Returning player - HoT and PoF too hard... what should I do?

[Tenofas.6098]

Hi there,

I returned to GW2 after almost 9 years, I left when HoT was released and I did not play much of that expansion.

Now that I am back, I am completing the core game (100% map and personal story) on my good old Guardian (lvl 80 full berserker ascended gear).  I had already the Dragonhunter elite unlocked, but I wanted to try the Willbender spec too.  So I just went to PoF area to get some more hero points.  I hardly can survive any mob...  I know that HoT and PoF are harder than the core game, but this is too much. 

Sure, I have to learn again how and when to dodge-roll, how to use my skills, but I feel hopeless anyway.  Probably I should change the asceded gear: as a solo player would be better to have marauder or celestial gear?  Would the difference with full-berserker be evident (in terms of survivability) ?  

In the weekend I managed to follow a group that was farming hero points in PoF and unlocked the Willbender elite spec, would this be a better choice for a solo Open World player?  I tried it yesterday on some core-map events and I like it a lot!

Thanks to anyone who will be so kind to spend 2 minutes to answer my questions.

Tenofas

[Dayra.7405]

The first and easiest thing to do: buy a lvl 10 jade bot core in the TP should give you over 2k additional health.

PoF is generally said to be easier than HoT so try PoF first, especially as this gives you mounts, which in fact make everything easier. 

I am not a fan of playing guardian so I cannot give you many tips on that. But I always liked to equip range and melee weapons to switch in OW (e.g. you can dose aggro much better with a range weapon, instead of jumping meelee into a group of mobs), so I once played dragon hunter with longbow and sword+shield and traps and at least that worked in OW (finished HoT+PoF with it). 

HPs are easiest in core-tyria, 2nd in EoD, 3rd in PoF and hardest in HoT (as it has many champs I.e. group events).

Also check your build, everything  has changed in the last 9 years. E.g. have a look at https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/guardian?r[]=bruiser&r[]=damage&r[]=niche&r[]=offensive-support&r[]=roamer&r[]=sidenoder&r[]=support or https://snowcrows.com/builds?profession=Guardian BUT keep in mind that playing group builds solo is kamikaze, so more defensive skills and equipment help you alot to stay longer alive.

LEARN the mobs, i.e. their attack-animations and your best reaction to it. There is not only dodge, there is also stability/stun-breaks, aegis/dodge, missle-block/reflect and much more.

Lean how to buf yourself with might and fury, (and maybe also quickness or alacrity) having all nearly doubles your damage output.

For solo play I think a permanent speed buf of at least 25% increases survivability a lot. If you don't find any better way there are traveller-runes.

Generally I think Marauder is the better choice than Berserker for solo play as it gives you a larger buffer to react to surprises, without loosing to much damage.

If you are looking into a different class: The easiest to play is the Mechanist (EoD-Elite of Engie). I can also recommend a Marauder Daredevil with maximal (there is a trait, a signet and food) life-steal on crit.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Tenofas.6098]

22 minutes ago, Dayra.7405 said:

The first and easiest thing to do: buy a lvl 10 jade bot core in the TP should give you over 2k additional health.

Oh, I don't even know what a jade bot is... ok, will look into it.  Thanks!

[Buran.3796]

18 minutes ago, Tenofas.6098 said:

Now that I am back, I am completing the core game (100% map and personal story) on my good old Guardian (lvl 80 full berserker ascended gear).  I had already the Dragonhunter elite unlocked, but I wanted to try the Willbender spec too.  So I just went to PoF area to get some more hero points.  I hardly can survive any mob...  I know that HoT and PoF are harder than the core game, but this is too much. 

Sure, I have to learn again how and when to dodge-roll, how to use my skills, but I feel hopeless anyway.  Probably I should change the asceded gear: as a solo player would be better to have marauder or celestial gear?  Would the difference with full-berserker be evident (in terms of survivability) ?  

