Guild Wars 2

Marauder and Demolisher are not interchangeable when it comes to build making/tweaking. The main reason for this is the fact that toughness doesn’t scale burst damage evenly with health decrease. On elementalist, for example, with Demolisher amulet, you have 11645 health (67.52% of Marauder) and with Marauder, you have 17245 health. That means with Demolisher, you have 32.48% less health than you would with Marauder, but the damage you take is not at least 32.48% less. I tested the damage a ranger’s fully buffed maul does on me and with Marauder it was consistently about 16k damage, but with Demolisher it was consistently about 13.5k. That means with Demolisher the damage you receive is about 84.38% of the burst damage you take from Marauder. Meaning with Demolisher, you take more damage than you would with Marauder when looking at both condi AND burst damage, but your heals would heal you more on Demolisher (% wise) than they would with Marauder. If there is a build that relies on few, inconsistent heals but is a damage build, you should go Marauder to tank through the enemy’s damage. If your build has consistent heal and damage and a good way to evade damage, go Demolisher. (This is why the Warrior meta is Demolisher, but the Necromancer meta is Marauder (for the most part, the more shroud the better))

There is a button on your keyboard called ‘enter’ give it a try some time.

I managed to read that block of text…. sort of…. but the answer to your question isn’t static.

It depends on not only you class/build pick but both your and your enemy team comp.

Enemy team have a mesmer, necro, a well known condi rev player?(yes they exist) Avoid demolisher like the plague.

Enemy team have 1 likely condi candidate but you have a tempest? then it comes down to you persona; ability to manage condis and likeliness of being stuck alone with said condi candidate.

Choices like this are not as cut and dry as people tend to make them. Depending on your class a rune change can protect you from condis as much as the extra health did. Lyssa on a class with a low CD elite can be incredibly powerful with demolisher. Using rune passive to mitigate condis and using the extra mitigation from the amulet to deal with power.

Just look at the broader picture and go with a case by case basis. Changing your runes,amulet and even individual traits based on what each match can be a huge difference in some matches.