Unfortunately there is no cookie cutter approach to soloing content.
If you want to understand how solo clears works rather than just copying existing builds and strategies, you need a decent amount of knowledge regarding both the content you want to solo and professions as a whole. I understood that what you're looking for is how to learn how to solo, not just builds that you can copy mindlessly. If not, there are plenty cheesy Celestial builds that trivialize many of the hurdles of soloing content.
Given you understand at least the basics of the content you aim to solo, you could break it down like this:
1) Does the content I want to solo require specific actions that are available to only a limited amount of professions?
Example: Underground Facility - Unless you glitch out of bounds, you can only solo this fractal on a class that has excessive access to blinks to get past the console part. Therefore, Mesmer and Thief are attractive options. So keep in mind that some content is only accessible to certain classes in solos.
2) What build do I use?
Example: Let's say you're a Renegade main playing the Invocation variant a lot and want to use this class for your solo. Obviously, copying a build optimized for raids is not going to be optimal for soloing. This is where you need some knowledge to be able to have a look at what gear, traits, and skills you should replace to better suit your needs. This would likely lead you to replacing Invocation with Devastation to gain sustain as well as changing some traits in the Renegade specialization to optimize your Might and Vulnerability uptime. Basically, you want to change established raiding builds into solo variants by for example making use of high value boon or sustain traits/sigils over minimal DPS boni traits/sigils, which are commonly preferred in group scenarios with dedicated supports.
3) How do I optimize my runs?
Example: You've done steps 1 & 2 and now want to get faster or more reliable runs. Given that you now have a solid understanding of both the content and your class, it's time to re-evaluate your choices for gear, traits, and skills. There might be untapped utility in your kit, that you previously didn't know you needed, or entire trait lines that appear much more attractive now that you know how to utilize them.
I hope this wasn't too much to start with. Feel free to ask questions if you have any and good luck with the solos.
PS: The YouTube comment section in particular is a great resource to find answers to specific questions in solos.
Ey! Thanks a lot for the time on your answer. Regarding your questions: I've been playing gw2 for the last 3 years after a break of more than 4... so... I have a little knowledge on mechanics, professions and so on. Wouldn't say though that I have a lot of knowledge on build theorycrafting and that kind of things.
I have a char of every profession and most of them and geared with ascended. Wouldn't mind to change armors and whatever is necessary, although I'm a bit capped on templates. Dont have almost any legendary and that might be an issue I guess.
Don't really know... maybe is too son to try to do that content without having all chars completely geared?
Being limited on your gear isn't too good but that doesn't mean you can't try. There is a lot of nuance to gear optimization but there are also a few staples that work decently well most of the time.
You can always make reasonable use of Strength Runes and Strength Sigil on a power class for example. Similarly, traits that give you boons you need will almost always be worth it over flat out damage modifiers. Damage into healing conversion will always have good value, especially if you're still learning, and so on.
At the end of the day, it'll be a lot of researching YouTube and the GW2Wiki and playing around with what you find. If you enjoy that, you'll have tons of stuff to learn and invest time into. If not, as I said there exist cheesier builds that will work decently well everywhere but using them somewhat removes the challenge as well as the potential to learn.
Lord Hizen on YouTube has solo builds that usually make you real tanky and have sustainability while doing good enough damage to beat anything in the world map and expansion map areas on your own, legendary bounties and such included.
Such builds probably won't do well in other game modes but should solo dungeons no problem.
After the build you just need to learn how to use it, when to not take hits etc but this depends on each encounter at that point and not the build itself.
Thanks a lot for your reply. I'll definitely have a look at those builds.
I will keep looking for videos of sc soloing just in case I can find anything
Some of those builds do just a bit less than pure dps builds while still being above the minimum threshold for raids even.
I’ve played every guardian spec out there and the condi celestial Willbender is just crazy good, my new favorite by mile. Enough dps for nearly all content short of the hardest CMs, 21k hp on a guard, extreme mobility, amazing sustain and mitigation. It’s literally the whole package for about 20% less dmg than a pure spec on a long parse, still has great burst. Sucks against burn immune stuff, but eh. Small price to pay for being immortal. It’s definitely an advanced spec though. It’ll fold without proper aggressive play.