   You need to learn to fight the new foes, and to use a proper OW build with proper gear. Lets check it:

* You run a Guardian, is not the top soloing choice but more than adequate to clear alone any Hero Point, Champion, events and even most of bounties/legendary bounties.

* Gear: you should run either full celestial or a condition oriented build. That's because power builds require 3 stats to deliver good damage leaving no room to rise the pity 11k HP for a base Guardian, nor extra armor. Power builds also have two extra problems while playing alone: usually when you are defending (evading, blocking, retreating... ) you do little damage, whereas condi can stack damage in burst and keep dealing damage over time while defendig; the second problem with power is that most of HoT enemies have plenty of armor to mitigate your dps, whereas coindition damage ignores armor.

* Most of your condition damage will come from proccing burns with the F1 passive; burning is the burstiest condition, so it can melt foes at good pace.

   So lets start with the gear choices: dire, trailblazer, carrion or even rabid can work, but my advice would be to run celestial stats. 4 stat gear provides +9.35% more stat points than 3 stat gear, but celestial provides +74.38% stat points, and as a Guardian you will benefit from the extra points using builds that take advantage of those numbers. You can get exotic gear with selectable stats from the final chest in the PvP Glorious Reaward track, or buy it with WvW tokens from the golem vendor in the WvW maps. Or you can craft it or buy it from the Black Lion market. If celestial is too expensive dire, carrion, rabid or trailblazer are fine, but you need to adjust the build to take advantage of te stats (so if your build has low crit chance, don't use traits that rely in crits to enhance your damage).

   Starting core build (untill you fully unlock Firebrand or Willbender):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEt/lVwAZdMM2IOuKZrNA-DSRYLhnNqhyIhKIzUwhLBBIc9wr5EfaAA-e

or:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABw+t/lVwQYdsL2JOuKZrNA-DSQUb0j5wKE24EShSrAHuEwCMPbAA-e

   You start the fights against mobs with Stand Your Ground! for stability + greatsword #5 to pull your foes, then you lay Purging Flames. greatsword #4, #2, swap weapons, torch #4, #4, #5 scepter #3. Vs single targets you can start blinding them with gs #3 or rooting them with scepter #3. Most of foes will melt in seconds under the stacks of burns. Against bosses and champs your need to focus in avoiding their attacks and slowly burn them to death.

   Firebrand vs Willbender: in OW firebrand is a tool box with gatgets to every situation, and crazy fast at killing regular mobs, but is designed in a way in wich the more you trait to do damage, the less sustain you will have and viceversa. That means that suffers while soloing bounties and hard champs in terms of the time it takes to do the task, but against most of content it will do fine. Willbender has less tools and a more direct gameplay, with lots of mobility and higher burst (you can stack near 30 burns in matter of seconds). I would say that Firebrand is more versatile and does better vs regular mobs and HPs whereas Willbender is stronger vs bounties. I prefer celestial stats for Firebrand in OW whereas with a Willbender I run trailblazaers.

   Everyone knowns the Lord Hizen solo builds for OW so I'll recomend you to take a look at his latest builds with Willbender, but this time I'll link a video from a fantastic build from Masel which takes a different approach:

   

    Finally, in terms of gear, I'll advice that for the first ascended armor set you'll get celestial stats, since works very with core Guardian, Firebrand and Willbender in both PvE and WvW; You should also get the ascended trinkets from Season 3 & 4 maps at almost no cost. Finally, for your second armor set I'll recommend you to try to craft a legendary armor, from PvP, WvW, PvE or mixing from all of them.

   If you want specific builds just ask. Greetings.

 

[Buran.3796]

1 hour ago, Tenofas.6098 said:

Now that I am back, I am completing the core game (100% map and personal story) on my good old Guardian (lvl 80 full berserker ascended gear).  I had already the Dragonhunter elite unlocked, but I wanted to try the Willbender spec too.  So I just went to PoF area to get some more hero points.  I hardly can survive any mob...  I know that HoT and PoF are harder than the core game, but this is too much. 

