Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody,

In this post I will describe a group comp for dungeon running that I believe is very effective, versatile, and capable of both good offence and defense. While I understand this is my personal opinion, I think that this is the Ideal group comp for dungeons, especially if the dungeon is completely unknown to all party members as it has the tools to handle many of the current dungeon mechanics. That all being said, if you have any constructive feedback please let me know! Well then, lets get on with it!

Summary
1. Main Builds
2. Alternate Builds
3. Pros and Cons
4. Situation Handling
5. Closing Remarks

BUILDS

In this section I will describe the builds that make up the composition. As a rule of thumb, some utilities, weapons, and elites are optional and should be changed based on the situation you find yourself in.

1. Axe/Warhorn and Rifle Power Warrior
Traits and Utilities: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#11|15|10|45|65|3903|246|20|836|1496|0|30|1975|1519|2413|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|20|1109|1845|0|14|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Weapons:
- Axe/Warhorn
- Rifle

Equipment:
- Knights Armor w/ 6x Runes of the Pack
- Valkyrie Weapons
- Knights Trinkets

Main Role: Single Target Damage

General Idea: Hard-hitting spike class. Goes for marked target until it’s dead, then moves on to the next one. Recommended to be the marker of targets due to role. If needed, Rifle provides some ranged options and is traited to pierce targets for at least some form of multi-target dps. High toughness, low vitality makes vulnerable to conditions, which is why Mending and Signet of Stamina are recommended. When off CD, Use Warhorn 5 often to upkeep the group vigor (Very Important!)

2. Symbol Support Guardian
Traits and Utilities: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/guardian#16|9|2478|3408|3406|1311|4501|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|2281|1405|1395|30|880|2171|1403|10|2286|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Weapons:
- 2H Hammer OR Mace/Shield
- Staff

Equipment:
- Soldiers Armor w/ 3x Water and 3x Monk Runes
- Clerics Weapons (Or the AC Pre/Vit/Healing Weapons)
- Clerics Trinkets

Main Role: Melee Support and Healing

General Idea: Melee Support Class. Use 2H Hammer for spammable protection and smaller healing and control, or Mace/Shield for larger healing, group protection and reflection. Staff provides larger range and some aoe, but is mostly brought for Staff 4. Use this whenever you can to heal and increase group DPS through might stacks. with +40% boon duration, each might stack will last around 11 seconds. If range is necessary, I recommend Mace/Shield and Scepter.

3. Glamour Support Mesmer
Traits and Utilities: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mesmer#7|0|2647|8134|4091|4511|8987|0|0|0|0|20|1759|1815|0|20|2295|2214|0|25|2316|2314|0|5|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Weapons:
- Greatsword
- Staff

Equipment:
- Rampagers Armor w/ any DPS based rune (6x Pack works)
- Soldiers weapons
- Knights trinkets

Main Role: General Support and Medium DPS

General Idea: General Ranged support. Feedback, Null Field, and Illusion of Life are life savers and are all traited. If you pick someone up using IoL, make sure they run to safety and don’t continue fighting, unless it is obvious they can kill something. Generally keep an eye out for Ranged attackers, Mass conditions on your party, and downed party members and use your utilities accordingly. Drop Chaos Storm on party members that have aggro (default on the melee players). Use it defensively by default. Your job is to provide what DPS you can while using the mesmers unique support smartly. Also, for spiking down a target at the start of a fight, coordinate time warp so all players are affected.

4. S/D Might Stacking Elementalist
Traits and Utilities: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#6|3|1119|3983|3986|1848|4480|30|1653|1655|1844|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|10|1684|0|0|30|2250|1628|965|0|0|1|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Weapons:
- Scepter/Dagger

Equipment:
- Soldiers Armor w/ 3x Water and 3x Monk Runes
- Clerics Weapons
- Clerics Trinkets

Main Role: Offensive Support

General Idea: Buffing yourself and allies with might through use of fire fields and blast finishers. Increases overall group DPS as well as providing other useful long lasting buffs through attunement swapping. The general combo for max might stacks is: Ring of Fire -> Dragon Tooth -> Pheonix -> Arcane Wave -> EARTH -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth -> Dodge. Once that combo is finished, Swap through to water and maybe air to use your heals and blinds, then continue to perform the above combo while dealing damage to give out continuous might buffs.

