Guild Wars 2

Hey folks,

I’ve gotten several characters to 80 and really haven’t focused on any one in particular. I’ve never gotten karma gear, used my badges, and things of that nature primarily because I haven’t found a class I truly like. I’m not sure my Warrior is the class for me either, but I figure the Warrior is probably the most useful PvE character of my 80’s and also the more fun class overall. So short of making a Thief, I’ve decided to focus my efforts on my Warrior.

The problem is I don’t have much karma (200k) or badges because I honestly don’t enjoy the dungeons all that much. I only run the daily fractal, and spend a great deal of my time in WvW.

Is there a guide out there that suggests how to spend my badges, karma, laurels, etc on gear efficiently with as little waste as possible? If my main goal is DPS, which pieces should be berserkers and which should be knights for example.

What changes if I plan to go with a healing shouts build?

As far as weapons go, I use GS/Hammer and swap out the rifle and sword/horn combos when needed for support. Have only been playing about a month or so.

If your main goal is DPS, why would there be knights?
A mixture is for min/max (to maximize stats overall).

If you have several characters at 80, you should have some gold, around 40 I’m guessing.

A great way to start is Full Knight Armor and Full Berserker Trinkets w/ Ruby.
Upgrade the berserker into ascended pieces slowly. Transition out of Full Knight into Berserker as you feel more comfortable with dungeons.

Only reason to use karma is if you don’t have enough money or want certain skins.

GS/Hammer is great for dungeons. Nice to have some emergency CC.
I’m testing out off-hand horn right now, so I’ll update you later on.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want to add knights stats, start at the bottom of the list and work up.

If you want to dps, I suggest your gear be berserkser. Don’t waste time and resources “learning” how to play with knights. If you are going to end up in berserkers, go full berserkers at the start. Once you have a definite trait setup and weapon choices, you will have a better idea of if it is really necessary to put on a couple knight pieces.

Oh I don’t have much money, no. I don’t sell the items and I have been using a lot of gold for crafting and such. I have about 10 gold to my name. This is why the karma gear is so important for me. Since it has the same stats I figured I would use the karma first and fall back on other options after.

Now as for why knights and berserkers, it’s because I’m trying to maximize the effectiveness of the character because at some point having more crit chance isn’t going to benefit me so full berserkers stops being of value over gear without precision.

Veritas.6071:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want to add knights stats, start at the bottom of the list and work up.

If you want to dps, I suggest your gear be berserkser. Don’t waste time and resources “learning” how to play with knights. If you are going to end up in berserkers, go full berserkers at the start. Once you have a definite trait setup and weapon choices, you will have a better idea of if it is really necessary to put on a couple knight pieces.

Why would you say that?
I have both Berserker and Knight, and honestly, I love going for Knight’s just for the hell of it sometimes. It’s only 300 less power but 2x the damage mitigation = sexy.

It’s not necessarily learning either. My computer is godly, but my internet is terrible atm because I’m switching. If you lag a bit, the knight’s really saves you butt. To be completely honest, only the top 1% of the people that use full berserker are utilizing it to 100% efficiency. Most people will be dodging more often.

Atherakhia.4086:

Oh I don’t have much money, no. I don’t sell the items and I have been using a lot of gold for crafting and such. I have about 10 gold to my name. This is why the karma gear is so important for me. Since it has the same stats I figured I would use the karma first and fall back on other options after.

Now as for why knights and berserkers, it’s because I’m trying to maximize the effectiveness of the character because at some point having more crit chance isn’t going to benefit me so full berserkers stops being of value over gear without precision.

Full Knight armor with Berserker Trinket (not all ascended yet) and I can maintain 82% crit with fury. That’s more than enough crit chance
I think you found your answer.
Adding more berserker will give you crit damage, but I just go Full Knight. It’s great to get that little extra umph, but I don’t think it makes that much of a difference unless you’re at a level where every single point makes you that much better (pros…)

Again, I have to stress the fact that Toughness = Aggro.

