Guild Wars 2

quick question here, i forget if it’s been mentioned, but is +Healing necessary for AH to work? i am running 0/5/30/30/5 and might try 0/0/30/30/10 for fun, and make up for the precision with gear/jewels. so i have the base plus the traits, but if i invest no gear or runes into +healing, do i miss out a lot on using this build?

secondly, just wanted to add, i had my very first 1v2 in WvW. was running to a POI and SP for map completion and all of a sudden, around the corner a ranger pops out and starts shooting at me. i’m not the best at PvP and my first reaction is to turn tail when i encounter enemies on my own, i was running hammer / staff and so i turn and dropped a line of warding behind me and kept running, while another popped out from the side. and i was like aw crap. i dropped a #3, while spamming 1 while i tried to get away then i was like, “no. can’t run this time.” so i turned around, busted my hammer out and started wacking away. dodgeing at the right time, applying boons/aegis/shouts when i needed to. #3 to control, #4 to keep one away if i needed and continual #1 chain and mighty blow combos led me to come out on top of the two of them. i know many can do this, but it was a first for me! lol so this build IS extremely strong. my health was down low for a few moments, but i was able to bring myself back into the gam ewith appropriate dodging, boon application as well as using my symbols (was traited for healing as well). very, very, very fun build. done it in PvE, dungeons and now seeing it shine in WvW.

I run a variation of the crit hammer build. I call it the Crithander! GS/Hammer.

It works splendidly.

10 Zeal/25 Radiance/30 Honor/5 Virtues

Works well with Shouts, Consecrations, Spirit Weapons OR Signets. So I have alot of flexibility.

Occasionally I put the points from zeal in valour and virtues.

Brutaly.6257

@fabsm
yeah those are nice if you are happy with the dps/cc/mobility.

I played around with those and steal health on swap (about 1k) and had both in my spvp set during bwe 1 and 2 when i was playing 1h sword and scepter mainly.

Those are really nice and i think they team up very nice with a crithammer build.

Your math seems correct but you need to add one parameter and that is its only in pve you are not actually gonna hit even close as often. In pvp people tend to move hence i like sigils that i can control the effect on and not be dependent on an other persons skill or shortcomings.

Those runes and food are great with that setup. Shiat i got interested myself to try those in wvw, here goes an other 10 gold :-)

Hi Brutaly,

have you tried blood/vampirism/lifesteal buff in WvW?
I have put up a makeshift set of runes/sigil, but since i am missing the berserker jewels i don’t have enough critical (i am 30%) to test it properly.

I am going in that direction however, and will tell you how it goes when i have all items.

I could try that in sPvP but i wanted to see the effect in WvW and PvE.

Hjulstad.6317:

Well yeah.. I red through this fast cause im on the phone reading and its a Pain hehe.. But from what i understood is this: if base hit is 1000 it would mean with no added crit damage that your crit would hit for 1,5k .. Adding 20% extra crit damage would make this crit hit for 1,7k .. But overall a balanced build of gear is best since with more power the harder your normal and criticals Will hit.. Tho like i said, its just how i always thought it was.. Will read through all when i get to the computer..

Pretty much the same way i thought it worked, hence why im a bit reluctant to advice on stacking critdamage when you got over 50%. There are other ways of boosting damage that has better ROI.

@Akamon
No you dont, AH scales badly and from a purely mathemacial point of view it has better leverage to boost toughness (smaller healthpools makes healing relatively better) then to boost healing power and/or HP. Ofc selfless daring scales really well with healing power but purely from an AH perspective healing power isnt that great.

cool fight, if you know what you are doing this wasnt the last time either. Did you practice the animationskipping and dodge within the chain? If played proerly it shines every where, its just a matter of switching traits, utility and gear and then rock on.

@Fabsm
No i havent, ran out of gold and have to invest the gold i had to try out my concept of a dps healer, it looks pretty awesome so far.

I would appriciate if you took the time to post here when you tried it, that is something i would be really interested in knowing, how a leechbuild works in wvw.

For WvW I use Sigil of Blood with my staff and it shines, also I usually go with on crit steal life food.

First, thank you sooo much for the guide. I always wanted to play with the hammer, but I don’t get it at all. I appreciate your work.

After I read the whole thread (it took me a few hours…), I decided to check it for myself, cause I’m still working on a build. I saw “Crithammer” and got curious.

I dont understand the part with the gear. I play 80% of my time WvW and 20% PvE. I actually have the cleric gear. Should I change now to Knight/Bezerker? (Sry for my english if something is wrong. )

Thank you for your answer

I actually modified my crithammer build and started using staff with it for giggles. Altruistic healing, knight’s gear, zerker gems, sigil of quickness. Kinda fun in its own way.

