Guild Wars 2

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.7.0.18.4.4.0.4.54.74.69.68.76.8.8.6.152.157.162.0.0.0.0.0.0.198.205.204.216.0.0.30.0.0.30.10

Hi,

The above is a GS build that revolves around 2 things:

1) Symbols are bigger and heal
2) GS attacks heals

Stats:

Power : 2199
Precision : 976
Toughness : 1620
Vitality : 1920
Attack : 3316
WeaponDamage : 1117
ConditionDamage :0
CritChance : 11.86
CritDamage : 12
Armor : 2831
Defense : 704
HP : 20845
Healing : 300

Is this enough to keep me up in dungeons and PvP? How would you improve on it? More healing and less HP?

GS builds that revolve around symbols and healing lost roughly 50% of their effectiveness since the GS nerf. Will you die if you run it? Probably not, but it won’t be nearly as effective as running a Mace/OH + Staff or something like that. Also, dipping that high into Zeal isn’t worth it just to get the GS healing, since I believe it only heals for something like 25 per strike per enemy. It also does not scale well at all with healing power.

Would GS healing proc Healers Retribution (Radiance I) which gives 3 sec of retaliation? Other wise I see your point, in other words 100% up time for Retaliation as long as GS is doing damage.

I don’t recall if Healer’s Retribution specifically refers to your healing skill (slot 6), but that would be my guess. I’m at work so I can’t look it up without a link to the text and I’m lazy right now, sorry. So to answer, if it says a “healing ability” or “healing skill” it would not grant retaliation. Otherwise it might.

However, I don’t believe there is any way to currently keep retaliation up 100% with Healers Retribution, otherwise it would be a little overpowered.

while i believe the healing output will be nice, i say that you should not expect it to let you “tank and spank” a boss of a dungeon, but other than that it should allow you to be able to recover health fast enough with other complimentary utility skills like “hold the line”, as well as with with dodgning around, should make it a very good support healing like that, i would just suggest to keep mobile, like always

I just tested it and I need to cast a healing ability for retaliation to pop so you are correct its a weak ability.

Symbol healing is nice even now and even with just 300 healing, against 1 attacker I mitigate well but I am no tank.

If you really want to run a healing through symbols build you should consider picking up a set of Cleric’s gear. Run with a x/x/30/30/x or x/x/30/20/x build and make sure to pick up Altruistic Healing. If you are running Symbols I would encourage the x/x/30/30/x build and more specifically, 0/5/30/30/5.

That used to be my build with Greatsword and I loved it. Now it doesn’t work as well with the 20 second recharge on the Symbol. If you love the Greatsword you may want to consider picking up 2-Handed Mastery and drop one of your Symbol traits, if you can. Otherwise drop the Greatsword and replace it with a Mace/OH or perhaps a Hammer (I personally find the Hammer mind-numbingly boring in PvE). Or you could always just keep your Symbol traits and roll with the Greatsword. It won’t be as effective as it used to be but it definitely still works.

I’m using this build (except I spend the last 10 points in Valor for Meditations or extra Crit) for a very long time now and I can say it’s probably one of the most efficient builds you can get.

The nerf to the Symbol of Wrath was (also) probably due to this Symbol healing, because frankly, it was pretty OP before. You’d get a 650 Heal every 8 seconds before, with 0 healing on gear, just the 300 from Honor.
Now it’s not as great, but it’s still pretty good. Against regular mobs, even huge packs of them, I can hold myself pretty nice, and if you use Hammer / Staff as your second weapon you can get up to 2 Symbols at once for massive damage/healing.

How does it hold on dungeons? I don’t know, because really, dungeon damage is meant to be avoided… if you’re dying in dungeons it’s not because your build sucks, but because you’re taking damage that you’re supposed to avoid.

Zealous Blade is not good for single enemies, but it was useful since it proccs for your Symbol of Wrath damages as well. So, before, you’d get another extra 125 health per enemy inside your Symbol of Wrath every 8 seconds.

Hmm, before the nerf, this build was sure a monster…
It’s not as great (read: overpowered) as before, but I think it still does pretty well, but it’s more on par with other builds now.

Went into the mist and did some PvP, every death was due to conditions, I also had 0 points in Zeal.

Would do you recommend as a ‘theme’ to a GS build? Symbol healing, meditation, conc or shouts? Or Signets!

