Returning Player -- Should I Run Away Now?

[Mythx.9847]

I bought this game when it first came out and I have a few hours in it, but nothing that would impress you. I also bought Heart of Thorns (HOT). After I bought it, I played the new class that had came out and I did not really care for it, so I stuck with my guardian. The last time I played was sometime back in 2016, but not for long. The issue I have is not being able to really understand what I am doing. Sure, I have been given websites like duffy and meta, but when you're use to websites like ice veins, these websites are very foreign to you. While many people have tried to help me, I still felt like they were speaking another language to me. Maybe this game is not meant for players like me? While I would not mind learning how to play the game, I am getting overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of understanding what I am doing and being sent to website that make no sense to me. While I love what I see with the new expansion, I am not buying it as I am not sure this game will be worth more of my investment. Maybe someone can help me understand this game better so I can have a more positive experience with it.

[lordmitz.2047]

What parts of the game are you having trouble with? A bit of clarification would help us help you.

[Ojimaru.8970]

As a general advice, skip Path of Fire for now and go explore Core Tyria and Heart of Thorns with your Guardian. Do map completes, kill stuff on the way, and tweak your character's build as you feel it out. Equally as important, if not more, is to find a friendly guild you can gel with and learn with--or from--them.

Catch all advice, out of the way, do you have any specific areas of the game that you are unfamiliar with? If the answer is "everything," then see advice above.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

We all were unfamiliar with the game when we started. You could create a new character, start the tutorial instance, and level up slowly, paying close attention to the level-up tutorial tips. There's always the Wiki to help with terms/mechanics/etc. you don't understand.

Good luck.

[Vandril.3490]

I'll just take a guess at where you're having a problem. If my assumption is wrong, then you can just ignore the post.

I figure you're probably feeling lost because GW2, unlike other MMORPGs like WoW, FFXIV, and most everything else, really doesn't have side quests. It doesn't have a cohesive plot for every town or camp you run into. Coming from more traditional MMOs, this lack of direction can make you feel really lost. Outside of the main story quest chain, you're essentially thrown into the world and expected to find something to do with yourself.

GW2's leveling and open world content design is to where it's all about exploration. It's not about quest chains that explain the story of every little place. You're expected to just...explore. Unlock the map; see the sights; meet, greet, and defeat wondrous creatures. Immerse yourself in the world around you, rather than focusing solely on some plot and then losing interest in each zone in order of level. Do some events as they pop up around you, which can be found everywhere - some may even be big world bosses! Find hidden treasures or secrets hidden throughout every corner of Tyria. Jumping puzzles are a thing, too!

Once you manage to move past the feeling that you're supposed to do something specific to "progress", you'll find yourself enjoying the casual (yet occasionally challenging) exploration across GW2's vast landscapes.

[Mythx.9847]

@lordmitz.2047 said:What parts of the game are you having trouble with? A bit of clarification would help us help you.

Hi! Thanks for the reply. Mostly rotation, stats, etc. I understand and get the map and what those things mean. But I feel I am clicking on pretty buttons with pretty effects and that is all. Sure, I do read the spells, but I am not even sure what these things actually do, how important is the spell? When do I use it?

@Ojimaru.8970 said:As a general advice, skip Path of Fire for now and go explore Core Tyria and Heart of Thorns with your Guardian. Do map completes, kill stuff on the way, and tweak your character's build as you feel it out. Equally as important, if not more, is to find a friendly guild you can gel with and learn with--or from--them.

Catch all advice, out of the way, do you have any specific areas of the game that you are unfamiliar with? If the answer is "everything," then see advice above.

Hi! Thanks for the reply. I understand where you're coming from, but if I am not sure what the true meaning of the spells are, exploration is rather moot to me. When you explore, you also want to be able to feel like you're progressing and actually have a feel for what you're doing. I did join a guild, while the people are nice and they do try to help, it is rather unhelpful in the end as it really makes no sense.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:We all were unfamiliar with the game when we started. You could create a new character, start the tutorial instance, and level up slowly, paying close attention to the level-up tutorial tips. There's always the Wiki to help with terms/mechanics/etc. you don't understand.

