Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

So ive hit a point that i cant decide between. I’ve gotten the best gear and outfitted it to what i spent hours number crunching to be the best for my style.

But the one thing im lacking is Crit Chance % and im currently deciding how much is really needed. Im deciding between Orich. Coral Rings with Exq Emerald Jewels inserted (i have a 2 of them) or between Orich. Beyrl Rings with Exq Beryl Jewels.

Stats right now with Coral Rings…

• Attack – 3.1k
• Armor – 2.6k
• HP – 16k
• Crit Chance % – 44% (39% (Base Crit) + 5% (Superior Sigil of Accuracy on Weapon))
• Crit Dmg % – 81%

Stats with Beryl Rings…

• Attack – 3.2k
• Armor – 2.5k
• HP – 17.3k
• Crit Chance % – 33% ( 28%(Base Crit) + 5%)
• Crit Dmg % – 93%

Now i know (IN THEORY) that Crit Dmg % isnt worth investing in if ur not actually Crit-ing. But i’d like some personal experience/input from some of the experienced Guardians out there.

Also would like an opinion on the Superior Sigil of Accuracy (Steady 5% Crit) vs Superior Sigil of Perception (Builds Stacks of Perception (max +250 Precision)) and whether you find the stacking process to be too much of a pain to maintain (of course its easy to say “well then dont die lolz” but that just isnt possible when ur running point on a strike team) and whether the effort/risk to maintain those stacks is worth it to make up for the increased amout of Crit %

Thanks guys, i appreciate any and all constructive help/thoughts on this.

- Tzenjin

Hi Tzenjin,

It looks like you’re going for a DPS build, so buffing your crit chance is probably a good idea. The more you crit, the more you can take advantage of that 81%-93% damage increase.

I think the Sigil of Perception if superior to the Sigil of Accuracy, because with a full stack you increase your crit rate by a full 10%. Yes, the charges can be an issue if you die a lot, but you can kills stuff relatively quickly to get those charges back. With your Beryl rings, a fully charged Sigil of Perception brings your crit rate up to 43%, which is great considering your increased health and damage stats that you get.

Add to that if you run with Bowls of Curry Butternut Squash Soup and Artisan Maintenance Oil, you could add an extra 10-15% of crit chance depending on your toughness and vitality. For DPS, if you’re able to crit at least 50% of the time, I’d say you’re ahead of the game. Minimum for crit chance for a DPS Guardian in my opinion would be 40%.

I’m no Guardian veteran, but I can help with numbers some. Keep in mind it is a bit hard to pass judgement without your trait build – if you have any “on crit” procs that can change the analysis.

As far as the crits go, if we assume a normal attack does 1.00 damage for Coral’s then some “expected results” are:

Option 1 gives 44 crits in 100 blows – dealing a total of 135.64 damage

Option 2 gives 33 crits in 100 blows – dealing a total of 130.69 damage, without the extra power.

Power scales linearly from what I’ve read and 3.2k over 3.1k is a 1.0322% increase. So factoring this in Option 2 gets:

A total 134.902 damage for Beryl, vs 135.64 for Coral.

These numbers are a little rough, more a quick idea then definitive. Coral will proc crit effects more often and will perform better in a very short period of time as it has a higher chance of criting more in 5 attacks or so. In the end, I’d pick whichever gives you the most utility.

If however you have no reason to have high crit other than damage, you’ll need to do a way more in depth look to consider the advantages of crit vs power (and also survivability). Sometimes it’s easier to get more damage and survivability from power since Crit requires stacking 2 stats for the same result as power. But then, our crit trait line in much better than the power one in general.

One more caveat here – if you are using the one-handed weapons have +15% to crit trait, the numbers will change (likely in favour of Beryl). The lower the initial crit%, the more damage output a flat % increase to that rating will achieve. (Just think of the difference in how may strokes in 100 crit with changes from 10% to 20% verses 65-75%)

Well i’ve been playing around with a couple ideas.

I have the Foundation of my character built around my build. I’ve been running this build since September… 10/0/30/30/0 which i’ve nick-named the Speed Tank because of the focus on reduced cooldowns.

Link : http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/guardian#7|0|3527|1311|12641|12643|3411|10|906|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1389|2175|1396|30|866|2274|1400|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Its a beautiful build imo, and im in love with the power i can bring. (I had a 4k Smite Condition last night which i thought was pretty beautiful.)

