Guild Wars 2

Blablabla forum bug!

go to settings. key bindings. keybind dodge. use it.

Warlord.9074:

go to settings. key bindings. keybind dodge. use it.

This can be the problem you know…

He was a “clicker” before and now he has so many buttons to press in the same time…

Even the dodge can cancel everything pressed before… :S

Aggrostemma.1703

Thank you for all the detail on how the skills work – these have slowly been dawning on me. I’ll have a look at that neutral mob-PvP golem to.

About my mouse, unfortunately it was was faulty – just bad luck. I tried it outside the game in Windows(x64) and it showed the delay fault. I also tried it in game, in a quiet area with no combat and the side buttons were interfering. For the first couple of hours that mouse seemed wonderful and I thought the problems were just my clumsiness but as I got better the issues became evident.

I’m sure the Redragon Perdition is a great mouse because before buying it I looked at reviews on both Amazon.com and .co.uk, over 2500 reviews, the vast majority very favorable. However a few percent received faulty ones and Amazon refunded them – they also refunded me very quickly. I notice even more expensive mice like Naga also deliver some faulty ones.

By the way, I’ve ordered at Logitech G300s – only 9 buttons, none on the side, but in my clumsy state should help me to get settled in combat while I concentrate on learning all the other things such as assessing my opponents etc.

I still like the Redragon, perhaps might even get another one, because for a while those side buttons made combat so much easier by taking ALL the spells off the keyboard.

Just thinking, i already miss those side buttons, will see how things go with the G300.

One thing though – although I’m slow, I’ll never go back to being a ‘clicker’, because using keyboard just seems so much easier now

I feel a bit bad now

I suggested this mouse for you…

I swear my Redragon works perfectly… The only wear I spotted is actually on the silk mousepad. One single thread around the edge sawing is sticking out about 5 millimeters….

That’s it!

My missis has a G300 but it’s way too small for my hand. It squeezes my fingers together too much.

And again:

I’m sorry for the bad advice :S

Aggrostemma.1703:

I feel a bit bad now

I suggested this mouse for you…

I swear my Redragon works perfectly… The only wear I spotted is actually on the silk mousepad. One single thread around the edge sawing is sticking out about 5 millimeters….

That’s it!

My missis has a G300 but it’s way too small for my hand. It squeezes my fingers together too much.

And again:

I’m sorry for the bad advice :S

Hi Aggrostemma,

No, you certainly didn’t give bad advice, you gave great advice. Looks like a 1 in 20 chance or even less of getting a faulty one. If i’d ordered it a few minutes earlier or later, then probably would have received a working one and would be having fun with it right now. Life is often pot luck

By the way, i’m glad my first gaming mouse was a Redragon Perdition as now i understand about side buttons. One reason I didn’t re-order it was because one USA Amazon buyer managed to get 2 faulty ones in a row – and I’m desperate to get a working game mouse. Just hope the G300 actually works.

By the way, I received fantastic advice from many posts here – and I’m becoming a better and happier player (hard to be worse) but the state of Tier 8 WvW can be quite depressing – usually such low numbers in world – perhaps I’m in bed before the action starts. Guess I’l’ try to shadow a zerg commander in EotM.

Thank you again Aggrostemma

Still good reading:
http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/

http://taugrim.com/2012/06/27/guide-to-guild-wars-2-keybinds/

I utilized the principles from Taugrim to come up with my own schema that was comfortable for me (no overreaching) and worked on all classes.

Chaba.5410:

Still good reading:
http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/

http://taugrim.com/2012/06/27/guide-to-guild-wars-2-keybinds/

I utilized the principles from Taugrim to come up with my own schema that was comfortable for me (no overreaching) and worked on all classes.

Thank you, I’m now using some of your key bindings- can now easily turn in a circle , have dodge on old backward button, health on Q, etc. Need some practice now

Chaba.5410:

Still good reading:
http://taugrim.com/2012/06/27/guide-to-guild-wars-2-keybinds/

I utilized the principles from Taugrim to come up with my own schema that was comfortable for me (no overreaching) and worked on all classes.

