My game objective is a simple one – to try to get a character to lvl 80 in PvE without dying – ever.
I’ve tried several builds – thief and mesmer are good because of stealth and evasive techniques, but ultimately they have proven too squishy. The thing is that if you’re set on living forever, this makes you a bad team player so either you had better get used to leaving your comrades in the lurch, or you have to go it alone. So the best combo of abilities and armor for my particular challenge is ranger.
There’s a reason beginners like the bearbow ranger – you can stay alive and kill stuff. Used intelligently there’s a lot going for the survivalist with this combo. I’ve used it to take down the champion boar in Queensdale all by myself late one night after the train went to bed, and I was only lvl 32 at the time.
With the bow I go with signets and one trap skill, with my bow sigils keyed to the trap – venom with poison, agony with bleeding and so on – generally I keep a rack of bows but at the lower levels its cheaper to burn through sigils as you swap depending on the opposition. Also you need to swap signets according to the situation +25% movement is no use if you are escorting pack bulls and have to handle mobs, but its essential if you’re doing runs.
With pets the situation is likewise. Brown bear is a great meatshield, and I like pig because, well, its a pig and also it has a great knockdown. But sometimes you want cats for kill power, spiders for a venom ranger (with poison bows and viper trap) and so on. Shark has the best combo for aquatic, because a survivalist fights near the shore to keep the option of jumping out of trouble by going onland.
Pets can have a lot of conditions transferred to them, so when dealing with a boss that hits like hell, transfer conditions and hit points to your pet via traits and then use signet of stone to keep the pet alive while you swap fluffy for his backup (don’t let the pet die as regen takes ages)
The Greatsword is useful both because it delivers mean hits on its own (use with feline pet) but because of swoop. This is a great speed boost when not focused on a target – you just do a huge leap forward, and can catch up with or escape from almost anything.
Talking of escape, if you want to live forever, you need to get good at that. So, in a sticky situation, be prepared and act fast. Have your sigil for 25% speed loaded, and LB and GS. In traits make sure that rolls and dodges give health. Then when the proverbial hits the fan, you hit ‘protect me’, and fire hunter’s arrow. With your pet taking the strain and you stealthed, dodge in the appropriate direction, immediately switch to GS, make sure you’ve not auto selected a target and swoop out of trouble. Evade on landing, drop spike trap, switch pets and run like hell. If you’ve done it right you’ve left the boss with a few conditions to keep his health low until you return to the attack.
Do the same with mobs as bosses, but use more AOE skills. Try staggered traps – spike, vipers and muddy terrain in that order, while you hit with barrage + agony on the LB, venom spray on SB and then switch to owl pet while mud slows down the opposition. Then retreat picking off the remnants as they stagger toward you.
The trick is not to get fixed on a build – between action, I’m constantly switching weapons and skills, and now traits as well. Carefully check out each situation, switch builds to match, and be prepared to run like hell. It’s fun!
PS – my best shot so far got to 72 before being ambushed by Dredge. The communist swine.