I have been playing MMOs since 1999.  I never really had too hard a time with combat before as most of the time it was just standing in place and casting.  Not so with gw2...

GW2 has me frustrated at times.  There are so many things going on that I am confused and fumbling over the keyboard when I am fighting 2-3 mobs.  Dodging, timing my attacks, positioning, switching weapons, targeting the next mob....I know I am reacting too slow to be efficient.  I am trying to watch the mobs to figure out when to dodge but half the time I'm not even sure if the mob  is attacking me or my pet.  And when there are 2 mobs on me how the heck am I supposed to notice when which mob is attacking so I can dodge?  I am level 15 ranger and still feel like I'm a noob in combat.  I am definitely not flowing smoothly along.  Half the time I am forgetting to use my utilitiy skills...maybe I just bound the keys poorly, I don't know.

Anyone else having similar problems?  Can someone give me some advice on how to improve?

Practice - practice - practice. It is what makes GW2 combat unique - IMO.

At least you seem to be enjoying the game.

Originally posted by Slukjan

I have been playing MMOs since 1999.  I never really had too hard a time with combat before as most of the time it was just standing in place and casting.  Not so with gw2...

GW2 has me frustrated at times.  There are so many things going on that I am confused and fumbling over the keyboard when I am fighting 2-3 mobs.  Dodging, timing my attacks, positioning, switching weapons, targeting the next mob....I know I am reacting too slow to be efficient.  I am trying to watch the mobs to figure out when to dodge but half the time I'm not even sure if the mob  is attacking me or my pet.  And when there are 2 mobs on me how the heck am I supposed to notice when which mob is attacking so I can dodge?  I am level 15 ranger and still feel like I'm a noob in combat.  I am definitely not flowing smoothly along.  Half the time I am forgetting to use my utilitiy skills...maybe I just bound the keys poorly, I don't know.

Anyone else having similar problems?  Can someone give me some advice on how to improve?

Force yourself to keep using your utility skills and build awareness of how they work...

Apart from that it just takes practice, I guess.

You could try rolling a guardian or something that is a bit more forgiving than a ranger so that you are not penalized if you aren't timing your stuff right... You could also try switching your ranger to a build that is more ranged/kiting and just stay out of range and/or let your pet tank.

A couple of things about the ranger. Make sure to swap pets BEFORE your pet dies. new pet will come in at full health, pet swap cooldown is reduced by 40 seconds if he isn't dead when you swap, and when you swap back he will be at full health.

Make sure you are aware of what conditions you have available. Blinding an attacker is almost as good as dodging, for example.

A guy in my guild was having a similar issue and just could not get into it.. he had rolled and engineer and said he could not kill anything.. no idea where he was coming from as im an engineer and find the combat simple..

anyway i think he tried nearly every class before he fonud one he was good with lol..

For you it just sounds like you need ot practice a bit at using the skills at the right time..

combat is more challenging than most other MMOs no matter what some of the elite better than everyone people say on these boards.. one thing I found is each class has certain weapon combos that work well for handling multiple mobs especially when solo.. after that its just practice practice like said above.. find a combo with decent CC and damage and learn how to effectively use the two and you should be okay. I found at least one ranged weapon set with some CC is generally little more forgiving than trying to melee things all the time. It also is little bit easier since you don't have to be as quick with timing your dodges as often..

on a side note on the difficulty some of my guildys ran catacombs for the first time last night and got destroyed... these are all long time MMO vets as well and doing the easiest mode of this dungeon.. Game is not as easy as many people around here have been spouting.

Originally posted by Crazylike
 I suggest using V to dodge if your not already doing it. I find that to be much more reliable than double-tapping. You will get better and better the more you play I suspect.

 Really? I think doubletapping is way easier.

As for the OP,  just practice I suppose. Always stay mobile. Can't say I find it difficult on my elementalist as long as I stay on the move. Not sure about ranger abilities but I use flame wall and burning speed to draw mobs into damage while I do additional damage to them.

Really staying mobile and using dodge effectively are the key. Maybe try practicing on some neutral mobs to get it down better if you feel the need to.

Originally posted by Slukjan

I have been playing MMOs since 1999.  I never really had too hard a time with combat before as most of the time it was just standing in place and casting.  Not so with gw2...

