Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I decided to collect some raw numbers while playing around in the mists today and did find some interesting things.

I compared warrior DPS and Ranger DPS to each other under the following conditions:

- No armor or jewel (As these can be replicated on either profession)

- Base pvp exotics with no sigils ( necessary because there is no steady damage option
for pets atm)

- Traits set up for more or less optimal damage (Im no expert here)
o Ranger: 30/30/0/0/10 (I,VII,X) (I,VI,XII) (I)
o Warrior: 20/30/0/0/20 (II,IX) (III,VIII,X) (III,VIII)

- time to kill medium armored golem recorded.

- Skills were used more or less maximally (used primary damage skills on cooldown)

Times:

Ranger: (all tests with pet used juvenile lynx for decent damage)

GS + no pet: ~25 Seconds
GS + pet: ~9 seconds

LB Max range + no pet: ~25 Seconds
LB Max range + Pet: ~9 seconds

SB + No pet: ~21 seconds
SB + pet: ~ 8 seconds

Warrior:

GS: ~16 seconds

Rifle: ~25 seconds

LB: ~ 16 seconds

ALL NUMBER VALUES SHOULD BE GIVEN A VARIANCE OF AT LEAST 3-4 SECONDS TO ACCOUNT FOR CRITS, TRAIT PROCS, AND/OR PLAYER SKILL.

Now, please take all of this with a grain of salt, and feel free to throw your own numbers at me, but this looks pretty interesting to me.

If you have any suggestions that you think would make this test more valid, please let me know.

Keep in mind, this was to test the optimal possible DPS of a class, in a situation where they can bring their full DPS to bear (I.E. a PvE situation), situation, match up, and player skill play much much larger factors in a pvp setting.

I dont think a time based assumption for damage is accurate. You should do raw number data and work in the damage for each combination. Because if somebody stuns and 100b or just presses 1 the time will be different on the kill, if that makes any sense. Its a good over view guess but not that accurate. Maybe you could figure out how much health the medium thing has and divide that by the seconds it took, but still, not that accurate because its most likely an average of multiple tests.

Im not being disrespectful, just honest. Im glad you are crunchin numbers though more people should, myself included. Or maybe I’m wrong and misread something. Either way good luck.

Miiro.3124:

I dont think a time based assumption for damage is accurate. You should do raw number data and work in the damage for each combination. Because if somebody stuns and 100b or just presses 1 the time will be different on the kill, if that makes any sense. Its a good over view guess but not that accurate. Maybe you could figure out how much health the medium thing has and divide that by the seconds it took, but still, not that accurate because its most likely an average of multiple tests.

Im not being disrespectful, just honest. Im glad you are crunchin numbers though more people should, myself included. Or maybe I’m wrong and misread something. Either way good luck.

Yes, I had thought about raw numbers at first, but they really are misleading. Certainly, nothing can stand up to the raw damage that a round of 100bs puts out, but one skill doesnt comprise a profession’s dps. You have to consider the entire kit, and the cooldowns/cast-times of that kit, which is more math then even I care to do over the matter.

This test was the compromise I came up with, and just considering raw DPS, I think it works. Its really just a matter of damage done over a period of time, this seemed like the fastest way to do it.

I agree its a decent way for a general overview or feeling of how much damage is going on, but the raw numbers are certainly more accurate. I dont have the energy to make a spreadsheet but some people have them created, maybe you could make a post asking for one that way you dont have to do the painful math.

You should use the best gear available for each class. Otherwise you won’t see the full effect of the different skill coefficients. Builds may change based on weapon as well. I got the best results for greatsword by going 30/20/20/0/0. Once you get 20% cooldown for greatsword skills you get a nice rotation of two autoattack chains followed by a maul. The same build won’t work for the sword because the auto attack chain does the best damage, making the cooldown useless.

When I tested, I was able to kill the heavy target dummy in 11 seconds with warrior greatsword and 13 seconds with ranger greatsword and no pet. However, power, precision and crit damage can all go higher in PVE. I’m not sure if the pet can fill that gap or not.

The other thing to consider is that a 2 second difference against a player sized health pool gets scaled up with a boss’s health pool. Suddenly 2 seconds turns into 200 seconds because the boss has 2,000,000 health instead of 20,000.

It’s a decent comparison but it needs to be taken into account that your pet will be dead in that build 90% of the time. I know, because I run the same build, and they just don’t survive. It’s more likely closer to 20-22 seconds in real world combat.

A good comparison none the less though if our pets were actually given some decent surviviability. It just goes to show much reliance we have on them.

The problem with TTK test dummies is that your testing procedure can easily end up circumventing cooldowns, which are prettymuch the only balancing mechanism this game actually has.

@DeadlySynz
There are specific kinds of AOE heavy fights that are hopeless and that does need to change. However, 90%? C’mon, don’t be so dramatic. Nobody’s pet is keeling over on Mark T-B34RC3, Torn Fur, Gunpowder Morgan, or any other in a long line of not-too-particularly-threatening mid-boss battles. The pet being a lost cause in a fight is more exception than rule. It’s just that these fights tend to stick out in your mind the most, because there is nothing more frustrating than your profession mechanic being nuked from orbit and there not being a kittened thing you can do about it.

if this is a PvE situation, Warrior should be running either 30/25/0/10/5 (STR: IX, XII; Arms: V, X, Tactics: II) with GS or 30/0/0/10/30 (STR: V, IX/X, XII; Tactics: II, Disc: XII) while swapping between Axe/Mace + GS (always want to be on GS when 100B is off CD).

currently, Str XII and Disc XII are bugged to give old pre-patch values, as well (eg, losing out on 3% Damage and 6% crit).

I do not know a Ranger’s best DPS trait set up, but I do know that it will be with a Sword + OH and LB or /OH swap.