Guild Wars 2

Anyone ran the numbers on which is better while factoring in Barkskin?

Along these same lines, does anyone have a decent PVT ranger build? I wasn’t ever able to find one.

I don’t have the numbers to back up my statement…but I am certain Toughness + Barkskin wins out. Add Protection into the mix and…yeah..

EDIT: ~but~

That is considering only physical damage. Add in conditions and it may be a different story.

It would be nice to know if the Barkskin trait applies to all damage or just physical damage.

Clarification of Ranger traits please ~hint~hint~

ItIsFinished.9462:

I don’t have the numbers to back up my statement…but I am certain Toughness + Barkskin wins out. Add Protection into the mix and…yeah..

EDIT: ~but~

That is considering only physical damage. Add in conditions and it may be a different story.

Prefer Protection over Longer Regens?

I have only ran tanky builds in pvp and after some tournie duels with the guild, I figured having 3.3k armor, 30 ws, 10 nm and 30bm is really good. I barely take any damage and the low hp makes the heal really effective. I swap a lot between bark skin and empathic bond depending on the situation. Bark skin forces your enemies to do 150% damage to deal the same.

There really isn’t much difference except for preference. High health for against condition, high armor against direct damage. Most people go for direct damage.

One thing you must consider is that Bark skin is only active at 25% health or less while empathic bond is always active.

In reality, you take increased damage if you high health and bark skin than if you had high armor and empathic bond.

And no, empathic bond does not kill your pet if it’s not a squishy one. Even squishy ones like the jaguar won’t die easily. Mainly because of the 30 in Bm.
Spiders are really good because of their utility for less hp. They have about 30k while the bears have 40k but it almost counts as half because they only have theirtoughness which is usually around 1k.
Plus, if the pet is getting low on health, just swap it out and the conditions are gone.

My build focuses on getting whacked while the pet deals damage. A big helping hand is the perma weakness and the side-focus on burning the target and chilling Only lost against really good players but that was because they were better than me.

The vitality versus toughness question is a matter of how long a fight it and how much direct damage you take.

In longer fights, toughness proves more useful than vitality because you will have mitigated more direct damage in the long term than the extra health pool provides in the short.

It’s all a numbers game dependent on those two variables, so unless you give us specific amounts for each of those to crunch for actual conclusions on a case to case basis, that’s really the best way to look at it.

tl;dr Vitality is better in short fights. Toughness is better in long term. Definition of short versus long is flexible.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

The vitality versus toughness question is a matter of how long a fight it and how much direct damage you take.

In longer fights, toughness proves more useful than vitality because you will have mitigated more direct damage in the long term than the extra health pool provides in the short.

It’s all a numbers game dependent on those two variables, so unless you give us specific amounts for each of those to crunch for actual conclusions on a case to case basis, that’s really the best way to look at it.

tl;dr Vitality is better in short fights. Toughness is better in long term. Definition of short versus long is flexible.

Sure this is true for most classes, but does having more vitality and a larger window for Barkskin to be active in change anything when you do the math?

Gazden.5479:

ItIsFinished.9462:

I don’t have the numbers to back up my statement…but I am certain Toughness + Barkskin wins out. Add Protection into the mix and…yeah..

EDIT: ~but~

That is considering only physical damage. Add in conditions and it may be a different story.

Prefer Protection over Longer Regens?

I prefer protection, regen, and toughness. So say we all.

Gazden.5479:

ItIsFinished.9462:

I don’t have the numbers to back up my statement…but I am certain Toughness + Barkskin wins out. Add Protection into the mix and…yeah..

EDIT: ~but~

That is considering only physical damage. Add in conditions and it may be a different story.

Prefer Protection over Longer Regens?

Well, the key is having enough healing power for your regens while having high toughness to mitigate damage. That’s the beauty of the BM build. When you take very little damage, throw in some insane regen numbers, you simply slowly eat your opponent away. If you stat for a little less healing power and a little less toughness, you have to make sure you are getting less damage mitigation somehow…hence the high protection up time.

solrik.6028:

I have only ran tanky builds in pvp and after some tournie duels with the guild, I figured having 3.3k armor, 30 ws, 10 nm and 30bm is really good. I barely take any damage and the low hp makes the heal really effective. I swap a lot between bark skin and empathic bond depending on the situation. Bark skin forces your enemies to do 150% damage to deal the same.

There really isn’t much difference except for preference. High health for against condition, high armor against direct damage. Most people go for direct damage.

One thing you must consider is that Bark skin is only active at 25% health or less while empathic bond is always active.

In reality, you take increased damage if you high health and bark skin than if you had high armor and empathic bond.

And no, empathic bond does not kill your pet if it’s not a squishy one. Even squishy ones like the jaguar won’t die easily. Mainly because of the 30 in Bm.
Spiders are really good because of their utility for less hp. They have about 30k while the bears have 40k but it almost counts as half because they only have theirtoughness which is usually around 1k.
Plus, if the pet is getting low on health, just swap it out and the conditions are gone.

I disagree about emphatic bond not killing your pet I find it totally gets kitten by it often, even with 30 in BM and kittenloads of healing power, never use it anymore because of this I can’t stand a pet that randomly explodes on me if I take my eyes away for a split second, with barkskin however even the cats feel unstoppable.