im bad at sarcasm
what traits and skills on a power build?
I’ve always run SR, Spite and Reaper with d/w and staff. Rise, either spectral armor or walk and plague signet with consume conditions for heal. Flesh golem for duels and lich for big groups. I don’t take the elite shout since the starting animation makes it easy to see coming and avoid. Only trouble I ever get is from thieves that use a LOT of stealth and Scrappers since I don’t have much corrupt and poison.
Depends on what you want.
I really miss Shrouded removal(T1 Death magic) when I am not in death magic. It can be like a stun break for immobilize because it clears a condi when you enter Shroud on top of every 3 seconds you are in it.
What tier of wvw are you on? What numbers do you usually run with? What role in the group are you fulfilling? There is no best build, just best at. Spite/Blood/Soul Reaping in full Berzerker is the meta for full zerg well bomb, but it sin’t the best thing to run solo in wvw.
What tier of wvw are you on? What numbers do you usually run with? What role in the group are you fulfilling? There is no best build, just best at. Spite/Blood/Soul Reaping in full Berzerker is the meta for full zerg well bomb, but it sin’t the best thing to run solo in wvw.
This is simply incorrect all around. You should never run full Zerk, you should stat balance so that you don’t get one-pushed. Also, it’s typical to drop Blood Magic because Reaper is pretty generally an upgrade to Power Necro. The only thing that puts you at a disadvantage in small group/solo vs. big group are your utility choices, since you likely won’t have a stunbreak while running with a larger force.
“Reaper’s only big weakness will be that you have to play Necromancer to use it”
~Bhawb.7409
~Bhawb.7409
For a power build without Reaper, Soul Reaping, Spite, and Blood Magic is my favorite, though you can swap Spite for Death Magic if you are running minions.
Axe/focus, dagger/war horn are common combinations. Axe can be swapped for staff as your ranged weapon but main hand dagger has the highest dps and gives some sustain, too, along with movement speed increase. Many people run staff and dagger/horn in PvP.
Soul Reaping is just too handy to compromise on most of the time. It supports Shroud, spectral skills, and staff.
Spite supports signets, vulnerability and might, has Close to Death, and traits axe and focus.
Blood Magic supports wells, vampiric/siphons, dagger, war horrn, and can be switched quickly for second-tier medic duties using Transfusion and Life from Death, though LfD is a little clunky because the AoE heal comes after leaving Shroud, which would interrupt a resurrection.
Death Magic is indispensable for minion masters and can help with defense in a condition damage build using scepter. Use it with minions or for bunkering.
There are lots of ways to do a power build and most people use a variety of utilities. Keep stun breakers for PvP or you could get CC’d to death. A couple of condition clears or transfers are also recommended. Minions, signets, wells, and spectral utilities all work with a power build.
Look at metabattle.com for build suggestions.
Running anything other than zerk or valk on a well bomber is a lot like running more defensive gear in PvE. Sure, it’ll allow some mistakes but you are sacrificing efficiency.
Ultimately, whether you get onepushed or not is barely a matter of gear, it’s a matter of proper positioning.
Reaper is such a minor upgrade for builds like this, it’s not worth mentioning.
When running backline, the only thing I sometimes want from Reaper is shroud 3 for DH cages.
Meanwhile, you lose access to one of your best sources of ranged damage(Life Blast), the cooldown on your bomb is higher and you have to get much closer to the enemy to deal the same amount of damage.
tl;dr A lot of risk for very little benefit.
I also disagree with simply swapping out a few utility skills for running with a small group instead of a big one.
Due to being a new player, he’ll already be a primary target for competent enemies because he’s likely to panic under pressure. Being on an easy to train down class does not help. So they’ll train him down hard to force an early down they can exploit and to stress enemy cooldowns.
So he’ll likely need additional survivability from traits, food and gear.
As for actual builds.(Sidenote, while metabattle is a good source for PvP and PvE builds, the WvW builds in there are bad and haven’t even been updated properly.)
For a basic backliner build in big group fights, old school S/BM/SR is what I prefer to run. Both damage wells. Third utility depends a lot on fight, composition and enemy.
From a stunbreak to things like spectral wall or corrupt boon, a variety of things can be used to great effect.
For smaller groups, Reaper is a necessity.
Spite/SR/Reaper is a solid starting ground. Experiment with marauder, knight and cavalier gear in addition to zerk and valk.
Traited staff is a must have.
As for skills, shouts are great and a shout heavy lineup is my personal preference. Spectral Armor and walk are also good choices. Signets are good to great with exception of Undeath and Vampirism. Wells are generally a bad choice, as are minions.