Guild Wars 2

So a lot of people say to go marauder’s (partially) in WvW to get the bit of vitality so you don’t get OHK. Here is my question for you knowlegeable folks. Wouldn’t it be better, to instead go partially Valkyrie instead? That way your Power and Ferocity stats stay up and aren’t slightly lower to get the health. The downside is your Crit % takes a 20-25% decrease, but does this matter much? If you run Daredevil runes you are critting after every dodge. If you are running Shadow Arts, you crit after every stealth. If you run both, well you do both. Doesn’t that make up for it do you think?

On another note, what’s a good hp value to run with in WvW? I was thinking 17k, but not sure at all on that. I want to be able to not die in a second if I get jumped by a stealthed thief.

If you’re looking for 17k hp then you may as well go marauder anyway.

All Matters Fecal.9560:

If you’re looking for 17k hp then you may as well go marauder anyway.

Go back to sleep and come back in the morning

I do not think there a hard and fast rule. In one build, just as example, given I use DD runes in conjunction with sigil of intelligence, i have a low 25 percent crit rate base, the max power and ferocity you can get in a build using all valkyrie gear outside two pieces soldiers for a touch of toughness.

On the trinket side I have one marauders piece and the rest zerker.

I personally like around 16-17k health. It depends on what your’e trying to do (zerg/roam) but go less than that and I start worrying about condi pressure in long fights and wont stick around. Lower than 15k and I start to worry about OHKs. Any more than 18k health and its hard to full heal. That can be important against foes with procs when their enemy is below 50% hp(theif, war,etc.) For staff/ d/p build I run crusader weapons for the bit of toughness and healing power (legendary easy to swap stats) with marauder armor, and zerk trinkets. For D/P / Shortbow I run zerk weapons, marauder armor, and zerk trinkets, and personally like to go as glass as possible in traits/skills for fun (even assassin’s signet too just so I have one less out for a challenge).

For the runes and Shadow Arts, firstly I don’t think that 100% crit out of steath trait is ever worth it anymore. It used to be… back in the Yishis days, but for now I would rather pick something else personally. But what do i know i haven’t run SA in years. I see it as not optimal personally but run what you like man.
You are right about dare devil runes. They work really well. Better than I initially thought for pvp scenarios. I like them but personally prefer scholar with the crusader weapons and precision food/oil (and when I switch builds its already full glass). Daredevil runes make up for a fair amount of crit % if using staff/bound especially. I liked using them. You couldn’t go wrong. I like around 60-70% crit chance with scholar, and 50-60% with dare devil runes(these of course without adding fury).

Hope I could help in any way.

100% crit from stealth is on CS now, SA has the juicy Rending Shades now.

ich.7086:

100% crit from stealth is on CS now, SA has the juicy Rending Shades now.

I’m now having one of those back in my day moments. Thanks for clearing that up lol.

TehHobNob.4687:

ich.7086:

100% crit from stealth is on CS now, SA has the juicy Rending Shades now.

I’m now having one of those back in my day moments. Thanks for clearing that up lol.

Also now I feel like I have to say… about CS. I did play it for a while and enjoyed it. I had to look up the trait (hidden killer) to make sure I got my facts right this time lol. So when I played CS personally it was fairly recently. I few months ago I loved No Quarter with the rest of the CS line and flanking strikes/trickster in the trickery line. Unlimited fury was an idea I liked. That was a lot of fun to play so I never looked at hidden killer personally.

I also like the idea of invigorating precision in wvw because I like to run it with full zerg in solo open world pve. Haven’t really tried it yet though. Up to you guys. I do appreciate the call out tho. I don’t like posting outdated info.

As far as IP goes , were I taking staff and CS I would take IP over either of the other two traits as a matter of course especially in WvW or PVE. The healing is so very noticeable with a high crit rate given the cleave of the set added to the AOE damage output of vault.

You can avoid healing as a stat entirely in such a build and with just a tad better then minimum health and armor of around 2300 , keep your health near full.

