Guild Wars 2

Cribbage.2056:

SD specs can be viable, depending on what the rest of your team are doing. You really need to be able to sit at long range pushing the damage into a 2-3 man fight. Unfortunately, you rarely get that option, because as soon as a decent opponent realises you are doing it that will focus you and at that point your damage is not enough to save you.

Thats why you cant go full GC with it. Go for more CC in the explosives line, or go for more defense in the invention/alchemy line.

Wow, never made a thread hit two pages before. lol

Anyways, I am sadly running HgH Nades right now, and, while effective, is still a bit dull for my tastes. I keep seeing posts on here about SD builds though so I am curious, what SD builds are you running? Maybe I am just not effectively using mine?

I’ll post mine in a bit btw, my wife wants to run a dungeon.

Shaogin.2679:

Wow, never made a thread hit two pages before. lol

Anyways, I am sadly running HgH Nades right now, and, while effective, is still a bit dull for my tastes. I keep seeing posts on here about SD builds though so I am curious, what SD builds are you running? Maybe I am just not effectively using mine?

I’ll post mine in a bit btw, my wife wants to run a dungeon.

This is my main SD build for everything.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIqicnpy2F17IxoHkW0bGki863PKobbB-jUCBYfBhKAIBqIas9BFRjVXDT5CW7KQaYJ1auIa1CBIYMA-w

It’s built around using the turrets for cc and water/blast combos. It’s my most used because it also lets me change traits/utilities to fulfill multiple roles if need be. The turrets on crate knock back as well.

You could take the 20 from explosives and go more defensive with inventions/alchemy for protection/stealth/etc. Rifle does a lot of dmg with the right gear. You can outright kill GC builds with 1 SD and jump shot. Bunker builds you can keep sustain and out dps their health. Hybrids are more about outplaying them. Condi builds are a little tougher because we just simply lack constant reliable cleanses if not using elixirs or EG. But the fields help and 2 condi cleanse every 15 secs works if you play smart.

Is taking Explosives V and VII really worth it? Seems even going into the Explosives line there are other traits that will give you a better over-all damage output, but I dunno. Here is what I’ve been running in sPvP.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-W70;0B-cPFn0l6gSFx0i5oRFw0Q6JU;5T-9T;1158;10;0157I;2B0-G3G3G3G35BY

I go into explosives for the extra power and for the minor and selected major traits for turrets knock back and extra explosion dmg. Like I said on the other page this is my variation of a SD. My buddy runs 30 explosives and destroys ppl with mines. It’s about your play style and how to make it work for you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIqicnpy2F17IxoHkW0bGki863PKobbB-TkAg0CvIqRxljLDXSuscNKA
That’s my pvp version of it.

I used to run 30 in firearms but I like more cc. So that’s why I personally opted for more cc in the explosives line pairs with my 2 turrets.

I’m also taking pointers from roaming solo in wvw. Cc is king. :-P but for group play I’d go 30 firearms for mod ammo to get the biggest punch possible.

Forget about speedy kits and vigor on swiftness. You honestly don’t need it. With 30 in tools take adrenal imp and enjoy. You’re better off taking the 10 from alchemy and going I to either explosives for more offense or inventions for defense.

I find builds like that one are not worthwhile in PvP. Your damage output is not high enough to burst anyone down, and once you get focused, you have no escapes or resilience.

A decent thief will be better able to apply damage and also better able to escape and survive. The same could be said for several classes, in fact.

I don’t like playing builds where I think we compare badly to others in the same role.

Treborlavok.3504:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIqicnpy2F17IxoHkW0bGki863PKobbB-TkAg0CvIqRxljLDXSuscNKA
That’s my pvp version of it.

I used to run 30 in firearms but I like more cc. So that’s why I personally opted for more cc in the explosives line pairs with my 2 turrets.

I’m also taking pointers from roaming solo in wvw. Cc is king. :-P but for group play I’d go 30 firearms for mod ammo to get the biggest punch possible.

Forget about speedy kits and vigor on swiftness. You honestly don’t need it. With 30 in tools take adrenal imp and enjoy. You’re better off taking the 10 from alchemy and going I to either explosives for more offense or inventions for defense.

This build is great at facing squishy classes 1v1 and if you get the jump on people, it’s amazing, but the thing is, in a team fight, I’d go for you right away. You have no traited defense that’s worth while and you really only have 3 skills that keep you alive (Healing Turret, Gear Block and Utility Goggles). Box of Nails and Magnet are sort of defensive, but they won’t keep you alive very well in a team fight.

The thing is, this has comparable burst to a thief, but a thief can teleport in and stealth a lot more. They also can carry a short bow and nuke the crap out of a point from a far until the point is open. You do have a piercing weapon and Surprise shot which becomes AoE with SD, but shortbow out classes that easily.

Furthermore, a thief or other comparable burst builds generally have a lot more mobility. This literally has no mobility at all.

It’s not that it’s completely unviable and can’t work, it’s just I know as a caller, I’d go for you the moment I saw you. I think you would really benefit from putting some points into Alchemy and dropping points in Firearms. Maybe put on a a sigil of accuracy instead of force to make up for the lost precision. That or change your runes to something with precision (Lyssa, Eagle etc). I would say that Utility Goggles would be a good source for it, but it’s not a good idea to go into most battles stunbreakerless and without good defensive traits vs CC. Maybe try out Med Kit?

There’s also not that much condition removal here either. Healing Turret is great, but in some situations you really need some more to stay alive. Having only one outlet means that someone will wait for you to waste that then load you up with conditions.

You also can’t stomp very well with this build. No smoke field, Elixir S, Toss Elixir S…Really all you have is the Gear Block Stomp which isn’t that amazing (All tho bad kitten.

I’d probably run something more like this if I was going SD:

Build

I’ve been trying this build out…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIq6dX8yuF1LJxoHkmzbGki86XRF0/nC0F-TkAg0CvIyRljLHTOycs5MEB

With great success so far. I understand what you’re getting at with the posted build but the dmg drop off is too high. I want to like med kit but I’m never in one place and I strafe and I’ve found that unless you’re running forward you don’t take the vials from the kit and they drop to the ground.

If I swap anything out is swap out ram or RB for TK for a little extra defense. But I actually love the knock back/cripple on ram and guaranteed projectile finisher for my light field and then the immobilize/chill/cripple cure on RB with a blast finisher is great for one or both or my water fields.

Plus the healing and fields on turret far surpass any other heal we have aside from aed big boost on fail.

If I want/can go more offensive I’ll put 20 in explosives and take mines over RB. Taking 10 from alchemy.