GW2 has me frustrated at times.  There are so many things going on that I am confused and fumbling over the keyboard when I am fighting 2-3 mobs.  Dodging, timing my attacks, positioning, switching weapons, targeting the next mob....I know I am reacting too slow to be efficient.  I am trying to watch the mobs to figure out when to dodge but half the time I'm not even sure if the mob  is attacking me or my pet.  And when there are 2 mobs on me how the heck am I supposed to notice when which mob is attacking so I can dodge?  I am level 15 ranger and still feel like I'm a noob in combat.  I am definitely not flowing smoothly along.  Half the time I am forgetting to use my utilitiy skills...maybe I just bound the keys poorly, I don't know.

Anyone else having similar problems?  Can someone give me some advice on how to improve?

Use the shortbow and make circles around your target you wont need to use your utilities as often, the longbow has a slower rate of fire and is good with alot of mobs at once but not that effective for ya.

It's hard to give advice to you without some details such as what weapons your concentrating on if any and how your traiting/slot skills.In general you seem to be doing things right with dodging and trying to watch for when to dodge,Id agree GW2 doesn't hold your hand with special icons identifying different types of attacks youh ave to watch for animations and listen to mob sound effects to try to determine what a mob is doing.

Remember to use your class skills and slot skills strategically spamming these will not help you agter the starter zone.Weapon skills are more forgiving to spamming but even those sohudl be used depending on your traits and how they work together.

Also if your having problems with mobs of a certian levle you can always go back and do lower level content until youh ave mroe skills and traits under your belt.

Originally posted by Slukjan

I have been playing MMOs since 1999.  I never really had too hard a time with combat before as most of the time it was just standing in place and casting.  Not so with gw2...

GW2 has me frustrated at times.  There are so many things going on that I am confused and fumbling over the keyboard when I am fighting 2-3 mobs.  Dodging, timing my attacks, positioning, switching weapons, targeting the next mob....I know I am reacting too slow to be efficient.  I am trying to watch the mobs to figure out when to dodge but half the time I'm not even sure if the mob  is attacking me or my pet.  And when there are 2 mobs on me how the heck am I supposed to notice when which mob is attacking so I can dodge?  I am level 15 ranger and still feel like I'm a noob in combat.  I am definitely not flowing smoothly along.  Half the time I am forgetting to use my utilitiy skills...maybe I just bound the keys poorly, I don't know.

Anyone else having similar problems?  Can someone give me some advice on how to improve?

The poster above me who said "practice" was dead-on. It took me most of the first BWE to "break old habits" but it does get better and easier with time.

As for tips:

- With down-scaling, don't be afraid to go back to the game's starting areas to practice. You will still gain XP and some appropriately-levelled loot while you get more comfortable with the combat in the game.

- Many people prefer to bind Dodge to a key rather than double-tap. [Shift], [Alt], and [Ctrl] are all viable choices in a good location.

- GW2 allows for modifiers for keybinds unlike GW1, so using [Shift], [Alt], or [Ctrl] (you will only need 2 of the 3 leaving 1 free for Dodge) you can rebind 6-0 and F1-F4 to (for example) [Shift]1-5 and [Ctrl] 1-4 making them much easier to access.

If you have the spare cash, GW2 works fantastically with a Logitech G13 or Razor Nostromo (I prefer/use the G13 but both are solid products). The biggest advantage to these peripherals are you can use your Thumb to move making it much easier to use Abilities and Dodge while moving.

Another possibility to consider is going Sword/Dagger and/or Greatsword with your Ranger. Melee weapons in the game hit all targets in an arc by default meaning that if you are roughly facing a mob you will hit it with an attack whether you have it targeted or not. Melee weapons also tend to do more damage than Ranged ones helping you get through combat faster.

Hope at least some of these suggestions help!

Don't use double-tap to dodge, it will mess you up on jumping puzzles, and you will dodge when you don't need to. I have dodge on my mouse wheel, which makes it easy to dodge while moving.

Also, Razer Naga FTW.

Originally posted by Slukjan

I have been playing MMOs since 1999.  I never really had too hard a time with combat before as most of the time it was just standing in place and casting.  Not so with gw2...

GW2 has me frustrated at times.  There are so many things going on that I am confused and fumbling over the keyboard when I am fighting 2-3 mobs.  Dodging, timing my attacks, positioning, switching weapons, targeting the next mob....I know I am reacting too slow to be efficient.  I am trying to watch the mobs to figure out when to dodge but half the time I'm not even sure if the mob  is attacking me or my pet.  And when there are 2 mobs on me how the heck am I supposed to notice when which mob is attacking so I can dodge?  I am level 15 ranger and still feel like I'm a noob in combat.  I am definitely not flowing smoothly along.  Half the time I am forgetting to use my utilitiy skills...maybe I just bound the keys poorly, I don't know.

