Guild Wars 2

SW can be quite rewarding.

I’ve recently taken an interest in acquiring & completing certain ‘boxes’ for skins (preferably Carapace Coat Box(s)) via starting from scratch/hopping in a SW map (Foothold, Breach, VW etc) and I feel inclined to wear tanky gear as these Mordrem monsters are indeed quite dangerous if you make a mistake or let them get too close.

Here is my current set-up and I find I survive decently with this but I feel my damage is rather low.

CLASS: Engineer
GEAR: Full Sentinel
WEAPON/UTILITIES: Rifle | Healing Turret | Nade kit | Slick Shoes | Rocket Boots | Crate
TRAITS: 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2

Each event/situation varies in SW and I’ve heard conditions work well against Mordrem and thus wouldn’t mind running a more offensive build regarding conditions, especially when it comes to escorting the pack bulls or engaging in a small group of Mordrem.

I don’t know what else I’d switch Slick Shoes out for; using that in combination with Rocket Boots makes for some very fast distance coverage/escapes/stun-breaker and the blast field thing from Rockets Boots paired with Healing Turret F1 is minute but.. handy I suppose.

I’ve tried full zerker in SW; great damage but I die. A lot. Embarrassingly.

So tell me, what’s currently working for YOU?

Feel free to discuss this topic and/or list any tips you may have.

Just go full rabid or some condi spec and use pistol/shield, heal turret, tool kit, bomb kit, and rocket boots. That will give you 2 blocks and an aoe blind so survive the mordrem better. Also you cans tack stealth to get around those pesky plants

zerker all day errday

I run a war with full rabid and healing shouts or sigils when not in boss fights

Berserker gear all the way.
I’m kittening terrible at this game, but I had no issue playing my full zerk Guard in SW.

If anything Engis suck there because of the sorta mediocre damage.
Shouldn’t be that much of a problem since Engis are great for groups and virtually everything is done in groups anyway.

I currently run a Zerk Ranger because I got tired of having to use the crappy Guardian Scepter a lot because so many bosses are fought at range.

Well, I used to run a zerker ranger in the Silverwastes to stand up against Gold and Silver. But I thought of giving my celestial engineer a fair shake.

I like soldier’s armor and zerk trinkets on my engie in SW. I think her utilities are flamethrower/bombs/grenades/crate. Standard 6/6/0/0/2 traits. She does ok. Maybe switch out elixir gun for flamethrower if I find myself having a bad day and dying too much.

I like my mesmer there better though, either with celestial or soldier’s armor and zerk trinkets. Lots of dodging and cloning.

Hope you find what works well for you!

I run my Engi as Celestial with 100% condition duration (tree/food/giver’s weapons/malice). Combine this with a full p/p+grenade+bomb build with power tree maxed and you are doing good autohits, 20 stack AoE bleed, 25 vulnerability and alot more if you swap out your kits enough to use all the conditions.

Zero threat from any Mordrem. Remember that Cripple stops the Teragriffs from doing their charge which is the only real problem there.

I find that my condition builds do better than my berserker builds in SW. Even though people swear by zerker, some of the mobs there are just very hard to take down with direct damage and the time taken can outstrip your heals and dodges. This is in contrast with the rest of the game where mobs die easily to zerker.

If you want to do full zerk, make sure you kill all Menders asap.

I strongly recommend against using Sentinel gear. The damage is extremely low and increasing your vitality just makes you that much harder to heal. One of Engi’s best traits is their bust healing so they benefit more from high toughness.

Sinister / Rabid Necro. OP against Mordrem as muck

Full zerker…

/15

robotosis.4872:

zerker all day errday

I take the mordrem husks down twice as fast than any zerker with my dire elementalist, especially those ridiculously tanky slingers and smashers. They just have too much armor for power to be effective, it’s kind of become condi builds ‘thing’ in the SW, like tanks dealing with the wolves that attack too often for dodge to be sufficient defense or the AoE spammers that go after the menders. Though admittedly zerker is most affective at nearly everything else, and most of the games content still has no ‘thing’ for condi builds to do at all, let alone be effective at.

