Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
1st thing OP, you say you have bad reaction time and then you tell us you've spent 90% of your time in WvWvW. Pvp, in any form, is more geared towards players who have fast reaction times and some semblence of knowledge in tactics and critical thinking. Therefore i believe WvW is the wrong place for you, based on what you've told me.
2nd thing, if you want to play a game where you can just stand around and hit keys, Gw2 is not for you. For me, Gw2 combat is fun because of the constant need to adjust your combat style to your situation, be it changing weapons/utilities/traits, or simply dodgeing that one smash move those damned Ettins do. You do not seem to want to play this way, and therefore i believe Gw2 is just not made for the type of gamer you are. Thats not a big deal though, there are plenty of mmo's where the combat is all about standing around doing your skill rotations. Personally I dont find those very fun anymore, but they seem right up your ally.
Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
There are really no profession that can take ALL the damage all the time. All porfessions need to kite to survive. One much know what types of damage to evade and what not to evade. It is all about learning. THis games takes a bit more than most. Rift is a DPS pew, pew, pew game - tank sits there - healers heal - GW2 is not like that all all and I am appreciative that it is the way it is.
If it's Thief you're playing they are a hit and run class. You attack, bleed your enemy and poison, then come back at him and do some high crits, apply bleeds etc. PvP is another story, 1 hit everything.
I got a Guardian up to 78, Warrior up to the 40s, Mesmer up to 20's and everything else in the teens...
Only time I ever really felt "powerful" was when I hit 20 on my Warrior and was using the Signet trick and Trait to get 100% crit chance.
It may be more realistic that I'm not a demi-god power level super-being stomping through various creatures and monsters without pause...
but it's certainly not as fun.
Maybe it's different takes on what it feels like to be "powerful" then? Yes, my mesmer can't take a ton of hits and I have to move to survive. But dropping a champion or a foe or three in WvW with barely a scratch because they didn't know what to attack? Being in, in their eyes at least, four places at once, all doing damage, being able to turn the foes damage back on them... there's a type of powerful feeling in that as well.
If you beat a champion by taking all it's hits (which you can't in GW2, I know... just an example) or you beat a champion because it could never actually hit you, who's more powerful?
I got a 80 warrior, and a few other higher leveled characters, where as I do also find the elementalist extremely squishy, I'm not really sure as to how a dual dagger, or atleast main hand dagger Elementalist is supposed to be viable, as the DPS isnt really enough at close range, where you'd see a warrior with a GS (pure dps and lots of mobility) just tearing through things, though I guess warriors might be a bit OP in that sense.
I really love the game and the combat, though some things do make me wonder.
Same for mesmers, and AoE, or fighting multiple enemies, can take quite a while solo xD
I play primarily a Dual Dagger Elementalist and when built correctly, I can handle pretty much any veteran mob in the game, solo. I also can take a fair amount of damage, with my measely 13,000hp pool and in full Power/Precision/Crit dmg gear. Why, because I'm built for it.
If you build yourself to deals tons of damage, without thought as to the damage you will take, then you are simply doing it wrong. So try my Dual Daggger Ele Spec. Feel free to go full berserkers gear with it too (though make sure you have about 400 healing power from jewels). You'll see just how ridiculous the Ele's survivability can be.
Thanks for the tip - my ele is however only like lvl 25 at the moment so that could possibly be af factor as well, since I don't really got that many traits and stuff just yet - but i'll try and look into it.
If you really need to feel like you can just overpower things without thinking and you want to play the game I suggest you take the highest level toon you have and put the best gear and weapons you can get and go to the lowest level zones and hack away. There are still events there and they will give you level drops and you can feel all powerful. Kind of a snooze fest to me but to each his own.
I solo'd a veteran Karka on my mesmer and won. I did not feel weak. Yes, it took time, and yes that bugger was capable of dropping me rather quickly if I let it... but I didn't.
Yeah, anyone who thinks Mesmers are weak or squishy is delusional. Mesmers can solo champs easier than any other profession, as the clones are amazing at distracting enemy AI.
With a good shatter build you can destroy players and mobs in a few seconds.
This game is all about builds. If a class seems weak, you have probably put together a bad combination of skills / traits.
