Q:
(I’ve decided to do something else entirely. Please ignore this post!)
To start off with, here’s the build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEEQFAWhEmKbzR5gjDAkHn4CLjCZUeEzM7A
(My description of the build begins below. Skip this part and just follow the link above if you’re not interested in my rationale.)
With 30 points into arcana, I can switch attunements constantly and play a very fast-paced, reactive style even while maintaining a ranged focus. I’ve got sufficient damage in fire and earth, plenty of control in air, and decent healing with a nice chill in water. It’s great! Blasting staff is a fantastic trait, as is elemental attunement. I also take arcane mastery to be able to more often use arcane wave as a combo finisher (and to therefore stack might).
30 points into water gives a much-needed vitality boost and great condition removal. The cantrip traits soothing disruption and cantrip mastery both benefiting lightning strike and mist form basically mean I have to screw up quite badly to die. (Yes, I know cantrip mastery is currently bugged for mist form.) Max water also has good synergy with arcana; the 25 water trait gives 2% damage per boon and I have +60% boon duration between my 30 points in arcana and my runes (water and monk). Finally, cleansing water is a good source of conditional removal and solid for group play.
The remaining 10 points go into earth. I take obsidian focus as I use ether renewal for my heal. Being able to have some additional toughness right when I need it is quite handy and the tremendous condition removal from ether renewal means I can easily avoid taking cleansing fire (which opens up room for arcane wave). Even this is probably still overkill considering the great conditional removal I have via water, but it’s handy have just in case.
Sure, this is not the most damage-intensive build ever. It’s not that bad though. Given the 60% reduction on attunement switching, you can make the most of every single cooldown ability. It’s a terrible build if you just sit in fire, but it’s not bad for soloing if you switch properly. It’s also wonderful with one or two other people along side you.
(End of build description.)
When it comes to gear, I’m quite torn. Flame burst, eruption, and shockwave are my only significant sources of condition damage, so I initially assumed I’d go with power and precision. The problem is that my direct damage isn’t terribly good either except in cases where my AoE really shines, so I then figured that power and condition damage would be a better bet.
At the same time, I wanted to get a bunch of healing power and toughness so that, in combination with my cantrips, I’m basically impossible to kill. I did the math though on going with full Cleric’s gear and it seems that healing power doesn’t actually buy me that much. The boost to rejuvenation is pretty large (86%) with Cleric’s armor, staff, and water/monk runes, but doesn’t seem to alter my direct healing abilities much at all; +12% if I did my math right.
I think I’ve narrowed down my choices to Cleric’s and Carrion. For trinkets, I think I want to go with Chrysocola either way as the condition damage is nice and I have no other source of vitality to speak of. Either way, I’m left with exactly zero precision above the base 916. Maybe Emerald or Beryl are better bets to get some precision, but I suspect it would be too little to be of much use.
Any thoughts on gear would be much appreciated. I’d also be happy to be ruthlessly insulted for suggesting such an obviously stupid and overly-conservative build if you’re willing to suggest something else that sticks with staff (which I want for various role play reasons and so on) and 30 in arcana (because it’s just too much fun).
Thanks for the help!
(edited by lambda.5324)