Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,

I am posting this here to help all those people struggling with their groups in Dungeons. You can also apply guide to Fractals as well!

You can check out the guide here:

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/blog/comments/rushs-guide-to-smoother-dungeons

Good luck out there, and may Dwayna bless you all!

-Rush

As you could predict I don’t like your inability to accept mash up team compositions. For what it’s worth the difference between light armor classes and heavy armor classes is 300 toughness (which is a lot I would admit). I don’t know what made ANet think it was balanced to grant warriors the profession with highest base health and base toughness while letting them also be one of the highest damage dealing professions!

In any regard warriors don’t bring combo-fields but they have tons of finishers. So what really make your group shine is having 2-3 classes with combo fields and 1-2 heavy finisher classes (like warrior or thief).

I also definitely doesn’t agree with a glass cannon build as needed/required or anything like it that would make your run go more smooth. Depending on the profession they tend to get killed super fast and requires team members to rally them or revive/corpse run. It’s much better to run with a more balanced build that focus on doing and enhancing damage but can also survive and be self-reliant, which your typical glass-cannon can’t.

“I facepalm every time I see more than 1 glass cannon in a party.”

I guess it’s rather subjective, since some of the fastest and cleanest dungeon/fractal runs that I’ve done were with all glass cannons like myself. Problem is there are people who don’t know how to play glass cannon and make life a pain for everyone else. That could be said for any play style though. I think the “best” combination is simply the one with 5 people who know how to play their particular style well.

“I have personally seen one solo the kaboodium part of CoF path 2) and they can keep you up too.”

Are you saying your “fluffing” guardian spec can solo kill everyone in that particular event room? or run away like a crazy chicken? Respectful team of 5 people can do it without running and paying for repair.

Great that people contribute with their guides but your guardian overview is bad, really bad, like you have never played a guardian before. Healing gear and staff? What a waste of a guardian in a dungeon

New players can go ahead and test it out, it’s their choice but i recommend posting opinions for new people in this thread before they will go and run wild in exp dungeons.

Hellgaunt.1734:

As you could predict I don’t like your inability to accept mash up team compositions. For what it’s worth the difference between light armor classes and heavy armor classes is 300 toughness (which is a lot I would admit). I don’t know what made ANet think it was balanced to grant warriors the profession with highest base health and base toughness while letting them also be one of the highest damage dealing professions!

In any regard warriors don’t bring combo-fields but they have tons of finishers. So what really make your group shine is having 2-3 classes with combo fields and 1-2 heavy finisher classes (like warrior or thief).

I also definitely doesn’t agree with a glass cannon build as needed/required or anything like it that would make your run go more smooth. Depending on the profession they tend to get killed super fast and requires team members to rally them or revive/corpse run. It’s much better to run with a more balanced build that focus on doing and enhancing damage but can also survive and be self-reliant, which your typical glass-cannon can’t.

Like I said in the guide, my preferred team is heavier. If someone wants to run with more clothies, they can go right ahead. When my guild and I run dungeons, we focus on surviving the dungeon, more than we do on dealing the highest amount of damage as possible.

I agree with the combo fields, I am always saying it in the middle of fights “Trigger the combo fields!”. They provide added bonuses to every fight.

I don’t like glass cannon builds, and they definitely aren’t a requirement. We usually end up with 1 glass cannon in are parties because we know who is playing it. I have run groups with a PUG glass cannon and that player is always on the ground because they can’t dodge properly either. I want a well balanced team, that can survive any fight.

But that isn’t to say that you can’t bring a bunch of glass cannons. If they know what they are doing, they can be very effective.

elderan.2638:

“I facepalm every time I see more than 1 glass cannon in a party.”

I guess it’s rather subjective, since some of the fastest and cleanest dungeon/fractal runs that I’ve done were with all glass cannons like myself.  Problem is there are people who don’t know how to play glass cannon and make life a pain for everyone else.  That could be said for any play style though.  I think the “best” combination is simply the one with 5 people who know how to play their particular style well.

This is purely subjective on my part. I have seen so many glass cannons die when they thinking they can just burn something down without dodging. If you have a full group of glass cannons that can smoothly run a dungeon, then you sir are lucky.

