Shrike
New member
Did my first dungeon run with a PUG group this last Friday night and I must say, what a different experience to any dungeon run that I have done in any MMO so far that I have played. I played a guardian. Before going in I slotted all the skills that thought would be good support skills. There are a couple of glaring differences in GW2 dungeon runs to instance groups in other MMOS. Firstly: yes, the holy trinity is dead. To sum it up, everyone in the 5 man group gets random aggro from any mob, including bosses. How do you survive you ask? Well, each player has to bring some survival skill to the table, so that when they are getting hit, they can either 1) escape 2)heal themselves through it or 3) protect themselves. There is NO aggro mechanic, NO one gets more or less aggro, or so it looked anyway.
Secondly: you have to combat rez and often. The resurrection mechanic in GW2 is a wonder to behold, you can be "dead" or downed as it is called and still hit with special abilities you only get when you are down, or you can bandage yourself back up to being "alive", what is more, group members can assist in this process by also bandaging or reviving you. In fact, you do this all the time, in the middle of battle with mobs or bosses and it is essential in the success of the group. Usually, whichever members that are still up and NOT taking aggro should do this.
Thirdly: support does not mean healing. Support can come in many forms, temporary invulnerability (great to use when bandaging someone), temporary walls that stop mobs from accessing someone, walls that block projectiles (any ranged attack), debuffs etc. All of these can contribute hugely to a group's success in the battle. First time I saw this actually work was in City of Heroes, where a defender (sort of healing class) could lay down debuffs and not heal at all in groups. It works very well in the PVE instances in GW2 too.
As a long time healer in MMOS, I had to do a major mind shift in GW2 and it is refreshing. My guardian is sort of like a paladin from other MMOs but it is different in other ways. To illustrate, you get 4 elite skills to choose from at level 30, NONE of them are healing skills. There are also NO directed heals in the game, no skill that will heal a party member you have selected, all the "heals" are area of effect or cone. Positioning is key if you want to heal someone. This means that healing is situational and with the very long cooldowns on skills, a very tactical choice. There is no spamming of heals, at all. There is also no resource management. You don't have mana, or energy to watch, just a cooldown.
So to summarise: the holy trinity is dead and well done to Anet for actually pulling it off and making the replacement mechanics work and fun to play. Instance runs are now about communication, situational awareness and tactical choices.
Love the change ;-)
Secondly: you have to combat rez and often. The resurrection mechanic in GW2 is a wonder to behold, you can be "dead" or downed as it is called and still hit with special abilities you only get when you are down, or you can bandage yourself back up to being "alive", what is more, group members can assist in this process by also bandaging or reviving you. In fact, you do this all the time, in the middle of battle with mobs or bosses and it is essential in the success of the group. Usually, whichever members that are still up and NOT taking aggro should do this.
Thirdly: support does not mean healing. Support can come in many forms, temporary invulnerability (great to use when bandaging someone), temporary walls that stop mobs from accessing someone, walls that block projectiles (any ranged attack), debuffs etc. All of these can contribute hugely to a group's success in the battle. First time I saw this actually work was in City of Heroes, where a defender (sort of healing class) could lay down debuffs and not heal at all in groups. It works very well in the PVE instances in GW2 too.
As a long time healer in MMOS, I had to do a major mind shift in GW2 and it is refreshing. My guardian is sort of like a paladin from other MMOs but it is different in other ways. To illustrate, you get 4 elite skills to choose from at level 30, NONE of them are healing skills. There are also NO directed heals in the game, no skill that will heal a party member you have selected, all the "heals" are area of effect or cone. Positioning is key if you want to heal someone. This means that healing is situational and with the very long cooldowns on skills, a very tactical choice. There is no spamming of heals, at all. There is also no resource management. You don't have mana, or energy to watch, just a cooldown.
So to summarise: the holy trinity is dead and well done to Anet for actually pulling it off and making the replacement mechanics work and fun to play. Instance runs are now about communication, situational awareness and tactical choices.
Love the change ;-)