Even Necromancers who I have traditionally thought weak.... I went against a crazy Necro in PvP the other day who dropped me in seconds. Keep in mind the cheapo Warrior and Thief builds cant even touch my Mesmer. But this Necro was absolutely destroying everyone using an axe. Yet everyone associates Necros as being tanky yet harmless.
Being one of those who believes that mesmers are squishy do you have any suggestions on where I can find specific strategies that would show me how to be a more effective solo player? Thanks!
I use Greatsword and Staff. Greatsword phantasms snare the mobs making them easy to kite, also it has a knockback. Staff stacks lots of buffs on yourself and debuffs on the mobs, making you very tanky, also the clone summon of the staff will force players to drop your target. Generally I switch to staff when I need to bolster my defence, but use Greatsword while I have the upper hand.
It lets you use your shatters even when you have no clones. The last 2 shatters can save you from lots of potentially fatal encounters. One will block all damage to you (great for ruining spike damage from Thieves and Warriors) and the other will daze the opponent, helping you kite. Also having that many points in Illusions will greatly lower your shatter recharge rate.
It breaks you out of Crowd Control and gives you invisibility, making it easy for you to slip away into your army of clones. Also amazing for training through areas that you dont want to stop and fight.
Personally I use a shatter / confusion heavy build. Confusion does a lot of damage that is unmitigatable and is often overlooked by players. I also spec so that my clones give conditions when they die. This applies when they get killed, when you summon too many and one dies that way, or when your target dies and all your clones die.
Mesmers are almost always better off getting condition gear. Not power. Confusion and bleeds from your clones (which you get by going and getting deceptive evasion) will do a lot of your damage output.
Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
Well, one difference with trinity tanking is the aggro mechanism: you don't have ways to reliably keep aggro. But you will be able to soak damage in a tankish manner, yes.
Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
Well, one difference with trinity tanking is the aggro mechanism: you don't have ways to reliably keep aggro. But you will be able to soak damage in a tankish manner, yes.
They have a name for players that try to soak damage like that in GW2.
Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
Not really. You can spec to have high survivability but you cant taunt.
Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
Well, one difference with trinity tanking is the aggro mechanism: you don't have ways to reliably keep aggro. But you will be able to soak damage in a tankish manner, yes.
They have a name for players that try to soak damage like that in GW2.
Downed.
Certainly in PvP, W3 and I assume instances (staying out of those so I'm assuming) but you can at least pretend to be a "tank" with making your build just so in normal PvE. Oh yeah there's Orr and that new place...Oh just forget what I said;)
Originally posted by Praetalus Sooo. It seems like a lot of you are saying that you can build a tank... In doing so, you can pretty much ignore the dodge mechanic. Making a tank.. like... the trinity tank?
No - there are AoE skills that makes tanks go thud - dead. No class can just sit there and take damage.
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
Not really. You can spec to have high survivability but you cant taunt.
Also, the highest damage will get the Mobs attention - that is where kiting comes in. Mobs in GW2 also have a different AI compared to other games. In other games - that happens but there is no taunt (as was stated) so other mechanisms have to be in play.
I guess it just takes a different type of mindset. I like the fact that If I dont pay attention I will die.
I remember raiding in EQ2 and on one raid boss I just left my tank autoattacking and made myself a coffee, cos I knew there was no way for me to lose aggro due to buffs, and that everything in that fight would be handled by the healers.
I prefer GW2 combat by a long margin. I never felt weak on my Mesmer, Elementalist or my Engineer.
In GW2 you feel like that hero that barely did it, that escaped against all odds using all the tricks in the book, the hero that was almost defeated but overcame its own limits.
There are few occasions where you feel like an invulnerable god (generally having rare or exotic gear in areas under lvl 40-50).
Other games cater more for the godlike heroes that kill the enemies by staring at them.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
In GW2 you feel like that hero that barely did it, that escaped against all odds using all the tricks in the book, the hero that was almost defeated but overcame its own limits.
There are few occasions where you feel like an invulnerable god (generally having rare or exotic gear in areas under lvl 40-50).
Other games cater more for the godlike heroes that kill the enemies by staring at them.
A agree, more of a normal person hero, rather than a Superman type hero. I like that as it makes it that much sweeter.
Lvl 80 staff Ele here and I giggled at every non-champion mob in the game. Just pop earth elemental ulti and hammer mobs down with fire spells. My build is 30 fire, 10 air, 30 earth. Focused earth first, then fire rest air. For pvp dagger Ele is the way btw.
