Guild Wars 2

I finally got the issues I was having with javascript worked out and can now post my build! One of my friends wanted to have my take on what build I would play if it wasnt the common arcana-based bunker. I eventually came up with this build, and have ended up sticking with it as I find it to be very fun and occasionally very difficult!

My goal was to create something that was more offense oriented than the arcana bunker builds that are so incredibly effective. I never found much that was as effective, but I believe the following build is effective when faced with actual combat. It is extremely strong at creating a ton of havoc and damage while remaining alive to do it all over again. Usually.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEQQJAoYhEmgbzR5gjDAUGnAz8gIiHPYREA

0/30/15/25/0

Air: I, VI, XII
Earth: V
Water: III, X
(These do change, but its what I am running right now)

All jewelry is “emerald ori” (pow/pre/tough) with exquisite beryl jewels on everything (pow/crit dam/vit). Also have one of those Ancient Karka Shells.

Valkyrie (pow/crit dam/vit) weapons, chest piece, and boots. Headpiece, shoulder, gloves, and leggings are knight (pow/pre/tough). 6/6 Superior Rune of Rage. On my daggers I use Superior Sigil of Perception and Superior Sigil of Battle (I cant choose between this, accuracy (crit chance), or force (pow)). I do constantly switch to staff as well.

2700 atk (cond dam 175)
~35% crit chance unbuffed and 75% crit damage, ~55% crit chance with fury
2500 armor
17.5k health (healing pow 275)

I tend to use Armor of Earth, Lightning Flash, and Mist Form as my utilities and Glyph of Elementals as my elite. These change situationally though.

The idea is to keep auras up as much as possible because this build almost exclusively depends on getting crits. This is where the arcana line would be beneficial, but “no arcana” is the goal! If you get an unlucky run, things can turn bad real quick. I have to really keep on my toes with this build, but it has enough survivability to stay alive long.. enough.

In my experience, this build in particular, is extremely effective on the battlefield. I dont feel it necessarily compares to the true power of an arcana bunker, but when it comes down to real life engagements I find myself doing very well and having a lot of fun. I am certainly not claiming it to be the best, but it has ended up being the build I actually run with.

I look forward to any constructive feedback you might have I have no doubt there are improvements to be made. Thanks for reading!

edit: Oops, forgot to mention that I mostly play WvW, so that was a large consideration in what I was looking to achieve.

Thankyou for the input.

When ANet removes the perma-dr from my account I’ll try to spend some gold on the gear and give it a shot, provided it survives the next balance patch.

I’ve been running a 0/25/0/25/20 build the last few days, not gonna bother posting the exact gear right now but it was around 18k hp, 2600 armour, 30% crit without fury and 50% crit damage with around 250 healing power.

Personally I enjoyed the increase in damage numbers but EU tier 1 is mostly massive zerg fights of 30-40+. Simple things like capping camps often involve a minimum of 5-10 opponents and to be honest I require EA to survive the heavy frontline fights.

Today I switched back to 0/20/0/20/30 and the net result while loosing damage was staying in the battle longer which balances out in the long run. I do miss being able to share auras and the longer boon duration from my other armour set but it is a fair trade off in my books.

MarzAttakz.9608:

I’ve been running a 0/25/0/25/20 build the last few days, not gonna bother posting the exact gear right now but it was around 18k hp, 2600 armour, 30% crit without fury and 50% crit damage with around 250 healing power.

Personally I enjoyed the increase in damage numbers but EU tier 1 is mostly massive zerg fights of 30-40+. Simple things like capping camps often involve a minimum of 5-10 opponents and to be honest I require EA to survive the heavy frontline fights.

Today I switched back to 0/20/0/20/30 and the net result while loosing damage was staying in the battle longer which balances out in the long run. I do miss being able to share auras and the longer boon duration from my other armour set but it is a fair trade off in my books.

Its not just a fair trade off, overall I think the capabilities of the arcana bunker are superior. I was curious before starting all this if there really werent any other options, but I found one I enjoyed more than the arcana bunker. For some reason, I really love the “chance” aspect to this build and I find it perfectly viable for my playstyle/environment. You dont have to list everything, but were you using a mix of gear? I like the damage too 2700 atk with 75% crit damage and the plus damage traits yields some very fine numbers! Lightning auto attack consistently does 2k-2.5k damage a crit on lvl 80 opponents with lower health.

