Guild Wars 2

I’m playing gw2 for a long time, but I just started with PvP. Mostly I’m playing solo-q.
I made up a build that is flexible and can fit into most situations while staying effective. It is neither full bunker nor full power nor full condition but can manage a good amount of all three things depending on the amulet I choose.

The build is mostly made up around Sharpened Edges. I like the trait, because it has no cooldown and can be a good damage improvement combined with Rune of the Krait and a shortbow.

My stats with 0/2/6/6/0 are rather bunker-stats. To fit my build into the team I sometimes exchange some traits, but I normally leave the stats as they are. My weapons are shortbow and sword/dagger.

This is the way I love to play this build most of the time:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEqUzaLLmsQ1aADhqdL0BlArAwdR8CXdFLkC-TpRAwAAeAAUuAAdOCAlLD45gA0b/BA

Advantages:

• I can go for really high condition remove with Survival of the Fittest and Empathic Bond. Against conditon spammers like necros, engis and some rangers I have hardly any trouble then.
• I have a huge amount of evades on one weapon set. Sometimes I can do my dance against up to three enemies and wait for my teammates to arrive and help me or give them time to capture points.
• I will do one condition (bleeding) which will stack up really fast and needs to be removed continously by the enemy to avoid the damage done.
• With my elite I have a huge condition burst which can hit the enemy hard when he is unprepaired.
• I have good toughness and ok vitality against power builds. I also have a good protection uptime, lots of dodges and evades.
• With only little changes I can fit the build to enemy team compositions and to my role in our team.
• When I go defensive with sword/dagger, I have a good poison uptime and still do a medicore amount of bleeds.

Disadvantages:

• The build is hybrid, i do not excel at any dicipline.
• I need my teammates help to down good bunkers.
• I am not a typical pointholder with this build though I can survive for some time.
• I lack stability and when I don’t pay attention, I will become a bouncing ball for the enemy (this risk can be reduced by switching the elite).
• There might be some disadvantages I do not know of because I am not very experienced in PvP.

Before the fight starts I choose the role in my team and look at the classes of the enemy team. There are some changes to the build that can be done easily and really fast to fit the build to the situation. Mostly I only exchange Quickening Zephyr to a diffenrent skill or exchange my pets. Sometimes I change my amulet to a more defensive or offensive playstyle.

Build-Variation:

• If there are two or more thieves in the enemy team, I choose “Sick ’Em” as third skill.
• If there are many warriors in the enemy team, I choose “Protect me” and a bear. Also I choose Shared Angish instead of Expertise Training.
• If there are many direct damage classes in the enemy team and no condition bursters, I exchange Empathic Bond for Bark Skin.
• If there are many melees in the enemy team, I prefer to choose the Lashtail Devourer as a pet.
• If I need to go more defensive, I choose Celestial Amulet.
• If I need to bunker a point, I choose Cleric or Settlers Amulet. Then I also might exchange my beloved Sharpened Edges for Primal Reflexes and choose some defensive runes.
• If we need more damage in the team I go for Rampager or even Berserker Amulet.

What do you think of this build? How can I improve it? What would you do differently?

Variations of this build have been popping up almost daily since the SotF patch. I use something pretty similar in WvW for solo play. In PvP, I just don’t understand why people are using it. It offers effectively zero team support.

What’s I find weirder is your build is 95% similar to a typical spirit build, only you’ve removed all team support and replaced it basically with self condi removal. I think you actually have too much condi removal some how. :P

Am I missing something or are you at 95% bleed duration? I’m pretty tired.

Thanks for your feedback.

Well I tried out the spirit builds, but pretty often I find myself fighting alone in crucial situations. In solo-q the communication with other players doesn’t work well. Maybe that changes when I have played some more games.
Of course one can also change quickly into a spirit build by changing two traits and 2-4 utilities. By doing this you might sacrifice some survivability (condition remove and stun breakers replaced by healing and protection) or damage (bleed burst and fury replaced by burning and damage boost). Especially in the time when the spirits are on cd. I will have to find out what I like better.
Perhaps I should use the spirit-build in team-q to get to know how to play it properly.

The bleeding duration is increased by 65% in this build. I have not increased general condition duration. As I am only focossing on my bleeds.

The very high condition remove works as intended. I chose the trait SotF mostly for the fury. Condition builds have hardly any impact on me, which makes me superior in a fight against condition classes. In times, where others cry about OP conditions and players are following this advice by playing condition burst themselves, my build counters this trend and follows it at the same time :-)

I am still playing against weak players as I have just startet playing PvP. Most probably I will have to change the build when I play against better enemies.

The most funny situation I had yet was me sitting on the cannon at skyhammer and not recognizing that two players were attacking me while I was busy shoting. One had a struggle with my pet and the other one was trying to give me conditions, which were permanently transfered to my pet ^^.

I’ve never, ever been a fan of full spirits. So your point about condi removal and stun breakers can be worked in to a spirit build if you decide to go that route. SoR is just such an amazing, and possibly even underrated skill for all 3 game modes, with personal condi removal, stun breaker, and emergency group condi removal all rolled in to one. Or any number of other options!