I could really have done with these key bindings last night in EB – there were about 8 of us against a slightly larger force, in a number of fights over 45 minutes or so. I noticed during the fights that my charater was essentially static – often caught in AoE(Area of Affect) and took lots of damage as I tried to figure out what to do, who to attack etc. From now on in these type fights I’ll use these keybindings to constantly move and avoid or minimise AoE plus dodge as well. This probably sounds obvious to many, but wasn’t to me.

Sorry to bring up an old thread but this might help some clickers, especially the older ones like me.

Don’t give up because I’m sure very few of you are as bad as I am, and if I could improve then so could you.

Actually, I’m changing my aims because its clear I’ll never be a good fighter – simply far too slow. Despite all the improvements to my:-
– keybindings
– G300s mouse
– character builds
– better armour/weapons
– and practice practice
I’m still hopeless against most players although definitely improved against NPCs.

I have put a lot of practice into movement and fighting but I’m simply too slow to move and to figure out what is going on around me either in a 1v1 or a small melee.

Last night I knew something was wrong after fighting in EB & Borderlands, so looked at some of my medical tests from 2001 – my motor skill speed was 12th percentile, and a university motor skill test in 1974 had me bottom of class – so slow they said i must be dead. Thats almost 90% of people naturally faster than me, plus WvW tends to attract skilled players, many of them Ninja-like.

Anyhow, thats me, but for everyone else:- if I could improve by following the amazing advice in this thread then surely most other players could make far larger improvements and perhaps become Elite – so don’t give up hope
.
.
There is still lots for me to do in WvW – i’m in a nice friendly guild with some roamers – perhaps one day might even take a Lord by myself and capture a tower – still a lot of fun stuff to learn – just hope they don’t make NPCs more intelligent though

Malkom.5607:

Sorry to bring up an old thread but this might help some clickers, especially the older ones like me.

Don’t give up because I’m sure very few of you are as bad as I am, and if I could improve then so could you.

Actually, I’m changing my aims because its clear I’ll never be a good fighter – simply far too slow. Despite all the improvements to my:-
– keybindings
– G300s mouse
– character builds
– better armour/weapons
– and practice practice
I’m still hopeless against most players although definitely improved against NPCs.

I have put a lot of practice into movement and fighting but I’m simply too slow to move and to figure out what is going on around me either in a 1v1 or a small melee.

Last night I knew something was wrong after fighting in EB & Borderlands, so looked at some of my medical tests from 2001 – my motor skill speed was 12th percentile, and a university motor skill test in 1974 had me bottom of class – so slow they said i must be dead. Thats almost 90% of people naturally faster than me, plus WvW tends to attract skilled players, many of them Ninja-like.

Anyhow, thats me, but for everyone else:- if I could improve by following the amazing advice in this thread then surely most other players could make far larger improvements and perhaps become Elite – so don’t give up hope
.
.
There is still lots for me to do in WvW – i’m in a nice friendly guild with some roamers – perhaps one day might even take a Lord by myself and capture a tower – still a lot of fun stuff to learn – just hope they don’t make NPCs more intelligent though

I read about your problems with the mouse buttons. I tend to only have one skill bound to the side mouse buttons; usually the one that requires targeting (so I can stay on the move with the keyboard as I drop it). I do use the other side buttons primarily for targeting (nearest target, next target, calling target). This way I’m not accidently hitting skills that I didn’t mean to use. I then keybind my other skills closer to the WASD area for easier access with my left hand. Put your most important skills (ie heal) on the button that is easiest and most reliable for you to find (for me it’s T, as I have my virtues at Q,E,R).

As for your slow reflexes, there are options. I can’t remember which class you are playing but some options may be:

a) tank frontliner – become the meat shield your zerg needs; focus on surviving and drawing enemy attacks to you. Most times you can casually rotate skills and dodges to stay alive doing this (at least as a guard that I am familiar with); max your armor and vitality and don’t worry about damage; sit back and laugh as people try to bring you down. Look at some commander builds if you want to really maximize this.

b) backline damage dealer – get that necro or revenant rolling; sit back and spam aoe as others protect you.

