Guild Wars 2

So maybe this has been done, but I just did the work myself so I figured I’d share my work. Double check me for accuracy.

So I just picked up Grenade spec (behind the curve, I know. I play a lot of classes) and I’m looking to max DPS. It has really good direct damage, but it also applies a ton of conditions. I wanted to capitalize on that by adding some condition damage to my stats while keeping direct damage high.

I looked at different combination of Rampagers, Berserkers, and Celestial. For direct damage, I simplified the math by calculating the DPS increase for critical % and critical damage, then multiplied it by the build power to get an idea of the damage value of each build. It’s not exactly dps, but it should translate directly depending on weapon power and the armor of your target. I am arbitrarily labeling this value “damage score”.

Condition damage is trickier because it’s hard to know exactly how many stacks you can keep on a target, but between shrapnel and sharpshooter just slinging grenades it’s not hard to hit 10 stacks of bleeding, and it’s possible under good circumstances (and with the right equipment, which I am ignoring for now) to hit 20 stacks. For simplicity I added the DPS increase for each set assuming, again just to get an idea of how much DPS each set is adding
*20 stacks of bleeding
*poison
*burning

This is how it looks:

Pure Berserker’s armor and trinkets:
*143% dps from critical
*2045 total power
*2924 damage score
*50 dps from bleed @ 20 stacks
*25 dps from bleed @ 10 stacks
*5 dps from poison
*13 dps from burning

Pure Celestial armor and trinkets:
*128% dps from critical
*1572 total power
*2012 damage score
*474 dps from bleed @ 20 stacks
*237 dps from bleed @ 10 stacks
*47 dps from poison
*119 dps from burning

Pure Rampager’s amor and trinkets:
*135% dps from critical
*1781 total power
*2404 damage score
*666 dps from bleed @ 20 stacks
*333 dps from bleed @ 10 stacks
*66 dps from poison
*167 dps from burning

Celestial armor with Berserker’s trinkets:
*139% dps from critical
*1870 total power
*2599 damage score
*248 dps from bleed @ 20 stacks
*124 dps from bleed @ 10 stacks
*25 dps from poison
*62 dps from burning

Rampager’s armor with Berserker’s trinkets:
*143% dps from critical
*1954 total power
*2794 damage score
*325 dps from bleed @ 20 stacks
*163 dps from bleed @ 10 stacks
*33 dps from poison
*81 dps from burning

So that’s what I came up with. The problem with this method is “damage score” is totally arbitrary and I have no idea how to calculate it into real dps, so it’s hard to compare whether the tradeoff for extra condition damage is worthwhile.

In conclusion, pure Berserker’s obviously has the highest damage score. But Rampager’s armor with Berserker’s trinkets came in pretty close, being lower by a mere 130 points, or about 4%, in exchange for an extra 325 condition damage. Assuming you maintain just 10 stacks of bleed, you’re better off as long as 2924 damage value translates to less than 4000 dps. I have a pretty good feeling it does. As a bonus, the rampager set has slightly higher crit chance overall, increasing the consistency of procing crit-based abilities.

Anyway that’s what I’ve got. I may modify this later as I do more research, but I wanted to share this in case I never got around to it. My math is imperfect, so if you see any flaws with this overview please bring them up. Hope this helps everyone.

Oh, this also failed to take into account static bonuses from traits and sigils, etc. I was looking purely at stats from armor and trinkets.

In now way you will get 20 bleeds solo if you only spam nades. And if you include other skills in rotation things become increasingly complex.

Personally my big dream is to go with all gear variations into field and measure a time of me killing ~5 vet trees using my best judgement. That would be really good statistic.

Those numbers are representative. 20 stacks of bleed is tricky, but it can be done under ideal conditions. Ill add the DPS at 10 stacks as well just for reference.

Record a long enough cycle with Poison→ Freeze → bleed → main. Count how many times you used each skill and total time. Add up all their co-efficients and divide by time.
Calculate base DPS value with c*p*w/a, using the total c per time. Make sure to add in couple of different might, 10 and 20 say, and fury with what ever uptime., foods and everything. Also use couple of armors, like 2200 and 2800. Add in, or should I say multiply in possible traits and vulnerability.
Sum this with DPS of perma poison and few chosen different bleed stacks. You can think about burning too.
→ repeat calculation part for each gear set
→ use excel table

bromi.7809:

In now way you will get 20 bleeds solo if you only spam nades. And if you include other skills in rotation things become increasingly complex.

Personally my big dream is to go with all gear variations into field and measure a time of me killing ~5 vet trees using my best judgement. That would be really good statistic.

waat

Shrapnel + Shrapnel Grenade will get you close to 25 stacks with 100% condi duration.

WTB WvW Dummy, that can take conditions and crits.

I’ve done a lot of testing and trying to max out damage. Best I’ve gotten so far is 30/10/0/0/30 Zerker Rifle/Grenade/SD with Rifle Turret, Elixir Gun, Grenade Kit and Supply Drop. For a rotation use Grenades as your go-to damage dealer, swap quickly to Rifle 3 n 5, EG 4 and hit your toolbelts on cooldown.

The most consistent way I’ve found to test is to hit the Mists and find the Indestructible Golem. It has 80K hp on its bar. I usually take my builds for a spin there. ‘Kill’ it three times consecutively without pause, take 240K HP divided by ‘Seconds to Kill’ and you have your DPS. Then you can factor things in and out like Confusion, Retaliation, Vulnerability and such. Some things are hard to factor but it gives you somewhat of a sense of the DPS from build to build. I haven’t found a spreadsheet that I fully trust for calculations, this seems to be the most accurate view IMHO. Obviously you’ll have different situations in PvE so its just a comparative value.

I tend not to rely on Conditions much as they can get overwritten easily in PvE.

GL
Blood~

I’m a fan of the zerker build myself, the conditions feel like they close off my build. Rampages would benefit from a 30/30/0/0/10 build (not my fave) where as zerker runs the 30/10/0/0/30 build.

I am running tests with the new Assassins gear and am thinking of putting the zerker gear on the shelf. If anyone else has had extensive experience with assassins gear I’d love to see the math on that.