I love your guides. They help some of us newer people understand how things work. I do have a request though. I would love to see a video on which elite specs perform better in which roles
In current Guild Wars 2 "Fractal/Strike/Raid Meta" there are two simple rules. You want to maximize your group's damage and to do so you have to have two supports one giving Alacrity and other one Quickness while either one of them is healer and the other one is damage dealer.
Hey KROOF, like your vids, i just got back into the game after 9 years and i am a bit overwhelmed, can you maybe help me out by answering a question? If you were the pick 1 elite specialization from each class that is the MOST FUN in PVE content, which one would you pick? I care about FUN element in open world pve environment, no META or PVP. Please :)
What people find to be fun is so subjective that I doubt anyone will be able to give you a simple answer. From this video alone; do you like to do damage (then either upfront or over time), do you like to heal, do you like to tank or to control the battlefield? Do you prefer relatively few inputs during combat or do you relish the complexity of managing many skills and cooldowns? Is the aesthetic important to you? Is combat even your biggest concern - my assumption is that it is, though that is just an assumption. I could go on but I'm probably already belaboring the point.
@@fakepants well its a bit complex, ive played mmos for 20 years and always healed or tanked, but in gw2 theres no dedicated healer or tank and if you do PVE as healer then you need very expensive gear, to get it you need to have DPS spec to progress solo pve enough to a point where you respec to healer, so you always need to start as a DPS :) I prefer melee over ranged and I like complex rotation and a lot of utility and mobility, preferably fast paced. so far i have only unlocked bladesworn and it feels a bit clunky to me, so i am probably looking for other options :)
Hiya Kroof, do you remember that custom template for abilities' changes you were using on your last stream? Cause I am looking for this and have no idea how it's called
As someone coming from other mmos it seems weird that there is no traditional tanking in this game. Like you can’t force enemies to only attack you. I remember when I first tried this game how aggravating it was getting attacked by a boss as a squishy DPS player, and it turned me off of the game. Any advice?
Great video again Kroof :). Out of topic, but i was wondering if you could make a GW2 soundtrack review. Im yet again listening to HoT soundtrack and i think its the best one from all of the GW2 music. I really wanna know your opinion :). Thanks and take care.
Been trying to get into gw2 for years but just cant. i have like 4 lv 80, but dont know what to do after, and kind of really intimidated by raids and fractals. Maybe ill give it a go again.
I suggest Strike Missions as an intro to GW2 instanced content. The Icebrood Saga Strike Missions are rather easy and then you can move on to the End of Dragons Strike Missions. The challenge mode of the EoD Strike Missions will be waiting for you whenever you feel comfortable and you'll already know the basic mechanics from playing the normal modes. Raids also recently got an "emboldened" mode where 1 Raid Wing a week buffs you every time the group wipe, acting as an easy mode of sorts. Tier 1 Fractals are also VERY easy and Tier 2 Fractals aren't too bad either.
@@TheDragonWhimsy wow thanks for the advice. Pretty much almost always a solo player and im pretty shy, so getting into structured group contents always ups my anxiety , ill try easing into it. Maybe ill get into it again.
