Old and slow. Is there hope for me?

[Victros.8154]

I'm old and slow and have bad reaction time. I am horrible at timing double-tap dodges in games. Is there a class and build that might work for me, where I wouldn't have to dodge very often? Maybe a tank warrior of some kind? I wouldn't do any PvP or likely any difficult PvE, just open world stuff and maybe some dungeons, if possible. What do you think?

Thanks!

[Vrath.1754]

Well I dont have any class advice, but I'd suggest you keybind dodge to a button on your mouse and disable double tap to dodge.

I take that back, a warrior might work, there is a lot of charge skills weapon skills with movement. There is Greatsword 3 which helps evade.Or a Ranger you can use a Bear to tank in open world allowing you to limit the attacks on you directly.

I'm certain someone can provide better a much better suggestion and details on possible builds.

[Boysenberry.1869]

I'm not old but I am slow. Necromancer is an easy-mode class for open world PvE. Spawn some minions and they can deal damage, tank things and even heal you. You also have a large health pool and can enter shroud for an emergency health pool.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Ranger and necro with minions are good.

I also suggest you disable double tap to dodge and put dodge on the click part of your mouse scroll button. You can rest your finger on the mouse scroll button and click it to dodge.

[Kitty La Boom Boom.4065]

You don't need to double tap to dodge here, just hit your "v" key. My main is Necro. I do tend to dodge a lot because I'm currently playing sans minions, but a good minion master build is awesomely tanky, and has excellent survivability. Rangers with Beastmaster builds are good too, especially since you can lay traps to slow down anything that gets too close and give you more time to react. Necros can use staff skills to make marks that do similar things to traps. Guardians are good for taking a lot of damage as well, and certain weapon skills will allow you to move quickly.

[Victros.8154]

OK, thanks guys. With a necro minion build, is it necessary to swap weapons?

[Eme.2018]

[You don't need to double tap to evade, you can just use some other keybind (V is the default I think).Open world PvE is not very challenging and it certainly does not require you to have fast reactions.]

If you really want to stay out of harms way, I would recommend that you tried a pet class. So either a Necromancer or a Ranger. You will have the pet taking all the aggro and tanking all the damage while you will be doing damage from a safe distance.

If you don't like pet classes then Warrior could work for you. They are not tanks but they have a high health threshold, some neat defenses and pretty high damage which is a good combination to keep you alive. Although, you will definitely have a harder time playing warrior than playing a pet class.

You could also try Guardian. They do not have as high health threshold as Warriors but they are loaded with defenses.

[eldrjth.7384]

I think reaper with GS running minions would be the easiest to play, but the thing I hate about it is the minions can also keep you in combat when you just want to mount up and go. If minions arent your thing I think core warrior running defence trait line is also good since using adrenaline gives you HP so you dont have to dodge nearly as much.

For being tanky in open world I personally like firebrand (and thief too but you said you hate dodging) but it can take getting used to. With radiance you can reset tome of justice after every kill, which means your high dmging spells are always available. You just have to worry about maxing fire duration/condition dmg then spec defensively. This allows you to gear in Carrion/Dire/trailblazer (also plague doctor is great imo and what I like for extreme tankyness) and be very tanky while doing great dmg. Use tome 2,4 off cooldown and 5 in a long fight then spam tome 1. Make sure you weapon switch before the final mob dies so your tome refreshes. The 600 range 5 target aoe cone attack of searing spell ridiculously OP against mobs.

[Donari.5237]

I am also low on the twitch reflexes (I'm 53 now, you tell me if you think that's old, but I grew up before consoles and such). I find serene joy in a greatsword reaper with a blood fiend for heals and shouts for utilities. I have dodge bound to B (near the space bar) and movement all on my Razer HEX mouse with its side buttons. PM me if you want details on my preferred traits and stats -- or if you are on NA, we can get together and I can demonstrate how happily I can wade into masses of foes and then tell you my setup.

I should be back at the computer tomorrow afternoon (Eastern).

[alchemist.6851]

@Victros.8154 said:I'm old and slow and have bad reaction time. I am horrible at timing double-tap dodges in games. Is there a class and build that might work for me, where I wouldn't have to dodge very often? Maybe a tank warrior of some kind? I wouldn't do any PvP or likely any difficult PvE, just open world stuff and maybe some dungeons, if possible. What do you think?