Anyone else having similar problems?  Can someone give me some advice on how to improve?

You are probably used to games where you just stand there and click rotations. In GW2, you do that...you die.

You need to move around. You almost have to play PVE mobs like you would play PVP in traditional games.

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

Originally posted by Slukjan

I have been playing MMOs since 1999.  I never really had too hard a time with combat before as most of the time it was just standing in place and casting.  Not so with gw2...

GW2 has me frustrated at times.  There are so many things going on that I am confused and fumbling over the keyboard when I am fighting 2-3 mobs.  Dodging, timing my attacks, positioning, switching weapons, targeting the next mob....I know I am reacting too slow to be efficient.  I am trying to watch the mobs to figure out when to dodge but half the time I'm not even sure if the mob  is attacking me or my pet.  And when there are 2 mobs on me how the heck am I supposed to notice when which mob is attacking so I can dodge?  I am level 15 ranger and still feel like I'm a noob in combat.  I am definitely not flowing smoothly along.  Half the time I am forgetting to use my utilitiy skills...maybe I just bound the keys poorly, I don't know.

Anyone else having similar problems?  Can someone give me some advice on how to improve?

You are probably used to games where you just stand there and click rotations. In GW2, you do that...you die.

You need to move around. You almost have to play PVE mobs like you would play PVP in traditional games.

It's the number one thing I like about this game, its more fps twitch based. You gotta constantly move around, its great. =]

I am so used to just standing and doing rotations that the combat has thrown me for a loop.  I was never good at circling opponents.  I have heard that holding A and E or Q and D are a good way to circle but that takes two fingers and hard to hit skill buttons with just the middle finger available (of course pinky can always hit shift...) 

So far I like the greatsword for melee and still working with the bows to see what I like. 

Also...how do you bind your pet skill F2?  I havent seen it in the options...

As a side note I am loving the game and think exploration is awesome!

Originally posted by Drezzdin
All good sound advice above....as aprevious poster mentioned a went with a new mouse. Logitech G600...12 thumb buttons for action bar...mouse wheel click for Dodge. The wheel also has a left and rift click. I use the wheel right click to weapon swap. The only thing I use left hand for is to strafe. Took a couple days to get use to the mouse but I can't imagine not using it now. The Razor Naga offers the same ...I just prefer the G600

 One day I'm going to have to splurge for one of these. Still using my dinky old regular mouse. Just can't justify buying one until it breaks. Maybe I'll have to accidentally jump up and down on it a few dozen times.

You might just have to remap all your combat keys where they can feel more natural.  I myself use a Razer Naga so most of my combat is done via mouse.  I have Left CTRL as my dodge (need to have a WASD direction held down to move in a certain direction).  People often remap these keys to combat keys since they are so close to WASD ( Q, E, R, F, G, C, V) and they even add Shift modifiers with those...but combat is streamlined here so you likely won't need that.

I wouldn't use the number keys past 5 and instead rebind abilities 6-0 with the above letter keys.

Also, sicne you mentioned Q E strafing above...don't do that unless that's the most comfortable way and you can't get used to what I am about to suggest:  Rebind Q E to abilitiy keys. Use A and D + holding down right mouse to strafe around targets. 

I personally prefer the G700.

That aside, I recommend the OP begin to learn what boons and conditions do. You can improve your chances in a fight if you learn what conditions your weapon skills inflict, what they do and when to use them. I'm not talking just about condition damage either, but conditions like Blind can save your ass in a tough situation. Boons like Retaliation can bey extremely potent in the right situations.

Unlike most MMOGs these days OP, dps isn't that overly important. Yes you need it to kill mobs but every class is capable of putting out plenty of dps. What is important are boons and conditions. If you ignore them combat 'will' be more difficult. I recommend checking out the wiki on them and then give a good read to each of your skills on the weapons you use. For example I'd imagine a lot of folks think the elementalist scepter skill Dust Devil is useless (many would say Earth is useless, though far from it). The damage is mediocre at best compared to even other earth skills on a scepter, but if you learn that Blind causes a mobs next hit to miss, and that Dust Devil can hit several mobs, you realize that a skill that gives you a few more seconds of no damage (especially if you time your dodge) can save your life in some fights.

Over-all the combat in GW2 can be quite challenging, especially after the newb zones and even more so in dungeons. It's fast, it can get a little crazy but once you learn the ebb and flow of combat and your own profession, you realize it is also some of the best combat of any MMOG.