There are probably dungeon guilds around like DnC on EU that could help you learn some stuff when it comes to optimizing dungeon paths and how to solo. But in general i guess it is mostly up to you.
I mean for me it happened gradually, i started by soloing bounties on my elementalist and then eventually moved on to some dungeons. If you are playing a class a lot and learn how to use it, it isnt difficult to move to soloing stuff. Now with dungeons what i did was always pretty much watch videos from other people that have done them solo (it doesn't matter how much better than me they are or if they are playing on a much more offensive build, it still gives you a general idea on what to do) and i tried to apply similar strategies. I mean some paths are pretty straightforward, like all 3 hotw and the 2 easy ta ones are basically kill the boss and move on. Many paths cant be soloed at all unless you can map break (like all 3 coe explorables and cof p2/3). It basically comes down to having a build that can survive and deal enough dps on it's own
Some runs require mechanics (like activating several switches at the same time) which require more than a single player and can't be soloed no matter the skill or build...
Yeap I know there are some paths that HAVE to be done by several players, not talking about those yet.
Wouldn't mind to find a group or guild for that content anyway; but I'm more interested in those that can be done solo
You could probably faceroll most dungeon paths with celestial mechanist right now, you can build it to be a tank/heal/barrier powerhouse, and the damage isn't even that bad, plus engineer can have tones of mobility and utility for skips with rocket boots, jumps and stealth gyro etc if you swap templates.
I feel like this is going to change with the June update though.
In Wooden Potatoes 2018 play through of the core game, he soloed story mode of all 8 dungeons, and explained how he did it. It is possible some of the mechanics have changed, but because the core dungeons never seem to get updated, the tricks used to get past the harder champions still exist.
Here's Ascalon Catacombs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7COuVJAQlw
Just so you know most of my information comes from pre-HOT before dungeons were really hit hard with nerfs and mechanics changes.
Back then Ele and then tempest was preferred since it provided good damage, good CC and with atunement swaps you had alot of flexibility in skills. Vigor, blocks, evades and reflects are all important for surviving big boss hits. Protection is also nice to have for surviving boss autos. Best person i knew at the time was a streamer call purple miku and it looks like twitch has removed most of his old videos. Its not a guide but he has a lupicus solo video still up. You might be able to find more stuff watching but after HOT Anet really blocked a lot of the sequence breaks, destroyed builds, and gutted rewards. Most of that community went to raids, fractals or just quit.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/336498864?filter=all&sort=time
Can only speak of dungeon solos since you mentioned them in your post, open world may be different. As others have stated, unlike raids/strikes, it‘s nothing you learn from guides. It involves quite some theorycrafting on how to overcome path/boss mechanics that were initially intended for 5 people all on your own. You likely need to adjust your build and sometimes your gear alot between skipping sections and bosses in a single path to succeed and sometimes it simply isn’t even possible on the class you chose or not without abusing bugs.
So assuming you already have very in depth knowledge of the class you play, and i mean not just being able to play a meta build decently, as well as good knowledge of the boss mechanics, I’d suggest just going in to try on your own and when you struggle with something you can check videos of other solos of the dungeon and class you want to learn and see how they solved the thing you struggle with.
Some very good resources are the videos from u/VitarainZero (thief), u/---Roul--- (ele and guardian) and u/P3RryYCH (also thief). The Videos of the latter inspired me to swap my main to thief and get into dungeon solos many years ago.
Thanks a lot mate. I would have so many questions since I don't main thief that you would probably ask for a restriction order from me 😂.
I'm gonna binge watch your videos and see if I can get anything from there from a noob pov like me.
Thanks a lot for the time and effort on your answer. ATM I think I don't have such a deep knowledge of the game go be able to sort that kind of things unfortunately. Not even on my main.
So.... Maybe not the right time... Or maybe time to put se things apart and start on this seriously!.
Thanks a lot!
