A friend and I just started GW and while not new to MMOs (ten years of EQ/EQ2/Vanguard and pen-n-paper RPGs before that), we have only played GW for a week now.
After some practice and test teams, we created an Assassin and Ritualist duo. Secondaries are Ranger for me and Monk for her. Our goals are primarily PVE questing and running as a duo team alone.
NOTE: That doesn't mean we'll never use heroes and henchman, just we enjoy the challenge of a duo and will run like that often.
I'm posting here for advice on my side of the equation: playing as an assassin and necessarily doing a good bit of the tanking.
We realize that not having a true tank is challenging but we are willing to work hard, so I'm looking for advice for running my Assassin to survive and take as much pressure off of her as I can.
Against melee I seem to survive better than I expected. Everything I read suggested Assassin would die pretty much instantly, but I've found I can sometimes take quite a beating. Spells and fire seem to hurt me the worst, and a couple of the DoTs hurt badly.
We are currently still in the Monastery area, getting ready to go to the east side of the island (level 14).
My current armor:
I found all the collector armor, then added runes and signets after farming for some cash. I put +10/15 armor bonus on chest and legs because I assume those get hit the most often. The rest I put energy or skill boosts on (criticals and daggers).
My current points:
I spent attribute points in the following order: Critical Strikes, Dagger Mastery, Beast Mastery.
My current tactics:
The only thing I use with ranger skills is my pet. I charmed a Tiger and ran him around getting hit so level him as much as I could. He has almost caught up with me now.
My first 3 hotbar skills are Jagged Strike, Fox Fangs, and Twisting Fangs. I realize that is two bleeders, but found Unsuspecting Strike at double the energy seemed to make it harder to finish the chain, even though it hit harder.
I generally keep a resurrection signet on the bar because we run alone, though that does really hurt.
I use Critical Eye before attacking and try to keep it up during the fight. For defense I mostly use Shadow Refuge as needed. If I think a pull is going to be really bad, I'll cast Shroud of Distress ahead since often I get spiked at the start until I kill a few of the enemy.
I have the pet heal on my bar of course for the Tiger.
What else I keep depends on situation. If I know enemies are weak I'll toss some of the defense for another attack, but since I'm learning I tend to keep things awhile and study them for now.
When we engage I try to be mindful of her healing range and preferrably let her get spirits up before I attack. I lock my pet on one target out of range, so that when I charge I'm hitting two targets. I stay engaged as long as I can manage, running back to her for a spot heal as needed or just to de-aggro to rest. I leave the Tiger there and he usually gets aggro as I move away. She takes some heat when I back off of course, but usually its OK.
If the pet is failing, I'll toss a heal before I charge back in.
If I get out of range of her heals (managing ranges is currently a problem for us, a learning one I guess) then I self heal and try to make at least one kill to reduce enemy DPS, then retreat to her for a heal, plus using my own as I can manage.
We mostly do OK, and have survived more than we expected, and we've only been playing about a week so far.
Usually what kills me is DoTs and I believe fire and spells hurt me fairly bad. Usually she seems better able to handle fire and spells, but dies when I let a melee get past me and target her heavily.
To try and keep aggro and make healing easier on her, I will somethings just rotate targets, letting auto-attack build up aggro, and then focus on killing the most dangerous enemy first.
If someone is hurting us bad with DoTs I'll target them, otherwise I tend to target their healers and mesmers if I can. If ranged units are hitting her, I'll target them, if melee goes after her, I intercept them.
I try to keep my pet locked on units causing us trouble that I cannot currently take care of.
Side note: the UI of this game is really primitive to us. Seems to lack implied targeting and other things. Advice on managing targeting appreciated in case we have missed something obvious.
So, I'd really appreciate any advice on what I can do to survive better, and make things easier on her.
Also, just out of curiosity... was there a better secondary I could have or should have considered to run in a duo with her?
Thank you for reading.
Assassin in duo with a Ritualist
seangw
Yume Shinigami
On the targeting: Ctrl+Space 'calls' or 'pings' the currently selected target. Holding shift while pressing ctrl+space does the call without forcing you to attack (This is known as suppressing your action). You can also call your weapon sets, skills you use, skills an enemy is using/used and a bunch of other things like morale and other effects. Simply hit Ctrl+[Number Key] to ping your skill usage, or click the element on the interface to ping that. This is useful for letting your team quickly know you need a hex removal, or pinging your health or energy can indicate you need heals or an energy buff (such as 'Blood is Power').
Another UI-related point, don't forget to draw and ping on the map if it will aid your team. Another thing that can really help is finding a guild with a vent server you can use. Voice chat is almost always the most efficient method of communication in the game.
Good luck with the tanking, hopefully someone else can fill that gap!
Another UI-related point, don't forget to draw and ping on the map if it will aid your team. Another thing that can really help is finding a guild with a vent server you can use. Voice chat is almost always the most efficient method of communication in the game.
