Guild Wars 2

Hi I am new to gw2 and chose guardian as my first go and am only 10 at the moment but i tend to die…alot. Single mobs my level tend to get me pretty low on health, and if i get more than one, im done for. Im currently using a great sword, and have mace/shield for second. I guess im not doing something right and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance
Kild

Are you dodging? Are you using your heal?

Guardians are quite sturdy at level 80. Maybe your armor is not up to level? The way guild wars 2 works is the lower your armor compared to your level, the worse you are downscaled.

im trying to remember to dodge, guess learning when to dodge is the thing here. I havent gotten much as far as armor upgrades yet…will look for some this weekend

Dodging is an important mechanism in GW2. You will need to learn how to time your dodge and manage your endurance. You also have 2 kinds of heal-in-demand – the hotkey #6 and your virtue of resolve – use them.

Don’t worry about dying often at lower levels while learning to play the profession.

ty guys, should i stick with the weapons im using for the most part?

Dodge is the key to Guild Wars 2. Later in game there are foes who can OHKO you, such as Subject Alpha, so dodging is very important.

Guardians are also the sturdiest class at level 80. While you have high-recharge main heals, you also have access to skills which heal you through other means, such as traiting your symbols to heal, or traiting yourself to heal each time you apply a boon to allies. There’s even a trait to heal you AND your team each time you dodge!

If you wish to get a feel for a more defensive Guardian, try out the hammer. Using hammer, you can achieve PERMANENT protection on your and your team!

If you wish to go offensive, use Greatsword. The spinning attack is amazing, and the “pull” is great CC (crowd control) in dungeons!

I am new myself and still not quite managing to telegraph moves to dodge, try running with a Mace/Focus for a while, you are near unkillable will all the heals and blocks that wep set has, I was standing vs Vet Oak and holding my own (shame I could damage him though!)

Just a heads up guardians start to get fun at 20 so keep lvling and once you hit 20 it starts to get fun as for low lvl gear try gear with toughness and weapons with power mace/shield and Greatsword and lvl 20 you get 2 stats on gear i believe its Toughness and Vitality and weapons power precision unless its lvl 15 dont remember. I have 2 guardians my second one i did in WvW and dailies only from lvl 1 to 80 in about 146 hours which is not bad guardians are fun to play

ty Vet and Babbit, will keep at it and see what i can do.

Ty everyone else for your advice, it will help

focus skill #5 will basically win you every reasonable pve fight. 1 hand sword is the highest dps weapon to pair with focus, plus has an additional blind. If you want to get tricky, however, you can open with scepter/focus, and trigger the shield right before switching to a heavy weapon like hammer/greatsword.

Low level guardian is all about using blinds and blocks to steamroll the mobs with slow attack speed.

A really good tip for any character is to make sure and buy your gear off the tp. You can get the best equipment you’re looking for at a fairly cheap price. This will allow you to max your stats out. Make sure to “refresh” your equipment every so often while leveling.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

A really good tip for any character is to make sure and buy your gear off the tp. You can get the best equipment you’re looking for at a fairly cheap price. This will allow you to max your stats out. Make sure to “refresh” your equipment every so often while leveling.

Was just about to say this. If you wait for drops on armor/weapons, you may fall behind and get discouraged. You can basically “rent” green armor and weapons from the TP (you buy for like 1-2 copper more than you can resell to a vendor). Good luck, the Guard is a BEAST once you get it figured out.

good to know, so gear isnt sold at some ungodly price for new players. will definately check that out

kildaian.9346:

good to know, so gear isnt sold at some ungodly price for new players. will definately check that out

Gear is super cheap at levels below 80. Masterwork (green) items become available at level 14 I think. Start purchasing them for your gear until about level 30, when rares (yellows) become available. Stick with the rares until your 80. And even then I’d wait to buy your exotic gear until after you have decided to stick with a build.

kiladian, im in the same boat as you. new to the game and found myself getting annihilated towards the end of the beginner area (lvl 15ish). then when i finally got a chance to play with my friend he noticed i was getting killed way too often.

the solution was simple and everyone has already mentioned it. go to the trading post, filter out every armor category for your level and just buy gear. doesn’t have to be expensive… i think i spent like 2 silver total at level 15 for a whole new set of armor, all of which had the + toughness stat. once i did this, i found myself VASTLY more sturdy and i can even take on enemies quite a few levels above me.

guardian is getting slowly more enjoyable. although im really hoping it continues taking off from here.

awesome, ty fcbtim, i plan on doing that first thing when i get on tonite

One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is that fact that you need to keep moving in this game. Almost all abilities are able to be used while on the go, so instead of standing in one spot and attacking your foe, make sure to keep one finger on a strafe button while fine-tuning your movement with your mouse, and attack at the same time. I usually run circles around my enemy while simultaneously attacking.

You will find that far less attacks will actually hit you.

My signature has some pointers that new players should find useful, even if it was meant for mesmers. But basically the tips about gear and leveling areas should hold.

dont stop moving!
really, thats what is hardest for people not used to GW2. in WoW, swtor, rift etc, you stand and take your hits, in GW2 move to avoid them.

Dodge rolls evade stuff, but just sidestepping round an enemy normally can avoid alot of dmg.
Then when you have movement down, get used to using you skills to mitigate dmg. for example focus 5 is a 3 block shield, GS3 is a blind, GS5 pull is an interrupt, sword 2 is a blind (I think, dont use it much) and so on.
Retreat ultility is a block and so on.

At early levels, many of the enemy’s moves are very noticeably telegraphed and come slowly (for example, the melee centaur have a very slow and obvious attack). You can avoid these without even hitting your dodge key by simply moving out of range for a second or by moving to their side.

Just a little tip I found useful when I was leveling. It’s all about movement in this game.

I think everyone covered up the dodge aspect really well already, and the heals and protection with hammer.

One thing also important is to move around, even when not dodging.
Dont stand still in front of your opponent, circle around him more. A lot of mobs on lower lvls have very slow attacks, so only by moving around you can already mitigate the dmg.

One tactic I use a lot on harder encounters is to use the hammer to lock opponents out of reach while I regen. Bash them away, use the chain to immobilize, and use the circle around you to keep them a few extra seconds out of reach. This will give you time to recover a bit. Be it to recover hp or cd’s.