1 handed Medi guard (WvW)
First off, seeing as how your not using staff I would suggest traveler runes
Second, while the sword has less predictable burst, the cleave is much much smaller.
Lastly, while you will do allot of damage I don’t see you lasting very long once your meditations are down. Your health is still extremely low. Given how high your crit chance is I’d say it’s safe to drop a couple zerker pieces for more valk, or possibly even celestial.
Lastly while the sharpening stone you have is decent, I’d suggest quality oil instead. It will bump your critical chance up to near 100%. Its also much cheaper.
I run something similar in PvP (in my signature). Works well compared to burst but you’ve got to have mobility to keep the pressure on or you’ll just get kited on sword. Traveler runes hit your dps a bit but get the job done for the most part. You can also take pack runes and time your sword pressure with the swiftness and swap to scepter when it’s on cooldown. If you use pack runes, I’d use staff out of combat to get around and build up some extra swiftness.
Swap the placement of your torch and focus. On a power build, you’ll want your torch with scepter for the immobilize/throw combo and you’ll want to be in melee range for your focus so that you can proc the bounce and land your shield blast, so it works better with sword.
Get more valk gear. You’re going overboard on crit chance; there’s a point where extra crit chance isn’t going to do as much for you as the survivability needed to sustain your damage.
I’d also suggest either running energy sigils or trading your zeal trait points for one in honor and virtues for more added survivability.
Good build, but the sword/scepter medi variant relies less on full burst and makes up for it in added sustained damage. Because of this, you need to account for a little extra in defensive stats and traits to make sure you’re alive long enough to deal your damage.
Oh, and also, you’d be better off with pack runes than the flame legion runes. Offers power as the primary stat, but gives a bit more precision and has that swiftness proc that really helps you keep up with the enemy in combat.
(edited by Black Box.9312)
Do not swap the placement of the torch and focus. Teleporting via sword 2 into a zealot fire works better for me, not to mention being able to JI the end of the cast. This way you also apply the burn to cover your blind and burst combo. In addition, the torch gives your sword some range.
I agree the top 2 points could be better spent with vig precision & virtue boons or than maybe even think of going for a 0-1-6-1-6. Which I would highly recommend.
The burst is amazing in this spec as you can….. SoW, f1, f2, f3, renewed focus… come out of it weapon swap sword 2 into zealot fire and a smite if you get a condition. With air and fire this is a 8k-17k move. The best part of the burst is that is can happen instantaneously.
I think for sigils I’d recommend either going for procs with 2x air, 1x fire, and a doom or more conditions with 2x doom, earth, and geomancy. The condition setup is really effective in smaller group fights and the procs works best solo (depending upon who you fight) or in large group fights.
Pack Runes.
I myself prefer sw/f & sc/t but to each their own and how they set up combos. Like blackbox said, torch throw on immobilize after you lay down a Smite does pretty good. The only time I ever use a Cleansing Flame is if a thief is in a SR and I need the cleave. Also, having a teleport to work with SoW is necessary, just stay out of range so they don’t dodge and time it right. And you’ll want the blinds from focus when you’re in melee.
For sigils I go with air/fire on sw/f and energy/blood on sc/t.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I did swap out flame legion runes for travelers after much debate. It was a great swap, I wish we had a 25% movement speed trait though. I did infact swap my weapons around to Sw/F + Sc/T because I find landing shield of wraith crucial to the build and after the sword burst of Shield of wraith + Zealot defense + JI + smite condi + RoJ and they usually double dodge roll or shadow step away so I can swap to Sc/T and VoJ + Bind + leeching proc + Smite + Zealots fire and they are down.
About the gear, most people say swap for more valk gear but honestly after playing alot I dont need it. I have 16k hp with guard stacks and if we have bloodlust then even more hp. I simply blind everything. Sounds too simple but its seems to work because lately i’ve been doing 1v2, 1v3 and even a 2v5 yesterday. The ommnomberry ghosts and leeching sigil keep you topped up nicely but doing camps can get sketchy at best, I find myself kitting around killing 1-2 guards before going to mid of camp.
Im going to test out taking 2 from zeal and putting 1 into honor and virtues from more sustain. The vigor would be the big thing allowing better outnumbered survival but the passive boons are nice too. Im iffy about giving up 10% dmg modifier and 100 power from zeal because it puts my power in a much lower tier. Tbh the 10% modifier is always active in this builds burst so it’s gonna be noticeable.
Update for how it plays against other professions:
Warrior- you blow them the hell up. Just blind their Burst skills and profit, super easy cause tells are easiest to read
Mesmer- Pretty easy against shatter, harder against condi but very do-able. Just shelter or dodge the shatter and if you can bind them you basically win cause they will use their tele skill and then you JI to them and blow em up.
Elementalist – Against Cele its pretty hard. you gotta bait a water heal without blowing alot of CD’s then after they go through water then you blow everything and hope it downs em.
Guardians- I don’t have trouble against them. Blind the pull, dodge the WW and bait their blinds if they seem to be a very good player.
Thief- against condi you need to end the fight fast or die. Against Power if you blind their big hits you can down them in half a rotation.
Engineer- Condi engi is annoying because of their poison uptime. If they know what their doing then you will have a up hill battle. Cele or SD power builds you will destroy pretty hard, often times I find myself killing them through their healing turret rotation.
Necro – Be aggressive. Don’t stand in wells. Against power you can blow them up fast but spam blinds as you do it. Against condi if you dont down them on first rotation then let them DoT you up and blow all their CD’s while you wait for your CD’s then use CoP and 2nd burst usually downs them fast. In outnumbered fights I usually target necro first.
Ranger- Power seems to be all thats around, you will down them on first burst rotation, use shelter to block rapid fire. I don’t think i’ve ever lost to one but its prob because they are flavor of month and alot of newer players are playing it atm.
Nice thread. I’ve been looking for some tips for a WvW medi build.
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Animosity, with all your crit chance you could get away with 2/5/6/1/0 like the build in my signature. You get to keep your damage multipliers (Fiery Wrath, Radiant Power and Powerful Blades) but gain the sustain of Vigorous Precision. That 10% damage of Fiery Wrath plus the 100 power from the Zeal line goes a long way in the build because you lose some damage already taking traveler runes.
Going upwards of 90% crit chance is overkill anyways, you might have better luck spreading it out to at least get some more power.