Good luck with the tanking, hopefully someone else can fill that gap!
FoxBat
There's an armor upgrade waiting for you in seitung so look for that. Body parts are hit perfectly proportional to the value you get from upgrades, there's no advantage to putting armor in legs and energy in other spots. If you want better tanking just go all +armor. Also watch the type of armor bonus you are getting, many of the assassin insignias only work against physical damage, which those fire eles naturally bypass.
Find a longbow/flatbow and use that to help send your pet into battle before you. You can also sometimes get them to attack first just by locking a target for the pet to attack and walking close enough. This will make them better at grabbing aggro, and a decent leveled pet takes less damage than you will.
Your ritualist friend should use as many attack spirits as possible, they are both overpowered damage and decent distractions, particularly if the rit stands significantly behind the spirits.
You should be able to clear Shing Jae well enough as a duo, albeit Zen Daijun is going to require some retries as you hone your strategies. You're going to hit an absolute brick wall though once you get to the Kaineng mainland and are still trying to do 8-man zones with 2 players, especially the missions as most of them have you escorting NPCs. It's far from impossible, but you're going to need the elite "Shadow Form" to have a hope of tanking that much damage, which will cripple the amount you can deal, leaving it mostly up to your ritualist friend. Alternatively you can both get every single spirit spell (including elites signet of spirits/signet of ghostly might) and just summon spirits and run away, that will kill everything fairly safely, albeit at slow pace.
If you have prophecies my advice would be to instead go to Lion's Arch via the quest in Kaineng center and continue towards D'lessio Seaboard, the leveling curve there is smoother and you will have an easier time continuing to duo without dipping into cheesy tactics like the above. Guild Wars is very easy to "break" with all the skill combos if you really set your mind to it.
Find a longbow/flatbow and use that to help send your pet into battle before you. You can also sometimes get them to attack first just by locking a target for the pet to attack and walking close enough. This will make them better at grabbing aggro, and a decent leveled pet takes less damage than you will.
Your ritualist friend should use as many attack spirits as possible, they are both overpowered damage and decent distractions, particularly if the rit stands significantly behind the spirits.
You should be able to clear Shing Jae well enough as a duo, albeit Zen Daijun is going to require some retries as you hone your strategies. You're going to hit an absolute brick wall though once you get to the Kaineng mainland and are still trying to do 8-man zones with 2 players, especially the missions as most of them have you escorting NPCs. It's far from impossible, but you're going to need the elite "Shadow Form" to have a hope of tanking that much damage, which will cripple the amount you can deal, leaving it mostly up to your ritualist friend. Alternatively you can both get every single spirit spell (including elites signet of spirits/signet of ghostly might) and just summon spirits and run away, that will kill everything fairly safely, albeit at slow pace.
If you have prophecies my advice would be to instead go to Lion's Arch via the quest in Kaineng center and continue towards D'lessio Seaboard, the leveling curve there is smoother and you will have an easier time continuing to duo without dipping into cheesy tactics like the above. Guild Wars is very easy to "break" with all the skill combos if you really set your mind to it.
luwe80
How far are you from capping Signet of Spirits in Ferndale? What I would give a try is having her setup a bunch of spirits to tank, pull mobs on the spirits, and then you come in and kill all the mobs as they're working on the spirits. Meantime she protects/heals you and helps kills mobs as well.
Bristlebane
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Originally Posted by seangw
A friend and I just started GW and while not new to MMOs (ten years of EQ/EQ2/Vanguard and pen-n-paper RPGs before that), we have only played GW for a week now.
Hey, as a former EQ1 player (~5years), welcome to Guild Wars 
First off, Assassin can be a bit challenging, especially against all the zillions of afflicted in Cantha that tend to blow up big chunks of your hp everytime they die. You can vary your playstyle though, for example in areas with lots of afflicted, maybe consider ranged damage, like Crit Barrage.
If you go tanking, the PvE skill Sneak Attack can be good to have. It can keep a melee attacker permanent blind and works great with some other assassin skills, for example Unseen Fury to negate blocks so they don't disrupt your dagger chains.
Ritualist is great with Signet of Spirits, and the spirits can substitute a bit for lack of tanking. Place them strategically at a wall and they will bodyblock foes so they attack spirits instead. Ritualist also offer a good variation in both offensive and supportive playstyle.
As for secondaries, you can change them later on in the game.
First off, Assassin can be a bit challenging, especially against all the zillions of afflicted in Cantha that tend to blow up big chunks of your hp everytime they die. You can vary your playstyle though, for example in areas with lots of afflicted, maybe consider ranged damage, like Crit Barrage.
If you go tanking, the PvE skill Sneak Attack can be good to have. It can keep a melee attacker permanent blind and works great with some other assassin skills, for example Unseen Fury to negate blocks so they don't disrupt your dagger chains.
Ritualist is great with Signet of Spirits, and the spirits can substitute a bit for lack of tanking. Place them strategically at a wall and they will bodyblock foes so they attack spirits instead. Ritualist also offer a good variation in both offensive and supportive playstyle.
