Guild Wars 2

I want to get better at the game, specifically , in the dueling/small skirmish area.

I don’t care for dueling, it’s a pointless egofest, however, I do want to get good at it for my encounters out in WvW.

With that said, I could really use some help trying to understand key class abilities, what combos they use, what to look for, and how the animation looks.

Particular classes that give me the most trouble are:

Thief
Chronomancers
Warriors
Other Engineers (surprisingly)

Any sources you guys can offer up that can help me understand and learn the game at a deeper level would be much appreciated.

I’ve been reading the wiki and the talent calculators for each class, even playing some of them, but trying to learn on my own takes an extraordinarily long time compared to being shown the way by a helpful mentor.

Thanks for your time.

From my own experience for thief if they’re d/p stab and sneak gyro are somewhat crucial as the f5 is a reveal. Aoe and retaliation will be very useful when fighting as well. If you know your going to be fighting a thief I would also personally take bulwark gyro to block the annoying headshot spammers or if they’re running P/P plus the 50% split to inc damage its also an inst cast so can use it while stunned, On that note would also take medic gyro over healing turret for that same reason. Lastly blast gyro can really mess a thief up when they don’t have the option to stealth but go on the defensive with bandits defense ( thief stunbreak block skill).

For chonro in my exprience most run condi so you need to change up utility and prob bring either purge gyro or elixir C and use it really only when you get condi bombed and by that I mean cry of confusion and other shatters on top of confusing images all that together with them prob running kitten lexity runes will come up to 15 stacks+ again aoe is going to be your friend most likely in keep the clone output down. Would take healing turret here for the extra condi cleanse and its a great idea to always have elixir kit. Sneak gyro vs a mesmer is also rly helpful depending if they use stealth or not will also allow you to disengage vs some of the shatters if at a distance. Really though I tend to lose this match up vs most very key to be aggressive becomes pretty hard to out sustain them.

For warriors literally poison and kiting when they pop berserk draw out their stances and wait it out warriors aren’t really something that can be bullied if they run stances and defense which most do in wvw. Learn the tells for the mace leap also that can be a death sentence if it connects if they run condi. If they’re power do your very best to not be in melee range or have stab up when they pop berserk as it will most likely lead into the taunt 100rekt blades of death combo. It normally goes from the shield stun>swap gs>zerk>taunt>100blades. Be mindful if they run discipline while they’re in zerk and wep swap they will most likely have their burst skill up again as it tends to be traited for 6 sec cd and zerk at a 15 sec cd so those are prob your best chances to be aggressive as kitten. Also the tell for zerk is flames coming from there upper body. Lots of other warrior builds that I see used outside of those 2 btw but i find those to be the most common.

For other engs assuming skill lv is the same which isn’t that common I really just find it to be who’s more aggressive actually and utility can play a large part.

If you’re willing one of the best things to do though is use an open character slot make the class you’re having trouble fighting agasint get to lv 2 hop into the pvp lobby and mess around with the skills to see how they function like learning how certain moves look that tbh is the best advice I could give.

Have fun

I don’t often have troubles with theif. My usual response is to dodge the first spike hit then open up with AOE, when they back off distance you don’t chase, you pew pew them. You’ll heal up faster than they do. I have mortar and FT so I put down the wall o fire, some mortar fields and hammer 5. Just don’t go wasting your time trying to chase them down, make them come to you. or range them when they don’t.

For warrior the trick is patience and kiting. Don’t try to toe to toe them. run like a chicken… but run in your fields. The shock sheild on hammer is terrific for them because warriors typically love to just open up with the sword on you into it, and will actually just be taking vuln and decent damage. Then after your shields down you use hammer 5, then hammer 3. I usually switch to flame thrower and blow them off point, then let them walk through my fire wall and into a poison spray from EG. But you have to survive the inital insanity to do this. So this tactic is used when they’re spent.

