Guild Wars 2

First Let me start by saying this is not my build. All credit goes to Nemisis. I have not seen him or anyone else post it yet so I thought I would. I simply enjoyed the video and thought it interesting to discuss others thoughts here on the forums.

Nemisis Smite Build

It’s a long video but very detailed. I’ll do my best to pin point some specific areas that were interesting to me. Some of this might not be new news but it was to me. (about tool tips)

Q: How does this compare to other Guardian DPS builds?
Q: Some initial concerns when looking at the build and gear?
Q: How does this compare to Obal’s build? (Note: I am not looking to start a flame war, so please don’t make it that, it just happens to be the build I currently use and like.)

Interesting points about the tool tips: (Have others known about this for a long time and has there ever been a response from AN about this? — I apologize if this is old news to most)

Scepter 1

30/30/5/5/0 with scepter/gs it looks like? People really need to learn to type things out, videos are stupid.

Obal’s build (10/25/0/0/25 iirc) is better, no question. 20/30/10/10/0 or 20/30/20/0 would also be better, or pretty much any comparable setup.

Also it might be helpful to mention what you are talking about re tooltips for those of us who don’t want to sit through a stupid 20-minute-long video for something that could have been summed up in two lines of text.

Really? I apologize for asking you to watch a video. I should have posted what the build is. The tool tip link is less than a few minutes of the video in the bottom link.

If you feel this way about video builds and having to watch them in order to have a discussion you could have simply not responded.

But since you did respond:
What makes these better? “(10/25/0/0/25 iirc) , 20/30/10/10/0 or 20/30/20/0 would also be better, or pretty much any comparable setup”

Or perhaps a better way to ask is to say what makes the build weak when talking about a DPS build.

I generally try to make a point of not watching “check out my phat armor” videos that serve no other purpose that a written guide doesn’t. Not to mention some people might be deaf or have bad bandwidth and might not want to sit and stare at a little window for 20 minutes when “hey guys what do you think about 30/30/5/5/0 for DPS I saw it in a video” would have sufficed just fine.

And the reason those other spreads posted are better is because they do more damage, pure and simple, and otherwise have the same levels of utility and survivability.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I generally try to make a point of not watching “check out my phat armor” videos that serve no other purpose that a written guide doesn’t.

Your lack of understanding of the content and intent of that video is both spectacular and comical. Nice try.

Perhaps you’d like to enlighten me then? I don’t care how amazing you think that video is, that fact stands that I’m not watching it, and if you want an expert opinion on something you need to ask the question clearly first.

Alternately, you can wait for someone to come along who is actually willing to sit through the whole thing. Good luck with that.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Alternately, you can wait for someone to come along who is actually willing to sit through the whole thing. Good luck with that.

I just listened to about 50 minutes of the video (go go insomnia) and this is what I have learned:

-Signets, signets, signets
-Tome of Wrath> Renewed Focus
-Meditation heal
-Torch
- Range damage>melee damage
-Woo burning!
-Should not play with elitist scum
-“Does most amount of DPS a guardian can put out while still surviving”
-“People don’t understand what this build is… will have a hard time playing it… will get kicked from groups until this build is popular”

Mind. Blown.

Calls it a build for PUG groups, but as far I can see it’s more likely to get you kicked from PUG groups.

Recommends that Guardian play at 1200 range? Kick.

DPS weapon is a slow, single-target weapon? Kick.

Missing: no Wall of Reflection, no Purging Flames, no Master of Consecrations, no Inspired Virtues, no might generation, no Renewed Focus, no Absolute Resolution. Kick.

Remember, our best damage mitigation skills are blinds and blocks.

Number of on-demand blinds:
meta = 5
Nemisis = 2

Number of on-demand blocks:
meta = 6 (3 party-wide)
Nemisis = 1

I’m not even going to go into the precision over-stacking (making both Fury and banners worthless), the weird trait selections (Kindled Zeal? Valorous Defense?), the bad sigil selections, and the questionable math.

tl;dr Nemisis says at the beginning of the video that he doesn’t know the Guardian class. Is there anything more that needs to be said?

As much as I love nemesis, I have to say this build isnt nearly as good as the current meta.

From a purely objective standpoint the build is awful. Anyone willing to pick up freaking Valor 5 instead of Virtues 5 when they have Radiance 15 needs to get their priorities straight. It has zero party utility, awful handicaps (oh my god he uses Torch 5 in the video) in the form of poor skill and weapon selection, and no synergy either between the traits chosen, the traits and utilities, or any other kind of synergy for that matter.

