Ten Combat Tips for New Players

[Vayne.8563]

 

Tips for New Players

 

1. If you can run out of a circle, don’t waste your dodge. You only have a limited number of dodges.

 

2. You can use terrain to make combat easier. The vast majority of creatures can’t attack you through a wall. By ducking behind the wall, you can draw them into you, where they’re stacked together so you can AOE them down.

 

3. Move, all the time. Moving instead of standing still while fighting will get you hit less. Learn to circle strafe if you can. It can help a lot.

 

4. Don’t be worried about breaking combat, particularly if others are fighting a creature. If your heal skill is on recharge and it looks like you’re going to die, you can run back out of combat, since you heal faster out of combat.

 

5. Don’t rez people if you’re going to die doing it. Very often the best way to rez someone is to kill the creature they’re attacking before they die. Going down yourself isn’t helping anyone.

 

6. If you die at an event, and there’s a waypoint anywhere near (assuming the event isn’t just about to end) waypoint and run back. Otherwise you’re just scaling it up for other people who have to fight harder.

 

7. If you’re at an event, and you need help, call it out in map chat (unless you’re a free to play player, because you can’t use map chat). If you have tag, even a mentor tag, feel free to pop it. If you build it, they will come. Also if you’re calling it out in map chat, try to link a waypoint or nearby point of interest. The more direction you can give, the more people will show.

 

8. Learn your break bar skills. Some creatures have teal bars underneath their health bar. This is called a break bar (or more properly the defiance bar). This bar can be broken by CC (crowd control) abilities. Anything like knockback, knockdown, stun, daze, even cripple and blind can help. Learn to CC creatures with break bars. It’s really important in end game.

 

9. Don’t forget to take food and utility even in the open world. The experience bonus will help you level faster and the food and utility can help you survive by either doing more damage, or giving you more health. You don’t have to use expensive food, there’s plenty of food floating around that’s dirty cheap.

 

10. Generally speaking, killing faster is the best way to survive in this game. Coming from other games, you might be tempted to take a lot of extra toughness or vitality. If you have to, take as little as you need and try to ween yourself off of it. Because killing faster is always better than trying to survive longer and whittling stuff down. Every defense stat you take means you have to survive longer to get a kill, giving creatures more time to hit their big attacks, and other creatures you might have already killed time to respawn.

[Vilin.8056]

Mostly true, but three false points.

1. False. Dodge inside circle, so you can continue attacking.

2. False. Always kite enemy into open areas where you can move and observe freely. In 9 out 10 OW encounters terran interrupt your attacks, makes enemy invulnerable, and obstruct your camera.

3. False. Move wisely. Circle melee but never circle strafe, running around ranging only trigger more aggro.

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Vilin.8056

[Vayne.8563]

28 minutes ago, Vilin.8056 said:

Mostly true, but three false points.

1. False. Dodge inside circle, so you can continue attacking.

2. False. Always kite enemy into open areas where you can move and observe freely. In 9 out 10 OW encounters terran interrupt your attacks, makes enemy invulnerable, and obstruct your camera.

3. False. Move wisely. Circle melee but never circle strafe, running around ranging only trigger more aggro.

 

I agree with your first point, but not your other two.

Getting guys to come to you and stack together, ranged and melee can easily be doing by LOSing. 

 

And I don't generally mind triggering more aggro since I'm taking everything down anyway.

[Vilin.8056]

25 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Getting guys to come to you and stack together, ranged and melee can easily be doing by LOSing. 

Again, the previous points still applies. This game technically adds no damage penality upon players for exploiting terrans, therefore I don't recommend a strategy with a fairly high risk of wasted skill cast.

25 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

.And I don't generally mind triggering more aggro since I'm taking everything down anyway.

I think we have seen enough new player complaints about PoF aggro range.

When the majority of skill limits effective targets around 1-3, movements that triggers unintended aggro is a bad habit for new players.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Vilin.8056

[Klowdy.3126]

4 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

 

Tips for New Players

 

1. If you can run out of a circle, don’t waste your dodge. You only have a limited number of dodges.

 

2. You can use terrain to make combat easier. The vast majority of creatures can’t attack you through a wall. By ducking behind the wall, you can draw them into you, where they’re stacked together so you can AOE them down.

 

3. Move, all the time. Moving instead of standing still while fighting will get you hit less. Learn to circle strafe if you can. It can help a lot.

 

4. Don’t be worried about breaking combat, particularly if others are fighting a creature. If your heal skill is on recharge and it looks like you’re going to die, you can run back out of combat, since you heal faster out of combat.

 

5. Don’t rez people if you’re going to die doing it. Very often the best way to rez someone is to kill the creature they’re attacking before they die. Going down yourself isn’t helping anyone.

