im looking for a staff/gs build (hybrid?)
For general PvE, I suggest experimenting yourself. It is the most fun way to play!
For PvP, gs/staff is a pretty all-around set that you can build in various ways. For power shatter, take domination and dueling line, Then pick one of the rest three.
That is the myth. Power shatter only needs dueling now. I am having some interesting results trying different combinations. Very good builds strangely for pvp inspiration/dueling any other tree is slowly becoming meta. The condition cleanse is awesome in inspiration.
I was thinking of taking illusions also to help compensate for the GS lack of conditions what do you guys think?
Personally I think you have to decide first: Condition or direct damage.
If you want to go with conditions, the greatsword is just not a good choice. While you can use the stuff in a direct damage setup fairly well, the other way around just does not really work.
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
So if I go with conditions what should I replace the GS with? I wanna like the scepter a lot but I feel like the scepters aa will replace my illusions/clones too quickly for my illusions to put out any decent damage
And from reading everything on PVE build it looks like it’s better to go for direct power? So I can take GS and staff for a power build?
I’m very broke in game with no high levels to grind money with and I don’t have any friends to help lvl me or anything so I’m basically playing the game solo from 1-80 and gearing and stuff is all what I am capable of so I’m just trying to be picky with what I spend time doing (gearing, build weapons, crafting etc)
Heres a template for power gs/staff:
In open world pve it works decently enough but for dungeons you really want to be running a phantasm/reflect build which is a totally different animal and based solely around maximum damage over time through phantasms and sword auto chain. You wont be using staff in this type of build because staff is mainly a kiting weapon. In dungeons you will nearly always be in close proximity of your teammates (usually melee range) so all team members can maximize support.
Rune choice is optional. Popular choices are Vampirism (mist form proc), Strength (more damage and better might stack retention), Pack (damage and swiftness proc) or Traveler (kiting and moving point to point out of combat). Scholar can be used in dungeons when in organised groups with reliable team support since you are more likely to maintain the damage buff above 90% hp.
This build is primarly designed for pvp and wvw roaming though and works more or less like the standard double ranged shatter build pre trait changes. 3rd utility is open.
Chaos/Domination/Dueling has no condi cleanse so thats why mantra cleanse is present by default although you want to use portal in premade groups. In wvw roaming you must have condi cleanse because of all the cheese condi roamers. In solo queue you won’t get as much team support/utility out of portal and it functions more like a personal “get out of jail free” card or a way to +1 cover 2x capture points at the same time.
You can swap mantra cleanse for mantra interrupt, swap prismatic understanding for chaotic interruption, imagined burden for power block and empowered illusions for confounding suggestions. Now you are basically a lockdown/interrupt build.
You can swap domination for inspiration, primarily for condi cleanse and splitting damage with iDefender or boon sharing. Chaos/Dueling/Inspiration is probably the most defensive way to run this type of build.
Playstyle is the same as the old double ranged shatter. You can do good, safe ranged damage on single targets with limited cleave using GS and phantasms. You have strong ranged area denial with chaos storm (which becomes very strong if traited for interrupt). Burst requires you to be in close range of your target. Positioning and timing are important and the different variants of the build give you different ways of getting into a position to set up burst.
You need to learn how to forward phase retreat and there are many kiting tricks you can do with this. PvP maps have many spots where you can use phase retreat to teleport to different elevations.
Inspiration is a line you will sometimes have to go into to deal with condi pressure because mantra cleanse will cost either a stunbreak (most likely decoy) or portal. Running double stunbreaks allows you to use blink more often for mobility and terrain skips rather than having to save it as your only stunbreak. In open world pve its not so important to run stunbreaks so you can almost run anything you want. In dungeons you will almost always be running feedback and probably mantras for damage and interrupt (defiance removal).
(edited by Besetment.9187)
so if i wanna run dungeons which weapon should i run with?
Sword/Sword and Sword/Focus (sometimes Sword/Pistol). Metabattle has an outline of the build but the concept is very different to shatter.
Gandy, I run this build in most dungeons. Sometimes I will switch out phantasmal defender for feedback in specific fights if we need it but this build will allow you to do high damage spikes with your shatters and have tons of boon support and might stacking potential for your team.
If your team is condi heavy, you can put up 2 phantasmal warlocks which do huge damage per condition and if you trait phantasmal haste in illusions they will attack alot faster.
The signet gives you instant recharge on all of your phantasms, so you can shatter all your phantasms and heal up and shatter them again. With the 20% reduction in cd for signets it can be very useful. The signet of inspiration is optional but I like to be able to copy all my current boons to party members especially if we dont have a might stacking ps warrior or ele.
Have fun! XD
(edited by Raawk.7584)
thank you for this! really appreciate the build!
this is exactly what i was looking for! ill tweak it here and there for my personal touches but thanks!