Hey all, great posts and a very fun build. I had swapped from Guardian over to Warrior and all but given up on it until seeing this thread. Now I’m enjoying life on the Guardian a lot more. I’m running the 0/15/30/20/5 build. I am in all green knights gear with a green weapon (berserker). Frequently I have other Guardians asking how I’m able to survive in explorer dungeons so easily compared to them when they are in exotic gear. So for anyone reading this post and wondering if this is viable for new 80’s in junk gear, yes it is.

I have a question and am hoping someone will be kind enough to answer. I was reading on page 1 where Brutaly was saying he’d move over to Pow/Vit/Tough armor. I’ve started getting the Koda armor w/those stats. In order to get my offensive stats up enough, I am assuming I will need a Berserker Hammer. I’m wondering what Jewelry to slot to optimize the setup though. Recommendations?

@ Revanssi , from what I have been reading it seems that the jewel side of things is mostly based on what you are lacking in crit chance and crit dmg. From what I can tell, you need roughly 45% chance and 50% crit dmg, this is after you have your knights set on + zerker hammer.

What I would like to know is which are the runes / sigil ?
good healing amount ?
what skill slots are used most and why would you use them?

I check builds on the ghosts at the mists training ground unfortunately we cant really customize the jewels there -.-. I would like to know peoples survival rate and how they would take on at least 4 of the ghosts caster/melee (not the lord you can if you want).

I would love to see video footage also from Brutaly just to see how he fights in different areas pve/spvp/wvw.

thanks for a good thread im currently 55 been using hammer since lvl10ish, at low levels its quite hard to use but the more you progress and gain traits the more I like.

I finally got around to completing my armour. My stats are something like 1700 power, 1600 precision, 1750 toughness & 1450 Vitality. Attack is ~2900, as is my Armour rating. HP is at 16,880. I think my armour is a bit higher than I’d like, and so is my Vitality, but I’m not quite sure how to fix it at the moment. Perhaps replacing the leggings with Shaman’s or something. Healing Power is only at about 200, and Condition Damage is about 270.

The fun part is Crits. Normally, it’s about 37%, but I use a Rune of Superior Precision and once that hits 25 charges that crit rate is up to 49-50% with a +62% crit damage. I then switch back and forth between Hammer and Greatsword doing loads of damage. The other night I did 5k damage with a Whirling Wrath against a Champion.

Krulz.6245:

For WvW I use Sigil of Blood with my staff and it shines, also I usually go with on crit steal life food.

Thx for the info, got to start save gold so i can get a lifesteal weaponsset.

Virpio.7054:

First, thank you sooo much for the guide. I always wanted to play with the hammer, but I don’t get it at all. I appreciate your work.

After I read the whole thread (it took me a few hours…), I decided to check it for myself, cause I’m still working on a build. I saw “Crithammer” and got curious.

I dont understand the part with the gear. I play 80% of my time WvW and 20% PvE. I actually have the cleric gear. Should I change now to Knight/Bezerker? (Sry for my english if something is wrong. )

Thank you for your answer

Well no, i think the clericgear can work just fine, considering a pov/vit/tough set lack both critdamage and crit and i got it to work more then ok for sure.

I suggest you use that gear and put 5 runes of the ranger and one other precision rune or precision orb and combine that with berserker accessories and berserker weapons.

Then you can try it out and without investing in new gear and determine if you need more firepower. with food you will still end up with close to or over 50% crit and about 45-50% critdamage thru accessories and 30 points in traits, altruisitic healing gives you 30% critdamage from that traitline.

Necaust.6907:

I actually modified my crithammer build and started using staff with it for giggles. Altruistic healing, knight’s gear, zerker gems, sigil of quickness. Kinda fun in its own way.

I assume you mean sigil of rage, if so, its hysterical and especially with a critstacking build and empower.

Revanssi.4623:

I was reading on page 1 where Brutaly was saying he’d move over to Pow/Vit/Tough armor. I’ve started getting the Koda armor w/those stats. In order to get my offensive stats up enough, I am assuming I will need a Berserker Hammer. I’m wondering what Jewelry to slot to optimize the setup though. Recommendations?

Not moving over, i got it to try it and it works just fine. I use berserker accessories, berserker hammer, sigil of energy and 5*runes of the ranger and 1*rune of lyssa and ofc 2*precision buffs in food. I have about 95% critdamage, 55% critchance, ofc with food. My only concern is that im low on armor, about 2700, but as long as i hit for over 5k in wvw im happy. I can switch for knights accessories and get a lot more armor if i need though.