5. Staff Support Elementalist
Traits and Utilities: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#5|0|1119|3983|3986|9559|4480|10|1653|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1675|1684|2259|30|2250|1630|965|0|0|1|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Weapons:
- Staff

Equipment:
- Soldiers Armor w/ 3x Water and 3x Monk Runes
- Clerics Weapons
- Clerics Trinkets

Main Role: Group Healing and AoE Damage

General Idea: Healing your group through water attunement and blast finishers, then dealing large AoE damage via fire and earth attunement. When your group needs healed or conditions wiped, use Healing Rain followed by Geyser, then immediately place an Eruption within the healing rain for the blast finisher, followed by arcane wave and a dodge. Switch between attunements (usually mainly in fire) to provide AoE damage, buffs and CC/slow enemies.

ALTERNATE BUILDS

1. Venom Share Theif
Traits and Utilities: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#19|0|2632|3906|6677|8743|11435|30|1142|1714|1708|0|0|0|0|30|2383|2387|785|10|2353|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|28044|0|49978|49978|49978|49978|49978|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Weapons:
- Shortbow
- Sword/Pistol

Equipment:
- Soldiers Armor w/ 6x Runes of Lyssa
- Knights Weapons
- Knights Trinkets

Main Role: Debuffing Conditions Support

General Idea: Debuffs and controls the enemy through use of venoms. Before aggroing a tough group or even a boss, stack the group up and apply all your venoms. The spread of weakness and vulnerability lower their damage and increase yours, and immobilize and stone gives your group free time to focus on damage and make for easy aoe placement. Runes of Lyssa give unique buffs that work well with the short CD heal and elite. Basically use your venoms on CD and nearby party members.

Replaces:
1. Symbol Support Guardian – If you’re warrior isn’t having trouble staying alive.
2. Glamour Support Mesmer – If ranged mobs aren’t prevalent and you just want more damage.
3. Others not recommended to switch out.

Recommend more replacements, but please provide all the information I provide above. (i.e. link to build, weapon, armor, main role, use, and replacement info)

PROS AND CONS

Pros:
- Extreme Spiking Capability
- High Group DPS
- High Dodging availability (via vigor, traits, and utilities)
- Multiple sources of reflection (via Mesmer and Guardian)
- Good at destroying objects
- Portal available for various purposes
- Many sources of both Defensive and Offensive boons and healing
- Multiple indirect sources of damaging conditions
- Distractions via clones and elementals

Cons:
- No full condition builds so somewhat weaker against heavily armored enemies
- If you have any other cons let me know and I’ll add them if they make sense

SITUATION HANDLING

Spiking:

1. Get max (25) might stacks using the S/D ele’s fire field and blast finishers, the guardians mighty blow (blast finisher), and the staff eles eruption and a dodge. This should last around 30s and will give your entire group an extra 875 power and condition damage. The guardian can also use Staff 4 for more might after the first stacks wear off and the S/D ele will be giving more might out over the course of the fight.

2. Call a target.

3. Once all players are set up and starting to attack, the mesmer should cast Time Warp to hit as many players as possible. Communication helps here. With the might and Time Warp, its pretty safe to say that the group’s dps is near doubled.

General Boss Fighting:

The group comp is a mix of offence and defense, but leaning towards offence. All classes have good DPS ability and at least high/medium power. That being said, while there is good defense via protection, regen, condition removal, reflection, and healing, the best defense is player awareness and always being able to dodge during a boss fight. Were talking like Giganticus Lupicus type fights. That being said, all classes have some way to get vigor or have some form of extra endurance regen. The warrior fills in the gap with a 10s AoE vigor on warhorn. While its not like perma-vigor on everyone, there is enough to boost dodging availability significantly in hard fights. Other than that, the tactics really depend on the specific boss fight.