Jade.2954:

“I have personally seen one solo the kaboodium part of CoF path 2) and they can keep you up too.”

Are you saying your “fluffing” guardian spec can solo kill everyone in that particular event room? or run away like a crazy chicken? Respectful team of 5 people can do it without running and paying for repair.

Great that people contribute with their guides but your guardian overview is bad, really bad, like you have never played a guardian before. Healing gear and staff? What a waste of a guardian in a dungeon

New players can go ahead and test it out, it’s their choice but i recommend posting opinions for new people in this thread before they will go and run wild in exp dungeons.

A great fluffer guardian can kite the mobs in CoF path 2 while magg places the bomb. I have run with one who did it 100% without dying. That was a rare occurrence though. He normally gets to about 50% and then we throw 2 more guys in the fray to kite them around.

If you don’t like support guardians in your party, that’s your preference. All I suggest is that you run a couple of dungeon runs with one in your party. You will see the difference.

i run a durable mace/shield+longbow banner warrior, it is awesome… (although ive given up trying to CC some bosses – AC for example; interrupting HK or CR in the middle of a scream/scream wind up sometimes causes them to pull of double screams – i have gotten into the habit of just tanking them in the corner, so their screams are facing away from my team and i can just shield stance them, or kholer because interrupting during his wind up makes him instantly send out the scorpion wires, im not sure whether im interrupting them at the wrong time or whether its just… bad) and im dissappointed that you did not mention the weakness on the third attack on mace chain (which is very helpful to your party; and if combined with a hammer guardian means a lot of damage reduction in melee range) and shield stance/counterblow is a god send against bosses (if the enemy isnt too obstructed by norn/effects for me to see wind ups), so its nice to see mace/banner regen get some attention, it seems terribly underrated (i have only seen 2 banner regeners and no mace warriors), but dislike the rest of the guide.

guards should never use a staff in PvE i stopped reading the guide after i saw that

Your smooth runs are still kiting in CoF path 2? Here i thought smooth runs were sittin around waiting for stuff to kill in that event because everything dies so fast…

Good guidelines for a pug, but if its a pug everything goes thats why its a pug.

Pritst.1469:

guards should never use a staff in PvE i stopped reading the guide after i saw that

AMEN!!!

Pritst.1469:

guards should never use a staff in PvE i stopped reading the guide after i saw that

If you can explain why staff guardian is bad, then I just might believe you. But until then, all I am reading is dribble from someone who doesn’t know everything about the guardian.

The best team compositions are the ones that include 5 glass cannons. If you facepalm in that situation, I really have no words. I guess it’s because your view about glass cannon is someone who dies every 10 seconds, has only selfish utilites and can’t dodge 3s long animations.

Honestly, staff on guardian is only good for a bit might stacking but only on 3 conditions – 1. you got some might/boon duration, 2. you have AH trait, 3. you don’t run with warriors who frankly don’t need that additional might. And healing gear??

Riku Shinobu.4518:

If you don’t like support guardians in your party, that’s your preference. All I suggest is that you run a couple of dungeon runs with one in your party. You will see the difference.

I’ve seen the difference. 3 times less damage with similiar survivability and support as almost glass cannon guardian. Boss fights are snore fast, they go down so slow. You “fluffer” just gimps himself for nothing.

Negativity’s Guide to Smoother Dungeon runs!

Step 1. Play a shout healing warrior or an AH guardian
Step 2. Man up
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Profit!

How long do your cof-runs take with those builds? 30 minutes? How do you kill your opponents – heal them do death?

haviz.1340:

The best team compositions are the ones that include 5 glass cannons. If you facepalm in that situation, I really have no words. I guess it’s because your view about glass cannon is someone who dies every 10 seconds, has only selfish utilites and can’t dodge 3s long animations.

Honestly, staff on guardian is only good for a bit might stacking but only on 3 conditions – 1. you got some might/boon duration, 2. you have AH trait, 3. you don’t run with warriors who frankly don’t need that additional might. And healing gear??

Riku Shinobu.4518:

If you don’t like support guardians in your party, that’s your preference. All I suggest is that you run a couple of dungeon runs with one in your party. You will see the difference.