I have to say the thing that bugs me the most about the..."traditional"...MMO mindset is how such players blatantly refuse to even acknowledge the concept of hybrid roles. Especially since in GW2 hybrids are actually very powerful. Heck there are multiple classes wholly designed around the concept of hybrid roles (revenant, elementalist, engineer, necromancer). As an example let me blow your mind... Necromancer, your weapons are staff and scepter. Your gear set is Dire (condition damage, toughness, vitality). Your skills are minions, minions, minions, and a few more minions. Your specializations are Blood Magic, Death Magic, and Curses. You are now every role simultaneously. Strike DPS: Your minions will dog-pile anything you attack and deal constant strike damage. Minion damage DOES NOT scale based on your stats, only your level, so there is zero need to invest in strike damage stats. Condition DPS: Your two weapon sets will be putting out constant conditions as you duck and weave through the battle. Control: Your staff has several "control conditions" such as fear and chill. In addition you can't get much more "area denial" than a swarm of rotting undead abominations physically body-blocking your target from getting too close. Support/Heal: Through blood magic you'll just naturally have an aura of group life-steal around yourself, providing weak, but constant, healing to yourself, all your allies, and your minions. The more invested in damage your friends are, the bigger the heals they get from this. Tank: Baseline you'll be working with roughly 30k health, and about 3k armor just from the gearset. On top of that every minion you summon grants you bonus armor. On top of that the curses spec allows you to lifesteal with your conditions. On top of that Blood magic makes your minions lifesteal for you (they do damage, you get the heal). On top of that your minions have greatly extended uptime from your party lifesteal passive also effecting them. On top of that you can toggle on Death Shroud at any time to lock your health bar and effectively become temporarily immortal. On top of THAT Death Magic gives you Unholy Sanctuary; allowing you to regen health while "turtling" in shroud AND automatically enters shroud when your health drops to zero (get out of death free card). So not only are you putting out massive amounts of every kind of damage, you're also locking down enemies with movement/action impairing conditions and physical barriers, AND constantly healing the party, AND you're basically unkillable. Addendum: So you don't think I'm bias; I'm actually a ranger main. Necromancers are just broken.
Yep that’s the beauty of the game - it’s immense flexibility. Though, these highly scattered builds can often lack specialization, and make them less than desirable in End-Game content. Builds can be useful if they are “majoring” in one role, while also being able to “minor” in another - able to wiggle around while not losing their core strength.
@@KROOF I don't feel like hybrid roles loose any strength; again that's just the traditional mindset overriding objective reality. Take for example the revenant. I get that these days this is a little less obvious because it now has three elite specs, but imagine back when it first came out and all it had was the herald. A revenant HAD to be a hybrid, there was objectively no choice in the matter. You couldn't go pure support or pure damage because you always have to take two legends, and there simply wasn't/isn't two legends for every role. You HAVE to have a second, unrelated, role in your back pocket. The revenant has no choice but to be a hybrid and yet didn't loose anything because of it. Likewise look at elementalist; each element is tired to a role. No matter what weapon or elite you use water ALWAYS leans toward support, while earth ALWAYS leans toward control. So if you decide to be a damage ele, do you just not use those attunements? Obviously not, but by using them you're automatically playing a hybrid role, even if you didn't gear for it. You have no choice but to use both support and control skills in your rotation. Period. I'd go so far as to say it's actually much more difficult to build for a pure role in GW2 because every class has these hybrid mechanics built in, and spread through everything. So unless you're sticking to "easy mode" classes like Warrior or Guardian you are always some kind of hybrid regardless if you want to acknowledge it. And the game reflects this, players (mostly coming from other MMOs while GW1 vets tended to embrace this from day one) spent literal years whining about the lack of defined roles until they ultimately forced Arena Net to add traditional raid content and roles with the expansions. Something that not only were not originally planned for the game, but that Arena Net even said they didn't want to add. The game was designed and built from the ground up for hybrids and non-traditional builds to be the standard, not the exception. And the current state of buildcraft and content only came about because of a legion of thick skulled whiny former WoW players spending a decade banging their heads against a wall complaining instead of adapting.
I don’t think this is a correct representation of the roles in gw2 Like another comment suggested. Solely looking at strikes, raids, fractals, and other high end game content. The roles would be: boonsupport, boonhealer, dps. Boondps and boonhealer each giving quickness or alacrity as main boon. Dps is self explanatory. Tanks don’t rly exist in the game unless a specific encounters require it, and even then it might be random fixation/tanking, toughness based or another form of fixation/agro/tanking some fights might require two tanks etc. Any role can tank given that they have enough sustain themselves or are provided the sustain. So mostly healers are tanks if needed. Hell even some raids, fractals might not even need healers depending on the group. Considering open world, spvp, wvw, and less high endgame pve roles are different or none existing at all. The latter concerning open world. Since any class today can nearly do everything. You can do anything. You want to cc more? Sure grab cc skills and be a “controller” like Kroof suggested. Etc. In open world build what you like and enjoy. No one cares. For pvp roles are hard to determine as well and a lot have overlapping features as versaitillity is key so I will not talk about them. Same for wvw ( and I didn’t play enough wvw to talk about it). Anyhow those are just my two cents. Please don’t take it as an offense, I love Kroof’s videos they’re very fun and provide me with a fresh perspective on things. I don’t know what content Kroof had in mind either when making this video. I just wanted to clarify some things if newer players are considering raids, fractals and strikes.
