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Living World Season 2 solo help


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Hi, just wondering if there is a core profession that might be better suited specifically for soloing the second Living World story? I've been running it with my boyfriend on my Guardian but as soon as I try to go on my own, I get squished. I tried on Elementalist as well and killed things slightly quicker, but had several more heart attacks xD. I have the expansions, but don't really want to go on a hero point quest in either of them until I've finished Core Tyria and LWS2 first, so for now just looking for some tips or help with core professions. I looooove the Guardian, but, well, I kinda suck also, so think I might need a class that has a bit more health. Or do people typically max out an elite spec and then do story content? I'd really like to be able to solo the whole game, though I know it is an MMO, and that isn't really the point :D. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Mostly I just die a lot. I am still a bit new to the game and haven't fully settled on a main class, but they all seem pretty great until I get to the Living World, and then I'm just terrible. I particularly struggled with the mordrem wolves/vine cage thingies in the Iron Marches. Most recently only managed it because a group of other players came through.

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@Mercanis.2516 said:Mostly I just die a lot. I am still a bit new to the game and haven't fully settled on a main class, but they all seem pretty great until I get to the Living World, and then I'm just terrible. I particularly struggled with the mordrem wolves/vine cage thingies in the Iron Marches. Most recently only managed it because a group of other players came through.

You just need a more forgiving build until you get the hang of combat. Usually, condition damage-based builds are good for this as you can still deal decent damage with only one stat: condition damage. This is especially true of guardian and elementalist as they deal mostly one condition (burning) allowing you to utilize Balthazar runes and Smoldering sigil on your gear to increase burn duration by 70% without having to spend a single stat point toward expertise! This leaves room for a ton of passive mitigation stats like toughness/vitality.

Try stats like rabid, dire, or carrion with Balthazar rune and Smoldering sigil and set up your build to focus on stacking burning. It should be fairly easy to come up with something that deals enough damage to quickly clear through story trash/bosses while being tanky enough to allow for plenty of mistakes and slow recoveries!

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@"Mercanis.2516" said:Thank you! I will try out some different gears and hopefully improve with time :)

I don't really know how you like to play and I don't play core ele or guardian (I do play some sword weaver, though!), so any build suggestion I could make might miss the mark for you. Still, I'll give you a concept I just threw together that I think should work and maybe it will give you some ideas. Feel free to share your own ideas and maybe we here on the forums can help you come up with something that works for you.

Here's a fire/water/arcane dagger/dagger concept. I used carrion thinking that with some might stacks and % damage boosts it could add some much-needed up front damage for trash clearing. However, rabid and/or dire will make it tankier and you'll still deal decent damage from burn stacking alone.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilZwmYcsL2JOKT+rOA-zRIYb0wXGJkAZWAOMLVJtB-e

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Coming from the core game to season 2 is a sharp increase in difficulty! It can absolutely take a while to acclimate to!

Make sure your gear is all exotic, coherent in stats and matching your weapon's skills (like not using Condition Damage if the weapons you prefer don't deal damaging conditions) and that your traits complement your playstyle.

Survivability generally comes more from traits than from stats like Toughness, but I really prefer sprinkling in some defensive stats. Runes can also help, and defensive runes tend to be dirt cheap. If I'm struggling and the rune isn't critical, I slap in Rune of the Dolyak.

And the biggest key - be alert for mechanics and always strive to understand them properly! The fights become a lot more dependent on actually interacting with the mechanics in Season 2 and onwards.

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@Mercanis.2516 said:...I looooove the Guardian, but, well, I kinda suck also, so think I might need a class that has a bit more health.

It would help if you tell us what you are running now for gear/trinkets/traits/weapons/runes/sigils.

For core guardian you generally want a power-based build, so some mix of exotic Knights/Berzerker/Valkyrie will be fairly inexpensive and allow you to balance more health & toughness on one side with decent crit chance & ferocity on the other side.

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So far I found the most forgiving class, to be the Necro.I played season 2 solo on a Power Reaper and, except for the parts you turn into Caithe, sailed through it with relative ease.Hard to down, and once down, best chances to get back up.Shroud Abilities are a good lifeline when struggling and the damage is absurd.

This guy explains what I mean with the Necromancer

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To add to what Tanner Blackfeather said, make sure you are running the same superior runes on all 6 pieces of armor to get the most from their stat bonuses. Same with superior sigils on your weapons. Lastly, whatever build I'm running, I like to bring at least one stun break and make sure to have some CC skills to break the defiance bars - that really becomes a necessity with HoT and season 3.

In my opinion, there is a bigger jump in difficulty from core to HoT than from core to PoF, so learning to deal with the difficulty increase from core to Season 2 will be a good foundation for heading into the jungle.

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Thank you everyone :) At the moment I have Berserker armour and weapons and then Valkyrie trinkets. I've been using Greatsword and Staff mostly, but will get some different runes and sigils, as I think I need more survivability than damage. I did a lot better the second time round having seen the mechanics, and I didn't realise the world events were for groups even though they are part of the story, so that helped. I think I'm too used to fitting myself into a strict DPS glass cannon role, but that doesn't really work when I'm trying to learn the game and solo the story content, so I have a ways to go. Very helpful community, thank you :) Will mix and match some gear and see how I get on.

