Guild Wars 2

Since everyone now says pve is all about damage, I thought I’d spec into zerk so I could be accepted in those parties that farm cof and always ask for high damaging builds.

I’ve been running pvt for awhile now, with some support gear trinkets, I’m thinking of acquiring a seperate set of gear for the farming/dungeon runs. Might also make yet another full magic find for farming but anyway..

So yea, can anyone tell me if speccing full zerk with the classic 0/10/0/30/30 d/d build will get me through the dungeons? How much survivability am I throwing away? Also, how screwed am I if i run into wvw with zerker gear?

In dungeons, as an ele you dont want “too much” toughness. It brings aggro to you.
I’m testing a full valk/zerker set with scepter/focus and the results are great.
But you need to change the build a bit…

zerker is th eonly viable equipment…
ele btw doesn t have enough DPS + survivability for it.

That means you can go full zerker with silly builds like conjured and understand why those are bad when you attempt challenging stuff.

Or you can go a more versatile full zerker build and see that ele max dps is low compared to what is required for current meta (most difficult dungeons/fotm requires dps).

LordByron.8369:

zerker is th eonly viable equipment…
ele btw doesn t have enough DPS + survivability for it.

That means you can go full zerker with silly builds like conjured and understand why those are bad when you attempt challenging stuff.

Or you can go a more versatile full zerker build and see that ele max dps is low compared to what is required for current meta (most difficult dungeons/fotm requires dps).

I also have a warrior who’s eligible for lv 80 zerk gear, and since the dungeon tokens are account bound, should I put him in the dungeon runs first?

with full zerker gear you got less surv then any1 but more fun then any1

Antediluvian.5169:

I also have a warrior who’s eligible for lv 80 zerk gear, and since the dungeon tokens are account bound, should I put him in the dungeon runs first?

without doubt.

Warrior is a money machine…..and completely OP in current PVE.

Just in case you doubt it i can tell you that most PVE players rolled a PVE warrior because its a necessity :/ in current broken pve meta.

P.S. and once you realize that mobs oneshots you regardless of armor is when you see why zerker is a necessity, you last the same but kill twice faster so risk HALF…also rally easier.

The armor difference between light and heavy is 287. It’s not much.
I have played Ele zerker in melee in challenging content for quite a while, it is perfectly doable!
You just want to have enough EHP not to get one-shot too often ( I ran 30 water, but now i’m going to swap 4 zerkers pieces with low ratios to PVT for the same results: -10% dmg, + 27% EHP), use active defence, be a team player and you will be just fine.
Do not make PvE judgements based on CoF1.

Ele has enough survivability for berserkers. Look at other classes. They may have more health and armour, but less healing capabilities and if meleeing within150 range may find it harder to evade. Yet they do fine in PVE. Most ele’s are so hung up on trying to avoid dying that it’s all they think about, and bring little to a group in PVE. The trick is to have enough to offset the low armour and health, and invest the rest into damage.

0/10/0/30/30 of course can do PVE with berserkers. That is traited for survival and can afford losing toughness and vitality. I run COF, Arah, 20+ and sometimes 30+ fractals in D/D berserkers with berserker/valkyrie ascended trinkets for that extra bit of health, traited 0/25/0/15/30. Knights is the other candidate simply because the toughness improves your effective health which in turn improves the effectiveness of your healing, thereby significantly increasing survivability with minimal DPS loss.

In some cases berserker won’t lose you any survivability because you’d get 1 shot in PVT just the same, so berserker would help finish the fight quicker, thereby reducing the chances of you taking that hit, thereby actually increasing survivability =P.

It is definitely more fun to play PVE when you can deal some heavy damage. I’ve seen bunker ele’s out-survive an entire group when they die, and then sometime after while constantly attacking a red barred boss unable to finish it off before dying themselves. When this happens to another class, their health might decline faster but they manage to kill it.

In the end you can’t know for sure until you try. You may need patience too; switching from PVT to berserker might be a little difficult at first, until you discover how much you can take and what to expect in terms of incoming damage. I went from PVT to knights then berserker. You’ll also find fast movement, reactions and evading is that much more important.