I play primarily a Dual Dagger Elementalist and when built correctly, I can handle pretty much any veteran mob in the game, solo. I also can take a fair amount of damage, with my measely 13,000hp pool and in full Power/Precision/Crit dmg gear. Why, because I'm built for it.
If you build yourself to deals tons of damage, without thought as to the damage you will take, then you are simply doing it wrong. So try my Dual Daggger Ele Spec. Feel free to go full berserkers gear with it too (though make sure you have about 400 healing power from jewels). You'll see just how ridiculous the Ele's survivability can be.
Thanks for the tip - my ele is however only like lvl 25 at the moment so that could possibly be af factor as well, since I don't really got that many traits and stuff just yet - but i'll try and look into it.
Thanks
Well I'll give you some advice on how to trait yourself on the lower levels, as an Elementalist. First of, go back and reset your traits at a Trainer.
Now that's done, pretty much every Ele must put their 1st 10 trait points in Arcana and get the trait "Elemental Attunement". This will give you some much needed survivability whenever you switch to Earth or Water. Then since you are only level 25, put 5pts in Water to get "Soothing Mist". The heal from that is weak but overtime it really adds up. Once you hit level 35 you should have 15pts in the Water trait line, for more heals when switching to Water. After that you can just focus on either the Fire or the Air tree for some much needed damage, then get 10pts in Earth whenever you feel like it.
Tbh, GW2 did a LOT of things good, but what it DIDNT do good is combat and classes. I never felt so WEAK in any other MMO before. When I am not lolcoptering around the mob like a frightened rabbit, I am DED DED DED. I hate that about GW2. The idea that you CAN evade attacks, which is per se good, transformed into you MUST evade every attack. It became another MUST from an idea that was good as OPTION. And so I spent my time running around like a scared rabbit and feeling very, very unheroic. That really nags me in GW2.
Just my 2ct about combat.
Which class? because there are three that have real issues right now that are full of bugs that their teams have admitted to and are working on.
Engineer, thief, and mesmer are the three that have a hard time in pve most of the time.
As far as the ded thing goes I've really only encountered that issue in Orr and when abilities don't work as intended, and trust me I've worked hard to figure out the best builds of survivability without nerfing myself too much on my engineer, thief, and ranger in pve. I've basically modified the pvp trait builds for pve and it seems to work well. I kill things fast and can recover quickly without running around like honey boo boo child on her energy drink trying not to get hit.
"Sans Necro I played all to 20 at least."
I see. OKay. Like every other talent system out there there are choices that don't fit end game that work wonders for the beginning in survival. I'd suggest for starters getting armor that has vitality on it. You really aren't worried over damage in the early levels and if you do find you need some more damage power/vit is a good combo on armor. When it comes to casters the staff seems to work the best for abilities especially with mesmers necros they rock with stalves. And when it comes to engineers (since this is my main) I'd suggest going pistol shield (until you can get the net turret then go rifles) that way you can keep enemies at bay. Once you have enough skill points and if you are playing a charr engineer I'd definitely suggest picking up Elixir U and the racial trait Hidden Pistol because the toolbelt and haste combo for this trait cannot be beat! You'll basically blast everything dead before it can react. Also on the traits for engineers I'd suggest picking up Static Discharge if you find yourself fighting multiple mobs alot.
Tbh, GW2 did a LOT of things good, but what it DIDNT do good is combat and classes. I never felt so WEAK in any other MMO before. When I am not lolcoptering around the mob like a frightened rabbit, I am DED DED DED. I hate that about GW2. The idea that you CAN evade attacks, which is per se good, transformed into you MUST evade every attack. It became another MUST from an idea that was good as OPTION. And so I spent my time running around like a scared rabbit and feeling very, very unheroic. That really nags me in GW2.
Just my 2ct about combat.
Which class? because there are three that have real issues right now that are full of bugs that their teams have admitted to and are working on.
Engineer, thief, and mesmer are the three that have a hard time in pve most of the time.
...
I don't know about engineers and thieves in PvE, but mesmers have absolutely no problems in PvE that I'm aware of, and since that's practically all I play right now I base that on personal experience.