I’ve been testing this for the last couple days and i cant bring myself to a solid decision.

In a 1v1 skirmish i feel like the stacks pre-built up would get me farther, but if im in the middle of zerg and i should be downed and then rally’d, losing those stacks in the middle of a fight can be very damaging.

Thanks guys, your info is great

-Tzenjin

Hi Tzenjin,

You’re right, losing stacks in the middle of a zerg can be rough, but you can usually get them back fairly quickly. Also, if you’re running with consumables (soup and oil) the hit isn’t that bad. Plus, if you’re talking about WvW, be sure to take realm bonuses into account. If your server has an orb or three, your crit chance will be boosted, as will your health. So you might be able to get away with having less crit and more vitality in your build because of this.

Ultra,

You bring a great point with World Bonus’s. Personally tho, i believe they’re nice to have but and the end of the day you shouldnt be counting on it. And i’d hate to rely on something that i have no control over.

Im playing on Ehmry Bay and were getting stomped so even in my current situation it doesnt even look like i’ll be having any bonus’s lol

So my whole focus right now is maximizing the utility of my base stats.

- Tzenjin

Crit chance will usually rate higher than crit damage unless you have like no crit damage and extremely high crit chance.

i’d want to say that crit chance % over crit dmg, given you have a relatively low crit chance. although, once you get that number up, the more crit dmg will only further augment the crit chance % that you have. obviously we wouldn’t want really high crit chance and no crit dmg to support it. has anyone done some research where the optimal point / or ratio is? perhaps gw2 crt ratings don’t scale in such a way where that analysis is feasible though.

quick question regarding the Sigil of Perception. if i run hammer along with a weaponset including an offhand, if i have a sigil with cooldown on my alternate set mainhand, and then the sigil of perception on my offhand, will the sigil of perception be constant, regardless of the proc on my mainhand sigil? and i am assuming this won’t take place when i switch to the hammer (diff sigil). unless if i have the wrong grasp on how sigils work.

@Tzenjin – I hear ya. One rout you could go is to apply 6/6 Superior Runes of the Pack to your armor. The #6 buff is +100 to precision, which will give you an extra 4% to Crit Chance, that coupled with superior sigil of accuracy will mean a permanent +9% crit chance to your build.

I still think Sigil of Perception is the better option, because you only need around 13 kills to reach the precision you’d get from the Sigil of Accuracy, and you can kill 13 mobs pretty quick after a respawn to get that stat back up. But I understand if you’re looking for consistency. My reasoning is that the chance to have 10% increase in crit is much better than a constant 5% increase.

@akamon – Keep in mind that you can only have 1 charge from sigils active. So having more than 1 sigils on your weaponsets that create charges is a waste, since they don’t run concurrently.

The stack in precision from Perception will stay on you even if you switch weapon sets. The only time you lose it is if you’re downed, you die, or you switch maps. (You can teleport to other areas on the same map and it won’t be lost, but zoning into a new map removes the stack.)

If you have a sigil on your mainhand that procs with crit (let’s say 60% chance to heal when you crit), then yes, this stat will be affected by the increased crit chance you get from the Perception stats.

Ultra,

I’ve actually decided on skipping rune sets. With my build being a what it is and considering my play style, front line burst dps with a good surviability, i’ve tried to push the limits on stacking stats. I’ve currently been using Orbs instead of Rune’s. I find they’re more capable of “Fine Tuning” of stats.

After a good 6-hour session of testing what i’ve recently decided to change. I’ve been able to do impressively well and i’ve decided to use the Superior Sigil of Perception, thanks ultra haha, i tested it and my survivability is high enough to keep me alive without being downed or having to worry. If im downed im usually too far deep and am as good as dead anyway.

I pretty happy as of right now.

• Attack – 3,216
• Crit Chance % – 30% (42% at 25 Stacks of Accuracy)
• Crit Dmg % – 93%
• Armor – 2,555
• HP – 16,905

And with Food/Oil (Precison/Crit Dmg ) i can push it to a solid 50% crit and 103% dmg.