I’ve seen the difference. 3 times less damage with similiar survivability and support as almost glass cannon guardian. Boss fights are snore fast, they go down so slow. You “fluffer” just gimps himself for nothing.

If you think that is all a guardian with a staff can do then I feel sorry for you man. Your last 2 on that list of requirements are just the signs of a bad player. Everyone benefits from might, especially warriors. I run with warriors in parties all the time with a guardian fluffer, and their regular and crit damage is greatly effected by might.

Speccing into more survivability is great. With a guardian fluffer in a party, my might on crit guardian can hold 22 stacks of might during boss fights. That makes my burst combo from sword/torch deal between 20k-24k damage. I also do not have to worry about my health as much as I would without one. Everyone still dodges major attacks, but if someone messes up the party won’t be poorly effected by it.

This party comp can also survive accidental aggro, and large trash mob situations, with no risk of wiping.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

i run a durable mace/shield+longbow banner warrior, it is awesome… (although ive given up trying to CC some bosses – AC for example; interrupting HK or CR in the middle of a scream/scream wind up sometimes causes them to pull of double screams – i have gotten into the habit of just tanking them in the corner, so their screams are facing away from my team and i can just shield stance them, or kholer because interrupting during his wind up makes him instantly send out the scorpion wires, im not sure whether im interrupting them at the wrong time or whether its just… bad) and im dissappointed that you did not mention the weakness on the third attack on mace chain (which is very helpful to your party; and if combined with a hammer guardian means a lot of damage reduction in melee range) and shield stance/counterblow is a god send against bosses (if the enemy isnt too obstructed by norn/effects for me to see wind ups), so its nice to see mace/banner regen get some attention, it seems terribly underrated (i have only seen 2 banner regeners and no mace warriors), but dislike the rest of the guide.

The weakness is nice, but it doesn’t last long enough to be that effective. That is why I left it out of the guide. The important thing to focus on is chaining your stuns and knocking the bosses defiance down. This requires working with your team on timing the stuns.

When I play on my banner warrior and I fight kohler, my team burns his defiance down and then we wait for the charge up to scorpion wire. Once he charges, I hit him with my F1 stun and the threat from scorpion wire is gone. The same goes for king and colossus. Time your stuns and you don’t have to worry about the large attacks.

Nozdrum.2894:

How long do your cof-runs take with those builds? 30 minutes? How do you kill your opponents – heal them do death?

7 minute CoF 1 and 15-20 minute CoF 2.

Two shout warriors with “for great justice” as auto-cast will give you permanent might even sitting in LA while being afk…. on top of that two of them in melee with AH guardian can 3 man CoF (apart from path 3) and CoE if not the gad kitten laser beams and 4 people to shut them down

Jade.2954:

Two shout warriors with “for great justice” as auto-cast will give you permanent might even sitting in LA while being afk…. on top of that two of them in melee with AH guardian can 3 man CoF (apart from path 3) and CoE (again not path 3)

Justice gives 3 stacks of might. Empower gives 12, and with the proper gear you will can keep 12 stacks up for a long time.

12 stacks for 80% of the time > 3 stacks 100% of the time.

That also does not include proc might effects either. Like I said in an earlier reply on here, my guardian holds 22-25 stacks of might during a fight.

And I have 2 manned boss fights in CoF with a fluffer guardian. It was not enjoyable, but I did it. Just because you can 3 man CoF doesn’t mean you should.

In CoF i’d take a crit/hammer guardian and a couple warriors before i took a fluffer guardian. Its a really easy dungeon so the fluffer isn’t necessary at all just more dps. Harder dungeons my teams usually have both for protection and condition removal/healing. Other 3 members are usually 100b warriors either full zerker or part knights part zerker and possibly a mesmer or auramancer depending on who feels like playing what. Sometimes we even have a necro playing support with aoe blind being helpfull on many fights.

climhazzard.5897:

In CoF i’d take a crit/hammer guardian and a couple warriors before i took a fluffer guardian. Its a really easy dungeon so the fluffer isn’t necessary at all just more dps. Harder dungeons my teams usually have both for protection and condition removal/healing. Other 3 members are usually 100b warriors either full zerker or part knights part zerker and possibly a mesmer or auramancer depending on who feels like playing what. Sometimes we even have a necro playing support with aoe blind being helpfull on many fights.