If DPS is your goal, you don’t want anything but your DPS adding to your aggro.

Oglaf.1074:

Again, I have to stress the fact that Toughness = Aggro.

If DPS is your goal, you don’t want anything but your DPS adding to your aggro.

From my tests toughness doesn’t give much aggro until 2800ish armor.
Even on my Guardian I rarely get the aggro even though he’s sitting on 2764 armor.

I say go Knight armor+Zerk trinkets like Cook said, it’s a good setup to start with.
I would suggest something like this.

It is all relative to what the other people are wearing. If you wear Toughness and the other people in your party aren’t (which is a likely scenario, especially with Light Professions in the group) you are going to take most of the heat.

Oglaf.1074:

It is all relative to what the other people are wearing. If you wear Toughness and the other people in your party aren’t (which is a likely scenario, especially with Light Professions in the group) you are going to take most of the heat.

Again in-game tests say differently to me.
I have teamed up with clothies while on 2700+ armor and never actually ended up being an aggro magnet.

We don’t know for sure how the formula works, we can only test and see the results.

Actually the Wiki is pretty clear on it. Either you’re lying, or the clothies were bunker and didn’t tell you.

And in PvP, is Knights also good? Toughness over vitality for a warrior because their healthpool is so much larger than the other classes?

I’ve seen in other threads people suggesting things like healing power on weapons and such to get a minimum of +1000 healing power and such? Is this solely for shout builds?

Oglaf.1074:

Actually the Wiki is pretty clear on it. Either you’re lying, or the clothies were bunker and didn’t tell you.

Wiki “pretty clear”? Not remotely on that subject.
It only says toughness is one of the many factors that dictate aggro, but it does not state how much toughness is will get you aggro, how important it is against other factors or anything.
It also says damage dealt is a factor so we should be an aggro magnet, but that also doesn’t happen.

In-game tests evidence and they’ve never pointed that some armor automatically makes you into an aggro magnet.

Atherakhia.4086:

And in PvP, is Knights also good? Toughness over vitality for a warrior because their healthpool is so much larger than the other classes?

I’ve seen in other threads people suggesting things like healing power on weapons and such to get a minimum of +1000 healing power and such? Is this solely for shout builds?

Check Nyspar’s videos, he’s running mostly Knight+Zerk and he does pretty good in PvP.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Oglaf.1074:

Actually the Wiki is pretty clear on it. Either you’re lying, or the clothies were bunker and didn’t tell you.

Wiki “pretty clear”? Not remotely on that subject.
It only says toughness is one of the many factors that dictate aggro, but it does not state how much toughness is will get you aggro, how important it is against other factors or anything.
It also says damage dealt is a factor so we should be an aggro magnet, but that also doesn’t happen.

In-game tests evidence and they’ve never pointed that some armor automatically makes you into an aggro magnet.

There is no “magical number” of Toughness makes you aggro; all that matter is that you have the highest Toughness around. Just like how there is no “magical number” of damage per second that makes you aggro; as long as you have the highest damage per second around you will move up on the mob’s aggro list.

Oglaf.1074:

There is no “magical number” of Toughness makes you aggro; all that matter is that you have the highest Toughness around. Just like how there is no “magical number” of damage per second that makes you aggro; as long as you have the highest damage per second around you will move up on the mob’s aggro list.

That’s not what the wiki states nor what happens in the game.

Feel free to join my frac team tonight, I’ll run a 2700 armor build while other guildies will be squishies and you’ll see I barely get any more aggro than any other member.
In game tests squash any theory, 2700 armor does not get aggro period.

That is exactly what happens in the game.

CookMETEnder.7582:

Veritas.6071:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want to add knights stats, start at the bottom of the list and work up.