Sure, I have to learn again how and when to dodge-roll, how to use my skills, but I feel hopeless anyway.  Probably I should change the asceded gear: as a solo player would be better to have marauder or celestial gear?  Would the difference with full-berserker be evident (in terms of survivability) ?  

DP sorry.

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by Buran.3796

[Tenofas.6098]

6 minutes ago, Buran.3796 said:

   You need to learn to fight the new foes, and to use a proper OW build with proper gear. Lets check it:

* You run a Guardian, is not the top soloing choice but more than adequate to clear alone any Hero Point, Champion, events and even most of bounties/legendary bounties.

* Gear: you should run either full celestial or a condition oriented build. That's because power builds require 3 stats to deliver good damage leaving no room to rise the pity 11k HP for a base Guardian, nor extra armor. Power builds also have two extra problems while playing alone: usually when you are defending (evading, blocking, retreating... ) you do little damage, whereas condi can stack damage in burst and keep dealing damage over time while defendig; the second problem with power is that most of HoT enemies have plenty of armor to mitigate your dps, whereas coindition damage ignores armor.

* Most of your condition damage will come from proccing burns with the F1 passive; burning is the burstiest condition, so it can melt foes at good pace.

   So lets start with the gear choices: dire, trailblazer, carrion or even rabid can work, but my advice would be to run celestial stats. 4 stat gear provides +9.35% more stat points than 3 stat gear, but celestial provides +74.38% stat points, and as a Guardian you will benefit from the extra points using builds that take advantage of those numbers. You can get exotic gear with selectable stats from the final chest in the PvP Glorious Reaward track, or buy it with WvW tokens from the golem vendor in the WvW maps. Or you can craft it or buy it from the Black Lion market. If celestial is too expensive dire, carrion, rabid or trailblazer are fine, but you need to adjust the build to take advantage of te stats (so if your build has low crit chance, don't use traits that rely in crits to enhance your damage).

   Starting core build (untill you fully unlock Firebrand or Willbender):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEt/lVwAZdMM2IOuKZrNA-DSRYLhnNqhyIhKIzUwhLBBIc9wr5EfaAA-e

or:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABw+t/lVwQYdsL2JOuKZrNA-DSQUb0j5wKE24EShSrAHuEwCMPbAA-e

   You start the fights against mobs with Stand Your Ground! for stability + greatsword #5 to pull your foes, then you lay Purging Flames. greatsword #4, #2, swap weapons, torch #4, #4, #5 scepter #3. Vs single targets you can start blinding them with gs #3 or rooting them with scepter #3. Most of foes will melt in seconds under the stacks of burns. Against bosses and champs your need to focus in avoiding their attacks and slowly burn them to death.

   Firebrand vs Willbender: in OW firebrand is a tool box with gatgets to every situation, and crazy fast at killing regular mobs, but is designed in a way in wich the more you trait to do damage, the less sustain you will have and viceversa. That means that suffers while soloing bounties and hard champs in terms of the time it takes to do the task, but against most of content it will do fine. Willbender has less tools and a more direct gameplay, with lots of mobility and higher burst (you can stack near 30 burns in matter of seconds). I would say that Firebrand is more versatile and does better vs regular mobs and HPs whereas Willbender is stronger vs bounties. I prefer celestial stats for Firebrand in OW whereas with a Willbender I run trailblazaers.

   Everyone knowns the Lord Hizen solo builds for OW so I'll recomend you to take a look at his latest builds with Willbender, but this time I'll link a video from a fantastic build from Masel which takes a different approach:

   

    Finally, in terms of gear, I'll advice that for the first ascended armor set you'll get celestial stats, since works very with core Guardian, Firebrand and Willbender in both PvE and WvW; You should also get the ascended trinkets from Season 3 & 4 maps at almost no cost. Finally, for your second armor set I'll recommend you to try to craft a legendary armor, from PvP, WvW, PvE or mixing from all of them.

   If you want specific builds just ask. Greetings.