Sube Dai.8496:

Full zerker…

/15

Full zerk ranger, high crit, condi skills and traited accordingly. Good old bears for tanking and all is well on this world :P

Any build, press 1…it’s SW for crying out loud.

I usually play berserker elementalist there, but managing your aggro is very important because you will down really quickly if you get too much attention. In that regard, I’d like to see how the poster above manages to survive with this build by only pressing one, unless he stays inside the pact camp.

Full Zerker Mesmer.

L2dodge. Every single Vinewrath boss attack and the 5 minibosses during the breach phase can easily be avoided.

Understand that using purely defensive gear you are actually negatively impacting the fight (not as much as being afk or dying, true) but this game is designed so that pve can be played at maximum damage output (except for Tequatle).

If you really are having problems, switch trinkets to something more defensive until you reach a point where you feel comfortable. Better then going straight tank and having to rely on others to do your share of damage.

lol @ people still wearing defensive gear in pve in the year 2015

I play a Warrior DPS/Condi hybrid. Rampager Armor, Cavalier Weapons, and mix of Zerker/Knights trinkets with zerker upgrades in them. Traits are 6,4,0,0,4. (I, IV, XI)(III, VIII)(III, IX). You can go Longbow or Rifle as other set, but I tend to use rifle as I like to cripple with skill 2 then knockback with skill 5 when something really annoying is trying to chew my face off.

Anyways, with my traits my power/precision/crit are all still high enough that I hit like a truck with regular attacks, but my condi-dmg is also boosted enough that using skill 5 then F1 on sword/axe set is great for insta-filling my adrenaline and packing out bleeds to burn down those pesky husk-type mobs through their high armor. I also use the insta-fill to gain my 15% dmg boost from full adrenaline for mobs I don’t need to pressure >:D

I’ve found the build to be great in PvE all over GW2, and doing world completion with it was a breeze since even everything in Arah I could either smack down in a handful of hits or pressure down fast if it was something big. Nothing quiet so fun as leaping into a ball of mobs, using endure pain, spin-to-win em, then F1 sword before dodging out and watching em then keel over from bleeds as they try to chase you. Not run it in dungeons much, since I tend to go Guardian or Ele for those, but I did use it to 3-man P3 in AC the other day for laughs with guildies. Sure we weren’t killing the burrows fast enough to stop all the stuff spawning out of em, but when those mobs got a face full of “Spin-to-win” followed by BLEEEEEEDS then repeated smashing with a sword, they kinda died too fast to do anything to us anyway

But yeah, the build is fun. I’ve never been a pure-meta type since I love thoery-crafting then testing hybrid builds, so this build was totally up my street

I use my mightstacking flamethrower engi build. Great survivability and damage.

Berserker staff elementalist.
I might swap the armor in favor of a soldier one if I expect things to get nasty (like when l’m on an underpopulated lane 3 and lane 2 fails to take down Mangler).

Azrael.4960:

Sinister / Rabid Necro. OP against Mordrem as muck

Couldnt agree more. Sinister condi Necro eats mordrem for breakfast

Celestial armor i use in wvw + zerk rifle + sinister trinkets from story works like a charm, perfet mix
i usually bring nades bombs and ft

Zerk thief with Invigorating Precision, dual dagger and good old shortbow if I’m lazy. Kills everything, even husks, in seconds and unless you mess up hard, you can’t die.

Or longbow ranger, if I want to eat while playing.

I’m a ranger, so I go full zerker, use RF to win and sig of stone when things are going bad.

Actually I have zerker/valk asc trinkets, armor and weapon are asc zerker.

Arkinos.7245:

Berserker gear all the way.
I’m kittening terrible at this game, but I had no issue playing my full zerk Guard in SW.

If anything Engis suck there because of the sorta mediocre damage.

What? Berserker Engie has way better damage than berserker guardian. By something like 15-20%.