CLOSING REMARKS

This group comp is intended for advanced dungeon play. I by no means believe it is the end-all-be-all of groups and any group comp can work based upon the skills of the player and coordination of the group. I believe, however, that this group is ideal for dungeon play because it gives the players all the tools they need to be prepared for any situation and allow their skills to shine through. The idea is versatility, both within each build and as a group. Each build has things that can be swapped out depending on the situation (for example, both elementalists utilities are completely interchangeable), while other things may be set in stone (like the warrior’s weapon choices) because the build is built around those things. This provides each player with some choices to promote smart play and versatility.

Please tell me what you think, good or bad, below, but please try to be constructive.

Thanks for reading!

I suggest you change the title to something a little less forward.

This is your OPINION after all.

I would regard this more as an opinion also. Shield/mace guardian… I would never take.

While I thought that it was implied, I agree it could be more descriptive. I changed the title to reflect it was my opinion. And @swiftpaw, the main weapon for the guardian is a 2H Hammer, with a mace/shield as a substitute based on preference.

As someone who speed runs dungeons nightly, and has over 8k tokens and 2 full sets of dungeon gear + multiple weapons that guide is terrible.

2 guardian (1 hammer, 1 greatsword), 2 warrior (axe/mace + longbow), and 1 situational (ele, mesmer, thf, or 3rd war) is the best comp. if you’re talking about both speed and ease of dungeons.

I’ve run dungeons for ~2-3 hours in a dedicated group every night for the past month. Most dungeon paths can be cleared in under 20 min with ease with a comp group like that with optimal gear and builds.

Strifey.7215:

As someone who speed runs dungeons nightly, and has over 8k tokens and 2 full sets of dungeon gear + multiple weapons that guide is terrible.

2 guardian (1 hammer, 1 greatsword), 2 warrior (axe/mace + longbow), and 1 situational (ele, mesmer, thf, or 3rd war) is the best comp. if you’re talking about both speed and ease of dungeons.

I’ve run dungeons for ~2-3 hours in a dedicated group every night for the past month. Most dungeon paths can be cleared in under 20 min with ease with a comp group like that with optimal gear and builds.

I run similar setup as you every night also, can’t go wrong there

Strifey.7215:

As someone who speed runs dungeons nightly, and has over 8k tokens and 2 full sets of dungeon gear + multiple weapons that guide is terrible.

It seems like you know what you’re talking about, and you’re comp is definitely good, but would you mind explaining why you think mine is terrible?

entropythreee.8152:

Strifey.7215:

As someone who speed runs dungeons nightly, and has over 8k tokens and 2 full sets of dungeon gear + multiple weapons that guide is terrible.

It seems like you know what you’re talking about, and you’re comp is definitely good, but would you mind explaining why you think mine is terrible?

Right now the way PvE is balanced, damage is king. The goal is to basically do as much damage as possible without dieing. If your talking about speed running, you are also going to run through alot of trash, and heavy classes just have more survivability making it easier. It’s pretty much impossible for my guardian to die, even running through dungeons like Arah.

Warrior and Guardian are heavy classes, meaning they can get away with more damage because they naturally have 10% more armor. Warriors and Guardians also have large cleave attacks, meaning you will be hitting all enemies at once while still sustaining very high dps.

2 Guardians (1 hammer) means you will have 100% protection uptime. There is no better survivability buff then protection, 33% damage reduction in dungeons is huge. With 2 guardians, you will have near 100% uptime on defensive boons as well as plenty of condition removal for your entire group with runes of the soldier without wasting either traits or skills. This lets you focus on berserker/knights gear to kill faster = get through dungeons faster.

