Guild Wars 2

I am looking to make a class that’s dps only as I am finding that with my playstyle being a condi PS just isn’t cutting it. My dps is just so low and what I would like is to be able to bring something to the table, be it support or just good old fashion damage. Since I seem to be sucking at the support end what class is really loved for dps?
Elementals still top or has that changed up? And granted, it may change again come Tues patch but haven’t heard any scary rumors so maybe no nerfs.
Oh, and I am talking raids, sorry about that. Fratcs and such maybe but mostly a raid toon.
Thanks!

If your dps is low as a condi PS, you need to work on your rotations. I can pull 15 minimum on my condi PS in most raids.

If you are bad at dpsing on condi PS, ele is the last class you should be looking at, as its rotation is way more complex. Ele is still the top, because the people who do it well are also at the top. A bad ele does less dps than any other dps build.

Condi ranger, DH, power engi, easiest dps rotation. You shouldn’t be concerned about ‘bringing something to the table’, as thats what raid roles are for. Fullfill your role, and you would have done your job.

Not sure what to tell you. cPS is just about as desired as you can get. PS in general has 2 spots in every raid and except for some bosses like Keep Construct or other bosses with short burst phases cPS is on par with PS. I’m going to assume that you know that cPS and PS primary raid purpose besides damage is banners and Headbut, that’s a no brainer.

I guess if you want to diversify and have a second class which is supposed to compete for a dps spot the 2 the come to mind immediately are:

- cranger – easy rotation, very good damage and Entangle for some of those boss encounters were adds need to get snared

- tempest – fresh air is not to hard but definately above cPS, very good damage, lots of utility for different encounters

Now if those 2 don’t work for you, any other top tier dps will do like Power guardian (hammer rotation is basically just auto attacks, GS rotation is barely harder) but realise that people often ask for cranger or tempest when filling up dps spots.

EDIT: if you want to compare damage numbers, perfect rotation cPS on the training dummy gets to about 20-21k. In raid scenarios depending on boss fights and group composition it’s realistic to land 11-13k with not perfect rotations, with ideal boss fights and good play toping at 15-17k. If you are sub 10k on cPS you really need to work on your rotation no matter which boss.

Cyninja.2954:

EDIT: if you want to compare damage numbers, perfect rotation cPS on the training dummy gets to about 20-21k. In raid scenarios depending on boss fights and group composition it’s realistic to land 11-13k with not perfect rotations, with ideal boss fights and good play toping at 15-17k. If you are sub 10k on cPS you really need to work on your rotation no matter which boss.

Ehm. 20-21k are realistic to many bosses. On the golem you should go way higher with a good rotation.

Tornupto.2304:

Cyninja.2954:

EDIT: if you want to compare damage numbers, perfect rotation cPS on the training dummy gets to about 20-21k. In raid scenarios depending on boss fights and group composition it’s realistic to land 11-13k with not perfect rotations, with ideal boss fights and good play toping at 15-17k. If you are sub 10k on cPS you really need to work on your rotation no matter which boss.

Ehm. 20-21k are realistic to many bosses. On the golem you should go way higher with a good rotation.

Condition PS, not condition berserker. Difference there bud.

Cyninja.2954:

Tornupto.2304:

Cyninja.2954:

EDIT: if you want to compare damage numbers, perfect rotation cPS on the training dummy gets to about 20-21k. In raid scenarios depending on boss fights and group composition it’s realistic to land 11-13k with not perfect rotations, with ideal boss fights and good play toping at 15-17k. If you are sub 10k on cPS you really need to work on your rotation no matter which boss.

Ehm. 20-21k are realistic to many bosses. On the golem you should go way higher with a good rotation.

Condition PS, not condition berserker. Difference there bud.

He knows lol, benchmark from qt for condition ps is 27.4k, not 20-21k…

The Zealous Templar.3861:

Cyninja.2954:

Tornupto.2304:

Cyninja.2954:

EDIT: if you want to compare damage numbers, perfect rotation cPS on the training dummy gets to about 20-21k. In raid scenarios depending on boss fights and group composition it’s realistic to land 11-13k with not perfect rotations, with ideal boss fights and good play toping at 15-17k. If you are sub 10k on cPS you really need to work on your rotation no matter which boss.

Ehm. 20-21k are realistic to many bosses. On the golem you should go way higher with a good rotation.

Condition PS, not condition berserker. Difference there bud.

He knows lol, benchmark from qt for condition ps is 27.4k, not 20-21k…

My bad, I was mixing up PS with cPS earlier when checking top dps. Still 15k is a very proper median I"ve been seeing in raids on average. Everything above that is fixed raid team crowd, ideal boss, maximum risk and dps situations. Very unlikely to be relevant to someone who is asking about which dps class to play. So adjust what I said to:

- golem perfect rotation at 25k (ramp up time for 27k is absolutely unrealistic so I’m not even going to bother with that for golem dps)

- 15-17k decent dps with bosses that require 0 cc and target switching maybe a high 19k

- 11-13k dps low end and pug likely

- sub 10k absolutely need to run golem practice

Thank you for that feedback! All of it very very helpful. I reckon I may just stick with cPS then since I am getting close to the numbers that Cyninja mentioned, so hope for me yet! And yea, have tried Ele and that’s not a direction I would go for sure. Was thinking Thief but then again they aren’t seeing a lot of love either but you all have given me new hope! Cheers!!

