Guild Wars 2

valour is trash, stick those 30 points in radiance and take right hand strength since you’re using s/f

swap staff with GS, staff is terrible except situations like where your pug sucks at might stacking pre-fight or line of warding in ascalon fractal

sigil of strength isn’t worth it since you don’t attack fast enough (like say, a necro with dagger does) so just go with either night, force, or enemy slaying. you could try bloodlust for power stacks too since 30 radiance and RHS gives you pretty insane crit chance anyway.

I’d go for a middle way.

The second build looks ok but 20 pts in zeal are not worth it imo (10 have a sense, 20 for GS trait no – imo), and yes Vigorous Precision would help you a ton. 10/30/0/20/10 would be my choice based on that build.

My suggestion actually would be going deep 30 points in Vitality line (Superior Aria + Pure of Voice + good 3rd trait options like Empowering Might) and take again shouts (Syg + another, HtL or Retreat). Stick with 30 points in Radiance for RHS and damage traits.

We’re looking at a x/30/0/30/x build. Last 10 points can go either in Zeal (Fiery Wrath) or Virtues (Consacrations CD/duration).

For a fractal specific build, Virtues would be my choice (Wall of Reflection).

So:
Zerk trinkets/weapon/armor/rune
0/30(VI, X, XI)/0/30(II, VIII, XI)/10 (VI)
Shelter, SyG + Retreat(swap with something else as needed) + WoR, RF.
Sword + Focus & GS/Hammer/Scepter+Focus depending on situation.

If you feel confident dropping to 20 pts in Honor, the build before (10/30/0/20/10) is valid too. 10 points in Zeal can be handy in fractals for the Spirit Weapon trait, when needed, on top of Fiery Wrath.

colesy.8490:

valour is trash, stick those 30 points in radiance and take right hand strength since you’re using s/f

swap staff with GS, staff is terrible except situations like where your pug sucks at might stacking pre-fight or line of warding in ascalon fractal

Valor isn’t trash if you use it right. I’ve run 10/30/30/0/0 RHS Monks Focus build up in the mid 30’s fractals without problem. The added crit damage makes it absolutely viable and competitive compared to other builds. I honestly haven’t cared to push past mid 30’s and can’t vouch for it above my experience though. Problem with Valor is its mostly played with a x/x/30/30/x build which isn’t great for DPS.

Staff also is a great utility weapon, never leave home without it. It’s damage isn’t real high but its ability to help you run past stuff is great. Nice quick frontal cone damage also. It has its place.

When you’re looking at damage output most Guard weapons have the potential to do about the same DPS with the exception of Staff. In practice if you gear DPS and build with at least a few % damage traits you will be competitive with most other classes/builds from what I’ve tested.

I ran 10/30/0/30/0 for a long time and I was very happy with it, 10/30/0/20/10 will work well. Your build lacks Elusive Power but I view it more as mitigation of damage loss from dodging than a reliable DPS increase. Run Unscathed Contender in situations where you don’t use Wall of Reflection. I would suggest GSword, Sword or Mace for melee and Scepter/Focus for a second weapon set.

Blood~

I’ve done many level 40 fractals runs using 0/30/30/0/10 and mostly berzerker sometimes(some situations I swap in some PTV gear), but often using scepter mainhand, I use all kinds of weapons depending on the map though.

It’s all about burning through the boss fights quickly, unscathed defender is huge with scepter and on other encounters master of consecration is huge, I feel 0/30/30/0/10 was my best build of many after many high level fractals, it’s versatile and does amazing single target dps with 1 handers.

The reason you want points in valor imho has nothing to do with altruistic healing although it’s a nice trickle heal sometimes, it’s all about the crit damage to go with RH strength while giving you toughness so you don’t become a total liability when you have a bad dodging day.

Oh yeah it’s good to have some endurance regenmight on dodge food in your back pocket for stuff like lava boss since you won’t get vigor on crit.

Incomingray.8075:

The reason you want points in valor imho has nothing to do with altruistic healing although it’s a nice trickle heal sometimes, it’s all about the crit damage to go with RH strength while giving you toughness so you don’t become a total liability when you have a bad dodging day.

On paper yes, if you had to choose between Valor (Toughness + Crit Dmg) and Valor (Vitality + Healin Power) the former would be better, stat wise.

