Guild Wars 2

Just wondering why some people thought ideal group comps were. Obviously there are many answers here just wanted to see the differences in opinions. I ideally like Guardian for defensive buffs/projectile blocking, necro for support/condition management, ranger for ranged dps, support, and healing, mesmer for clone support/tanking, and warrior for offensive buffs. Of course I will take a skilled player of another class before a bad player of a class I listed.

I don’t know rangers that well, But I’m surprised you would put them before an Ele for support and healing. From what I can tell after doing several dungeons, Eles do the most healing alongside Grdn. That and they have lots of CC and combo fields.

Essentially it doesn’t matter what professions you bring as long as you can bring the following as needed: aoe condition removals – essential for survival against mass poison/burn bosses in the form of signet of locust, healing rain, healing spring, shake it off, save yourselves (basically any profession except the mesmer? can do this), blocks/projectile nullifiers/reflectors (everything except necroes can do this) to trivialize projectile based bosses/ones that use a projectile pull that would otherwise annihilate the dodge-depleted, snares both in soft (cripple/chilled) and hard (immobilise) for melee control and boon removals for boon to make certain dungeons faster (boon removals most readily available to necroes/mesmers).

Personally – I like warrior for diverse combo finishers and amazing crowd control. Mesmer for insane control via things like moa and feedback.
Necro for more debuffs, kiting, aoe and the dark fields.
Guardian for someone to soak some kitten with blocks, random spot healing and decent control.
With engineer at the end filling in with a little bit of everything.

To be honest as a ranger player, the only things rangers can do very well is AoE healing fields (Healing Spring is amazing, heal on you + pet, AoE condition removal, regen combo field), perma-cripple (or close to it) and pure damage. So if you already have all of those, you might want to look somewhere else. They really do make trash mobs melt fast, though.

Edit: I guess shortbow rangers also have perma-poison if traited, if that matters. I suppose since some enemies heal, the heal reduction can be useful.

I think composition is all about role coverage. Most classes seem to be capable of filling many roles, and some can fill multiple roles with the same spec and can swap traits/skills as needed for particular encounters to fill those roles better. I agree alrgely with zencow’s analysis, but here’s my take:

Necessary roles are:
Condition removal
Healing
DPS

Also sometimes:
CC
Rezzing

DPS: Self explanatory. Everyone needs to be able to do this to some degree, but some events require maxed DPS on everyone to succeed (graveling burrows in AC colossus for example.)

Condition removal: Not needed for every encounter, but useful for most and absolutely vital for some.

Healing: Every encounter is a balancing act between the party’s ability to avoid/recover from damage and the rate at which damage is being dished to them. This has to stay in the player’s favor or equal while they kill the boss, or else they lose unless their damage on the boss makes up for it (those fights where everyone is almost dead but you get the boss down.) It’s much better to be in control of the fight rather than a DPS race against the boss because the players rarely win that way, and that’s where healing comes in. Having someone able to increase the rate at which your party recovers HP is really helpful for the long haul fights, and this person frequent doubles as a condition remover. GW2 doesn’t really have big heals, but it has plenty of worthwhile long-term recovery you can apply to your teammates. For instance: my banners heal for 6,000+ over 30 seconds, which is 1/2 to 1/4 of a player’s max HP.

CC: Cripple is useful for staying away from a great many enemies and even bosses, and some enemies require you to interrupt them to prevent really bad things happening to your party. Many bosses, however, are practically immune to hard CC like stuns and immobilize, and so most difficult encounters do not require or benefit overly much from CC.

Rezzing: Some encounters call for someone to just go around getting people up. (Kudu in Crucible of Eternity where he just one shots people with a poorly telegraphed attack every 10-20 seconds.) There’s no good way to spec for it though, as the best you can get is 10% and some minor bonuses. Some classes can put down a stealth field or protective barrier to prevent harassment while rezzing. Most classes can rez just fine for most encounters, so it’s not really necessary to specialize.

Specializing for something besides DPS does hurt your raw DPS, and support-specialized characters are usually more effective supporting max DPS characters than they are other support characters. So it depends on what level of support you want vs. what level of DPS, as each character will usually take something to help their own survivability to some degree, and can take things to help everyone even if they’re going for DPS.
So my optimal group is 2 hybrid support characters (who can spec deeper into support as needed for encounters but have 30 points in their support trait tree) and 3 DPS characters with some support abilities.

