Build for exploring
I’d use GS and sword for the blinks and leaps to get around the map fast, also Judges Intervention is very usefull
when it comes to gear, you can run full zerker gear and be successfull
I mean it’s pve ^^
big kitten deal haha ^^
I’d use GS and sword for the blinks and leaps to get around the map fast, also Judges Intervention is very usefull
when it comes to gear, you can run full zerker gear and be successfull
I mean it’s pve ^^
big kitten deal haha ^^
what about traits?
Weapons: Staff + Whatever
Good ol’ Lootstick. Excellent for tagging multiple mobs to complete hearts, and #3 skill is nice for keeping Swiftness up. You’ll be able to take on 4-5 enemies at a time, which makes heart completion a breeze.
Your second weapon doesn’t matter much; you can use GS or Sword for the leap/blink, or you can work on a Weapon Master title with something else.
Utilities: Litany of Wrath + “Retreat!” + “Save Yourselves!” + Bane Signet + “Feel My Wrath!”
Retreat and Save Yourselves are your movement skills. Don’t think about it, spam them as soon as they come off cooldown. They’ll stack with each another, and they’ll stack with Staff #3. After a while, you’ll be bumpin’ around with a couple minutes’ worth of swiftness in the bank, easily “permanent” if you keep using the shouts off cooldown.
Food: I used Chocolate Oranges because I’m cheap. +10% Boon Duration for your swiftness skills (easier stacking) combined with +28% Magic Find While Boon’d is great, considering swiftness will always be up. At 4c a pop, you can buy an entire stack and forget about it.
Gear: Berserker weapons/armor/trinkets. If you’re dying (you shouldn’t be), you can swap your trinkets out for Soldier stuff. Armor runes of the Flame Legion are cheap and effective.
Traits: I went with a “bunker-esque” build. Worked out just fine. Plenty of condi clear and support stuff to keep me alive while I rampaged around lootsticking everything.
Honor: Symbol of Protection + Honorable Staff + Pure of Voice
Valor: Smiter’s Boon + Strength in Numbers + Monk’s Focus
Virtues: Unscathed Contender + Supreme Justice + Permeating Wrath
It’s probably not optimized, but it got the job done.
(edited by Klaugh.7415)
It’s probably not optimized, but it got the job done.
This is correct, it’s not optimized.
Let me offer constructive criticism, making it clear my opinion is based on fact the OP wants a build for openworld experience, which is likely map completion with the seldom group event.
1. Do not make staff part of your regular build. Yes it has benefits (swiftness source, tagging), those benefits are not significant enough to justify staff as a regular build fixture. Do make sure you have a staff in your inventory for the odd time you do encounter an event where you benefit from tagging; you can swap it whenever you need it.
In addition, there are better, less intensive sources of swiftness without driving yourself crazy casting symbols and shouts every ten seconds. Trust me … it gets OLD and FAST. Use a sigil of speed or if you got deep pockets, Travelers Runes.
2. Do not play a ‘bunker’ build. If you are equipped and built correctly, you can almost ignore the attacks of your foes, who are mostly trash mobs that die in 1-2 auto attack rotations and who’s attacks will be mitigated by your Aegis and frequent blinds. Building anything but the highest DPS build is throwing away efficiency for this kind of content.
My recommendation (assuming OP is level 80)
Zeal, – Fiery Wrath, Zealous Blade, Shattered Aegis (since Symbolic Avenger is broken right now)
Rad (Inner Fire, Retribution, Amplified Wrath)
Virtues (UC, Abs Resolution, Indom Courage)
GS/Scepter+Focus, all zerker gear. MF food.
1. Open with VoJ always – the blind, retribution and might buffs are worth way more than the burn damage aspect of it.
2. You will camp GS, alternating between mobs with Whirling Wrath and Symbol depending on what one is in cooldown. Only use your leap for another blind if you want to keep your Aegis up.
3. You will swap to Scepter for events where you don’t feel you can handle the close range. In this case you don’t need Scepter for ranged if you prefer Staff, but I don’t see the point as the whole idea to mitigate damage by range is to maximize range.
You need just one condi clear and I like Contemplation of Purity because it’s dual purpose as a stun break. I like Retreat for this recommendation because of UC and I like Bane Signet because more damage and the valuable interrupt to avoid losing Aegis. Feel my Wrath for the elite.
IMO, there are still better builds depending on where you but they are more variations on the theme.
(edited by Obtena.7952)
Excellent recommendations for a more “offensive” build! Your ideas are much better than mine if you want to do world bosses or the occasional dungeon.
I was thinking more about the “running” aspect of map completion, which I think takes up the bulk of the time. For that, I think the Honor line has some great options.
Protector’s Impact (I typed the auto-cast skill instead of the trait earlier, my bad) is also incredibly handy for general map movement. You don’t have to worry as much about getting down off of vistas or those frustrating fall deaths.