2 warriors are basically the opposite of guardians. They provide near 100% uptime on 3 stacks of might each and fury (20% crit). They also stack 8 stacks of vulnerability each with mace, more crit chance, boon uptime, and crit damage 100% of the time with banners. All this means everyone in your group is doing much more damage 100% of the time while still having defensive buffs 100% of the time. The fact is, many dungeon events are dps checks, almost every dungeon has one of them. It also lets you kill tedious bosses much faster. The 5th slot can be situational depending on the dungeon or just a 5th warrior for clearing faster.

It’s nice to theorycraft with multiple classes and builds, but the simple fact is, group boons and pure direct damage dps is king right now for dungeons.

You cannot compete with 4 heavy classes in dps gear with cleave attacks and near 100% uptime on both offensive and defensive boons with 1 class for any utility you may need to switch out for a specific path.

@Strifey

Right I understand how your comp works, and I totally agree that DPS is the most important thing right now in dungeons. The same could be said for cleave attacks, they are often the most efficient delivery of damage for small groups.

Now, without trying to start a forum war, I’d just like to point out that you still haven’t described why mine is terrible. You’ve only described why yours is good (which I agree with, it is rather good). Unless you meant to imply that mine was terrible because of how good yours was by comparison, which is not a bad argument in its own right because in the end the best comp is the best comp, without doubt.

But, as you state (correctly for the most part) damage is king, and AoE damage at that. Well I could argue that mine has sufficient amounts of both. With the constant might stacks (much more than your comp on average, just for the sake of comparison) I could argue that the group DPS is brought up to a level equal to your comp, and the Guardian, Mesmer, and both Elementalists are AoE focused, only the Warrior is single-target-focused. Going further, with both elementalists havein +60% boon duration and constantly switching attunements and providing their support (via water mostly), plus the guardian my comp too can maintain near constant defensive boons.

In the end all I’m saying is that just because you’re comp is good and you have experience, it doesn’t mean that mine is automatically terrible.

entropythreee.8152:

@Strifey

Right I understand how your comp works, and I totally agree that DPS is the most important thing right now in dungeons. The same could be said for cleave attacks, they are often the most efficient delivery of damage for small groups.

Now, without trying to start a forum war, I’d just like to point out that you still haven’t described why mine is terrible. You’ve only described why yours is good (which I agree with, it is rather good). Unless you meant to imply that mine was terrible because of how good yours was by comparison, which is not a bad argument in its own right because in the end the best comp is the best comp, without doubt.

But, as you state (correctly for the most part) damage is king, and AoE damage at that. Well I could argue that mine has sufficient amounts of both. With the constant might stacks (much more than your comp on average, just for the sake of comparison) I could argue that the group DPS is brought up to a level equal to your comp, and the Guardian, Mesmer, and both Elementalists are AoE focused, only the Warrior is single-target-focused. Going further, with both elementalists havein +60% boon duration and constantly switching attunements and providing their support (via water mostly), plus the guardian my comp too can maintain near constant defensive boons.

In the end all I’m saying is that just because you’re comp is good and you have experience, it doesn’t mean that mine is automatically terrible.

Because the title is misleading because it’s not an ideal group. My GS guardian has around 10 stacks of constant might, and my warrior around 15 stacks with 2x guard, 2x war. With a 5th class it can get up to 18+.

5 more might stacks won’t make up the damage with classes like a shortbow/sword thf or staff eles. Those classes will also die faster when running through trash.

One guardian will have good protection, but won’t things like stability and regen up and since you are using boon duration runes you’re not getting the tons of condition removal for the group without wasting skills or having to take other classes for condition removal that don’t put out as good dps.

Of course you can complete dungeons with your group, but it’s definitely not ideal.

I’ve run plenty of dungeons with other classes and comps, my dedicated group now all has at least one heavy class at 80 because for anyone that has run dungeons extensively, it’s quite obvious that certain classes just make dungeons so much faster and easier.

Ok, I see what you’re saying and I don’t disagree with anything really. One thing I’d like to point out is that while an Ele might have lower base armor and health than a Warrior, that doesn’t mean that the Ele will die faster. Eles, and any “squishy” class have their own ways of mitigating the damage dealt to them. Warriors do it by powering through their enemies and relying on their defence to live, while Eles rely on the large array of options at their disposal to kite and CC enemies so they can strike while they are weak.

