Guild Wars 2

For a while I’ve been noticing that quite a few pugs in my CoF P1 runs are playing very ineffectively. This guide is only for warriors (lightly touching on mesmer tactics) that want to maximize their efficiency via helpful techniques and proper gear/traits.

From this guide I’m assuming that you moderate knowledge and experience with CoF and will primarily only focus on small details that will improve group performance.

Speedclear Template: (3 warriors, 1 mesmer works as well, but is still inferrior).
4 Warriors
1 Mesmer

Preparation:

Gear
This is the most important factor of completing P1 in the shortest possible time. The best possible (with reason) DPS is achieved exactly by this template. In my oppinion any warriors not running this exact gear template is not performing at their fullest potential.

Armor: Full Exotic Power,Precision, Crit+ Dmg with full ruby orbs. No knights or anything.
Trinkets: Full ascended berserker trinkets.
Weapons: Berserker greatsword with Sigil of smothering/night (10%+ vs Flame legion/ during night). Berserker axe/mace with sigil of smotheirng/night for 20% extra damage.

Trait template
3 Warriors should be running a full DPS build while the other warrior runs 10 in tactics for empower allies.

DPS traits
30 power-Berserker’s Power, Slashing Power, Axe mastery
25 arms-Rending strikes, Forceful Greatsword
15 discipline

Empower Traits (should have 2,925k base power, 54% crit chance and 95% crit damage while downscaled without buffs.)
25 Power-bersker’s power,slashing power
25 arms-Rending strikes, Forceful Greatsword
10 tactics-Empower allies
10 disc- Heightened focus

Skill set
FGJ-Required
Banner of strg+disc.
On my mark ( can become balance stance during final boss)

Dungeon Initiation:
-Speak with commander Suma.
Warriors using AoE speedbuffs, the mesmer rushes to the top of the ramp, drops portal and joins the other 3 warriors stacking on the gate. The other warrior rushes to commander Suma with sword mainhand, greatsword and bulls charge. The warrior uses rush>bulls charge>savage leap (over the rock) and grabs ferrah while other players watch cutscene for 2 seconds. Next initiate paths (mesmer activates portal) and unload whatever movement skills and portal all the way to the gate. This technique forces Ferrah to teleport to you instantly and spawn mag on top of her. This should save you 4-6 seconds on your run.

-Defeat Foundry defenses.
Build full adrenaline on the gate. When Mag begins to speak, drop both banners and carry them through once the gate is breached. Mesmer pulls both mobs on top of turret and pops signet of inspiration (a warrior can you use sword burst skill to root them if prefered). All warriors use 100b>whirling attack>axe auto attack to dispatch (feedback the warriors about 1.5 seconds after engaging).
-Slavedriver
Stack FGJ>signet of inspiration before engaging. Mesmer sets timewarp, warriors use 100b>whirling attack>Eviscerate>auto attack to decimate slavedriver.
-Acolyte room
Equip sword, Gs and bulls charge to rush to the room and initiate. Kill acolytes as they spawn.
-Boulders
DPS warrior decides who will do the gate. Gate warrior changes skills to FGJ, Balanced stance and frenzy. Change axe mastery trait (10) to dual wielding. Mesmer portals warriors>pop signet of inspiration then gate warrior heads to the gate (target the gate controller and use bladetrail to hold adrenaline). The other warrior drops banner of strg which is carried to the gate controller. Gate warrior drops srtg banner uses Rush>fgj, balanced stance>frenzy once rush animation finishes>100b>whirlwind attack>eviscerate follow up. Grab banner and advance to boss. (Change trait back to axe mastery (10), you dont have to adjust your skill set).

Final Boss.
Before engaging boss you may decide if you want to swap On My Mark for balanced stance in favor of more gauranteed interrupt protection throughout the boss. Mesmer uses Signet of inspiration>timewarp>warriors open with 100b> ONLY WHIRLWIND IF YOU FOLLOW IT UP WITH EVISCERATE>swap to axe/mace>eviscerate>auto attack.
At this point the boss unloads his AoE Knockdown so mesmer should be ready to feedback.
Warriors continue to auto attack the boss (completely ignore his aoe fire attack)>swap to gs when 100b ready>100b>swap to axe>eviscerate to finish the boss if still alive.
-Concluding
Loot boss, loot chest exit immidiately and repeat.

jul.7602:

Weapons: Berserker greatsword with Sigil of smothering/night (10%+ vs Flame legion/ during night). Berserker axe/mace with sigil of smotheirng/night for 20% extra damage.

Thanks for the write up btw!

I wasn’t aware of this, can anyone verify that smothering and night stack? I was under the impression all +Damage% and +crit chance% didn’t stack regardless of the criterea on sigils.

It was an either/or, I’m pretty sure. I think the dungeon always occurs during the night.

jul.7602:

during night). Berserker axe/mace with sigil of smotheirng/night for 20% extra damage.

Ayrilana.1396:

during night).It was an either/or, I’m pretty sure. I think the dungeon always occurs during the night.

I really don’t interpret “for 20% extra damage.” as either/or.

Not sure if this is real guide, or just min/max speculations. So…
Mace mentioned as offhand weapon, but not mentioned in any dps cycles. Why? And if offhand mace not included in dps cycles, why not use warhorn for permaswiftness instead?
Zero recommendations about elite slots. Why?
Dances with str banner near gate controller instead of direct rush to brasiers. Why? Additional power really so critical here?

