Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow warriors.

I don’t post builds here very often, mostly because of my severe distaste of people (/intruders) wanting all the answers … without actually putting in any effort whatsoever into trying to figure things out for themselves. But a promise was made, and this is why as an end of year “present” to my fellow warriors, I am giving out my current condi hybrid recipe.

This is no theorycraftage. This is a real PvX build I’ve been using and refining for a long time for general PvX/WvW usage. I am extremely satisfied with it, and i’ve decided to put down the time and energy to elaborate a little bit on it and to talk about some of the choices associated with it. This is what i am using as of right now, down to the leek&poultry ( since lemongrass chicken is too rich for my taste )

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejkOxwtQ+OMxBEMDNsKOPSipoJ0HsDA-jEDBoewYhAoiQIMJjqQIjwAmEBK5rIas12FRjVVbIqqbYKXwyAsMGA-w

This is a build that uses celestial armor. While the debate has raged on about celes armor for warriors, my opinion is that celes armor is key to pushing the limits of condi/crit builds. It’s a little bit like rabid armor + zerkback, only better overall. This is also a great way to use some of the charged quartz you’ve had squirreled away for a while ( or gotten off xmas presents before anet realised what they had done ).

On bowtype : Post patch I ran many tests with the changes to combushot, and the rabid bow came out slightly on top of the celestial bow and way superior to the pure zerkbow. Earthsigil for steady pressure since sigil of fire lost a little bit due to less “ticks” per combushot. Altho I will say that celesbow with sigil of fire did give it a serious run for it’s money.

On antitoxin : I’ll be honest …at first glance it does look meh. Until I realised that runes of the antitoxin is pretty much the melandru’s of the condition damage crowd. With the passive “autocleanse” from the runes +food+dogged and easely available burst cleanse ( via cleansing ire/combushot and furysig for adrenaline control) you’ll be able to deal with what comes your way when it comes to conditions.

On last chance : It used to be pretty weak, but make no mistake about the new last chance : it is STRONG . In fact, i’m gonna go further and pretty much say that the new last chance completely changes 1h mainhand gameplay , pushing it to the next level. Having that “reliable” quickness at 50% makes landing final thrust so much easier, and allows you to change the tempo on people when they dont expect it, and do fabulous damage spikes. ( Catching a 70%hp mesmer with a shield bump+flurry (which quickens up as it progresses), following by a lightning final thrust and a few fastchops usually finishes off a fight rather quickly. Try it and be amazed. )

On offhand : My current build uses ascended assassin’s blade and a celestial shield which has given me amazing results (both from the extra “defenses” built into the celes shield and the nice little boost to bleeds). Prepatch I was running 10/25/20/0/15 with sword offhand and double welding, but the changes to defense 25 helped me regain some of the power " lost" in going full arms. If the axe5 whirl ever gets fixed ( and i’ve been told by a dev it finally got written up) then the offhand might change to axe. Don’t knock offhand sword however, as the block is very good versus ranged, and swd4 torment is amazing for target identification ( makes finding the real mesmer A LOT easier ).

On ascended celes armor : I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze on this one(esp for a +2ish per pieces to allstats). Exo celes is where it’s at, and it’s a lot easier to obtain.

hotswap … to a warhorn when not fighting to help maintain swift out of combat in wvw.

EDIT : latest version with bow + swd/axe is at the bottom, but here is the build calc linkie for latest version : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8XjMdUGaXI+dwJagkgC9onBhw1Aom1tFA-TlDFABPcQAQT9nAeQB2pJwMNC+pEEgDoAHaYE4CAgkSCHOCAWpc749HyTHAZAWGDA-w

Good stuff. I am going to take a closer look later. Definitely going to test out Last Chance later when I get home.

I really like shield but have a tough time giving up offhand sword in a condi build. Although I realize condi is only part of the package in this build.

Not a pve guy or crafter so don’t even know where to get exo celes gear except maybe Laurels? Which I am too cheap and undecided what to buy.

blueprints for each piece of celes armor + the inscription were available during the kite festival. There should still be some on the exchange, but they might be a little out of price at the moment. If you’re stuck you could always do a mix of zerker’s and rampager helm/gloves/boots, but it’s gonna be a more “zerkystyle” and less “celes-style” :P (meaning less defenses & a little rougher equipment balance )

Celes is better if you really go into it.