I mean, good try for doing something different I guess. But just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s good. There are no bonus points for originality.

It’s a bad build. It’s so bad I’d think it was a comedy build if he weren’t so serious about it.

Four Druids and a Smiter walk into a bar…

Some interesting comments. For those that did watch in order to have this conversation and provide feedback to discuss like I asked for; thank you.

“Tome of Wrath> Renewed Focus”

For pure DPS isn’t this true? I realize that renewed focus is the more “go to” Ult generally. But it’s more for survivability right? Also resets burning which can be nice as well.

“Should not play with elitist scum”

Not a direct quote but I can see how you came to this conclusion from what he was saying about elitist players and the tone it sort of implied. What I took away from that was that those players are going to provide you with certain benefits (fury for example) that will make you change the build.

“Number of on-demand blocks:
meta = 6 (3 party-wide)
Nemisis = 1”

There were 3 blocks he had right? I thought there was 3.

“Missing: no Wall of Reflection, no Purging Flames, no Master of Consecrations, no Inspired Virtues, no might generation, no Renewed Focus, no Absolute Resolution. Kick.”

He does mention in the video that you should sub out utilities as you need them for different situations. This is what all guardian builds do. So if you need WOR then you would drop one signet and add it as needed.

“I’m not even going to go into the precision over-stacking (making both Fury and banners worthless), "

He did address this in the final notes I think, about variations of the build when playing with a static group you can depend on to give you things like Fury, or banners. This build takes into consideration that you won’t have those things most of the time.

“the bad sigil selections”

Can you elaborate? Do you mean that he should have taken Sigil of night / force?

“and the questionable math.”

Can you elaborate on this as well? What part did you find questionable? I honestly am asking here as I am not a math wiz or really look deep into the math behind these things.

edit:
“no synergy either between the traits chosen, the traits and utilities, or any other kind of synergy for that matter.”

Really? Because there is a lengthy part of the video where he talks about how his choices synergize with each other.

Why can’t people just use Obal’s build and be useful at the game? It’s a selfish build without wall, yes the damage is high but at the cost of loads of utility, very bad build

“Why can’t people just use Obal’s build and be useful at the game? It’s a selfish build without wall, yes the damage is high but at the cost of loads of utility, very bad build”

I actually do use Obal’s build and enjoy it very much. (Thanks to Obal) I thought it was an interesting video.

I don’t disagree that it’s fairly selfish. But you can simply add wall in and lose 1 signet. You could even swap around 10 pts as he suggests at the end to make wall even better.

I must be missing something else? There are a lot less blinds that is for sure.

I skimmed through the video so I might have missed things. Here are some answers to your questions. I tried to be as constructive as possible.

Q: How does this compare to other Guardian DPS builds?

This build is traited for pure dps. I’m not sure if it would be maximizing damage since it relies on foes standing still and scepter is single target. I don’t think it would out damage a gs + sword/focus rotation with the current builds under most cases. The rotations he suggests don’t seem optimal. Cleansing flame is a dps loss and the gs rotation would be 2→4→3→5→AA→2 swap and you would be in other weapon for 9s then swap.

Other builds are traited for the minimal amount of support which goes a long way and the rest of the points go into dps. The dps loss is small and worth the tradeoff since you bring a guardian in a group for the support it brings in the first place. This is supposed to be a pug build but it doesn’t have things like traited reflects, removal, and shouts. You could swap things around as he suggests but it still wouldn’t be as effective as the other builds support wise. This build also suggests you should be ranging so virtue of justice is kind of wasted since the point to it is more the blind/vuln it does rather than the burn (great too though mostly for the 10% against burning foes) which you will lose since you are not near the foes. You will also want to be in melee range for reflect use. He does say you can gs then hop out though.

Q: Some initial concerns when looking at the build and gear?

It doesn’t look like he tinkered with his build to check EP. Full assassins armor and weapons + accuracy + perception would not be optimal. If you add in things like fury, banner of discipline, and spotter it would be less especially if your just going to mainly use scepter + RH strength. A more optimal thing would be to go chest, pants, helm assassins and the rest zerk as Nike calcuated and using force/night/slaying and bloodlust with RH str and perception without RH str. Ruby orbs are just not worth using. If your going to be ranging a lot you shouldn’t have much of a problem keeping the scholar rune buff up. If you have problems then Ranger runes would be the next best option.