Good luck.

Hi! Thank you for the reply. While I would be ok doing this, I have no idea how to even do that and I have no idea if this will actually teach me more about the spells I am using. Maybe you can clarify this more? I am not new to the MMORPG genre and I am no spring chicken when it comes to PC gaming controls. Maybe I am misunderstanding?

@Vandril.3490 said:I'll just take a guess at where you're having a problem. If my assumption is wrong, then you can just ignore the post.

I figure you're probably feeling lost because GW2, unlike other MMORPGs like WoW, FFXIV, and most everything else, really doesn't have side quests. It doesn't have a cohesive plot for every town or camp you run into. Coming from more traditional MMOs, this lack of direction can make you feel really lost. Outside of the main story quest chain, you're essentially thrown into the world and expected to find something to do with yourself.

GW2's leveling and open world content design is to where it's all about exploration. It's not about quest chains that explain the story of every little place. You're expected to just...explore. Unlock the map; see the sights; meet, greet, and defeat wondrous creatures. Immerse yourself in the world around you, rather than focusing solely on some plot and then losing interest in each zone in order of level. Do some events as they pop up around you, which can be found everywhere - some may even be big world bosses! Find hidden treasures or secrets hidden throughout every corner of Tyria. Jumping puzzles are a thing, too!

Once you manage to move past the feeling that you're supposed to do something specific to "progress", you'll find yourself enjoying the casual (yet occasionally challenging) exploration across GW2's vast landscapes.

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I do understand the map and how it works, I am not clear on the rotation or stats that any class uses. I have been told for a guardian to use power, this is great, but I was never told why. Then they say it will be ok to use for now while leveling, great, but why only for leveling? See this is where it is complicated for me. Don't just tell me to use something, explain why I need to. Telling me to use a sword for example does not help me understand the importance of using such weapon.

[Goettel.4389]

This might sound trite, but the only way to do it, is to do it! :)

Pick a class you like the look of. Buy a complete set of weapons for the class and try them all in some relatively safe location killing easy mobs. Start by using just skill 1 and see if you can kill the mob. If you can, try two mobs, etc. still sticking just to skill 1. Once you run into problems, take some time out and read the skill descriptions again. Pick a second skill to add to the mix and start killing. Rinse and repeat. IMO the best tip is to find a class/spec/weapon combination you find FUN, without any worry if it's optimal or not. Slowly expand the use of skills and find ever more difficult mobs. Try to place yourself in the dev's shoes and try to figure out what they were thinking of when creating a particular class. And just keep playing, take a break to re-read skills, ask a question, or read a site/wiki.

[Taygus.4571]

Gw2 is actually quite complex imo.

Maybe try a simpler class? Warrior or Necro.And start from the beginning. Skills unlock as you progress, so you can get a feel for them before opening the next skill.

But it might simply be the class you're using that you can't get a feel for.

It doesn't take too long to start over...so I'd suggest trying some other simple classes and seeing if they make sense.

I'm a returning player and due to disability, I'm really struggling getting back into the hang rotations. (I would love if they made an "easy mode" class that had less skills lol).So I've parked my ele and am using my necro.Alot of it comes from hours and hours of play time and practice. ..practice in easier zones and slowly move up increasing the need for more complex rotations.

A struggling to understand what a rotation might be?I'm not great at explaining but my understanding is something like this.An ele will use a number of skills to increase "might boon" before attacking and then there's a certain switch of skills..things stop am enemy in its tracks that back to attack, then re-increase might etc.Although it's not too big a deal in early PvE, especially as a minion necromancer ;)

[PaxTheGreatOne.9472]

In the open world stats do not matter to much, and honestly, rotations are of minor interest. When you progress to end game content being Raids and T3 and t4 fractals you'll need specialized gear (mostly squishy high dmg gear, and tweaked builds.) Until you have done story and found a place it doesn't really matter.

