Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

I was interested in the gameplay of the Ventari Bunker and it seems that metabattle’s grade and comments evolved. I guess some people have found how to make it work.
I, too, have tried the thing and was surprised by its good results. Who tried this build (or a variation) ? If yes, do you have any return to do ? What are the variations you tried and why ? Have you found special ways to counter specific classes ?

It could be interesting to share experiences of this new kind of gameplay.

I don’t use the metabattle build. I made my own for the pure purpose of decap/bunking. I made it to plat 3 issuing the build.

I love playing Ventari bunker, but I only play it in unranked so my experience is limited. With that said, I have had surprising success with it and tend to win most of the games I play. Here is the build, although I switch out for Soothing Bastion if I think the other team isn’t heavy in condis as the skill can truly kitten you over.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAW8un3gmNSuQzJRboNlsP0oS4I6UJ4ENsklZlRNgCeYNjPKxO6q/G-TJR6gA/PBA0yAh7PAcRAAA

I also use mine for decap/bunking because personally I find teamfighting doesn’t suit the rev as well as it does something like the ele. Why? You are still very vulnerable. I can take pressure extremely well in 1v2s with most classes, but in teamfights there is usually too much pressure and it can be hard to simultaneously support your teammates while trying to keep yourself alive. I use a lot of my energy for my weapon skills (staff 3, 4, 5; sword 3, shield 4, 5) and with the energy intensiveness of Ventari, it is hard to have much left to support teammates. Because of this, I won’t often come out of games with incredible healing numbers, but that’s because a lot of this is through all the damage mitigation the rev can offer, which is superb. I don’t take Versed in Stone because of its CD and also, as I am trying to mitigate a lot of the incoming damage, that 50% reduction could be completely wasted if the damage is avoided to begin with. Steadfast Rejuvenation isn’t gamebreaking but it helps a bit with survivability.

I will admit that a fair amount of my success with the rev has to do with the changes to its elite, Energy Expulsion. Spamming it sometimes is honestly a great option in the right situation. It opens up sooooo many possibilities, and it’s great fun. You are great at stopping rezzes and stomps, pulling off rezzes, and it can be a great disengage tool (time it right with tablet #6 to position it in front of the enemy as they are chasing you to knock them back). I have had some really awesome moments with it and it feels like it offers a unique niche for the rev. The rev also, despite its lack of stability, has great stomping potential.

I use Mender’s over Magi’s because I don’t feel like you’re sacrificing TOO much survivability, and although the damage increase isn’t exponentially better either, it can often be just what you need to finish off an enemy in a teamfight or when an enemy comes to +1 you. Rune of the Revenant I find invaluable because of the resistance. Hypothetically in Ventari stance, you will have 20% resistance uptime, which is huge. Poison kittens up the build, so being able to ignore that 20% of the time can make or break you. I also find it beyond helpful for survivability due to being able to ignore stuff like immobilize, which is a terrifying condi for me. On top of that, it can be hard to manage a bunch of condis with the build, so further help with that is much welcome.

What I have been learning is: don’t be afraid to be aggressive. Most likely you won’t kill anything, but you can really lock down an enemy if they don’t have much access to stab due to all the knockback you have. For example, while defending a point, if I see a thief teammate coming to +1 me, I will often try to time locking down the enemy so the thief has the freedom to spike and burst down the enemy right as it happens.

At the moment, I struggle most with condi classes, especially ones with a lot of point pressure. Competent d/p thieves and power revenants can also be devastating.

Thanks for answers!
@orisci: could you share your build?

I also don’t use the metabattle build. The main difference is that I use shiro instead of brill (strange, right), for some reasons Pterikdactyl suggested. I use that:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAW8snvNmNS6JzJRVlNlsryoSYW5UJYsMsklZlRNgCawO6q/eNjOKB-TZxHAByXGos9HU+KA4/DAAgDCAA
As a healer, my ventari never surpassed an elem. However, the knockback is pretty strong in teamfights, particularly at the begining. It allows to fight on a caped point and not on a constested point, and that is a big difference when it last long. In order to survive during teamfights, if they load too much damages, I generally don’t stay on point but run around. You can keep the tablet on it to kb, get the energy fragments, then leave. But most of the time, I don’t struggle to survive that much if the team has some support.
I use Mender and Shiro to help finishing targets also. I works most of the time pretty well. I support the mates first, then when a target start losing health clearly, I jump on it and help taking it down definitely.
Shiro brings also some nice utilities: superspeed is great for rotating between points (e.g. far), has great disengaging abilities, and the unblockable has also its uses (staff 2 and 5, healing skill). I rarely use the elite however (too expensive, too predictable). As the stunbreak has no cd and clean a mouvement condi, it may be why I don’t struggle with immobilize that much.
As the team does not get the support from brill, I use the Rune of altruism to give them the most important boons it lacks: power and fury. Not as efficient as brill for support, but it allows more spike damages when needed.
I bunker 1v2 easily, except against necro+thief. There, shiro is the best way to survive. They can decap a little the point as you move, but you can take it back with the knockback. But I don’t last long. I generally stay a bit, then try to disengage to help elsewhere (shiro’s evade, staff 5, superspeed, blocks, and so on). Ventari is extremely usefull to decap bunkered points however, but I still have troubles against guardians (they have more stab). Elems and Druids are free decap as they don’t have much stability if you time it well and not enough damage to be a threat.
I used the shield first, but I wonder if sword offhand is not a better solution: as you can move while blocking, you can get the energy fragments. Moreover, it has a lower energy cost and CD, particularly if under alacrity. I wonder if I should use Mace over sword. I don’t know yet.
The build has more use depending on maps. On skyhammer, revenge of the capricorn and Khylo’s clocktower, it works pretty well as knocking back has a big influence (they fall or they lose a bit the point when it is a stake). Superspeed help also to be on the point before the enemy and then start caping it a bit without using the expensive kb trick.
And yeah, poison is what I fear the most. I had hard time with condis first, but I get better with them with time. If alone, I don’t clean everything. I clean some and manage others through healings.