Thanks!

i would suggest a ranger because you have the range and health/toughness to take some hits and a helping pet is good ... elementalist is too fragile... other classes like chrono needs to speed up combo skills

necro is good too.. stick to minions and use a staff from distance

[Endless Soul.5178]

As someone who is old (50) and has a medical condition, I'm going to agree with the others that posted above. My first and main character is a necromancer, and she has done wonderfully in helping me get through the game.

[Marxx.5021]

I also suggest to use mouse buttons. I have weapon swap on my side mouse back button for example.

[bbop.9706]

as others have said, i have adapted by using control systems that minimise hand movement and make all skills are easy and quick to access. I'd recommend investing in a G13 or razer tartarus and learn to move using the thumb pad. This frees up awsd etc for skills and then get a good , large multi button mouse that fits your hand well and has plenty of bindable buttons. I use roccat Tyon, its perfect for me. After the learning curve you will never look back. Good luck!

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

Hello. Usualy the game gives you plenty of time to dodge (in pve). The reason why someone might fail is because they didnt notice because of focusing on something else. My suggestion is to bind dodge to a single button. When I started raiding I thought that everything is too fast for me but once I learned the fight I relised that there is more then enough time.If you want something for high end pve then probably condi soulbeast (because it is easy to play so you can focus on looking around) or mirage (because it has huge number of evade windows).If your goal is not high end pve then necro and ranger are great safe options because of range and pets tanking for you.

Edit: sorry, havent read that part about dificult pve. But my point about ranger and necro still stays.

[Dibdabs.3410]

@eldrjth.7384 said:I think reaper with GS running minions would be the easiest to play, but the thing I hate about it is the minions can also keep you in combat when you just want to mount up and go.

I used an 80 boost yesterday to get my Necro into the new zones (new to me!) and I was surprised how tough the Reaper GS is. I'm 63 and have no twitch skills at all now, and I have been running my ranger through the zones to get mounts/glider, and my Necro is walking through stuff my Ranger had to be very clever to get through. I was impressed last night when I got jumped by about a dozen blue elementals, about the same number of scorpion things plus 4 or 5 silver and bronze mobs, plus a big blue spikey crystal thing which was part of an Event... and I survived! For me that was amazing, considering it is several years since I last played, that I'm relearning the game and that my Necro was a brand new 80 having jumped from 40 so I am effectively new to the class. Yes, open world mobs are not that tough, but even so, all things considered I was impressed with the Reaper GS.

[Deaths.9165]

Im 40, and i have to take drugs which slow my reaction times pretty down.

I have all characters at max lvl. U can play with any charcter. If ur reaction time is slow. Just use soldier set. SO ur surviability gets increased. The only mod u wont be able to really practicipitate is raids. ANd if u have friends even then they can hook u up and carry u through.

U will depend on alot of game parts on the very friendly gw2 community. I have nearly done all jps. With my reaction time it is impossible for me to finish them.

I was willing to buy the jps from teleport messmers, But most times they do it for free. Cause they look at my ap and see that i am a veteran and it cant be that i am just lasy.

Most important part is that u take the tag dmg of the mobs. Hit 1 or 2 times the mob. Then let the others kill the mob. Either way u are not useless with ur soldier set. Their will be downed or dead ppl with their berserk sets. Even if they play very good, this game is based on dieing and getting ressed by others.

So basicly ur job is to ressuruct them.

My main is guardian with long bow. so i can give support to the characters, who got the raction time and deal the dmg.

Basicly u stay with a long ranged charcter out of dmg taking range, do ur tag dmg so u get the reward, support ur dmg dealing mates with aoe support skills. (Druid is way to hard to handle, Guardian is way better u run in give them a bit healing run out), and ressuruct them.

I either have the endurance to play this game for hours. SO after a hard fight i just take my break for half or an hour.

And i am one of the few exprirnced commanders in gw2.

My reaction time is slow, but i know alot about bosses and gamemechanics after 6 years so i can lead the young ones to victory.

So basicly even if ur reaction time is slow, u can still take part in event and be usefull. Just not like the young ones.

[Deaths.9165]

U can even join world vs world. U wont be able to fight the hot fights or the heavy ones. But their is still plenty to do. U can join a ppt coammnder run with them arround and just capture camps towers and keeps.

U can repair walls. Build sieges. Do scouts. Plenty of stuff without heavy fights down their. ANd still be usefull.