Now perhaps, in the current metagame of dungeons, where most paths can be completed through sheer force and the tactics are known, your comp is easier and relatively more efficient. However, thinking to the future, there will be more dungeons introduced with brand new dynamics, and for the first time I ran them I think I, personally, would want more variety in my group comp than 2x guard 2x warr + other. Who knows, maybe ANet will make more tank and spank content that only test the groups ability to stay alive while dealing the most amount of damage. However, assuming they do bring unique challenges to the table where damage and your ability to facetank dont apply, having a wider array of options and forms of support, damage and control available to you would seem like the better comp, wouldn’t you agree?

From personal experience, eles die way faster run through trash when you have to run through alot of stuff such as TA and arah. If you talking about in battle, all the CC and dodging that a light armor class has to do means less dps time.

You are correct, current metagame heavies are king in PvE, that’s just the way it is. It doesn’t matter what it could be, it matters what it actually is now. You can’t theorycraft stuff that doesn’t exist. I personally have 4x 80s and everyone in my dedicated group has at least 3x 80s. The reason we all have at least one heavy class is because that is the current ideal comp. If the meta ever changes then it’s simple enough to change classes.

Theorycrafting is one thing, I have multiple dungeon guides and paths on my youtube page that show how fast and easily the real ideal party can clear dungeons. I would be very surprised if a balanced group with a couple mage classes, a thief, and a couple heavies can clear dungeons as easily and quickly as a 4x or 5x heavy comp. Fact is, the chance that you have to clear events like Magg bomb without kiting, the new SE1, or speed running through all trash in Arah is highly unlikely with the comp you posted. It will also be much harder to speed run things like CoE because you don’t have enough mitigation or pure dps to do some of the events and bosses efficiently.

I wouldn’t use shelter for the Guardian’s Self Heal either. 4,881 base heal vs a 8731 base heal from the signet of resolve. The 2 seconds of block and 10 second CD reduction isn’t worth it. You should have enough Aegises up if you spec right and if u have a focus you can add another 3 blocks.

What I don’t get is how non-heavy classes deal so much damage while other classes deal less and are squishier. Eles can master attune swap all they want/Mesmers can shatter perfectly all they want, in the end they put out significantly less damage and the supposed extra support/control they are given are non-existant. It’s just so unbalanced!

Warrior and guardian are also much simpler to play. Overall a hammer guardian spamming one does more damage and support (protection AND if traited might & healing) than an ele could (Fire for Dmg OR attune swap for lackluster support/control.)

Obviously they only balance Gw2 around tPvP though so roll a warrior/guardian for a superior PvE experience (albeit more boring) today.

@ Strifey

Perhaps I am kittening myself. Perhaps everyone should roll a 5-man team of shout heal warriors or a 5 man team of 2H hammer symbol guardians because when put together they never die (I know you didn’t suggest that and I’m not trying to put words in your mouth, its just an example). However, I wouldn’t have posted this comp if I hadn’t seen it in action first. I run this with my guild mates all the time. From my experience it seems to work fantastic. I have never actually ran your comp, but it seems like you think yours is even better, which is fine we all have our opinions. But this has gotten me through all dungeons paths in game, and when I thought about it the comp seemed to have a little bit of everything (so it was prepared for anything), which is why I consider it to be my ideal comp.

Also, and I know this has no bearing on a discussion about comp viability but, the day I am forced to play a warrior or guardian exclusively in PvE to complete content is the day I quit gw2.

@ swiftpaw

The specific builds that I posted are not as important at the overall build composition. There are many things within the specific builds that are optional (switching shelter for SoR, like you mentioned), but the overall idea of the build is what counts and should not change.

could one of you post the builds for the group of 2 guardians and 2 warriors. me and my friends are starting a group and we would GREATLY appreciate it A LOT. We are looking for the best group, so could you please post a small guide?