 

Thanks a lot, great post full of interesting data and information.

Will study the builds you suggested.  I am already working on a second ascended-armor set (thanks to Wizard's Vault!) and it's with celestial stats.

Thank you again very much!

Tenofas

[mercury ranique.2170]

the heropoints in PoF and HoT are challenging. I usually watch the lfg tool and join a train doing them. Makes it all a lot easier

[kharmin.7683]

5 minutes ago, mercury ranique.2170 said:

the heropoints in PoF and HoT are challenging. I usually watch the lfg tool and join a train doing them. Makes it all a lot easier

True, but I just worked up a new toon and called out for help in map chat for several HP in HoT and other players showed up.  Heck, just missed the mushroom one in Auric Basin and as everyone was leaving I asked if we could run it again and almost all of them came back to help.  So, a train isn't necessary if you're willing to call out for help.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Don't give up hope!  Just try a more resilient build.  You may be surprised to find that you can still deal plenty of damage while also having very high sustain.  Generally speaking, these types of builds for solo play rely on condition damage as it is less reliant on stats and stacking modifiers to achieve high damage.  For guardian that means you'll probably want to go with willbender or firebrand as they work better with conditions.  For stats, celestial is probably a good choice as it gives you both power and condition damage as well as extending your boon duration, which is key for a boon-heavy class like guardian in solo play.

I don't play guardian so I don't have a specific build for you, but they should be easy enough to find with a little digging.  For instance, Lord Hizen's channel should have a good willbender build, I'd imagine.  But to give you an example from another low-health class that traditionally struggles with sustain, here's a clip of my elementalist using a celestial condition-based build to take on a large group of enemies including a veteran and a champion all at once without breaking a sweat!  With the right build and some practice you should have no problem chewing through PoF/HoT open world!

[Vayne.8563]

43 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

True, but I just worked up a new toon and called out for help in map chat for several HP in HoT and other players showed up.  Heck, just missed the mushroom one in Auric Basin and as everyone was leaving I asked if we could run it again and almost all of them came back to help.  So, a train isn't necessary if you're willing to call out for help.

This should be tatooed on every single hero point and group event in the game.  I pop even a mentor tag, link a close waypoint, or point of interest, say I need help and somehow, help arrives, probably 80-90 percent of the time. Best advice here.

[Tenofas.6098]

Thanks a lot for the new hints.

Yes, I will try different stats armor, with a condition build (probably willbender as it's around 65% unlocked).  I have almost a full ascended celestial set (missing just the gloves, but I should be able to get them with Wizard's Vault this week).

And also I have to admit I am really surprised about how much GW2 players are ready to help in any time.  It died several times facing a dangerous champion, but all the time, if there was a player around, he/she came to try to revive me, even if the boss turned on them.  It's a really different player base compared to other mmorpg.

Thanks again to all of you.

See you in game!

Tenofas

[yLoon.5289]

Always roam the new area with a ranged weapon to familiarize yourself with the surrounding mobs. 
Most Hero Points in HoT are not solo-able, try a shut out in map chat for help.
HoT is not hard, most mobs do not have a defiance bar, and their HP is not as high as SoTo mobs. As a Berserker Dragonhunter, you can easily burst damage and wipe them out in Greatsword + Longbow +Traps skills. Just lay traps first before proceeding with F1, LB5, LB2, LB3, and auto-attack. Most HoT mob would be half-dead already before swapping to GS. Do take note that this method is not good in SoTo mobs as their HP is 2 or 3 times higher.
PoF is slightly challenging now due to the nerfing of Firebrand's condition DPS build, but it is still doable. However, if you are playing Condition DPS and meet up with the Djinn mob which is immune to Fire, just forget about the fight and run away.

If you are in NA server, just text me if you need any help. 
Happy Hunting!