As for gear. you have noticed there issevreal different sets of qualities ranging from white(basic) to pink and purple (ascneded and legendary) in between there are quite some other colors. generally said, orange (exotic) is enough for all basic content such as low fractals, dungeons, open world, and most expansion content.When you venture further to t2 fractals and more difficult content you'll need ascended's, legendary is pure luxury and doesn't provide stat benefits over ascneded. just functionality (swapping stats OOC)

Builds for low level content (read: story, exploring, world bosses and dungeons) are whatever you please, you can try out builds and seek the meachnics of traits. You'll need this knowledge when you enter high level content so you can tweak builds. On the endgame side you have some sites proving builds for the highest DPS , but they ignore survivability. At this level you are expected to use your skill, skills and dodges to stay alive and no longer to rely on defensive stats and build options.

But to get there I should advise you to explore the world, fight critters and find out the uses of boons and debuffs on enemies and the skills avaialble to your preferred character .Guardian has bunker options, DPS option and a has a myriad of traits to try out. Dragonhunter (HoT spec) is a good DPS base and Firebrand is a good condition base for your character on later parts and endgame. You can play support in lower level content, and on firebrand, you can play spike DPS with guardioan and dragonhunter. But these builds all have mechanics whcih are different and often do not have much overlap. to learn the machanics and options you'll have to playtest most things.

I'd advise you to figure out builds and to a lesser extent combo's and rotations for yourself at start, you could use the site: metabattle to try out different builds.The WvW builds are extremely tanky and durable (they can be seen as easy mode builds for PvE) and are normally usd for group vs group PvP type playing, conquest PvP & GvG is mixed (depends on preferred playstyle and often include defensive options), and lastly fractals and raid builds are build as DPS (highest dmg with a minor attention to survivability in general. When and if you get to end game content, you can allways fall back to site: snowcrow builds and site: quantify builds to improve on gear, meta and rotations and hone your skills further from that point on.

So just start and explore. As long as you kill normal, verteran and maybe even elites with no real trouble you're good, champions are difficult and legendaries are impossible solo. Try to have fun instead of trying to be best. You play a game to have fun.... it's the only purpose of being here.

Just copying a build and practicing rotations doesn't (neccesarily) make you a good player. Make sure what you can do if the roatations and build are not enough. Quantify and Snowrow raid builds are very powerfull but are build with group content in mind, so when you are running solo your are squishy and incomplete. You need an understanding of creating survivability to do solo story and exploration.

[lordmitz.2047]

@Mythx.9847 said:Hi! Thanks for the reply. Mostly rotation, stats, etc. I understand and get the map and what those things mean. But I feel I am clicking on pretty buttons with pretty effects and that is all. Sure, I do read the spells, but I am not even sure what these things actually do, how important is the spell? When do I use it?

ah yeah, i might not be the most qualified to help you with this (i dont do raids or high level fractals), but there's no real 'rotation' as there is in, say WoW or Rift or the like. A lot of new players see skills off CD and spam them, but Gw2's skills are usually about using things at the right moment. Your slot 1 skill is your basic attack (most often a chain), that if left on auto can be ignored for the most part unless you're min-maxing and using your skills at the end of the chain, but the rest all depends on what class/weapon you're using. generally have a read of the tooltip and ignore what damage it does and think about what effects it has - does it transfer conditions? save it for when you have conditions on you; does it heal? save it for when you need the extra heal; does it grant you stability? save it for when something's about to do a big knockdown attack.

of course these are just rule of thumb - the game does require you to do a bit of legwork and trial and error to find out what works where. i'd definitely avoid HoT and concentrate on core tyria (or even PoF zones if you want to unlock the mounts) to help you learn as HoT is quite unforgiving.

[lordmitz.2047]

@Mythx.9847 said:Hi! Thank you for your reply. I do understand the map and how it works, I am not clear on the rotation or stats that any class uses. I have been told for a guardian to use power, this is great, but I was never told why. Then they say it will be ok to use for now while leveling, great, but why only for leveling? See this is where it is complicated for me. Don't just tell me to use something, explain why I need to. Telling me to use a sword for example does not help me understand the importance of using such weapon.

and just to add to this: if the weapon you want to use has skills that do dots (bleeds, torment, poison), you want to focus on gear that adds condition damage, and if not, then power. i think what people are getting at saying power for levelling is down to the fact that in levelling zones things die a bit quicker than in level 80 zones, so you don't have the buildup time that makes condition damage shine. but play whichever style suits you best - in open world content it doesn't matter what you play.