All of these things have to be considered when playing with your stats and trying to find that sweet spot. Something like an IP or assassins reward can then help fuel a rune choice and alternate trait selection. As example I am not a fan of scholar runes unless there some form of healing other then the main heal in the build because the downtime of the bonus not worth it while at the same time something like GI out of acro can work quite well if you can keep your health high.

babazhook.6805:

As far as IP goes , were I taking staff and CS I would take IP over either of the other two traits as a matter of course especially in WvW or PVE. The healing is so very noticeable with a high crit rate given the cleave of the set added to the AOE damage output of vault.

You can avoid healing as a stat entirely in such a build and with just a tad better then minimum health and armor of around 2300 , keep your health near full.

All of these things have to be considered when playing with your stats and trying to find that sweet spot. Something like an IP or assassins reward can then help fuel a rune choice and alternate trait selection. As example I am not a fan of scholar runes unless there some form of healing other then the main heal in the build because the downtime of the bonus not worth it while at the same time something like GI out of acro can work quite well if you can keep your health high.

Well you found me out. I’m that guy who runs acro with staff for roaming/zerging XD. I completely agree with you on that if you run scholar you need some other form of healing. That’s the only way I’m running them.

Acro just lets you be sooo very aggressive with your gap-closers and attacks during a prolonged fight. I like Deadly arts and crit strikes for sure but with acro/scholar instead that dmg is somewhat brought back up (with trick and DD). The swiftness on dodge with bound is welcome too.

I’ve been running acro/trick/daredevil with staff and was thinking of trading trick for Crit, but the extra init just seems so useful and gives me more dodges/evades. Then it was suggested to me to use daredevil runes. You think crit+other rune combinations work better?

TehHobNob.4687:

ich.7086:

100% crit from stealth is on CS now, SA has the juicy Rending Shades now.

I’m now having one of those back in my day moments. Thanks for clearing that up lol.

I’m pretty sure HK has been in CS since before the game even launched o.o

Anyways, marauder is the optimal stat choice for a few reasons:

1.) It just has more stats. Yes, the raw number of stats gained on Marauder/HoT gear when you add everything together is more than the core game ones. It will always net you efficiency; it’s why you lose only 8% damage or so and gain an upwards of 50% more health.

2.) CS is a pretty terrible trait line – especially when considering HK. Daredevil when speccing damage does almost the same amount given its modifiers, while also providing a ton of utility, and Mug with EW in DA provides about the same gains you’ll see on a fight-to-fight basis in PvP environments while netting better burst and self-healing.

3.) Not being allowed to dip into more than three trait lines prevents taking a point or two in SE and ignoring most of DA, so CS is proven to be wasteful since it lacks utility and is only marginally better than DA for damage. Trickery and Daredevil for most builds are pretty much mandatory.

3.) Moreover about CS and HK, There really isn’t much of a purpose to using anything but Vault on a single-hit burst build (since it hits harder than backstab, AoE’s, evades, closes the gap, and costs less initiative than all similar abilities); damage power creep since HoT has AA chains in pretty much everything but P/P and S/P enabling faster damage/burst damage, too so the on-crit reliability for the big backstab and the likes isn’t really a thing anymore. Pressing 1 and saving initiative for utility/defense/Shadow Shot is just strictly better.

4.) Since AA’ing is so potent, the crit chance from Marauder gear is very important to maintain, as do so offsets any need for any use of the Crit Strikes line for PvP/WvW play; for Vault builds, Daredevil runes work fine since it dodges so often, anyways, and again, bursts harder than what Backstab can do.

5.) Things are tankier and passive, so fast-kills from high-power builds usually prove ineffective anyways. Most professions have some sort of passive burst-denial and most professions are very durable as well since they are also typically at-squishiest in marauder gear with either permanent protection/damage reduction of some kind and more baseline health.

6.) They put an ICD on stealth attacks even if they mis in any regard, which also disables AA use, and due to so much free defense, it makes backstab no longer worthwhile since it will rarely land, plus as mentioned the AA chain/s just do more/better damage outside of specialized builds.