As for secondaries, you can change them later on in the game.
noob4sure
Disclaimer: The following is advice on decent practice (I'm not not sure if best, but I'm sure not terrible). It is not necessarily advice on having fun. Keeping in mind that fun is the #1 priority of playing a game, read on if you want to be better.
General:
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running as a duo team alone.
General:
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For the Assassin:
tl;dr: http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:A/any_PvE_Dagger_Spammer
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Head: 12.5%
Chest: 37.5%
Hands: 12.5%
Legs: 25%
Feet: 12.5%
Armor insignia is fine, though I personally prefer Survivor (yes, I realize that's a bit out of your price range at the moment, sorry). You don't need Radiant because you have the best energy management attribute in the entire game (Critical Strikes).
Quote: The only thing I use with ranger skills is my pet. I charmed a Tiger and ran him around getting hit so level him as much as I could. He has almost caught up with me now. Don't. If you put points into beast mastery, you're wasting your points that could be in dagger mastery (which is important to have at 12 base as the largest source of your damage) or critical strikes (which you want at 12 base because 13 (12 with minor crit rune) is the breakpoint for 3 energy per crit). If you get rid of those points, your pet isn't doing enough damage to justify its existence. Therefore, don't use a pet.
Quote: My first 3 hotbar skills are Jagged Strike, Fox Fangs, and Twisting Fangs. I realize that is two bleeders, but found Unsuspecting Strike at double the energy seemed to make it harder to finish the chain, even though it hit harder. Jagged Strike is a good lead. Has a 1s recharge (lowest of all leads), causes a condition (hey it does something!) and has a 1/2sec activation time (it even hits fast). You can situationally use other leads, but Jagged Strike is generally what you'll use all the time everywhere.
Fox Fangs is a good offhand. Has a 3s recharge (lowest of all off-hands that follow a lead), does good bonus damage (great), and has a 1/2sec activation time (it also hits fast). You can situationally use other off-hands, and here you may swap for others more often than your lead (ideas for situational alternatives: Wild Strike, Golden Fox Strike).
Twisting Fangs is a terrible dual attack. Has a 15s recharge (longest of all dual attacks!), does poor damage (compared to nearly every alternative), costs 10 energy (which would be a problem if its recharge didn't make it useless in target-rich PvE), has a bleed that is redundant with your lead's bleed, and you should either get someone else to bring the deep wound or bring "Finish Him!". Ideally, both.
For a new dual attack, you should use Death Blossom, which is widely regarded as the best dual attack. Has a 2s recharge (lowest of all dual attacks), does fantastic damage (highest of all dual attacks to a single target, and it does MASSIVE AoE - with 14 dagger mastery, it does 86 bonus armor ignoring damage to your target and every single thing adjacent to it). Couple Death Blossom with Splinter Weapon and salivate to the view of numbers flying everywhere. More on Splinter Weapon later (you don't bring it - your Rit does. if he doesn't, either make him or bring a hero that does bring it).
Quote: I use Critical Eye before attacking and try to keep it up during the fight. For defense I mostly use Shadow Refuge as needed. If I think a pull is going to be really bad, I'll cast Shroud of Distress ahead since often I get spiked at the start until I kill a few of the enemy. Kill your shadow arts defensive skills. When you're done killing them, remove them from your bar. Prot is your backline's job. Don't have a backline? Get one because it's essential. Your job is dealing lots and lots of damage because you are melee and melee are the best damage dealers in the game.
Your 8 skill bar slots should usually (but sometimes not) be a solid mix of damage plus utility that helps you do more damage. Example bar:
1. Attack skill (e.g. Jagged Strike)
2. Attack skill (e.g. Fox Fangs)
3. Attack skill (e.g. Death Blossom)
4. Elite slot. Offensive utility. (e.g. Way of the Assassin)
5. Increased Attack Speed (e.g. Critical Agility)
6. Offensive utility (e.g Critical Eye)
7. Offensive utility (e.g. Asuran Scan)
8. Offensive utility (e.g. "Finish Him!")
Let me just say again, and I know coming from traditional MMO tank background it's going to seem REALLY WEIRD: your survival as it pertains to skill usage is not your job, it is your party's job. Do everything you can to make sure your positioning and general play isn't making you vulnerable, and everything after that needs to hit healing or prot when it does hit you rather than wasting bar space and attribute points on Shadow Arts defense.
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If the Rit wants to really get into it, he can keybind targeting every party member a la korean keyboard (where you use QWERASDF for abilities, numbers for party member targeting). "But what will I move with?" you ask? Click to move! You should be using click to move even if you don't use that niche keybinding style because click to move is just generally better given GW's weird game mechanics. If you want, you can even do things with click to move like cancelling part of your attack animation to continue moving between attacks after an attack has connected (this is really good to do if you plan to PvP, btw).
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