If you are looking to roam it’s a little more difficult as reflexes are needed; for this I suggest practicing your burst combos and your “escape” combos until you have them down. This take a lot of practice and familiarity with your skills.

Or just go mesmer roamer and run your face across the keyboard during a fight; that always works too.

EDIT: I just read your original post; are you still running dragon hunter? For roaming I still use a meditation build but switched out the virtues to DH with pretty good results. Pretty much all of my buttons heal me AND deal damage. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of armor and health in any WvW build; you need some sustain in a 1v1 fight, especially with a low-health guardian. I always switch out my GS stats to Soldiers when I enter WvW and sometimes even the amulet on my roamer if I am running with groups of 5 or more.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I read about your problems with the mouse buttons. I tend to only have one skill bound to the side mouse buttons; usually the one that requires targeting (so I can stay on the move with the keyboard as I drop it). I do use the other side buttons primarily for targeting (nearest target, next target, calling target). This way I’m not accidently hitting skills that I didn’t mean to use. I then keybind my other skills closer to the WASD area for easier access with my left hand. Put your most important skills (ie heal) on the button that is easiest and most reliable for you to find (for me it’s T, as I have my virtues at Q,E,R).

As for your slow reflexes, there are options. I can’t remember which class you are playing but some options may be:

a) tank frontliner – become the meat shield your zerg needs; focus on surviving and drawing enemy attacks to you. Most times you can casually rotate skills and dodges to stay alive doing this (at least as a guard that I am familiar with); max your armor and vitality and don’t worry about damage; sit back and laugh as people try to bring you down. Look at some commander builds if you want to really maximize this.

b) backline damage dealer – get that necro or revenant rolling; sit back and spam aoe as others protect you.

If you are looking to roam it’s a little more difficult as reflexes are needed; for this I suggest practicing your burst combos and your “escape” combos until you have them down. This take a lot of practice and familiarity with your skills.

Or just go mesmer roamer and run your face across the keyboard during a fight; that always works too.

EDIT: I just read your original post; are you still running dragon hunter? For roaming I still use a meditation build but switched out the virtues to DH with pretty good results. Pretty much all of my buttons heal me AND deal damage. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of armor and health in any WvW build; you need some sustain in a 1v1 fight, especially with a low-health guardian. I always switch out my GS stats to Soldiers when I enter WvW and sometimes even the amulet on my roamer if I am running with groups of 5 or more.

Thankyou, I’m still playing DH and trying to put out mostly damage along with some tank for taking on NPCs. Due to my slow reactions the only time I down or kill someone in 1v1 is when they can’t take much damage and make a mistake by getting very close to me. Even though both traps are on my left two mouse buttons, my reactions are just too slow to catch anyone except for a newbie. My movement/skill practice has plateaued and just won’t go quicker.

Your idea on tank frontliner sounds good, stay alive long enough to put up some kind of fight. In a melee it might take some damage away from my group or else allow me to interefere in play and distract opponents while other members attack them.

I’ll also rethink my key & mouse bindings.

By the way, I do know this isn’t easy and takes lots of practice. I have about 3000 Achievement Points but many of my group much more, most over 4000, several over 10000 – they have put a huge amount of work in. So I shouldn’t really complain.

At least I’ve got Tank Frontliner to try out tonight

Not sure what you have for gear or weapons, but for a tank frontliner the AH build is still the best IMHO (Altruistic Healing + Pure of Voice).

I have 2 guards, one is the Traveler Rune medi-DH mentioned above for roaming and my main is an AH tank w/ Hoelbrak runes.

I still use staff/GS in WvW. I’ve switched out the virtues line for the DH and run the healing trap and one other trap, picking traits for maximum survivability and condi clearing. Not sure at this point of DH or Virtues is the way to go; the jury is still out on this.

If you really wanna bunker up go with staff + mace/shield – this one is almost 100% support and probably not the best for roaming or small scale parties.

I used to use an old style Razer MMO mouse. When it died I got a Logitech G600 and later a new style Razer. The in curved keypad made the latter unusable for me.

I am now using a Utechtsmart Venus, very similar to the Logitech but about half the cost.