The title of “boonsupport” really is nothing though… as they also are looking to do as much damage as possible (Quickbrand, Herald, Bladesworn.) that’s why I incorporated Quickness in the DPS category, as it’s not its sole role. Same with healing. The title of “boon” is superfluous to a larger audience, and they are just natural parts of the game. No player is just looking to give boons and lay there waiting for them to drop off to come alive again, and do it all over. They are either doing DPS or Healing.
@@KROOF even so, you can have dps alac mech as well. I feel that putting them into certain categories like saying "Healers will use alac" gives the wrong impression to newer players as even chronomancer gives alac for their tanking and boon support dps builds
@@Wiltings that’s why I didn’t go into specific classes, but just touched on what is generally attributed. “Often times” not “always.” Heal Mech = Alac. Druid = Alac Specter = Alac Tempest = Alac Heal Renegade(probably outdated) = Alac.
Timestamps
0:00 - Roles Of GW2
2:56 - Which Class?
3:25 - Gear Stats
4:45 - Weapons & Utilities
6:13 - Specializations
7:30 - Outro
I would argue alacricity is offensive too, the faster cd your big hits, the more you use em= more dps.
I love your guides. They help some of us newer people understand how things work. I do have a request though. I would love to see a video on which elite specs perform better in which roles
The answer young grasshopper is
Mechanist.
You are welcome
@@tonydalimata FULL TEA 😂
Recently gave gw2 a go and your guides are a god send, tyvm
More resources for new players are aways great, especially high quality videos like this
In current Guild Wars 2 "Fractal/Strike/Raid Meta" there are two simple rules. You want to maximize your group's damage and to do so you have to have two supports one giving Alacrity and other one Quickness while either one of them is healer and the other one is damage dealer.
Thank you! I love your videos, they are always super informative and clear!
Awesome video :) I shared it with all my friends who recently joined the game!!
P.S. Make Aeigis Great again!!!
Thank you for the guide I appreciate it a lot ❤️
Just started playing the game thanks for this guide
Hey KROOF, like your vids, i just got back into the game after 9 years and i am a bit overwhelmed, can you maybe help me out by answering a question? If you were the pick 1 elite specialization from each class that is the MOST FUN in PVE content, which one would you pick? I care about FUN element in open world pve environment, no META or PVP.
Please :)
What people find to be fun is so subjective that I doubt anyone will be able to give you a simple answer. From this video alone; do you like to do damage (then either upfront or over time), do you like to heal, do you like to tank or to control the battlefield? Do you prefer relatively few inputs during combat or do you relish the complexity of managing many skills and cooldowns? Is the aesthetic important to you? Is combat even your biggest concern - my assumption is that it is, though that is just an assumption. I could go on but I'm probably already belaboring the point.
@@fakepants well its a bit complex, ive played mmos for 20 years and always healed or tanked, but in gw2 theres no dedicated healer or tank and if you do PVE as healer then you need very expensive gear, to get it you need to have DPS spec to progress solo pve enough to a point where you respec to healer, so you always need to start as a DPS :) I prefer melee over ranged and I like complex rotation and a lot of utility and mobility, preferably fast paced. so far i have only unlocked bladesworn and it feels a bit clunky to me, so i am probably looking for other options :)
I HAVE NEVER NOTICED THE SPECS/TRAITS PATTERNS!!!!!
It’s a fun little trick ;3
Hiya Kroof, do you remember that custom template for abilities' changes you were using on your last stream? Cause I am looking for this and have no idea how it's called
As someone coming from other mmos it seems weird that there is no traditional tanking in this game. Like you can’t force enemies to only attack you. I remember when I first tried this game how aggravating it was getting attacked by a boss as a squishy DPS player, and it turned me off of the game.
