Guild Wars 2

There is a thread in the general discussion forum (posted by me) on the same topic, but I decided to confer with some fellow guardians on how to solve this.

Here’s the backdrop: I maintain a lot of aggro in and outside dungeons. A lot. Some fights I rally 3-4 times, until I die instantly.

These scenarios occur on a common basis:
1. Aggroing more than half the mobs on the devourer gauntlet event, even when standing at the bottom of the slope, and not attacking any but the closest 3-4 devourers.
2. Getting grilled by all 3 flamethrower-mobs simultaneously.
3. Aggroing the final boss before entering the room, even after the other groupmembers have entered and begun hitting acolytes. I retain aggro throughout the fight, even after the boss has teleported to other players, he always runs back to me.
4. Ground targeted spells and direct spells cast by enemy spellcasters are more often than not aimed at me, even if I have the reflective wall up.
5. It frequently happens that I retain aggro on dynamic champion events (in the outside world) for 10 minutes or more. 10 players plus can be whacking away at the champion mob, but even so it will do everything in it’s power to chase me down.

From what I could gather from other people, and the wiki, the threat table of mobs seems to be affected by:
- closest target to them
- who is dealing damage
- top damage dealers
- who is using a shield
- Guardians draw more aggro with less dps

At the time of writing, I mostly play with a greatsword (scepter/focus as swap), but generating tons of threat – dying a lot as a result. This is while my groupmembers remain relatively unharmed. Sure, it may be a skill issue (meaning I suck), but in the end I just run out of defensive options and eventually die. It’s not that I do crazy dps or anything, most of my friends outdps me, I’m just a threatmagnet. I’ve tried kiting the mobs whenever I’m out of defensive options, but this becomes problematic against mobs with any cc and/or ranged attacks.

So from what I can tell, these are my options:
1. Never play as the only guardian in a group (splitting aggro)
2. Drop the greatsword and go all out scepter/focus (going ranged)
3. Drop the greatsword and get a shield to survive the aggro (full tankbuild)

Am I missing something here? What’s the secret to being a succesful guardian?
Thanks for reading and/or helping out.

Evil Zealot

well if your issue is ’’squishyness’’ i would recommend having a Mace/focus combo with that weapon set and proper toughness/vitality u just CANT die when u play smart since u got healing/1block from mace 3…1blind from focus4 and 3 more blocks from focus 5 add up hp and toughness and ur good to go

I would love to have your problem, as I am an extremely experienced Kiter (from other games) and we have a lot of sources of Swiftness, Stability, and total damage immunity in the form of Blocks, so I would very much like more information from you and your friends if wouldn’t mind providing it.

So if your friends are willing, would you kindly compare your different armor, toughness, vitality stats and maybe each of you solo some champion mob and time?

One theory I’ve heard, and this is sort of how threat worked in GW1, is that Monsters try to go for the easiest target to kill which means the person with the lowest armor, lowest current life #, loaded with debuffs like Cripple and Poison, and not using “martial weapons”).
So if you compare your survivability stats, that might help.

Another thing that generated threat in GW1 was how many debuffs you were applying to the enemy, and how many buffs you were giving to your allies. If your allies are getting Retaliation from you all the time, and Shouts, and so on then that might be significantly contributing as well.

You need to work on your survivability. Greatsword is great but pair it with mace+focus on your other set, swap and hit 3 at sign of trouble. Also, 5 points in the Virtues tree is a great thing, particularly paired with Renewed focus and “Retreat!” you can keep aegis and block up over a ton of hits, and the focus shield gives you 5 seconds/3 hits invulnerability on top of this.

You shouldn’t be feeling squishy unless you’ve gone glass cannon.

Pair all of those Aegis skills with 10 points in Honor for skill 6 (Aegis heals on removal) and Valor 5 point skill Valorous defense (free Aegis at 50% health) and you’ll be a happy camper.

Heck, I only wish I could generate more aggro, I like to protect my allies and block and dodge my way out of trouble whenever possible.

It’s not that I am too squishy (although I could get tankier, I could be a lot more squishy as well, I’m somewhere in the middle of the scale), the problem is that I generate too much threat. When I say too much threat, it’s to the point that I die in the end because I have no more defensive rabbits to pull out of my magical hat. Sure, I could run 200 yards away, stand in a corner, and hope I lose aggro. But I doubt that’s how GW2 was meant to be played.

