How do I fix these combat problems of mine?

My combat struggles as a new player

I googled 'I suck at GW2 combat' just to see if anyone else asked the same question, so I could read any advice to their question. The advice was a little bit helpful, but I think to get the best advice for me, I needed to be specific about my struggles.

I don't use dodge effectively. When a golem with the spinny thing is rushing at me, I dodge. When a red circle appears around me, I dodge. I'm glad I have a dodge instinct but otoh I use it reflexively rather than strategically. Panic dodging.

Once my endurance runs out they just do the same attack I was dodging out of again. Now I wasted my dodge because I panic dodged.

When I try to circle the enemy or move on the battlefield I stop attacking. I see other players moving and attacking, heck not only are they moving and attacking at the same time, they can afford to stop to rez me. So I don't understand why when I try to move, so I'm not just standing there, I can't maintain my attack and movement at the same time like they can.

There is this move some NPCs do where it interrupts me and makes my skills fade out and count down for a few seconds before I can use it. Sometimes I even get knocked back. I think I'm explaining that right? I'm not sure how to react when I'm interrupted. I mind blank, wait for my skills to recharge, and hope for the best. I've dodged some interrupts. But it leads back to I've dodged it twice now. They're doing that same interrupt move again, and I've run out of endurance. Now I've mind blanked. My dodge isn't there anymore.

I want to survive multiple enemies.

I know what my skills are. Sometimes I'm like hey this is the right moment to use this skill.

But other times I'm thinking, should I prioritize condition damage over time type skills or prioritize all the damage at once type skills?

Are there any guides to the best rotation for different situations? From what I've written, rotations are only half my battle.

If I have a particular rotation, how do I get in tune to the timing of that rotation, so that I know what to do next when my rotation has changed due to some skills being on cool down?

TL;DR Understand how to use my dodge strategically and not panic dodge. How do I move and attack at the same time? Are there any guides to rotations?

Thanks in advance for the help :)

If it's any consolation, I think I know exactly how you feel. One of my initial frustrations as a new player on a fresh 80 was just how hard everything hit in HoT. Not only was it difficult to stay alive, but I felt like it was next to impossible to maintain offense while properly defending myself. It seemed like I could do one or the other, but not both.

The bad news is, I don't really know what to tell you except that practice is the solution! There is no magic formula that will apply to everything you do. You will start to learn which attacks must be avoided, their timing, their telegraphs, and eventually avoiding those attacks will become easier. Likewise with your damage rotation. You'll get used to balancing that with keeping yourself alive, which was really the most frustrating thing for me to wrap my head around as a new player.

On avoiding stuns, you do have some options. Some skills will allow you to break out of stuns. Others apply a boon called stability, which will prevent the next stun. There's also using your own effects like stuns and blinds to prevent enemies from attacking! The thing where you get locked out of your skills for a few seconds is an interrupt. It doesn't stun you, but it does prevent the skill you were using and lock you out for a few seconds if it lands while you're preparing the skill!

If you want to share more about your class, specific scenarios you're having trouble with, etc. we might be able to provide more specific advice. Maybe a video will help? You mentioned those golems. Here's a rather easy open world champion golem. Maybe you will see something that gives you some ideas.

What I hate the most is when I see an AoE with a "loading" animation, I dodge as the animation is about to complete.But only 1 second after the loading completed does the actual attack occurs, so I get hit anyway...Or the loading animation does not match the actual AoE size.

@"Kulvar.1239" said:What I hate the most is when I see an AoE with a "loading" animation, I dodge as the animation is about to complete.But only 1 second after the loading completed does the actual attack occurs, so I get hit anyway...Or the loading animation does not match the actual AoE size.

Those are actually annoyingly inconsistent. Sometimes you need to dodge just as it fills but others you have to dodge right after so you end up having to memorize for individual enemies.

You're not struggling with anything we haven't all had to learn at some point. You understand when to dodge, now you just need to learn when not to.@"AliamRationem.5172" 's video is a really good demonstatrion of when and when not to dodge I suggest watching it to get a good idea of combat pacing.I will weigh in on a few of your questions.

When I try to circle the enemy or move on the battlefield I stop attacking. I see other players moving and attacking, heck not only are they moving and attacking at the same time, they can afford to stop to rez me. So I don't understand why when I try to move, so I'm not just standing there, I can't maintain my attack and movement at the same time like they can.The main thing that may be holding you back here (and I dont know if this is the case) could be skill clicking. Are you clicking the icons for skills with your mouse or are you using hotkeys? Many skills can be cast while moving... this is much easier to do by pressing hotkeys than it is while clicking skill icons.One other thing to keep in mind is many classes have a fair bit of mobility baked into them and will have many panic buttons or hit and run strategies.