Torch really isn’t worthwhile for PVE. Your virtue in a group would do enough burning, #4 is a dps gain but against 1 foe, and #5 is a dps loss and you can just whirl in light fields while doing more damage for the same effect. Focus is the best for more blinds, vuln, block, and more damage.

Q: How does this compare to Obal’s build? (Note: I am not looking to start a flame war, so please don’t make it that, it just happens to be the build I currently use and like.)

The builds I posted offer a lot better support while potentially giving up a small amount of dps. You will want that support whether your in an organized group or pugging (especially when pugging) and is why you bring a guardian in the group. The gear I suggest would lead to more optimal dps as well.

The comments below the video are amazing. So many clueless people …

The video demonstrates that DPS is in favor of Scepter so it is at least something not many of us expected. I’d like to see the pure DPS difference between the GS / Sword+Focus and GS / Scepter+Torch rotations. If the damage of scepter is really that impressive other things related to the build, such as signets and off-hand weapon, could be easily adjusted. The build lacks support though and personally I wouldn’t feel safe using it around pugs.

It’s very old knowledge that the scepter can be strong against certain types of single targets. However, they need to have a large hitbox and to be immobile if you want the scepter to be viable. And now think about how often you meet such targets compared to anything else.

Please don’t join my fractal group without consecration mastery.

Great analysis obal, thanks for that.

“The comments below the video are amazing. So many clueless people …”

Not uncommon at all in an MMO. Hence the discussion here.

edit:
Any comments on Scepter 1’s Tool Tip being off? Link was provided above in the OP.

Welcome to the plights of the necro forums. Not that Nemesis isn’t good, I like him, but he made one decent build video [note, it wasn’t a hard build to make, the traits were the only traits available which synergized at all pre dhuumfire] and now he is basically seen as the voice of the necro forum.

And yes, almost every video is that long.

I’ve used my standard testbed for these numbers, which is zerker/scholar, pwr/crit dmg food, dmg potion, spotter, discipline banner, night/force, 5% virtuous, 25 might, 25 bloodlust, fury, 25 vuln. I’ll pretend this build discussed is 30/30/0/5/5 because lol 5 valor instead of 5 virtue wtf.

There are 2 boss scenarios I consider:
We are fighting a boss whom I can melee. Ranged is pointless. Swapping between greatsword and sword is good.
We are fighting a boss whom I cannot melee. Ranged is required. I can only have 1 melee weapon.

In the first scenario with proper weapon swapping, 30/30/0/5/5 will out-damage 10/30/0/5/25 by less than 4%. That’s not enough to make up for the loss of consecration mastery and absolute resolution in my opinion. Also, the final 10 trait points in zeal were useless here because you weren’t using a scepter. Perhaps you could use focus mastery instead. If you were stubborn and kept your scepter equipped, 10/30/0/5/25 probably out-damaged you anyway because they swapped weapons.

If you decide you are going to be range attacking a boss (never range attack trash, cleave them!), not only is having both scepter AND greatsword AND sword damage traits a bit odd… but if you had to choose only 1 melee weapon for a boss fight, 1h sword is actually your best damage over time weapon anyway even though you have zealous blade. They’re almost exactly even though, it’ll probably come down to personal preference. So you’re probably going to be running scepter + 1h sword, and again using the final 10 points in zeal for 100 power and some useless grandmaster trait. Possibly focus mastery, that would be semi useful.

When you concede to only using 1 melee weapon, 10/30/0/5/25 is actually very almost the same 1h dps as 30/30/0/5/5 anyway. At which point you’ve given up 20% boon duration, absolute resolution and consecration mastery for nothing. The reason for this is that going above 10 zeal only gives you a decent boost when you know you’ll be weapon swapping.

I’d say 20/30/0/10/10 or 20/30/0/0/20 if you can deal without vigor is probably more viable than this. Swap between scepter +10% trait and GS +5% trait depending on the situation. For trash or bosses you melee, use GS/Sword. For ranged fights use Scepter/Sword. I can see no scenario where having 30 in radiance, and still taking both the GS and Scepter traits would be useful. At least this way you can bring -some- group support. Though realistically, I still prefer 10/30/0/5/25. Worst case scenario I lose a tiny bit of dps.. but the support is great. Finally if you are ranging a boss.. It is easier to keep unscathed up. In which case if you want more scepter dps it is a possibility.