[Carlin Sanders.3587]

Here's a little tippy then:-Each class is fairly jack-of-all-trades style, with elite specializations providing ways to break away from that mold somewhat to take specific roles. Each profession also has a different approach to combat and other situations, such as Necromancers utilizing undead minions to keep baddies distracted while they drain their life force and inflict conditions to make their foes rot away - a very death and darkness approach. guardians on the other hand prefer to provide support to allies around them while also being very much 'in-your-face' regarding enemies, doing well on the front lines.-As mentioned above however, each class is also versatile enough to change roles - particularly with elite specializations. For instance, if a necromancer decides to take on the Reaper specialization they can endure quite a bit of punishment and be able to deal a lot of damage on the front lines while a guardian may decide to become a dragon hunter and focus more on supporting themselves more than their allies.

there is a lot more but i suggest bringing questions to the Players helping Players sub forum on the website here if you want help and clarification. If you want to start learning game mechanics then i suggest making a warrior character, as they're the most mistake friendly profession whereas revenant is a ways more complex to utilize well in gameplay. Just spend some time fooling around and playing with the skills - find a bunch of weapons and see what they do. spend a good amount of time on each skill individually - use it, see what it's talking about in action, etc.

[tairneanach.8427]

@Mythx.9847 said:

@lordmitz.2047 said:What parts of the game are you having trouble with? A bit of clarification would help us help you.

Hi! Thanks for the reply. Mostly rotation, stats, etc. I understand and get the map and what those things mean. But I feel I am clicking on pretty buttons with pretty effects and that is all. Sure, I do read the spells, but I am not even sure what these things actually do, how important is the spell? When do I use it?

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I do understand the map and how it works, I am not clear on the rotation or stats that any class uses. I have been told for a guardian to use power, this is great, but I was never told why. Then they say it will be ok to use for now while leveling, great, but why only for leveling? See this is where it is complicated for me. Don't just tell me to use something, explain why I need to. Telling me to use a sword for example does not help me understand the importance of using such weapon.

Well, I don't play guardian, so I can't go over every skill with you and explain them, but some general pointers: In open-world PvE, rotations are not all that important. Set learning those aside for later when you understand the game better.; one step at a time. One thing to note: Some skills (e.g. the first skill on every melee weapon) have multiple entries if you hover over them. These are chain skills that automatically switch when you hit with one. You don't need to worry about that too much, but knowing what the second and third strikes in a chain do lets you decide whether you want to wait using a different skill, thus breaking the chain. All other facts about skills are, to my mind, readily laid out in their descriptions. They're really quite informative. The only thing that isn't explicitly spelled out is the circular icon with a clockwise arrow - that's the skill's recharge or cooldown time.

Let's examine one utility skill at random: Judge's Intervention. The tool tip lists damage (automatically adjusted to your current stats and other influences), burning (duration and damage per stack - your stats are also factored in already), how many targets it'll hit, its radius and range (abstract number - 130 is melee range, 240 as in this skill is pretty low, 600-900 is mid range to me, 1200 is long range), as well as the fact that it breaks stuns on you. I should mention that stun break ends the following effects: daze, fear, float, knockback, knockdown, launch, pull, sink, stun and taunt. See their icons here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun_break

As for stats: Luckily they are mostly the same for every class. Here's a breakdown:

Power increases all direct damage. Use this if you use primarily skills that don't cause the following conditions: Bleeding, burning, poison, confusion, torment. These conditions are readily visible in every ability's description - they've got red icons. In other MMORPGs, they would be called dots.

Precision increases your chance to land a critical hit. If you're using power, precision is also a key stat - more crits, more damage, but I'm sure you know that.

