Guild Wars 2

I don’t know what my problem is, but I am thinking I have too many characters. It’s the same song and dance as in other MMOs. I want to have everything, and I pay for it by getting tangled up like a cat tying itself up with yarn while jumping around in circles. It could also be because I don’t fully comprehend statistics in this game, and how important they are, and how much is enough. But whatever it is, it has left me with 5 level 80 characters, and not knowing what to do with anything of them. Regardless, I like my thief. And I want to make him work. And for him, I crafted my first set of exotics, Berserker’s armor and weapons. I have not crafted my jewelry yet, but I am wearing rare Knight’s/Emerald jewels for the toughness. I have found that while running around in Cursed Shore, no toughness means going down in 2 or 3 hits. I really don’t know how these glass cannon types do it.

Well, what I’m trying to say is, I have comfortably fallen into a cookie cutter build for sword/pistol. A critical hit/damage build with good survivability. What I am left wondering is, how am I supposed to do PvE and WvW with one build/gear set? And also, as I am running around in cursed shore today, a rather attractive white-haired lady thief with green daggers comes up besides me and 2-shots practically everything. It’s amazing to me. I see their health bar, then I don’t see it, just as quickly. And I think to myself, “What the kitten!?” How did she do that? I’m in the wrong build, I think. But I am too stupid to know how anyone does this. And gear is too expensive to make. I can’t afford to make anymore mistakes. What do I do? :-(

jwburks.9735:

I really don’t know how these glass cannon types do it.

When you kill enemies quickly, you’re reducing how much damage is sent your way. A zombie who’s only alive for 10 seconds can’t deal as much damage as one that’s alive for 20 seconds.

Compressing your kill time also makes it easier to get value out of active defense. Skills like Smoke Screen and Caltrops are much more potent when you can accomplish something before their duration runs out.

I’m still on Sword/Pistol, because it’s got ridiculous PvE power and tons of utility in WvW. I trait for massive crits but focus my trait perks on initiative and endurance, so I can actually apply them.

It’s not just the traits that baffle me. I think the gear is the biggest mystery for me. Number crunching. Does anyone actually know for certain, what does what? For instance, how much Precision = 1% critical chance? How much Toughness is enough? That sort of thing.

ASP has a good point OP.

Also I believe you’re over thinking and not seeing the big picture of a build. Number crunching is good only once you have the basic concept of what you’re trying to do. You’re going to want to obviously increase the stats that are most important to you. If you’re going for a crit build then increase precision and critical hit damage. Find anything that enhances these stats (traits, armor, runes, sigils) and add to them. Once you’ve done this you’ll get to a point where you’ll understand what you need more of and less of. The best way to do this cheaply is to experiment in the PvP area where everything is free and maxed out.

Vile got it right, that is the way to create your character and max it (until a nerf slaps you in the face).

I stressed about gear when I hit 80. “What if I do these three pieces Knight’s?” “What if I mix in some Valkyrie?” &c. &c. Then someone reminded me that you just don’t get that much survivability from splashing in these bits. And the math really does favor maxing out power + crit chance + crit damage as much as is feasible.

So I just went full Zerk. And it was brilliant; put up Black Powder once and most things are dead before they can get a good swing at you. If I weren’t putting points into Acrobatics, I might change my gear a bit to get slightly more Vitality. But Acrobatics is soooo good that I’m unlikely to ever ignore it completely.

So, at least in my experience…
How much hp is enough? 13-14k is sufficient.
How much Toughness is enough? Whatever you start with.
Dodge, stun-break, and break immobilize, because you’re going to be taking way more damage than even the tankiest build can handle otherwise.

In dungeons and WvW, knowing when to use Withdraw is worth more than 10k extra hit points.

jwburks.9735:

It’s not just the traits that baffle me. I think the gear is the biggest mystery for me. Number crunching. Does anyone actually know for certain, what does what? For instance, how much Precision = 1% critical chance? How much Toughness is enough? That sort of thing.

Try reading the wiki :

• Power/Toughness
• Precision
  The wiki is your friend, and will solve all of these questions for you.

I’m feeling nice, though, so here it is in brief.

21 precision = 1% crit chance at level 80.

The formula for direct damage (condition damage is different) you take is:

[Enemy power] x [Enemy weapon strength] x [Skill coefficient] / [Your armor]

The Skill coefficient is the number that determines how much damage a skill does. Backstab has a big skill coefficient, Double Strike has a low one. Armor is calculated by adding your toughness and the armor you get from gear.

This means a couple of things. First off, increasing your power by 10% will increase your damage by 10%. Power scaling is that simple. So if you have 1200 power and you’re adding 50, type “50/1200” into Google and you’ll see that you’re getting 4.2% more power.

Toughness is similar. To find out how much a certain amount of toughness will help you, calculate your armor before and after. Then use this formula:

1 – ([Old armor]/[New armor])

That will tell you how much difference that toughness makes. So if you have 1200 armor right now, and you’re getting 50 toughness, then you’ll take 4% less damage after adding that toughness.

Toughness will roughly cancel out an equivalent amount of power. It’s not exact, but adding 50 toughness will usually cancel out 40-60 power’s worth of damage.

Also keep in mind that condition damage scales differently. Just read that wiki article, because each condition scales separately.

Hope that all helps a bit.

It does help a bit. The last time I read the wiki was back before head start, and there was no formula for precision. I guess I had better read it all again if it’s been updated.

And ASP, I think I have the same build as you. I have 30 in Critical Strikes, 30 in Acrobatics, and 10 in Shadow Arts for Master of Deception. I’m a fan of Shadow Refuge. I’ve been running Sword/Pistol and Short Bow for a while now. But you know, I used to run around in pure condition gear, dropping caltrops and spamming Death Blossom. But… 2 or 3 hits, and I would go down in Orr.