Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I’m a long time but very average player of the game and as such I don’t feel able to run full Berserker’s stats for power builds or full Carrion/Sinister/Viper for condition builds – I think I need the benefit of added toughness and vitality to stay alive for a reasonable amount of time as I cannot rely on my (in)ability to dodge/block at the right time to stay alive.

I currently have a single set of celestial ascended armour and then I use Berserker weapons and trinkets for power builds and condition dmg-based weapons and trinkets for condition builds.

But I’m wondering whether it’s worth me converting my ascended celestial armour into soldier’s armour (power-toughness-vitality) for power builds and then crafting another set of ascended dire armour (cond dmg-toughness-vitality) for condi builds. Then the armour will be boosting the primary damage stat relevant for the build but at the same time providing me with survivability so I’m not too glassy.

Or alternatively, is there a better all-rounder stat combo than Celestial (such as Nomads?) that I could swap the Celestial armour for that would work effectively for both power builds and condi builds, thereby saving me the cost of another set of ascended armour?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Ben

For a condition build, you might investigate Trailblazer’s gear, which has the two defensive stats, plus condition damage and duration. It’s about as tanky as you can get for condition oriented damage.

The following is true for PvE, not WvW:

Did you try running full offensive equipment in the past, or do you only think what would happen if you do? I’m asking, because a long time ago, I was thinking like you myself and equipped my squishy elementalist with much defensive stats to make him less squishy. It was an awful experience. Enemies took so long I went down from the accumulated damage anyway.

I thought about quitting the game, and to show that the whole combat mechanics was borked, I got full berserk equipment and expected to die even a lot sooner as glass cannon. I was under the impression that with even less defensive, I would die almost instantly. I intended to ragequit the very moment I would die as glass cannon.

But to my surprise, the exact opposite happened. Enemies went down a lot faster, so I took much less damage than with defensive equipment. I survived every time, I survived every fight. Suddenly, playing was fun! I got downed much less as glass cannon than with defensive equipment.

The combat behavior of the enemies also changed. I was targeted much less. As far as I know, this is connected to toughness. The less toughness you have, the less you are a target. Suddenly, my ele was free from attack most of the time. For the first time in his life, he was able to deal damage! No struggle for survival any more – I was fighting the enemies instead.

So I recommend that you try full berserk or full sinister/viper according to your build first, before you take too much damage potential away with defensive stats.

Whatever you do don’t get rid of your celestial, it’s very hard to make and is timegated. You can get soldier’s and dire exotic armor nearly for free and it’s like 2% less stats than ascended.

I’m not sure what profession you play but cele is great for WvW roaming on most of them, and just about anything works in non-crazy-super organized zergs.

For PvE, Silmar is right, it’s just so much easier and more enjoyable in glassier gear. I’d try relearning the game in non-expac areas in berserker (or sinister or whatever you pick) gear. You can get some for karma or dungeon tokens for “free”, or craft or buy it for not much money. Worth a shot anyway.

Thanks for all the feedback from all three of you.

Trailblazer’s is an interesting stat combo that I’d not considered. I will give it some thought, especially for WvW

I haven’t properly tried running a full set of berserkers or sinister/viper gear (I just assumed I wouldn’t get on with it) so I think I will try running that in exotic armour (perhaps from the karma merchants at the temples in Orr) and see how I get on.

The 3 professions I play the most are Ranger, Guardian and Elementalist.

I will hold on to my celestial ascended armour then and perhaps continue to use that in WvW as I do often roam alone/in smallish groups. The only difficulty is that I was hoping to be able to use at most 2 sets of armour across both PvE and WvW and it seems like this might not be possible if I keep hold of celestial and then have berserkers and vipers/sinister (making 3 sets.)

Thanks again for your help. If anyone has any other thoughts then please do share them.

One thing I don’t quite understand is whether the fully offensive stat builds (e.g. Berserker, Viper, Sinister, etc) are viable in WvW for players that have mediocre skill levels or whether I should aim for some toughness and vitality in there (such as Celestial, Soldiers and Dire.)

