Guild Wars 2

Hi, I have 7 professions and I am used to use soldier gear.

I always hear , that Berserker/assassin is better for PvE od dungeons/fractals.

1) Is soldier gear good for anything or should I salvage my soldier gear and make some zerk gear for my characters?
2) Is there any character, which is better with soldier gear?

I dont like WvW.
I do PvP only for daily
Characters are used in Pve, Dungeons,fractals,stories and world bosses.

World bosses PVT is fine, a lot of them are “constructs” which can’t be crit meaning fero/prec are useless. Dungeons/fractals though you’re going to increase your damage output quite a bit at the loss of passive defense. It certainly takes getting use to but personally I find it more fun to kill quicker and have a higher risk where a single hit may down you.

So it’s not necessarily bad but your generally better off with zerk gear if you can manage to actively defend yourself with the tools that don’t require stats (blinds/blocks/evades/reflects).

Soldier is good for melee class in WvW and good to fight Tequatl.

Keep a set for your gardian and warrior.

Soldier gear is fine for PvE only play. It is the preferred gear for the Tequatl Event, at least in the zerg portion, because Teq cannot be critically hit. In other play, it is a more defensive option that serves those who need or want more passive defense, whether this is due to poor connections, poor reflexes or any other reason.

In group play (dungeons), Soldier’s gear should only be worn in parties that do not request berserker only players. That’s a matter of courtesy. Those parties are looking to optimize damage. To see if glass cannon gear is for you, ask yourself these questions:

• Situational awareness: can you see through the particle blur and recognize mob tells so as to time dodges and/or defensive procs like Aegis?
• Do you know the content? It’s hard to know what to dodge if you don’t know the encounters.
• Are your twitch reflexes good enough to use defensive skills actively?
• Are you willing to research (or do you already know) what the better builds are for your profession? Another part of that is knowing what your profession can bring to the table and matching those options to the upcoming encounter.
• Do you want to play in optimized parties or would you prefer “anything goes” parties that are less concerned with optimization and speed?

The answers should tell you not only which gear would be better for you, but also with who you might want to play. If you’re up in the air, and feel you might want both options, does anything prevent you from having two sets of gear? I do for some characters that I use in both PvE and WvW.

I use soldier gear for most world bosses. Someone’s new to dungeons and we’re showing them the ropes? Soldier gear. They can learn to zerker when they’ve seen fights a few times and are comfortable in the dungeon paths.

One thing at a time and you can learn it all, them before excellent at everything that appeals to you. Don’t listen to any jokers that try to tell you that you have to go zerker or get out either.

Do what you’re comfortable with. Dinner play with people that make you uncomfortable. Do okay with people that can constructively teach you how to improve your gameplay where you want to improve it.

Do it like that and you’ll never be doing it wrong, says me.

naiasonod.9265:

I use soldier gear for most world bosses. Someone’s new to dungeons and we’re showing them the ropes? Soldier gear. They can learn to zerker when they’ve seen fights a few times and are comfortable in the dungeon paths.

One thing at a time and you can learn it all, them before excellent at everything that appeals to you. Don’t listen to any jokers that try to tell you that you have to go zerker or get out either.

Do what you’re comfortable with. Dinner play with people that make you uncomfortable. Do okay with people that can constructively teach you how to improve your gameplay where you want to improve it.

Do it like that and you’ll never be doing it wrong, says me.

The bolded I’d say is true, unless it’s a party advertised asking for zerk. It’s pretty jerkish to join a party knowing full well you aren’t what they asked for. Other than that, yeah play whatever you want.

I wear soldier’s gear on my guardian regardless of what I’m doing. If I wanted max dps, I’d have rolled a warrior. Additionally, a well-played soldier’s guardian is also a pug carrier in dungeons and fractals. With few exceptions, it’s nearly impossible to be downed outside of bosses, and with bosses you’re able to exert a bit more impact on what the boss does.

Join “All welcome” parties(Or create your own). Learn the Encounters. As you see yourself with that extra hp pool that is never touched switch gradually to zerker. BAM you are now within the halls of the master zerkburguersassin’ place, rollin’ in the goldz and ph4t l00tz. Also receive in the mail Zerkburguers every month.
See ya o/

RSLongK.8961:

Join “All welcome” parties(Or create your own). Learn the Encounters. As you see yourself with that extra hp pool that is never touched switch gradually to zerker. BAM you are now within the halls of the master zerkburguersassin’ place, rollin’ in the goldz and ph4t l00tz. Also receive in the mail Zerkburguers every month.
See ya o/

^ This.

I run several pieces of soldier gear on my ranger in WvW. I get a good laugh every time an enemy tries to take me down thinking im a zerker target.