I run a (likely suboptimal) nade FT build in the silverwastes. With healing turret and rocket boots, usually i can get myself out of danger fast enough to warrant wearing my werk still. So currently, i’m sticking to my zerk (although im also planning a rabid set somewhere), although ill switch to my Knights gear for places where i die easily (i only have one set of trinkets, so those stay zerk).
Traits setup is 66002, 64022 or 62042. Speedy kits, i never leave out anywhere except WvW zergrunning. Top line, standard nade running. Then, variably either firearms with rifle mod, juggernaught and modified amunition or points in alchemy with invigorating speed and deadly mixture. It all depends on how much i need to be survivable and have dodges, and how much im going to use the flamethrower for cone-shaped targetted torching versus the nades AoE attacks (which is the very reason FT is in the build – it allows me to be much more mobile while using the autotargetting, while nades i have to continuously aim myself, and they arent as easy to AoE far-from-eachother targets with).

Its far from optimal, but for me, its fun :-).

Zerker Warrior/Ranger/Thief. That’s what I play(ed). Never had any issues. Always have a set for ranged and one for melee but as an engineer you won’t have that problem anyways.

I am only concerned about the carapace boots and hands; they NEVER dropped. I usually do the SW loop about 2-3 times (collecting the luminescent armor), and I opened several hundred chests usually with 450% magic find and never got one of those two, I had once the carapace coat box after killing Vinewrath. So, is it just super bad RNG luck? Others say, they usually have 2-3 leggings/hands in one chest run (20-40 boxes).

I have a rather unique apothecary/cleric ele set up with scepter and dagger. The condi damage is very high, with strong heals and resistance to fght off the tougher mobs and keep npcs alive. It isnt a meta or optimal build, but i enjoy it and i know how to use it.

I also love tornado as an elite, it is superb against modrem packs, where there are menders or swarms around key npcs.

I have other builds, but this is the one i enjoy the most for the new content.

Condition builds for Husks, Smashers, and Slingers.
Berserker for everything else.

One thing that really bugs me are rangers with Point Blank Shot and Mesmers with Illusionary Wave. They just hit those on cooldown, completely mindless without any sense, kicking them out of ice bow AoE and 100b etc. What the hell do they think, really… I mean you just have to SEE it that it is maybe a bad idea just to use those skills.

Let’s see… I think I play SW most commonly on my Ranger, Ele, or Necro.

Ranger is straight zerk.
Ele is celestial gear with zerk weapons and trinkets
Necro is Zerk / Sinister condi (in the process of upgrading to Veratas)

I’ve tried it on my mesmer (which runs Sins armor and zerk weapons/trinkets), but I wasn’t feeling it. Always end up back on one of the other 3.

I might give it a go on my engi, once I get cele armor on her.

i use this for my warrior http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJUQNBhODbkpjKP78wvDORDUFIInEQZvipP9KFA-TRCBABdcEA0S5HaKBrU9HJOIAAcBAqa/hU0NwwDAAA-e

accessories seem to give more stats than weapons+armor combined (not counting sigils and runes) and i wanted to hit a certain number in toughness and vitality.

attacks are pretty good, not the full glass cannon kitten kitten zerg…but im able to mob up many mobs and hit them constantly without the fear ill get spiked down.

adenal health+healing signet makes me auto heal for about 1500health every 3 seconds. I have multiple ways of clearing condis from my self and allies around me as well as healing them for 3320 each 20 seconds.

With only a few trait switches im able to be a tanky phalanx warrior, or support banner/mass permanent aoe regen warrior (when staying long in 1 area such as defending keeps) but the link i gave is what fits my playstyle the most

Carrion Mesmer for blue boss and mid lane here. Condition Damage is superior for most of the mordrem. This is one of the (few) places in PvE where mesmers can shine brightly. Bring some condi removal (Mantra of Resolve + Harmonious Mantras).

The amount of players thinking zerker is the only viable option explains to me why I have to rezz so many players during SW on average. Zerker is not easy mode, you need to know how to play it and move and position yourselves. Obviously a lot don’t. Given, they would die in soldiers as well, but at least it would take longer.

