Guild Wars 2

Well I was just wondering how important crits are? Like, are you useless in PvP if you don’t crit? Because I tried crit build dual axes when I was a bit lower level and I found that I was realllllyyy squishy and really had no utility because I had to get all signets for the precision trait. And I quite like being tanky with points into the Vitality / Toughness traitline…

so, is the loss of utility and survivability worth the critical strikes? If not, I would prefer to stay as the build I am now.

High crit is only really needed if you’re building 1) a glass cannon, or 2) an ‘on-crit’ build.

Obviously you don’t like glass cannons. ‘On-crit’, for Warriors, is usually bleeds, which you’re not doing, right?

If you want to hit hard and stay in the fight, just build Power/Toughness/Vitality. Also, that signet build is pretty crappy in PvP, and in PvE after about level 60. You can get 50+% without it if you build right in PvP, and it’s even easier to build in PvE.

awesome! Glad to know I dont have to build something I don’t want to just to be viable in PvP!

Just like EVERY other game. It is all relative to your stats & effects. The higher the ‘crit rate’, the more valuable ‘power’ and ‘crit damage’ become. The higher the ‘power’ rating, the more valuable ‘crit rate’ and ‘crit damage’ become.

e.g.
- an Attack total of 2000 with 70% crit rate and +0% crit damage = 3400 average damage
- an Attack total of 2000 with 50% crit rate and +30% crit damage = 3300 average damage
- an Attack total of 3000 with 20% crit rate and +0% crit damage = 3600 average damage

If you are deep into the Tactics tree then you are likely getting +20-30% crit damage already from traits, so it becomes a good idea to have a good crit rate to make use of that stat.

It’s when you have miscellaneous effects like “33% chance on crit to bleed target” that things really get confusing. My personal opinion is that too many effects are based on proccing off crits, so it’s best to have at least a 30% unbuffed crit rate, then try to keep fury up at all times.

Qbert.4197:

e.g.
- an Attack total of 2000 with 70% crit rate and +0% crit damage = 3400 average damage
- an Attack total of 2000 with 50% crit rate and +30% crit damage = 3300 average damage
- an Attack total of 3000 with 20% crit rate and +0% crit damage = 3600 average damage

Base crit damage is 150%, so 2000 with 70% crit rate and +0% crit damage is 2700 average.

Mattidore.3482:

awesome! Glad to know I dont have to build something I don’t want to just to be viable in PvP!

Back on the GW2 Guru forums, there was a defensive build called Captain Hammer. I know that he’s got a Youtube account where he posts his PvP videos. His build was based around using a more defensive spec while wielding a Hammer. He used his control aspects and defensive capabilities to output the offensive burst classes. All things considered, it was considered a rather successful and viable PvP spec.

You can make many things work in PvP. Just figure out what the major problem will be, then come up with a way to deal with them.

Terhix.4801:

Base crit damage is 150%, so 2000 with 70% crit rate and +0% crit damage is 2700 average.

Good to know. Context of relativity still stands though, naturally.