Any advice?
Great video again Kroof :). Out of topic, but i was wondering if you could make a GW2 soundtrack review. Im yet again listening to HoT soundtrack and i think its the best one from all of the GW2 music. I really wanna know your opinion :). Thanks and take care.
Been trying to get into gw2 for years but just cant. i have like 4 lv 80, but dont know what to do after, and kind of really intimidated by raids and fractals.
Maybe ill give it a go again.
I suggest Strike Missions as an intro to GW2 instanced content. The Icebrood Saga Strike Missions are rather easy and then you can move on to the End of Dragons Strike Missions. The challenge mode of the EoD Strike Missions will be waiting for you whenever you feel comfortable and you'll already know the basic mechanics from playing the normal modes.
Raids also recently got an "emboldened" mode where 1 Raid Wing a week buffs you every time the group wipe, acting as an easy mode of sorts.
Tier 1 Fractals are also VERY easy and Tier 2 Fractals aren't too bad either.
@@TheDragonWhimsy wow thanks for the advice. Pretty much almost always a solo player and im pretty shy, so getting into structured group contents always ups my anxiety , ill try easing into it. Maybe ill get into it again.
I have to say the thing that bugs me the most about the..."traditional"...MMO mindset is how such players blatantly refuse to even acknowledge the concept of hybrid roles. Especially since in GW2 hybrids are actually very powerful. Heck there are multiple classes wholly designed around the concept of hybrid roles (revenant, elementalist, engineer, necromancer). As an example let me blow your mind...
Necromancer, your weapons are staff and scepter. Your gear set is Dire (condition damage, toughness, vitality). Your skills are minions, minions, minions, and a few more minions. Your specializations are Blood Magic, Death Magic, and Curses. You are now every role simultaneously.
Strike DPS: Your minions will dog-pile anything you attack and deal constant strike damage. Minion damage DOES NOT scale based on your stats, only your level, so there is zero need to invest in strike damage stats.
Condition DPS: Your two weapon sets will be putting out constant conditions as you duck and weave through the battle.
Control: Your staff has several "control conditions" such as fear and chill. In addition you can't get much more "area denial" than a swarm of rotting undead abominations physically body-blocking your target from getting too close.
Support/Heal: Through blood magic you'll just naturally have an aura of group life-steal around yourself, providing weak, but constant, healing to yourself, all your allies, and your minions. The more invested in damage your friends are, the bigger the heals they get from this.
Tank: Baseline you'll be working with roughly 30k health, and about 3k armor just from the gearset. On top of that every minion you summon grants you bonus armor. On top of that the curses spec allows you to lifesteal with your conditions. On top of that Blood magic makes your minions lifesteal for you (they do damage, you get the heal). On top of that your minions have greatly extended uptime from your party lifesteal passive also effecting them. On top of that you can toggle on Death Shroud at any time to lock your health bar and effectively become temporarily immortal. On top of THAT Death Magic gives you Unholy Sanctuary; allowing you to regen health while "turtling" in shroud AND automatically enters shroud when your health drops to zero (get out of death free card).
So not only are you putting out massive amounts of every kind of damage, you're also locking down enemies with movement/action impairing conditions and physical barriers, AND constantly healing the party, AND you're basically unkillable.
Addendum:
So you don't think I'm bias; I'm actually a ranger main. Necromancers are just broken.
Yep that’s the beauty of the game - it’s immense flexibility. Though, these highly scattered builds can often lack specialization, and make them less than desirable in End-Game content. Builds can be useful if they are “majoring” in one role, while also being able to “minor” in another - able to wiggle around while not losing their core strength.
@@KROOF I don't feel like hybrid roles loose any strength; again that's just the traditional mindset overriding objective reality. Take for example the revenant. I get that these days this is a little less obvious because it now has three elite specs, but imagine back when it first came out and all it had was the herald. A revenant HAD to be a hybrid, there was objectively no choice in the matter. You couldn't go pure support or pure damage because you always have to take two legends, and there simply wasn't/isn't two legends for every role. You HAVE to have a second, unrelated, role in your back pocket. The revenant has no choice but to be a hybrid and yet didn't loose anything because of it.
