Guild Wars 2

Hi. I am interested in learning what other’s think about using Commander’s armor in a Solo PvE situation versus Assassin’s/ Berserkers’ armor.

I unfortunately do not have a set of Commander’s gear, yet, but am currently running Ascend Assassin’s armor and weapons with ascend berserker’s trinkets. To give you an idea I spend most of my time doing Meta events like Claw of Jorma, etc.. wield a Sword & Shield and run a build of ILLU/ INSP/ CHRN.

Would getting a set of Commander’s gear prove valuable? Or would it be a waste of my time and I should just stick to Assassin’s/ Berserker’s?

Commander’s armor for soloing is probably one of the worst ideas I’ve heard in a while. There’s no possible reason to go for anything that isn’t ‘insert full damage set here’, or full damage with minor defense mods like knights or cavs. Commanders doesn’t give a solo player anything worthwhile, and it’ll take you an hour to kill stuff you should be killing in 5 seconds.

That being said, if most of your time is spent doing stuff like claw of jormag, you could be naked and it wouldn’t matter much, so there is that.

Not sure Fay completely read up on Commander’s since it’s +Power, +Precision, +Toughness, and +Boon Duration (combined with the over higher stat bonuses from new 4 stat armor). He is right about it being a weak choice over any pure damage gear for pve.

As of right now, commander’s shines for mesmer tanks if at all. In every other situation you should be going maximum damage. Mesmer are already on the very low end of personal damage, so no reason to kitten yourself even futher.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Commanders has totally wasted stats for a solo player: boon duration. You’re sacrificing both offense and defense from other sets for a random stat that gives you as a solo player absolutely nothing. It’s also a lot more expensive than many other sets.

PANIC ITS WILL.2748:

Hi. I am interested in learning what other’s think about using Commander’s armor in a Solo PvE situation

Are you sure you are on the right forums? This is MESMER. Play another class if you want to solo stuff.

On paper, Commander’s works fantastic since as a Mesmer we distribute a very key boon (quickness) and can always make use of the extra boon duration. You will lose out on effective power over a traditional Assassin/Berserker mix. You are also through out Illusory bodies at your threat making sure they take the blow instead of you. Given how often you’ll be shattering/spawning Phantasms you’ll be pretty well guarded.

In reality though…. a “Chronotank” build like that should be left to tanking situations….like raids. In the open world there’s just not a need for the niche tanking capabilities you get from a Chrono and are highly reliant on buffing others to overcome your obstacles. E.G. I tried that build in a very aggressive Hero Point in TD. Good news, I didn’t die. Bad News, the boss felt a tickle at most.

I can see something like this working in the DS meta when you break off to boss squad. Other than that though, metas like Claw, Shatter, taco, etc are all about just dropping the BBEG as fast as possible. In metas that large the extra toughness/tanking saves you from maybe one or two extra hits since you’re at the mercy of boss scaling, and your boon/buff distribution might end up too scattered to be of noticeable difference.

Hey,

Commanders gear is terrible for a mesmer in pve in every situation. There is always better gear you can use. Go for a zerk / kitten mix for solo, it’s way better to kill enemies fast than wanting to tank them for a bit.

Oh and Chrono is a great profession for solo and open world, don’t let anyone else tell you different!

Greez!
- Madame Le Blanc

I have a full ascended set of commander’s armor with durability runes (which I primarily invested in for my ele) and I have found it to be quite effective at tanking open-world content, but only in the new HoT areas. It has come in really handy for stomping musherooms in the Nuhoch lane, dealing with frogs during octovine, and tanking commanders in DS.

For pre-HoT tyria you’re probably better off running full glass as everything just melts and mobs don’t hit/cc that hard.

If you want to run boon duration gear and tank open-world, you should be running the chaos line.