Hi, I’ve been running this build in WvW for the last couple of weeks with some success and wanted some feedback on it.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmCOncS6E/5Ex2jeKUe69osj1sdF4KA-TsAg0CnImRNjbGzMyZszMQYZxsAA
The idea of the build was to have a combination of high sustained damage and a variety of interrupts, with a lot of positioning ability.
Taking Runes of the Centaur with the minor trait Expeditious Dodger allows permanent swiftness uptime, with an extra 165 power. Because of the wealth of dazes/stuns that you can access with this build I took superior sigil of paralysation to get the most out of their duration. Superior Sigil of Force I took as the second sigil just to compound damage but that is interchangeable depending on preference.
I originally used scorpion wire instead of signet of agility to take advantage of the new 20secs cooldown and 1200 range, but the skill still feels too clunky and unreliable to be used effectively in 1vX fights.
The focus of the damage comes from auto attack, with pistol whip for burst. With the combination of First Strikes (10% extra damage when initiative is over 6), Lead Attacks (increase damage by 1% per initiative) and Executioner (20% extra damage when target is below 50% health), it’s possible to get up to 45% extra damage on your sword auto attacks.
This seems HUGE on paper, but I’ve found with the lack of stealth abilities, it’s tempting to use a lot of abilities in succession and run low on initiative quickly. To help with this I took the Signet Use trait to have both signets restore 2 initiative each on 24 second cool downs.
There is a LOT of dodge uptime, with both steal and withdraw giving vigor, and signet of agility giving the burst endurance return if you’re caught short.
With the recent buff to blindness, Black Powder is now particularly effective at fighting melee characters, and useful for countering D/x thieves trying to backstab you.
Having steal on a 22 second cool down, ripping boons, giving vigor AND stunning enemies at 1500 range is incredibly powerful, especially for opening. Having shadow step, infiltrators signet and infiltrators strike allows you to back off as necessary and reengage quickly, and combining pistol whip with Infilitrators signet, steal or shadow step means that you can effectively CC on demand, and do burst damage at the same time.
Also having essentially the ability to cover 2000-2500 range in 1-2 seconds allows you to really get the jump on someone and lock them down before they can react.
I’ll be putting up a video soon when I get enough footage, would like some discussion as to whether you guys think it sounds effective or if there are things to be chaned/improved.