Guild Wars 2

Leveling my second Guardian for a change of scene, I had an inspiration. I realized that I was not dodging or blocking effectively 98% of the time. After some practice, my (then) 5th level newbie Mesmer was able to go toe-to-toe with a level 8 Ettin and drop it without taking any damage.

This may seem trivial to experienced players but I wish someone had pointed it out to me a year or more ago.

Ithilwen’s Training Method;

I Preparation;
a. Equip weapons of your choice.
1. Torch and Greatsword are poor choices for this task.
2. Staff will be at it’s best if facing multiple opponents.
b. Open the combat channel in chat. This will give you feedback.
c. Travel to a suitable target farm. I like the Ettins Southeast of the Windmill King
skill point in Queensdale.
d. Turn on skill 1 Auto Attack.

II Practice;
a. Single out a target and lure it. Stand right in it’s face.
b. The target will likely attack as soon as it arrives. As soon as it’s attack animation
begins, hit 2.
1. Use the number buttons. Mouse click is slow and awkward for this.
c. If you have timed it correctly the enemy will have taken damage and you will not.
d. Some seconds will tick while you watch your toon auto attack. The enemy will
begin it’s next attack animation, hit button 4.
1. See C above.
e. Both of your defenses are now on cd. You have three basic options
1. Swap weapons.
2. Dodge using the dodge button. Double click is too slow.
3. Use your F4 shatter as a defense.

f. Rinse and Repeat.

III Conclusion;

a. Correctly timed, Dodge and Block are incredibly powerful. A newly rolled 2nd level
Mesmer could withstand the attack of a pimped out 80 warrior with a legendary
weapon with sufficient skill.

Please give this a try and feedback.

Leveling my second Guardian for a change of scene, I had an inspiration. I realized that I was not dodging or blocking effectively 98% of the time.

The two heavy classes in this game are really forgiving, even when played fully offensive, and even more so when walking around in PvE (exluding onehit-Attacks from bosses, which would kill any character in one hit anyway). When i walk around in PvE (which mostly happens if i help someone out), observing the Guardians and Warriors in the enviroment, i rarely see them dodge or using any active defense at all. That’s not surprising, given the huge passive defense (even with his “small health pool”, a guadian is much tankier than a mesmer) these classes bring with them – they can live through most encounters without dodging once, even in mlee range against mobs 3-5 levels above them. This can quickly become a problem, if a player starts off with either a Warior or a Guardian, and never learns to make use of their active defense (including dodges), just to get plummeled when they finally enter a PvP area (either structured PvP or WvW).

After some practice, my (then) 5th level newbie Mesmer was able to go toe-to-toe with a level 8 Ettin and drop it without taking any damage.

This may seem trivial to experienced players but I wish someone had pointed it out to me a year or more ago.

You probably don’t give a kitten about it, but in my book this lands you a lot of bonus points. I’am always happy if someone tries learning how to use ‘active defenses’ (dodges, invuls, blocks, etc. activated by player input), and it’s nice of you to try and arise awareness for it amongst beginers

However, there is something that’s bothering me:

III Conclusion;

a. Correctly timed, Dodge and Block are incredibly powerful. A newly rolled 2nd level
Mesmer could withstand the attack of a pimped out 80 warrior with a legendary
weapon with sufficient skill.

Coming from a WvW Dueling perspective i can safely say that at least most glassy Mesmers i’ve met there are very proficient in using ‘active defense’ (in comparison, many players that never used anything other than PU Condi Builds tend to fall apart kinda quickly if you tell them to try a Shatter once, but ofc that depends on the individual case).

However, as much active defense as we have, it won’t be nearly enough for a lvl 2 Mesmer (which doesn’t have access to either traitlines nor traits) to withstand a pimped out lvl 80 Warrior (let alone a lvl 80 Warrior clad in greenies), unless said Warrior is.. well… abyssmal in terms of player skill. Like really, really blackhole-level-abyssmal (or simply inexperienced if it comes to dueling)

You must know, a Warrior has so many hard hitting attacks and deadly CC-Moves, that he can easily make you run out of dodges by simply spamming all of his numerous significant Attacks in a row. He is faster than you, has greater passive defenses (except if you’re running a tanky PU build), more powerful Attacks, and very low Cooldowns on his abilites. And his active defenses aren’t much worse than those of our Mesmer either.

But let me tell you something about the Mesmer’s two blocks first. The thing is, there is a small delay between your opponent triggering your block and your character hitting him with the counterspell. During that delay you’re not allowed to do anything which would interrupt a normal cast (like dodging), otherwise the countereffect wouldn’t trigger at all. This also means, that a Warrior hitting your block can simply dodge afterwards to avoid the incoming counter, or hit you with a fast follow up attack, which turns your block in a waste of time/cooldown. A prominent Example would be a Mace Warrior – he could hit your block with his Autoattack, and follow up with a ‘Pommel Bash’, effectively stunning you while interrupting your counter – now you’re dazed for a second, and more vulnerable to him than before the block. Greatsword AA + ‘Whirlwind-Attack’ would be another example where trying to block a Warrior is actually more dangerous than dodging the strike altogether. And even if said Warrior doesn’t use your blocks against you, he can totally hardcounter your blocks by using Signet of Might, which will even be buffed with the upcoming patch.

Staff #2 and Sword #2 (especially the latter) are actually quite useful, but you still have to outplay the Warrior if you’re using them on a glassy build, since the numerous SigAttacks by the Warrior are simply too much to be reliably counterable, if the Warrior actually doesn’t mess up. Also consider, that Sword#2 is usually part of a Damage-Spike – you may not want to ‘waste’ it using it defensively, since it gives the (even as zerker) ‘tanky’ warrior only more time to heal.

Fighting good Warriors isn’t as easy as you imagine, even if you’re timing your active defenses perfectly

Like phirefox above says, PvE mobs attacks slowly with large telegraphs and take breaks between attacks.

In PvP people attack constantly and you will find at some point you are out of evasive maneuvers. The trick is knowing which attacks to avoid, not to avoid all of them.

Learning to use active defense is very imporatnant and I agree poeple just starting out should practice.

Oh and if you want some advice on your post, I think you should look at your bulleting/numbering/lettering format. It’s crazy and makes no sense.

I’m still struggling with ANET text formatting. So, yes the outline form looks weird.

That was a bit of hyperbole. It is true though that a 2nd level Mesmer could block an attack from an end game 80 Warrior. ( assuming it wasn’t an unblockable ).

I agree that in a pvp environment, block/dodge/evade isn’t a panacea. It’s certainly helpful though.

This post was aimed primarily at new pve Mesmers.

no one attack with just 1 hit most attacks in wvw / pvp are a chain you can block the first one then you need to dodge right away . The block is to trigger block effects rather than blocking a series of attacks dodge on the other hand is gold. That is why I run 2 sigils of energy.