Guild Wars 2

Only asking a quick question as to what builds and weapon sets you guys used for lvling mostly im at 19 atm and using D/D and A/F and i mean i like the damage that it puts out but i feel really really squishy because im in such a close ranger to some champs that it does put me in danger alot. So i was thinking about going with Staff S/D set up. idk what traits should i even start off with either lol.

Power based stuff is usually better in PvE. (Objects like turrets/doors take no Condi dam, stack problems in groups/events)

Seems the better ones are also Wells, or Minions. If I was to level again, I’d go minions. Main reason, is they an’t affected by your gear, so you can be cheap and have crappy gear and they work the same. (They also work nicely vs trash mobs, and kinda useless at high end PvE content, so use them while you can!)

As for weaps, staff is best damage in DeathShroud. (It works off weap dam, and it’s our only 2hander) It’s also very good in groups/support & AoE tagging.

Dagger main hand, has got to be ‘it’ for most effective weap with power. Down side is, meele range, no cleave. (Single target only)
So Axe is nice in groups/scary places your learning, as it’s got a little range, and stacks Vuln, which is nice for the group/even helps minions do more dam.

Traits, there your fun to play with and learn. ;-P
Tips tho, Don’t expect Blood Magic/Vamp to do that much. Excluding minions siphon life per hit, as long as your minions are alive.

Next month, there’s a big patch. So traits will have more info which will help as a lot are confusing, with hidden Internal CDs and reduced durations. Also a big boost to minions in PvE & hopefully a Blood Magic fix.

(Oh yeh, alot of vamp stuff dosen’t scale, or scales terribly with healing power, so prob lay off that stat for power/pre/tuf/vit/etc. It can be good with a 80 support spec, not so good for leveling/solo/groups of randoms)

Well I guess I should ask what utilities you’re using with this setup/what “build” you’re aiming for currently.

If you’re going full power and wells I’d say stick with the main-hand dagger, and though I’m not a huge fan of it the warhorn would probably be a better off-hand for that playstyle.

If you’re going with minions then most definitely stick with the axe/focus as you get a lot more out of vulnerability on your own than most other characters. That said MM is pretty flexible and the meat-shields make going in with a dagger perfectly viable as well. In fact while leveling my MM I did use D/D for some time.

If you’re going condition oriented then yes you’d best keep a scepter on hand at all times.

Honestly though I personally recommend having a staff with you at all times, even just as a backup in your inventory for champions or other things that force you to fight at range. I find it to be a great every-man’s weapon that provides something useful no matter your build. It has some strong hits that can be useful for dagger based power necros who need more AoE outside of wells. MM’s can make great use of mark of blood for a very cheap minion heal. And of course condition builds get lots of mileage out of it thanks to the bleeds and AoE fear.

uhh atm im using The locust signet for speed because i pretty much have no access to swiftness yet and when i unlock my third slot ill definitly use a well or 2 wells and take off signet of spite I mean honestly when i was using S/D staff set up.. i was hitting pretty hard with the scepter. blus it adds bleeds and poison so it was ok it was when i started lvling i guess ur stats decrease with each lvl u go up untill u get new gears ? is when i started to to see diminishing returns for the scepter but ima try it out again when i get new gears in a lvl to see the damage because before i was hitting about 200+ auto attacks it hits pretty hard plus i use bloodlust sigil aswell.

Scepter is really a condition weapon. It’s main damage will become bleeds, and the direct damage it dose, is only really useful for crit to add more bleed.

I also love my sig of ‘zippy feet’ as we def don’t get perm Swift!

Sig of Spite, isn’t that good for condi as it’s power. The other frustrating hidden thing is, sig’s don’t work in DeathShroud. (So ya can’t even use it to boost plauge blast etc).

I can highly recommend blood is power, over Sig of Spite. As it gives might, adding Power AND Condi kitten’s also got nice bleeds. As the might is a buff, it will beef up your death shroud. While it gives you bleeds, which seems a bit scary, they are weak ones. The other good thing about putting condi on yourself, is you have a heal, that get’s bigger the more condi on you. So you can use it to beef up your heal.