For example, my guild groups usually have 2-3 warriors (myself included.) I like the group with me specced into support/healing, 2 DPS warriors with an AoE buff and an AoE condition removal, an engineer specced into support/healing, and our DPS necromancer with his combo fields and control abilities. Once more people get some levels in our guild we’ll get more diverse groups, but we do pretty well for ourselves. We have yet to fail an instance as a guild group except when we hit bugs.

The reason I have a ranger over and ele is simply because of the pet. The pet soaks up some dmg, can rez in a pinch, and they provide an extra cc or skill depending on the pet. Both classes heal well enough but when taking skill levels into account its much more likely to find a competent ranger than an ele. The attunement system makes getting the most out of an ele hard.

Much rather prioritize 5 players with good situation sense and balanced character abilities than any particular set of professions.

I think necro is always in place

Careful, hardcore player here;

2x Staff Ele
1x Phalanx Warrior
1x Thief
1x Mesmer or Guard works for most of the dungeons.

Ranger and Engi can be nice too but we hardly have them in our groups.
Necro is pretty selfish, so no necro for us!

It depend on the dungeon.

But for most dungeon i would want 2 Ele, 1 Warrior and 1 thief. The last one would be between a guardian and a mesmer depending on the situation.

Necro still very stronk PvF class.

Cool thread. I like the groups Thaddeus and GrimmR put forth. I suppose the 5th slot would somewhat depend on which dungeon you are doing.

Taking all this a bit further… if the best group is 2xEle, 1xWar, 1xThief, 1x(free)
(not saying it is but just for simplicity sake.) are there any traits/skills that these profs NEED to bring. You know, those ones that never ever leave your bar?

Wynne.3908:

Cool thread. I like the groups Thaddeus and GrimmR put forth. I suppose the 5th slot would somewhat depend on which dungeon you are doing.

Taking all this a bit further… if the best group is 2xEle, 1xWar, 1xThief, 1x(free)
(not saying it is but just for simplicity sake.) are there any traits/skills that these profs NEED to bring. You know, those ones that never ever leave your bar?

First off you need to know if might will come from your PS Warrior and ELe are staff, or you bring 2 S/X Ele and Warrior is standard dps. The first is optimal in longer fight and fight where you can’t pre stack might on top of the boss before he turn red, the second is optimal in shorter fight (20sec or less) and where you can stack might on top of the boss while he’s still green. The first one is more reliable and easier to maintain your might.

What should alway stay on your bar :
Ele : Icebow, LH if you are S/X, Glyph of storm is really powerfull but not mandatory.
Warrior : 2 Banners, FGJ if you are PS Warrior.
Thief : 1 stealth skill (smoke screen or shadow refuge) and two dps signets (1 can be switch for a 2nd stealth skill if you need to run for a long time)
Guardian : retreat, WoR and Purging Flames are usually a good setup to have, if they are not necessary then you better without a guardian.

Thaddeus.4891:

Wynne.3908:

Cool thread. I like the groups Thaddeus and GrimmR put forth. I suppose the 5th slot would somewhat depend on which dungeon you are doing.

Taking all this a bit further… if the best group is 2xEle, 1xWar, 1xThief, 1x(free)
(not saying it is but just for simplicity sake.) are there any traits/skills that these profs NEED to bring. You know, those ones that never ever leave your bar?

First off you need to know if might will come from your PS Warrior and ELe are staff, or you bring 2 S/X Ele and Warrior is standard dps. The first is optimal in longer fight and fight where you can’t pre stack might on top of the boss before he turn red, the second is optimal in shorter fight (20sec or less) and where you can stack might on top of the boss while he’s still green. The first one is more reliable and easier to maintain your might.

What should alway stay on your bar :
Ele : Icebow, LH if you are S/X, Glyph of storm is really powerfull but not mandatory.
Warrior : 2 Banners, FGJ if you are PS Warrior.
Thief : 1 stealth skill (smoke screen or shadow refuge) and two dps signets (1 can be switch for a 2nd stealth skill if you need to run for a long time)
Guardian : retreat, WoR and Purging Flames are usually a good setup to have, if they are not necessary then you better without a guardian.

Don’t forget stability on the guard, Hallowed grounds and Stand your Ground are both very good in many situations.