What I would like to know is which are the runes / sigil ?
good healing amount ?
what skill slots are used most and why would you use them?

I would love to see video footage also from Brutaly just to see how he fights in different areas pve/spvp/wvw.

If you read thru this thread there are a lot of valid suggestions regarding utility and runes/sigils and armor/accessoriecombinations. I know its a bit heavy, the thread, and i will try to get time to make a new one which incorporates all the suggestions thats been made in order to facilitate for you as readers.

Sorry i have no post policy regarding clips and pics. Been thinking of making an exception though, for instance explaining animationskipping is a bit difficult to do without showing but i have to think this over.

ShadowbaneX.6273:

The other night I did 5k damage with a Whirling Wrath against a Champion.

No intent stealing your thunder here but 5k crits you can do with mightyblow, which correlates to about 11k hits with WW.

Just wanted to give you a teaser regarding the potential of mighty blow in combination with lots of power.

So I’ve gotten to experiment over the past week and I’ve done a lot of farming and crafting. I own full zerker and knight sets now, including hammers, and I’m fairly settled on my playstyle.

I run a lot of dungeons and open world PvE, even a little WvW but I’m only just getting my feet wet, and my friends have come to look at me as the unstoppable force. (haha) I am running full Knight’s Armor with Soldier runes, Full Knights jewelry with Emerald gems, a Berserker’s hammer with a Ruby Orb and the Berserker Spineguard.

My spec is 0/15/30/20/5. As much as I tried to make myself love Trungalung’s build, I can’t live without Renewed Justice. It’s frequency, stacking might and spam-blinding packs is far too useful a utility.

Current stats are:
Power: 1697 (2808 Attack)
Precision: 1925 (52% Crit and 45% Crit Damage)
Toughness: 1992 (3203 Armor)
Health: 14,455 (anyone surprised here?)

My goal if I can win one on market is to socket my hammer with a Superior Sigil of Bloodlust. I spend a lot of time in open world, and I prioritize survivability, so offsetting my tank with this rune should provide a fairly consistent 250 power boost.

Now my question moving forward is my excess crit. In my PvE and PvP experiences in MMOs, including WoW & SWToR, you typically want to aim for either 25%, 33% or 50% crit. If you’re in-between you have “wasted” points, because the benefit just plain isn’t worth the stat allocation.

So I am trying to find a way to reduce my crit by 2% WITHOUT losing my toughness, or as little as possible, since that’s my primary focus.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Emerald Pendant?

Say what, you want less crits??? I assume you wan to allocate that part of the budget in some other stat, otherwise i have no clue what you are talking about.

But if you really would like to loose 2% just buy a valkyrie ring, then you get critdamage and vitality so you get just above 15k hp, 51% critdamage end up with 49% i think and if you switch the upgrade to a precision (berserker stats) one it should be 50% spot on.

For the record, i dont get why though!

hey guys, always looking for this thread in the forums for further discussions and new comers. i’m still on my way to working towards a good set of gear. going to be doing more research in this area, especially for runes. so far running rare Knight’s, mixed in with one valkyrie and has been working well so far. my jewels are all junk and the build is working wonders for me already – so hopefully when i am able to invest in some decent stuff, i’ll see an even bigger difference.

@Brutaly – yes i definitely have gained more confidence in myself! even against certain tough mobs in PvE, i can solo. let alone seeing the build shine with a group! i have people commenting after a big fight that i am extremely “tough” or “survivable” and i share with them the gist of the build.D i’ve noticd this myself as well and like you said, the more you practice, the better you get it.

i’ve been practicing dodgerolling between the chain, sometimes depending on the situation, i’ll dodge after the chain, or after the mighty blow, based on the mobs animations (i.e. attacks) but usually, dodge between hit 2 and 3 works best rhythmically. although i do have to practice keeping a better eye on my endurance, especially against big hard hitting bosses. the animation i have been practicing as well, but it doesn’t always happen when i want it to! so if you are able to forgo your no video policy just for explanation/demonstration purposes, i for one, as i am sure many others as well, would highly appreciate it!

every day i’m hammering. and loving it.

Brutaly.6257:

I must totally misunderstand the formula! What am i getting wrong here?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical_damage
“Critical Damage is added to the default 1.5x bonus (rather than multiplied). For example, +50% Critical Damage results in 2.0x critical hits”

An example based on
x=Basedps with no crits=1000
y=Critchance=50%
z=Critdamage=50+50% 50% are the basevalue, see definition in wiki, of critical damage and 50% is obtained from gear.
Z=additional critdamage=25%

…………..

Sorry for getting back so late. I was really busy with my work and school.