I like Nemesis.
Unfortunately, his views always seem to be pretty weird. He always tries to find something different just for the sake of being different.

Many of his builds, his thinking about the traits etc. would require an answer from outside the box (build being inside the box): PVE. The PVE in this game does not match his way of thinking.

On the other hand, he again proved that the skills are broken (tooltips, skills, animation times etc.), so I guess that counts as helping the community.

I already fear his tank build; the amount of people we have to kick out of our PUGs after he releases his tank are going to be outrageous.

I really appreciate his effort and I’d really like to see a reason for this build diversity (choosing between tank / dps etc), but it just does not exist in the PVE of this game (yet?) and this fact has been proven often enough.

Maybe I’m just used to it in college, but I don’t have a problem with a foreign guy talking to me for an hour straight.

Anyway, I can easily tell that Nemesis isn’t as experienced with the guardian. I myself am not that experienced with PVE guardians, but I already have ideas on how to improve on his build and rotation. Particularly by using using smite + shield of wrath at point blank, following through with symbol of wrath + whirling wrath while using VoJ + blinding blade to maintain blinds while engaging multiple enemies at point blank range. Smite is good, but it only hits one target. If multiple enemies are in range (which should be the plan), then prioritizing the hammer or greatsword should be more important. 15 in zeal should make it so burning is nigh permanent on enemies anyway, especially with other teammates providing so much additional burning.

Then again, my current guardian is under level 40, so I only know so much. All I know is that my favorite spec (spirit weapons) doesn’t work that well. There are a couple of things I have to give Nemesis credit in:

#1: This is not a staff in clerics build. That is the build I usually see inexperienced players using in PVE, and Nemesis build + tactics are far preferable. 2438 power, 97% crit damage, and 99% crit chance isn’t that bad. At face value (no additional buffs), it actually outperforms my thief build (5765 EFP vs. 5624 EFP), and matches the damage modifiers. Though the story changes once I get fury going, I still find it hard to criticize that.

#2: At the end of the video, Nemesis goes through customizing the build, and brings up several changes and options that people might go for. Among these he lists

A)Unscathed Contender (and along with it, inspired virtues)
B)Runes of the Scholar
C)Switching out signets for appropriate support skills.
D)Switching torch for focus
E)Reducing precision for power in groups with high group fury and banners.

And it is on this note I watch the rather hilarious phenomenon when people introduce criticisms that Nemesis has already levied against himself.

When Nemesis refers to elitism, I think he is referring to the expectation that guardians should be dedicated to supporting and heals. I do see this on occasion, with players trying to recruit guardians specifically to be heal bot. It is a bit of a “n00b elitism” where players who don’t know enough about the game to know that they don’t know enough about the game insist on certain specs and class roles that, while making sense in a traditional MMO, are nigh rubbish in GW2.

You are right that this build is much better than many horrible builds too many people still use. And it is, especially due to the variations at the end, preferable compared to that youtube guy who has several orgasms over his amazing celestial bullkitten build … so that might count as an improvement

BUT … his tank build is on the way, so brace yourselves.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

When Nemesis refers to elitism, I think he is referring to the expectation that guardians should be dedicated to supporting and heals. I do see this on occasion, with players trying to recruit guardians specifically to be heal bot. It is a bit of a “n00b elitism” where players who don’t know enough about the game to know that they don’t know enough about the game insist on certain specs and class roles that, while making sense in a traditional MMO, are nigh rubbish in GW2.

But he’s waiting to do just that, push the guardian back to the traditional role.
“I made this video so I can safely make the tank guardian build”. Actual quote from the video. He’s fully going to support what you’re calling the n00b elitism of expecting guardians to fulfill traditional mmo roles rather than supporting only through active defenses like reflect, blind and aegis.

He might turn into the guardian edition of what Dontain and the Sonic Boon build have been for the warriors. A serious pug disaster. Great marketing, great visibility, names for the build, no substance in reality, only in a fictional game world that only exists in the creator’s head. A world of fiction where condition damage is a “must have” in any decent party composition, a mesmer can use a wvwvw build in PVE and a guardian is a tank.

Im fairly sure he is referring to proper dps guards. Seeing as ive been on TS with him when doing some pvp stuff a few times and i remember telling him about dps guardians and how they are the only viable choice for dungeons.