[Danikat.8537]

Another thing to consider is using equipment with either toughness or vitality. Those boost your armour and health respectively so they can help you stay alive longer. Even with both you'll never quite reach a point where you can simply stand and let anything attack you, but it can give you a bit more leeway with big attacks. For example if you miss dodging an attack you'll be down to almost no health and still able to move away and heal rather than downed or dead.

A lot of builds (and a lot of players) will recommend using purely offensive stats, but that's because they're assuming you're able to use active defences like dodging and kiting to stay alive. If you're not feeling up to that having some defensive stats can help a lot.

[Yargesh.4965]

I have next to zero twitch and I suggest you keep using double tap. The reason is that you know exactly where you will end up, double back you go back, side etc. I have had too many times using a blink or movement on a weapon where I ended up off a cliff, now with gliding and mounts it is not so terminal but it taught me to always try to know where I am going.

[XECOR.2814]

This build is for easy mode core story,hot,pof. Basically open world only.

At lvl 80, build this with exotics(orange). At 60-70 with yellow(rares) or green. Below 60 blue works.

I recommend full dire everything(tougness, vitality, condition damage). Later aim to get trailblazer full set.

Class: necromancer coreTraits: curses 1-1-3, blood magic 2-3-3, death magic 1-1-1.

Weapons(also full dire/full trailblazer)

1) Sceptre, dagger.2) Dagger, warhorn.

Skills.Heal skill- bone fiend.Utility1- blood is power.Utility2- epidemic.Utility3- bone minions(2).Elite- flesh golem.

Nothing will be able to kill you in open world on this build. If it does, just take curses 1-1-2 and you will lose some damage but gain a lot of survivability.

On 1)take superior sigil of bursting on Sceptre and superior sigil of speed on Dagger.

On 2)take superior sigil of mischief(for troll) on dagger and superior sigil of corruption on Warhorn.

Some sigils will be expensive like sigil of bursting and mischief. Just use sigil of agony/fraility/restoration untill then.

RUNES options.(always complete the set for bonus effect)

Superior rune of sunless. (clutch fear)

Superior rune of scavenging. (goes with the theme)

Superior rune of nightmare. (clutch condi cleanse and blind)

Superior rune of afflicted/krait/undead. (more damage)

Superior rune of divinity. (meme hp)

Use superior runes and sigils for lvl80, major for lvl60-80 and minor for below 60.

This is the most easy to use build in the game hands down. No build has anywhere near passive survivability, condin cleanse, and damage as this build. The only downside is you would get bored after some time.

[Sylvari.2953]

@Victros.8154 said:I'm old and slow and have bad reaction time. ... I wouldn't do any PvP or likely any difficult PvE, just open world stuff and maybe some dungeons, if possible. What do you think?

Same here and I main Celestial Firebrand, I never die in open world PvE and solo story missions and I can do a bit of everything thanks to my balanced stats (burst heals, stacking boons, easy access to condi cleanse and stun break, direct damage, condi dmg)... You get 85% Burning duration with traits, Runes of Balthazar and Sigil of Smoldering with zero Expertise gear.

[Willhart.8230]

Guardian has some good ranged options with the scepter and the staff, and they can also heal damage well.

Other than that I'd recommend finding a second person to play the story with if possible. It makes the rough fights much easier. LFG system might be good for this, though I haven't tried it for story missions myself.

[Rpgtabbycat.5869]

I'm almost 48 and I have some nerve damage in my left hand. Minion Master necromancer has been working well for me so far.

This build in particular:

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Power_Minion_Master

[moonboi.1764]

@Victros.8154 said:OK, thanks guys. With a necro minion build, is it necessary to swap weapons?

Apologies if someone answered it. You don’t have to swap weapons but you could do staff and then scepter/torch and switch at a rate that is comfortable. Honestly necro pet build can camp staff if just open world pve

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Yes, there are still plenty of possibilities. Generally, GW2 is quite accessible to casual as well as slower players.

Open world and story content is quite forgiving and (random) grouping can make difficult encounters very easy. Jumping puzzles will be quite difficult but when you go to the daily jumping puzzle, you will find helpful players all-day-long to teleport you near the end if you desire so.

Dungeons, raids and structured PvP will probably be out of reach for you, but there is much more than that in the game. Good luck.

It can help to get a character build that is not all offensive but a bit more balanced. Characters with Celestial stats do less damage but can survive for a long time in battle and thus are more forgiving for a few mistakes.