Toughness is added onto your armour value which stops direct damage. Apparently high toughness also draws more aggro, but I'm not sure on that.

Vitality increases your health. If you feel you die to often, stick some points here and/or into toughness. Toughness only stops direct damage, a bigger health pool makes you more resistant to dots too, but healing won't be as effective as you have to fill up more health to regain your "defense".

Concentration increases the duration of your boons (in other MMORPS these are buffs). Boons have yellow icons.

Expertise increases the damage your conditions deal. If you primarily use skills that apply the aforementioned conditions, invest in this. Personally, I think power is more useful for solo open-world playing while condition damage is more useful in boss fights, dungeons and other group activities because the fights last longer. Basically it's a question of burst damage versus damage over time.

Ferocity increases critical damage. If you're investing in Precision, you also should invest into ferocity to really hit like a freight train.

Healing power: Self explanatory, but it should be noted that you might want to invest in this if you're playing solo/not playing support to increase your own healing. Personally, I get by without it, but you should know this anyway.

Armour, boon duration, critical chance, critical damage, condition duration and health are also listed in your stat section to show you what your main attributes are actually doing.

As a guardian, you'll also see the recharge rate of your virtues here. This is mainly influenced by your traits. I don't know enough about guardians to tell you about those, though.

This is a basic primer from someone who dabbles. Still, I'll try to answer questions you have.

[joneirikb.7506]

Hmm, I'll give it a try.

From your last post it sounds like you mostly have trouble with understanding the mechanics/underlying rules ? Basically what does all this "mumbo jumbo on my weapon skill means?" In that case I'm going to guess that one of the most confusing advice you've ever gotten in map chat is "Just play what you want".

The tooltips on each spell is generally enough to get a "rough idea" of what it does, enough to play with for the most part. And those that want more detailed info usually looks it up on the wiki afterwards. Example:

Greatsword has a whole bunch of interactions with the Combo system, this isn't obvious from the in-game descriptions at all. But:

• 4 creates a "Combo Field: Light"

• 2 does a "Combo Finisher: Whirl"

• 3 does "Combo Finisher: Leap"

• 5 does another "Combo Finisher: Whirl".

  These interact with Combo Fields in different ways (depending on what Combo Field and what Combo Finisher). Now honestly, the combo system isn't something that is going to make or break the game for you, you can play the game completely ignoring them (and many do). But explaining the entire combo system and every combination is more than most people will bother with in map chat. So people point to the Wiki instead.

If you're interested in the combo system just read up on it here, the main part to understand is to create a COMBO FIELD and then use a COMBO FINISHER (any) on or over that field. Guardian only have access to Light and Fire fields, so you only need to look at those and can ignore the rest. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo

Outside of that, it is more about finding creative uses for the skills more than anything else. For example the Greatsword again, if you disable the "auto find target for skills" in the options, you can use #3 to make long leaps for jumping puzzles, or just to aim away from a charging enemy to avoid his attack. The #3 also has a blind on hit, which cancels out the next attack the target does, so you can use it to avoid many hard attacks if you time it right. While #5 can be used in many ways, the second part with the pull, can be used to move mobs around in different situations, like keeping enemies out of control zones etc.

• TLDR: Most of this isn't really important to play, you can get past all of this by simply reading the tooltip and just "Get a feel for how it works". But if you like me, are one of those that has a need to understand how things works, then the Wiki is your friend.

---

You also mentioned more stats/gear stuff, like why use weapon X, and that guardian should use power etc.

This gets a bit tricky, because all classes can to some extent play any type of stats, and any weapon. There probably are a couple of outliers here and there, but in general that statement works.

For example I've played Guardian with the following stats over the years: Berserker, Knights, Soldiers, Clerics, Celestial, Rabid, Dire, Apothecary, Ravager. And all of them "worked", most of them was probably not optimal though. It depends more on what play-style you're after, what kind of build you want, and what synergies with the rest of your build (traits, skills, weapons, runes/sigils).