The problem with MMO gaming mice is the size of the keys on the pad, inevitably they are quite small and may not suit your hand. They are also handed, so not really suitable for left handed players.

Razer do have the Orbweaver gaming pad, which I regard as an excellent option, it makes dodging and jumping much easier for me (I have the small button above the pad bound to V). There are other options too so have a search for others.

I suffer Osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, without the pad and MMO mouse I wouldn’t be able to play GW2 at all.

It’s also worth remembering that some of the people who play GW2 use exploits. Others are extremely skillful players of WvW who have been honing their skills for over 3 years. You have to accept that sometimes you are going to die quick.

Forget small pick up groups, find a good WvW guild, learn from them all they have to teach you. Lastly if you are still communicating by typing get on your world’s comms system and use it.

It is also worth leveling other classes if you haven’t already. Guardian isn’t necessarily the best or only choice and one of the others may suit you better. I started with necro, moved to guard and now mostly use a ranger.

There’s a lot of great advice for the OP in this thread. As an older player who clicks quite a bit, I figure I would add my thoughts which are as follows:

1. You need to find the right build/profession combo for your skill/dexterity level. Bear in mind that no build works well in all circumstances (solo roaming, small group roaming, zerging, etc.) and it is always tough to deal people running small group or solo ganking build, when you are trying to run a large group friendly build.

2. Build: You have 2 stun break (one on demand) which is good but unless I am mistaken, only a condition clear tied to your heals (now improved in the patch to remove 2 conditions, but still rather minimal, especially with only 14k hit points). There’s a lot of condition roamers out there, many of whom who are highly mobile and/or have some stealth. You’re also running a meditation trait with no meditation skills slotted aside from Renewed Focus which is on a long cooldown, .

3,. Healing Gear: You have quite a bit of healing gear in your build, but are not using staff, which offers a good return on investment (1:1 on staff 3). On the other hand, you do have selfless daring heal on dodge trait which does offer a good return , but because your precision is low, it’s not going to trigger as often as you want (and the low precision kind of wastes your investment in ferocity). You are running heal on aegis (.5 ratio so healing does help there) which does synergize well with your trap, trap trait, retreat utility and renewed focus, though you should slot shelter when you are running around the map in small groups (or perhaps always as it does synergize with your heal on aegis trait and I believe heals allies as well?)

I’d think about swapping the really expensive toxic stones for some cheap 5/3 precision food if you’re still equipping cleric gear and taking the Honor line to bump your precision up a bit. I’d also dump the boon duration food for something different as you’re not using staff (though it does help your swiftness) and I’d consider changing the runes as well. I’d run melandru if you want to go defensive, and pair it with the saffron bread to give you -45% stun/condition duration reduction. If you’re the guy dying often, it should be your allies who are running the mercy runes grins.

As far as camp flipping goes, healing gear doesn’t really help you much. While it will give you some sustain, if will also take the camp much NPCs way longer to die. With such low precision in a power build, you’re not doing much damage – “hitting like wet noodle is the phrase often used in this forum”. Looking at this another way, if you rolled a ranger, equipped an exotic longbow and some exotic armor and then went to take a camp you would realize how easy it was compared to your current build that you would start chanting Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, a cultural reference that you would no doubt get as opposed to some of the young kids in this thread.

Feel free to whisper me in game if you want to discuss things more.

There’s a lot of great advice for the OP in this thread. As an older player who clicks quite a bit, I figure I would add my thoughts which are as follows:

1. You need to find the right build/profession combo for your skill/dexterity level. Bear in mind that no build works well in all circumstances (solo roaming, small group roaming, zerging, etc.) and it is always tough to deal people running small group or solo ganking build, when you are trying to run a large group friendly build.

2. Build: You have 2 stun break (one on demand) which is good but unless I am mistaken, only a condition clear tied to your heals (now improved in the patch to remove 2 conditions, but still rather minimal, especially with only 14k hit points). There’s a lot of condition roamers out there, many of whom who are highly mobile and/or have some stealth. You’re also running a meditation trait with no meditation skills slotted aside from Renewed Focus which is on a long cooldown, .