In PvE i run that as well. I tend to survive quite well and can still take down enemies fairly decently. I have some Assassin gear as well as some zerker that i have mixed in. I find the damage to be acceptable, but i know that the zerker only groups would still not like me so i avoid them (i avoid dungeons as well).

What it all boils down to is this: Do you like your build how it is now or do you want to do damage quicker? Also keep in mind that the developeres are developing more content to try to break the “zerker meta” so zerker may not always be as optimal as it is now.

Soldier gear is fine for a lot of pvp situations.
Celestial seems to be slightly better but Soldier is still perfectly viable.

Outside of epic bosses, it doesnt have much of a place in pve though.
You should start replacing soldier gear with more offensive gear, especially for solo pve.

But it doesnt hurt to keep a set of soldier gear around for your chars, especially if its already soulbound and the only alternative is salvaging.

If you are looking for more defensive gear for the future, I would check out Valkyrie or Knight for pve.

And its generally best to avoid “METAZERK EXP 10k AP+” groups anyway so dont worry about those.

Do a complete boss run with guild wars champ timer, and see how many zerker people get killed during a simple bossfight :/

aspirine.6852:

Do a complete boss run with guild wars champ timer, and see how many zerker people get killed during a simple bossfight :/

This has less to do with gear than it does skill level and knowledge of fights.

Those fights are a breeze in full Zerker if you know what you’re doing.

To the OP: think about it as a process. Start with what you have and gradually switch in Zerker pieces. Don’t do it all at once. You’ll start to do more damage and (if you don’t dodge) take more damage. As you adjust, add more pieces.

Eventually, you’ll be doing tons of damage and surviving. Woo!

(But keep the Soldiers for Tequatl and other fights you can’t crit.)

Aidan Savage.2078:

I wear soldier’s gear on my guardian regardless of what I’m doing. If I wanted max dps, I’d have rolled a warrior.

lel

Soldier, or perhaps Knights or Celestial, is probably optimal when you are inexperienced with the content. As you become more experienced, gradually replace your defensive stats with offensive ones (generally Berserker, but other viable options may exist depending on your class and your party makeup).

I don’t think you need to rush it and get rid of your Soldier stuff. The content in the game isn’t static – I’d keep it around for new challenges that you aren’t yet familiar with.

Einlanzer.1627:

Soldier, or maybe Celestial is probably optimal when you are inexperienced with the content. As you become more experienced, gradually replace your defensive stats with offensive ones (generally Berserker, but other viable options may exist depending on your class and your party makeup).

I don’t think you need to rush it and get rid of your Soldier stuff. The content in the game isn’t static – I’d keep it around for new challenges that you aren’t yet familiar with.

Celestial can make sense on a few limited classes, but for most, Soldiers is probably a better choice. Or even starting with a mix. Full Soldiers is VERY tanky. If I feel like I need a little wiggle room, I’ll switch out my Zerker amulet and a couple trinkets for Soldiers and that’s usually enough.

Soldier is good training gear for dungeons.
Once you learn how to use Active Defenses (dodging and skills), you can start shifting your gear to Berserker in order to increase your damage output at the expense of your Passive Defenses (healing power, vitality, toughness).

My server kills Teq every night, and they always prefer that players equip Soldier gear for that fight because you can’t even crit Teq.

Soldier gear tends to be the way for max power builds, meaning the maximum amount of damage done without crits. this due to the scaling of power through sharpening stones, and in some cases traits (warrior/necromancer)

Zerker tends to be the way for max DPS builds, the maximum damage of damage done.

For all events where you just need maximum dmg without crits (read tequatl and some other world bosses) soldiers is perfect. Also is of great use in (pro-)long(-ed) battles and WvW (and in some cases: fractals) tends to be nice in battles where enemy can weaken you (as you cannot crit while weakened)

For all events where pure DPS , NOT survivability is wanted: go zerk, (read: dungeons, pve, living story, fractals) places where this doens’t belong: WvW, world bosses, combat with high numbers of enemies with high amount of armor/hp

Fairly useless… it is good as l2p gear but once you are past this point, there is no real reason to keep it.

My recommendation: salvage it and get zerker gear.

After a while you get tired of going against the game AI and you might want to fight something that fights back. I know you said WvW is not your thing OP, but I would not throw away perfectly fine armor.

I started as Valkyrie which wasn’t bad but I still died more than I’d have liked. Since going full Soldiers (and I mean FULL) I’m typically the last person standing in a dungeon/fractal/pve runs. I can’t say if this would be true in PvP as I don’t PvP. Still, play what’s enjoyed, invest in sharpening stones, orrian steak frittes and such if attempting Soldiers.

The biggest downside to a PVT build are for things like the quicksand achieve or fights where the more health you have, the more damage you’ll take. Then it’s a ruddy evil burden to bear.