Guild Wars 2

Now, with all the Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q going on, i decided to share my builds, once more.

These builds, are EXACT replicas of my WvW builds. Builds that i have been using with great success for months. They are tried and tested, and been fully tuned to give you the best possible stats, for the least amount of geargrind effort. Sure you can get full ascended pieces, but given that these sets generally costs 170G+ to make i do not recommend spending too much time trying to tweak em any more.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhOD7koiug7rQxCWLDINFail8UMLxi7xogKh4Jj6KrA-jEDBoLCyUDQkDAE1wZPKrZRCilhFRjVNTQWZDTXKpWfDa2jLpSBYmyI-w

If rune of the traveler is too expensive, you can use Rune of Speed. You will lose some condition duration and boon duration, but overall performance is not affected.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARTjIVR2VW+Vs2Bgli96rzgTL5MMkxT2QEWB-jEDBoLAYOQkFQEGAJPFRjtMsIasqZRWXDTXKpKXAWfDa2dIpSBcxwI-w

With this build, i always carry a PVT shortbow with Bloodlust rune on it. Reason for using PVT SB, is that it gives you much needed vitality and armor to even remotely stand a chance in a 1v1 against a good enemy. Reason for using Clerics rings, is because i dont have berserker rings, and they give power. In addition to this, the healing is actually useful with the zerker build. You can use clerics amulet too, but the loss in crit damage makes it a personal choice

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsYVjEVl1dVCWs2BiVBB1eoJzfe3jRVqTlyviyaRA-jkCBYNBE1BiaIQE1gZSFRjtupIasqbYqVER1WfYeEER1SBAx0I-w

This build is meant for dueling. It works against most professions, although a good warrior can give you a run for your money. The main attribute of this build is poison spam. The reason i choose to focus on poison spam, is because classes such as warriors and thieves have a ridiculous amount of regen. And what makes them nearly impossible to kill is their healing power. Destroy the healing, and you destroy the enemy too. This build is very very tanky, it is meant to suck up damage, while the conditions do their job, do not be fooled, your damage potential is brutal. I did some experimenting with various pets, i ended up with the reef drake as my “secondary” as the confusion it applies is ridiculously strong against anything with spammy attacks.

I play most my classes semi-defensively. Except for my zerker build. My builds are NOT designed to relentlessly push the enemy around. They are meant to wear him/her down in their own pace. So adjust your playstyle accordingly. Or these builds won’t do you much good.

I think I’ll add on to this thread: a build that I play with my guild [VII], when I’m not on my guardian. Since we typically field around 20 man raids aimed at zerg busting, this build is geared towards that. Its all about periphery and damage dealing while being tough to take down if caught in a tight spot. Even against such top guilds as GD it was surprisingly effective.

The build is as follows.

Gear
Armour consists of knight’s embedded with scholar runes for 10% damage increase. For trinkets, I like to take 2 berserker and 4 sentinel. This provides a very nice mix of stats which complement the build and bring the vitality more towards the 19k-20k depending on realm buffs. Longbow and sword are knight’s and have the sigil of force for both swaps. Axe: I like to give sigil of battle for an additional power boost. Its good to have built up bloodlust stacks prior to battle to get an additional boost, so having a separate set for them is nice. Remember that wielding dual stack weapons gives you 2 stacks per kill.

Healing
Healing skill I like to take troll unguent, which I typically activate at start of battle to ensure I keep my health high. The more health and endurance I have, the more damage I’m dealing.

Utilities and Elite
For utilities, I’m looking towards stun breakers. There’s nothing more annoying imo than getting caught by zerg ball with roots and stuns and not being able to do anything. This is where signet of renewal followed by lightning reflexes is a life saver = cleanse roots and get the hell out of Dodge. The final utility is a bit of a toss up between frost spirit for 10% damage (see a theme going on here?) and quickening zephyr. Either one will do, though QZ offers the additional stun break and the ability to get barrage and rapid fire off for nice spike damage. Elites you should always go for rampage as one. Large scale wvw will render entangle useless, similar to the spirit. The best way to contribute is to stay alive and not become an enemy res. 20 s stability does wonders here…

Pets
Pets don’t really matter in large scale wvw (sigh) so I usually keep them on passive and use an occasional f2.

Traits
For traits, its 20 markmanship (I, VIII), 25 skirmishing (IV, X) and 25 wilderness survival (III, VI). This provides +30% damage when flanking, full health and endurance (which suits the periphery style of place nicely) as well as the usual dodge roll buffs and weapons swap buffs. Barrage and rapid fire are on shorter cooldown as well as your survival skills.

Playstyle
So what does this all add up to? ~2500 power before kill and might stacks (you will easily see 2800-3000 here with buffs), ~1900 toughness, 19k health, +45% flat damage, +57% crit damage coupled with good escape skills.

Longbow is the main damage dealer, but your weapon swap will give you access to path of scars for burst and some nice evades. Burst damage on a specific spot can be frightening when barrage and rapid fire and used in conjunction with quickening zephyr and a well placed path of scars.

I say the above with a word of warning: retaliation is your main enemy. If you try and burst down an enemy thats fully buffed with retaliation you will go down like a cheap date. This is where patience comes into play, you will have to wait for the necro wells to go up to strip the boons.
What works nicely is to target the enemy raid leader, and just start autoattacking him at max range. The damage you take should be minimal from the periphery and you’re basically waiting for the necro spike. As soon as you see the wells go down, its time to pop QZ, barrage and rapid fire on the leader. Alertness, timing and movement is key here, since you want to avoid being a target and really want to move around the enemy on the outside. A nice added touch is to pull people back into the wells with path of scars… always gets me smiling.

Conclusion
A bit of a different take on the OPs wvw roaming build, but thought I’d provide my 2 cents for options in zerg busting. The build he provides is very nice, I can say first hand.