Solid team builds. Necro’s are lucky because they can deep, support, and survive all on one skill bar.

If you have the skill to survive without a fluffer, you don’t need one.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

If you think that is all a guardian with a staff can do then I feel sorry for you man. Your last 2 on that list of requirements are just the signs of a bad player. Everyone benefits from might, especially warriors. I run with warriors in parties all the time with a guardian fluffer, and their regular and crit damage is greatly effected by might.

Warriors can get 25 stacks by themselves. They don’t need your fluffer. And I’m doing pretty okay in harder dungeons like arah. In fact I often got people claiming they’re support/tanky/etc yet they die horribly at lupi.

Speccing into more survivability is great. With a guardian fluffer in a party, my might on crit guardian can hold 22 stacks of might during boss fights. That makes my burst combo from sword/torch deal between 20k-24k damage. I also do not have to worry about my health as much as I would without one. Everyone still dodges major attacks, but if someone messes up the party won’t be poorly effected by it.

I get 25 stacks of might on guardian on semi-glass cannon spec. Your point?

When I play on my banner warrior and I fight kohler, my team burns his defiance down and then we wait for the charge up to scorpion wire. Once he charges, I hit him with my F1 stun and the threat from scorpion wire is gone. The same goes for king and colossus. Time your stuns and you don’t have to worry about the large attacks.

You really stun kholer to rupt him? You’re not kidding me?

7 minute CoF 1 and 15-20 minute CoF 2.

I’d like to see 7 minutes run with 1 glass.

haviz.1340:

Riku Shinobu.4518:

If you think that is all a guardian with a staff can do then I feel sorry for you man. Your last 2 on that list of requirements are just the signs of a bad player. Everyone benefits from might, especially warriors. I run with warriors in parties all the time with a guardian fluffer, and their regular and crit damage is greatly effected by might.

Warriors can get 25 stacks by themselves. They don’t need your fluffer. And I’m doing pretty okay in harder dungeons like arah. In fact I often got people claiming they’re support/tanky/etc yet they die horribly at lupi.

Speccing into more survivability is great. With a guardian fluffer in a party, my might on crit guardian can hold 22 stacks of might during boss fights. That makes my burst combo from sword/torch deal between 20k-24k damage. I also do not have to worry about my health as much as I would without one. Everyone still dodges major attacks, but if someone messes up the party won’t be poorly effected by it.

I get 25 stacks of might on guardian on semi-glass cannon spec. Your point?

When I play on my banner warrior and I fight kohler, my team burns his defiance down and then we wait for the charge up to scorpion wire. Once he charges, I hit him with my F1 stun and the threat from scorpion wire is gone. The same goes for king and colossus. Time your stuns and you don’t have to worry about the large attacks.

You really stun kholer to rupt him? You’re not kidding me?

7 minute CoF 1 and 15-20 minute CoF 2.

I’d like to see 7 minutes run with 1 glass.

I’ve never wiped on lupi with this team comp.

I’m not downing your other team builds, all I am saying is that guardian support is not bad. I’ve never had a problem in my teams with a guardian running support.

Yes, timing your stuns will let you interrupt any major attack from a boss.

I will film our next CoF 1 run for you to see.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

I’ve never wiped on lupi with this team comp.

I’m not downing your other team builds, all I am saying is that guardian support is not bad. I’ve never had a problem in my teams with a guardian running support.

Yes, timing your stuns will let you interrupt any major attack from a boss.

I will film our next CoF 1 run for you to see.

I’ve never wiped on lupi with team of players I know and they all run glass cannon. I’ve also had to finish him with a friend because our pugged tanks died already. You don’t need health&armour there. You need survival skills. One ele can give you perma invulnerability to his mass aoe in p2.

I know you can time stuns to interrupt bosses, I’m saying that rupting kholer is pointless when you can just use one of your fluffer skills to avoid that.

haviz.1340:

Riku Shinobu.4518:

I’ve never wiped on lupi with this team comp.