Also for thief, you don’t really need a stealth skill always up, the nice thing about running 2 signets is that after every fight you can toss in the stealths and go, leaving that last slot as kind of free game.

Jerus.4350:

Don’t forget stability on the guard, Hallowed grounds and Stand your Ground are both very good in many situations.

Also for thief, you don’t really need a stealth skill always up, the nice thing about running 2 signets is that after every fight you can toss in the stealths and go, leaving that last slot as kind of free game.

Ya but stability is not something that you need all the time. He ask about what should always be on your bar and stability is not one of them. In SE path 1 I could remove it from my bar, but don’t really need it in most paths.

I don’t really get what you mean for thief? You always have your 2 signets and yes you don’t need a stealth skill while you fight, but i don’t like to switch a signet for a stealth and then having to switch back at the boss. I guess that’s a personal choice, but you need at least a stealth skill while running because that’s pretty much the role of the thief.

Thaddeus.4891:

Jerus.4350:

Don’t forget stability on the guard, Hallowed grounds and Stand your Ground are both very good in many situations.

Also for thief, you don’t really need a stealth skill always up, the nice thing about running 2 signets is that after every fight you can toss in the stealths and go, leaving that last slot as kind of free game.

Ya but stability is not something that you need all the time. He ask about what should always be on your bar and stability is not one of them. In SE path 1 I could remove it from my bar, but don’t really need it in most paths.

I don’t really get what you mean for thief? You always have your 2 signets and yes you don’t need a stealth skill while you fight, but i don’t like to switch a signet for a stealth and then having to switch back at the boss. I guess that’s a personal choice, but you need at least a stealth skill while running because that’s pretty much the role of the thief.

If every guard brought Hallowed Grounds and Wall of reflection in SEp1 I’d be so happy, sure you can run it without but just saying, Hallowed Grounds is quite amazing, and while it may not be an always thing (good point) it is a major tool in the guard’s kitten nal.

The thief thing, my point is that you don’t need to waste that third utility. If you use it for something, you can swap the signets, then swap them back in before the fight wherever you can (including the third slot) and rotate things around.

You make a good point though, IF you were to stick with a single utility setup what you said is right, I just felt the need to point out the possibilities of other things. Sticking to one setup is pretty silly when you can get quite a bit extra out of your play by being a bit more flexible.

Jerus.4350:

If every guard brought Hallowed Grounds and Wall of reflection in SEp1 I’d be so happy, sure you can run it without but just saying, Hallowed Grounds is quite amazing, and while it may not be an always thing (good point) it is a major tool in the guard’s kitten nal.

The thief thing, my point is that you don’t need to waste that third utility. If you use it for something, you can swap the signets, then swap them back in before the fight wherever you can (including the third slot) and rotate things around.

You make a good point though, IF you were to stick with a single utility setup what you said is right, I just felt the need to point out the possibilities of other things. Sticking to one setup is pretty silly when you can get quite a bit extra out of your play by being a bit more flexible.

Ya switching utilities is really important. I tend to play with about 12 different utilities most professions.

For the thief thing, what do you try to bring in fight with your 2 signets? There is not much other stuff that is really that good. I like to keep smoke screen for the blind in some particular fight, otherwise I like SR as a OMG my friend is down button. Otherwise what would you bring as a third utility in a fight? Shadowstep in heavy condi fight but that’s rare, haste bring dps but it can be dangerous, skale venom give vulnerability but I most group we already have that max out. For me most of the time, smoke screen or shadow refuge seem the best 3rd utility in the fight even if its only just in case.

I tend to leave smokescreen on the bar. But really you should take the init gain signet if you can.

Spoj The Second.7680:

I tend to leave smokescreen on the bar. But really you should take the init gain signet if you can.

I though about it, but 1 initiative ever 10sec is not that good. It won’t help at all in most fight, but I guess that in HotW and Arah where some fight last a bit longer it could give some additional backstab.

Thaddeus.4891:

Jerus.4350:

If every guard brought Hallowed Grounds and Wall of reflection in SEp1 I’d be so happy, sure you can run it without but just saying, Hallowed Grounds is quite amazing, and while it may not be an always thing (good point) it is a major tool in the guard’s kitten nal.

The thief thing, my point is that you don’t need to waste that third utility. If you use it for something, you can swap the signets, then swap them back in before the fight wherever you can (including the third slot) and rotate things around.