I like people trying out new things, but I gotta be honest, I stopped watching right after I saw the signetmania.

" they are the only viable choice for dungeons"

Can you explain what you mean by the only viable choice?

spoj.9672:

… dps guardians and how they are the only optimal choice for dungeons.

Corrected for you.

I wondered when he was going to make another video. I hope he hops in this thread. He usually puts up a pretty good argument for his builds, and I’d like to see why he thinks this is better than the meta.

EDIT: Here is a link to the build if anyone is too lazy to watch: 30/30/5/5/0

He says he likes Signets because of the CC, but they can be swapped for support utilities.

If you’re playing in a group with fury you can swap to Unscathed Contender and Scholar Runes.

So what exactly is he saying about the scepter tooltips? Last I checked they were all mostly correct.

Finnway.2183:

I wondered when he was going to make another video. I hope he hops in this thread. He usually puts up a pretty good argument for his builds, and I’d like to see why he thinks this is better than the meta.

I doubt you can make anything reasonable out of that build.

Finnway.2183:

If you’re playing in a group with fury you can swap to Unscathed Contender and Scholar Runes.

So if you get lucky enough to have even one Warrior, Elementalist, or even Engineer, in your group, then he says to ignore his video and run a different build.

Check. Will do.

Watched most of the video. It’s not a bad or horrible build. However there are better options out there.

To be honest at this stage I’ll take anything zerker over the altruistic healing tanks.

Personally I’ve been partial to the 15/15/0/20/10 (+10 pts somewhere) hammer builds so I have no horse in the pure DPS discussion but….

fadeaway.2807:

To be honest at this stage I’ll take anything zerker over the altruistic healing tanks.

Definitely this.

I love how when some people say this is a horrible build they look like they clearly haven’t watched the whole video.

And even inforemd criticisms, Nemesis already mentioned about swapping out the signets for the support utility skills that so many people are used to. And if you don’t like this build, fine. It was already mentioned this is a completely new build and some people are not going to receive it well since everyone is pretty much expecting a guard to support. Yes, Obal’s build has good support along with some very good dps. And if you weren’t paying attention, Nemesis is going more for what a pure dps would look like on a guard. And that is exactly what the build does. Obal’s build is just what fits best with the meta now since everyone still wants a guard to support while still giving out good dps.

chaplain.9261:

I love how when some people say this is a horrible build they look like they clearly haven’t watched the whole video.

And even inforemd criticisms, Nemesis already mentioned about swapping out the signets for the support utility skills that so many people are used to. And if you don’t like this build, fine. It was already mentioned this is a completely new build and some people are not going to receive it well since everyone is pretty much expecting a guard to support. Yes, Obal’s build has good support along with some very good dps. And if you weren’t paying attention, Nemesis is going more for what a pure dps would look like on a guard. And that is exactly what the build does. Obal’s build is just what fits best with the meta now since everyone still wants a guard to support while still giving out good dps.

First of all, why on earth would I sit through half an hour of him running around Orr timing himself killing things? Why? Don’t criticize people for “not watching the whole video” when half of the video is less interesting than watching ink dry.

Second, even from a “pure DPS” standpoint Nemesis makes mistakes. Picking Valorous Defense instead of Inspired Virtue when he has Renewed Justice is a mistake. Using a Scepter in dungeons is a mistake, save for certain bosses. Using a Torch in dungeons is a mistake. Using Cleansing Flame especially is a mistake. Make all the excuses for him you want; His build has real problems.

He uses a torch? Lol.

In all seriousness, let’s stop picking on the guy, he’s clearly new to guardians. And he still came up with a better build than Strife did after purportedly thousands of hours playing his guardian (was it 0/15/30/20/5 in knights gear that Strife ran?). Nemesis’s build isn’t, like, outright bad per se, it’s just not minmaxed. If someone were to run this in a dungeon I probably wouldn’t kick him or anything, he’s still better than an AH cleric guard.

It’s the people coming in here going OMG NEMESIS DISCOVERED THE NEW META GUYS CHECK IT OUT that are making him look bad more than anything. So stop it. If I understand it correctly he’s not even saying that, he’s just saying he found a fun build to screw around with if you don’t feel like minmaxing.

Unless then he is, then lol @ him.

foofad.5162:

chaplain.9261:

I love how when some people say this is a horrible build they look like they clearly haven’t watched the whole video.