The issue are traits.
Valor traits are miles better than Honor ones, which is usually (trait wise) either “AH” or “Meditations” perk. Both of them offers much less than Valor, which pack: Shout CD, Pure of Voice and party wide dmg boost (Empowering Might), plus tons of other cool traits that can come in handy on certain builds and situations, like Two handed mastery and Writ of Persistence.
And that’s only about Major traits.

Minor…
Honor: Aegis at 50% hp, Aegis on Rally, Might on Block.
Valor: perma vigor, heal on dodge, dmg boost (10% iirc) with endurance not full.

That’s kind a 3 – 0 for Valor.

That’s why personally, if i have to choose between the two (which is the case in a build packing RHS), i’d always go for Valor.

Andrew you mixed up Honor and Valor Anyways, I don’t agree that Honors traits are better for this approach(wearing berserkers and having RH strength), in Valor getting precision for a % of your toughness helps dps, strength in numbers helps the group alot in the tough spots and altruistic healing can be quite helpful when you are under alot of pressure since wearing some berserkers means youre super squishy and i’m talking mostly advanced fractals(30-40+).

I think the healing power and vitality are kind of wasted for the usual dungeon run since people generally know what they’re doing and 99% of your truly helpful support can come from consecrations, using shield or shield of the avenger.(this has been a huge debate in the past on the forum though, i’m in the school of thought that you should support through utility and helping things die really fast, I run heavy healing in WvW but dont go near it in dungeons)

Just going by op’s intended style of doing almost max damage and not dying, I think Valor is the true happy place, 30% crit damage makes such a big difference with zerkers and rh strength, without it your damage is much much slower and thats my biggest concern, I want stuff to die asap, toughness is great for giving you time to react to the bursts, endurance regen food is always available when you need it to make up for the loss in perma vigor.

My build pretty much since release, 44fotm and easy dungeon exp runner.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgiCXFyLEf4ERWBRi9AjZE+XPooDZIA

Gear-zerker & some pow/prec/tough AH/might build & don’t listen anyone says staff is trash in pve, they don’t got a clue what they are talking about.

Incomingray.8075:

Andrew you mixed up Honor and Valor

Detailsssssssssssssssssss.

(duh)

Wetpaw.3487:

don’t listen anyone says staff is trash in pve, they don’t got a clue what they are talking about.

as a main weapon it is utter trash. no argument there. crap dps, worthless symbol (for most fights), some healing (which will not save your party members) and a ward that is inferior to the hammer one. staff camper guardians are among the worst kinds of trash PUGs that you can get.

I do see the benefits of the staff – but only if your group is incompetent at might stacking. even so I would only use the staff at the start of the fight then switch to a real weapon for the rest. don’t forget that the staff might stacks are fairly shortlived and that mightstacks from blast finishers/FGJ are always better.

guanlongwucaii.3162:

Wetpaw.3487:

don’t listen anyone says staff is trash in pve, they don’t got a clue what they are talking about.

as a main weapon it is utter trash. no argument there. crap dps, worthless symbol (for most fights), some healing (which will not save your party members) and a ward that is inferior to the hammer one. staff camper guardians are among the worst kinds of trash PUGs that you can get.

I do see the benefits of the staff – but only if your group is incompetent at might stacking. even so I would only use the staff at the start of the fight then switch to a real weapon for the rest. don’t forget that the staff might stacks are fairly shortlived and that mightstacks from blast finishers/FGJ are always better.

Don’t use staff as a main weapon for dmg, not made for that.
Ward is not inferior to the hammer at all, and thanks but I will take stacks of might/heal any day over hammer in dungeons.
Symbol is not really meant for combat..but comes in handy as most dungeon groups skip.
Staff healing/might has saved plenty of pugs, that’s in my zerk gear too.
Ranged* AE

For exp runs Staff in weapon set very beneficial, and hard to be replaced by any other weapons for a Guard secondary imo.

you do know that the might stacks from staff are crap and last only 10s right? blasting a fire field gives 3 stacks of might for 20 seconds. the staff heal is also paltry. 33% damage reduction all the time >>>>>>> weak 2k heals. hammer gives you less might but in organised groups this is no problem since you have other classes (warrior and ele) supplying might anyway.

in a decent run I would only use staff for skipping (though I normally find GS mobility and S/F block + gapcloser to be more useful) and certain other things (like TA blossoms).