2 war with sonic boon, 1 guardian dps (not glass cannon berserk), bunker ele (d\d or staff depend dungeon) and mesmer or another war for me

i’ll never agree with such dungeon party….
I don t think staff ele is good.

D/D ele has some might stacking, some really nice crowd control and few damage but its too risky.
It has some of everything…..

Scepter focus is good for tanking ranged opponents (lava shaman?)

Staff is used only if you need to attack a stationary target at range
Support is really bad
Damage is really bad
Healing is subpar
Requires standing still
Cannot hit mobile enemies at all
Crowd control is limited to a single skill (water 4).

I don t really like staff….

Best dungeon ele imho is balanced D/D+S/F but its only a less effective guardian….

LordByron.8369:

i’ll never agree with such dungeon party….
I don t think staff ele is good.

D/D ele has some might stacking, some really nice crowd control and few damage but its too risky.
It has some of everything…..

Scepter focus is good for tanking ranged opponents (lava shaman?)

Staff is used only if you need to attack a stationary target at range
Support is really bad
Damage is really bad
Healing is subpar
Requires standing still
Cannot hit mobile enemies at all
Crowd control is limited to a single skill (water 4).

I don t really like staff….

Best dungeon ele imho is balanced D/D+S/F but its only a less effective guardian….

i use ele as main, d\d ele can be used in all dungeon you have to know how dodge nothing more and is great if party is melee, staff is awesome for fractal but you have to know how to use it!!

SoliSnake.9457:

i use ele as main, d\d ele can be used in all dungeon you have to know how dodge nothing more and is great if party is melee, staff is awesome for fractal but you have to know how to use it!!

played lot of fractals and i dismissed staff as i understood how to use scepter focus as a backup..

how do you use staff against thing like mossman? or lava shaman (shield with staff is a serious issue)?

Imho staff is only for glass cannon dps….no support at all…unfortunately even a ranger can do it much better.

Infact my best team would be:

1-2 Guardian
1-2 warriors
1 mesmer
1 D/D S/F ele or a GOOD ranger/necro

Heavy armors are king unfortunately….

healing rain 8 sec of regen and cure condition and geyser + blast finisher usless (i have 90% boon duration and 800 healing power) ? learn how your party move so you can heal where they are going not where they are, for mossman i prefer s\f too but for shaman the best for how i play is staff

3 months old thread (:

nice.

OP probably plays full zerker nowadays. because having everyone with knight/cleric gear, and saying ‘high dps’ would be considered trolling at the very least.

Stoutster.2918, imo your question should have been in new thread, somewhere in players helping players or smth.

anyway group build is easy, make sure you can keep 20+ might stacks constantly (a lot ways to contribute to that). everything else depends on players’ skill and knowledge about dungeon encounters. warriors and guardians might be easier to learn to play. have fun exploring.

I’ll be honest, i didn’t read most of this discussion but i think you should rethink your build a little, i almost stopped reading at the part where you said a warrior should be using rifle and be focused on single target damage. I pug dungeons all the time and the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else is a warrior using a rifle the entire dungeon and when asked why he says he has it traited to go threw targets.

Not to sound like an kitten but builds like that are just useless and that trait is a waste of a trait, if it doesn’t work for a ranger its not gonna work for a warrior.

Also a axe/warhorn isn’t to be used as anything other than a quick item swap when out of combat, hit the 4/5 then item swap back to mace/shield.

I honestly think that 2x monk runes and the rest ruby orbs would be better than rune’s of the pack, along with switching out all your knights gear for berserker gear. If its one thing i’ve learned while running a war, toughness is over-rated when theres a button that allows you to dodge.

Please don’t lead people in the wrong direction, pugging this game is already hard enough

EDIT: just saw that this is a 3 month old thread, so ignore everything

Your builds are mostly bunker/support. You lack any credible dps and that team will suffer in alot of events that require dps.

Even in terms of support the builds are inadequate. They are far from “ideal”.