After I read your post, I went back and calculate the crit damage in a different route:

Test 1:
100 hits
1,000 damage per hit
50% crit chance
50% base crit damage

50 hits are normal: 50 × 1,000 = 50,000
50 hits are critical: 50 × 1,000 × 1.5 = 75000
Total damage: 125,000

Test 2:
100 hits
1,000 damage per hit
50% crit chance
75% crit damage (50% base + 25% crit damage from gears/traits)

50 hits are normal: 50 × 1,000 = 50,000
50 hits are critical: 50 × 1,000 × 1.75 = 87,500
Total damage: 137,500

The damage difference between the two tests is 12,500 or 10% (from 125,000 to 137,500). So 1% of crit damage actually equals to 0.4% overall damage with the stats above which is 0.1% off than my original calculation. I’m still finding that missing 0.1% to see that where I made the mistakes.

For Might stacking, all you really need is precision for Empowering Might (and Sigil of Strength if you use it), and I already pointed out that precision priority is higher than crit damage with Cezton’s stats. There’s no other stats that would increase your might stacking potency (not talking about the runes’ boon duration, that’s not actually a stat). He was thinking about switching gears to have 15k HP. If he switches two pieces from Knights to Valkyries, he’ll only lose a little bit of crit chance (around 2-3%) which won’t matter much to Empowering Might (not as much as you would notice anyway). Also, other ways of might stacking doesn’t rely on any stats (Sigil of Battle, Might of Protector, etc…). It’s not like he will lose 3 stacks of might from switching a few pieces to Valkyrie.

Crit damage is flat percentage. So it also takes into advantage of higher power. You’ll gain more damage from crit damage with higher power (if you have a lot of mights for example).

thanks for the analysis Trungalung! and your continual contribution to this thread. this helps give me a better idea of what type or armor i want for my final set. at least for now.

that being said, does anyone have or know of a good calculator where we can mix and match gear + runes + weapons to see the outcome? even though it’s just on paper, it could give us good indication of if we’re headed in the right direction or not depending on how we want to build our Guards.

Brutaly.6257:

ShadowbaneX.6273:

The other night I did 5k damage with a Whirling Wrath against a Champion.

No intent stealing your thunder here but 5k crits you can do with mightyblow, which correlates to about 11k hits with WW.

Just wanted to give you a teaser regarding the potential of mighty blow in combination with lots of power.

Oh, I use the Hammer & Greatsword, both are a lot of fun. Still exploring things a bit more now that I’ve got a mostly full exotic set (need an Exotic Hammer still).

I’m trying to figure out an 11k crit on WW.

I’ve swapped to this build and play style but still working through the gear requirements. I was initially using the beserker rare set with green level 80 weapons but have finally saved enough to upgrade tot he Knight’s Draconic exotic set. The downside is that I couldn’t buy the beserker hammer with crit so used badges to get the invader’s pvp hammer. I already had the beserker staff oddly enough.

Final cash went into rare runes of the eagle with one of lysaa. Accessories are left so not sure how I’m going to upgrade those but I think they are my weakest link at the moent since they are all lvl 50+ greens and blue mix.

I will say this though. Initial WvWvW engagement was more fun than any previous using either hammer or staff. I was able to live longer even though I struggled with target control. I mean, one minute I have the player target and hitting the next it is gone and I’m looking all over the place to find them and engage the whole time taking damage and getting close to death. This isn’t a guardian issue but mine with lack of keybinds, clicking, and understanding how GW2 works I guess

I’m at:
2,501 Attack
33% Crit Chance
2,870 Armor
14,700 Health

This is fun coming from a casual player. Just wanted to say thanks for the thread, help, and what not.

@akamon
Sounds nice, its getting better and better. its just a great setup for both support and dps at the same time.

@Trungalunga

Thx for the calculation, its the same way i calculate it.

My point was that if he (Cezton, which this discussion started with) allready has 150% (base) and an additional 71% from traits/gear adding more criticaldamage would have lousy payoff and extremely low return on investment.

If we use your example, which is much easier to understand then mine, it would mean:

Example 1
100 hits
1k per hit
50% critchance
50% base critdamage
71% critdamage thru gear and traits

50 hits are nomal: 50*1000=50000

50 hits are critical: 50*1000*2.21=110500 (2.21=1,50+0,71)

Total damage 160500

If he strives for more critdamage (which was his question which i responded to and then you responded to me on my advice to him) and adds, lets say 10% more, to 81%, to his current build this what he ends up with.

50 hits are nomal: 50*1000=50000

50 hits are critical: 50*1000*2.31=115500 (2.21=1,50+0,71)

Total damage 165500

If we then check what he gained, the absolute gain which you calculated above isnt imo relevant since we are on a budget so return on investment, implicitely comparing it with an alternative investment, is what matters.

