Guild Wars 2

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Symbolic power is a rather poor grandmaster minor trait.

Agreed. It can be ok in GS burst build as it pushes Symbol of Wrath over the 2.5k crit per tick mark, but really you have to sacrifice too much for it to be worth it in general.

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Symbolic power is a rather poor grandmaster minor trait.
Consider the base damage of hammer chain being 296 + 333 + 370, and the symbol being 185 per tick (925 total with writ of persistence).
The total being 1924, roughly half of that coming from your symbol. That means roughly a 5% increase in overall dps from a 10% increase in symbols.
Mighty blow causes this overall increase to drop, as your dps comes less from the symbol and more from mighty blow.

100 power and just under 5% more dps is nice, but I think I’d rather have 10 in virtues for the consecration. The virtue of justice spam causing 3xMight alone will probably make up for the dps.

Thanks for taking the time to put things in perspective for me. I appreciate it!

Aza.2105:

foofad.5162:

Aza.2105:

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I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

Does it take symbolic power into consideration?

Nope, but unless you need to know exactly how much of a damage increase it is, you don’t really need to know that; You just know that your damage increase is whatever the percentage difference is between the two effective powers, plus +10% on top of that when it comes to your symbol.

If you do need to know precisely how much it is, the coefficient for a tick of Symbol of Protection is .55. Damage is given as the formula damage = [coefficient * power * average weapon damage]/armor. Tooltips use 2600 as the armor value. So you’d figure that out, then multiply by 1.1 to include the Symbolic Power increase.

34se

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Aza.2105:

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I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

Most (or alot) traits, are not calculated by buildcraft. It´s better to draw both builds on a paper, burn it. And then try to read out of the ashes what is better.

I would say (to Aza) 25 in zeal is worse. Cause there is no usefull Mastertrait.

And 10% dmg to symbols is not so strong. Picking up unscathing contender and a 10/25/0/25/10 build will be “maxdps” with our Hammer. But most times vulnerabilty is not at 25 stacks. And 15/25/0/20/10 will be better.

Or at least. “Hammer DPS Support” 15/25/0/30/0, no traited WoR and so on. But Symbolic Exposure+Empowering Might, could be usefull in some groups and if u can´t hold UC active for lo period of time.

Edit: Fadeaway calculated it already, saw it too late.

But there is still the lightfield, which is preventing my gruops from effectivly stacking might in combat. -.-, The Hammer could be so great, but this combofield….

Norjena.5172:

34se

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Aza.2105:

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I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

Most (or alot) traits, are not calculated by buildcraft. It´s better to draw both builds on a paper, burn it. And then try to read out of the ashes what is better.

I would say (to Aza) 25 in zeal is worse. Cause there is no usefull Mastertrait.

And 10% dmg to symbols is not so strong. Picking up unscathing contender and a 10/25/0/25/10 build will be “maxdps” with our Hammer. But most times vulnerabilty is not at 25 stacks. And 15/25/0/20/10 will be better.

Or at least. “Hammer DPS Support” 15/25/0/30/0, no traited WoR and so on. But Symbolic Exposure+Empowering Might, could be usefull in some groups and if u can´t hold UC active for lo period of time.

Edit: Fadeaway calculated it already, saw it too late.

But there is still the lightfield, which is preventing my gruops from effectivly stacking might in combat. -.-, The Hammer could be so great, but this combofield….

I think 10/25/0/25/10 would be a no brainer if elusive power was changed to provide the +10% damage increase when endurance is full. The +10% damage is hard to maintain with how the skill works now, its at odds with vigorous precision.

Thanks to everyone who provided calculations.

Elusive Power is really not worth investing 5 points in just for it. If you’re going 30 Honor anyway, there’s no complaint; but putting in 25 is really pointless. You’d be much better off putting that in Zeal, Radiance, or Virtues.

foofad.5162:

Elusive Power is really not worth investing 5 points in just for it. If you’re going 30 Honor anyway, there’s no complaint; but putting in 25 is really pointless. You’d be much better off putting that in Zeal, Radiance, or Virtues.

Yup, thats why I said if Elusive Power worked when endurance is full (as oppose to not full) then it would be no brainer to take it with this build.

I wish they changed it, but I don’t think they will.