Id like to try this, just for funzies, but getting those people, in that gear, in that stats…next to impossible

people will lie about builds
people will claim they dont have gear
people wont understand how to run it etc..

but that would be sooo cool to see a organized guild run this. post a vid if you get it!

Stoutster.2918:

could one of you post the builds for the group of 2 guardians and 2 warriors. me and my friends are starting a group and we would GREATLY appreciate it A LOT. We are looking for the best group, so could you please post a small guide?

All the builds and dungeon guides are in my sig, with links to written version on gw2guru for the builds.

This thread is 3 months old, so we now run 1 guard/3 war/1 mes for everything except high level fractals.

strifey is right, specially about Axe/Mace warriors. EVERY time i PUG, at least two people say “wow, this is the fastest i have ever done this” or some variant of that. factor in my CC with my hammer swap….things like scavengers in AC are nothing.

Groups of 4 heavy classes go through anything quickly and painlessly. mesmer is the ideal class to round it out. they bring even more group buffs, huge spike in support DPS with time warp, group mobility, condition removal, projectile reflection as well.

Am I the only one who sees problems w/ posts like this one? “Guides on ideal group comp.” As a developer I’d look at these threads and think that I have failed at what I set out to do. Removing the “trinity;” while a good idea has been poorly implemented here. If you have to choose “ideal” group comps, then something is seriously wrong with the game. This clearly means that either the stats are worth too much or too little; and/or that the skills certain classes have, need reworking. Even if the game isn’t “broken,” if players in the general community feel that you need the “ideal” comp to succeed in this game; you have failed at your idea and need to scrap it or tweak it.

Aura.9530:

Am I the only one who sees problems w/ posts like this one? “Guides on ideal group comp.” As a developer I’d look at these threads and think that I have failed at what I set out to do. Removing the “trinity;” while a good idea has been poorly implemented here. If you have to choose “ideal” group comps, then something is seriously wrong with the game. This clearly means that either the stats are worth too much or too little; and/or that the skills certain classes have, need reworking. Even if the game isn’t “broken,” if players in the general community feel that you need the “ideal” comp to succeed in this game; you have failed at your idea and need to scrap it or tweak it.

This. The very notion that there is an “ideal” profession setup means that something is wrong. What happened to all of that “every profession can fulfil every role” business? It’s obviously not the case.

Auesis.7301:

Aura.9530:

Am I the only one who sees problems w/ posts like this one? “Guides on ideal group comp.” As a developer I’d look at these threads and think that I have failed at what I set out to do. Removing the “trinity;” while a good idea has been poorly implemented here. If you have to choose “ideal” group comps, then something is seriously wrong with the game. This clearly means that either the stats are worth too much or too little; and/or that the skills certain classes have, need reworking. Even if the game isn’t “broken,” if players in the general community feel that you need the “ideal” comp to succeed in this game; you have failed at your idea and need to scrap it or tweak it.

This. The very notion that there is an “ideal” profession setup means that something is wrong. What happened to all of that “every profession can fulfil every role” business? It’s obviously not the case.

Well, you COULD do most dungeon content without the “ideal” professions. I think it’s just that the “top” professions are made more appealing based on how much their capabilities are suited for the current content design. The sad truth is people will want faster clears. Any profession comp can simply clear the content, but when optimization comes into place, players will certainly be more picky.

Lightrayne.7829:

Auesis.7301:

Aura.9530:

Am I the only one who sees problems w/ posts like this one? “Guides on ideal group comp.” As a developer I’d look at these threads and think that I have failed at what I set out to do. Removing the “trinity;” while a good idea has been poorly implemented here. If you have to choose “ideal” group comps, then something is seriously wrong with the game. This clearly means that either the stats are worth too much or too little; and/or that the skills certain classes have, need reworking. Even if the game isn’t “broken,” if players in the general community feel that you need the “ideal” comp to succeed in this game; you have failed at your idea and need to scrap it or tweak it.

This. The very notion that there is an “ideal” profession setup means that something is wrong. What happened to all of that “every profession can fulfil every role” business? It’s obviously not the case.