If you want to dps, I suggest your gear be berserkser. Don’t waste time and resources “learning” how to play with knights. If you are going to end up in berserkers, go full berserkers at the start. Once you have a definite trait setup and weapon choices, you will have a better idea of if it is really necessary to put on a couple knight pieces.

Why would you say that?
I have both Berserker and Knight, and honestly, I love going for Knight’s just for the hell of it sometimes. It’s only 300 less power but 2x the damage mitigation = sexy.

It’s not necessarily learning either. My computer is godly, but my internet is terrible atm because I’m switching. If you lag a bit, the knight’s really saves you butt. To be completely honest, only the top 1% of the people that use full berserker are utilizing it to 100% efficiency. Most people will be dodging more often.

Atherakhia.4086:

Oh I don’t have much money, no. I don’t sell the items and I have been using a lot of gold for crafting and such. I have about 10 gold to my name. This is why the karma gear is so important for me. Since it has the same stats I figured I would use the karma first and fall back on other options after.

Now as for why knights and berserkers, it’s because I’m trying to maximize the effectiveness of the character because at some point having more crit chance isn’t going to benefit me so full berserkers stops being of value over gear without precision.

Full Knight armor with Berserker Trinket (not all ascended yet) and I can maintain 82% crit with fury. That’s more than enough crit chance
I think you found your answer.
Adding more berserker will give you crit damage, but I just go Full Knight. It’s great to get that little extra umph, but I don’t think it makes that much of a difference unless you’re at a level where every single point makes you that much better (pros…)

Because for someone like me who is running a crit modifier of 2.0 and an 80% crit chance/100% under fury, it isn’t 300 power. It is 600; per swing. That isn’t even mentioning the damage you are losing from a lower crit modifier. Defensive stats are not multiplicative in their relationship. They are linear. Direct damage related stats, however, multiply one another.

Just to be clear, I don’t run a full glass cannon build. I have defensive runes and some defensive traits, but I started as 100% full glass cannon. I played as long as I could with that setup, but I began to notice there were plenty of fights where my damage was overkill and there were fights I was losing because I lacked a bit of sustain. Taking into account my experiences, that the OP wants to be dps, and that he has limited resources, I gave my suggestion that he start on the high end and throttle back until he is comfortable, not start on the low end and throttle up. I’ve never run a knights mix, but I don’t know any dps mixers who have more knights than berserkers. Odds are, he will have to make fewer gear changes from berserker to knight than knight to berserker. It may not play out that way, but my logic is sound, I provided him a link to make the most informed gearing decisions, and I’m giving him the advice I consider to be best. That’s why I say that.

Also, everything I say is based on fighting players, not mobs. In PvE, I just play however I want and am not concerned with min/maxing because it’s just PvE.

hi athe,

my context will be in a PUG where you’re the only melee.

with full berserk, your survivability is low and there is still some chance mobs will concentrate on you till death after you’ve dealt your ridiculous dmg.

when you bring toughness, mobs will also love you till death while you live somewhat longer.

my suggestion then is to take the minimum amount of toughness gear till it enables two things on the field:

1. sustain extra incidental hits without being downed.

2. lose aggro whenever you want (oh yes!) , which i think is a small form of control as you lead and disengage. since the aggro variable is mixed, this is possible.

with that in mind, there is two options for gear IMO. berserk armor / cavalier trinkets and knights armor / berserk trinkets.

from my experience, you won’t want to take either full cavalier trinkets or full knights armor because that’s enough to get full aggro. you’ll mix them with berserk gear to get your minimum toughness achieving the former points ive made on incidental hits and losing aggro.

the most difference between the two options is lesser precision or lesser critical dmg, up to your preference.

i feel thats enough for an average warrior. hope that helps!

Berserker gloves/shoulders/boots with helmet/chest/leggings of your choice gives you the most Crit Damage with the least sacrifice of other stats.

Oglaf, would you then suggest helmet, chest, and legs in Knights? Or are you more of the mind to go with full berserkers? And I presume the berserker rings, amulets, and trinkets everyone agrees with? Those are the more pressing things since I’m short on laurels and don’t run fractals too often.

