Do you have to kite everything at level 80?

[Lilly32]

Even if you wanna play a melee warrior, thief, or guardian does the difficulty of higher level mobs force you into kiting? All I read is level 80s having to kite. I just dont like kiting. I can do it obviously to get out of AoE attacks or if I need to stay at ranged for certain bosses thats fine too. But I have hated kiting in every game I have played which is why I usually stayed away from ranged classes. Even if I play a ranged class I always tried to build them for tanking and staying in melee range. Like the old SL/SL afflic locks in WoW or a WW/CM tank wiz in D3. At 80 can you farm just going toe to toe or will that faceplant you in downed state in a hurry?

[Deleted]

I am a Necromancer who uses melee attacks.

Whoever is saying you always have to kite at level 80 is telling lies. The only time I kite is when I get hit by an attack and have to retreat to siphon life. You do have to stay on the move, usually flanking your enemy or moving away for big attacks, but you don't have to kite unless you've built your character to be VERY flimsy.

[Eggoman]

I'm level 80 and on the ruins of Orr I don't kite anything on my glass cannon elementalist. But I evade 80% of the attacks, I might get hit once when fighting multiple mobs. There are a number of mechanics you need to get used to using on your character to avoid damage, if you use NONE of those then you'll end up kiting. Between dodging, blocking, reflecting, imobolize, snares and what not you should have enough avoidance to fight without getting hit. If its just one on one melee/ranged I can fight the mob w/o using my WSAD key (I do use V to evade) all day long. That is something you should be able to do, if not you might want to double check your weapons setups and skill slots so that things can be in sync better.

[-aiko-]

I can't speak for all classes, but melee Thieves don't really need to do much kiting, especially dagger/dagger. 2 dodges + death blossom = immunity for a long time. Hell, they can even aoe packs down without taking much damage (given they are melee oriented mobs).

[Underwolf]

I doubt they will make it so that even melee must kite all the time. That would be dumb. I don't think they are dumb. But, some people may end up kiting a lot as a result of neglecting other mechanics such as evading, blocking, snaring.

[Arrowstormen]

I'm a ranger, kiting is what I do best.

[Ticktox]

It's not just about kiting really, it's about avoiding the big damage moves with dodging or various defensive abilities. Got to learn the enemy and know what you need to avoid. Basic attacks shouldn't be a problem.

[Shakadam]

It's not so much kiting as "hit and run" tactics.

A typical fight as a thief is basically some high burst moves, dodge away and regain some initiative, repeat. Going face to face smash style is possible against single enemies but you'll lose a lot of HP and that is dangerous in lvl 80 zones. Mobs are very tightly packed and respawn quickly and nearly every mob has ranged attacks that take huge chunks out of your hp bar, you really don't wanna be on low hp and be surprised by something like that.
In fact, most of your fights will be vs 2-3 enemies at the same time because mobs are so tightly packed. You can not go toe-to-toe vs 2 or 3 level 80-82 mobs, atleast not as a thief.

[Deleted]

Move? Yes
Kite? No

So long as you move round the enemy to avoid attacks you should be able to do most things without kiting.

[-aiko-]

You can not go toe-to-toe vs 2 or 3 level 80-82 mobs, atleast not as a thief.

Sure you can. Granted I'm only level 64, when I kill groups of 80 mobs in WvW (and while I'm leveling) I basically rush in, pop poisons, spam death blossom. Using the +initiative on signet activation trait, as well as +initiative when stealthing trait, I'm able to stack up to 15 bleed effects and then maintain about 9 before initiative becomes a problem (they'll die before initiative becomes a problem. ).

I guess I'm built for that specifically though. I dunno how I'd do the same thing with dagger/pistol, sword/dagger, etc.