I’m not downing your other team builds, all I am saying is that guardian support is not bad. I’ve never had a problem in my teams with a guardian running support.

Yes, timing your stuns will let you interrupt any major attack from a boss.

I will film our next CoF 1 run for you to see.

I’ve never wiped on lupi with team of players I know and they all run glass cannon. I’ve also had to finish him with a friend because our pugged tanks died already. You don’t need health&armour there. You need survival skills. One ele can give you perma invulnerability to his mass aoe in p2.

I know you can time stuns to interrupt bosses, I’m saying that rupting kholer is pointless when you can just use one of your fluffer skills to avoid that.

Skill in a dungeon group, which is what I say at the end of the guide. Go back and read the side notes part.

You can interrupt kohler and save everyone else in the party from scorpion wire. It’s easier to just shut it down.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

Skill in a dungeon group, which is what I say at the end of the guide. Go back and read the side notes part.

You can interrupt kohler and save everyone else in the party from scorpion wire. It’s easier to just shut it down.

Burning 6 skills to interrupt him is easier than using retreat/virtue/SYG/hallowed ground/wall of reflection/shield of avenger/shield of absorption/other blocking and reflection skill from other classes? I keep learning new things every day.

haviz.1340:

Riku Shinobu.4518:

Skill in a dungeon group, which is what I say at the end of the guide. Go back and read the side notes part.

You can interrupt kohler and save everyone else in the party from scorpion wire. It’s easier to just shut it down.

Burning 6 skills to interrupt him is easier than using retreat/virtue/SYG/hallowed ground/wall of reflection/shield of avenger/shield of absorption/other blocking and reflection skill from other classes? I keep learning new things every day.

It’s all just preference. 6 stuns aren’t hard to pull off, you should try it. It’s really helpful.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

It’s all just preference. 6 stuns aren’t hard to pull off, you should try it. It’s really helpful.

I can get rid of all defiance stack as a mesmer or thief. I’m just saying it’s not worth it. There are already threads and suggestions on how to improve that mechanics because most of the time it’s just not worth to use cc on boss (before last patch necros could reliable interrupt bosses) when you can take other skills that will reliable block all nasty attacks. In other words, using 6 stuns is a waste of time.

haviz.1340:

Riku Shinobu.4518:

It’s all just preference. 6 stuns aren’t hard to pull off, you should try it. It’s really helpful.

I can get rid of all defiance stack as a mesmer or thief. I’m just saying it’s not worth it. There are already threads and suggestions on how to improve that mechanics because most of the time it’s just not worth to use cc on boss (before last patch necros could reliable interrupt bosses) when you can take other skills that will reliable block all nasty attacks. In other words, using 6 stuns is a waste of time.

I use the stuns and burn defiance, and I have no problem doing it. why waste utility slots on skills when you can just burn the defiance and stun the large attacks?

But to stop the pointless argument, you do dungeons the way you want to do them, and I will do them my way.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

I use the stuns and burn defiance, and I have no problem doing it. why waste utility slots on skills when you can just burn the defiance and stun the large attacks?

Your logic is pretty flawed to say the least. Why waste utilites on cc skills against bosses when you can take skills that will simple nullify those attacks you want to interrupt.

haviz.1340:

Riku Shinobu.4518:

I use the stuns and burn defiance, and I have no problem doing it. why waste utility slots on skills when you can just burn the defiance and stun the large attacks?

Your logic is pretty flawed to say the least. Why waste utilites on cc skills against bosses when you can take skills that will simple nullify those attacks you want to interrupt.

Why are you taking utilities for cc? I do all my cc on weapon skills, thus freeing my utilities for other uses.

haviz.1340:

The best team compositions are the ones that include 5 glass cannons. If you facepalm in that situation, I really have no words. I guess it’s because your view about glass cannon is someone who dies every 10 seconds, has only selfish utilites and can’t dodge 3s long animations.

Honestly, staff on guardian is only good for a bit might stacking but only on 3 conditions – 1. you got some might/boon duration, 2. you have AH trait, 3. you don’t run with warriors who frankly don’t need that additional might. And healing gear??