ProtoGunner.4953:

One thing that really bugs me are rangers with Point Blank Shot and Mesmers with Illusionary Wave. They just hit those on cooldown, completely mindless without any sense, kicking them out of ice bow AoE and 100b etc. What the hell do they think, really… I mean you just have to SEE it that it is maybe a bad idea just to use those skills.

This was one of the main reasons to switch to Ranger for me.

There are too many fools that make SW seriously hard for melee classes by spaming their knockbacks for no actual reason.

And I am not the only one, recently there are increasingly more Rangers in SW.

Azrael.4960:

Sinister / Rabid Necro. OP against Mordrem as muck

Yup!

I of course use scepter/dagger, staff. Well of darkness, well of suffering, blood is power, and Flesh Golem. Lich for bosses.

Its fun watching mobs melt

Halvorn.9831:

The amount of players thinking zerker is the only viable option explains to me why I have to rezz so many players during SW on average. Zerker is not easy mode, you need to know how to play it and move and position yourselves. Obviously a lot don’t. Given, they would die in soldiers as well, but at least it would take longer.

Agreed. Zerker works well in dungeons. Where you are super familiar with all the paths.

SW is a totally different ball game. Many of the Mordrem have decent reduction to physical damage. The wolves do massive damage while flanking, tagriffs, are bouncing all over the place, Threshers are irritating.

Standing face to face pressing 1, is going to get you reckt fairly quickly. Stay at range, drop conditions and watch them melt.

Arkinos.7245:

ProtoGunner.4953:

One thing that really bugs me are rangers with Point Blank Shot and Mesmers with Illusionary Wave. They just hit those on cooldown, completely mindless without any sense, kicking them out of ice bow AoE and 100b etc. What the hell do they think, really… I mean you just have to SEE it that it is maybe a bad idea just to use those skills.

This was one of the main reasons to switch to Ranger for me.

There are too many fools that make SW seriously hard for melee classes by spaming their knockbacks for no actual reason.

And I am not the only one, recently there are increasingly more Rangers in SW.

No, there are a lot of rangers out there these days.

Personally, I try to reserve point blank shot for interrupting the vile thresher’s spin, the teragriff charge, or for when one of the stupid dogs lunges at me. That sorta thing But I typically do actually put some thought into my play.

GLASS: Sinister Swrd/Swrd & LngBw Warrior
(when in combat with banner & food: ~2950-3100 power, 1950-2100 condition dmg,
+60% condi duration, 85% crit chance. @ 15-20 stacks of might….)
(Little bit more support, very fast res, perma banner uptime)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJUQNAscTjMdU5ZdHefwJighgyUAcuBChnXVYksHGCA-TxBEABJ8EAQUJ4xq/ksyvU2fAgTBww6DIFwiCrA-e

Rabid Sinister Swrd/Swrd & LngBw Warrior (when in combat with banner & food: ~2800 power, 1800 condition dmg, +50% condi duration, 85% crit chance. @ 15 stacks of might…. BUT 2950 armor…. and adrenal heal.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJUQNAscTjMdU5ZdHOewJagkgC7onBnDgKY41VFA-TxBEABJ8EAQUJYyK/kU9nU2fAgTBww6DIFwiCrA-e

Both do well generally you’ll have 15-20 might up. rabid build due to fast hands can swap faster, 1st build can stack might with firefield and banner if needed and possible….

remember:
the might will allow for 450-600 addititonal power AND condition dmg (15-20 stacks),
the banner will provide both 170 power and condition dmg… if available

So it’s much more balanced then most would think.

When buffed and stacked you’ll do 1600-1800 dmg (crits) on sword auto… but it’s fast, and bleeds each hit, or cripples allowing you to disengage when needed. they’ll bleed anyways,
25 bleeds (easy) , 5 torment and burning, 2 immobilzes, fire field, blast(s) and a leap….