I can’t really comment on WvW; I stick with knights and celestial trinkets there.

Its a pity healing is useless….

I run my ele in full beserker armor + berserker ascended trinkets and i do fine.
Ele is one of the best dmg-dealers in this game. You only have to know how to play him effective. (Lighning Hammer+ Fiery Greatsword)
Which other class has skills that deal 210000 dmg every 10s + 50000 dmg every 5s + Autoattack 15000 dmg?

Alex.9106:

Which other class has skills that deal 210000 dmg every 10s + 50000 dmg every 5s + Autoattack 15000 dmg?

Stop testing your burst on bunnies.

Sorry, but they are not from bunnies, they are from arah p4 simin and bloodstoneshard

Against Lupicus the burst isnt that high of course, because you have to dodge and he got more armor, but its still viable and hurts him

In pve full berserker staff is actually really survivable and pumps out nice aoe dps. The problem comes when you are forced to play defensively for your party and have to sit in the defensive attunements longer basically gutting your dps. On good balanced smart parties when you can just unload in safety its definitely worth doing.

I feel the other weapons are best with some manner of survival stats because they are geared more toward combo finishing and aura boon uptime which steers us into X/X/X/30/30 builds with boon duration runes and that really takes the bite out of our upfront damage. They do help the team immensely and make us a force multiplier but sometimes I’d just prefer to see the really big numbers for myself.

cojured is a gimmick build situational and useless in most parts of the game.

Not to consider that even the damage they tell you needs a wall just behind your target……

The true thing is you will lose your conjured weapon every few seconds…and you will be locked in 5 offensive skills that is the opposite the class desires.

Just for warrior wannabee that don t want to use the real thing….

But in real situations your dps is mediocre and you get downed from a sneeze….(its not dodges are unlimited as people says).

try a high level fractal without you being covered by 2 guardians and you see for yourself.

LordByron.8369:

cojured is a gimmick build situational and useless in most parts of the game.

Not to consider that even the damage they tell you needs a wall just behind your target……

The true thing is you will lose your conjured weapon every few seconds…and you will be locked in 5 offensive skills that is the opposite the class desires.

Just for warrior wannabee that don t want to use the real thing….

But in real situations your dps is mediocre and you get downed from a sneeze….(its not dodges are unlimited as people says).

try a high level fractal without you being covered by 2 guardians and you see for yourself.

So high lvl fractals are most part of the game?

Its true that i wouldnt play such a build in high lvl fractals without guards, but in every other dungeon or open world or fractal lvl 1-39 you can use a conjured build and if you are good you wont loose your weapon or get downed often

You can still play Berserkerele in fractals 40+, not with a conjure build, but with berserker staff or szepter/dagger build, survive and deal some nice dmg.

By the way, without guardians a berserker warrior isnt viable in high lvl fractals, just like a conjure ele

Even at 40+ you can still get away with a conjure build on a majority of fractal bosses

Ele damage without a hammer is still really good.But you can’t be 0/10/0/30/30.You have to be 0/30/20/20 or some combination of 30-40 points in air/fire.You also need scholar runes/berserker armor.

Look at the guide in my sig. It’s exactly what you’re looking for. 0/10/0/30/30 can work just fine with Zerker gear.

Running zerker with standard 0-10-0-30-30 is like riding the bike with training wheels on.

full zerkers is a waste, if you are playing right you should have PERMA fury.

Valk/zerk with 0/25/0/25/20 spec.

valk for hps (to not get one shot) and zerk to have over 35% base crit chance.

With my setup, without food, im sitting at 91% crit dmg, and got my first 11k fire grab last night, without doing the stupid piercing shards swap.

Allelya.6830:

full zerkers is a waste, if you are playing right you should have PERMA fury.

Valk/zerk with 0/25/0/25/20 spec.

valk for hps (to not get one shot) and zerk to have over 35% base crit chance.

With my setup, without food, im sitting at 91% crit dmg, and got my first 11k fire grab last night, without doing the stupid piercing shards swap.

All I can say, gratz.

Allelya.6830:

full zerkers is a waste, if you are playing right you should have PERMA fury.