As I mentioned, I already play with a scepter/focus as swapset, meaning I gain the benefit of the focus shield. I don’t want to swap to the most defensive build just to be able to survive in dungeons because of constant aggro. If that’s the case, something else is wrong. Why shouldn’t I be able to roll a greatsword dps?

The only time I can play “normally” is when I’m in the same group as another melee guardian. Whenever that happens, I find myself getting aggro a lot less, and gameplay feels more smooth because I don’t have to constantly chain my defensive cooldowns and virtues.

As for those who want to build threat: if I want to take aggro off another groupmember, I just walk up close and whack the mob in the face with my greatsword. 1-2 hits and whirling wrath usually does the job. I have no idea how the mechanics work though. I’ve played with light armored, heavy armor, people in blues, people in exotics, ranged, melee. The only thing that have changed my situation is when other melee guardians are present in the group.

Lunarpac.4631:

Why shouldn’t I be able to roll a greatsword dps?

You have a weapon swap button for a reason. You are intended to use it, frequently, in combat. In a dungeon, either drop back to range until your next greatsword leap of faith cooldown is up, or swap to a defensive build until your greatsword whirling wrath & leap of faith cooldowns are up.

Your other group mates are also weapon-swapping too, if they’re doing it right. The classes without weapon swap are swapping other things – engineers are kit swapping, elementals are attunement swapping.

If you’re not weapon swapping in a dungeon, you’re probably doing it wrong – no matter what profession you are.

What you shouldn’t have to do is flail around in your bags frequently for a 3rd or 4th weapon combination. I think many guardian weapon combos are good enough to be your 2nd choice in a dungeon, so I don’t really see a problem there with a lack of options.

I’ll have to try your setup. I can’t seem to keep aggro at all. Are your group members near you at all times? My groups seem to spread out in dungeons.

I got the same “problem” as you Lunarpac, I use Scepter&Torch mostly so I can get some distance between me and the mobs and not generate so much threat, but I always get the aggro. Sometime I don’t even have to attack the mobs to get aggro from them.

GS Guardian here. The last two times I ran CM (Story) the Door Guard came straight for me as soon as he turned hostile and before anyone had attacked him. I was the 2nd highest levelled character in the group, the highest levelled Guardian and the highest levelled character in Heavy Armor.

Over the entire two runs I got a ton more aggro than people who applied more damage and/or conditions. Heavy Armor is definitely a big factor in the equation I’d say, most likely its actual value as well, since the other Guardian in the party ran a more damage-heavy build than I did yet I consistently out-aggroed him.

Sparkie.3465:

Lunarpac.4631:

Why shouldn’t I be able to roll a greatsword dps?

You have a weapon swap button for a reason. You are intended to use it, frequently, in combat. In a dungeon, either drop back to range until your next greatsword leap of faith cooldown is up, or swap to a defensive build until your greatsword whirling wrath & leap of faith cooldowns are up.

Your other group mates are also weapon-swapping too, if they’re doing it right. The classes without weapon swap are swapping other things – engineers are kit swapping, elementals are attunement swapping.

If you’re not weapon swapping in a dungeon, you’re probably doing it wrong – no matter what profession you are.

What you shouldn’t have to do is flail around in your bags frequently for a 3rd or 4th weapon combination. I think many guardian weapon combos are good enough to be your 2nd choice in a dungeon, so I don’t really see a problem there with a lack of options.

Indeed, I weapon swap frequently, which I’ve stated before. I use a scepter/focus for swap, and chain my defensive cooldowns pretty much at all times (more so regarding abilities than virtues, it happens that I’m able to keep the passive virtue effect without having to pop them for aoe blindburn/heal/instant aegis to survive).

I first noticed this last night. The Champion Giant spawned in Nageling. Using only scepter autoattacks, he would chase me back and forth as I ran around buildings. 5-6 other champions attacked him at the same time, presumably using abilities.

I embrace the tank role, trying to mitigate damage to others, so I found it a good thing, but I had plenty of room to roam.

Sounds like you’re trying to fit a weapon into a situation it’s not made for. Have you tried running mace/shield and scepter/focus in the same situation?

I’ve told some of my guildies many times that this game isn’t about picking a weapon because you like it. It’s about picking the best weapon for the situation(s) that’s coming. From what I’ve seen (and I’ve played every dungeon), GS is useless in most dungeon areas. In a dungeon, you want survivability and control and GS just doesn’t have it. There are a few times you can switch to it once you’ve learned the dungeons well enough to know who spawns when though. I’ve gotten to the point where I never run just 2 weapon sets through a dungeon.