3,. Healing Gear: You have quite a bit of healing gear in your build, but are not using staff, which offers a good return on investment (1:1 on staff 3). On the other hand, you do have selfless daring heal on dodge trait which does offer a good return , but because your precision is low, it’s not going to trigger as often as you want (and the low precision kind of wastes your investment in ferocity). You are running heal on aegis (.5 ratio so healing does help there) which does synergize well with your trap, trap trait, retreat utility and renewed focus, though you should slot shelter when you are running around the map in small groups (or perhaps always as it does synergize with your heal on aegis trait and I believe heals allies as well?)

I’d think about swapping the really expensive toxic stones for some cheap 5/3 precision food if you’re still equipping cleric gear and taking the Honor line to bump your precision up a bit. I’d also dump the boon duration food for something different as you’re not using staff (though it does help your swiftness) and I’d consider changing the runes as well. I’d run melandru if you want to go defensive, and pair it with the saffron bread to give you -45% stun/condition duration reduction. If you’re the guy dying often, it should be your allies who are running the mercy runes grins.

As far as camp flipping goes, healing gear doesn’t really help you much. While it will give you some sustain, if will also take the camp much NPCs way longer to die. With such low precision in a power build, you’re not doing much damage – “hitting like wet noodle is the phrase often used in this forum”. Looking at this another way, if you rolled a ranger, equipped an exotic longbow and some exotic armor and then went to take a camp you would realize how easy it was compared to your current build that you would start chanting Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, a cultural reference that you would no doubt get as opposed to some of the young kids in this thread.

Feel free to whisper me in game if you want to discuss things more.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Not sure what you have for gear or weapons, but for a tank frontliner the AH build is still the best IMHO (Altruistic Healing + Pure of Voice).

I have 2 guards, one is the Traveler Rune medi-DH mentioned above for roaming and my main is an AH tank w/ Hoelbrak runes.

I still use staff/GS in WvW. I’ve switched out the virtues line for the DH and run the healing trap and one other trap, picking traits for maximum survivability and condi clearing. Not sure at this point of DH or Virtues is the way to go; the jury is still out on this.

If you really wanna bunker up go with staff + mace/shield – this one is almost 100% support and probably not the best for roaming or small scale parties.

I was using Soldier’s armour with Hoelbrak runes. For weapons LongBow & GreatSword. This seemed fine for taking camps with LB good for scouts and GS for Supervisor and Guards. Problems occur when a player turns up as my LB seems useless and I rarely get near them to use GS – so sometimes I replace LB with Sceptre and Torch as very occasionally I get lucky – chain opponent then jump to them with GS and use traps – rarely beat them though. Actually – i still don’t appreciate the rationals behind choosing weapons and matching optimising them against opponent types.
My build was based this from a previous poster:-

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVEQJARWnsABtCh9CBWdC8DhlEiS+5n+r/aZDgDIbG+vAE-TlSDwAwU/ZwRAQvmgEPAAa7PAwEUUlfw1BI5SAoQJIZAK2CA-w
.
.
After your previous post I’m using Soldiers armour with Dolyak Runes, and using GS plus Sceptre and Torch. My build is still DH Virtues and Valor but I don’t yet know the theory behind this – need to think about it. Think I’ll try you AH build with DH Valor Honor tonight and try to figure how it works.

By the way, i used to play Necro when in EotM and had more success with 1v1 fighting as Necro did a lot of ranged damage. However once I moved to EB / Alpine Borderlands it didn’t work for me because there are many more higher skilled opponents there – thats why i chose Guardian combat healer – i couldn’t fight so tried to heal people and keep them alive.

Serious.6940:

I used to use an old style Razer MMO mouse. When it died I got a Logitech G600 and later a new style Razer. The in curved keypad made the latter unusable for me.

I am now using a Utechtsmart Venus, very similar to the Logitech but about half the cost.

The problem with MMO gaming mice is the size of the keys on the pad, inevitably they are quite small and may not suit your hand. They are also handed, so not really suitable for left handed players.

