Being melee at level 80

[Dundebuns]

My warrior is on the cusp of becoming level 80, but I am wondering that if it really was the best choice for my first class. I keep hearing, and have experienced, the issues with being melee for PvE. Is the higher leveled content really that unforgiving for a melee character, or is it difficult in such a way that it is possible to improve so that eventually there isn't much of a problem?

So far the biggest issue I have had, eother than graveyard zerging a boss in Ascalonian Crypts, was the Mansion dungeon (the name escapes me) on story mode, where you fight the golem. Being that close meant i could never see his heatseeking missiles which had very tiny models anyway, and only after the fight I realised what was one hitting me.

[Dundebuns]

Cheers for the prompt reply. I should probably also mention that I don't have any intention on becoming a rifle warrior. I rolled him to get stuck in to the thick of it, but don't mind playing support/control or pure damage.

[carnifex2005]

Also, a ton of people do dungeons in full berserker or rampager gear then complain when they are one or two shot. Going into a dungeon (especially explorable mode ones) with no gear that has vitality or toughness is just asking to be ineffective (unless you are really, really good, which the grand majority of people aren't). I use carrion gear (vitality on it) with knight trinkets (toughness on it) as a D/D thief and I'm no longer so squishy. That and I choose traits that are more dungeon friendly.

[Tuqui-tuqui]

Cheers for the prompt reply. I should probably also mention that I don't have any intention on becoming a rifle warrior. I rolled him to get stuck in to the thick of it, but don't mind playing support/control or pure damage.

Like you I never saw my warrior as nothing else but a sword-swinging mofo. But I'm telling you rifles are great weapons. It is now my weapon of choice after greatswords. For group content I carry the rifle as primary and shield with mace/hammer as secondary.

[Dundebuns]

Like you I never saw my warrior as nothing else but a sword-swinging mofo. But I'm telling you rifles are great weapons. It is now my weapon of choice after greatswords. For group content I carry the rifle as primary and shield with mace/hammer as secondary.

I was thinking that having a rifle as my secondary weapon would be the best idea, so that if I was taking a beating I could roll out and still be effective, but I am wondering if it is possible to make my primary a greatsword and my secondary a mace/shield so when I get into trouble I don't have to roll out, but can continue to stay in melee while protecting myself a bit more.

As for stats, I am well aware I took quite a few pieces of vitality/healing/toughness armour from story mode rewards (also because thye looked so much better than the other pieces) and when I went in to doing dungeons I had a much easier time

[Jerom]

It's kind of odd, I have done only few explorable dungeons but what I can say that for "outside" PvE content as I am shout support with def traits warrior with toughness +healing gear even with dual axes the mobs in the events prefer more squishy targets, I can stay in melee trying to pull most dps and never get targeted. In Dungeons I found myself going into melee stays as long as I can with health Regen food, and shout healing, once I drop to below 1/3 rd health I move out to heal up with and pew pew with a long bow. Other way of playing was kiting things in circles since the survival skills are through the roof, I tend to switch weapons for multiple cripples and immobilizes but it might work with staying with melee weapons with 10 points in discipline for increase movement speed.

[Reluctant]

You can Mellee on most mobs/bosses yust fine if you yust watch what its doing and dodge the bad stuff. There are fights where a range weapon is deffiantly a good thing to have as secondary for those times where you yust have to get out for some reason.

[WorldofWorkcraft]

Depends on your group makeup sometimes, but I did HotW Explorable with a Warrior who geared for survival and melee'd a lot. Hammer mostly, I think. If you know the fights, have a good setup, and have a good enough group to throw out boons like protection and stability, as well as provide enough of everything else, you can stay in the fray and not pay with your life.

Melee is fun; I'm a Guardian and don't always enjoy switching to my Scepter/Focus, though I do when I'm not forced. It may not be that I'm ever forced, it's just harder to see some effects or react as fast when you're all up in the battle with all the effects going off on top of you.

Some boss fights, well, you'll probably want to be ranged or have a ranged weapon handy just because it's more forgiving. It's kind of like killing a Giant. Everyone knows he has his stomp, fear, and rock throw, and as a ranged you can outrange his stomp. However, it's much more satisfying to dodge-roll his stomp and keep melee'ing for me. Makes me feel better than all the people who just got stomped on.

[DrakeWurrum]

My warrior is on the cusp of becoming level 80, but I am wondering that if it really was the best choice for my first class. I keep hearing, and have experienced, the issues with being melee for PvE. Is the higher leveled content really that unforgiving for a melee character, or is it difficult in such a way that it is possible to improve so that eventually there isn't much of a problem?

So far the biggest issue I have had, eother than graveyard zerging a boss in Ascalonian Crypts, was the Mansion dungeon (the name escapes me) on story mode, where you fight the golem. Being that close meant i could never see his heatseeking missiles which had very tiny models anyway, and only after the fight I realised what was one hitting me.

Warriors can wield guns and longbows if you really can't handle being melee.