 

6. If you die at an event, and there’s a waypoint anywhere near (assuming the event isn’t just about to end) waypoint and run back. Otherwise you’re just scaling it up for other people who have to fight harder.

 

7. If you’re at an event, and you need help, call it out in map chat (unless you’re a free to play player, because you can’t use map chat). If you have tag, even a mentor tag, feel free to pop it. If you build it, they will come. Also if you’re calling it out in map chat, try to link a waypoint or nearby point of interest. The more direction you can give, the more people will show.

 

8. Learn your break bar skills. Some creatures have teal bars underneath their health bar. This is called a break bar (or more properly the defiance bar). This bar can be broken by CC (crowd control) abilities. Anything like knockback, knockdown, stun, daze, even cripple and blind can help. Learn to CC creatures with break bars. It’s really important in end game.

 

9. Don’t forget to take food and utility even in the open world. The experience bonus will help you level faster and the food and utility can help you survive by either doing more damage, or giving you more health. You don’t have to use expensive food, there’s plenty of food floating around that’s dirty cheap.

 

10. Generally speaking, killing faster is the best way to survive in this game. Coming from other games, you might be tempted to take a lot of extra toughness or vitality. If you have to, take as little as you need and try to ween yourself off of it. Because killing faster is always better than trying to survive longer and whittling stuff down. Every defense stat you take means you have to survive longer to get a kill, giving creatures more time to hit their big attacks, and other creatures you might have already killed time to respawn.

The only issue I see is 10. There are builds that lose very little by taking defensive stats (depending on the stat combo). I think I only lose 5-7% damage by taking trailblazer over viper on my condi renegade, but I get huge returns in tankiness. You are not incorrect in saying the best defense is offense in this game, but it would do new players some good to figure out their spec's sweet spot based on their needs.

 

Something else I would add would be finding a good build, with synergy. What helped me figure out the build system more than anything was to just find one on metabattle based on what i wanted (open world builds are very universal for new players), and start learning the talents/abilities as i used them. It's a lot to take in when you're first learning the specs, and you might not remember a lot of what works well together. 

[Vayne.8563]

8 minutes ago, Klowdy.3126 said:

The only issue I see is 10. There are builds that lose very little by taking defensive stats (depending on the stat combo). I think I only lose 5-7% damage by taking trailblazer over viper on my condi renegade, but I get huge returns in tankiness. You are not incorrect in saying the best defense is offense in this game, but it would do new players some good to figure out their spec's sweet spot based on their needs.

 

Something else I would add would be finding a good build, with synergy. What helped me figure out the build system more than anything was to just find one on metabattle based on what i wanted (open world builds are very universal for new players), and start learning the talents/abilities as i used them. It's a lot to take in when you're first learning the specs, and you might not remember a lot of what works well together. 

This is good advice.

[Cuks.8241]

Do not use double tap to dodge, just disable it in the options. Use a dedicated button, I recommend mouse button but that is your preference. Double tapping breaks your movement and is clunky. 

[Deedrick.4372]

The only time double tap is a problem is in JP's where you tend to roll off platforms instead of getting on the edge.

As for food, check WvW there is often food about at a spawn or a keep.

 

You are missing combo fields. This should be learned early on. If its blinding bolts for defense or blasting might for power, learn your combos and use them.

 

[thehipone.6812]

The list starts off a bit tactical, then morphs into more strategic by number 10, but I'd add:

 

0. Read your skill and trait descriptions (including the traits that were not taken).  Especially if you copy a build off of another site. 

 

Along that line, and with the discussion of point 10 above, I'd argue that adding defensive stats to gear should be among the last options that players consider.  In rough order, I'd say try changing: skill > single trait > weapon/trait line > gear/gear stats.  Sometimes it is as simple as adding more condi cleanse skills.   For example,using a power daredevil raid build, changing no quarter trait to invigorating precision increases durability by an enormous amount and you can freely change between full glass and more durable with a click of a trait. 

 

Another small one, but blind condition is quite powerful against mobs because of the relatively slow attack speed of most foes.  Especially for classes that can apply it in AoE, pulsing, or relatively spammable.

Edited September 16, 2021 by thehipone.6812

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

The other tips are acceptable, but you cannot be serious about 10. 

Most of the new players I meet, who happened to pick a meta-build complain about one thing: They die too fast. Going full DPS only works if you know your class well and have already completed the learning-phase. Some players even struggle with the most basic controls, some have to adapt to our dodge-system others have only played shooters. Assuming that every human being out there is a skilled elite-player with super-human reflexes is wrong. Some can ascend to this level of skill & experience after a long time period of training. But definitely not a new player. 

Edited September 16, 2021 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870