And what he get is:
(165500-160500)/160500=3% increase in dps.

So based on that, thats the reason why i suggested he should check out an other path to achive the same effect (more dps, critdamage in itself serves no purpose as you pointed out) and might stacking is much easier to obtain/do especially since he wants to get over 15k in health while doing it.

The fact is the effect he is looking for i in reach for him but trying to do by raising his critdamage is a really stupid move.

The case is that its fully achievable with in his current build, no empowering might and just by smart use of sigils and runes. And ofc might/sigils is a stat as everything else, its just abit more complicated to calculate.

Regarding switching to valkyries i fulla agree, its the same if you go to tuv/vit/pov gear, i think i have like 55% crit and 91% critdamage in combination with almost 16k health.

If i in any way implied that switching gear wasnt an option then i apologise, ofc it is but what will he gain from it. He will gain like 3% dps in critdamage (10% units increase) and loose about 6-8% of his crits (equal to 3-4% reduced overall crit chance) in the process.

Once again my point was that investing in critdamage (as a solitair which his question indicates) is a not so smart based on the return in extra dps.

regarding you power comment i fully agree, if he wants to boost his dps and maintain/increase hp then this is were he should look, hence why i made the might example in my answer to him.

@crapgame
cool that you enjoy it, the only issue is after playing this setup all other profession/weaponsets feel very bland and mainstream. Will have issues with this game after i get tired of the hammer, can tell you that for sure.

You are welcome and im glad you enjoy the thread.

with that said i would like to say thanks to everyone that contributed so far and also kept the thread clean from whining and trolling. I like this thread as well and without you guys in it it would have been really boring and not worth a fraction of the value it has today.

@Brutaly
Here’s what we agree on:

Replacing Knight (precision) with Valkyrie (crit damage) will reduce his damage without doubt.
If he wants to reach 15k hp, replacing those pieces may still be worth it to him since the difference is only within a few percentage.

Just to make sure, I was totally against replacing all his gears with crit damage since it is a stupid move. Precision will almost always be better (the build name is crit hammer for a reason).

Melizande.7230:

………

My spec is 0/15/30/20/5. As much as I tried to make myself love Trungalung’s build, I can’t live without Renewed Justice. It’s frequency, stacking might and spam-blinding packs is far too useful a utility.

………

Now my question moving forward is my excess crit. In my PvE and PvP experiences in MMOs, including WoW & SWToR, you typically want to aim for either 25%, 33% or 50% crit. If you’re in-between you have “wasted” points, because the benefit just plain isn’t worth the stat allocation.
……….

My build is mostly for dungeons (Master of Consecrations). Giving up Renewed Justice will always be hard. A 0/0/30/30/5 with 5 points spare will allow more flexibility when switching traits since you have so much choices to choose from in the Honor tree.

If memory serves me correctly, those games have diminishing return on crit chance (take more points to get the same % as you’re stacking it up). I’m pretty sure precision /crit chance scales linearly in GW2.

@ Melizande – i found it extremely difficult to give up renewed justice as well (formerly 0/15/30/20/5) and i’ve recently switched to 0/5/30/30/5 and haven’t looked back. i wanted to run AH, thus the 30 into valor was a necessity, and having more toughness is a bonus. while being a HUGE fan of the honor line, i decided to give up the 10 in radiance and invest in honor. there are consistently 4 major traits that i want so i’ll switch them up depending on the upcoming battle, given i have time to plan. i run large symbols, 2h mastery and either empowering might or symbols heal. have yet to try symbols lasting longer but i imagine that can be extremely beneficial as well as seen in the various conversations held in this thread.

give it a shot! and see how big a difference it makes for you. i might go back to it again one day and try it out. one reason i WAS able to semi-comfort myself was i was starting to run dungeons and WvW more, and i don’t kill nearly as fast to fully utilize renewed jsutice (i.e. for it to be spammable). so i did a little weighing of what i felt i and my team would benefit from more. but then again, if it works for you, there’s no huge reason for you to change. but like Trung has said, there are a lot of great traits in the Honor line.

Been following this amazing thread from the beginning, just want to say great job to everyone.

My question is this.. I currently run full Rare Cleric armour, Beserker Hammer and i trait 0/0/30/30/5 (5floating).