Likewise look at elementalist; each element is tired to a role. No matter what weapon or elite you use water ALWAYS leans toward support, while earth ALWAYS leans toward control. So if you decide to be a damage ele, do you just not use those attunements? Obviously not, but by using them you're automatically playing a hybrid role, even if you didn't gear for it. You have no choice but to use both support and control skills in your rotation. Period.
I'd go so far as to say it's actually much more difficult to build for a pure role in GW2 because every class has these hybrid mechanics built in, and spread through everything. So unless you're sticking to "easy mode" classes like Warrior or Guardian you are always some kind of hybrid regardless if you want to acknowledge it. And the game reflects this, players (mostly coming from other MMOs while GW1 vets tended to embrace this from day one) spent literal years whining about the lack of defined roles until they ultimately forced Arena Net to add traditional raid content and roles with the expansions. Something that not only were not originally planned for the game, but that Arena Net even said they didn't want to add. The game was designed and built from the ground up for hybrids and non-traditional builds to be the standard, not the exception. And the current state of buildcraft and content only came about because of a legion of thick skulled whiny former WoW players spending a decade banging their heads against a wall complaining instead of adapting.
Nice.
I really wish every profession had a taunt move.
can i use a shield and be a dps? i always loved this, but not many mmos let me do this
Yep yep!! They can be nice in open-world and in some dungeons! 😁
@@KROOF wich professions you think fits better a dps+shield @KROOF?
I see lots.of Mesmer Chrono.use Shield and Sword and do very high dps
😊👍🏼❤️
a bit offtopic but you look alot like Will from stranger things
I don’t think this is a correct representation of the roles in gw2
Like another comment suggested.
Solely looking at strikes, raids, fractals, and other high end game content.
The roles would be: boonsupport, boonhealer, dps.
Boondps and boonhealer each giving quickness or alacrity as main boon.
Dps is self explanatory.
Tanks don’t rly exist in the game unless a specific encounters require it, and even then it might be random fixation/tanking, toughness based or another form of fixation/agro/tanking some fights might require two tanks etc.
Any role can tank given that they have enough sustain themselves or are provided the sustain. So mostly healers are tanks if needed.
Hell even some raids, fractals might not even need healers depending on the group.
Considering open world, spvp, wvw, and less high endgame pve roles are different or none existing at all. The latter concerning open world.
Since any class today can nearly do everything. You can do anything. You want to cc more? Sure grab cc skills and be a “controller” like Kroof suggested. Etc.
In open world build what you like and enjoy. No one cares.
For pvp roles are hard to determine as well and a lot have overlapping features as versaitillity is key so I will not talk about them. Same for wvw ( and I didn’t play enough wvw to talk about it).
Anyhow those are just my two cents. Please don’t take it as an offense, I love Kroof’s videos they’re very fun and provide me with a fresh perspective on things. I don’t know what content Kroof had in mind either when making this video. I just wanted to clarify some things if newer players are considering raids, fractals and strikes.
The title of “boonsupport” really is nothing though… as they also are looking to do as much damage as possible (Quickbrand, Herald, Bladesworn.) that’s why I incorporated Quickness in the DPS category, as it’s not its sole role. Same with healing. The title of “boon” is superfluous to a larger audience, and they are just natural parts of the game.
No player is just looking to give boons and lay there waiting for them to drop off to come alive again, and do it all over. They are either doing DPS or Healing.
@@KROOF even so, you can have dps alac mech as well. I feel that putting them into certain categories like saying "Healers will use alac" gives the wrong impression to newer players as even chronomancer gives alac for their tanking and boon support dps builds
@@Wiltings that’s why I didn’t go into specific classes, but just touched on what is generally attributed. “Often times” not “always.”
Heal Mech = Alac.
Druid = Alac
Specter = Alac
Tempest = Alac
Heal Renegade(probably outdated) = Alac.