I honestly think this post comes down to people simply not exploring the options available to them and poor play choices.
For instance I made a ranger...yes one of the complained about classes.
I don't use a bow, i don't focus on crit, in fact my precision is a non issue for me.
I said I am gonna go tank. Power, Toughness and Vit with some healing. My traits and skills reflect that.
I take damage? No problem I start to regen. I dodge? No problem I get prot. Try to stun me, no problem my pet takes the first one. Get me below 25% hp? Dmg reduction 33% kicks in. Healing spring to heal a ton, signet to give me invuln, to take away conditions, my greatsword has a block, i can use quickening zephyr and the evade in the GS power 1 line goes off a TON.
Is it normal no, but I certainly feel I can go 1 on 1 vs almost anything in the game including champs.
The key is knowing how to play, sometimes I can't tank EVERYTHING, but no one can, you have to know when to engage and when to back away, this isn't WoW and a little thinking goes along way. People who make glass cannon damage/crit builds that die in 2 seconds? Ya you hit hard but I probably will outlast you and I have so many outs that I will wear you down.
I think every class has these tools, it is your choice to go full damage power/Precision/crit and dmg dmg dmg but when you die because you are fragile and don't have the reaction time to stay alive etc don't blame the game for letting YOURSELF make bad choices because if you try other things they tend to work out.
right now I got 2.1k power, 2k toughness,3k attack power 3k armor 20k hp as a ranger and have no complaints. My mesmer alt is more glass cannon but I have dodges and stealth/blinks etc its a totally different play style yet it still works yet I NEVER consider trying to go toe to toe with things being so frail I instead adapt my gameplay and again feel I do just fine.
This post makes no sense at all. Just because you have to evade attacks, rather than take an axe cleave on your head, that makes you weak??
So I guess when Aragon was doing all those parrying and evading, he was being weak? Same with Conan or any other high fantasy character who avoided attacks rather than taking them.
The only time when you should be able to take hits is through either the use of shields or some magic. Such when Gandalf took that hit from the Balrog, and that was just one hit.
No, evading attacks is good. I always wondered how it is that you can take all those hits and not die, this is far more "realistic".
Comments
Did you read above what the folks are saying? Sounds like they're saying that can tank and soak damage with very little movement. And I don't mean absoultely no movement of course.. you can't even do that in WoW. But from what they're saying it sounds like they pretty much made a trinity tank.
1st thing OP, you say you have bad reaction time and then you tell us you've spent 90% of your time in WvWvW. Pvp, in any form, is more geared towards players who have fast reaction times and some semblence of knowledge in tactics and critical thinking. Therefore i believe WvW is the wrong place for you, based on what you've told me.
2nd thing, if you want to play a game where you can just stand around and hit keys, Gw2 is not for you. For me, Gw2 combat is fun because of the constant need to adjust your combat style to your situation, be it changing weapons/utilities/traits, or simply dodgeing that one smash move those damned Ettins do. You do not seem to want to play this way, and therefore i believe Gw2 is just not made for the type of gamer you are. Thats not a big deal though, there are plenty of mmo's where the combat is all about standing around doing your skill rotations. Personally I dont find those very fun anymore, but they seem right up your ally.
Good day sir.
I got a Guardian up to 78, Warrior up to the 40s, Mesmer up to 20's and everything else in the teens...
Only time I ever really felt "powerful" was when I hit 20 on my Warrior and was using the Signet trick and Trait to get 100% crit chance.
It may be more realistic that I'm not a demi-god power level super-being stomping through various creatures and monsters without pause...
but it's certainly not as fun.
There are really no profession that can take ALL the damage all the time. All porfessions need to kite to survive. One much know what types of damage to evade and what not to evade. It is all about learning. THis games takes a bit more than most. Rift is a DPS pew, pew, pew game - tank sits there - healers heal - GW2 is not like that all all and I am appreciative that it is the way it is.
Maybe it's different takes on what it feels like to be "powerful" then? Yes, my mesmer can't take a ton of hits and I have to move to survive. But dropping a champion or a foe or three in WvW with barely a scratch because they didn't know what to attack? Being in, in their eyes at least, four places at once, all doing damage, being able to turn the foes damage back on them... there's a type of powerful feeling in that as well.