Valk/zerk with 0/25/0/25/20 spec.

valk for hps (to not get one shot) and zerk to have over 35% base crit chance.

With my setup, without food, im sitting at 91% crit dmg, and got my first 11k fire grab last night, without doing the stupid piercing shards swap.

Full zerker gear is only a waste unless you’re sitting at more than 72% crit chance before fury and banner of discipline,or if you can’t stay alive.

Also how is your crit damage only 91% with valks/zerker? I have 108% crit damage with zerker/valks gear.

if you’re using the cookie cutter 0/10/0/30/30 for a zerker thats completely polar opposite since that build is meant for tanking and survivability and making every single person in gw2 rage more than perma stealth and theives have ever seen.

All pve contents becomes easy as long as you know the mechanic well. Anything less than a full zerker will only be better to those that aren’t so good at knowing such mechanics. Even Fractal up to lvl 49 and Arah exp mode you can go full zerk and never die.

i can tell you a couple of things:

1) haviz as Always keeps on flaming without discussing anything but we are used to that…..

2) Conjured build is the BEST for farming cof/coe….but quite useless because you will be booted on sight at cof don t know at coe.
Because you can t take the place of 3 war+1thief+1 mesmer being already the perfect party.

3) 0/10/0/30/30 is until the next patch, one of the best dps build for ele…you can rule out anyone saying its a cookie cutter build when you read 2 sotg interview ago devs stating that:
IS UnderPowered in PvE, is balanced in WWW was OP in PvP (but they balance only pvp…..) that pre nerf.

4) there is no way you can stick to a single weapon in “challenging” dungeons and still be effective….
You need to change weapon depending on situation.
Zerker gear is mandatory everywhere but you also need a build capable of equipping a staff or a focus, passing from offensive to defensive.

COnsidering you can stay easily at 25might with combos, fire line is quite unattractive, water 25 was until next nerf this evening because gave you vitality AND dps.

Do your math try for yourself….

If all you do is cof coe, you can go conjured, but i would advise you to don t waste time and go for a warrior in that case.

P.S. in case of arah abnd fotm 49 passive defenses are uselessdue to the insane damage of mobs….you need active defences, like arcance shields and stuff.

LordByron.8369:

i can tell you a couple of things:

1) haviz as Always keeps on flaming without discussing anything but we are used to that…..

2) Conjured build is the BEST for farming cof/coe….but quite useless because you will be booted on sight at cof don t know at coe.
Because you can t take the place of 3 war+1thief+1 mesmer being already the perfect party.

3) 0/10/0/30/30 is until the next patch, one of the best dps build for ele…you can rule out anyone saying its a cookie cutter build when you read 2 sotg interview ago devs stating that:
IS UnderPowered in PvE, is balanced in WWW was OP in PvP (but they balance only pvp…..) that pre nerf.

4) there is no way you can stick to a single weapon in “challenging” dungeons and still be effective….
You need to change weapon depending on situation.
Zerker gear is mandatory everywhere but you also need a build capable of equipping a staff or a focus, passing from offensive to defensive.

COnsidering you can stay easily at 25might with combos, fire line is quite unattractive, water 25 was until next nerf this evening because gave you vitality AND dps.

Do your math try for yourself….

If all you do is cof coe, you can go conjured, but i would advise you to don t waste time and go for a warrior in that case.

P.S. in case of arah abnd fotm 49 passive defenses are uselessdue to the insane damage of mobs….you need active defences, like arcance shields and stuff.

1) How should I discuss with someone claiming that additional precision is waste when he wants those stats on vitality which is quite useless because you’re going to be one-shotted by most mobs anyway.
2) Conjured build is decent everywhere where your team will support you with needed conditions and defense, meaning no pugs. But it’s boring so people don’t run it too often.
3) How can bunker traits be one of the best for dps? Do you need soothing distruption, evasive arcana, cantrip mastery or cleansing water for dps? It’s like saying healing shouts is one of the best dps build for warrior. Your utilities bring nothing to the team, just your own survivability while you can’t even do decent damage by yourself with that overrated and unneeded survivability.
4) You can run d/f everywhere except risen priest of melandru.