Guild Wars 2

It has been quit sometime since I last played. Back then Hammer or Great sword where pretty much the only real options. Does anyone have a functioning build utilizing the 1h sword/shield and spirit weapons for PvE and dungeons?

Thanks in advance.

Wow 122 views and not one response.

In my opinion you won’t find any build using spirit weapons, especially in dungeons. With all the AoE your spirit weapons are going to be destroyed in no time.
The only useful spirit weapon in PvE according to me is the shield if your ennemies are ranged. Otherwise, they are close to useless.
In sPvP they might be interesting if you are alone but that’s it.

There are two sides which make spirit weapons really bad :

- You actually have to use 4 traits to have them really effective ( 5 if you want the burning ).
- They die quickly
- The cooldown is too long

Plus you can’t exactly control them ( like the shield that uses its shield while there is no one in it ).

It’s sort of like Necro minions, except worse because they have a finite duration, even traited. And you need a lot more traits to make spirit weapons effective than a Necro needs for minions. Anet should probably add a PvE buff to summoned minions that reduces AoE damage they take by a lot. It might also help if they could be scripted to move out of AoE.

it used to be good though when it couldn’t be dmged.

1 v 1 i think it’s still awesome and the bow heals pretty good too.

As Heitrem.2861 said the shield is the only so so spirit weapon and even so its AI is terrible. In some critical situations its just starts doing random, unneccessary and unbelievaly stupid things so as shiny as spirit weapons looks – better stay away from them! if you really want one, craft one for the skin

Aside from the spirit shield for anti projectiles in pve, spirit weapons are garbage in general.

There are some dps builds using 1H sword as primary weapon. generally x/30/0/30/x. Either 10 in zeal for 10% damage against burning foes or 10 in virtues for consecrations.

I use spirit weapons in my kind-of-symbolic-stiritual-weaponmaster an I can name literally 2 traits I’m using….
Fire Inside and that one thank to which spirit weapons lasts 50% longer.

in every aspect of PvE I have no problem with those – unless we need to pull enemy (for example boss) there are all usefull – keeping them alive is just about good healing power and wel managing of symbols/virtues.

and unless they’ve got under hyper-heavy AoE dmg. or Agony in fractals there are quite survivable for me
(I’ve already made some dungeons runs with these…)

only problem I have with them I “comand” which should destroy weapon…. but command goes on cd and weapon ignores that I just ordered themto use the efect and destroy themselves – which lead to some situations with agroing and once all party had to wait with starting the boss because we needed to wait until weaps end their duration because of this lack of subordination

shield is spamming their shield in fight and that’s their role – party that knows about that care to have it between enemy and theirs….

isn’t there a trait that doesn’t destroy the weapon when you use command?

Deep in Zeal, which makes it basically useless.

Wukunlin.8461:

isn’t there a trait that doesn’t destroy the weapon when you use command?

Yes. It’s a master trait in Zeal. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Eternal_Spirit

Edit: Ninja’d, but being a master level in Zeal just means that it’s leading up to
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wrathful_Spirits

Which is also pretty bad, as it only affects two of them and 50% of bad is only 50% less bad.

Hate to be a Debbie Downer but Spirit Weapons are awful nowadays, things were much better when they were invincible.

even back when they were indestructible they don’t do enough to justify the slots they occupy

Tyber don’t listen to these aholes. If you share a build know that it will help someone even if they never reply to say thank you.

GW2 is designed to offer a wide range of build styles to fit different challenges so there’s really no BEST or PERFECT build. The most you and anyone can hope for is a really good build that does excellent DPS the build can offer to fit your playstyle and situation.

You guys. I think that sword’s active skill (Command) doesn’t actually work right now.

Anyone else seeing this or is there just something wrong with my set-up?

Wukunlin.8461:

even back when they were indestructible they don’t do enough to justify the slots they occupy

Yeah, the nerf that gave them a health pool cam completely unexpected to pve’ers. I didn’t even see them around in pvp much!

Softspoken.2410:

You guys. I think that sword’s active skill (Command) doesn’t actually work right now.

