Guild Wars 2

So you’re roaming and encounter an outnumbered situation and decide to engage, do you have a priority list of who to go for first? Say this group is consisting of a warrior, elementalist, and a mesmer, even if all 3 are upleveled, you have no way of knowing just what level they are, what their build is, and what gear they may have already. this group could consist of any variation of classes so was just wondering what your general approach and strategy to a situation like this would be.

My priority varies as I haven’t had enough encounters with each profession.

I’d say: uplevels, rangers, necros, eles, thieves, wars, engies, mesmers, then guards. This list is based on how fast and easily I find professions go down.

Edit: changed engineers and mesmers.

I would definitely not engage. Too much cc, and mesmers are annoying alone.

While Solo Roaming and I happen to come across a group fight between my server and an opposing server, I tend to go for the Mesmer first. A berserker Mesmer is just strong in group fights and if they are just sitting back and doing whatever they want, then it could mean a lost to your group.

jonwar.4186:

So you’re roaming and encounter an outnumbered situation and decide to engage, do you have a priority list of who to go for first? Say this group is consisting of a warrior, elementalist, and a mesmer, even if all 3 are upleveled, you have no way of knowing just what level they are, what their build is, and what gear they may have already. this group could consist of any variation of classes so was just wondering what your general approach and strategy to a situation like this would be.

Being upleveled I’d be biased to think none of them really mastered the profession yet (this ofc could be wrong since one could have played pvp with the class a lot before starting to level him properly).
Imo being able to play a class to a decent enough level to help your group depends on what class you’re playing. And thus I’d assume two things:
1) they are the same level (which makes step 2 processing easier)
2) that the ele would be the most competent in the group. After that the mesmer and then the warrior.

Ofc any fights 1v3 with lacking knowledge about (read underestimating) your opponent could end badly on your side and it also depends on what build you run. My current build works better in small groups than in 1vX situations, so I’d avoid these fights no matter what.

In 1vX situations, you need to prioritize the targets that you can land a spike on. That upleveled glass cannon warrior might seem like a juicy target, but if there’s a thief (refuge) or guardian (bubble) around, you’ll probably have to kill that warrior several times before he stays dead. Sometimes you need to target the person with the best rez tools, sometimes you need to try to down multiple opponents at once so they have to choose their rez (daggerstorm is great for this), and sometimes you have to down a decoy target just to bait out the real target you want. No matter what you pick, you’ve simply got to land your spikes or else their numbers will eventually overwhelm you.

From there, I further kind of throw everyone into either burst, condition, or bunker categories. I play an evasive no-stealth build, so mobile bursty types and condition damage are the biggest threats to my build. Those would be my high priority targets, then I’d save the kiteable stuff like slower-moving glass-cannons and bunkers for last.

So, for the OP’s example with no further info, I’d go war/mes/ele. But if the ele was a staff ele, or if I saw the mesmer was using a phantasm build, they’d become a higher priority than the warrior to me.

You encounter an outnumbered situation and decide to engage?

MrForz.1953:

You encounter an outnumbered situation and decide to engage?

The one thats trying to stand back and do nothing but ranged attacks is the one should kill first. It will be the easiest to separate from the group, the one with the worst defense/hp pool, and the one you should have the easiest time downing and stomping.

Ranged and support dies first.

I’d avoid attacking the tankiest of the group first, of course, but other than that I wouldn’t really choose my targets based on professions. What matters more is where they are relative to the rest of the group.

Generally speaking you are more vulnerable when spiking, so rule number one is to stay away from the biggest clump of enemies. Even if you down someone you’re likely to take some damage while doing so and you’ll have a lot harder time finishing them once downed.

Next I’d think about where the enemy is going and where it thinks I am. Don’t attack someone in front of them, attack someone who’s lagging behind or straying away from the group. If you’re starting to take some damage, stealth and swap targets. It’s also handy to have multiple slightly damaged targets if your enemies are reviving each other, since you can first down one for them to nurse back to health while you down and finish your real target.

Basically, don’t tunnel vision and refuse to change targets if things go wrong.