So for example "power", sure, Guardian works well with Power, but it also works with Condi (until you meet something immune to fire) and can make a pretty mean Fire damage build. But I would agree that power is easier to wrap your head around for guardian. The problem with that, is that "power" also refers to a bunch of different things, from my list above: Berserker, Knights, Soldiers, Clerics (arguably Celestial and Ravager) all counts as "power".

That said, the most common for PVE is to play Berserker stats (Power, Precision, Ferocity) for max damage, and no defense. But you can, and should, have a couple of more defensive parts (like Soldier: Power, Toughness, Vitality) to give you some defenses while learning and mastering any class, pure zerk is pretty glass cannon.

So making stat recommendations is hard if we don't know what kind of build/play-style you want to play.

Some general tips thought:

• Stack the main damage stat. For example:
  • Berserker + Soldier, both stack Power as the main damage stat.
  • Dire + Rabid: Both stack condition damage as the main stat
• Work in enough defensive stats to suit your play style:
  • Berserker weapon and armor, try Soldier or Clerics trinkets as many or few as you need to survive.
• Find the balance that works for you, between "enough" damage, and "enough" defenses for survival. You won't be able to get enough defenses to stand in front of all enemies and face tank anyways, so no point trying to stat for full tank.
• Guardians main defenses are actually: Dodge, Blocks, Invulnerability, Aegis, Protection, Blind, Stability etc. These are what makes Guardian "tanky" not Armor/Hitpoints or defensive stats.

---

Weapons:

Again the problem here is that the game tries to make all weapons usable/playable. So it depends more on play style and preference (again). But Greatsword is a very popular weapon in most modes, especially PVE because:

• Good cleaves (hits multiple targets, 3 on AA, 5 on rest)
• Multiple AOE (Skill 2+4, somewhat 5)
• Mobility (#3 can be used to move faster, make jumps, get out of way etc)
• Decent Damage
• Most players likes the look of Greatswords

Where most players seemingly doesn't like the Mace, because it has a slower attack speed/skills, and most players seemingly doesn't like the block mechanic on #3. The mace is still a good weapon, but it just doesn't fit the "common players" preference.

But all weapons have uses/advantages/disadvantages, their own play-style, and can be useful. There isn't a "one weapon to rule them all".

---

If what you want is a playable build, and explain all the synergies and why it works like it does, and why you should do X and Y etc. Then sure, just ask for that. It can be a good way to learn.

But this game just doesn't have "1 right way", even if you want to optimize/min-max, it can vary depending on content and game mode etc. The game does have a very cool action combat system, which lets you improve as a player by getting better at fighting, and while a good build can help a lot, it won't carry you as much as in many other games. This also means that "Rotations" isn't always optimal :p often times you'll be much better off just using skills as the situation demands.

---

TLDR: I've tried to explain why all that useless "play as you want" actually works!

If this wasn't what you asked, then move along.

[castlemanic.3198]

So your issues are with choosing specific stats and skill rotations?

You're going to have a tougher time than with other mmos simply because of the nature of gw2's limited skillbar and how stats work as well, in that there's a ton of open space for you to play with, both stat wise and rotation wise, which includes how you can swap between two weapon sets mid-combat. Where other mmos may have each class use a dedicated set of stats (mage = intelligence, warrior =strength), GW2 uses an entirely new stat system to work with to better accommodate the kind of combat it's designed around and to better improve the ability for any single class to be used within a wide variety of scenarios. It's unfortunate that GW2 doesn't go into depth on what each stat does, so maybe I can help.

There's two important stats when dealing with damage, power and condition damage.

Condition damage is anything with a fancy symbol next to it, and conditions are damage over time (dots), there are 5 conditions that damage enemies and guardians primarily use one, burning (which just deals damage over time). For the sake of complete information, the other four conditions are bleeding (deals damage over time), confusion (deals damage over time and deals extra damage any time that enemy uses a skill), torment (deals damage over time and extra damage while the enemy moves), and poison (deals damage over time and reduces healing done by 33%).