If you beat a champion by taking all it's hits (which you can't in GW2, I know... just an example) or you beat a champion because it could never actually hit you, who's more powerful?
Oderint, dum metuant.
Thanks for the tip - my ele is however only like lvl 25 at the moment so that could possibly be af factor as well, since I don't really got that many traits and stuff just yet - but i'll try and look into it.
Thanks
If you really need to feel like you can just overpower things without thinking and you want to play the game I suggest you take the highest level toon you have and put the best gear and weapons you can get and go to the lowest level zones and hack away. There are still events there and they will give you level drops and you can feel all powerful. Kind of a snooze fest to me but to each his own.
I use Greatsword and Staff. Greatsword phantasms snare the mobs making them easy to kite, also it has a knockback. Staff stacks lots of buffs on yourself and debuffs on the mobs, making you very tanky, also the clone summon of the staff will force players to drop your target. Generally I switch to staff when I need to bolster my defence, but use Greatsword while I have the upper hand.
Get the 30 point Illusion trait - http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionary_Persona
It lets you use your shatters even when you have no clones. The last 2 shatters can save you from lots of potentially fatal encounters. One will block all damage to you (great for ruining spike damage from Thieves and Warriors) and the other will daze the opponent, helping you kite. Also having that many points in Illusions will greatly lower your shatter recharge rate.
Another essential trait is - http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deceptive_Evasion
This lets you summon a lot of clones, and also makes it hard for people to target you as you dodge away from them.
Also I always carry - http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Decoy
It breaks you out of Crowd Control and gives you invisibility, making it easy for you to slip away into your army of clones. Also amazing for training through areas that you dont want to stop and fight.
Personally I use a shatter / confusion heavy build. Confusion does a lot of damage that is unmitigatable and is often overlooked by players. I also spec so that my clones give conditions when they die. This applies when they get killed, when you summon too many and one dies that way, or when your target dies and all your clones die.
Mesmers are almost always better off getting condition gear. Not power. Confusion and bleeds from your clones (which you get by going and getting deceptive evasion) will do a lot of your damage output.
Well, one difference with trinity tanking is the aggro mechanism: you don't have ways to reliably keep aggro. But you will be able to soak damage in a tankish manner, yes.
They have a name for players that try to soak damage like that in GW2.
Downed.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Not really. You can spec to have high survivability but you cant taunt.
Certainly in PvP, W3 and I assume instances (staying out of those so I'm assuming) but you can at least pretend to be a "tank" with making your build just so in normal PvE. Oh yeah there's Orr and that new place...Oh just forget what I said;)
Also, the highest damage will get the Mobs attention - that is where kiting comes in. Mobs in GW2 also have a different AI compared to other games. In other games - that happens but there is no taunt (as was stated) so other mechanisms have to be in play.
I guess it just takes a different type of mindset. I like the fact that If I dont pay attention I will die.
I remember raiding in EQ2 and on one raid boss I just left my tank autoattacking and made myself a coffee, cos I knew there was no way for me to lose aggro due to buffs, and that everything in that fight would be handled by the healers.
I prefer GW2 combat by a long margin. I never felt weak on my Mesmer, Elementalist or my Engineer.
In GW2 you feel like that hero that barely did it, that escaped against all odds using all the tricks in the book, the hero that was almost defeated but overcame its own limits.
There are few occasions where you feel like an invulnerable god (generally having rare or exotic gear in areas under lvl 40-50).
Other games cater more for the godlike heroes that kill the enemies by staring at them.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
A agree, more of a normal person hero, rather than a Superman type hero. I like that as it makes it that much sweeter.
Lvl 80 staff Ele here and I giggled at every non-champion mob in the game. Just pop earth elemental ulti and hammer mobs down with fire spells. My build is 30 fire, 10 air, 30 earth. Focused earth first, then fire rest air. For pvp dagger Ele is the way btw.
Cheers.
Well I'll give you some advice on how to trait yourself on the lower levels, as an Elementalist. First of, go back and reset your traits at a Trainer.
Now that's done, pretty much every Ele must put their 1st 10 trait points in Arcana and get the trait "Elemental Attunement". This will give you some much needed survivability whenever you switch to Earth or Water. Then since you are only level 25, put 5pts in Water to get "Soothing Mist". The heal from that is weak but overtime it really adds up. Once you hit level 35 you should have 15pts in the Water trait line, for more heals when switching to Water. After that you can just focus on either the Fire or the Air tree for some much needed damage, then get 10pts in Earth whenever you feel like it.