To survive in the larger scale battles, I tend to split the enemy zerg into “sectors.” I will essentially try to do one CC and two AoE before moving on to the next sector. The goal is to essentially get out of sight and range of the first sector (at least melee and AoE going on in the first area) and attack the second. With something like a 50 man zerg, I will end up having quite a few sectors to say the least and I will just rotate through them, retreating/RTL/etc when I have to heal. I also try to designate a “safe zone” of sorts where I can easily heal then queue up a churning earth. I will try to keep the battle away from this spot, but close enough for easy access.

Even in say a smaller scale (2/3vs 10) I will try to split the group up into two sectors then attack them/control their movement with CC, alternating between the two groups. Ideally, you can split them using terrain, etc. I try to do it in groups of five because of the AoE cap. Sorry for all the editing!

Nah all good man, I like your zone philosophy, sub-consciously I think I do this too but need to pay more attention to it. I know I’m not going to be dealing out damage like the heavies and thieves but try to, like you say, provide as much disruption to each zone as I pass through it.

I’ll list my gear tomorrow as it’s 5am and I’m a little tired after battling Seafarer’s Rest and Vizunah for 8 hours!

Thanks for your reasoning, very good way to structure your fights, it’s something I’ll be sharing with my guild and the parties I lead.

MarzAttakz.9608:

Nah all good man, I like your zone philosophy, sub-consciously I think I do this too but need to pay more attention to it. I know I’m not going to be dealing out damage like the heavies and thieves but try to, like you say, provide as much disruption to each zone as I pass through it.

I’ll list my gear tomorrow as it’s 5am and I’m a little tired after battling Seafarer’s Rest and Vizunah for 8 hours!

Thanks for your reasoning, very good way to structure your fights, it’s something I’ll be sharing with my guild and the parties I lead.

I am honored you have found such value in the philosophy. You can use it to great effect in groups too, by assigned each individual a zone that they will focus on, or if a melee/close combat, the zone rotation. I find it is easiest to organize by the map (nw zone, nnw zone, n zone, etc) than situational perspective (zone 1 is the one furthest away and to the left and so on). Can be very effective And once you practice it for a while, you can start manipulating the zones with different strategies where you can actually strongly manipulate the flow of battle.

While the goal of this build was to go without ANY arcana, that first minor trait has been taunting me.. My build here is obviously very, very focused on fury to remain viable. I mean, come on! That first minor trait is 2 seconds of fury for every attunement change.. So! I modified it a bit to include 10 points into arcana, while doing my best to maintain the overall spirit, stats, capabilities, and playstyle of the original build. This is the current incarnation:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEQQJAoYlEGSu3cQ5AOCBA5xJwUyoQICFPYRpwMA

it is 0/20/10/30/10

First off, I wouldnt be surprised if this build has been posted before (or quite frankly, the build in the OP). I like to explore builds on my own and have really only looked at a few in the forums. Apologies if this is all repeated ad nauseum!

The stats are roughly the same, with a bit less critical damage (65% vs 75% of the original) and less crit chance (5% less, negated by using sigil of accuracy on offhand). The 10% drop in crit damage is negated by a couple stacks of might generated from the major trait in arcana.

However, the boon duration is substantially better for obvious reasons. Fury stacks like mad (get it? heh..), usually being the boon with the longest duration on it at any given time. While it dips its toes into the arcana line, overall I do feel better using it to an extent. Even for just five points, it boosts my fury generation to a huge degree.

The ten points in earth could even be used in air. Those are kind of points that could go elsewhere and I will be experimenting with it further. Even without any investment into earth, the armor is roughly 200 less than the original build, so not much. Though, you lose the attunement toughness bonus obviously.

You might also notice that I have pain inverter (asura racial) on there as one of my utilities. I have been messing around with it quite a bit lately, and find that it blends in flawlessly with how a d/d ele runs. IMO, the d/d ele is a spectacular PvP tank. They are flashy, move a lot, and attract a TON of attention from enemies. Because of this, we can generate aggro pretty efficiently. When you mix pain inverter into that, it is incredibly effective (it grants retaliation and confusion in an AoE, on a 30s cooldown). Try it out if you are an asura!

Thanks again for reading and the input, I look forward to more constructive feedback and conversation!