I run a celestial Geared build too, with Sword/x, and longbow. It adds good versitility, and allows you to change your playstyle without much hassle.

Try this build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAscTjkOxuxQ2OMxBE0DsoKEwLjxbJ0HmDA-jkCBIgCiEEAUFgUHQJQFRjtsuIasKZCy6FYqYJ1jATKAIWGB-w

You can change runes if it’s too op.

I’ve been running full celestials for a while now. Sword/Shield & Longbow, but I also keep a Greatsword, Rifle, and Mace on me to change depending on the situation. That’s mostly because I run a primarily defensive trait build with supplements to Power and Precision to even them out. 0/10/30/30/0, typically with retaliation trait and either shout heals or banner regen, depending on the group composition, mostly because I feel like all that Healing Power goes to waste otherwise :P. Extra bleed duration keeps my damage up there, and I can always swap it in condi-heavy groups. I run Assassin’s marks on my armor for the extra crit damage and the boost to precision to keep my crit chance up, and use Bloodlust sigil and the 150 power to all allies to keep my power up. It’s been pretty great, and I never feel like I need to regear for anything.

Manijin.3428:

mostly because I run a primarily defensive trait build with supplements to Power and Precision to even them out. 0/10/30/30/0, typically with retaliation trait and either shout heals or banner regen, depending on the group composition, mostly because I feel like all that Healing Power goes to waste otherwise

I used to be a big time tactics guy, and 0/0/20/30/20 with carrion armor and dire trinks worked for me really well for a long time. But every time I put on the old suit and getup and run that build fokitten it feels like I’m on training wheels.

I find what you’re doing interesting since I myself was concentrating more on the offensive condi/crit side of thing, while you’re going more a defensive regen/condi + retal way with it. do you run it with celes trinks or just settler/apotec stuff ?

The new spiked armor is actually good, with a guard buddy and some combos you can probably maintain 100% retal uptime with it. But once again, it all comes down to choices…

Why is everyone so desperate to make celestial look good when it clearly is not?

I’ve been experimenting a yet another iteration, this time flipping Blade Master for Furious Speed to have “no maintain” swiftness while fighting. It cuts the crit rate by 10% on the sword set, but higher maintained swiftness releases you from blowing your ragesig in a fight for the swift and wasting precious seconds of fury.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejkOxwtQ+OMxBEMDNsKOPSixrJ0HsDA-jEDBoewYhAoiQIMJjqQIjwAmEBK5rIas12FRjVVbIqqbYKXwyAsMGA-w

Omg Casey.5973:

Why is everyone so desperate to make celestial look good when it clearly is not?

For condi/pow/crit sword builds, it’s better overall than rabidarmor + zerkback, which was the closest equivalent. but with celestial, you grow all stats giving you a good mix and some extra defenses, which is always nice.

My aim was to get 100ish per tick bleeds and 1K average swordchops selfbuffed. I’ve done all those things, and depending on armor levels it get can up to 1.4-1.5K ish per chop on zerky thieves and mesmers and down to 700ish for kittened defensives and protobuffed cases ( altho in this case the conditions actually help mitigate with the " second layer" of condi damage).

If all you’re looking for is big numbers … well, i’m not twisting anybody’s arm here. Your zerksuit , your axe and greatsword await. It’s a matter of playstyle.

Omg Casey.5973:

Why is everyone so desperate to make celestial look good when it clearly is not?

It’s meh in PVE, it’s more for PVP/WvW. It’s great for hybrid builds, that use sword and longbow. With my builds going healing shouts no stat goes to waste. Easily critting for 1k each, and damaging conditions like bleeds and burns (torment if you’re dual sword) hurt pretty bad. I’ve been running a full Celestial set(trinkets and armor, runes of Sunless atm) and healing shouts. I’ve been having success in 1v1’s and 1v2-3. Food is flexible now, and I an go with something defensive and not hamper my damage., to scale my damage Superior Sigil of battle and easy access to might stacking(weakness of this is boon steal/strip) so it easily reaches 110+ ticks and 1k+ autos, not to mention Final thrust, rip, and arching arrow are no longer useless to me. If you’re a GS user or Axe, someting that doesn’t utlize the stat then yea it’s not as good, but still flexible for Sword and longbow based build…even rifle to a certain extent.