What Jewellery do the majority of people run if they use Cleric set?

just thinking out loud here for discussion’s sake. i don’t run cleric’s (though i’ve thought of it) i’d assume you may want to make up for precision to get your crit % up. since you have toughness on cleric’s already, then maybe you could go for berserker’s? as opposed to knight’s. at the same time, you would need to find ways to balance your HP / vit as well.

personally i feel the +healing isn’t enough to justify losing out on either precision, toughness or vitality. and as many people have tested (i myself haven’t yet), +healing doesn’t scale that well for us, apart from maybe for the dodge roll. maybe others can chime in who’ve invested in a set of cleric’s gear before.

that being said, if it’s been working for you, go for it. do experiment though and see what suits you best. i’ve heard people using full cleric’s and does them wonders as well.

well im doing some testing with orrian prec/vit/heal gear now and frankly i think its looks promising even though im not “there” yet.

The thing is if you want it to hit hard you need to invest in boonduration so you can stack might and currently i use hoelbrak and strength as runes and a 20% boonbuff from food.

This allows me to stack some serious amount of might stacks and hit really hard.

The issue with clerics imo are that they lack precision but this can be worked around with runes, 5*ranger and 1 lyssa might be right, just as you do when playing with vit/pov/tuv gear.

What happens then is that you cant use jewels for healing and need either knights for max crit or berserkers for max damage. This then leads to that you end up with a bit to low healing power. You get the picture, i find it to be mediocre in every aspect instead of being good in all aspects.

Im a bit torned right now, i really want a crithammer build to work well with clerics or healing gear in general but im a bit doubtful atm. Will continue to test though and hopefully i will find a combination which measure up with knights, berserker and vit/tuv/pov but atm i find it falling short tbh. The loss of damage and or survivability thru toughness isnt worth the extra healing.

I dont have clerics myself so that part is me speculating based on my experience with the other set, so a grain of salt is in order.

Sure you can get very good damage but you wont get survivability at the same time as you get with a more “traditional” setup.

So im with akamon on this one so far but i hope i will prove myself wrong in the next week or so.

i was hoping that healing power would play a bigger part in our builds. if it scaled well, then perhaps we would be able to forgo a bit of vitality. while still being able to spec for grt dmg! a crithammer build with +healing would work wonders! though perhaps, maybe too OP. since without much healing, i’ve seen Ah and crit hammer hold up extremely well already :ppp we’ll see how the game expands.

i think i am set on my armor and trinkets for now. next thing is to test runes and find what’s best. still deciding between all soldiers, mix of monk water and maybe sanctuary, or like you mentioned brutaly, going for power and might duration. hoelbrak’s is indeed a good contender. i’m assuming x4? and x2 strength?

What do you think about mixing cleric gear with beserker weapons and knight trinkets?
I think you should find a good balance between precision and toughness. atm i’am going to craft the knight gear with beserker trinket to see the difference between them.

@Akamon
I think you describe the issue with mixing healing with dps. The loss is just to big and if you want healing to be a factor for you and your team you are almost bound to commit to a pure healing build and then it hits like a wet noodle.

I would use 3 of each, gaining max power, i dont know if you gain more then one stack of might from hoelbrak but if its just one its 32 more power with a 5% chance tp proc, 20 sec duration.

Getting 3 runes of strenght is 50 more power, all the time.

hoelbrak has to proc about 3 stacks of might if it should be comparable.

@Virpio
The issue is that you only get a real improvement from selfless daring and still the effect is marginal. Frankly you need to have at least a full set of healinggear for it to worth it and still you loose out on a lot of dps and survivability.

I will keep on testing and write here if i get a breakthru and change my mind.

Testing now Full knight with 2*Rune of Vampirism+4 Ruby +Sigil of Blood.
Still working on my Berserker Jewels.

This works wonder, coupled with lifesteal food. I literally bring myself to life in PvE, where every crit that procs (with my 38% crit it procs on CD) heals me about 1k. Obviously i dodge often to reset the CD.

I have to crunch numbers to separate the healing from AH, from that of Lifesteal. Will run tests, i am really kitten that Combat log DOESN’T reports healing from lifesteal. I know it is there, but all i can do is equipping a blank hammer and subtract..

This game could use a good Combat Log. Even if it couldn’t be saved (that will deter the class vs class debates), at least for the player could be useful in theorycrafting.

I think this setup is not viable in WvW, because you’re not hitting so often. In WvW often you punch a GOOD hit, and then go utility wise on stunning and blocking to reset MB cooldown. You don’t hit often enough to benefit from the lifesteal.

I will put my final test result when i have my Berserker Jewels, will test with a blank hammer and one with the sigil, with and without food buff.

Keep giving hints in how to upgrade this build, i think this is our best chance in DPS in PvE and in WvW!

@Fabsm – In that setup, what hammer do you put the Sigil of Blood in? Still Berserker’s at this point (so no +Healing from gear)?