Thief is an excellent choice for low complexity high reward damage and I find it incredible no-one mentioned it. You can play core D/D power thief with essentially a 3 button rotation, closer to 2 button, and easily should do 25k-30k on any boss you can stay melee, condi D/D can get really crazy numbers and isn’t too much more difficult and comes with built in evading. Even staff auto attacking can get you more DPS than most pugs so long as you don’t fail mechanics too hard.

don’t make any decision until after this week’s update.

thrag.9740:

don’t make any decision until after this week’s update.

If you wait for balance changes to finish, and class selection to be stable, you will be waiting forever.

Make a condi ranger.
It’s very competitive with tempest (unless you’re a really good tryhard with tempest) in all bosses except KC. The rotation is much easier, just swapping between shortbow and torch to take advantage of quick draw. You also have immobs and the option to take spirits or spotter if your squad has no druid.

Slippy I’m not saying wait forever, but realistically, balance changes happen every 3 months. Wait 1 week here for things to settle, then make a good class (probably still ele or condi ranger), and raid with that. By the time the next balance patch comes around, OP will have enough magnetite shards to get the next set of armor they need.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

thrag.9740:

don’t make any decision until after this week’s update.

If you wait for balance changes to finish, and class selection to be stable, you will be waiting forever.

We know there is a balance patch coming potentially tomorrow, waiting one day isn’t going to kill you.

As suggested i do have a condi ranger and he is fun as, but we needed a condi PS so I stepped up. Its going ok but I have to ask, how does everyone hit those dps numbers on the golem? I hit 20k and most times can average 17-18k but I see vids of guys in the 25 +!
Does lag play into it that much? on the videos it seems that the adrenaline bars are filling up so dang fast. I watched Nike’s vid on the "other’ rotation and have been giving that a go but still cant crack 25k.
Now, my thinking is a lot of it has to do with keys and not using both hands. I am still a bit of a clicker, left over from 8yrs of WOW so not an easy thing to change. Also used to macros and all that but I have keybound a lot of my important skills so that my left hand/fingers get a work out and also my mouse has a few bound to it but I just cant help but think a lot of it is how fast I am hitting the keys. Then again a cd is a cd and they only go so fast, right?
Any thoughts that anyone could share would be most appreciated as I really would like to improve. Another factor is I am somewhat new (4 months maybe) to Warrior so that may be some of it as well.
KK, thanks heaps and back to the dummy….sorry…Golem!

any class can be a dps.
play whatever ya want.

Joxer.6024:

As suggested i do have a condi ranger and he is fun as, but we needed a condi PS so I stepped up. Its going ok but I have to ask, how does everyone hit those dps numbers on the golem? I hit 20k and most times can average 17-18k but I see vids of guys in the 25 +!
Does lag play into it that much? on the videos it seems that the adrenaline bars are filling up so dang fast. I watched Nike’s vid on the "other’ rotation and have been giving that a go but still cant crack 25k.
Now, my thinking is a lot of it has to do with keys and not using both hands. I am still a bit of a clicker, left over from 8yrs of WOW so not an easy thing to change. Also used to macros and all that but I have keybound a lot of my important skills so that my left hand/fingers get a work out and also my mouse has a few bound to it but I just cant help but think a lot of it is how fast I am hitting the keys. Then again a cd is a cd and they only go so fast, right?
Any thoughts that anyone could share would be most appreciated as I really would like to improve. Another factor is I am somewhat new (4 months maybe) to Warrior so that may be some of it as well.
KK, thanks heaps and back to the dummy….sorry…Golem!

Lag can play a factor if ping is over 200. But realistically most dps is lost due to slow skill queueing.

Everytime you’re slow queuing the next skill your character starts an auto attack animation which you then interrupt. These little half second windows of lost time add up over a 2 and 3 minute rotation to be a lot of lost dps. Ideally you should try to queue skills faster to ensure you waste as few animations as possible, but not so fast you interrupt your current skill.

As far as clicking goes it’s certainly related. I would highly suggest a gaming mouse with side buttons bound to dodge, weapon swap, f1, heal, and your elite. This should make life a lot easier on you. Lastly, skill clicking can be overcome by using good key binds and practice. Just force yourself. You’ll play like a total noob for a week until you get it but then you’ll be better than you ever were.

Thanks for that Nike! You just confirmed what I had thought so yea, I shall practice, practice, practice and in the meantime look at a better mouse perhaps.
Thanks heaps!