So once again, people wonder if they can have conditions and some impact power…. and this is most certainly it.

while in pve i’ve been favoring axe offhand ( for the permafury and the damaging whirl) swd/shield is still money for wvw for the stun and the life saving block it provides.

Happy hunting everyone.

I actually really enjoy the new spiked armor. It MAKES the set, imo. The combination of condition damage and power/prec/crit is okay, but against the right enemies (anything with multi-attacks), such as harpies, anything with a flurry ability, or those flamethrower flame-legion guys, the retaliation is just BRUTAL, you have the toughness to sit there and take it, and you’re dishing out moderate damage yourself the whole time.

I have been toying around with the current meta build using this gear instead of the standard zerkers, and can say I’ve been pretty pleased. I picked up an axe, and when you’re sitting on over 100% crit damage with a decent crit chance you can actually hit pretty hard and maintain a semblance of sustainable decent damage. I’m not getting anything like what a full zerker gets, but I range from 2/3 to 3/4 the damage, which is absolutely fine with me.

This matchup i’m gonna roll again with the spiked armor version ( instead of last chance) with the swift on crit trait and see how it goes. so far, the retal is like a 3rd layer of damage ( hits, condis, retal). No last chance means it’s back to the oldschool ways when it comes to landing those hits, but i guess it depends on playstyle.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejkOxwtQ+OMxBE0DNsKEwLjkY80HsDA-jEDBYhAoiQYjwIMJjqQIjwAmEBK5rIas12FRjVVbIqqbYKXwyAsMGA-w

After further gameplay, I see why I largely abandonned the spiked armor version…. while the 3rd layer of damage you get from retaliation is nice, it just doesn’t give you the versatility and the offense power you gain from last chance. It’s the difference between catching that annoying thief/mesmer/engy ONCE instead of many times.

Altho for a defense/regen oriented build, i can definitly see some potential with the new spiked armor.

So for general wuvwuv usage, the swift on crit gets the thumbs up.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejkOxwtQ+OMxBEMDNsKOPSixrJ0HsDA-jEDBoewYhAoiQIMJjqQIjwAmEBK5rIas12FRjVVbIqqbYKXwyAsMGA-w

Pve, go deepcuts/blademaster/last_stand all the way, maybe with axe offhand since the whirl gets 6K+ damage with this kind of getup and you gain permafury ( via axe4)

Post-patch, with axe5 fix, it’s back to doing the leaping firespin move for me. Thank you powerr for fixing this bug that’s been active for more than 6 months. (for details on axe5 fix, see https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/VIDEO-Anet-stole-the-pewpews/2608412)