Anyone else seeing this or is there just something wrong with my set-up?

it works…..
randomly – with greater chance to work if You are in fight and sword is in melee fight and you are close enough to sword.
ah and somehow you need to all command skill have a target or that it seems so….
strange knowing that only phew of them actually cares about target….

spirit weapon as for me are good enough to have two skill slots occupied most the time

I personally like them, they provide a good burst dmg.

The only problem is the traits required to be effective. You must have at least 20 in zeal and 10 in virtues, witch is 1/2 of my trait points. They should merge “Improved Spirit Weapon Duration” (Spirit weapons last 50% longer) with “Eternal Spirit” (Spirit weapons are not destroyed when commanded) so you could build up easier, without so many downsides.

Also they must fix the Sword and Bow command to be used as AoE targeting. And the shield should move along with the guardian, it only activates on akward locations since the combat is mobility based, not stationary. Along side that, all summons, pets, minions, etc. should atk while moving.

@Mikau why 20 in zeal?
actually I’m using it in deliquate different way – 20 points in Radiance (anyway I have 30 in virtues so that 10 in virtues isn’t matter) “A Fire inside” trait and I use it like a sustained burning dmg – or utility when it comes to shield of the Avenger.

and I don’t agree with that merge.
actually in my situation having eternal spirit merged with traits I’m using is the LAST thing I wan’t – that is already crappy when I NEED to quickly take of my spirit weapons and they don’t listen to “command” because they were.. moving or atacking… or ooc.. or whatever stupid reason thet gosty thing would have to do not listen command to destroy themself.
and yeah sword command (and bow maybe – I’m not using it anyway) should be ground targetet – last time I wanted sword to blow off in the face of Veteran because it would die anyway (it has very low hp left and my possibilities to heal it ended) so when sword was running to the veteran I targetet it and clicked “command” I thought that it will use it in the face of mob not in the way that veteran was just out of AoE efect… (taking the fact that sword need target to have a chance of destroy themself that would be logical that it will make it in the front of that target – not exacly in the place it is right now)

but forgeting about little command issues they are making their role perfectly
and now there is always 3 of me on the battle field

Not to say the spirit builds don’t work… But I was never able to get one to perform the way I could get other builds too.

I’d be interested in seeing one that works well given all the sacrifices that have to be made.

Lord Trejgon.2809:

@Mikau why 20 in zeal?
actually I’m using it in deliquate different way – 20 points in Radiance (anyway I have 30 in virtues so that 10 in virtues isn’t matter) “A Fire inside” trait and I use it like a sustained burning dmg – or utility when it comes to shield of the Avenger.

and I don’t agree with that merge.
actually in my situation having eternal spirit merged with traits I’m using is the LAST thing I wan’t – that is already crappy when I NEED to quickly take of my spirit weapons and they don’t listen to “command” because they were.. moving or atacking… or ooc.. or whatever stupid reason thet gosty thing would have to do not listen command to destroy themself.
and yeah sword command (and bow maybe – I’m not using it anyway) should be ground targetet – last time I wanted sword to blow off in the face of Veteran because it would die anyway (it has very low hp left and my possibilities to heal it ended) so when sword was running to the veteran I targetet it and clicked “command” I thought that it will use it in the face of mob not in the way that veteran was just out of AoE efect… (taking the fact that sword need target to have a chance of destroy themself that would be logical that it will make it in the front of that target – not exacly in the place it is right now)

but forgeting about little command issues they are making their role perfectly
and now there is always 3 of me on the battle field

20 in zeal to reduce the cooldown by 20% and don’t destroy on command. The sword (can be commanded up to 4 times with +50% duration), hammer and shield just wreck everything when commanded togheter, literally. Some day try that, it is just amazing with the +50% damage. And the CC from hammer’s command is amazing plus the weakness of the shield.

When commanded, they activate immediatly (and where they are, this is what makes the sword command so bad), but only if you have a target (except fo the bow).

For me the only weapon that I use without eternal spirits are the shield and the bow (which I use only to area heal, I hate that symbolic shoot/heal).

The only thing that MUST be fixed is the commands and allow all summons to atk while moving.

Let me just remind everyone that the OP asked about PVE and dungeons – For roaming, you can run whatever you want, but with the exception of Shield being useful in certain fractals and dungeons with heavy range, I can’t think of any time when the sword and hammer would actually survive long enough to be any more useful than a shout.