If time and money are of no concern to you then yeah, you might want to make a few armour sets that are more specialized for specific game modes. However, if time and money management is something you need to consider then I would fully agree with Fluffball and keep your celestial armour as it is definitely the most well-rounded build….and celestial is a “good-fit” for Guardian and Ele which you identify as 2 of your main classes. Also, you are already doing exactly what I would have suggested which is to use the celestial armour as a solid, well-rounded foundation for your build and then mixing and matching your ascended trinkets based on your needs.

Combatter.5123:

I currently have a single set of celestial ascended armour and then I use Berserker weapons and trinkets for power builds and condition dmg-based weapons and trinkets for condition builds.

^
Perfect

Ascended trinkets are so easy to get now with all the new maps (on top of fractals and guild commendations) that its makes more sense to just swap-out your trinket sets based on your current needs than to mess around with your armour, especially when celestial is such a pain to make.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with experimenting with some exotic sets to see if there is another option you might like. Most exotic armour is cheap and easy to get as well and its not a big loss in stats from ascended armour.

Lastly, to answer your question above, I would strongly recommend staying away from fully offensive stats for playing wvw. You definitely want a balance between damage output and protection stats. For example, you might want to get some celestial trinkets for your guardian to go with the celestial armour (that is actually one of the current meta builds!). Marauders is also a good choice (that is what I use on my ranger as a back-liner pew-pew-pewing) but how much toughness and vit you will want will depend on your class, role, build, and playing ability.

First of all, it sounds like you want to use the ascended cele armor on all 3 characters, but all 3 are different armor weights. If you made ascended heavy celestial armor, you can use it on the guardian, a warrior and a revenant, not the medium (ranger) or light (ele) professions.

Combatter.5123:

One thing I don’t quite understand is whether the fully offensive stat builds (e.g. Berserker, Viper, Sinister, etc) are viable in WvW for players that have mediocre skill levels or whether I should aim for some toughness and vitality in there (such as Celestial, Soldiers and Dire.)

For WvW, berserker is fine on a longbow ranger to an extent; newer players will almost certainly want to round it out with tankier jewelry. For the guardian and ele, cele is actually a really awesome stat set for small group roaming.

For all 3 I’d use berserker in PvE, and either berserker or cele in WvW, so you only need 2 stat sets per character. You can use viper on any of them, but it’s harder to get and I’d only do it if you want to vary up to a condition play style.

I propose that you get full berserk or viper armor, weapons and accessories. Try playing with that. If that doesn’t work for you at first, exchange a few accessories with some defensive ones, for example soldier to get a bit more health or toughness. Accessories (esp. Rings) are the least expensive to change around.

Over time, after you get familiar with playing with lower health, change back to the offensive ones and ramp up your damage.

I started this way with my elementalist. For heavier encounters, for example higher level fractals, I used a soldier staff instead of a berserk staff, and one soldier ring. One day, I forgot to change to the defensive ones in one of the more difficult fractals and had no health problems at all, so I never ever again used them. Running 100% offensive even in the highest fractal levels since then.

Thanks again for all the helpful responses.

Fluffball: I know that I can’t use the same celestial armour on all 3 characters. I already have 3 ascended celestial sets; one for my ranger, guardian, and ele.

I am thinking I may try having the all offensive stat combos (e.g. Berserker for power, Viper/Sinister for condi) on armour and weapons and then alter my glassyness for PvE/WvW accordingly using trinkets (e.g. use more defensive Soldiers trinkets for WvW when using a power build, offensive Viper trinkets for PvE when using a condi build) and see how I go from there.

This way I will only need 2 sets of armour (one for power, one for condi) with 4 sets of trinkets that I can swap about (as they are relatively easy to obtain compared with armour)

That still leaves the question with what I should do with my ascended celestial armour. For now I will simply hold on to it and then try running offensive exotic armour (e.g. berserker). If I really get on with it, perhaps I will convert the ascended celestial in the mystic forge. But as it seems useful for certain builds, perhaps I should just keep it and therefore aim for 3 ascended armour sets (celestial, berseker and condi-based) per profession (seems a lot tho!)