Area Denial?

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: AielloA.1629

AielloA.1629

Q:

I used to be a huge fan of Global Agenda, a sci-fi , third-person MMORPG shooter. There were four classes: Medic (heals, support and, ironically, poisons), Recon (your average sniper, that everyone hated cause all the noobs picked it), Soldier (tanky as an Abrams, with awesome DPS), and Engineer (they had turrets with amazing DPS. They had med-stations with awesome heals. They had energy stations for awesome sustainability. And they had a robot arm to fix it all). The common theme amongst Engineer players was “a good Engineer can carry a bad team,” and certainly teams without Engineers were rarely ever successful outside of the really low-level areas.

Coming into GW2 from games like that, I was really excited about the Engineer class. I saw “turrets,” I thought, “cool, stationary defenses and mid-to-back-line support!” To probably misquote Thorin, NEVER have I been so wrong. Engineers play up close and personal, and lacked the area-denial I had been hoping for. So I turned to the only class that really had skills that seemed like they could help: Guardian.

Is a build (primarily for dungeon-running) focused around Staff/Hammer, Consecrations, and just generally “get off my lawn” abilities viable? Based on my GA experience, I’d say that being able to single-handedly cordon off a corner of the room to let the casters operate in peace seems incredibly useful, but I have no clue if that’s actually true in GW2, or if a build like that is even really possible to make.

Control was supposed to be one part of the GW2 anti-Trinity (DPS, Support, Control) but I don’t ever see any control or area-denial focused builds. If they don’t exist because people don’t like the playstyle, that’s fine cause I do, but if they don’t exist because they really aren’t viable, then I think ANet messed up in their design for GW2, but that’s for another thread if so.

Anyhow, a bit of feedback on “is this possible” and if so, “how” would really be great. Thanks!

“We fight because we can. We win because we must.”

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: Tarsius.3170

Tarsius.3170

The main issue with control abilities in dungeon runs is that the areas which would benefit from them the most tend to be filled with mobs that have stability ( and can therefore just walk right through your wards ).

There are definitely places where you can use a line or ring of warding to great effect, but it’s certainly not “everywhere”. This differs from WvW and sPvP where they can be both aggressively and defensively employed practically all of the time.

Warhaft Tarsius – Asura Guardian ( Desolation ) – [NUKE]
Guardian FAQ · BUGS · HEALING

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: AielloA.1629

AielloA.1629

Ah. In that case, the problem does indeed lie with ANet. I mean, if they want “control” to be a key feature of their anti-Trinity, but then they go and nerf the bejeezus out of it in the parts where you would really WANT it… I mean, I can’t be the only one who went, “wow, dungeons have a LOT of mobs that need to be killed one-by-one, wouldn’t it be neat if there was some way to make sure that we COULD take them down one-by-one?” GW1 was much more rewarding of actually planning stuff out in that regards. GW2 seems, to me, to be pure, twitch-based action. Kill it before it kills you, nothing fancy, DPS is king…

I dislike playing DPS. I’m sure some people love watching the big numbers tick away, or enjoy making sure everyone has those little buff boxes next to their portrait, but for me, controlling movement and the flow of combat is much more interesting. Until ANet makes that a real feature in PvE, I’m unlikely to play much GW2 at all.

“We fight because we can. We win because we must.”

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: styx.7294

styx.7294

The problem with a lot of the control is most bosses carry this Defiant

I imagine that there’s enough control between a party to keep a boss shut down for a while (nevermind in the open world).

In dungeons, other than DPS, you can still provide a lot of boon support/heals. Control stuff still works on non-boss folk.

Gate of Madness

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: Amins.3710

Amins.3710

Area Control for WvW & PvP = Wardings, Bubbles, Fields.

Area Control in PvE = more AOE Dmg.

Amins – Guardian
Gameplay Video’s & Forum Post

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: foofad.5162

foofad.5162

Area denial doesn’t exist unless there’s a specific area that needs defending, and unless you’re talking about PvP that basically doesn’t ever happen. Guardians in SPvP are great because they can single handedly hold points for extended durations due to their easy access to stability, retaliation, and so on. But even in WvW that starts to fall apart, because the areas you have to defend are vast and too much for you to control by yourself. So unless you’re into SPvP (which is what a lot of GA was anyway) and WvW you’ll probably want to focus on some other aspect.

Eilir Eirasdottir, Guardian, Tarnished Coast
Painbow.6059: Ignore what anyone else who doesn’t agree with me has said because its wrong.

Area Denial?

in Guardian

Posted by: Christos de Soufre.3802

Christos de Soufre.3802

Control in PvE is more about peeling mobs off of your squishier party members, which you can do primarily by just doing more damage, or pulling them with your GS #5 skill, or dropping walls in front of them or something.

But yeah, area denial isn’t a big deal in PvE. WvW on the other hand…

Chris “Dawnheart” Aerinoh — Revenant, Guardian — Blackgate