Guild Wars 2

Hello, I haven’t seen a build going in this far in this direction before, so I thought I would share it. I’m not saying it’s amazing or that I’m that great with it, but I thought it had some nice synergy and had potential to be good.

Link to build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWWn8lClOh9OBGOBkmiFqiyLE+gBoLCCgGYO77+xH-TJBHABMVGAgLBQ67PMwTAAA

Overview
This build is all about bounding and vaulting repeatedly to land big critical hits. It relies on Runes of the Daredevil and Sigils of Intelligence to critically hit. It is designed to have lots of endurance and initiative regeneration to increase the amount of bounds and vaults. Its survivability comes from high vitality, evading, and escape utilities.

Equipment
Weapons: Staff / Staff
Two of the same weapons makes it possible to use on-swap sigils and on-swap traits that aid in bounding and vaulting. There are other skills on the weapon set, but this build is mostly about spamming Vault, which hits really hard while evading. Other than Vault, use the auto attack when you are conserving initiative and endurance, and use Debilitating Arc (#3) to break immobilize.

Amulet: Valkyrie
We don’t need precision because we have guaranteed critical hits through sigils and runes. Valkyrie gives as much power and ferocity as Berserker’s amulet but with a lot of vitality as well.

Runes: Daredevil
Power and toughness are good, but these runes are taken for the ability to have a guaranteed critical hit after dodging. This makes the Bound, Vault, Bound, Vault, etc. combo chain always have critical hits on Vaults.

Sigils: Energy and Intelligence on both weapons
Swapping between staves every ten seconds provides extra endurance as well as three guaranteed critical hits (as well as three initiative from trait Quick Pockets).

Utility skills
Damage comes from weapons, so utility skills are mostly about survivability

Channeled Vigor: Regenerates endurance as well as providing a nice heal on a low cool down. Use it early to keep yourself topped off. It will come off cool down again quickly.
Shadowstep: Stun break, teleport, bulk condition clear. I use it most frequently as a stun break and teleport out of heavy AOE like Dragon’s Maw or Gravity Well.
Roll for Intiative: Stun break, immobilize break, initiative regeneration, distance creator. I mostly use it for extra initiative in order to be more offensive and land another Vault. You can also use it for the immobilize break, but I would use Debilitating Arc (staff #3) first.
Signet of Agility: Endurance regeneration, condition clear. The passive precision isn’t really useful, so feel free to use this actively. Either use it when you have a heavy damaging condition stack or when you want extra endurance.
Impact Strike: Interrupt, quick finisher. Timing this to end the chain when the enemy goes down is very powerful for a fast stomp. It’s also better than a regular stomp in some downed state situations because the stun and launch prevent some defensive downed state skills. I wouldn’t use it if you have a safe stomp and aren’t in a hurry though, because it’s not worth putting it on cool down. It can also be used to interrupt channeled abilities, like summoning supply or Mist Champions in Stronghold.

Traits
Acrobatics
Expeditious Dodger: swiftness on dodge
Vigorous Recovery: vigor on heal
Feline Grace: vigor on evade
Hard to Catch: automatic stun break and teleport
Endless Stamina: increased effectiveness of vigor
Assassin’s Reward: healing per initiative used

Trickery
Kleptomaniac: initiative on steal
Thrill of the Crime: fury, might, and swiftness on steal
Preparedness: increased maximum initiative
Bountiful Theft: vigor and boon rip on steal
Lead Attacks: increased damage per initiative, decreased steal recharge
Quick Pockets: initiative on weapon swap

Daredevil
Physical Supremacy: increased maximum endurance, access to physical skills
Brawler’s Tenacity: decreased recharge on physical skills, endurance on physical skills
Driven Fortitude: heal on evade
Escapist’s Absolution: condition clear on evade, which allows you to save utility skills for condition bursts
Endurance Thief: endurance on steal
Bounding Dodger: damage on dodge, bonus damage after dodging

Alternatives
Bandit’s Defense could be swapped for one of the utilities for more frequent stun break and the offensive knockdown
Upper Hand could be swapped for Assassin’s Reward for more initiative.
Trickster could be swapped for Bountiful Theft to help with condition clearing
Havoc Mastery could be swapped for Brawler’s Tenacity for increased damage
Staff Master could be swapped for Escapist’s Absolution for a little more offense if you have help clearing conditions.

Tips
Cleave on downed bodies: swap weapons for three guaranteed critical Vaults. Huge area damage.
Extra heal: swap weapons or use signet of agility before healing to increase the amount of health returned when using Channeled Vigor
Stealth: if you get stealth via leaping in a smoke field, Blinding Tuft stolen from Thieves, or from other means, open with a Hook Strike (staff #1 stealthed) for the knock down, swap staves for guaranteed critical hit, and then Vault.
Leap finishers: Bound and Vault are both leap finishers, so look for combo fields. Water fields, such as Healing Seed stolen from Rangers, provide lots of extra self healing. Smoke fields provide Stealth, which can be used for a knock down followed by a Vault.
Steal: Use it for swiftness at the beginning of the match sometimes. I usually save it for mid way through the fight as a gap closer or for extra initiative.
Bound: if I’m being offensive, I Bound toward the enemy. If the enemy is surrounded by AOE damage, I usually Bound away from them. Bound does a little bit of damage, but Vault is the main source.
Stomping: If you’re trying to time Impact Strike to skip the downed state completely, swap staves for guaranteed critical hits on all three strikes. Another important tip for Impact Strike is that the chain can be used on multiple targets. For example, you can start all three skills on an enemy and then teleport to a downed enemy right before the third skill lands. This technique is also useful for stopping revives. Use the stun and the launch on someone reviving, and then stomp the downed enemy. Other than Impact Strike, Shadowstep and Steal can also be used to help with stomping.

I would use Don’t Stop instead of Upper hand because of 3sec Int CD on Upper hand (we probabily can only get 3-4 points of initiative on a fight)

Pain Response instead of Vigorous Recovery to get cond cleanse that we don’t even need to activate for more gorgonzola survivability agains cond builds. (probabily have enough vigor just with feline grace+bountful theft?)

Otherwise seem well rounded imo.

I swapped in Assassin’s Reward instead of Upper Hand actually, and I like that better. I don’t think the immobilize protection is needed with staff #3 breaking immobilize as well as Roll for Initiative. Assassin’s Reward provides a nice but small stream of healing through a fight. It’s also saved me while running away because Vault is a nice evade and leap, but it will also return some health, which helps you stay alive when you’re hanging on by a thread.

I swapped in Escapist’s Absolution for Staff Master. I needed more condition clearing.

I run this with S/P on a weapon set instead of full staff + bound.

Is there a “gold standard” build for staff DD PvE?
If so, is the DPS on this Staff / staff build competitive with that one?

Hannibal.5871:

Is there a “gold standard” build for staff DD PvE?
If so, is the DPS on this Staff / staff build competitive with that one?

I’m not sure, sorry. I haven’t done much PvE recently. I primarily play PvP. I still haven’t even unlocked all of the Daredevil skills and traits.

Just to update the topic a little bit, I’ve been playing this build for the last month, and I still think it’s pretty good. I’m almost to Ruby with mostly solo queueing. My biased opinion is that I’ve been doing a lot for my team and haven’t been holding my team back at all. I can win a lot of 1v1s while staying on point, I can hold off against multiple enemies for a while, I can do a lot of AOE damage without dying, and I can move around and escape pretty well.