Guild Wars 2

So, I’m pretty much sticking with my Vulnerability-Bursting-Boon build until the Turrets are fixed (which would be a long time).

I’m quite interested in giving up Toughness as it’s an aspect which is unused in my current Build compared to the Fury I’m able to consistently stack, bringing my Precision to 50%, and without firstly realising, this was actually quite good as I got some of the original un-buffed Precision from Berserker & Valkyrie gear via my Rings (I think) and 1/2 other pieces of equipment… I’m wondering whether it’d be useful to change my Expensive Soldier Gear to Valkyrie Gear at Christmas or not, mainly because of the prices and the consideration of the possible upgrade for converting my unused Toughness to Crit Damage… I’d just like some opinions to be honest…

FYI, my Build aspects consist of:
-Boons with Traited Damage Extras from Boons
-Tons of Immobilisation for the consistently good Vulnerability (can maintain 10-15, can peak at 25 for about 5 seconds once every 10-20 seconds or so)
-(At the moment)High Power
-High Vitality (26K HP I believe)
-Some Scattered Stats on some Gear which (at the moment) doesn’t make a difference too much on my Build; can easily Upgrade it to Valkyrie/Soldier though

I’m just questioning whether, considering the prices of the Valkyrie Gear and Soldier Gear, that it’s worth changing one aspect (the Toughness) for a Factor that is dependant on a Boon I can maintain or not which varies in my combat (Necromancers removing boons, etc).

Please share your thoughts, thanks!!!

For PvE or WvW or PvP?

Titanimite.2534:

For PvE or WvW or PvP?

PvE, WvW & a few Dungeons here & there (sorry, forgot to say :P)

Mainly WvW

youll do better in wvw when you have 1800ish toughness
seriously the difference in your survivability is obscene

once youre around that, you dont need more vit… engi has enough base hp, and applied fortitude can make you feel warm and fuzzy

insanemaniac.2456:

youll do better in wvw when you have 1800ish toughness
seriously the difference in your survivability is obscene

once youre around that, you dont need more vit… engi has enough base hp, and applied fortitude can make you feel warm and fuzzy

I’ve tried both and, trust me, for my Build, Vitality is the better option.

I switched, tested, and fell in love

For roaming, more dps is always better in the hands of a skilled player then toughness. Even the best players start to run when you hit like a truck.

Full Valkyrie is not the optimal choice unless all you ever get hit with is conditions. This isn’t really open for debate, it’s how mitigation works. Your effective hit points are lower going full Valk then having a balance with more toughness. You are just fooling yourself because the effective hit points you gain from toughness are not visible.

For zergs and taking/defending structures, you need toughness period. You don’t always have the option of avoiding damage in confined spaces or when taking ac fire, and the penalty for dying is that you just rallied a bunch of the enemy. And if you cannot take some damage in these fights and stick with your team, you are next to worthless.

I always carry a mix of gear. There is no one gear set that is the best for all situations. I have a full set of rabid, invaders, knights and zerkers, and mix it up depending on the situation. For keep fights I almost always put on the invaders.

snacktime.1082:

For roaming, more dps is always better in the hands of a skilled player then toughness. Even the best players start to run when you hit like a truck.

Full Valkyrie is not the optimal choice unless all you ever get hit with is conditions. This isn’t really open for debate, it’s how mitigation works. Your effective hit points are lower going full Valk then having a balance with more toughness. You are just fooling yourself because the effective hit points you gain from toughness are not visible.

For zergs and taking/defending structures, you need toughness period. You don’t always have the option of avoiding damage in confined spaces or when taking ac fire, and the penalty for dying is that you just rallied a bunch of the enemy. And if you cannot take some damage in these fights and stick with your team, you are next to worthless.

I always carry a mix of gear. There is no one gear set that is the best for all situations. I have a full set of rabid, invaders, knights and zerkers, and mix it up depending on the situation. For keep fights I almost always put on the invaders.

I’m running a boon build with the gear and, as I found out today in SE with a group of Zerkers and 1/2 Tanks, I survived better in the long run because my Maintained Boons added up for my loss of toughness. I think you’re kinda right in saying about defending/taking towers, but usually I can “snipe” enemies dealing AoE damage on top of Towers, immediately get a stack of 20-25 Vulnerability, point them out to 1/2 TeamMates and maintain the Stacks & Damage Output to down them in about 5/10 seconds; in this time I usually get down to about 60/70% HP, but with the Engineer being useful in almost very combat situation, 90% of the time I can escape/get back into the stand-off with about 75%+ HP… Gonna be getting some agony Resistance soon too ;D

Also, I’ve found that with my 1 minute of Fury being consistent, I can take out some Raw Precision from my Stats and put it into Survivability/Boon Duration, which is actually working weird enough xD

Out of curiosity Arch, would you share your build with us? I’m quite interested in non-meta builds.

Seras.5702:

Out of curiosity Arch, would you share your build with us? I’m quite interested in non-meta builds.

Sure:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pyVnuy2F8LJxoCcGMD7CYxMeMl/UY+A-ToAA2CnIKSVkrITRyisFN04oB

It’s a little bit inaccurate: My gear is full Valkyrie besides from 1/2 pieces, my precision is 31% without Fury and my Crit Dam. is 67% as well as a little more Toughness.