[ZerOKami]

I run double dagger thief with Valkyrie and Emerald gear, and 15/15/25/0/15 traits, based on backstab crits. I can control my stealth pretty well and know where to shadowstep after being downed. I barely die once in dungeons, maybe twice if I've never done it before. Being melee isn't hard, it just requires more awareness.

[DrakeWurrum]

15/15/25/0/15 traits

O_o

Hrm, odd build.

[Lucky_]

GS is still the main DPS workhorse weapon in warrior arsenal, both pre- and post 80. It's currently the most damaging AoE weapon in the game by a fair margin and in many cases in the explorable dungeons with DPS-checks, having a warrior is equal to having two characters of less powerful professions for the purpose of the check.

But you really want to have some limited toughness and vitality on gear at least early on while learning the ropes and a rifle or longbow as your secondary weapon to swap to in case of melee-unfriendly moments of the fight like when the enemy decides to switch on you (rifle is the single target and longbow is the AoE option for ranged combat). Once you really get how it works, you may try single handed melee weapons and shields, which give you significant tanking potential with ripostes and blocks as your second option.

And if your team needs a CC, hammer is probably the best option, but you will lose a lot of damage in comparison to GS.

[ZerOKami]

Extra initiative, aoe boons including fury on steal, 2 ini on stealth, might on stealth, ini on crit and finally Weakness because no one applies it and it's godly mitigation. It runs super fine

[4KhazModan]

Also, a ton of people do dungeons in full berserker or rampager gear then complain when they are one or two shot. Going into a dungeon (especially explorable mode ones) with no gear that has vitality or toughness is just asking to be ineffective (unless you are really, really good, which the grand majority of people aren't). I use carrion gear (vitality on it) with knight trinkets (toughness on it) as a D/D thief and I'm no longer so squishy. That and I choose traits that are more dungeon friendly.

So much this! I was doing AC story with a friend. We had this thief in our group who kept dying. After a while, I asked him about his gear, and what kind of stats he was going for. He replied, "pure power." I was a bit alarmed at this, but I assumed he had some survivability skills or traits to at least make up for it. After 20 more minutes of constantly having to rez him, I inquired about said traits and skills. He told me all he had for survival was the heal skill. I promptly kicked him from the group and we 4manned the rest of the dungeon.

[DrakeWurrum]

So much this! I was doing AC story with a friend. We had this thief in our group who kept dying. After a while, I asked him about his gear, and what kind of stats he was going for. He replied, "pure power." I was a bit alarmed at this, but I assumed he had some survivability skills or traits to at least make up for it. After 20 more minutes of constantly having to rez him, I inquired about said traits and skills. He told me all he had for survival was the heal skill. I promptly kicked him from the group and we 4manned the rest of the dungeon.

To be fair, such builds can work if you're exceptionally skilled, but most people are not.

[Jerom]

OMG Elitists. Go back to WoW where you can show off your E-Peen with your gear treadmill! Stop bringing your WoW stuff to our GW2!

/rabble
/rabble
/rabble

Dude, chill out. He is completely right. Four people are there to enjoy the game and if one party member was dragging them down for whatever reason he was completely right to remove him from the party, they are not there to carry incapable players.

True enough, such builds could work but and it's a big but you need to be able to keep up your play, if he couldn't it he was slowing them down needlessly. It's like saying. I want to run this dungeon completely without gear equipped, such excuses not going to fly. Either contribute to the group effort or look for a different group.

[DrakeWurrum]

Dude, chill out.

Don't you know sarcasm when you see it?

Hence the /rabble

[Deleted]

1. Melee weapons are high risk/reward weapons. They deal significantly more damage than most ranged but are also a lot more dangerous to use. They have their place, just don't expect to use them all the time in Dungeons.

2. ALWAYS have a ranged weapon available to you in Dungeons. I'd also recommend having one in WvW or you'll be missing out on a lot of fights. Most ranged weapons are actually a lot cooler than they seem at first. They just require a little getting used to.

3. Pure damage builds are very popular (and powerful) in PvP but have no place in Dungeons. You should always run dungeons with a significant amount of Vitality and/or Toughness.

4. Warriors are a very good class if you use the full potential and don't just sit there with your 5 passive singets and expect to wield a greatsword 24/7.

[Deleted]

My only character right now is a lvl65 warrior and I'm currently using a sword/shield and longbow build with high condition damage. I either bleed mobs to death or burn/bleed them to death a long with a lot of crits since all my gear is power/precision/condition damage

From what I've seen this build still works fine at lvl80, if you can't deal with mobs in melee range just switch to your bow.

[Dodrin]

You can play many ways as a warrior, thankfully. Even pure ranged if you're into that. Onee of my build/gear sets is pure berserker GS/Rifle. You do have to be relatively skilled in order to not die with that sort of build, and some bosses you just won't be able to go in melee. My other build is valkyrie gear Hammer+mace/GS support build. This I can stay on pretty much any boss 100% of the time and not worry about dying. Mad crazy survivability and great support (all shouts removing conditions/healing, hellz yea), low damage. But totally awesome. I'd probably recommend that sort of build for introduction into explorables.