Guild Wars 2

I think there is also a need to reduce the amount of times he calls bluffs. I’ve literally gone through several games in a row where not only will my first bluff called, but he then calls bluffs right after his buff disappears.

I’m not saying it has to be easy, but they have to at least give us a fighting chance. :\

So I was working with a Sylvari tank-ish DPS build, but now I’m finding that, when I go on dungeon runs with my guild, I’m squishier than a week old banana. Here are the facts at hand:

I recently restated my traits which are now:
Valor (30): V, IV, XI
Honor (30): II, IX, XI
Virtue (10): II

My utilities are Hold the Line, Stand Your Ground, and Retreat/Save Your Self (depends the situation). Healing is Shelter and my elite is Renewed Focus.

Except for my trinkets which are Berserk/Ruby, my gear is all knight gear. To take advantage of my shouts, my armor is fully using Superior Runes of the Soldier. My weapon of preference is a greatsword (Sigil of Leeching) and my secondary is scepter (Sigil of Leeching) and shield (Sigil of Fire) though I’m tempted to go back to using a focus.

My major question is: Am I dressed for success? I trust that Knight gear is a safe pick for its high toughness (though that one seems to be a commonly debated subject from what I can see), but I’m getting the feeling my trinkets need to be more about keeping me alive than killing the enemy.

Ya, that fixed the issue. Thanks again!

First of all, thanks so much for all the advice you have given me thus far. I can admit that I probably would not have done so well if left to my own devices and being able to hold my own with my guild (who are mostly level 80s with various exotic/rare gear) has been pretty cool in dungeons.
Unfortunately, the first two links seem to be broken, but I am finding what you’re saying to make sense. I’ll have to fiddle around with what you said and find what works for me.

Okay ladies and gentlemen,

I am a mere three levels away from lvl 80 and now I’m eager to hear a few suggestions of level 80 stat builds and what armors/upgrades I should look into.

I’ve been staying pretty true to Lalangamena’s suggestions on traits (though I’ve been doing guess work on the actual skills gained through traits) and focused on Knight (boot, shoulder, and glove)/Carrion (chest, leg, helm) armor, adding Ruins of the Warrior as the upgrades. My jewels focus mainly on power/vita with one to help toughness as well since it’s been a lot more about vita.

I’m as open as always for suggests on what else I could do to help me be as Tank-ish as possible.

I’m keeping a mace and staff in my inventory just to be safe, but I have been finding good results with the GS/Scepter&Focus combo for the most part. The scepter gives me might every time I switch to it in combat so that has been helping a lot.

My next question is what types of insignias/upgrades should I focus on. I original thought that Berserker/Knight were the right ones, but now I am getting the feeling that there are other options I should consider.

Lalangamena.3694:

for level 36

get the highest armor you can find from the following: power>vitality>toughness>precision>healing power>condi

weapons go greatsword and scepter/focus as offhand. you shouldn’t facetank at these levels, better kite with scepter.

for skills:
shelter, hold the line,stand your ground, smite condition, renewed focus.
if you feel that smite condition is not enough, take signet of resolve as healing skill.

with traits 0/5/5/10/5 you should manage better, dont be afraid to use virtues actively and then reset them with renewed focus (10 points in honor for 20% shout recharge)
on level40 when you can get the next trait book, start with 0/15/0/10/5
all your fights should be something like that:

GS3 jump into enemies, GS5 pull them to you, F1- blind them, get might and burn them, GS2 chop them to sushi rolls, if they are not dead, GS4 for symbol and finish them with auto attacks.
as soon as you killed single enemy and virtue of justice is reset spam F1 again.

repeat as necessary.

against veterans:
start the same, but when you used all your GS skills, switch to scepter focus.
scepter 3 imo, roll back, then smite, and run around spamming scepter 1.
if the vet come close and scepter3 still on CD use focus5 .

repeat as necessary..

utilities: use hold the line everytime it is off CD.
use stand your ground vs mobs that like to kick you around (ettins, tramplers, etc)
or if you’re surrounded and all your GS skills on CD.

smite condition if you have more than two damaging conditions etc…

That makes sense. Just to verify, is the order you put the armor/weapon stats in the most important to less important? Does that mean you’re more in favor of higher Vitality than Toughness?

Also, if I read your regular enemy strategy right, it’s okay to be more stationary during the fight? That would save me a lot of time and mental effort if I wasn’t needing to running around fiddling with the camera angle every couple of seconds…

Yaki.9563:

Grab hammer, spec 0/0/30/30/10 with AH and EM, wear knight’s gear, eat heal on crit food, turn on autoattack, go afk.

Er…you’ll have to forgive my ignorance, but what do you mean by AH and EM? xD;;

Soooo…what about utility skills? I’ve started using Save Your Self (Smite Condition) was taken out) which seems to be helping a little, but I don’t know if I should keep Judge’s Intervention or invest skill points in something like Stand The Line.

I should point out that, along with my earlier mentioned problems, I also fail at multi-tasking. I can run around and attack, but buttons 6-0 aren’t getting used as much since I have trouble keeping track of what I’m doing. I figure shouts provide a semi-long term reason to fight without worrying about timing special attacks.

Ya, I really need to work on dodging. If anything, it will make it possible to get the daily… xD;;

Keep the suggestions coming. I’m open for more help.

To make a long story short, I’m just not really finding my groove in my goal to be a decent Tanker. I am hoping to see if anyone(s) out there can provide me some advice/suggestions on how not to suck at what I want to be.

Race: Sylvari

My stats (at level 36) are:
Attack: 759
Crit%: 25%
Armor: 775
Health: 4,648
Healing Power: 107
Boon Duration: 1%

Here are my Traits:
0/5/10/10/1
Valor Skill: Meditation Mastery
Honor Skill: Writ of Exaltation

Additional Info:
Weapon Preferences: Hammer/Greatsword
Utility Preferences:
1. Signet of Resolve
2. Smite Condition
3. Judge’s Intervention
4. Signet of Judgment
5. Renewed Focus

General Game Style:
As the title suggested, I’m really a newbie when it comes to fighting. I’m no Leeroy Jenkins, but I’m all about the attack with wanton disregard for what’s going on beyond the fighting (i.e. I doubt I could even dodge an attack to save my life…literally…). I have been focusing on any stat upgrades that help my Vitality and Toughness, but I get the feeling that’s not good enough.

Since I am a poorly skilled tactical fighter, I am hoping to put together a build which is Tank-ish in design to allow me to be as much a pain-magnet as possible. I figure if I’m taking most of the abuse, my teammates with far more game-based brain cells than I can focus on defeating the enemy and less on having to revive me every couple minutes.

Since I’ve gotten to love the two-handed weapons, I would prefer to keep one or the other has my main tool of destruction, but I’d be willing to work with other options for my second slot if it would help the cause. Same goes for pretty much everything else as well including stat changes, utilities, armor, and such.

I know I’m probably handing you guys lead and asking for gold, but I am hopeful that this isn’t a hopeless situation.

Thanks in advance.