Guild Wars 2

I’ve decided my next visionary episode will be on stat combinations and I’ll need more opinions than mine. What I want to know is what particular stat combos would you guys like to see and which do you feel are pointless.

Just to be clear, this isn’t about the present meta, per say, as I plan on devoting another episode about how to fix the problem with offensive stats dominating PvE. This is about realistic stat combos that you wish you could have for interesting and unique builds.

I’d like to see stat combos that remove the Toughness vs Ferocity conflict: a Valk and Marauder’s equivalent that switch out Vit for Toughness would be pretty sweet.

First I want to say thank you so much for responding. It’s kind of hard to be a voice for the people when no one speaks.

As for what you want, I’m curious about how you use Ferocity without Precision. I know Elementalists have skills that have 100% crit rate and there are runes that provide 100% crit rates when certain conditions are met but is that enough to make a build off of or is there some other factor that I’m missing?

No worries – I hate tumbleweeds.

Main thing is that I don’t like arbitrary-seeming gaps in our gear choices, so would like a Valk and Mara equivalent (switching Vit -> T) just because there isn’t one yet. Similarly, I’d like Soldier’s Exotic trinkets and Valk Ascended ones.

For me particularly, my main is an extremely underpowered set of an extremely underpowered class (vanilla P/P Thief) so there isn’t any slack built in to accommodate any wasted stats at all; much as I prefer rounded, balanced builds.

After trying a more-survivability approach, I found that a more-damage output approach worked much better (as in, I died less often and was more generally useful). For this I needed a lot of Pow and Fer; Fer being particularly important to figure in because it’s so hard to get in adequate amounts (it’s never the primary stat on any gear, presumably for sound balance reasons). Adequate being >900 without buffs.

But I still needed just enough survivability to take the edge off incoming damage that hits. For Vit, this wasn’t a problem, since my proc-heavy build needs more than Zerk level Prec to work properly; so my damage went up as I switched some Zerk pieces to Mara, then stabilised with another piece (but giving me some Vit in the bargain).

Then I added a further Mara piece, which gave me a surplus of Prec but dearth of Pow and Fer; switching another Zerk piece to Valk restored that balance, with only a little damage loss but a chunk more Vit.

Problem is T since there is no stat combo that lets me do the piece by piece trade-off equivalent. I’ve squeezed a tiny bit in with the stats that come with my Traveler Runes, plus some Infusions, but it ain’t much – and I can’t reduce my Fer (or Pow) further.

Switching my Zerk backpack to my Celestial backpack is the best of a bad job option here (since at least it has some Pow, Fer and Prec), but a Mara/Valk equivalent is what I really need.

Sorry if you were thinking more of new stat combos where the char wears that full set, to the exclusion of all else, but my main doesn’t have that luxury unfortunately.

I hope that some of all that might be of some use to you.

I don’t know if that’s something you want to talk at the same time, but I think that one of the main issue with stats combos are the unequal availability of certain.

- Some stats combos are just a LOT more costly than other. Zealot and Viper come to mind.

- Some stats are not available for everything. Zealot doesn’t have ascended trinkets, the new 4 stats combo only have 1 amulet and some random drop in raids, Magi doesn’t have amulet, back item or rings. Etc. I’m talking about ascended version here.

For new stats combos.

- Condition Damage, Expertise and Precision. Maybe OP for some build it would also screw me over since Viper already cost me so much, but it would still be nice.

- Healing Power, Power, Precision. For a version a bit more support of Zealot

- Condition Damage, Expertise, Healing Power or Condition Damage, Precision, Healing Power or Condition Damage, Healing Power, Expertise, Precision. Any of those could work for a Condition Damage Healer. Something that just doesn’t really exist in the game right now. And please don’t even mention Apothecary.

- Power, Toughness, Precision, Ferocity. Could be a nice addition for tank, but not sure.

- Toughness, Condition Damage, Expertise, Precision. The same thing but for condi tank. A better version of trailblazer. Hopefully this one we will be able to put it on our ascended gear day one

I’d really like a set with Condition Damage (main), Power and Toughness for my ranger. But apparently that would be extremely over-powered, according to other people on the forum.

Instead I’ve had to settle for a combination of Rabid and Sinister equipment, giving a mix of Condition Damage, Power, Toughness and Precision (no ferocity). Which does allow me to take advantage of traits and sigils that cause extra effects (conditions in particular) on critical hits, but it still feels like a trade-off compared to what I wanted.

Ideally I’d like to see all stat combinations available, including the ones that would be completely useless, so we at least have the option to experiment with them.

Danikat.8537:

I’d really like a set with Condition Damage (main), Power and Toughness for my ranger. But apparently that would be extremely over-powered, according to other people on the forum.

I don’t see how it could be OP. It’s basically Sinister while replacing precision for toughness. At least in PvE it wouldn’t be OP. I don’t know for PvP.

Regarding builds that have Ferocity with no Precision – look at the Revenant (perma-fury and double fury effectiveness) and the Necromancer/Reaper (2% crit chance per stack of Vulnerability and +50% crit chance in shroud). Both of these can benefit from Valkyrie gear, and the Reaper can make a decent tank in Cavalier’s.

As for what I’d like to see? Yep, I’ll second Condition Damage (main), Power, Toughness. Also useful would be Condition Damage, Healing Power (co-main), Toughness, Precision.