You make a good point though, IF you were to stick with a single utility setup what you said is right, I just felt the need to point out the possibilities of other things. Sticking to one setup is pretty silly when you can get quite a bit extra out of your play by being a bit more flexible.

Ya switching utilities is really important. I tend to play with about 12 different utilities most professions.

For the thief thing, what do you try to bring in fight with your 2 signets? There is not much other stuff that is really that good. I like to keep smoke screen for the blind in some particular fight, otherwise I like SR as a OMG my friend is down button. Otherwise what would you bring as a third utility in a fight? Shadowstep in heavy condi fight but that’s rare, haste bring dps but it can be dangerous, skale venom give vulnerability but I most group we already have that max out. For me most of the time, smoke screen or shadow refuge seem the best 3rd utility in the fight even if its only just in case.

Haste if I feel safe with it. Smokescreen for projectile defense. Roll for Initiative if i think I might really need it (I bring it on Abom for example, in case someone screws up defiance), Shadowstep for some fights (I bring it on Lupi), and then if nothing else at least Initiative Signet, might as well get the extra 1 per 10s, I can always swap it right back to my stealth stuff after the fight.

Yea its only worth it in longer fights.

I would take 5 necros, since they all can conjure minions that can tank everything.

Edit: If i don’t need anything special on thief i usually bring blinding powder as third utility since it can be used to blast fire fields and provides stealth as an instant-cast, which means i can either backstab without losing initiative or i can use it to trigger revealed training when holding an icebow.

If we are going down that route then i would recommend the searing druid guardian build.

http://youtu.be/zjwcNbMrrT8

Lendruil.9061:

I would take 5 necros, since they all can conjure minions that can tank everything.

Edit: If i don’t need anything special on thief i usually bring blinding powder as third utility since it can be used to blast fire fields and provides stealth as an instant-cast, which means i can either backstab without losing initiative or i can use it to trigger revealed training when holding an icebow.

That’s a good idea, never thought to use it.

My thief only runs Arah and CM so smoke screen almost never leaves my utility bar. Next is the signet of Agility.

When I think of group compositions I think of mainly three things: Might, Fury, Vuln. As long as your comp can supply 25 stacks of Might and Vuln and keep Fury up, then everything else is just a nice bonus.

Phil.7903:

I think necro is always in place

I did some testing earlier and found out that necromancer dps is actually higher than elementalist, plus it has more utility than guardian and the minions make up for the loss in banners. In fact, why don’t we just run 5 necros instead

Lendruil.9061:

I would take 5 necros, since they all can conjure minions that can tank everything.

Edit: If i don’t need anything special on thief i usually bring blinding powder as third utility since it can be used to blast fire fields and provides stealth as an instant-cast, which means i can either backstab without losing initiative or i can use it to trigger revealed training when holding an icebow.

Why would you need Revealed Training if you have a damage modifier that gives 10% on bundles?

Painbow.6059:

Phil.7903:

I think necro is always in place

I did some testing earlier and found out that necromancer dps is actually higher than elementalist, plus it has more utility than guardian and the minions make up for the loss in banners. In fact, why don’t we just run 5 necros instead

Yeah necros have might, vuln and high crit in shroud. So i would say ideal team composition consists of 5 necros

GrimmR.3541:

Careful, hardcore player here;

2x Staff Ele
1x Phalanx Warrior
1x Thief
1x Mesmer or Guard works for most of the dungeons.

Ranger and Engi can be nice too but we hardly have them in our groups.
Necro is pretty selfish, so no necro for us!

Is phalanx warrior + 2 staff ele better dps than dps war + staff ele and LH ele?

utred.6085:

GrimmR.3541:

Careful, hardcore player here;

2x Staff Ele
1x Phalanx Warrior
1x Thief
1x Mesmer or Guard works for most of the dungeons.

Ranger and Engi can be nice too but we hardly have them in our groups.
Necro is pretty selfish, so no necro for us!

Is phalanx warrior + 2 staff ele better dps than dps war + staff ele and LH ele?

In most dungeons scenarios no it isn’t, Scepter ele using 05540/04550 and a staff elementalist can stack max might between them, also scepter ELE is very good burst damage. Furthermore the warrior still maintains decent personal DPS. There are scenarios where a phallanx warrior and 2 staff eles are optimal, but for the most part it’s worse

If your target is (or can be made) stationary, two staff ele are better. But the ramp up time of PS war stink.