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@"Mercanis.2516" said:Thank you everyone :) At the moment I have Berserker armour and weapons and then Valkyrie trinkets. I've been using Greatsword and Staff mostly, but will get some different runes and sigils, as I think I need more survivability than damage. I did a lot better the second time round having seen the mechanics, and I didn't realise the world events were for groups even though they are part of the story, so that helped. I think I'm too used to fitting myself into a strict DPS glass cannon role, but that doesn't really work when I'm trying to learn the game and solo the story content, so I have a ways to go. Very helpful community, thank you :) Will mix and match some gear and see how I get on.

That looks like a good gear selection, honestly! Maybe switching out the staff when going solo, as it's more of a support weapon. A set with Mace/Shield could be a useful defensive set that also supplies CC for breakbar damage. Take that with a grain of salt - I don't actually have a lvl 80 Guardian!

Look mostly to your traits and utility skills! I used to pick utilities for their DPS when I was new, but making sure to have a stunbreak, some condition cleanse, and other similar stuff actually helps a lot more!

Edit: have a look at this build from metabattle's Open World section: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Radiant_GreatswordNot to copy slavishly, but for inspiration!

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@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Mercanis.2516" said:Hi, just wondering if there is a core profession that might be better suited specifically for soloing the second Living World story?

Can you share which mission(s) in particular you are having trouble with?

=>

Hi, I was having most trouble with some in The Dragon's Reach Part 1, but have now realised that the events in the Iron Marches are actually group events, and not instanced, so don't feel quite as useless! The rest I struggle with the mechanics initially until I work them out, but then the next time I go through it is way easier, so just need more practise :)

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@"Mercanis.2516" said:Thank you everyone :) At the moment I have Berserker armour and weapons and then Valkyrie trinkets. I've been using Greatsword and Staff mostly, but will get some different runes and sigils, as I think I need more survivability than damage. I did a lot better the second time round having seen the mechanics, and I didn't realise the world events were for groups even though they are part of the story, so that helped. I think I'm too used to fitting myself into a strict DPS glass cannon role, but that doesn't really work when I'm trying to learn the game and solo the story content, so I have a ways to go. Very helpful community, thank you :) Will mix and match some gear and see how I get on.

That looks like a good gear selection, honestly!
Maybe
switching out the staff when going solo, as it's more of a support weapon. A set with Mace/Shield could be a useful defensive set that also supplies CC for breakbar damage. Take that with a grain of salt - I don't actually have a lvl 80 Guardian!

Look mostly to your traits and utility skills! I used to pick utilities for their DPS when I was new, but making sure to have a stunbreak, some condition cleanse, and other similar stuff actually helps a lot more!

Edit: have a look at this build from metabattle's Open World section:
Not to copy slavishly, but for inspiration!

Thank you! Yes I will play around with second weapons today I think. I've been kinda switching utilities about and trying to work out which is best, but will definitely do that as I'm very good at getting stunned and burned to death xD

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The Personal Story does a decent job of giving you on-level rewards, so you can get in the habit of slowly upgrading your equipment as you play, but that all goes out the window starting with Season 2. It expects you to already be geared up to some extent because it was designed for people who had already put a lot of work into their characters over the course of Season 1. If you've gotten in the habit of just seeing what you get from quest rewards or random drops, you'll probably struggle a little bit. Even though it might be doing things a little out of order, I would suggest putting a little work into a couple of the Season 3/4 maps to get some higher quality trinkets and equipment. Just join a squad, run around having some fun and earn yourself some map currency to buy some nicer items. Having a handful of your items be under-leveled and/or not equipped with a good set of runes/sigils can be throwing you off more than you know. That's not saying that you have to chase the meta fad, but once at 80 you should slowly be making your way toward ascended items with enhancements that fit your play style. If anything is not lvl 80, exotic, or has open upgrade slots, get that fixed.

Another suggestion for playing solo: you can swap weapons, so it helps to have one melee and one ranged. Sure, your ranged might technically do more damage in one hit, but that does Bob the Adventurer no good when he gets surrounded by pocket raptors.

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@Mercanis.2516 said:Thank you everyone :) At the moment I have Berserker armour and weapons and then Valkyrie trinkets. I've been using Greatsword and Staff mostly, but will get some different runes and sigils, as I think I need more survivability than damage. I did a lot better the second time round having seen the mechanics, and I didn't realise the world events were for groups even though they are part of the story, so that helped. I think I'm too used to fitting myself into a strict DPS glass cannon role, but that doesn't really work when I'm trying to learn the game and solo the story content, so I have a ways to go. Very helpful community, thank you :) Will mix and match some gear and see how I get on.

so you run a glass build. Dying is expected.

Slot in marauder instead, vitality will go up a lot for a tiny loss in dps. And that will make a huge difference.

You might want to look up some builds, but do not use fractal or raid builds. They are pretty much useless outside of fractals and raids (those who disagree: I am sure you are extremely well skilled, but OP mentioned being new. So glassy builds are pretty much a no-go).I found wvw roaming builds to be very very useful in openworld and story content. You might want to look up those.

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