The rest of the pieces are indeed Knight’s, with Ruby (Berserker’s) accessories. Berserker’s weapons too, except my Shield which is also Knight’s.

If you are going ascended, you should get berserker trinkets. There is no Knight trinket/Berserker jewel option and losing the jewel slot berserker stats is never a good idea.

If you really want knights, start with helm and legs. Then coat next.

Oglaf.1074:

That is exactly what happens in the game.

If you’re going to speculate something provide proofs for it; you make the claim, you prove it or it isn’t true.
I have a whole 400 man guild who witnessed the opposite along with exhaustive personal evidence so unless you provide any fact I’ll have to stick with in-game reality.

You make the claim that there is some mystical magic number at work here.

The burden of proof rests on your shoulders.

Veritas.6071:

CookMETEnder.7582:

Veritas.6071:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want to add knights stats, start at the bottom of the list and work up.

If you want to dps, I suggest your gear be berserkser. Don’t waste time and resources “learning” how to play with knights. If you are going to end up in berserkers, go full berserkers at the start. Once you have a definite trait setup and weapon choices, you will have a better idea of if it is really necessary to put on a couple knight pieces.

Why would you say that?
I have both Berserker and Knight, and honestly, I love going for Knight’s just for the hell of it sometimes. It’s only 300 less power but 2x the damage mitigation = sexy.

It’s not necessarily learning either. My computer is godly, but my internet is terrible atm because I’m switching. If you lag a bit, the knight’s really saves you butt. To be completely honest, only the top 1% of the people that use full berserker are utilizing it to 100% efficiency. Most people will be dodging more often.

Atherakhia.4086:

Oh I don’t have much money, no. I don’t sell the items and I have been using a lot of gold for crafting and such. I have about 10 gold to my name. This is why the karma gear is so important for me. Since it has the same stats I figured I would use the karma first and fall back on other options after.

Now as for why knights and berserkers, it’s because I’m trying to maximize the effectiveness of the character because at some point having more crit chance isn’t going to benefit me so full berserkers stops being of value over gear without precision.

Full Knight armor with Berserker Trinket (not all ascended yet) and I can maintain 82% crit with fury. That’s more than enough crit chance
I think you found your answer.
Adding more berserker will give you crit damage, but I just go Full Knight. It’s great to get that little extra umph, but I don’t think it makes that much of a difference unless you’re at a level where every single point makes you that much better (pros…)

Because for someone like me who is running a crit modifier of 2.0 and an 80% crit chance/100% under fury, it isn’t 300 power. It is 600; per swing. That isn’t even mentioning the damage you are losing from a lower crit modifier. Defensive stats are not multiplicative in their relationship. They are linear. Direct damage related stats, however, multiply one another.

Just to be clear, I don’t run a full glass cannon build. I have defensive runes and some defensive traits, but I started as 100% full glass cannon. I played as long as I could with that setup, but I began to notice there were plenty of fights where my damage was overkill and there were fights I was losing because I lacked a bit of sustain. Taking into account my experiences, that the OP wants to be dps, and that he has limited resources, I gave my suggestion that he start on the high end and throttle back until he is comfortable, not start on the low end and throttle up. I’ve never run a knights mix, but I don’t know any dps mixers who have more knights than berserkers. Odds are, he will have to make fewer gear changes from berserker to knight than knight to berserker. It may not play out that way, but my logic is sound, I provided him a link to make the most informed gearing decisions, and I’m giving him the advice I consider to be best. That’s why I say that.

Also, everything I say is based on fighting players, not mobs. In PvE, I just play however I want and am not concerned with min/maxing because it’s just PvE.

80%/100% crit chance?
Can you link me your build?
And is this the non-glass build that you are using that is hitting these crit rates, or are you just being hypothetical? Thanks!