There are more conditions as a whole, but condition damage specifically applies to these 5 conditions. Uniquely, these conditions also stack in intensity, meaning that if you place 5 burning on an enemy, it will deal 5 times the damage during the duration of that burn. the duration each condition lasts is given by it's skill description.

Power is straight damage, any time you hit something without using burning or other conditions, it's dealing power damage.

Then you get into other damage stat information as well. precision improves critical hit chance, while ferocity improves the amount of damage a critical hit does. Someone will have to clarify if conditions can critically hit, I can't recall that info right now. There's also expertise, which increases how long conditions are applied for, this isn't limited to just the damaging conditions, but all conditions like vulnerability (which increases power and condition damage taken) or crippled (reduces your movement speed) and others. If you'd like more detail on all conditions please let me know.

Then there's the defensive stats. Vitality increases health, toughness reduces the amount of power damage you take (not condition damage), healing power increases how much you heal with healing abilities (this is every heal, so healing you do to yourself and to allies are all improved) and there's a final stat called concentration, which increases the duration of boons. Boons are the opposite of conditions, in that they help you, they're buffs essentially where conditions are debuffs. Guardians are good at giving boons to themselves and their allies.

Stats are improved by the type of gear you select. Everyone is at a baseline set of stats depending on their level, but those stats are improved by the gear you choose.

Some classes can remove boons from enemies, I don't believe guardian to be one of those classes. However, every class can remove conditions from themselves, usually denoted as 'cleanses', though some abilities will remove certain conditions, not all. Most cleanses remove a certain number of conditions (usually 1-3 per skill cast), but some can remove a ton or even every condition at once. these are entirely class dependent

There's a third kind of section when talking about effects you can place on an individual (and second when placing effects on an enemy), and these are control effects. Pulls, pushes, knockdowns, knockbacks etc. are all control effects, they stop your enemy from performing skills and act as interrupts, which is good for preventing powerful skills from being cast (this is also important to use on any enemies that have a blue bar under their health, use control effects to knock their bar down, when it reaches zero they'll be stunned and you can deal extra damage for a brief period of time, the blue bar will recover so while it's recovering, it can't be knocked down again by using control effects, so save it until it's blue). Similar to how every class can remove conditions, every class can also break out of control effects through stunbreaks (look for a broken chain icon under a skills description when you hover your mouse over it), though not every skill can do this, so be careful about your skill selection.

There's two conditions that act like control effects, taunt and fear. Fear makes you run away from an enemy, taunt makes you run toward an enemy and use your first weapon skill. Fear and taunt can be removed by either using a condition cleanse or a stunbreak, you don't need to use both.

On top of that, every class has customisation through their traits. Each class has 5 traitlines they can choose from, and at level 71, you have three trait line slots. Traits improve various aspects of your class, from improving certain abilities or weapons to general things like improving dodges or reducing fall damage taken, so these have to be read carefully to make sure you know what they're doing. Certain traits will have a word highlighted in yellow, if i remember correctly. Yellow words indicate a type of utility skill you have access to, say for example, meditation for guardian. While selecting a skill on the right side of your health bar, if you hover over almost every skill, there'll be a word in yellow, which is useful for identifying which traits will affect it. For guardians specifically, there's a type of skill called symbol that's on weapon skills, so make sure you recognise that too.

And then, there's your weapons. You'll note that most weapons will tell you whether you can use them or not, each weapon has a unique set of skills depending on your class (so a warrior and a guardian won't use a sword the same way). This is to further enable everyone to pick a weaponset they prefer for their build, some weapons are better for condition damage than others, mace and staff for guardian are good at healing and supporting allies as opposed to dealing a ton of damage. Lots of customisation with very, very little tutorial on how to do it. For rotations, that depends entirely on what you choose to do and what role you wish to take. Remember, even though there is a taunt mechanic in the game and healing, there isn't a traditional holy trinity when talking about roles, it's mostly whatever you wish to do. Hopefully with all this info, reading skill descriptions and trait descriptions will help you better understand the game.

If you have any further questions or need further clarification, let me know.

[Mythx.9847]

Thank you all for your help! I think I will give this game a pass!