My ideal composition for every dungeons is: Skip, Reflect, Big Burst.

NeoVaris.4806:

Lendruil.9061:

I would take 5 necros, since they all can conjure minions that can tank everything.

Edit: If i don’t need anything special on thief i usually bring blinding powder as third utility since it can be used to blast fire fields and provides stealth as an instant-cast, which means i can either backstab without losing initiative or i can use it to trigger revealed training when holding an icebow.

Why would you need Revealed Training if you have a damage modifier that gives 10% on bundles?

Why not?

utred.6085:

Is phalanx warrior + 2 staff ele better dps than dps war + staff ele and LH ele?

It depend on the situation. If the fight last more than 20-27second, then you can’t burst the boss down with 25 stacks of might at the beginning of the fight. The constant 25 might and higher dps of staff ele will be better there.

All the fight that can be burst down in less than 20-27 second will be better with S/X Ele + DPS Warrior. You will have about the same dps as Ele because your will almost only do some burst, you will have 25 stack of might for your burst and your warrior will do more dmg.

Thaddeus.4891:

utred.6085:

Is phalanx warrior + 2 staff ele better dps than dps war + staff ele and LH ele?

It depend on the situation. If the fight last more than 20-27second, then you can’t burst the boss down with 25 stacks of might at the beginning of the fight. The constant 25 might and higher dps of staff ele will be better there.

All the fight that can be burst down in less than 20-27 second will be better with S/X Ele + DPS Warrior. You will have about the same dps as Ele because your will almost only do some burst, you will have 25 stack of might for your burst and your warrior will do more dmg.

With 1 staff and 1 lh ele you should have perma 25 might.

Lendruil.9061:

With 1 staff and 1 lh ele you should have perma 25 might.

In theory yes, in practice not all the time. Outside of the chance that someone screw up or that 2 of those blast are heal that an elementalist could need to use outside his might rotation. A lot of S/X Ele don’t have arcane wave on their bar anymore with LH+Icebow+Glyph of Storm. Some staff ele need to alternate their two arcane blast to keep their trait up. Add the chance that someone screw up, the possibility that both Staff and S/X can’t blast their maximum at the beginning of the fight (because of glyph of storm or Arcane Lighting) and the possibility that an Elementalist need to heal outside the might rotation and you are pretty sure to never have a constant 25 stack of might without another profession there to pick up the slack.

Also for some fight, having two swirling winds will allow your team to go strait for the kill and save a bunch of time like with the Spider Queen in AC.

It really depend on the situation. Usually my friend stay in S/F and I switch from staff to S/F during our run to fit the situation.

Thaddeus.4891:

Lendruil.9061:

With 1 staff and 1 lh ele you should have perma 25 might.

In theory yes, in practice not all the time. Outside of the chance that someone screw up or that 2 of those blast are heal that an elementalist could need to use outside his might rotation. A lot of S/X Ele don’t have arcane wave on their bar anymore with LH+Icebow+Glyph of Storm. Some staff ele need to alternate their two arcane blast to keep their trait up. Add the chance that someone screw up, the possibility that both Staff and S/X can’t blast their maximum at the beginning of the fight (because of glyph of storm or Arcane Lighting) and the possibility that an Elementalist need to heal outside the might rotation and you are pretty sure to never have a constant 25 stack of might without another profession there to pick up the slack.

Also for some fight, having two swirling winds will allow your team to go strait for the kill and save a bunch of time like with the Spider Queen in AC.

It really depend on the situation. Usually my friend stay in S/F and I switch from staff to S/F during our run to fit the situation.

The lh ele can restack might after 30 seconds. As far as I know the szepter skills are actually a dps gain compared to lh autoattacks.

Lendruil.9061:

The lh ele can restack might after 30 seconds. As far as I know the szepter skills are actually a dps gain compared to lh autoattacks.

Not all of it, but you are right. The lost in dps don’t come from the rotation itself, but from all the step you need to do. If you can LH in air you have it easier, but if you LH in water, you need to switch in fire before your LH run out otherwise you won’t be able to complete your might rotation since water will be in cooldown. Its also more place for errors, time lost to get your hammer, etc. In theory its all good, but in practice it won’t be that clean. The same problem as before, if you only have 1 S/X + 1 Staff, you don’t have much room for error to get 25 stack of might. Don’t forget that Staff have 9% more dps than the S/D + LH build with the best dps. It can go as far as 20% more dps depending on what build the S/X Ele use.

