Guild Wars 2

Hey, hi, hello forums. Newbie here. I recently picked up GW2 after suffering the post-release downhill situation with SWTOR. I found some pleasure playing a Scoundrel and its energy mechanic there so I decided to carry over my interest to GW2. I don’t mind PvE, but I find it to be a more of a means to an end than a preference, so I was excited to know that I could level using WvW. And while I’m admittedly only on the cusp of hitting level 9 with my thief (casual player right now, unfortunately) and I understand that there are some power scaling issues with not having all my utilities/traits unlocked, I’m finding the situation a little bit disappointing and I’m looking for some advice.

I’ve mostly been trying to use a Shortbow to stay at range, but I’m so painfully squishy that I feel like I’m trying to disengage with my weapon skill 5 and cover my trail with 2 and 4 more than I’m contributing to the fight. I understand that you’re supposed to be able to pick up loot from finishing off enemies, but I feel too squishy to engage and finish them off and I’m not getting much in the way of XP because I’m only able to chip at enemies’ health before disengaging. My health is only at a measly ~14.2k. I usually try to use my utility skill to poison my enemies with a few auto attacks as well.

Am I missing something? Is there something I should be doing with my gear (which isn’t substantial, to say the least)? Or is it mostly an uphill battle when it comes to contributing at such a low level?

You aren’t missing anything. The best you can do is buy a full set (weapons, armor, accessories, everything) of even level greens. Then you can WvW for a couple levels at close to max potential for your level. No matter what you will be at an extreme disadvantage.

Many of us that started at release did not notice this since everyone else was leveling in WvW as well. But today, everyone is in full exotics with viable trait spec, you will be crushed by good players. I have never lost a 1 on 1 with an up-leveld person and I dare say I would not fear fighting close to 10 of them at once.

Just try to have fun knowing you are at an extreme disadvantage.

One thing to note when playing WvW, is you only have to deal a bit of damage to another player in order to get kill credit when they die. If you move around with a zerg, you can just throw some damage in and let your teamates do the real killing. When someone dies, if they drop loot (not guaranteed), it will be dropped at your feet, not at their corpse.

The only way to convincingly run a lowbie is with a group. Specifically a organized group. My guild ran a 10 man group of Thieves level 2 to 30. It was crazy and we wiped to serious groups but flipping camps and taking on small groups was no problem.

If you just want to level you have a a couple options. Kill Doylaks and Sentries. Flip camps when you are higher level. Or find the nearest commander and stick with him.

If you’re on Blackgate send me a message and you can run with me if you want.

I’m on blackgate – my thief is level 41. I might log in and jump in wvw later tonight – if you see a thief spamming /m looking for a group that might be me. :P

I jumped in to some WvW as a level 66 condition build thief. I had on all carrion gear, with superior runes of Undead for added toughness and condition damage, then knight trinkets. I am specced 10 in to shadow arts too, rest is acrobatics and uhhh, forget the other name atm.

I got picked on a couple times, but with the toughness, the ability to evade two different ways (DB and dodging), and all stealthing utility spells, I did pretty dang well. I played the “Get in, get out” kind of playstyle where I would lay down caltrops, do some DB attacks, and get out and use the SB for a few attacks etc. It was fun and felt that the scaling helps you out tremendously. I had just shy of 17,000 health when I got scaled up.

Because of stealth and the short-bow you have an edge to get away. Just run with the zerg (follow the commander icon on the map, which is a blue symbol) and use the main attack, cluster bomb and chocking gas to get xp for kills and participation in events.

I would suggest you to do some PvE, though, because you need skill points (there are some, but not enough in WvW) to unlock essential skills for later on. Try to level leatherworks and weaponsmith to craft armor for your level (this also gives you xp and will help you a lot).

One tip on finishing people off; You can finish people off while being invisible. So if you got a dagger in your off-hand, use Cloak and dagger to stealth and then finish them off.