Lastly:
You can swap out parts of armor in the 2 builds I showed you to add some toughness or power as needed… (chest and boots will be ~100 points exchanged, legs add a further 50, gloves and shoulders another 50, helm is 34….)

I used to run zerker staff ele, but since i often play after i get home → i am tired → i make more mistakes → i die more, i switched to full Soldier armor and only left most of my (ascended) trinkets zerker. Still works pretty well, only there is more room for mistakes and for helping/rezzing others. Plus the sweet feeling you get when a lot of zerks die around you but you’re still standing.

Conncept.7638:

robotosis.4872:

zerker all day errday

I take the mordrem husks down twice as fast than any zerker with my dire elementalist, especially those ridiculously tanky slingers and smashers. They just have too much armor for power to be effective, it’s kind of become condi builds ‘thing’ in the SW, like tanks dealing with the wolves that attack too often for dodge to be sufficient defense or the AoE spammers that go after the menders. Though admittedly zerker is most affective at nearly everything else, and most of the games content still has no ‘thing’ for condi builds to do at all, let alone be effective at.

Until just one other person in condition gear shows up, and overwrites all your damage…

You non-zerkers really need to read up on how conditions work…

Sube Dai.8496:

Conncept.7638:

robotosis.4872:

zerker all day errday

I take the mordrem husks down twice as fast than any zerker with my dire elementalist, especially those ridiculously tanky slingers and smashers. They just have too much armor for power to be effective, it’s kind of become condi builds ‘thing’ in the SW, like tanks dealing with the wolves that attack too often for dodge to be sufficient defense or the AoE spammers that go after the menders. Though admittedly zerker is most affective at nearly everything else, and most of the games content still has no ‘thing’ for condi builds to do at all, let alone be effective at.

Until just one other person in condition gear shows up, and overwrites all your damage…

You non-zerkers really need to read up on how conditions work…

And thats already a problem for fort defenses with only a hand full of people.

Once you get to bosses condi build are about as useful as full Nomad gear.

Though the amount of people that said they run condi here would explain why sometimes even the easiest bosses fail on full maps.

robotosis.4872:

zerker all day errday

This.

As an zerk bomb/nade engineer, I have enough condition applications to even deal with husks.

I may substitute in Cavalier trinkets if I need to feel a little tougher, but otherwise, zerk is fine.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Condition-stack-increases-PASSED-25/first#post4914862

This is going to make things ALOT more interesting concerning condi builds
Even if it’s just on bosses, this is great news for condi classes!

Zerker staff ele works for me. I used to run soldier gear, but I didn’t really see a difference in survivability. If I get overwhelmed by lv 83 teragriffs or wolves I am dead no matter what build I’m using. Plus, it’s fun landing 10k crits on the thrasher champ :P

Arkinos.7245:

Though the amount of people that said they run condi here would explain why sometimes even the easiest bosses fail on full maps.

Very true…condi is good if you solo or is with a small group. Against timed bosses you’re actually hurting the entire group because you’re not dealing enough damage.

pdavis.8031:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Condition-stack-increases-PASSED-25/first#post4914862

This is going to make things ALOT more interesting concerning condi builds
Even if it’s just on bosses, this is great news for condi classes!

Depends how high the stacks go. The sheer amount of passive conditions applied in a zerg vs world boss is enormous.

It is…from what I can tell is that after 100 stacks it goes into “super mode” as signified with an ! symbol. How this is calculated out, I don’t know. But it certainly means that as a condi player I can (potentially) add my full stacks, and not have them over written by incidental conditions. Thus using my condis to their full potential.
However the only concern I would have is the amount of processing power this is going to take with so many people adding condis all the time. Is it going to cause lag?

pdavis.8031:

It is…from what I can tell is that after 100 stacks it goes into “super mode” as signified with an ! symbol. How this is calculated out, I don’t know. But it certainly means that as a condi player I can (potentially) add my full stacks, and not have them over written by incidental conditions. Thus using my condis to their full potential.
However the only concern I would have is the amount of processing power this is going to take with so many people adding condis all the time. Is it going to cause lag?