Hey Brutal, would love some insight how I can get this build to work well in spvp. Having to depend on my amulet for my raw stats is super difficult. I can go soldier and get power/tough/vitality but then my crit is super low. I even tried going 0/30/30/0/10 and is still rough.

I also miss out on a lot of key traits doing that. Kinda stuck

Here is what I run. Cut and copy to new tab.

_http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASWlYgqCnFyMEm4ERWhVa9ggGsgXPcIFZIA;TgAA1Cto8y0loL7NOvk3A

@Lucubration: no reply button for me, sigh!

I have all exotic knight armor and a Berserker Hammer. I am looking for berserker jewels because i don’t feel that adding Healing Power would matter.

At the moment, we have no clue on the amount healed, wiki doesn’t help, and all we have is trying on the dummies.

I’d rather prefer critting more often, adding precision (and adding to the other synergies of this build), than critting less often but for biggest amounts.

But it is more of a personal choice than a rule set in stone. I am now confortable with my defences with knight armor, and sitting at 38% crit. I want to reach 40%, then slowly replace Rubies with other runes with greater impact (divinity comes to mind).

If all goes in the right way, i guess that the amount of lifestealing generated could be paragonable to the Regeneration effect of Hold the Line, only 24/7 nonstop.

That could be awesome especially in PvE.

Hi guys! Stumbled on this thread yesterday at work and immediately took a stab at it when I got home Problem is, my Guardian’s armor set is a full berskerker variation of draconic :/ . I have full knights trinkets btw to compensate the loss in toughness (which then bonuses on precision on 1 trait THANKS BRUTALY! never noticed this until I read your thread!!) I’m running at 2.8k~ish damage, 50% crit chance, 55% crit dmg. Armor and hp is decent enough for me now (2.7 and 15k~ish respectively). Had a quick question, to increase my damage output, what should I go for in runes? Should I go increase power or increase crit dmg ? I think 50 crit chance is sufficient now so I’m contemplating on which to increase. If anyone has insight on this, please holla back!

So those are my current stats with the gear set I’m wearing, Berskerker’s Draconic, Emerald Trinkets of the Knight, exo Berserker’s hammer. Traits 0-15-20-30-5. I have to make do with the Berserker’s Draconic since I don’t have any more gold to pick up a full set of Knight’s exo armor lol.

This build is amazing btw, never had as much fun with other weapon sets!

I personally use Ruby Orbs for the extra damage. Other choices would be Superior Rune of Strength for 20% Might duration and 5% extra damage while having Might or Superior Rune of Scholar for the crit damage/power and 10% damage while above 90% hp. I would pick Superior Rune of Strength since it has more synergy with the build (20% Might duration for Empowering Might).

I am a bit curious:

Is there a reason why no one is considering using 6 divinity runes?

60 to all stats and 12% crit dmg sounds pretty amazing.

I’ll rather use Ruby Orbs over Divinity Runes. Provides more damage and I only lose 60 vita and toughness which is nothing. It’s also much cheaper.

Trungalung.7850:

I’ll rather use Ruby Orbs over Divinity Runes. Provides more damage and I only lose 60 vita and toughness which is nothing. It’s also much cheaper.

Divinity runes are insanely expensive so I think it’s either Ruby orbs or Superior runes of Strength now. I appreciate it! you’ve definitely narrowed my choices down to just 2! Now what to pick? lol

gahii.7103:

Trungalung.7850:

I’ll rather use Ruby Orbs over Divinity Runes. Provides more damage and I only lose 60 vita and toughness which is nothing. It’s also much cheaper.

Divinity runes are insanely expensive so I think it’s either Ruby orbs or Superior runes of Strength now. I appreciate it! you’ve definitely narrowed my choices down to just 2! Now what to pick? lol

Well, Ruby Orbs are also much cheaper than Superior Runes of Strength. I’d suggest that you start with the orbs for a total price still substantially lower than 1 rune, and figure out if you like the feel of it.

Yup, I’ll go with the ruby orbs since I like it’s raw attributes. I think instead of going 30 honor with empowering might, I’ll go for 30 valor and get altruistic healing and + crit damage. The HP drop wouldn’t be significant. Ruby Orb it is! Thanks for helping me out @Lucubration and @Trungalung! Will work on it when I get home. Truly appreciate it!

why does this site seem to over-inflate stats?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS7dlYg67WFSKEmIFSuAbBYPwoMC+ueQRYIDB;T8AA2ynEOJdS9kyJqgMeJ8ymjLIZOrPGgszA

If it’s possible to have that kind of vitality pool and still have those numbers for crit/crit damage and power, i’m sold.