The increased endurance regeneration (Vigorous Precision and Purity of Body) give you more dodges to avoid attacks, too.
When I went through my map completion, though, I was most concerned about condition clearing. Clearing things like chill/cripple are necessary, and clearing the other stuff will get you out of combat (and combat speed) quicker. With Pure of Voice and three shouts on the bar, Absolute Resolution’s modification of Virtue of Resolve, and Smiter’s Boon affecting Litany of Wrath, you can breeze through those annoying condition-heavy areas/mobs.
I’d be concerned with having just one condi-clear on the bar, especially at a 60s recharge. In my opinion, that won’t be enough when you’re trying to skip a bunch of things.
I guess I didn’t mention taking Healing Signet, which is more than sufficient to handle random conditions you might get. Honestly, I don’t get many … mobs die too fast with lots of blinds to have any put on me often enough to justify more cleansing on my recommended build
My recommendations also handles the running aspect of map completion; I recommended either Sigil of Speed or Traveller’s Runes.
Dodging to avoid attacks from mobs you kill in 1-2 auto rotations is not necessary. My recommendation has sufficient blinds to avoid single attacks. In the case you do get hit, it’s of little consequence as Aegis will take care of those or a well timed interrupt if the player is familiar enough with the mobs. Taking the time to dodge is simply lost attacking time when a mob should die in under 2-3 seconds.
You can load up your build to avoid, having a negative impact on when you do have to fight or you can load you build to kill, giving you the tools to handle any situation offensively. Either is fine but if you prefer more rewards over time, offensive load out is better. If you lack time, then by all means, make your build around avoidance. Frankly, I don’t think you gain much because when you do need to fight, you’re slow and you lose time you gained from avoiding trash.
(edited by Obtena.7952)
There are 2 potential options…. Medi/Shout hybrid, or pure shout builds. The hybrid offers a lot of good sustained offense, with only minor issues with defense sustain (not good at dealing with back to back hard CCs). The shout build is core support, making you almost unstoppable defensively, but trades some burst damage, and puts higher reliance on your base stats.
If you’re not good with managing skill rotations, the shout build is easier to handle, and offers built in Condi cleanse when running Pure of Voice. If you’re planning long term exotic, Dungeon Zerks armor and Asc soldiers amulet, and your choice of trinkets. Trinkets are fairly cheap to produce for off stats, and the soldiers amulet gives a large amount of Tou/Vit for relatively low cost of laurels (even cheaper if you go WvW and uses badges), can be reused later on another character, and may find use again if the HOT meta even partially lives up to its promises. Trooper runes synergize well, but aren’t mandatory. Because PoV competes with Writ of Persistence, its recommended to run GS, Sword/Focus to maintain the highest possible mobility to offset the DPS and support loss you’d otherwise get from Mace Symbols. Altruistic Healing and Empowering Might then pair up to fill the healing gap. If you have allies nearby, the boons from shouts also proc AH for respectable healing bursts.
If your more confident, the Medi build gives you more offensive power to help tackle tougher enemies on your own. Combines Smite condition, Judges intervention, and Retreat with a Mace/X-GS weapon set for decent mobility, and insanely strong opening attacks, while still giving you minor condi cleansing power and one stun breaker. The DPS build is Valor, Honor and Zeal to trait Monks focus and both Symbol traits. I run this as my main build now, since its good for farming, easy trait tweaks for different situations, and lets me run shield so I can farm ambient mobs for weapon mastery achievements (pretty much the only way its gonna happen).
A variation to this is Valor, Honor, Virtues for better group support (an option for extra stun break) while offloading more of your damage potential to AOE burning. This virtues build with torch can generate insane burn stacks on hoards of trash mobs, but it trades off potentially stronger GS rotations.
Note that if you plan on using even remotely expensive runes, DO NOT use karma armor. Always use dungeons, as their cheaper then crafting, but are still salvageable.
(since Symbolic Avenger is broken right now)
Is it still broken? I thought it had been fixed a while ago.
Your typical average gamer -
“Buff my main class, nerf everything else. "
“Buff my main class, nerf everything else. "
@ Starlinvf – Not sure we are all talking about the same thing here. OP wants a build for map completion and I’m going to assume he want’s something semi-optimized for it. I think there is one thing to recognize when suggesting a build for OW content … most of the mobs you will encounter are trash … even in events.
So based on that, I question the use of Monk’s Focus and Meditations for such content; it’s overkill … no one should need that much healing for most of the encounters you will have. There are other things I find questionable with your recommendation as well. I don’t see a place for Honour or Valor … ever; again … most of the stuff you’re killing in encounters is trash. You’re dropping obvious damage multipliers for ‘feel good’ traits and in OW PVE, no one should ever need THAT much healing.
(since Symbolic Avenger is broken right now)
Is it still broken? I thought it had been fixed a while ago.
Honestly, it might be fixed now and I just don’t know it. If it is, USE IT.
(edited by Obtena.7952)