvement, despite my derping around now.

Thank you everyone! :]

Great! it starts off klunky and you think you’ll never get the feel for it, then after awhile it is second nature.

You’ll find it a huge benefit underwater as well.

I just started playing recently also and found the same thing happening to me. I picked a thief class, though, so I’m already vulnerable to big attacks. I think part of the issue is that the game is easier if you team up with different classes. I think the game almost forces you to do that. Some enemies your character will match up with perfectly and you will have no problem with them, but some will have your number. This is just my opinion. All the other advice about using your mouse and finding better weapons/armor at the trading company are needed also.

Rangers are good from afar and 1v1. If it gets hectic and you’re up against more than one mob, your pet can help you out

One thing to also be aware of is that downscaling can be rather inconsistent. For instance, if I’m on my level 40 Mesmer in a 1-15 zone, I can breeze through the level 3 – 7 areas, but level 8 – 9 areas are suddenly tough, and then when I hit the level 10 -11 areas, foes are suddenly easy again. It’s as if enemies are hitting for way more damage only within the level 8 – 9 area, even though I’m using the same general strategy in each area, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

I will thank the humble basilisk for teaching me how to dodge. It’s attack is that high pitched purple beam that immoblizes/stuns you. Try being hit by that from 3 different basilisks and being locked down as the AI in each basilisk somehow coordinates their attacks so that you are stunned continuously…. I got triple-teamed. Now I dodge and avoid that attack like its a disease.

All super helpful answers! I’m scared to change my key bindings, but I’ll give it a shot if I still can’t effectively dodge after trying the above techniques.

Is there a good heuristic to know what my stats should be for a given level? Should I just make sure my gear lvl requirement is near my level? Some pieces are still from character creation. Should I use my Karma to buy gear, or save for later?

Adeptis.1742:

All super helpful answers! I’m scared to change my key bindings, but I’ll give it a shot if I still can’t effectively dodge after trying the above techniques.

Is there a good heuristic to know what my stats should be for a given level? Should I just make sure my gear lvl requirement is near my level? Some pieces are still from character creation. Should I use my Karma to buy gear, or save for later?

The general rule of thumb that I use is that I will purchase karma armor that is at least 5 levels over what I am wearing (provided the stats are sane for my build) and I will make a trip out of my way to the Trading Post or crafting station to upgrade anything 10+ levels out of date. I will also puchase karma armor that is a significant fashion upgrade. As I have crafters of all sorts, I tend to have crafted armor laying around that fills the 5-levels-out-of-date role.

Upgrade your armor with gems, runes, and other upgrades you find—no need to go overboard on this, and feel free to sell things of value and socket less valuable items, but use at least something.

Adeptis.1742:

All super helpful answers! I’m scared to change my key bindings, but I’ll give it a shot if I still can’t effectively dodge after trying the above techniques.

Is there a good heuristic to know what my stats should be for a given level? Should I just make sure my gear lvl requirement is near my level? Some pieces are still from character creation. Should I use my Karma to buy gear, or save for later?

No, don’t spend Karma on gear. Buying low level items on the Trading Post usually cost less than a silver for Fine (Blue) quality items, more than enough to suit your needs.

Buy new armor every 10 levels only if you consistently advance to higher level areas. The benefit of exploring all the low-medium level areas first is that all the mobs are of the same difficulty therefore you do not need to upgrade armor.

Focus on toughness and vitality. Or one of them depending on how well you can evade/prevent damage by dodging or damage mitigating skills. It’s worth learning how to prevent damage entirely. If you play guardian, equip ‘Retreat!’ and time the aegis it produces. You can also use one of several blind skills that the guardian possesses to force your enemies to miss. One is in sword and the other is in focus.

The idea is simple, kill your enemy before they can kill you. If you make yourself hard to kill then you have all the time in the world to kill your enemy. This game actually has a greater emphasis on preventing damage entirely rather than reducing the amount you take.

Adeptis.1742:

All super helpful answers! I’m scared to change my key bindings, but I’ll give it a shot if I still can’t effectively dodge after trying the above techniques.

