Guild Wars 2

Hey folks. I have a Berserker set and I want as much as DPS as possible from it (I also have another set for dungeons, WvW and whatnot, I use the Berserker one just for open world PvE and things like that). Currently I just have Ruby orbs in the whole set to maximise my stats and because I couldn’t decide on runes. What would be best to maximise my DPS given that:

- I use scepter and dagger and can build around 16-20ish stacks of might (I have a Sigil of Battle on my scepter and will probably go for a Sigil of Bloodlust for my dagger);
- I use my Berserker set with Soldier trinkets and Berserker weapons;
- My build is currently 10/10/0/20/30.

I thought of the following options but I’m not sure which one works best.

Should I:

- Go with full Runes of the Scholar?
- Go with full boon duration runes?
- Keep the Ruby orbs?
- Something else?

I was thinking Boon Duration runes would be best to get as much might as possible, but then you have to sacrifice power, precision and crits stats…So is it worth it?

It could be expensive, but why don’t you go for Divinity Runes?
+60 Power, +60 Precision, +60 Condition Damage, +12% Crit Damage (along with +60 Toughness, +60Vitality, +60 Healing Power).

To me, they seem the best all around choice, assuming that you can afford them.
Going full Orbs “should” be better in terms of raw spike damage, but I am currently using a full zerker gear with 6x Superior Divinities and everything melts before me quite fast, be it WvW Players or PvE content.

IMHO, Ogre > Divinity.

Bah! Scholar > Ogre > Divinity.

If you are building your d/d to have enough healing power and toughness, then you will stay above 90% more often than not.

If this is general PvE, Scholar will net more dps than anything else. If this is high level fractals or pvp/wvw, you really need to think about how much time your health is above or below 90% before you can make that choice. In general, you have to be over 90% half the time for scholar to outperform ogre.

Melanie.1240:

Hey folks. I have a Berserker set and I want as much as DPS as possible from it (I also have another set for dungeons, WvW and whatnot, I use the Berserker one just for open world PvE and things like that).

Leave the ruby orbs. For overland PvE, divinity (or even scholar) runes are ridiculously expensive and ogre runs don’t help much since the rock dog is just single target dps.

For dps, the only decent boon dutation runes would be the ones which specifically increase might duration, so if you want, try replacing two rubies with two of those type of runes.

Thrashbarg.9820:

Melanie.1240:

Hey folks. I have a Berserker set and I want as much as DPS as possible from it (I also have another set for dungeons, WvW and whatnot, I use the Berserker one just for open world PvE and things like that).

Leave the ruby orbs. For overland PvE, divinity (or even scholar) runes are ridiculously expensive and ogre runs don’t help much since the rock dog is just single target dps.

For dps, the only decent boon dutation runes would be the ones which specifically increase might duration, so if you want, try replacing two rubies with two of those type of runes.

Ogre is taken for crit damage and +4% dmg, not rock dogs lol They’re an excellent choice if keeping health up for Scholar is an issue. Money comes and goes, the dps gain from improving your gear stays.

4x Runes of Altruism +2 Runes of Water = 30% more boon duration and 3 stacks of might everytime you use your heal. Combine this with Fire Attunement GoEH, and thats 6 stacks of might just for heal. Boon duration > Might duration because its important to improve fury uptime as well.

Scholar is the highest DPS increase you can get if you are always above 90% health. In PvE that’s pretty realistic, but with our low health pool in PvP we’re dropped below that in one hit.

Boon duration is a great choice unless you already keep up perma fury and 25 might stacks. But if you’re already maintaining very high fury uptime and 20+ stacks of might, you won’t see as much of a gain.

0 20 0 20 30 zerker effective power with:

Divinity 12 might, 50% fury : 5500
Scholar 12 might, 50% fury: 6100
+Boon 25 might, 100% fury: 6200

Boon duration also helps you keep up protection, stability and regen to make your glass build more survivable.

With fresh air there are ways to play S/D as a burst set up so that you will always have fury up for your entire burst without boon duration. It’s a higher skill cap risk/reward playstyle though. Any time you don’t have fury up, it’s a big decrease in your damage output.

The OP was asking about a set for general open world PvE. He/she mentioned owning different sets for dungeons and WvW already. Ruby orbs are plenty for generic PvE. Maximizing dps when tagging mobs in events is not necessary at all, and in fact kinda screws over other players as stuff melts faster than many can channel skills.

There’s nothing wrong with the high-end runes, but they aren’t necessary in the OP’s case, and it’s unlikely they would notice any difference.

Throwing numbers around can be misleading as well. +30% boon duration from runes won’t take you from 12 stacks of might to 25 stacks, and it’s possible to hit more than 50% fury uptime without boon duration runes.

That would probably be why I said :

Boon duration is a great choice unless you already keep up perma fury and 25 might stacks. But if you’re already maintaining very high fury uptime and 20+ stacks of might, you won’t see as much of a gain.

40% boon duration runes will push a S/D build over the edge so that you can start overlapping your blast rotations and keep essentially perma 25 might. With l-e-s-s- b-o-o-n duration you will still be able to spike to 20+ might, but not maintain it throughout an extended fight (especially not when moving). You’re not maintaining perma fury on S/D without boon duration or persisting flames 30 points up fire (lulz).

• l-e-s-s—b-o-o-n is being “kittened” seriously?

Splitting hairs/min max really is the question here.

Boon duration runes = build up damage.

You have to get it going then its there as in a long drawn out fight etc.

If your looking at dps like orbs or ogre then you have access to more damage upfront than a boon duration ele.

I have played Ele with full Berserker gear in dungeons with the following rune choices:
-Ruby Orbs
-Divinity Runes
-Boon Duration (Superior Monk, Superior Water, Major Water)
-Scholar Runes

For the purposes of dungeons and fractals, the increased DPS on Scholar Runes beat everything else greatly.

For everything else (open world PvE, WvW), the benefit of more seconds of Swiftness and various boons made Boon Duration pretty nice.

Am I the only one who likes runes of Rage? They seem to be working pretty good for me so far and they’re pretty cheap.

Nikkinella.8254:

Am I the only one who likes runes of Rage? They seem to be working pretty good for me so far and they’re pretty cheap.

Never tried them I can’t see why you would need them since fury is easy to maintain. I was just messing around with naked with just 30 arcana and I could keep fury up the whole time. I guess if you want them I suppose use them but they aren’t more dps than Ruby orbs.

I would say though that when/if they ever fix runes of strength I will seriously consider going a full 6 piece set. The dps on those is comparable to ruby orbs.

For pvp always boon duration. 7 sec prot on earth attunement is huge damage reduction, and you get very good fury uptime and might stacking.

Thanks for all the input folks! n-n It’s sort of a necro but even though I read everything I forgot to say thanks, just like the last topic I made so I felt bad. :C I think I will keep the orbs until I get so much money I don’t know what to do with it, and then spend it on Scholar runes. ^^