Want to learn how to be a better player with movement and combat techniques...where to learn?

Hi :-) I am new to Guild Wars 2 and the classes I have enjoyed the most are: Necromancer, Mesmer (I do best with these two), Elementalist (hardest one for me because of the 4 attunements and he gets killed easiest for me), and Guardian–I really like the spell casters :-) I've only taken my Necromancer all the way through the personal story and just started the Living World Season. What I find is although I cleared everything okay in the early game (up through the Personal Story), but when I go to higher level maps (I am 80 level on all my characters) I have a very hard time not dying and killing bosses especially. The only MMO I have played before is World of Warcraft (just a couple of months), but really like GW2 more, but in WoW I just stood still when I battled, and I see here in GW2 I really need to learn how to move while fighting. So my question is, are there good resources focused on teaching how to move while fighting (e.g., how to do it mechanically (how to use the keyboard and/or mouse combinations and the strategies around combat mechanics, and even the settings to go along with it (like Autotargeting or not)) As an example, how to do kiting while still looking at the enemy so they are targeted. Note: I have been using my mouse to move (i.e., I've been steer with Right mouse button + run with the Left mouse button, and using my right hand on the keyboard to hit the keys to invoke attacks with some more convenient keybindings) so not sure if there is some other way I should be thinking about moving and fighting more efficiently, especially melee vs mid-rage vs ranged weapons.

I've looked on YouTube, but most of the videos are about the builds, specs, and traits for a class (which is helpful), but I am looking for something even more fundamental to all classes which is moving around a fighting the way really skilled folks seem to do–where they teach how to best use the Keyboard and Mouse. Right now, it just seems like so many keys, and like a miraculous feat of finger acrobatics to move, target, and press all the weapons and skills for it all to come together at the same time LOL But, it seems worth learning and practicing and I want to be better :-)

Mostly from experience, having fought mobs several times over one eventually learns their tells. Another thing you should do is rebind your keys, using 1 keypress to dodge instead of double tapping wsad is life saving, along with having your f keys+ 6-0 within reach

Thank you, I have seen some really good keybindings on YouTube and have made those changes and trying to learn them better :-) It just seems like so many people move around and fight this game really well, and it would be great to see videos/tutorials on how they do it (as opposed to the more build focused videos). I do understand a lot of this comes with practice, and appreciate the encouragement :-)

One thing that made combat a lot easier for me, moving some skills to the mouse. If you own a mouse with a few extra keys of course. I use the following keys/skills on my mouse:

• weaponswap
• elite skill
• the most used F-key
• the 11th skill (the key right of 0)

If your mouse is not capable of that many functions all fine. Moving weaponswap and the 11th skill, you can focus on the real fight. The 11th skill usually has some special-skill in the slot which is somehow required for certain bossbattles. In most cases you need to access the skill within 1 second or less. There is no time to search it on the keyboard. That is why I have put that one on my mousewheel-click button. This is very helpful in the shattered observatory fractal, where the 11th skill is a ground-target movement skill, activate and target in one move.

This game has no spell casts like WoW does that shows what is about to happen. You have to learn the body language. Also things change as the health bar drops.

@"skchurch.3047" said:Hi :-) I am new to Guild Wars 2 and the classes I have enjoyed the most are: Necromancer, Mesmer (I do best with these two), Elementalist (hardest one for me because of the 4 attunements and he gets killed easiest for me), and Guardian–I really like the spell casters :-) I've only taken my Necromancer all the way through the personal story and just started the Living World Season. What I find is although I cleared everything okay in the early game (up through the Personal Story), but when I go to higher level maps (I am 80 level on all my characters) I have a very hard time not dying and killing bosses especially. The only MMO I have played before is World of Warcraft (just a couple of months), but really like GW2 more, but in WoW I just stood still when I battled, and I see here in GW2 I really need to learn how to move while fighting. So my question is, are there good resources focused on teaching how to move while fighting (e.g., how to do it mechanically (how to use the keyboard and/or mouse combinations and the strategies around combat mechanics, and even the settings to go along with it (like Autotargeting or not)) As an example, how to do kiting while still looking at the enemy so they are targeted. Note: I have been using my mouse to move (i.e., I've been steer with Right mouse button + run with the Left mouse button, and using my right hand on the keyboard to hit the keys to invoke attacks with some more convenient keybindings) so not sure if there is some other way I should be thinking about moving and fighting more efficiently, especially melee vs mid-rage vs ranged weapons.