Is there a good heuristic to know what my stats should be for a given level? Should I just make sure my gear lvl requirement is near my level? Some pieces are still from character creation. Should I use my Karma to buy gear, or save for later?

Depends on how fast you level as to how fast you should upgrade your gear. I got used to upgrading based on drops since I usually got nice gear I could use by the time I ever felt held back by what I was wearing… but you shouldn’t be afraid to spend Karma.

Let me put it this way – if there was a way to do so in game I would gladly give you karma for free, since we get so much of it. Saving just makes things harder on you now since you won’t need it 2+ months after you’re 80. (The only exception is if you craft a lot)

Zaxares.5419:

One thing to also be aware of is that downscaling can be rather inconsistent. For instance, if I’m on my level 40 Mesmer in a 1-15 zone, I can breeze through the level 3 – 7 areas, but level 8 – 9 areas are suddenly tough, and then when I hit the level 10 -11 areas, foes are suddenly easy again. It’s as if enemies are hitting for way more damage only within the level 8 – 9 area, even though I’m using the same general strategy in each area, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

I noticed this as well and it makes me feel like I’m being trolled by the game. It drives me absolutely bat kitten crazy to know that my lv 24 mesmer struggles with mobs half her level. Like it gets to the point where I just run through trailing a fat line of mobs because I don’t want to waste my time grinding through them again.

With the downscaling you also have to be wary of being on the edge of two scaled area’s

So many times have I been casually wtfpwning things on a level 80 character in low level zones then suddenly BAM killed by mobs randomly not taking any damage.

I check their levels and its something like level 14 wolves in red numbers, I check my downscaled level at the bottom of the screen: “8” well darn…

I go back fight them again but this time I move a bit past where they where stood and then im scaled down to level 14 (or sometimes higher depending on the exact zones)

If you buy Blue armor from the Trading Post, you can sell it back for almost the same price. You’re basically paying several copper to rent a set of armor for 5-10 levels.

tl;dr

One thing i noticed recently r players that r levels lower than the area they r in.
Less good idea.

Tried that once (wanted to do or get somthing specific in a higher lvl area).
First thing i noticed was how dramatically my dmg output dropped.

Oh yeah, consider buying an Amulet, 2 Rings and 2 Earrings.
I usually get the ones that increase Vitality and Toughness for lower lvl chars.
The first Rings and Earrings become available at lvl10 and Amulets at lvl20

what level are you if you are a low level then I suggest you go level up more before you do that! with a higher level you have more health with low not very much! hope this helped :D

Adeptis.1742:

All super helpful answers! I’m scared to change my key bindings, but I’ll give it a shot if I still can’t effectively dodge after trying the above techniques.

Is there a good heuristic to know what my stats should be for a given level? Should I just make sure my gear lvl requirement is near my level? Some pieces are still from character creation. Should I use my Karma to buy gear, or save for later?

Unless you want to save the gear for transutation later (thieves and necros do this alot for starter headgear because it can’t be found anywhere else in the game) get rid of any gear lower than 10 levels under you. A general rule of thumb is 10 levels is the cutoff for gear upgrades, anything beyond that and you’ll see significant performance drops in your character, sometimes to the point you can’t clear an area. Karma gear is the easiest way to do it, you’ll have an overabundance of karma. As you level you can focus mostly on survivability like vitality and toughness. Power and crit at lower levels has little effect even if stacked but survivability does. As you get higher, around 60 or so, you can start refining your build and getting the proper gear you want and need. Lastly, I noticed as I leveled my guardians, they always had a harder time than I would expect, but once i reached higher levels they evened out and were pretty powerful and durable. Lots of classes are like this, it’s just their natural power curve. Also, keep working on those dodges, I saw you mentioned you changed up key bindings too which might help. I always remap all my keys in every game I play. hotkeying a button for heals too helps a ton, I use one of my mouse side buttons but if you don’t have a gaming mouse you could just as easily make it an unused keyboard key that was comfortable for you. I tried to hotkey my dodge to a mouse or keyboard button, but it was too awkward for me and just double tapping worked better. it’s a personal preference thing honestly, no right or wrong way to do it. Best of luck to you and as always, hit up one of us that have replied if you need help. I’d be more than happy to party up with you and help you learn the game.