Guild Wars 2

So, I’ve been trying to get “Been there done that” which means I’ve been slogging my way through the WvW maps to get the POIs.

Which is incredibly hard for me, because after much introspection, I’ve figured out I really, really suck at this.

I managed to get a single kill, but only by virtue of the three other allies standing around me. Otherwise I die – a lot.

So, I’m trying to understand what I need to be doing to at least give myself some kind of fighting chance. I’m a level 80 Sylvari Mesmer, and generally prefer greatsword, though my secondary set is a sword/torch. This is my only character, so I’ve probably really screwed up something, somewhere along the line. I’ve got a full set of exotics which I purchased from the Black Lion, so my gear seems to be OK, and my weapon seems also fairly decent, at least in terms of damage output.

But the more baffling aspect of it is the playstyle, and the tricks people seem to employ. For example, the skirmishes I’ve been involved with, the people seem to dodge constantly which I can’t do, without my meter depleting rather quickly. One time, after I died, I stayed put just to watch my killer fight some other people who showed up near me. He killed them too. But what was most impressive was his ability to just constantly heal himself. His attackers would deal damage, and then a few seconds later, he’d heal himself back – his health bar constantly moved back and forth as if he were constantly chugging some sort of health potion. How is that possible?

I think the last battle I fought, I completely unloaded on the guy, and I ended up dead, and he ended up with about 70% health. What am I doing wrong??

It has a fan (don’t all laptops??). Apparently it’s inadequate. What is a cooling pad?

Ok, seriously. It’s kind of weird, I know. I play GW2 on my work laptop, since it’s actually a better piece of equipment than my PC, which I’ve generously donated to my children, and is now upstairs.

So, the game runs phenomenally on the laptop, btw. Only problem is, after a lot of battles, and usually intense fire-fights, my laptop shuts off. cold. Just powers down. And the only thing that would cause such an event is over-heating. And yes, the laptop usually is super-hot during these times.

I haven’t been playing a very long time (few months, maybe). But it only started just recently. I don’t have any indication that the game itself is causing it, or some specific update (that would be strange). But my question is more along the lines of – is there a setting that I can use to pull back the graphics ever so slightly to see if it taxes the laptop less?