Riku Shinobu.4518:

If you don’t like support guardians in your party, that’s your preference. All I suggest is that you run a couple of dungeon runs with one in your party. You will see the difference.

I’ve seen the difference. 3 times less damage with similiar survivability and support as almost glass cannon guardian. Boss fights are snore fast, they go down so slow. You “fluffer” just gimps himself for nothing.

Just wanted to requote haviz. Couldn’t agree more. Our guild group has experimented with all kinds of support and healing character builds to make dungeons easier, and all it succeeds in doing is making the run longer overall.

Elementalists or Guardians (and sort of Necromancers) can build for healing and keep the party alive indefinitely in most explorable dungeons, which is nice, but that’s 1 full character’s damage potential you’re missing. The longer the mob is alive, the more risk the rest of the party runs of dieing.

For a quick example off the top of my head, the mini boss in CoF p2 that summons the giant devourer. It’s great to outheal his damage and the damage from the devourer, or you could just flat out kill him before the devourer even appears. It’s far more feasible to spec everyone for the maximum amount of direct damage that they can pull off, and use utilities to further the group survival or increase damage output (note: they are one and the same).

No need to play defensively if things are dead before they have a chance to hurt anyone.

Riku Shinobu

How do you avoid this? You make a deeps build that revolves around toughness.

No. You either make a ‘deeps’ build, or a one that revolves around toughness. If a build revolves around toughness (a defensive stat), it by definition can’t be a DPS build.

Frankly, advocating running with ‘durable’ groups that take forever to kill anything leaves the impression of not being able to adjust to the fact that tanks don’t keep aggro in this game and giving up on finding actual (i.e. not ‘revolving around toughness’) DPS who know how to use skills and utilities at their disposal to avoid taking damage.

Aleph Naught.9034:

Riku Shinobu

How do you avoid this? You make a deeps build that revolves around toughness.

No. You either make a ‘deeps’ build, or a one that revolves around toughness. If a build revolves around toughness (a defensive stat), it by definition can’t be a DPS build.

Frankly, advocating running with ‘durable’ groups that take forever to kill anything leaves the impression of not being able to adjust to the fact that tanks don’t keep aggro in this game and giving up on finding actual (i.e. not ‘revolving around toughness’) DPS who know how to use skills and utilities at their disposal to avoid taking damage.

Takes forever to kill anything? You come run with us and see for yourself. That’s all I have to say to that.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

Jade.2954:

Two shout warriors with “for great justice” as auto-cast will give you permanent might even sitting in LA while being afk…. on top of that two of them in melee with AH guardian can 3 man CoF (apart from path 3) and CoE (again not path 3)

Justice gives 3 stacks of might. Empower gives 12, and with the proper gear you will can keep 12 stacks up for a long time.

12 stacks for 80% of the time > 3 stacks 100% of the time.

As a warrior, I’d just like to correct you. With the Meta-Shout build you get 30% Boon duration without any special gear. This gives the 3 stacks of might from FGJ a 32½ second duration with a 20s (25s without the trait) cooldown. This keeps 6 stacks of might up @ 100% without any weird gear/rune setup. And as someone else also stated. Warriors keep themselves at 25 stacks, so your staff build would only be buffing professions that have no way of applying might over the stacks that FGJ and Empowering Allies (From a properly specced Crit-guardian) would supply.

I think that if one of your strongest arguments to use the staff is the use of empower, I think you might want to change your build philosophy. Especially when the ability roots you for 4 seconds every 20 seconds (If used on cooldown).

With that said, this team setup might work with people who are absolutely new to the game and that run a lot of Pick-up-groups. As for higher level play, it’s all about knowing when to dodge.

I play as an AH hammer guardian, and the only time I’ll ever use the staff in dungeons is to clear the blooms in TA, and to use empower (with 40% boon duration) before combat. Line of warding has few uses, but the hammer’s ring of warding does the same job.

As for Kohler, SIX interrupts? The hell? Just go melee on him and evade when you see him charging. Why do you need to interrupt him for? His normal attacks doesn’t even do enough damage to drop my health below 90%. Same goes with King and Colossus. Keep in melee range and stay at their backs when you see them charging up.