[zealex.9410]

If you wanted to id suggest getting into raids since thats where skills and stats mostly matter, and well in t4 fractals. But i see u already decided so ehh w/e

[joneirikb.7506]

@Mythx.9847 said:Thank you all for your help! I think I will give this game a pass!

"Pass" as in skipping, not trying ? Sorry looked un-clear.

GW2 is a complicated game, that can be played very simple, with way too little in-game explanations and tutorials. But it is very hard to help if you can't explain what you want help with.

[Tsakhi.8124]

I will do my best to help you, please note that I'm still learning, myself, but I play Guardian and love it. In PvE, I use the great sword to quickly close distances between whatever it is I'm trying to protect/kill, once I'm there, I switch to scepter and shield, if I'm going against a boss or an elite, the first thing I do is press 4 (Shield of Judgement, which grants protection and aegis (basically, the first hit doesn't hurt you) in a fan-shape in front of you and can be used if you're going against multiple opponents or if a boss just hits really, REALLY, hard. Please note: Shield of Judgement grants aegis up to 5 allies. Because of this, I like to have back-up, just in case we're getting our butts handed to us Shield of Absorption (key 5 by default) It creates a dome around you and your allies that enemies are pushed from and cannot enter, very useful if you're trying to protect someone that is reviving someone else. Speaking of which, I've noticed something I call a "revive chain", where the person that has the most health while downed get first care, because they revive quicker, lessening the odds of more casualties. After they're revived, they move on to the next person, sometimes a GROUP of people will revive one person, depending on the situation.

Sorry about that, I had to mention it before I forgot. Anyway, the reason I use a scepter is so I can lock enemies in place, burn them, and then keep up with defending of folks. You will see, when you equip the scepter, that key 3 is a good opening move to keep an enemy locked down (Chains of Light) and then you can either start chaining your attacks, or you can go into defense mode while the others beat the snot out of the enemy. Personally, I prefer chaining when I'm alone, full defense/support offense when in group situations. That's just me, though. As for utility skills, you might consider Sanctuary, which provides a safe spot for injured players to go, as enemies cannot enter and neither can projectiles. As well as the Shout ability: "Save Yourselves!", which draws conditions from your allies, transferring them to you, and you gain boons as well. As a follow up, I sometimes use Contemplation of Purity, which changes conditions into boons.

Finally, I suggest that you stay an area with predictable enemies (weaker enemies), get a feel of what a move does (i.e. its radius, cool down/recharge time, and how fast it activates.) By doing this, you won't have to worry about running into an enemy that will utterly decimate you because you're unsure what moves to do where. Trust me, I got killed a lot because I was too cocky. And remember, there are always people that are willing to assist you in any way they can. You're not alone in this, you can do it! <3 (hey, if a slowpoke like me can, anyone can. :p )

[Tyncale.1629]

OP, I hear you.

Combat in GW2 is definately the odd one out in MMO land. After Everquest and its million clones (yes, WoW too) I feel that Guild Wars and GW2 went in another direction which needs getting used to. It is Action combat to the Max. Well, as far as MMO's go.

There is no real Trinity(Healer, Tank, DPS), there is nothing like a simple Fireball that uses mana or Greater Heal that neatly fills up your or anothers HP bar. There are Traits that tie into Skills, that have all sorts of very shortlived effects that can be Boons or Conditions or Crowd Control; there are Cleanses and Combo's too. Everyone has some sort of Heal but it hardly feels like a real Heal. There are Stacks and Durations, and everything seems to be measured in (milli) seconds.

And Mobs seem to have access to the same insane arsenal too, so you find yourself constantly thrown on the ground or in the air, or Knocked back, or immobilized or stunned or dazed!

I think it actually took me HoT before I finally started to really understand and use my characters skills, traits and abilities to good effect: because HoT was so much harder.

In Everquest, an ability like Dodge or Block was some passive stat that you could increase: in GW2, Dodge is a crucial active skill that is an integral part of your survival. I can understand that there are folks who simply do not like that sort of actiony stuff. Hell, writing about it makes me sometimes long for Everquest. :)