That was their argument for not raising the condi cap so maybe they have found a way around it.

Sube Dai.8496:

Conncept.7638:

robotosis.4872:

zerker all day errday

I take the mordrem husks down twice as fast than any zerker with my dire elementalist, especially those ridiculously tanky slingers and smashers. They just have too much armor for power to be effective, it’s kind of become condi builds ‘thing’ in the SW, like tanks dealing with the wolves that attack too often for dodge to be sufficient defense or the AoE spammers that go after the menders. Though admittedly zerker is most affective at nearly everything else, and most of the games content still has no ‘thing’ for condi builds to do at all, let alone be effective at.

Until just one other person in condition gear shows up, and overwrites all your damage…

You non-zerkers really need to read up on how conditions work…

They spawn in groups of three or more, multiple times throughout each event, on each side of each structure, and frequently out of each worm. That means there are potentially dozens up at a time and near always at least a few. If you have that many condimancers on one event, you have too many people on one event period, regardless of their builds. And I have never seen this happen, and unlike you, I’ve actually played more than one build in order to potentially be put in this situation where it could, instead of following what I’m told like a sheep.

Also, I’ve failed about five SW bosses (the boss event, not the map event), and vine wraith once, and done them enough to be approaching a full luminescent set, and nearly all of it on various condition builds. You are claiming to know something by remaining completely ignorant of it. I am not the one here who needs to ‘read up’ on the game mechanics, I already admitted that in the majority of the games content it isn’t viable, but the SW’s spawns and events are designed completely differently from the remainder of the game. You, on the other hand, need to go try the non-zerker builds you dismiss so as to actually have a valid opinion to share on the subject instead of making wild claims of potential situations that are pretty much guaranteed never to happen.

It depends on how you do SW. If you taxi in late in foothold, then zerker would probably be fine, since you have high population and mostly you are doing champs. However if you are the type that actually builds up foothold, condi build isn’t a bad idea(I haven’t tried personally).

With buildup maps, population is usually low and most are scattered, this is where zerker will not do so well and condi/defensive builds will do better.

Conncept.7638:

Sube Dai.8496:

Conncept.7638:

robotosis.4872:

zerker all day errday

I take the mordrem husks down twice as fast than any zerker with my dire elementalist, especially those ridiculously tanky slingers and smashers. They just have too much armor for power to be effective, it’s kind of become condi builds ‘thing’ in the SW, like tanks dealing with the wolves that attack too often for dodge to be sufficient defense or the AoE spammers that go after the menders. Though admittedly zerker is most affective at nearly everything else, and most of the games content still has no ‘thing’ for condi builds to do at all, let alone be effective at.

Until just one other person in condition gear shows up, and overwrites all your damage…

You non-zerkers really need to read up on how conditions work…

They spawn in groups of three or more, multiple times throughout each event, on each side of each structure, and frequently out of each worm. That means there are potentially dozens up at a time and near always at least a few. If you have that many condimancers on one event, you have too many people on one event period, regardless of their builds. And I have never seen this happen, and unlike you, I’ve actually played more than one build in order to potentially be put in this situation where it could, instead of following what I’m told like a sheep.

Also, I’ve failed about five SW bosses (the boss event, not the map event), and vine wraith once, and done them enough to be approaching a full luminescent set, and nearly all of it on various condition builds. You are claiming to know something by remaining completely ignorant of it. I am not the one here who needs to ‘read up’ on the game mechanics, I already admitted that in the majority of the games content it isn’t viable, but the SW’s spawns and events are designed completely differently from the remainder of the game. You, on the other hand, need to go try the non-zerker builds you dismiss so as to actually have a valid opinion to share on the subject instead of making wild claims of potential situations that are pretty much guaranteed never to happen.

On trash mobs, maybe condi builds would be more efficient. But seriously who can’t complete those parts of the map?

Condi builds actively hurt everyone in the boss fights, and those are the important ones. You know, the ones with timers where your Max DPS matters.