So while you’re right in that Valkyrie gear does provide higher DPH potential, it’s ultimately overshadowed in next to every way by Marauder just based on how the game has changed.

DeceiverX.8361:

TehHobNob.4687:

ich.7086:

100% crit from stealth is on CS now, SA has the juicy Rending Shades now.

I’m now having one of those back in my day moments. Thanks for clearing that up lol.

I’m pretty sure HK has been in CS since before the game even launched o.o

Anyways, marauder is the optimal stat choice for a few reasons:

1.) It just has more stats. Yes, the raw number of stats gained on Marauder/HoT gear when you add everything together is more than the core game ones. It will always net you efficiency; it’s why you lose only 8% damage or so and gain an upwards of 50% more health.

2.) CS is a pretty terrible trait line – especially when considering HK. Daredevil when speccing damage does almost the same amount given its modifiers, while also providing a ton of utility, and Mug with EW in DA provides about the same gains you’ll see on a fight-to-fight basis in PvP environments while netting better burst and self-healing.

3.) Not being allowed to dip into more than three trait lines prevents taking a point or two in SE and ignoring most of DA, so CS is proven to be wasteful since it lacks utility and is only marginally better than DA for damage. Trickery and Daredevil for most builds are pretty much mandatory.

3.) Moreover about CS and HK, There really isn’t much of a purpose to using anything but Vault on a single-hit burst build (since it hits harder than backstab, AoE’s, evades, closes the gap, and costs less initiative than all similar abilities); damage power creep since HoT has AA chains in pretty much everything but P/P and S/P enabling faster damage/burst damage, too so the on-crit reliability for the big backstab and the likes isn’t really a thing anymore. Pressing 1 and saving initiative for utility/defense/Shadow Shot is just strictly better.

4.) Since AA’ing is so potent, the crit chance from Marauder gear is very important to maintain, as do so offsets any need for any use of the Crit Strikes line for PvP/WvW play; for Vault builds, Daredevil runes work fine since it dodges so often, anyways, and again, bursts harder than what Backstab can do.

5.) Things are tankier and passive, so fast-kills from high-power builds usually prove ineffective anyways. Most professions have some sort of passive burst-denial and most professions are very durable as well since they are also typically at-squishiest in marauder gear with either permanent protection/damage reduction of some kind and more baseline health.

6.) They put an ICD on stealth attacks even if they mis in any regard, which also disables AA use, and due to so much free defense, it makes backstab no longer worthwhile since it will rarely land, plus as mentioned the AA chain/s just do more/better damage outside of specialized builds.

So while you’re right in that Valkyrie gear does provide higher DPH potential, it’s ultimately overshadowed in next to every way by Marauder just based on how the game has changed.

This, right here in one post, is the type of post/opinion I was looking for. I hope to one day run into you, in a friendly way, so that you may teach me your ways.

Thanks! :-)

Something like this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsYVn8lClOhFmCmPB8PhFYCzLNcGaDzhwTYLULBEA2NA-TVDEABurPggHRAAHIg93foNNMPcEB8XtCDOACMp85/TAQiqqIlSIAVCuZYA4IEBRExMzMTnZyMlCQQdWA-w

Would you rather have a combined 3600 stat points or 3300 (WvW/PvE)?

Four stat gear has more total stat points by a good bit than three stat gear. This is the fundamental reason why Trailblazer/Marauder is chosen over Dire, Valk or Zerk.

There is no good hp value for thief …it will always be too low as we don’t have any passive defenses ..all is about stealth or evades ..in both cases if you get caught by cc it usually means bye bye ..start from waypoint.

So its rather how you feel ..with 17k you get comfort not to be one shot to oblivion ..other then that doesn’t really matter.

From other hand you just need out dps in 1v1 situations ..you can’t survive with the some dps against someone who has twice your hp ..moreover ..you need initial damage burst ..if enemy will survive your initial burst than better disengage and try again ..you will not stand against classes with good sustain ..no chance.

Hard choice ..be more like nuisance mosquito ..or like angry wasp – easier to clash but with more painful stings.

Just try both and choose whatever better suits you.