Guild Wars 2

So as a result of the poll I created, I noticed a trend in that people who focused on damage statistics but used their utilities for survival were on the whole more satisfied with the performance of the class over those who had very little damage-dealing capacity. This trend exaggerates depending on the weapon.

For example, the difference between people wielding D/D with damage-centric statistics vs. D/D with survival statistics is nearly a point (5.24 vs. 4.35). This holds true for S/D and Staff with a less exaggerated but still pronounced gap. The numbers are still low (5.24 is hardly stellar on a 10 point scale), but they do show that the ability to deal substantial damage makes a difference.

If I filter based on those who rated 7-10, several more interesting trends emerge. Those who play D/D gave a damage focus high marks. If you play Staff, survival fared better. Thus, your statistical focus must match your weapon’s strengths. Staff works much better in a support role, where dagger works best when it is best able to kill things.

So what is all this talk of speccing totally 100% toughness/vitality? It doesn’t seem that the best people are really enjoying this sort of focus. In all honesty, I have fairly low sPvP HP (moderate toughness), but I don’t have a horrendous time surviving. I’m not even all that experienced at sPvP — I’ve done it for all of a day or two.

My thinking is that a lot of our survivability comes from the traits we choose. Arcane gives us arcane shield at 25%, earth gives us protection on our auras (see Fire IX in conjunction with Earth V, XII, and Air I). This can very quickly turn into a lot of defense without blowing our statistics on toughness/vitality.

What are some good trait-based options for defense if focusing on offense?

For those who don’t want to go the aura route, another option that I think is overlooked a lot is the inscription trait in the air line in combo with a glyph heavy build. You get more crits while also making it pretty easy to keep your core defensive buffs (prot/regen/swift) up consistently. Good synergy with the arcane line for increased buff duration and more buffs on attunement swap. You can add ten points in fire for the burn proc on crit trait for more offense.

trait skills have separate cooldowns from ultility skills, so you can have two armor of earths/arcane shields

Nicomachiavelli.3046:

So what is all this talk of speccing totally 100% toughness/vitality? It doesn’t seem that the best people are really enjoying this sort of focus. In all honesty, I have fairly low sPvP HP (moderate toughness), but I don’t have a horrendous time surviving. I’m not even all that experienced at sPvP — I’ve done it for all of a day or two.

Go do some Tpvp and get focused by a good team about 8 hours a day for a week straight. Then come back with some more insite on this topic your self.
Words cannot explain how fast you will die or run away. Either way you wont be in the fight. I’ve been playing with different builds and team comps and i’ve had the most success with D/D and a Tough/Vit build….because i can stay and fight and not have to run away when (Insert any other class here) decides its time for me to die.

Nicomachiavelli.3046:

What are some good trait-based options for defense if focusing on offense?

I’ve been finding reasonable success with Cantrip Mastery/Soothing Disruption/Renewing Stamina when combined with triple cantrips for utilities (Armor of Earth/Mistform/Teleport), in a D/D Aura build (Rune of the Fire on armour).

Having a high uptime on Fury gives me around 65%ish crit chance, which directly converts into Vigor uptime, buying twice as many dodges as normal. Being then able to manually proc vigor if I need it (in addition to the other defensive benefits the cantrip of choice provides) generally buys me enough time for a Water switch to heal or some other escape to come back off cooldown (RtL/Burning Speed).

Between the Might uptime from the weapon Sigil and Superior Runes, reasonably regular Fury proccing, and Bountiful Power I’d still consider my damage output to be pretty solid, but in a much more durable package compared to what I’d have if I was relying on proc-based long-cd traits like Arcane Shield or their ilk. I’m much less of a fan of those simply due to the fact that it’s so easy for them to end up being wasted on an engagement they aren’t required, only to still be on cooldown when you do actually need them. I’m aware that’s a somewhat hypocritical stance given my choice of armour Runes, but I view the Fire Shield as a convenient bonus when it’s up. It’s not something I’m completely reliant on to keep me alive or doing damage. It’s just nice to have a free Fury/Swiftness proc every 90s, regardless of whether you really need it right then.

The build, for anyone interesed:

http://tinyurl.com/cz947ro

(Sorry for the tinyurl link – I guess the forum doesn’t like gw2skills.net’s url format)

Nicomachiavelli.3046:

(Sorry for the tinyurl link – I guess the forum doesn’t like gw2skills.net’s url format)

It’s because of the semicolons that sometimes show up in their generated url links.

I ran this build last night to GREAT success. It’s somewhat of a bunker build, but it does have a good deal of precision and condition damage. The rune of earth potentially compliments the aura build VERY well, but I haven’t tested whether or not it triggers fury/swiftness/protection (Air I, Earth V).

I don’t remember my sigils, exactly. Would two sigils of purity have separate cooldowns? If not, the sigil of earth is there to add conditions to them constantly, which is essential for making sure they don’t cure everything.

Your HP is low (11k), but you’re a brick wall. Your toughness is around 3,000, and you’re probably always under protection from auras (Earth V) and Rune of Earth. Additionally, Armor of Earth will pop at 50%, and Magnetic Aura will pop at 20% (Rune of Earth). Crits will also variously inflict burning/bleeding and/or cure your own statuses.

But you’re no offensive pushover, either. You have >1300 condition damage, and, as stated, your crits have a chance to add burning and bleeding. You will almost always be under Fury and Swiftness, since you’ll gain Fire Shield every time you cast a Signet (Air I, Fire IX). The Signets also inflict MORE statuses, making it harder for your enemy to cure everything.

I had two main issues running this build. First was in dealing with a ranger defending a choke point. Since you don’t have any cantrips, it can be hard to escape danger, but you can always switch to water. Also, Signet of Air/Earth dealt with them decently.

The second was in dealing with a necromancer. I’m not exactly sure what he did, but I got owned pretty badly. I think he used one of his wells which change boons into conditions and another which does the opposite. Regardless, ouch. I got hit by an enormous amount of bleeding, whereas he barely took a scratch and had a huge assortment of boons.

The only thing I’m considering changing about this spec is to switch to D/F. There are a number of great spells for dealing with projectiles or spikes of damage (Air 4, Earth 4/5). It also swaps Frost Aura — fairly useless — for fire aura, and it gives us a fire field to cast from a distance to use with Earth 3 for MORE fire aura. This mainly sacrifices Air 4/5 and Earth 4, which are a lot of fun, but THINK OF WHAT THIS GIVES YOU:

• Projectile reflection/cure 3 conditions (Earth 4)
• Invulnerability (Earth 5)
• Projectile destruction (Air 4)
• Knockdown (Air 5)
• Ranged chill (Water 4)
• Ranged daze (Water 5) (I admittedly don’t know how well this works or if it shares Scepter Fire 2’s problem)
• Fire Wall (Fire 4) (Use with Earth 3 for aura)
• More Fire Shield (Fire 5)

All of those are useful, though Fire 4 and Water 5 might be less so. I may try out this build tonight if I have time. The focus wouldn’t lose much offensive capacity, since most of your damage will come from bleed/burn, and it will give you defensive options for annoying ranged damage players and thieves (earth 4 and 5, respectively).