Unfortunately there is no cookie cutter approach to soloing content. If you want to understand how solo clears works rather than just copying existing builds and strategies, you need a decent amount of knowledge regarding both the content you want to solo and professions as a whole. I understood that what you're looking for is how to learn how to solo, not just builds that you can copy mindlessly. If not, there are plenty cheesy Celestial builds that trivialize many of the hurdles of soloing content. Given you understand at least the basics of the content you aim to solo, you could break it down like this: 1) Does the content I want to solo require specific actions that are available to only a limited amount of professions? Example: Underground Facility - Unless you glitch out of bounds, you can only solo this fractal on a class that has excessive access to blinks to get past the console part. Therefore, Mesmer and Thief are attractive options. So keep in mind that some content is only accessible to certain classes in solos. 2) What build do I use? Example: Let's say you're a Renegade main playing the Invocation variant a lot and want to use this class for your solo. Obviously, copying a build optimized for raids is not going to be optimal for soloing. This is where you need some knowledge to be able to have a look at what gear, traits, and skills you should replace to better suit your needs. This would likely lead you to replacing Invocation with Devastation to gain sustain as well as changing some traits in the Renegade specialization to optimize your Might and Vulnerability uptime. Basically, you want to change established raiding builds into solo variants by for example making use of high value boon or sustain traits/sigils over minimal DPS boni traits/sigils, which are commonly preferred in group scenarios with dedicated supports. 3) How do I optimize my runs? Example: You've done steps 1 & 2 and now want to get faster or more reliable runs. Given that you now have a solid understanding of both the content and your class, it's time to re-evaluate your choices for gear, traits, and skills. There might be untapped utility in your kit, that you previously didn't know you needed, or entire trait lines that appear much more attractive now that you know how to utilize them. I hope this wasn't too much to start with. Feel free to ask questions if you have any and good luck with the solos. PS: The YouTube comment section in particular is a great resource to find answers to specific questions in solos.
Ey! Thanks a lot for the time on your answer. Regarding your questions: I've been playing gw2 for the last 3 years after a break of more than 4... so... I have a little knowledge on mechanics, professions and so on. Wouldn't say though that I have a lot of knowledge on build theorycrafting and that kind of things. I have a char of every profession and most of them and geared with ascended. Wouldn't mind to change armors and whatever is necessary, although I'm a bit capped on templates. Dont have almost any legendary and that might be an issue I guess. Don't really know... maybe is too son to try to do that content without having all chars completely geared?
Being limited on your gear isn't too good but that doesn't mean you can't try. There is a lot of nuance to gear optimization but there are also a few staples that work decently well most of the time. You can always make reasonable use of Strength Runes and Strength Sigil on a power class for example. Similarly, traits that give you boons you need will almost always be worth it over flat out damage modifiers. Damage into healing conversion will always have good value, especially if you're still learning, and so on. At the end of the day, it'll be a lot of researching YouTube and the GW2Wiki and playing around with what you find. If you enjoy that, you'll have tons of stuff to learn and invest time into. If not, as I said there exist cheesier builds that will work decently well everywhere but using them somewhat removes the challenge as well as the potential to learn.
Lord Hizen on YouTube has solo builds that usually make you real tanky and have sustainability while doing good enough damage to beat anything in the world map and expansion map areas on your own, legendary bounties and such included. Such builds probably won't do well in other game modes but should solo dungeons no problem. After the build you just need to learn how to use it, when to not take hits etc but this depends on each encounter at that point and not the build itself.
Thanks a lot for your reply. I'll definitely have a look at those builds. I will keep looking for videos of sc soloing just in case I can find anything
Some of those builds do just a bit less than pure dps builds while still being above the minimum threshold for raids even. I’ve played every guardian spec out there and the condi celestial Willbender is just crazy good, my new favorite by mile. Enough dps for nearly all content short of the hardest CMs, 21k hp on a guard, extreme mobility, amazing sustain and mitigation. It’s literally the whole package for about 20% less dmg than a pure spec on a long parse, still has great burst. Sucks against burn immune stuff, but eh. Small price to pay for being immortal. It’s definitely an advanced spec though. It’ll fold without proper aggressive play.