Its all about balancing between the ideal situation vs reality. But also adapting to your party and your encounter.

The LH auto attack in lava font is enough to maintain the might with a little help. For example other party members + arcane wave and arcane brilliance.

Spoj The Second.7680:

The LH auto attack in lava font is enough to maintain the might with a little help. For example other party members + arcane wave and arcane brilliance.

Yup, but that doesn’t change the fact that a 1 S/F Ele (Strength) + 1 Staff Ele (Scholar) can keep at max 25 stack of constant might wihtout room for error and not counting for the S/F Ele taking Glyph of Storm over arcane wave. If you have a Guardian or engineer to pick up the slack, that’s ok, but if you don’t a PS Warrior would be a better option.

For short fight, 1 staff ele + 1 S/X ele is perfect IF the S/X is not using glyph of storm. But for longer fight keeping a constant 25 stacks of might for the whole group become a bit more tricker without outside help. My only point is 1 staff ele + 1 S/X ele is not that reliable to keep 25 stack of might by themselves in every situation. A party should have a third source of might if needed, or transfer the might responsability to a PS warrior and free the Ele to max their dps.

Well nothing lasts long in an optimised group. But say you are doing fractals which have long drawn out fights. What you want for that is D/F ele and a staff or second D/F ele. Easy 25 might when done right. And you also have to keep in mind almost every class can contribute a blast or two mid fight.

So with a staff ele and LH you should have no problem maintaining might no matter how sloppy you are in a dungeon. Its simply the best sustained might combination (ignoring phalanx) for regular dungeons. Phalanx only has the advantage if you lose time by prestacking might. But theres almost always a way to pre stack might without losing time. Sometimes it involves a short range portal.

Spoj The Second.7680:

Well nothing lasts long in an optimised group. But say you are doing fractals which have long drawn out fights. What you want for that is D/F ele and a staff or second D/F ele. Easy 25 might when done right. And you also have to keep in mind almost every class can contribute a blast or two mid fight.

So with a staff ele and LH you should have no problem maintaining might no matter how sloppy you are in a dungeon. Its simply the best sustained might combination (ignoring phalanx) for regular dungeons. Phalanx only has the advantage if you lose time by prestacking might. But theres almost always a way to pre stack might without losing time. Sometimes it involves a short range portal.

D/F Elementalist can only keep a constant 7 might of stack over long period of time while doing 2-3k less dps than a staff ele. PS Warrior over D/F Ele without question for that situation, except for some fight where the utilities of D/F will be more important than the dps lost. But ppl usually bring a guardian in Fractal to take care of that part.

For other party member having some blast in mid fight. Unless you don’t take a meta build :

- Guardian have 1, but can keep 2-3 constant might
- 1 warrior can provide 4 with the help of other (banners), but only at the start of the fight.
- Engineer can blast 5 times, but only 3 are reliable (1 other is their elite and the last sacrifice their healing turret).
- Thief have a good amount, but switching to Shortbow in the middle of a fight? Really. Only blinding powder is a reliable blast mid fight.
- Ranger, Necro and Mesmer don’t have one.

Again, like I said. Engineer and Guardian can pick up the slack for 1 staff + 1 s/x Ele.

Oh thank you. I have never understood this hype for D/F eles… Unless it is the only toon with enough AR, I don’t get it.

Lendruil.9061:

NeoVaris.4806:

Lendruil.9061:

I would take 5 necros, since they all can conjure minions that can tank everything.

Editicef i don’t need anything special on thief i usually bring blinding powder as third utility since it can be used to blast fire fields and provides stealth as an instant-cast, which means i can either backstab without losing initiative or i can use it to trigger revealed training when holding an icebow.

Why would you need Revealed Training if you have a damage modifier that gives 10% on bundles?

Why not?

Because it doesn’t give you any power in low level dungeons due to already being capped. It’s only really usefull in long fights (i.e. where you can’t burst bosses below 25% with ice bow)

If you can only maintain 7 might stacks on D/F, check your rotation.