I've looked on YouTube, but most of the videos are about the builds, specs, and traits for a class (which is helpful), but I am looking for something even more fundamental to all classes which is moving around a fighting the way really skilled folks seem to do–where they teach how to best use the Keyboard and Mouse. Right now, it just seems like so many keys, and like a miraculous feat of finger acrobatics to move, target, and press all the weapons and skills for it all to come together at the same time LOL But, it seems worth learning and practicing and I want to be better :-)

As far as the general options go, here are some personal suggestions:-check show skill recharge so you know the exact time until skills come off cooldown-adjust rotation speed and fov sliders to turn camera faster and have a wider field of view-check use free camera to be able to look around by holding down left mouse while running-change the ground targeting option to either fast with range indicator or instant, this will allow you to press targeted aoe skills such as necro staff marks only once to aim/cast them instead of needing to double tap-uncheck double tap to evade, instead have a dedicated dodge key-uncheck autotargeting as this can cause you to target random hostiles, instead use next/nearest enemy keybinds (tab by default) to cycle through nearby enemies, or just click on the target if it's in a crowd-uncheck melee attack assist, all it does is make you unable to walk through the selected target's hitbox which actually hinders your movement-consider checking allow skill retargeting to have more control over skill casts, for example if an enemy dies while you're casting a slow skill at it this will let you swap to another target and not have the skill be wasted

For movement I suggest you rebind the left/right movement keys (A/D by default) to strafe left/right instead of turn left/right, then use those along with the move forward key (default W) while steering your character with the right mouse button. This will allow you to circle around enemies and still face them by holding move forward/strafe keys and turning with mouse. The problem with relying only on the mouse buttons for movement is that you can't really aim ground target aoe skills (e.g. staff marks on necro) effectively on the move. Combining keyboard controls/right mouse still allows you to steer quickly and you can also drop aoes to the sides/behind your character while running and strafing.

Keybinds are a complex topic and if you want to go more in depth with control optimizations, I recommend watching

@"Torqiseknite.1380" said:

Thank you all, of that is very helpful information...some I had taken care of, some I hadn't :-) So my gratitude for sure! Also, this was especially helpful:

For movement I suggest you rebind the left/right movement keys (A/D by default) to strafe left/right instead of turn left/right, then use those along with the move forward key (default W) while steering your character with the right mouse button. This will allow you to circle around enemies and still face them by holding move forward/strafe keys and turning with mouse. The problem with relying only on the mouse buttons for movement is that you can't really aim ground target aoe skills (e.g. staff marks on necro) effectively on the move. Combining keyboard controls/right mouse still allows you to steer quickly and you can also drop aoes to the sides/behind your character while running and strafing.

Thi is something I really want to get down, because I just take a lot damage and die, rather than really being effective at evading attacks in the first place. I don't think I quite have the coordination down, but hopefully I can practice movement that includes both the keyboard (for movement) and the mouse (for steering) so I can get better at kiting/evading. I do find it overwhelming to uncheck "Autotargeting" as then I have to get good both at targeting and moving and attacking all at the same time...how many fingers (and brains) do you all have, lol :-) It's impressive to see some of the movement on these videos.

Keybinds are a complex topic and if you want to go more in depth with control optimizations, I recommend watching

on youtube

Great video thank you :-)

@Torqiseknite.1380 said:For movement I suggest you rebind the left/right movement keys (A/D by default) to strafe left/right instead of turn left/right, then use those along with the move forward key (default W) while steering your character with the right mouse button. This will allow you to circle around enemies and still face them by holding move forward/strafe keys and turning with mouse. The problem with relying only on the mouse buttons for movement is that you can't really aim ground target aoe skills (e.g. staff marks on necro) effectively on the move. Combining keyboard controls/right mouse still allows you to steer quickly and you can also drop aoes to the sides/behind your character while running and strafing.

OMG, wow...I totally get how this is what I want to do, but yikes...how does someone manually target, hold down A + W, trigger their weapons/skills (and sometimes aiming the AoE target with the left mouse button), and steer with the right mouse button all at the same time. Is that physically possible lol?

@Sephylon.4938 said:Another thing you should do is rebind your keys, using 1 keypress to dodge instead of double tapping wsad is life saving

People keep saying this, except that I've never, ever had any problems with it, except when I want to tweak my position in a JP and I dodge off the little platform I'm on. (Yes, I know, turn it off when JP-ing. Sometimes I forget. The years go by, and my brain becomes more like a goldfish's every year.)

The problem with double tap to dodge is that it is slower than just using the dodge key because it involves two repeated keypress instead of just one. The only thing it does when leaving on is to occasionally waste a dodge. Sometimes AoEs are densely packed and you have to make similar tweaks to your position.

@skchurch.3047 said:

@Torqiseknite.1380 said:For movement I suggest you rebind the left/right movement keys (A/D by default) to strafe left/right instead of turn left/right, then use those along with the move forward key (default W) while steering your character with the right mouse button. This will allow you to circle around enemies and still face them by holding move forward/strafe keys and turning with mouse. The problem with relying only on the mouse buttons for movement is that you can't really aim ground target aoe skills (e.g. staff marks on necro) effectively on the move. Combining keyboard controls/right mouse still allows you to steer quickly and you can also drop aoes to the sides/behind your character while running and strafing.

With a bit of practice the skills and movement will soon become muscle memory, so you don't have to actively think about pressing them. Having good controls also helps since that minimizes how much you need to shift your hand to access all the keys. I've found that changing keybinds after a while of getting used to the old ones is one of the worst feelings in this game, so it's best to configure a decent setup early. Targeting is also pretty simple once you get used to it, in pve you can normally just tab to/click on an enemy at the start of a fight and leave them selected, unless you're trying to do fancy things with skill retargeting