Also healing gear is crap. Go P/V/T and make yourself useful. If you want to give support, get rune of soldier + pure of voice or boon runes for permanent protection during melee.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

Aleph Naught.9034:

Riku Shinobu

How do you avoid this? You make a deeps build that revolves around toughness.

No. You either make a ‘deeps’ build, or a one that revolves around toughness. If a build revolves around toughness (a defensive stat), it by definition can’t be a DPS build.

Frankly, advocating running with ‘durable’ groups that take forever to kill anything leaves the impression of not being able to adjust to the fact that tanks don’t keep aggro in this game and giving up on finding actual (i.e. not ‘revolving around toughness’) DPS who know how to use skills and utilities at their disposal to avoid taking damage.

Takes forever to kill anything? You come run with us and see for yourself. That’s all I have to say to that.

For a toughness-based build, compared to one that revolves around, you know, damage – yes. Boons, dodging, healing, using combos are the things that should keep DPS alive. Having some toughness/vitality helps, but a DPS build that has toughness as the primary stat is an oxymoron.

I play a mesmer with mostly berserker gear, with some toughness and vitality thrown in. In pugs, I die as (actually less) often as warriors, despite preferring to be in melee range where mechanics allow it (a warrior keeping distance with his rifle while a guardian and a mesmer fight in melee range is always a fun sight). Adding more toughness would help my survivability way less than it would damage my DPS. It would just make fights last longer.

All that useless healing gear. :/

Best dungeon composition in my opinion:
1. Hammer guard
2. Shoutheal GS warr
3. Extreme glass GS warr
4. Extreme glass GS warr
5. Condi ele, mesmer or necro

This is of course if people actually know how to dodge/play. This will guarantee fastest and cleanest runs and it will work absolutely everywhere. Dungeon Master here who plays extreme glass.

Riku Shinobu.4518:

haviz.1340:

Riku Shinobu.4518:

I use the stuns and burn defiance, and I have no problem doing it. why waste utility slots on skills when you can just burn the defiance and stun the large attacks?

Your logic is pretty flawed to say the least. Why waste utilites on cc skills against bosses when you can take skills that will simple nullify those attacks you want to interrupt.

Why are you taking utilities for cc? I do all my cc on weapon skills, thus freeing my utilities for other uses.

Not every weapon set has cc? And weapon that gives the best dps might not have one (greatsword for warrior for example).

Mileinnor.7125:

Also healing gear is crap. Go P/V/T and make yourself useful.

If you go p/v/t you do the same dmg as with p/t/h so go healing and provide your party heals and buffs instead of doing nothing, neither dmg neither support.

Healing gear isn’t crap…2k heals with every shout with warrior, as with f2 guardian and ele combos is perfect. With a guardian and ele full healing you have 3 spots for glass cannon guys. Mele all pulls and bosses, simply rush all the dungeon killing everything.

My “perfect” setup for almost all dungeons is, guardian and ele support + warrior GS + 2random.

Good guide for newbies who cry because dungeons are so difficult.

Nagorn.2307:

If you go p/v/t you do the same dmg as with p/t/h so go healing and provide your party heals and buffs instead of doing nothing, neither dmg neither support.

Healing gear isn’t crap…2k heals with every shout with warrior, as with f2 guardian and ele combos is perfect. With a guardian and ele full healing you have 3 spots for glass cannon guys. Mele all pulls and bosses, simply rush all the dungeon killing everything.

Guardian f2 heals for 1775 with 200 from valor line. Your numbers are a bit off. With healing gear I guess you have about 1200 healing power which makes virtue of resolve heal for 2525. Basically, virtue of resolve has 0.75 multiplier and vigorous shouts 0.8.

haviz.1340:

Guardian f2 heals for 1775 with 200 from valor line. Your numbers are a bit off. With healing gear I guess you have about 1200 healing power which makes virtue of resolve heal for 2525. Basically, virtue of resolve has 0.75 multiplier and vigorous shouts 0.8.

Didn’t want to create a larger post so i rounded to 2k…