Razer do have the Orbweaver gaming pad, which I regard as an excellent option, it makes dodging and jumping much easier for me (I have the small button above the pad bound to V). There are other options too so have a search for others.

I suffer Osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, without the pad and MMO mouse I wouldn’t be able to play GW2 at all.

It’s also worth remembering that some of the people who play GW2 use exploits. Others are extremely skillful players of WvW who have been honing their skills for over 3 years. You have to accept that sometimes you are going to die quick.

Forget small pick up groups, find a good WvW guild, learn from them all they have to teach you. Lastly if you are still communicating by typing get on your world’s comms system and use it.

It is also worth leveling other classes if you haven’t already. Guardian isn’t necessarily the best or only choice and one of the others may suit you better. I started with necro, moved to guard and now mostly use a ranger.

Thank you for sharing and detailing how you manage to play this hectic game. Sounds like some of this might work for me – I already have the MMO mouse but the Orbweaver looks an excellent addition – I’ll look into this and try to see how it might work for me.

Regarding my other classes – just logged in my very first character – a Necro – it used to seem great until i went to proper WvW and then got killed a lot – now I can’t even remember its traits or weapons etc. Think i’ll try it over the weekend as it will give a new perspective.

About our guild, i’ve seen them discussing various classes in chat – and how they can attack etc – bits are starting to make sense. Seems they have recommended guild builds as well.

Malkom.5607:

I was using Soldier’s armour with Hoelbrak runes. For weapons LongBow & GreatSword. This seemed fine for taking camps with LB good for scouts and GS for Supervisor and Guards. Problems occur when a player turns up as my LB seems useless and I rarely get near them to use GS – so sometimes I replace LB with Sceptre and Torch as very occasionally I get lucky – chain opponent then jump to them with GS and use traps – rarely beat them though. Actually – i still don’t appreciate the rationals behind choosing weapons and matching optimising them against opponent types.
My build was based this from a previous poster:-

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVEQJARWnsABtCh9CBWdC8DhlEiS+5n+r/aZDgDIbG+vAE-TlSDwAwU/ZwRAQvmgEPAAa7PAwEUUlfw1BI5SAoQJIZAK2CA-w
.
.
After your previous post I’m using Soldiers armour with Dolyak Runes, and using GS plus Sceptre and Torch. My build is still DH Virtues and Valor but I don’t yet know the theory behind this – need to think about it. Think I’ll try you AH build with DH Valor Honor tonight and try to figure how it works.

By the way, i used to play Necro when in EotM and had more success with 1v1 fighting as Necro did a lot of ranged damage. However once I moved to EB / Alpine Borderlands it didn’t work for me because there are many more higher skilled opponents there – thats why i chose Guardian combat healer – i couldn’t fight so tried to heal people and keep them alive.

Sounds like you are getting closer. A reminder that AH is much better in a small group since your heal is based on boons you are giving to your team mates (a good staff empower can be better than a healing skill); running as a single, I would stay on a medi-build.

The build you cited is an excellent boon giver but has little in the way of damage or “selfish” protection, both of which you need for single roaming.

I recommend perusing the Guardian forums and Metabattle builds for this. Metabattle is by no means the bible as I’m learning but it gives you a better idea of the synergies of skills / weapons / runes / food etc.. My roaming build is a combination of the “Meditation DPS” build and the “DH-Meditrapper” build in the “Conquest” category.

As for closing distances to opponents, I typically start with Judge’s Intervention to plop myself on my opponent . This really helps with dropping traps and whirling blades on top of them before they know what’s happening.

Also you can immobolize opponents with both scepter and GS (and DH spear for that matter).

I tried running torch in WvW and found that I needed the extra protection that a Focus provides instead. Shield of Wrath is a great bailout skill to let you recover from an engagement as you figure out what to do next.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Sounds like you are getting closer. A reminder that AH is much better in a small group since your heal is based on boons you are giving to your team mates (a good staff empower can be better than a healing skill); running as a single, I would stay on a medi-build.

The build you cited is an excellent boon giver but has little in the way of damage or “selfish” protection, both of which you need for single roaming.