So now we have here a thread that started out as an attack against GW2 combat morphing into a thread of people helping others.
You guys rock.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Which class? because there are three that have real issues right now that are full of bugs that their teams have admitted to and are working on.
Engineer, thief, and mesmer are the three that have a hard time in pve most of the time.
As far as the ded thing goes I've really only encountered that issue in Orr and when abilities don't work as intended, and trust me I've worked hard to figure out the best builds of survivability without nerfing myself too much on my engineer, thief, and ranger in pve. I've basically modified the pvp trait builds for pve and it seems to work well. I kill things fast and can recover quickly without running around like honey boo boo child on her energy drink trying not to get hit.
"Sans Necro I played all to 20 at least."
I see. OKay. Like every other talent system out there there are choices that don't fit end game that work wonders for the beginning in survival. I'd suggest for starters getting armor that has vitality on it. You really aren't worried over damage in the early levels and if you do find you need some more damage power/vit is a good combo on armor. When it comes to casters the staff seems to work the best for abilities especially with mesmers necros they rock with stalves. And when it comes to engineers (since this is my main) I'd suggest going pistol shield (until you can get the net turret then go rifles) that way you can keep enemies at bay. Once you have enough skill points and if you are playing a charr engineer I'd definitely suggest picking up Elixir U and the racial trait Hidden Pistol because the toolbelt and haste combo for this trait cannot be beat! You'll basically blast everything dead before it can react. Also on the traits for engineers I'd suggest picking up Static Discharge if you find yourself fighting multiple mobs alot.
I don't know about engineers and thieves in PvE, but mesmers have absolutely no problems in PvE that I'm aware of, and since that's practically all I play right now I base that on personal experience.
Oderint, dum metuant.
I've got a Guardian, Necro, and Elementalist at 80. Threads like this re-confirm that some folks are rather bad at games / adapting to new combat.
Guardian is easy combat, Necro is still pretty easy with condition / well build, Haven't figured out a real easy Elementalist build.
I honestly think this post comes down to people simply not exploring the options available to them and poor play choices.
For instance I made a ranger...yes one of the complained about classes.
I don't use a bow, i don't focus on crit, in fact my precision is a non issue for me.
I said I am gonna go tank. Power, Toughness and Vit with some healing. My traits and skills reflect that.
I take damage? No problem I start to regen. I dodge? No problem I get prot. Try to stun me, no problem my pet takes the first one. Get me below 25% hp? Dmg reduction 33% kicks in. Healing spring to heal a ton, signet to give me invuln, to take away conditions, my greatsword has a block, i can use quickening zephyr and the evade in the GS power 1 line goes off a TON.
Is it normal no, but I certainly feel I can go 1 on 1 vs almost anything in the game including champs.
The key is knowing how to play, sometimes I can't tank EVERYTHING, but no one can, you have to know when to engage and when to back away, this isn't WoW and a little thinking goes along way. People who make glass cannon damage/crit builds that die in 2 seconds? Ya you hit hard but I probably will outlast you and I have so many outs that I will wear you down.
I think every class has these tools, it is your choice to go full damage power/Precision/crit and dmg dmg dmg but when you die because you are fragile and don't have the reaction time to stay alive etc don't blame the game for letting YOURSELF make bad choices because if you try other things they tend to work out.
right now I got 2.1k power, 2k toughness,3k attack power 3k armor 20k hp as a ranger and have no complaints. My mesmer alt is more glass cannon but I have dodges and stealth/blinks etc its a totally different play style yet it still works yet I NEVER consider trying to go toe to toe with things being so frail I instead adapt my gameplay and again feel I do just fine.
This post makes no sense at all. Just because you have to evade attacks, rather than take an axe cleave on your head, that makes you weak??
So I guess when Aragon was doing all those parrying and evading, he was being weak? Same with Conan or any other high fantasy character who avoided attacks rather than taking them.
The only time when you should be able to take hits is through either the use of shields or some magic. Such when Gandalf took that hit from the Balrog, and that was just one hit.
No, evading attacks is good. I always wondered how it is that you can take all those hits and not die, this is far more "realistic".
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