Guild Wars 2

So I’m loving the sheer amount of devastation I wreak when I decide to kill someone. My weapon choices are straight forward: GS = Offense, Staff = Defense.

Build
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcmz0c0zMoohRMoohRMxx9Mazaqoaqz

I run with mostly Soldier’s gear, with a Knight’s GS (with air sigil) and maybe Knight’s components here and there. Power: 2146 Precision: 1344 Toughness: 1630 Vitality: 1451

(In case the link fails, it’s 30 30 0 0 10, using 1 10 11 from domination, 6 10 11 from dueling, and 1 from illusions and fully mantras).

Notes

I’m not fond of my healing mantra, I mostly keep it to keep the all mantras thing going, and if I can find time to recharge it, it’s technically better than other healing options.

When I go for the kill, I’ll typically Mirror Blade + Mantra of Distraction + dodge to load on vulnerability, then Mantra of Pain + Izerker + Mind Wrack (after my zerker does his first whirl of course).

Surprisingly, I’m not as glass as I expected to be. I have to react faster and be more situationally cautious, but whenever kitten hits the fan I swap to staff and quickly get out of dodge.

Changes

So I’ve been debating between Mental Torment and Halting Strikes (Dom #1 and #2 traits), and I’m open to other ideas for tweaking the build. Please don’t link me to your totally different build, I’m just interested in ideas to improve this already running build.

i tried a full mantra build in wvw, it works fine in large zergs, as most build works fine in zergs.

but in small skirmishes, its basically who gets off the first shot wins. i find that if i could catch someone before they can react to me, i down them within 2-3 seconds, and likewise if anyone (especially glass cannon thieves) jumps me first, i usually end up losing.

mantra of pain also did a surprising amount of damage if you’re full berserker gear, crits as hard as mindstab does.
i think what this comes down to is the heal mantra can’t really be used twice in a fight if your opponents aren’t braindead. so if you’re forced to heal early in the fight, then you most likely lose.

as far as traits go, i took your illusions does 15% extra damage instead of MW damage, and your illusions have fury instead of the armor while channeling. until they fix iberserker, i think your build is fine, but when they do, you’re going to miss out on alot of damage if you dont take those 2 traits.

oh, and i also took the stability mantra instead of daze, mainly to get the guaranteed stomp on most classes.

wads.5730:

as far as traits go, i took your illusions does 15% extra damage instead of MW damage, and your illusions have fury instead of the armor while channeling.

Fury instead of armor I can see, I was never keen on either trait though, zerker being my only phantasm really and I wasn’t sure if I’d even try to recharge a mantra in combat. Illusions doing 15% more damage is mostly for phantasms I assume? Unless you want clone conditions to do more.

wads.5730:

oh, and i also took the stability mantra instead of daze, mainly to get the guaranteed stomp on most classes.

Good point about the stability for stomping, I hadn’t thought of that. But generally with this build if I’m stomping it’s because it’s pretty safe already. If I’m still being targeted while I’m trying to finish someone I won’t be standing still. I try to finish them with damage and iWave off any wannabe revivers.

Meanwhile the daze mantra provides a lot of vulnerability thanks to the domination minor traits, and usually gets them to burn a dodge roll.

wads.5730:

mantra of pain also did a surprising amount of damage if you’re full berserker gear, crits as hard as mindstab does.
i think what this comes down to is the heal mantra can’t really be used twice in a fight if your opponents aren’t braindead. so if you’re forced to heal early in the fight, then you most likely lose.

Yeah Mantra of Pain is pretty fantastic at piling on the damage with the right build. Mantra of Healing is sadly lack luster.

wads.5730:

i tried a full mantra build in wvw, it works fine in large zergs, as most build works fine in zergs.

but in small skirmishes, its basically who gets off the first shot wins. i find that if i could catch someone before they can react to me, i down them within 2-3 seconds, and likewise if anyone (especially glass cannon thieves) jumps me first, i usually end up losing.

Hm, in pretty much any skirmish if I get pulled or otherwise singled out it goes bad really fast, but I accept that as the price of my new found damage. It shines the brightest against overconfident individuals and/or not being noticed and/or slamming them before they realize what’s going on.

I haven’t run into any true blue glass cannon thieves since I started this. I’m pretty certain you’re right, if they get the first move I’ll be toast in 1-2 seconds tops.

In small skirmishes I’ll usually down one of them asap to get the numbers in our favor & make them start trying to revive each other; unless we’re outnumbered to begin with (or it’s just me vs more than 1 enemy), then I’ll be going staff and falling back.

wads.5730:

until they fix iberserker, i think your build is fine, but when they do, you’re going to miss out on alot of damage if you dont take those 2 traits.

Fix zerker? I thought they already did that and the forums went crazy about it. What is it still doing?

Shinigami.5932:

Fix zerker? I thought they already did that and the forums went crazy about it. What is it still doing?

The damage decrease that iZerker suffered was not intentional they intend to scale it back up.

Disastro.4086:

Shinigami.5932:

Fix zerker? I thought they already did that and the forums went crazy about it. What is it still doing?

The damage decrease that iZerker suffered was not intentional they intend to scale it back up.

Oh, I thought he meant they were still overperforming. Cool.