I recommend perusing the Guardian forums and Metabattle builds for this. Metabattle is by no means the bible as I’m learning but it gives you a better idea of the synergies of skills / weapons / runes / food etc.. My roaming build is a combination of the “Meditation DPS” build and the “DH-Meditrapper” build in the “Conquest” category.

As for closing distances to opponents, I typically start with Judge’s Intervention to plop myself on my opponent . This really helps with dropping traps and whirling blades on top of them before they know what’s happening.

Also you can immobolize opponents with both scepter and GS (and DH spear for that matter).

I tried running torch in WvW and found that I needed the extra protection that a Focus provides instead. Shield of Wrath is a great bailout skill to let you recover from an engagement as you figure out what to do next.

Thank you, from now on for groups I’m going to use GS and Staff. While for soloing camps etc I’ll use GS and Scepter/Focus. I’ve just now bought a focus as never actually used one in a fight – Shield of Wrath looks just what I need. The Long Bow, except for shooting scouts, cannons etc now doesn’t seem that useful for me.

Your quote here says it all – “it gives you a better idea of the synergies of skills / weapons / runes / food etc”. Trying to figure this out for my own character then trying to second guess what my opponent has is greatly helped by this thread

Thanks also for the tips on actual fighting – tonight I’m going to practice in EB for a few hours and see how the weapon changes plus Honor works.

Samis.1750:

There’s a lot of great advice for the OP in this thread. As an older player who clicks quite a bit, I figure I would add my thoughts which are as follows:

1. You need to find the right build/profession combo for your skill/dexterity level. Bear in mind that no build works well in all circumstances (solo roaming, small group roaming, zerging, etc.) and it is always tough to deal people running small group or solo ganking build, when you are trying to run a large group friendly build.

2. Build: You have 2 stun break (one on demand) which is good but unless I am mistaken, only a condition clear tied to your heals (now improved in the patch to remove 2 conditions, but still rather minimal, especially with only 14k hit points). There’s a lot of condition roamers out there, many of whom who are highly mobile and/or have some stealth. You’re also running a meditation trait with no meditation skills slotted aside from Renewed Focus which is on a long cooldown, .

3,. Healing Gear: You have quite a bit of healing gear in your build, but are not using staff, which offers a good return on investment (1:1 on staff 3). On the other hand, you do have selfless daring heal on dodge trait which does offer a good return , but because your precision is low, it’s not going to trigger as often as you want (and the low precision kind of wastes your investment in ferocity). You are running heal on aegis (.5 ratio so healing does help there) which does synergize well with your trap, trap trait, retreat utility and renewed focus, though you should slot shelter when you are running around the map in small groups (or perhaps always as it does synergize with your heal on aegis trait and I believe heals allies as well?)

I’d think about swapping the really expensive toxic stones for some cheap 5/3 precision food if you’re still equipping cleric gear and taking the Honor line to bump your precision up a bit. I’d also dump the boon duration food for something different as you’re not using staff (though it does help your swiftness) and I’d consider changing the runes as well. I’d run melandru if you want to go defensive, and pair it with the saffron bread to give you -45% stun/condition duration reduction. If you’re the guy dying often, it should be your allies who are running the mercy runes grins.

As far as camp flipping goes, healing gear doesn’t really help you much. While it will give you some sustain, if will also take the camp much NPCs way longer to die. With such low precision in a power build, you’re not doing much damage – “hitting like wet noodle is the phrase often used in this forum”. Looking at this another way, if you rolled a ranger, equipped an exotic longbow and some exotic armor and then went to take a camp you would realize how easy it was compared to your current build that you would start chanting Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, a cultural reference that you would no doubt get as opposed to some of the young kids in this thread.

Feel free to whisper me in game if you want to discuss things more.

Thanks Samis – a really great post – lots of practical details – I am actually printing out every post so I can cross reference them to make things easier to follow up.

“MaximillianVonSchatten.6278” also talked a lot about staff so I’m going with that.

I bought some foods but keep forgetting to use them before a fight – disappointing when it seemed they might have made the difference I needed.

By the way, you also Click a Bit – so understand the problems, especially of older players.