Guild Wars 2

Let’s get some of the guys who theorycraft the numbers and try to maximize damage – I’ve heard 6 3 0 0 5 | 6 6 0 0 2 | 6 2 0 0 6, etc – we need to find the absolute, uncontested highest selfish DPS build for PvE speed runs.

Factor in full ascended armor, weapons, trinkets, infusions, everything. That includes two offensive infusions for rings by using a circle of light – absolute max.

Also, we should create two variants: Scholar and Strength rune setups.

A couple of things implied:
-Vulnerability is accounted for; that doesn’t mean ignore 25 explosives, because that line still helps with power.
-Might stacking is expected – let’s say 9 stacks will come from us.
-Obviously bomb kit will be used to maximize personal DPS
-Night time dungeons make up the majority, so sigil of the night can be accounted for.
-Fury is permanent (remember, this is a structured party where your sole job is to stack some might and maximize your personal DPS)

Anybody who is exceptional with these types of calculations is highly encouraged to post and proof your work – let’s change the outlook on engineers in dungeons. Also, if able, we should propose comparisons to warrior DPS (we know that lightning hammer is not something we can keep up with on an ele); that is, percentage differences between overall damage per second.

Why compare Scholar vs. Strenth? Scholar is still better DPS.

Strength is just more friendly to use for a marginal loss.

I am sure scholar is just better dps regarding akademic assumptions. Strength is much more flexible. But that are just my two cents and I did no math on it so far..

I’ve already done this before.

6/6/0/0/2 with Shrapnel, Explosive Powder, Grenadier, Rifle Mod, Hair Trigger, Bunker Down, and Static Discharge is absolute minmax personal theoretical DPS. Utilities should be Grenade Kit (obviously), Rifle Turret, Throw Mine. Weapon should be Rifle with Force/Night, runes should be Scholar. You should be using Grenade primary as your main attack, and Shrapnel Grenade, Freeze Greenade, Blunderbuss, Jump Shot, Surprise Shot, and Mine Field on cooldown, and dropping the Rifle Turret whenever Surprise Shot is on CD.

Obviously you don’t even have a fire field for might stacking making it less than ideal in a real party, but if we’re just talking theoretical minmax this is the highest number you will get.

For reference, this should be about 10-15% more DPS than a walled GS warrior and maybe 20% more than a pure DPS-spec A/M or GS non-walled warrior. About 10% less than fire staff ele still though.

Either way it’s a lot of damage.

Yep. I run 6/6/0/0/2 with grenades and rifle in PvE. The reason is because usually the NPCs get loaded up with a ton of conditions from everyone else, making Modified Ammunition worth the cost.

@Guanglai Kangyi

Is this with Berserkers gear? Or some power/condi hybrid?

Always zerker.

Also, just to anticipate the obvious “but what about bombs” question:

6/6/0/0/2 grenade spec, described above. 25 vuln, 25 might, 100% fury, banners, spirit, EA, Spotter, Truffle Steak, Mob potion:

13020 direct damage + 2238 bleed damage = 15258 total

Same, with bombs (no bomb cooldowns except BoB, since those are all weaker than primary):

13951 direct, 594 bleed = 14546 total

Warrior comparison, 6/6/0/2/0, A/M DWA spec: 12600 direct, 186 bleed = 12787 total

Very interesting. Mind giving a walk-through of how you calculated the dps?

I basically just took the damage-per-skill, subtracted opportunity cost of not using primary during cast time of skill, divided by cooldown, and did that for all skills. I have a spreadsheet that does it for me and all I need to do is tick the appropriate trait boxes.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I basically just took the damage-per-skill, subtracted opportunity cost of not using primary during cast time of skill, divided by cooldown, and did that for all skills. I have a spreadsheet that does it for me and all I need to do is tick the appropriate trait boxes.

Impressive. Well, with consistently high vuln stacks from our side it can’t really be called a full selfish build, just mostly; warriors bring banners which are ~5% damage boost each, full vuln is 25% damage boost (although it’s probably more realistic that only 10-15% of the vuln will be from us and the remainder from the party). I’ll try this out.

You should probably run the meta rifle variant, which is basically the same traits except with Precise Sights instead of Hair Trigger and Bomb Kit instead of Rifle Turret or Throw Mine. You asked for absolute minmax personal DPS but a more balanced build loses a really tiny amount of DPS and gets you an extra 6-9 stacks of party-wide might.

That’s what I’ve been doing. 6 6 0 0 2 with HT/nades/bombs/rifle turret, stacking might and blowing things up. Wasnt a fan of the mines, personally.

For solo play sacrificing shield blast(3 might) for rifle’s higher dps is probably worth it, right?

robertul.3679:

For solo play sacrificing shield blast(3 might) for rifle’s higher dps is probably worth it, right?

Of course, shield can be used for might stacking and you immidiately switch to your riffle. That’s my plan!