Guild Wars 2

For a solo thief, is berserker better than assassin’s ? I’ve been told power scales better, but OTOH much more crits with assassin’s…

If you’re using d/x, then I’d go beserker because the higher base damage a skill has the better it is seen with crit damage. If you’re using something like s/x I’d consider assassin’s because you only poke the enemy and spend time evading them, it helps to know those spaced out hits are getting the best output.

The only class where assassin’s has been shown to better than berserker’s is mesmers. And that was because of projectile reflect (which bases off precision not power) results in a 5% dps boost. However, that same analysis showed zerker vs assassin’s for normal dps, zerker was marginally better (<1%). For thieves who have a high crit chance, you’ll benefit more from zerker than assassin’s.

I’m more of a condition guy anyway, but does this remain true even if you are using a build that strongly emphasizes critical hits i.e. (i.e. Practiced Tolerance, Sundering Strikes, Invigorating Precision, No Quarter) and using on-crit proc effects?

I’ve always held that Assassin’s is simply more specialized than Berserker’s – Berserker’s is pretty much always good but Assassin’s synergizes well with certain builds.

Einlanzer.1627:

I’m more of a condition guy anyway, but does this remain true even if you are using a build that strongly emphasizes critical hits i.e. (i.e. Practiced Tolerance, Sundering Strikes, Invigorating Precision, No Quarter) and using on-crit proc effects?

I’ve always held that Assassin’s is simply more specialized than Berserker’s – Berserker’s is pretty much always good but Assassin’s synergizes well with certain builds.

Critical hits to proc conditions? Then your main dps would be from conditions and as such you would want condition/precision/x where x is power in pve (i.e. sinister gear) or toughness in wvw (i.e. rabid).

Assassin’s still relies on power (and ferocity) for its dps and crit caps at 100% (though in PvE some bosses can lower your precision so you need more than 100%). As such, if you are going for a power build, for thieves, zerker is still superior. Condi builds see my line above.

A Critical Strikes build in PvE should run enough Assassin gear to hit 100% critical chance – between Flawless Strike, Ferocious Strikes, and the ferocity from No Quarter and Practiced Tolerance, the benefits of additional crits are high enough that you really want to make sure you crit all the time.

You’d want around 20% Assassin gear if you want to make sure you don’t waste any precision while under the effects of a banner plus Signet of Agility – even more if both of those aren’t up.

Assassin’s is greater scaling than berserker at low critrate, berserker is greater scaling than assassin’s at high critrate. It’s a little nifty thing called ‘diminishing returns’.

Reflect uses reflector’s precision and ferocity, but source’s power. Normal damage uses all three of your stats. Uncrittable targets (the number of which has reduced recently) uses only power.

Given the traits available to thieves that buff critrate however, berserker works better for thieves. Crit-deficient classes like engineers and mesmers use a mix of berserker and assassin – the exact maths behind where the breakpoint occurs is complicated, and the last time I posted it nobody understood it anyway, so forget it.

Just use berserker on your thief.

Assassin due to maximum access of dps.

I prefer assassins. We can really load up on the ferocity on the CS line and not really sacrifice much in the way of power in so doing. I like that ferocity crit bonus kicking in as often as possible.

Why not just mix half Assassin/Beserker? Or would they negate each other and water down your total stats? also when you mention gear, are we talking only armor but also jewelry and weapons?

Oh yea, and thats half the battle. now figure out what runes you want.

After spending some time scrutinizing it, I actually think Assassin, or at least a mix of Berserker/Assassin may actually be better if you have a CS build and you aren’t routinely hitting the crit cap through outside buffs (which means the bonuses are wasted.)

Will always advocate taking assassins armor and weapons, mixed with zerker trinkets, if you are full glass.

- Precision from food and sigil stacks do not affect the invigorating precision traits in crit strikes. The most logical thing is to build precision into your base stats.
- If you are full glass, missing a single crit is a huge loss of damage. Failing to crit a backstab can mean a lost fight.
- Scholar runes and the no quarter trait really boost ferocity – meaning you need to crit for the damage increase. (On a side note, I think crit strikes has made pack runes obsolete on particular builds)

Terra.8571:

The only class where assassin’s has been shown to better than berserker’s is mesmers.

And engineer.

There was this very usefull table that could help you decide.

It’s not uptodate, though it could give you an idea.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2vjoef/balancing_powerprecisionferocity_based_on_ep/

i use assassins gear with zerk trinkets.

with the CS line and food/wvw buffs i roll 3k power 83% base crit (7 from side behind + 5 from when im above 90% hp), and 240% crit dmg.