Getting my ass beat in Heart of Thorns.

I'm pretty new to the game. I have a LVL 80 Gaurdian. Im trying to do the HOT expansion solo. I keep getting my ass beat by these archers that leave a DOT AOE on the ground. I try to get out of the AOE, but there is like 5-6 of them usually, and the ticks do like 1200-1500 per. Is it better to do the expansion with a partner? I use Greatsword, and S&B.

LOL it changed A$$ to "kitten." Sounds worse if you ask me.

well it fits if you play a charr =)Kitten is the word that replaces all the bad words anet dont want on the forum.

Heart of Thorns is a rude awakening after Central Tyria, but take heart--you will get used to being on your toes! There is nothing good I can say about the Mordrem Snipers, except that you will learn to hate them with a passion and get reflexive about dodging out of those orange stripes.

The story can be soloed, but most of the events and hero points are group content and quite difficult to manage alone. A partner might be a good plan for events. For hero points, watch for HP trains, big groups sometimes organize to go through all the HPs on the map. Be warned, though, that these days the majority of players have PoF mounts, and some groups are not as considerate as others about letting foot traffic catch up.

I hope you did not boost yourself to HoT without leveling normally. Otherwise it must feel completely impossible. If you did not i would suggest leveling normally before going to HoT.

Besides that HoT is definitely the toughest open world content to solo (it was designed to incentivize grouping). It was tough at the start even for the veterans. . But not impossible. First of all you need a consistent build. HoT open world is all about good dodging and very high damaged burst. Kill before you get killed. I would suggest this build from metabattle: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Radiant_GreatswordHaving a good build is completely night and day as an experience compared to having random gear and traits. It makes everything miles easier.

Additionally in the Guardian you need to always use your defensive skills correctly. Especially have in mind the F2-F3 skills giving you extra heals and blocks. Also if you find an HP train follow it always. Many HPs on HoT need a group to beat and having a train to do it with is the best way. You can find them in weekends usually. The fastest you unlock the Dragonhunter the faster you can move to the DH version of the build (https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_Radiant_Greatsword) which is considerably more bursty. And of course until you get use to it you will die. If you find it too tough you can always try to add some more defensive gear to your build instead of full berserker as in the metabattle build. Switch a few berseker gear for Marauder for example. There is an explanation of that variant in the metabattle pages as well.

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Heart of Thorns is a rude awakening after Central Tyria, but take heart--you will get used to being on your toes! There is nothing good I can say about the Mordrem Snipers, except that you will learn to hate them with a passion and get reflexive about dodging out of those orange stripes.

At least they have relatively low HP.

The aoe is also the less dangerous of their two attacks. When you see them charging up for that attack you can lead the attack to a more favorable position while keeping in mind that there will be a second one. If you have enough room you can actually stack both together to minimize their area control. The main thing is that it subverts the usual expectations since they track you while charging up.

yeah, unlike core, the message from anet was pretty much "party up or get good"even now I still have my ∝$$ handed, especially those damn vet smokescale and bristleback firing like gatling guns

they turned it down for PoF, not as brutal as HoT

Haha, welcome to the good life.

So here some pointers:

• not every fight can be won (well most can but require extensive knowledge of your class and the enemies you face). If you are overwhelmed, retreat. Having 5-6 mordrem archers focusing you down is a good indicator you bit off more than you can chew
• defensive skills and traits. Those utility skills are not for show, make use of them. Most classes can build very offensive or tanky by simply changing traits and utilities without even changing gear
• know your class. A Necromancer will have a way easier time compared to an Elementalist simply via the nature of the class and how innate tanky it is (and complex)
• don't boost
• absolutely don't boost if it is your first character
• accept that death is part of the learning experience. HoT zones are no cake walk for the newly initiated. The feeling of having mastered them is thus even greater. You'll be zooming and vrooming around in no time, just takes a bit of time
• movement skills are essential. Many mastery movement skills are there to shortcut and enhance movement through the jungle. Lacking those will often make you face worse odds or packs of enemies which are nasty. It's a great tribute to how well designed the zones and the progression through them is.
• survival food and utilities. Check up on what type of food and utilities you can use which help survival. There is quite a few as far life gain on hit and stuff
• elite specialisations are often more powerful than core builds. Try to unlock either the Hot of PoF one and design a build around those

Finally, check metabattles section on open world builds. Most of those are designed around a good mix of survival and damage to ease the experience.

Good Luck and have fun!

@TeppelinTri.1259 said:I'm pretty new to the game. I have a LVL 80 Gaurdian. Im trying to do the HOT expansion solo. I keep getting my kitten beat by these archers that leave a DOT AOE on the ground. I try to get out of the AOE, but there is like 5-6 of them usually, and the ticks do like 1200-1500 per. Is it better to do the expansion with a partner? I use Greatsword, and S&B.

The best way to handle mordrem snipers is to play aggressively. They have very little health, so you should be able to kill them without a lot of dancing around and avoiding their attacks. When facing multiple snipers, if possible use an area pull to gather them in. This serves the dual purpose of interrupting their attacks momentarily and getting them in close so you can area burst them down quickly.

When dealing with stragglers at range, always stay in motion and move laterally in relation to their position. If you stand in place or run in a straight line toward them you're going to eat that line of fire area effect for big damage!

@TeppelinTri.1259 You will generally need help for most of the HoT hero challenges anyway so yeah, just party up man.

@Eme.2018 said:@TeppelinTri.1259 You will generally need help for most of the HoT hero challenges anyway so yeah, just party up man.

It really depends on the build and the player as there is not a single HoT HP challenge that can't be done solo (keep in mind also that you don't necessarily need to be a pro to do a lot of these challenges solo as the timers are very forgiving and don't require a high or even moderate damage build to complete!). But even if you do need help with the hero challenges, that doesn't mean you can't accomplish anything on your own in HoT.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against grouping up. Far from it! But sometimes you want to do some things on your own and while that may seem difficult at first, build and strategy can make it manageable for any class.

lol mix some marauders in there and u will be good