Use all zerk gears when warriors have perma fury + banner of discipline for kitten free 25%+ crit chance. Why?

PCanineBrigade.4916:

Use all zerk gears when warriors have perma fury + banner of discipline for kitten free 25%+ crit chance. Why?

The question was about: that will give greater time gain – delay with banner placement or direct rush 1 → gate 4 → braziers.

Groups I’ve been with don’t even do it this fast and TW is down 30-40 secs on the slave driver. Also 20/25/0/10/15 does more damage.

Puandro.3245:

Groups I’ve been with don’t even do it this fast and TW is down 30-40 secs on the slave driver. Also 20/25/0/10/15 does more damage.

1 warrior with Empower Allies + 4 with Empowered in Tactics line?

Minor things on your rotations that can be improved:

-Defeat Foundry defenses:
-When you’re first running in as the mesmer pulls, start of with mace 5 for knockdown so the mobs don’t move.
- On the second turret, all 4 warriors should Eviscerate to pretty much instantly kill it then after use healing surge to get all your adrenaline back for Slave Driver

In General:
You should be saving your eviscerate until the end of the fight. The amount of damage you lose by losing 9% crit chance and 12% base damage and having to re-build adrenaline outweighs eviscerate damage, by saving it until the end you get the benefit of both. Only times I ever use Eviscerate during a fight on any dungeon is when I’m going to use healing surge and think that I’ll be fine with a lower heal.

Similar on the last boss, you always want to WW because it is the highest dps skill you have outside of eviscerate. You should be swap cancelling from 1 auto attack + 100B + WW + swap every 5 seconds. This will reduce the distance of your WW and almost immediately let you hit with auto attacks on axe. Alternatively, you should be using Mace 5 immediately out of a swap cancel since it is a ranged attack and hits twice. If you just 100B then wait until your cooldown, your dps is going to be lower from the slow GS auto attacks then 1 AA + 100B + WW + swap canceling.

Use all zerk gears when warriors have perma fury + banner of discipline for kitten free 25%+ crit chance. Why?

You’re forgeting about raw power and critical damage.

Rednik.3809:

Not sure if this is real guide, or just min/max speculations. So…
1)Mace mentioned as offhand weapon, but not mentioned in any dps cycles. Why? And if offhand mace not included in dps cycles, 2) why not use warhorn for permaswiftness instead?
3)Zero recommendations about elite slots. Why?
4)Dances with str banner near gate controller instead of direct rush to brasiers. Why? Additional power really so critical here?

1-You use mace offhand for attack 4 which gives vulnerability and by nature its more agressive than warhorn.
2)-Signet of rage/ banner standard will easily give you more than enough swiftness.
3)Use signet of rage, the might stacks take effect much quicker.
4)I may have described it poorly so I’ll explain it again. The gate rusher goes directly to the gate. The warrrior with the str banner drop it near the gate while he is moving to his brazier (no pause at all). There should be enough time for the gate warrrior to pick the banner up, drop it on the other side of the gate and rush the controller. There should be no delay at all and the warrior gets extra power.

Puandro.3245:

Groups I’ve been with don’t even do it this fast and TW is down 30-40 secs on the slave driver. Also 20/25/0/10/15 does more damage.

Interesting that your running empowered as a trait line, but I think 30/25/15 gives more dps.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Empowered
2% extra damage per unique boon, so in this case it should be roughly 6-8% extra damage, but an expense. You miss out on stick and move (3% extra damage), 100 power and axe mastery 10% crit damage on axe.

On the positive side, if the mesmer runs lyssa runes, you’ll get 9 boons for ~seconds giving everyone an 18% extra damage boost. In this situation I believe your empower build will out DPS my variation, but this is based off the probability that your mesmer wears lyssa runes. I’m thinking your empower build is more accustomed a more organized farming group.

jul.7602:

Puandro.3245:

Groups I’ve been with don’t even do it this fast and TW is down 30-40 secs on the slave driver. Also 20/25/0/10/15 does more damage.

Interesting that your running empowered as a trait line, but I think 30/25/15 gives more dps.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Empowered
2% extra damage per unique boon, so in this case it should be roughly 6-8% extra damage, but an expense. You miss out on stick and move (3% extra damage), 100 power and axe mastery 10% crit damage on axe.

On the positive side, if the mesmer runs lyssa runes, you’ll get 9 boons for ~seconds giving everyone an 18% extra damage boost. In this situation I believe your empower build will out DPS my variation, but this is based off the probability that your mesmer wears lyssa runes. I’m thinking your empower build is more accustomed a more organized farming group.

Duel Wielding does more damage than Axe Mastery BTW.

20/25/0/15/10 (w/ 4 boons) does as much dps as 30/25/0/0/15 (w/ out Stick and Move active)

If you have 6 boons up it does as much as when Stick and Move is active.

So yes the 30/25/0/0/15 does more damage since you only have 3 buffs up (Might/Fury/Swiftness).

If the mesmer would run a staff to start with chaos storm, which also applies 0-25 stacks of vulnerability, and somebody uses an explosion finisher (no clue where it could come from tbh) your group would have more than 3 boons. Mesmers also can give self-boons to the party which would be retailiation, protection, regeneration, vigor and aegis.
Of course those boons will end quickly but remember, slave driver or endboss aren’t much more than trashmobs.

Puandro.3245:

Duel Wielding does more damage than Axe Mastery BTW.

This.
And since you’ll be using +% dmg sigils it’s even better.

Rarely do I agree with mostly everything on posts, but this is very well written