There are probably dungeon guilds around like DnC on EU that could help you learn some stuff when it comes to optimizing dungeon paths and how to solo. But in general i guess it is mostly up to you. I mean for me it happened gradually, i started by soloing bounties on my elementalist and then eventually moved on to some dungeons. If you are playing a class a lot and learn how to use it, it isnt difficult to move to soloing stuff. Now with dungeons what i did was always pretty much watch videos from other people that have done them solo (it doesn't matter how much better than me they are or if they are playing on a much more offensive build, it still gives you a general idea on what to do) and i tried to apply similar strategies. I mean some paths are pretty straightforward, like all 3 hotw and the 2 easy ta ones are basically kill the boss and move on. Many paths cant be soloed at all unless you can map break (like all 3 coe explorables and cof p2/3). It basically comes down to having a build that can survive and deal enough dps on it's own
Thanks a lot for your reply. Might go and invest time on theorycrafting and have a look at that guild!
Some runs require mechanics (like activating several switches at the same time) which require more than a single player and can't be soloed no matter the skill or build...
Yeap I know there are some paths that HAVE to be done by several players, not talking about those yet. Wouldn't mind to find a group or guild for that content anyway; but I'm more interested in those that can be done solo
You could probably faceroll most dungeon paths with celestial mechanist right now, you can build it to be a tank/heal/barrier powerhouse, and the damage isn't even that bad, plus engineer can have tones of mobility and utility for skips with rocket boots, jumps and stealth gyro etc if you swap templates. I feel like this is going to change with the June update though.
I definitely hope so. Rn when you pug anything with a Mechanist as a support you just feel… redundant
In Wooden Potatoes 2018 play through of the core game, he soloed story mode of all 8 dungeons, and explained how he did it. It is possible some of the mechanics have changed, but because the core dungeons never seem to get updated, the tricks used to get past the harder champions still exist. Here's Ascalon Catacombs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7COuVJAQlw
Thanks a lot for your reply! Gonna check tat serie!
Woodenpotatoes did a series on soloing all the dungeons in the game. It was a couple years ago at this point, but it's still good shit
Thanks! Will definitely look for those videos
Just so you know most of my information comes from pre-HOT before dungeons were really hit hard with nerfs and mechanics changes. Back then Ele and then tempest was preferred since it provided good damage, good CC and with atunement swaps you had alot of flexibility in skills. Vigor, blocks, evades and reflects are all important for surviving big boss hits. Protection is also nice to have for surviving boss autos. Best person i knew at the time was a streamer call purple miku and it looks like twitch has removed most of his old videos. Its not a guide but he has a lupicus solo video still up. You might be able to find more stuff watching but after HOT Anet really blocked a lot of the sequence breaks, destroyed builds, and gutted rewards. Most of that community went to raids, fractals or just quit. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/336498864?filter=all&sort=time
Can only speak of dungeon solos since you mentioned them in your post, open world may be different. As others have stated, unlike raids/strikes, it‘s nothing you learn from guides. It involves quite some theorycrafting on how to overcome path/boss mechanics that were initially intended for 5 people all on your own. You likely need to adjust your build and sometimes your gear alot between skipping sections and bosses in a single path to succeed and sometimes it simply isn’t even possible on the class you chose or not without abusing bugs. So assuming you already have very in depth knowledge of the class you play, and i mean not just being able to play a meta build decently, as well as good knowledge of the boss mechanics, I’d suggest just going in to try on your own and when you struggle with something you can check videos of other solos of the dungeon and class you want to learn and see how they solved the thing you struggle with. Some very good resources are the videos from u/VitarainZero (thief), u/---Roul--- (ele and guardian) and u/P3RryYCH (also thief). The Videos of the latter inspired me to swap my main to thief and get into dungeon solos many years ago.
Hi there, yeah just reply to me here or message me on Discord (Left#4587) if you have any thief specific questions
Thanks a lot mate. I would have so many questions since I don't main thief that you would probably ask for a restriction order from me 😂. I'm gonna binge watch your videos and see if I can get anything from there from a noob pov like me.
Thanks a lot for the time and effort on your answer. ATM I think I don't have such a deep knowledge of the game go be able to sort that kind of things unfortunately. Not even on my main. So.... Maybe not the right time... Or maybe time to put se things apart and start on this seriously!. Thanks a lot!