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

MrForz.1953:

You encounter an outnumbered situation and decide to engage?

Well if you like respawn points that’s alright, noone’s judging you. O.o

Mesmer 1st, they can dish a LOT of damage if you don’t focus on them and let them summon all their phantasms/illusions. Next will be Ele, because they’re LA, 1 BS would take half if not more than their HP (since they’re upleveled). War will be easy, spam blinds→dead war.

If they weren’t uplevel’d, I’d avoid that fight lol. Even if they were solo, I’d only engage if I can get the jump on them (except warrior, easy targets), D/D eles can heal a lot and repetitively within short intervals. But all in all, they could be running any build, every encounter wont be the same.

MrForz.1953:

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

MrForz.1953:

You encounter an outnumbered situation and decide to engage?

Well if you like respawn points that’s alright, noone’s judging you. O.o

You forget that thieves have plenty of tools that allow us to escape bad situations whether we use stealth or not. It’s fun to jump into outnumbered fights, cause a huge ruckus, then casually trot back to safety. That’s kinda the whole point of playing thief. :P

1. Other thieves becuse they are the biggest threat.
2. Shortbow/longbow rangers, becuse they are free kills
3. Mesmers very dangerous and often glass cannon
4. Necros, uber big threat they are counter to thieves.
5 Warriors, idk they are kinda neutral.
6. Eles, weaker bunkers than engineer and guards.
7. engineers Weaker bunker than guardian.
8. guardians superior bunkerness in the game can take lot of time to take down.

Guardian>D/D ele>Condi Engie>Necro bunker>BM Ranger>Other thieves>Warriors>mesmers.

I run a weird build that works better when I’m fighting more opponents, so I take down the bunkers first and leave those who will tick my healing more for last, which is why mesmers and their clones who stand in my caltrop stacks and tick SoM are always last and great.

1. other thieves: thye have best res utility in the game, and can hit as hard as you
2. mesmers: shatter mesmers hurt a lot, phantasm mesmers can dish out a lot of damage, best to get them out of the way before they can get their big guns out
3. rangers: typically very squishy. If, in fact, I encounter a BM ranger I switch to an easier target
4. staff eles: typically squishy and have a lot of group utility to make it a pain to take out the group
5. non-bunker wars: able to dish out tons of damage, but also very predictable. If you always keep your eye on them, they’re never a threat, but they’re nice to get out of the way once your other priorities are done
6. everything else: bunkers typically have such slow attacks you can blind them to mitigate almost all of their damage. Engis and necros can be a pain. If I encounter an engi or necro in a group I typically won’t engage. D/D eles I always save til last. They are a pain to kill if you’re not 100% focused on them. With the water 25 point trait nerfed, they deal much less damage now, but they can still be a threat, so watch out for them.

In any outnumbered situation, always avoid being tunnel-visioned, as it will get you killed. Don’t be afraid to switch targets, and never be where your enemy is expecting you to be.

In that particular situation im going to go for the mesmer. They are all up leveled so no matter the build they are still going to be fairly squishy. Mesmer first because as others have said they can bring some damage and because its will just make the fight less chaotic for me if i get rid of it first.

Next i would take out the ele just because from my experience 90% of warriors in wvw run some sort of tank build so its not as big a threat as the ele.

Last is of course the warrior though with all the dashes they have access to there’s a good chance he will just bail while im stomping the ele and get away. I say the warrior will probably run because if im in a 3 man group and some guy has killed the 2 others and im all that’s left then that guy is probably pretty good and if i coudnt kill him with help my odds are even worse now.

This is how i would engage.

I would push kittento the elementalist forcing them to mist form away/ down and mist form as soon as they down switch focus to mesmer and STOMP no matter what, by this time Warrior is either attacking me or Ele is already back up with warrior coming back to me. Focus the ele again as their downed skills are on cool downs while blind spamming the warrior if possible. Down the ele either by damage or stomp. Solo the warrior. Could work, has worked. Could fail, has failed.

cool, thanks for the replies.

conclusion: I’m just a really bad player