Cempa.3645:

Went into the mist and did some PvP, every death was due to conditions, I also had 0 points in Zeal.

Would do you recommend as a ‘theme’ to a GS build? Symbol healing, meditation, conc or shouts? Or Signets!

You probably want to try an Altruistic Healing build. Something along the lines of 0/10/30/30/0, grab Empowered Might (Honor VIII) and maximize Precision and Toughness. That build removes two conditions per 10s with Signet of Resolve and Purity (Valor V) and you can grab the extra skills to remove more if you need. Sigil of Strength on your weapon for more boon proccing/healing goodness.

I run wPvP with that build and stay upright against anything but a good focus fire (usually because I blundered ahead of my own zerg). The idea behind it is that in a group (or zerg) I’m spreading boons around to my team mates, and getting heals for all of them (including on every crit).

As an FYI Symbol healing is decent as an additive (similar to the Regen boon) but it won’t keep you upright in and of itself.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmcV0z0MzmRNvomRNvm0axx0MoVqcRa8khT707khT707khT707kIw70m7kuH7owX70m

Hope that helped

Thanks for your build it looks good.

What do you think of this build:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.5.0.18.4.4.0.4.54.74.72.69.76.8.8.37.0.0.0.167.0.0.181.0.0.198.205.204.216.218.0.0.10.10.30.20

GS / Mace+Focus

Idea is keep regen rolling and use Symbol healing as top offs. Damage is focusing on burns from virtue of Justice. Though I suspect using a rune with +Might duration might also work.

Cempa.3645:

Thanks for your build it looks good.

What do you think of this build:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.5.0.18.4.4.0.4.54.74.72.69.76.8.8.37.0.0.0.167.0.0.181.0.0.198.205.204.216.218.0.0.10.10.30.20

GS / Mace+Focus

Idea is keep regen rolling and use Symbol healing as top offs. Damage is focusing on burns from virtue of Justice. Though I suspect using a rune with +Might duration might also work.

As a PvE build it looks fine. You might want to rethink Master of Consecrations (Virtue VI) since you’re only utilizing one Consecration. Vengeful might give you more bang for your buck.

In PvP I’ve found that the Mace isn’t a mobile enough weapon for me. But you have Judge’s Intervention so that might alleviate that somewhat. Symbols are virtually worthless in PvP in my experience (especially WvWvW) … too much movement. But try them out and draw your own conclusions. You can use them in your setup as a sort of “catch your breath (health)” mechanism but I think you’ll find yourself often times not wanting to hang out in them (or not being able to) for the regen. YMMV.

For GS in PvE, improved Symbols are awesome.

I pick Zeal 30 and Honor 30 for all the Symbol enhancements I can, and I think they’re pretty awesome – they hit for 500~700 each, heals for 130 each tick, applies vulnerability, wide area…

For PvP and WvW, they’re not so much useful, so you might want to pick something else. Since PvE and WvW is the same build, I use the same one (Zeal/Honor) and just switch a few traits for Shouts, Might on Crit, Battle Presence, etc
Or I just keep the same ones and I try to look for skirmishes around towers…

They’re at least useful when you can get in the middle of the enemy zerg, pop a Symbol, Binding Blades -> Pull, Whirling Wrath. All the while using Save Yourselves for extra damage and protection, and Stand Your Ground and Shelter to get away back to safety.
Sometimes you might get someone down, but you won’t be able to finish them (just hope your team AoE does, but usually never do) so it’s not really worth the effort, but it is fun…

For utility skills I recommend Meditations or Shouts if you plan on 1v1 alot, Consecrations for group support, Signets never tried but you can get some pretty awesome stats with them.

Master of Consecrations is really worth it even if you use only 1 Consecration (Wall of Reflection) simply because it is freaking awesome. You get a 10 second reflect every 40 seconds (30 seconds downtime) compared to a 12 second reflect every 32 seconds (20 seconds downtime). It’s totally worth it for defending locations.

Kruunch, I run with an Altruistic Healing build too but I run with Sigil of Blood, the lifesteal on crit, instead of the might sigil. Do you get more healing from might procs, or do you use it because you get might in addition to healing? As I understand, the lifesteal sigil also deals extra damage when it procs amd heals more, but I cant say for certain. I was curious aboutyour opinion.

Great stuff guys thanks, much appreciated insight.