And even inforemd criticisms, Nemesis already mentioned about swapping out the signets for the support utility skills that so many people are used to. And if you don’t like this build, fine. It was already mentioned this is a completely new build and some people are not going to receive it well since everyone is pretty much expecting a guard to support. Yes, Obal’s build has good support along with some very good dps. And if you weren’t paying attention, Nemesis is going more for what a pure dps would look like on a guard. And that is exactly what the build does. Obal’s build is just what fits best with the meta now since everyone still wants a guard to support while still giving out good dps.

First of all, why on earth would I sit through half an hour of him running around Orr timing himself killing things? Why? Don’t criticize people for “not watching the whole video” when half of the video is less interesting than watching ink dry.

Second, even from a “pure DPS” standpoint Nemesis makes mistakes. Picking Valorous Defense instead of Inspired Virtue when he has Renewed Justice is a mistake. Using a Scepter in dungeons is a mistake, save for certain bosses. Using a Torch in dungeons is a mistake. Using Cleansing Flame especially is a mistake. Make all the excuses for him you want; His build has real problems.

And that’s suppose to be an actual constructive criticism in what way? Timing does matter in dungeons and pve. I’m not sure about the exact math but the scepter skills timing compared the greatsword timing is crucial. Everyone knows the more damage you do per second the faster you can down the boss. And that doesn’t just include how much you can do in one hit. I’ve seen too many zerker warriors not being able to dodge and completely fail a dungeon run. That’s why dps uptime matters and that’s why Nemesis showed the timing of the damage in those tests. Since the scepter is able to stay ranged at 1200 distance then its a better chance at more dps uptime. That should of been no argument there.

The one thing I will say is that Obal’s build is probably better at AoE dmg than Nemesis. Even with the AoE dmg rotation, I’m not sure if it does as good of dmg as the other sword/focus + gs builds.

I think he picked valorous defense because that trait line includes crit damage which this build takes advantage of and this build is definitely not for tanking so those points for aegis is to I would think give this build the little bit of time to dodge away and heal. And I agree, I would actually prefer those 5 points in virtues too. And I’d still keep Master of consecrations too just cause I do still like to support as a guard and I rather not rely on signets for condition removal.

But all in all, even given the criticisms, this is not a horrible build. Let’s not forget, we can either take any of these builds or leave it. Its our choice. We all have our own playing styles at the end of the day.

Acerola.6407:

I already fear his tank build; the amount of people we have to kick out of our PUGs after he releases his tank are going to be outrageous.

I was with a guardian in TA yesterday that made a point of not using a staff because it’s a bad and useless wep.
There are plenty of different people out there…

chaplain.9261:

foofad.5162:

chaplain.9261:

I love how when some people say this is a horrible build they look like they clearly haven’t watched the whole video.

And even inforemd criticisms, Nemesis already mentioned about swapping out the signets for the support utility skills that so many people are used to. And if you don’t like this build, fine. It was already mentioned this is a completely new build and some people are not going to receive it well since everyone is pretty much expecting a guard to support. Yes, Obal’s build has good support along with some very good dps. And if you weren’t paying attention, Nemesis is going more for what a pure dps would look like on a guard. And that is exactly what the build does. Obal’s build is just what fits best with the meta now since everyone still wants a guard to support while still giving out good dps.

First of all, why on earth would I sit through half an hour of him running around Orr timing himself killing things? Why? Don’t criticize people for “not watching the whole video” when half of the video is less interesting than watching ink dry.

Second, even from a “pure DPS” standpoint Nemesis makes mistakes. Picking Valorous Defense instead of Inspired Virtue when he has Renewed Justice is a mistake. Using a Scepter in dungeons is a mistake, save for certain bosses. Using a Torch in dungeons is a mistake. Using Cleansing Flame especially is a mistake. Make all the excuses for him you want; His build has real problems.

And that’s suppose to be an actual constructive criticism in what way? Timing does matter in dungeons and pve. I’m not sure about the exact math but the scepter skills timing compared the greatsword timing is crucial. Everyone knows the more damage you do per second the faster you can down the boss. And that doesn’t just include how much you can do in one hit. I’ve seen too many zerker warriors not being able to dodge and completely fail a dungeon run. That’s why dps uptime matters and that’s why Nemesis showed the timing of the damage in those tests. Since the scepter is able to stay ranged at 1200 distance then its a better chance at more dps uptime. That should of been no argument there.