Engineer on Engineer is tough, and since my build is different then meta I couldn’t be much help explaining what I try to do and how I die if it doesn’t work

It all depends on what build you use. For WvW roaming, I personally think p/p condi is still the best because it can’t be kited that easily, but I encounter a lot of engineers playing some variant of the conquest power build, so I guess that can work as well.

Thieves
Thieves shouldn’t give you much trouble once you are used to your skills. They are very agressive, that’s why they are hard to deal with when you’re new (and why you see so many of them in WvW, thinking they are good). If you are having trouble with them and are playing condi, try to use Tool Kit. It’s pretty old school, but using the Block while they are stealthed mess with their gameplay, and the Box of Nails ticks help you to get rid of their blinds!

WvW thieves are unoriginal, so they will typically open on you with either a Black Powder -> Heartseeker -> Steal -> Backstab combo, or a Cloak and Dagger -> Steal -> Backstab Combo. So when you see the HS or CaD animation, dodge (don’t block: they use Basi venom), and I kid you not, 80% of the time they will waste their initial steal, which means you get to keep your boons, they miss their burst, you are not weakened, and not interrupted.

Other than that, if you play Sneak Gyro (and you should in WvW), abuse the toolbelt skill, preferably when you see the HS animation, so they can’t sneak a backstab during the animation. Kite when they stealth, don’t spam your skills, keep your head cool. Usually, it’s best to deal with them defensively when they initially burst: when your health gets low enough they start spamming auto-attacks (or HS, for the worst ones) and get reckless, that’s when you need to turn around and unload the burst.

Chronomancers
Let’s be honest, if they play the condi chronophantasma build decently, and you don’t play Elixir C, you don’t stand a chance. Usually, I just throw some punches to see how good they are, and if they play well, I just run away. It’s not a fun fight, and they can’t chase you, so you don’t have to take it.

If they are not that good, well, you should try to play carefully, by kiting them so you can see the shatters coming and dodge/block them. One thing I like to do is run away from them to make them waste Blink, and then turn around and CC them to death. You may think it’s not fair play, but WvW is a jungle.

Warriors
Most of them play power. It’s been said above: kite for days, especially when they are in berzerker form, or when the stance you don’t like (zerker for condis, endure pain if you’re power) is up. It’s a game of patience, and warriors always win the full ham duels. Try to keep them poisoned, EG#3 is your friend.

Engineers
It’s a game of CD management. In pvp, I’ve noticed that most duels are won by the engineer that dodges or kites the hammer skills most effectively, while landing his. Also, be very careful of EG#4: a lot of new scrappers don’t use it, or only to blast a water field, but it deals a lot of damage if your foe stands on it. It’s also unblockable.

If you play condi, keep your blowtorch for when the other scrapper uses the reflexion dome from Bulwark Gyro: he often feels invulnerable, but Blowtorch is not a projectile. Also, I like to just tank the last hit of Rocket Charge, because it has a long after cast that most scrappers don’t cancel (you can cancel it by swapping to a kit anytime during the animation, and dropping the kit just after the last hit). During this small window is a good time to land a condi burst (Or a hammer #2).

Sorry for the wall of text. Hope that helps.

Chuckles.8153:

I want to get better at the game, specifically , in the dueling/small skirmish area.

I don’t care for dueling, it’s a pointless egofest, however, I do want to get good at it for my encounters out in WvW.

With that said, I could really use some help trying to understand key class abilities, what combos they use, what to look for, and how the animation looks.

Particular classes that give me the most trouble are:

Thief
Chronomancers
Warriors
Other Engineers (surprisingly)

Any sources you guys can offer up that can help me understand and learn the game at a deeper level would be much appreciated.

I’ve been reading the wiki and the talent calculators for each class, even playing some of them, but trying to learn on my own takes an extraordinarily long time compared to being shown the way by a helpful mentor.

Thanks for your time.

What do you run? power rifle engi? Hammer scrapper? P/P condi?

Depending on what you play I can give you a little rundown on some matchups and if you’re on NA I’d be happy to do some actual training to give you an idea of some of the things I may be talking about if you’d want it.