Very fun set up. I changed a couple things around to suit my playstyle. Went 5/10/30/20/5. Went 10 in Radiance for Inner Fire. (you gain Fury when set on fire) Most people probably think that’s a meh major trait, but it works great with my Runes. x6 Rage.

(1): +2% Critical Damage
(2): +20% Fury Duration
(3): +3% Critical Damage
(4): 5% chance to gain Fury for 30 seconds when hit. (Cooldown: 60s)
(5): +5% Critical Damage
(6): +5% Critical Damage while under the effect of Fury.

Also running GS/Hammer with both Superior Sigil of Rage.

@Freyvin – The issue with that (and other) stat builder sites is that they use PvP equipment, which has different stat distributions. You generally can’t achieve the same distributions with PvE equipment.

Hello all.

I’m getting interested in the build but I noticed that most are using 0/5/30/30/5 traits. If I may ask, how much Precision do you have to get atleast 45% Critical Chance?

I have a GS crit build, 0/10/30/30/0, my Precision only falls 1600 despite having a Knights set and my rate is just 38% (even though I have Sigil of Accuracy on my GS, which supposedly adds 5% Crit chance)

I might be missing on something or might have skipped a huge bunch when I tried to scan this thread.

Thanks in advance!

@knives:

What runes and jewels do you have?
They make a huge difference. And, do you use the honor trait that puts toughness to precision?

You seem to have a build similar to mine, but i have 38% crit WITHOUT Sigil of Accuracy…

@Fabsm

I use Beryl for Accessories and Rings, my Amulet is still a mess, but I’m planning to take the one that has Prec/Pow/Crit Damage.

I use Emerald Orb x6 on armor slots.

Also, yes, I use the trait that adds 5% prec from toughness.

I currently have 38% crit chance but I have Sigil of Accuracy. I am planning to use 0/5/30/30/5 build and remove the Sigil of Accuracy but I believe it’ll downsize my crit chance by 25-30, which is very bad.

I am going to try a 10/5/30/20/5 build for PvE.
I run dungeons a lot and always have my othe rguardian mate with me. So practically every mob is nonstop burning x) So, I guess its worth a try.

But I really can´t decide on my equipment yet…
I got a pow/vit/tough armor set from how, a knight armor set and berserker’s and a knight´s set of jewelry.
I can´t decide on the runes either… ._. I wanted to use runes of the soldier or runes of strength… tough choice, tough choice x)
Mind give me some help? ^.^

@cero since you’re focusing on Pow (most dungeon mobs tend to have so much toughness and hp) you can go with rune of strength. If you want to further synergize your build with rune of strength, you can go 5-0-30-30-5 so you can get empowering might trait ^^. I think might also does increase your condition damage so since you’re into that burning thing, this will work for you. I don’t know maybe someone else can give you better advice. but just my 2 cents.

Okay, so here are my findings (bear in mind, im only level 59).
I tried the 2h hammer in PvE with 20 points in the honor tree.
I tried LARGER SYMBOL as basic trait, and as major trait i was twisting myself to figure out the right one. Tried 2h MASTERY, Empowering Might and Writh of Persistance.
Still my conclusion was that W/O Writh of Persistance, i wasn’t able to time my MB after a dodge back into the field for the AoE retaliation, while with Writh of persistance i was able to. Am i the only one with this issue? is this bad timing from my side? Or is it incredibly hard to pull of the combo 1+2, dodge, 3, dodge, MB (back in the action), thus AOE retaliation. I wasn’t able to pull this off without the persistance trait. Any tips or suggestions?

@Zankou
Its bad timing or that you just miss the symbol with mighty blow. Try to dodge into the symbol a couple of times, instead away from it. Whne you do this you have to calculate how the opponent is moving so you can trigger the symbol and in a perfect setup also get the protection it gives you.

So i need to practice kiting within the symbol is what your saying correct? I think when i dodge out of the symbol after placement, that the jump from outside back inside is to long. It disapears in a fraction of a second. Learning how to fight within the symbol may be a good tip. Uhm, another thing that i was wondering. Im a really slow leveller, real life and stuff but i can deal with that I was thinking about power/vit/tough gear, and to only focus on these combined with 2 monk runes, 2 water runes and 2 earth runes. (so protection uptimes increased by 50%). Would that be a nice setup for PvE? Or are u still convinced that high crit is the way to go?
Sometimes i think im not good enough in terms of dodging / target selecting to play at full speed sortof. And that some extra vit/tough wouldn’t hurt me in terms of " oops, forgot to dodge, kitten " .
Last question, the hp ppl tend to go for is around 14-15k~, what is the highest dmg attack u ever received ingame? Im curioius about this, and this may be more valid for PvE then pvP, as i wont start PvP’ing earlier then when im in the 80ish.