- Tzenjin

Tzenjin, that’s awesome man. Over 3K power, 50% crit, and 103% crit damage with around 17K HP? Now that’s what I call BEAST. lol. I’d love to see a detailed breakdown of your build if you feel like sharing. I have a DPS build I use but the stats aren’t quite as high as yours so I’d like to see what you’re doing.

Also, when you say “Orbs,” do you mean Crests? Cause I don’t know of any Orbs you can apply to armor.

@Tzenjin – agreed! that is a pretty beastly build you have there. you should definitely be very happy!

@Ultra – thanks for the elaboration! gives me a better idea of how sigils work. appreciate your constant contributions in the realm of Guardians.

Ultra,

Send me a message in-game and i’ll give you a better idea of what it is with some examples to go along with it and breakdown the theory i have built around it.

As for the Armor Slots, yes i use Orbs. Not exquisite jewels but the yellow rarity Orbs you get from mining Orichalcum Nodes.

Regular Orbs – For Armor/Weapon stuff.
Exquisite Jewels – For Accessories/Rings/Amulet

Exquisite Jewels are made from Orbs.

- Tzenjin

Edit: The invitation extends to you Akamon as well if you’d ever like a second opinion or advice. Send me a msg. FYI tho, i might not always notice it, most of the time in WvW or focused on something and it tends to slip my mind unless u msg me a couple times or send me mail.

Hey Tzenjin – I sent you a PM here on the forums. Not sure how messaging works in the game if we’re on different servers.

Tzenjin – awesome! am working on my jewelry and runes / upgrades and always welcome a second opinion! i’ll add you in game and chat to you when i see you. if not, i’ll send mail. thanks!

Wizardauz, I have to ask. When you claim an attack value, do you mean power, or are you really going off of your attack value? If so, ignore it. It is nothing more than your power, condition damage, and weapon damage added together.

Interesting point about using the Orb. I’m also so curious to see your trait distribution and the armor you chosen. I don’t understand why you don’t want to share your experience to the community… I hope to see here you contribution and discuss constructively with you about your choices.

:)

You can afford to have low crit chance if you make up for it with armor/food and/or PvP or WvW with tome of wrath and use 4-1-1-1-1. Nobody will be prepared for the spike and you’ll basically be 3 arrow carts.

However, this will prevent you from running point as you need a few seconds of peace to reliably pull it off. Beryl rings and “hostile zone” skills like purging flames or a symbol would be great for this, but you’d be back at support 90% of the time.

Funny that you’d mention that because i did recently switch to Tome of Wrath.

Although on the battlefield i hardly ever activate my elite. Unless im defending something from a siege. Its the only thing that will give my build any range. Even in a siege tho i’ll usually switch to staff and auto attack through the gate (crits up to 1.5k-2.4k with staff hits) because the empowering might + staff auto attack lets u crit up to 5 people at once. The might can be quite insane. Im usually hovering inbetween 6-18 stacks of might.

But unfortunately support is not an option for me

@Lord Kevin. I am quite private with my builds, atleast until im really comfortable with them. I spend alot of time number crunch and figuring out Stat Patterns comparatively to Armor/Trinkets/Weapons to find out how i can get the best averages of stats. On top of that this build is meant to be played around a theory with GS/Staff specifically. If i wanted to change to sword+shield or infact any weapon that isnt 2 handed i would have to start from scratch. I will eventually be posting videos and a write up on this matter tho.

Im just trying to optimize my stats to my play-style and what i find most comfortable for right now.

- Tzenjin

Why don’t you put perception in your offhand and accuracy on your mainhand? Or have a separate weapon for building up stacks?

No Offhands in this build. Pure 2-handed.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/guardian#7|0|3527|1311|12641|12643|3411|10|906|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1389|2175|1396|30|866|2274|1400|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0

This calculator is lacking the second weapon set. That second weapon set is very important for understanding the flow of the build.

Staff is what i usually run with this build for WvW

But Hammer is also applicable if you like it. The stats dont actually support anything specific like boons, except for a slight emphasis on burn application, just burst dps with good healing and survivability based on low cooldowns and easy/fast resets for hit/run tactics and kill combos.

It can hit like a truck in certain moments(very steady if u take the time to build the stacks beforehand) and i’ve come to a very comfortable point with this build. I love it.

Currently working on a sword/shield|staff build now

- Tzenjin