Well, you COULD do most dungeon content without the “ideal” professions. I think it’s just that the “top” professions are made more appealing based on how much their capabilities are suited for the current content design. The sad truth is people will want faster clears. Any profession comp can simply clear the content, but when optimization comes into place, players will certainly be more picky.

I’m not saying you CAN’T do the content without an “ideal” setup, because you obviously can. Any combination of professions in the game can clear endgame content as it stands. However, what saddens me is that certain professions are quite obviously a lot better, more efficient or easier to use in said content, however you want to phrase it. For example, a Thief who wants to play a more supportive role will NEVER be on the same level as a Guardian who is playing supportively. Considering that the mantra for a long, long time was that everyone can do everything in their own way, it’s disappointing that heavies are obviously dominant.

SoliSnake.9457:

healing rain 8 sec of regen and cure condition and geyser + blast finisher usless (i have 90% boon duration and 800 healing power) ? learn how your party move so you can heal where they are going not where they are, for mossman i prefer s\f too but for shaman the best for how i play is staff

nice a L2P answer….didn t expect them

They should place a button near reply called “reply L2P” it would save lot of time…..

You didn t answer….infact
How do you deal with shaman shield with staff?

I’ll tell you: you just survive and make your party carry you…..

I used staff on this boss for months because i was lazy…..(also because i have a staff skin i like i never use :/).

I tried a lot to use staff the probolem is that if you are not a full GC is not viable and even so is situational…
And D/D is way better at healing than staff… that weapon simply could not stand 3 mayor knee-jerk nerfs…

LordByron.8369:

SoliSnake.9457:

healing rain 8 sec of regen and cure condition and geyser + blast finisher usless (i have 90% boon duration and 800 healing power) ? learn how your party move so you can heal where they are going not where they are, for mossman i prefer s\f too but for shaman the best for how i play is staff

nice a L2P answer….didn t expect them

They should place a button near reply called “reply L2P” it would save lot of time…..

You didn t answer….infact
How do you deal with shaman shield with staff?

I’ll tell you: you just survive and make your party carry you…..

I used staff on this boss for months because i was lazy…..(also because i have a staff skin i like i never use :/).

I tried a lot to use staff the probolem is that if you are not a full GC is not viable and even so is situational…
And D/D is way better at healing than staff… that weapon simply could not stand 3 mayor knee-jerk nerfs…

even though I use staff very occasionally I have to disagree with you about Shaman

Staff gives u everything u rly want for that encounter
reflect (even party wide when traited)
condition removal
heal at long range
great AoE dmg
multiple hit attack to take shield down (Lava Font, every tick counts)
massive slow for the Shaman when shielded (Frozen Ground)
free evade (Burning Retreat)

but if u have better option feel free to enlighten me

iTB.1428:

multiple hit attack to take shield down (Lava Font, every tick counts)

this is where you are wrong….
condition doesn t count…if they do its a bug.

Staff gives u everything u rly want for that encounter
reflect (even party wide when traited)

and what about the same with cond removal added on top of that?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magnetic_Wave

would you also like another big AOE projectile absorb for 6 seconds?
=> focus
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swirling_Winds

condition removal

All weaponsets are the same, possibly staff is the worst here
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phoenix
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magnetic_Wave

heal at long range

scepter has it
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Water_Trident
Staff is better but its really risky

great AoE dmg

do you use the infamous 30/30/30/30/30 build?
Just no damage at all…..that is why i started to hate staff….

But hey this is actually nice:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon%27s_Tooth

massive slow for the Shaman when shielded (Frozen Ground)

Yes this is awesome for staff

free evade (Burning Retreat)

Cool and what about aoe with vigor and a cool invulnerability skill?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phoenix
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Obsidian_Flesh <== 5 seconds

Those numbers are huge compared to staff…

really just try it….
you ll never change it back…..

You are in the same position i was 1 month ago >.< i didn t want to give up on staff….but there is no doubt its unviable atm.