There is this move some NPCs do where it interrupts me and makes my skills fade out and count down for a few seconds before I can use it. Sometimes I even get knocked back. I think I'm explaining that right? I'm not sure how to react when I'm interrupted. I mind blank, wait for my skills to recharge, and hope for the best. I've dodged some interrupts. But it leads back to I've dodged it twice now. They're doing that same interrupt move again, and I've run out of endurance. Now I've mind blanked. My dodge isn't there anymore.There are many Control effects that can impact the player, so the odds are it isn't just one, but could be any number of different status effects.Just about every class in the game will have some kind of reliable Stun Break. When you mouse over a skill it's description will have "Breaks Stun" labelled on it.For more information and a full list of Stun Breaks click here.Some classes also have access to a Boon (buff) called Stability. Stability can help mitigate many control effects.For more information on Stability click here.I want to survive multiple enemies.In most Open World and story encounters, your absolute best tactic is "kill them all fast". Every class will have a way to build for this.

I know what my skills are. Sometimes I'm like hey this is the right moment to use this skill.But other times I'm thinking, should I prioritize condition damage over time type skills or prioritize all the damage at once type skills?Put simply either your build/gear towards condition damage or you don't prioritize it at all.While there is no "right/wrong" way to play the game, and there are a few outliers, you are much more effective when you specialize. If you want to do power damage you build and gear for power, if you want to do condition damage you do the same for condi. Following that you would simply not focus on anything condi related in a power rotation or vice versa.There is nothing in Story/Open World/T1 fractals /Dungeons that wouldn't be doable if you completely ignore this advice. But the game becomes much smoother if you focus on one or the other.

I'm not sensing you are doing anything wrong, it just seems like experience and practice will get you over the line and you are already on the path to where you want to be judging by your thought process

@Katelynn.6593 said:I don't use dodge effectively. When a golem with the spinny thing is rushing at me, I dodge. When a red circle appears around me, I dodge. I'm glad I have a dodge instinct but otoh I use it reflexively rather than strategically. Panic dodging.

Heh heh, yeah... :) You can avoid a lot of the damage by simply stepping aside rather than dodge. Save your dodges for emergencies like huge AoE damage areas. Dodging all the time isn't a good solution, as you have already realized yourself.

It's really just practice. Don't stress out about it. B)

Somethings are also a simple matter of knowing the enemy.

For example the frog HP in Verdant Brink when it stows its bow you know it will be coming in with it's stab(also stuns you) and slash(very painful if it hits) combo. One way to deal with that is to stop momentarily so it start initiating the attack combo which takes a while to execute and while it is doing that you get free hits off of it at practically no risk.

Another example are the wyverns that spawns at the end of the nobles event chain and the jaka itzel chain. For most creatures, their attacks will not hit behind them unless it is some sort of point blank AoE but for the wyvern's wing buffet attack(flaps its wings while knocking down and pushing back anyone it hits) WILL hit behind it so when you fight those you have to stand some distance away(not too far, you can still stand close enough for melee attacks).

Similarly the jade armors in Bloodstone Fen have a point blank AoE spin attack that you can easily avoid by standing at maximum melee range(130, you can tell by the red bar distance indicator under the skill icon). It also brings up a problem when it comes to group fights though. That attack is trivial to avoid if people understand the enemy but if whoever has aggro starts running around like a headless chicken it becomes much harder to maintain the proper distance.

As for using your dodges for things besides avoiding telegraphed attacks that depends on situation and build. Generally speaking it is fine if you keep at least one dodge available for that but it also goes back to knowing the enemy. That aside it also depends on what other defensive abilities you have on the build. On my mesmer even if I burned through my dodges I still have 2 blocks that can block one attack each, an evade that last through the duration of the skill, another block that last for the duration of the skill which can be used a second time if it blocked anything and if all those are used up and I still need to avoid an attack there is Blink to reposition and also potentially F4 for the invuln. Similarly on rev there is an evade on sword 3(but this one requires a more careful use, the initial wind up is not an evade, you only evade while doing the teleporting and when it ends you might land in an attack), hammer 3 is another evade and the shiro utility provides another evade that is also a stun break. In those types of situations using up your dodges isn't all that detrimental but it is important to keep track of what options you have available. There has been too many times where after dying I remembered that I still had 2 or 3 things I could have used to avoid the death.