I’m having a hard time parsing how anything you just said relates in any way to anything I said. I did not say DPS didn’t matter. I did not say timing didn’t matter. What I did say is that I don’t think I need to watch half an hour of PvE DPS tests in order to have an informed opinion of the build.

foofad.5162:

chaplain.9261:

foofad.5162:

chaplain.9261:

I love how when some people say this is a horrible build they look like they clearly haven’t watched the whole video.

And even inforemd criticisms, Nemesis already mentioned about swapping out the signets for the support utility skills that so many people are used to. And if you don’t like this build, fine. It was already mentioned this is a completely new build and some people are not going to receive it well since everyone is pretty much expecting a guard to support. Yes, Obal’s build has good support along with some very good dps. And if you weren’t paying attention, Nemesis is going more for what a pure dps would look like on a guard. And that is exactly what the build does. Obal’s build is just what fits best with the meta now since everyone still wants a guard to support while still giving out good dps.

First of all, why on earth would I sit through half an hour of him running around Orr timing himself killing things? Why? Don’t criticize people for “not watching the whole video” when half of the video is less interesting than watching ink dry.

Second, even from a “pure DPS” standpoint Nemesis makes mistakes. Picking Valorous Defense instead of Inspired Virtue when he has Renewed Justice is a mistake. Using a Scepter in dungeons is a mistake, save for certain bosses. Using a Torch in dungeons is a mistake. Using Cleansing Flame especially is a mistake. Make all the excuses for him you want; His build has real problems.

And that’s suppose to be an actual constructive criticism in what way? Timing does matter in dungeons and pve. I’m not sure about the exact math but the scepter skills timing compared the greatsword timing is crucial. Everyone knows the more damage you do per second the faster you can down the boss. And that doesn’t just include how much you can do in one hit. I’ve seen too many zerker warriors not being able to dodge and completely fail a dungeon run. That’s why dps uptime matters and that’s why Nemesis showed the timing of the damage in those tests. Since the scepter is able to stay ranged at 1200 distance then its a better chance at more dps uptime. That should of been no argument there.

I’m having a hard time parsing how anything you just said relates in any way to anything I said. I did not say DPS didn’t matter. I did not say timing didn’t matter. What I did say is that I don’t think I need to watch half an hour of PvE DPS tests in order to have an informed opinion of the build.

Okay maybe I was off on your judgement.

You would agree with me that if you just based the build on like just a couple of minutes of the video it wouldn’t be a very fair judgement of the build. Right? There’s a lot of information in there and I wasn’t really referring to people who are experienced with playing guardians and know what they are doing like you.

I was more referring to people are making unfair judgements of the build and who were too lazy to watch the whole video. Kinda like the short offensive comments that were under video.

Also, I was kinda hoping you would elaborate more on why those things you listed were “mistakes” and why his build has “real problems.” You didn’t really expand on that. Which prompted me to think you missed some key parts of the video. Maybe you watched the whole thing. Maybe you didn’t. I don’t know.

Why should anyone waste an entire hour on watching a video from a guy who has no idea of the class? Looking at the trait menu he shows at ~10 min is more than enough.

I got lost when we started drawing comparisons to Obal’s build.

“I got lost when we started drawing comparisons to Obal’s build.”

You got lost in what way? Obal’s build is as far as I know what most min/maxing guardians use currently.

the problem with going with scepter is that you are probably ranged and won’t get might stacks.

furthermore if you are ranged you should really consider taking Unscathed Contender as the uptime of that increases.

I don’t want to pile on, so I’ll keep this general and make a statement about things like MMO builds and metas etc.

Crowdsourcing is powerful. It is even more powerful than peoples’ innate resistance to change. Even if you are the smartest guy in the game, which Nemesis may be, the chances of coming up with something so different than the meta and superior to the meta, is next to zero. A lone genius might have a eureka moment sure, but the chances of that are significantly smaller than thousands of slightly-less-than-geniuses collaborating together finding a superior solution are.

It’s almost like he didn’t read anything the community posted on guardians… or he did and wanted to do the opposite because there is something there we obviously have missed…

As Guang stated above, this is still better than Strife’s anchor guardian build which he created after 1000+ hours, a build DnT members defended on Guru against numerous critics that pointed out that full zerker Guardian specced for damage was far superior. I understand that plenty of people came to trash Nemesis for his build which he made with 0 prior experience with Guardian but where were you guys when Strife was posting his anchor nonsense? Yeah…