After reading the OP’s post I am going to assume that he meant what a player want their ideal dungeon group to look like instead of what is optimal right now. UWSC in GW1 is my favorite dungeon of all times. The dungeon strategy that most pugs used involved 4 people soloing different areas of the map and a group of 4 doing another set of tasks. I think this can also translate really well in guild wars 2. AC story can be done using split tactics but the problem is the rewards sucks and it is pretty short. With the “expansion” announced I hope the designers can incorporate more split tactics into the new dungeons. Anways I want my ideal dungeon group to be one where there are 1 or 2 soloers and a group or 3-4 that does the main events of the dungeon. I think this way condition builds for the soloer can be viable in speed run dungeon groups.

If not then the most ideal comp atm imo
1war
1guard/mes
2eles
1thief
4iceblows/2glyph of storm for INSANE burst, good vuln,max might, stealth, perma fury, kitten ton of blast finishers, aegis, reflects, and battle standard incase you mess up

Not sure if OP will read this thread again, it was kinda dead for 2 years.

Thaddeus.4891:

Spoj The Second.7680:

Well nothing lasts long in an optimised group. But say you are doing fractals which have long drawn out fights. What you want for that is D/F ele and a staff or second D/F ele. Easy 25 might when done right. And you also have to keep in mind almost every class can contribute a blast or two mid fight.

So with a staff ele and LH you should have no problem maintaining might no matter how sloppy you are in a dungeon. Its simply the best sustained might combination (ignoring phalanx) for regular dungeons. Phalanx only has the advantage if you lose time by prestacking might. But theres almost always a way to pre stack might without losing time. Sometimes it involves a short range portal.

D/F Elementalist can only keep a constant 7 might of stack over long period of time while doing 2-3k less dps than a staff ele. PS Warrior over D/F Ele without question for that situation, except for some fight where the utilities of D/F will be more important than the dps lost. But ppl usually bring a guardian in Fractal to take care of that part.

For other party member having some blast in mid fight. Unless you don’t take a meta build :

- Guardian have 1, but can keep 2-3 constant might
- 1 warrior can provide 4 with the help of other (banners), but only at the start of the fight.
- Engineer can blast 5 times, but only 3 are reliable (1 other is their elite and the last sacrifice their healing turret).
- Thief have a good amount, but switching to Shortbow in the middle of a fight? Really. Only blinding powder is a reliable blast mid fight.
- Ranger, Necro and Mesmer don’t have one.

Again, like I said. Engineer and Guardian can pick up the slack for 1 staff + 1 s/x Ele.

D/F with the rotation Zelyhn posted is more like 15 stacks of might, and i’ve heard you can even get higher than that, though I don’t run it smooth enough apparently.

Jerus.4350:

Thaddeus.4891:

Spoj The Second.7680:

Well nothing lasts long in an optimised group. But say you are doing fractals which have long drawn out fights. What you want for that is D/F ele and a staff or second D/F ele. Easy 25 might when done right. And you also have to keep in mind almost every class can contribute a blast or two mid fight.

So with a staff ele and LH you should have no problem maintaining might no matter how sloppy you are in a dungeon. Its simply the best sustained might combination (ignoring phalanx) for regular dungeons. Phalanx only has the advantage if you lose time by prestacking might. But theres almost always a way to pre stack might without losing time. Sometimes it involves a short range portal.

D/F Elementalist can only keep a constant 7 might of stack over long period of time while doing 2-3k less dps than a staff ele. PS Warrior over D/F Ele without question for that situation, except for some fight where the utilities of D/F will be more important than the dps lost. But ppl usually bring a guardian in Fractal to take care of that part.

For other party member having some blast in mid fight. Unless you don’t take a meta build :

- Guardian have 1, but can keep 2-3 constant might
- 1 warrior can provide 4 with the help of other (banners), but only at the start of the fight.
- Engineer can blast 5 times, but only 3 are reliable (1 other is their elite and the last sacrifice their healing turret).
- Thief have a good amount, but switching to Shortbow in the middle of a fight? Really. Only blinding powder is a reliable blast mid fight.
- Ranger, Necro and Mesmer don’t have one.

Again, like I said. Engineer and Guardian can pick up the slack for 1 staff + 1 s/x Ele.

D/F with the rotation Zelyhn posted is more like 15 stacks of might, and i’ve heard you can even get higher than that, though I don’t run it smooth enough apparently.

It’s 15 with strength runes. Closer to 10 with Scholar.