The Guild Wars 2 Control Guide

Continuing on, there is no such thing as healers in GW2, at least dedicated ones. Furthermore, the lack of great and effective target heals makes it kind of pointless. Because of this, if you still go for a dedicated support build, then you’re going to be going a buff/debuff build type thing.

Even if you do have a dedicated healer, controlling damage should still be an important responsibility of the group. Each class has abilities to take and distribute damage, so USE THEM! Combinations of different classes with various builds can obviously be made to make things optimum. Because of the variability of these classes and builds, however, the combinations will be many. So utilize them well!

Blind and Weakness are some conditions that decrease arriving damage, and retaliation, reflect, and confusion, give players the awesome option, to decide to hit you, but take damage, or just avoid it altogether. While skills like Counter Blow, just block attacks.

Admittedly though, the best way to avoid damage is just to utilize the movement keys, and dodging system in GW2. By moving out of the way of attacks, and out of AoE’s, you won’t have to worry about the attack much.

In essence, the best way to control is by moving, (circle strafing around the enemy is the most effective way of doing this) and also by dodging. Once an equilibrium between moving and using skills is created, only then can the ultimate player be created.

Gw2 is not a normal MMO. No more are the days of the passive MMO, or the set and forget style. Its either get some skill, go home, or get downed. I definitely surprises players. Once this equilibrium is mastered, however, the system proves more complex, complicated, and therefore allows for better combinations, and ultimately more fun. The system proves more polished and fluid than any other MMO, and one that I definitely prefer. It provides activeness on the playfield instead of passiveness.

Arenanet switched up KCT a bit. Gone are the days of the combination of Tanks, healers and DPS (or “the holy trinity”…who came up with that name anyway?). In GW2 any class can heal, and do damage. Taking damage is a bit different, because depending on the combination of classes, you will distribute damage differently. In general any class can use utility skills to heal, use their main skills to do damage, and use both utility and main skills to distribute damage.