[Tenofas.6098]

1 hour ago, yLoon.5289 said:

Always roam the new area with a ranged weapon to familiarize yourself with the surrounding mobs. 
Most Hero Points in HoT are not solo-able, try a shut out in map chat for help.
HoT is not hard, most mobs do not have a defiance bar, and their HP is not as high as SoTo mobs. As a Berserker Dragonhunter, you can easily burst damage and wipe them out in Greatsword + Longbow +Traps skills. Just lay traps first before proceeding with F1, LB5, LB2, LB3, and auto-attack. Most HoT mob would be half-dead already before swapping to GS. Do take note that this method is not good in SoTo mobs as their HP is 2 or 3 times higher.
PoF is slightly challenging now due to the nerfing of Firebrand's condition DPS build, but it is still doable. However, if you are playing Condition DPS and meet up with the Djinn mob which is immune to Fire, just forget about the fight and run away.

If you are in NA server, just text me if you need any help. 
Happy Hunting!

Thanks for the hints.  I am on a EU server.

BTW, last night I switched to a Condi-Willbender build, with celestial armor (accessories are still berserker, I must work on this), and I tested the new build on some repeatable hero point that were impossible to solo before for me.  Now I managed to kill them without too much problem.  So I will stick to this build, focusing first on completing my celestial gear.

Thank you again.

Tenofas

[Buran.3796]

6 hours ago, yLoon.5289 said:

Most Hero Points in HoT are not solo-able, try a shut out in map chat for help.

   All are solable by any class, you just need to known the basics of each combat (what to watch out, which attacks to evade... ) and have the rigth build and tactic. BUT they are harder than your average foe in GW2 and some specs are better than others at the task.

[Obnoxa.6702]

You can still pick up trains that do PoF and HoT challanges since they were not designed to be solo originally. It's common to see squads run them and it's nice and quick for all 250 points, keep an eye out in lfg, especially on the weekends.

Also worth noting, Lord Hizen on YouTube, his latest videos are directed towards gear and specs for the latest xpak, but get as close as you can to his builds and you will be able to solo any PoF and most of HoT heroes. He builds specifically to solo champs and shows all the builds in action as well as good rotation.

Good luck! And welcome back.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Obnoxa.6702

[Linken.6345]

16 minutes ago, Obnoxa.6702 said:

You can still pick up trains that do PoF and HoT challanges since they were not designed to be solo originally. It's common to see squads run them and it's nice and quick for all 250 points, keep an eye out in lfg, especially on the weekends.

Also worth noting, Lord Hizen on YouTube, his latest videos are directed towards gear and specs for the latest xpak, but get as close as you can to his builds and you will be able to solo any PoF and most of HoT heroes. He builds specifically to solo champs and shows all the builds in action as well as good rotation.

Good luck! And welcome back.

Well pof for sure was made to be solable after the outcry of champion guarding  hero points in hot.

[Tenofas.6098]

19 hours ago, Obnoxa.6702 said:

You can still pick up trains that do PoF and HoT challanges since they were not designed to be solo originally. It's common to see squads run them and it's nice and quick for all 250 points, keep an eye out in lfg, especially on the weekends.

Also worth noting, Lord Hizen on YouTube, his latest videos are directed towards gear and specs for the latest xpak, but get as close as you can to his builds and you will be able to solo any PoF and most of HoT heroes. He builds specifically to solo champs and shows all the builds in action as well as good rotation.

Good luck! And welcome back.

Thanks, it's nice to be back and see so many helpful players.

About the challanges' trains... I met a couple, but both were doing the run with flying mounts... I just got a raptor and a warclaw... moving in HoT would be a lot easier with a flying mount (Skyscale or whatever its name is), but I guess I will stick to land traveling and focus on PoF ones.

I should be able to complete my celestial ascended armor set by tomorrow, then will start to work on trinkets (with laurel from Wizard's Vault it should be easy, just 1400 Astral Acclaims).  

My first goal is to complete 100% original map and the Personal Story (which I fully did on other two toons of mine, but I don't think I will play them again, I tried them and did not like the gameplay: warrior and thief).

Thanks again and see you online (if you are in EU).

Tenofas