changelog
~~~~~~~
Bow : Changed to celesbow with earth+fire
Offhand : Changed to celestial axe. I put the new sigil of torment because I like it as a “aoe cover” condition but doom can also work.
Backslot : Now celestial.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8XjMdUGaXI+dwJagkgC7onBnDgaOB0tFA-TVDFABop+TAPoA70E4nSQAOgCcohRgLAASKJc4IAYlytj3fIPkittenfQAIDwyYA-w

While the ferocity changes “shaved” about 10% raw damage from the sword swipes, overall with the double sigil on bow and the overall balance improvements means this build still came out a winner postpatch.

I don’t understand the point of “hybrid builds” with a warrior. While using a lowgbow we already have an insane condi pressure you don’t need this fail celestial gear to be hybrid.

And you will get demolished by either pure zerkers or pure condi spammers since your build won’t be able to handle any of them.

Kaga seems like chrisms came early for you

Here is a +1 from another hybrid warrior.
Would love to see how do you put that spin to win to use. any videos?

a t s e.9614:

I don’t understand the point of “hybrid builds” with a warrior. While using a lowgbow we already have an insane condi pressure you don’t need this fail celestial gear to be hybrid.

And you will get demolished by either pure zerkers or pure condi spammers since your build won’t be able to handle any of them.

Wow the negativity. You forget this isn’t theorycraftage. This is the real deal. and i’ve dealt with both.

You ask me why go hybrid? And to this I say “Why not ?” . Obviously you’re not gonna get trololzerk impact damage and fullon defensive dire kittened condis… that would be op. But by going hybrid, you strike a balance between the two extremes while still retaining impact power and respectable conditions. Pre-celes, this would be done with rabid armor + fullzerkback . With celes, you get that, but with so much more.

The build hits for 1K+ sword slices and bleeds for 100ish self buffed, final thrusts that go up to 7-8k ( that usually get speeded up via last chance),permaswift while fighting and is dangerous at all ranges. It’s also got autocleanse and burst cleanse.

The flexibility of hybrids is in the versatility it gives you : Someone wants to get close ? Stay at range. Someone wants you to stay far ? Get close. You apply pressure at all ranges, and you can flip the script on people to keep unpredictable. Conditions getting nullified? You still got the impact power. Protobuffed and high armor ? The condis help mitigate that.

Of course if you don’t want to try it, then your Greatsword , Axe and Zerk cool-aid awaits.

Newer version with double stability. You lose torment as an aoe cover condition, but get the quickness earlier in the spike, which is fine with me since the axe5 spin is what I want speeded up anyways.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8XjMdUGaXI+dwJagkgC9onBhw1Aom1tFA-TlDFABPcQAQT9nAeQB2pJwMNC+pEEgDoAHaYE4CAgkSCHOCAWpc749HyTHAZAWGDA-w

~~~CHANGELOG~~~
- Removed 1 from arms to put it into defenses, losing “last chance” for “last stand”
- Changed sigil on axe to sigil of rage to get the quickness on the initial spike ( and spin) instead of on 50% target hp.

I’ve been wanting to try this gear forever, but how to obtain it? I’m a casual WvW roamer who doesnt want to grind out dungeons or any kind od PVE content (well not for dozens of hours at least). I may be kitten d to craft to 400 if thats the way to go, prices on TP seem ridiculous?

Why celestial? Because biggest amount of stats. With a balanced build all stats add to your overall performance, the warrior has an awesome combination of hybrid weapons (sword/horn/longbow) and with the nerf to crit damage you can afford going a bit lighter on the defense.

Steelo.4597:

I’ve been wanting to try this gear forever, but how to obtain it?

Dear Steelo. Celestial armor is only available thru personal crafting, so you will need to have a guy with armorsmithing to 400 to get it done. Celestial armor is also " limited" by the availability of QUARTZ, since it takes you 25 quartz to make one charged quartz and you need 5 of those to make a weapon or armor piece. You can convert one charged per day @ any freestanding skillpoint. I used for a long time the priory tablet as my conversion spot since it was next to la.

You will need to buy the celestial sigil/insignia recipes from the bazaar npcs/tp, and then one recipe for each piece of armor you will make ( in your case, the 6 recipes for celestial draconic).

The good news is , with the reappearance of the bazaar next week , the recipes and the quartz that goes with it will become available in big quantities, so there’s your chance to really stock up. Don’t forget that at the base minimum you will need 3 full stacks of basic quartz to make a full celes armorset, and you may want to grab some more for alts and for the weapons, as the celesbow is quite impressive and i myself use celes shield and axe for my hybrid builds.

Hope this helps, and that you’ll enjoy this type of hybrid play.

Kaga I sometimes take ‘Signet of Might’ (over ther other sigs). Yeah it’s our “worst” signet but for this build I find it fits right in place. You already got enough toughness, stability, precision and cleanse. One can never have too much cleanse and doges nowadys so SOS can always help but power is the one stat that’s really lacking for you to reach the 2K power spot (almost) and be a ‘real’ zerker.

The main downside of this sig compared to the others is it’s utility. But a good timing on it can actually win u many battles. Hitting ‘Pin down’ when the enemy sure he is blocking is a game changer.
This mostly won’t help against thieves, necros, rangers and mez but all the other lot like there blocks:
Gaurds – obvious
Engis – that OP 16sec CD on gear shield – bye bye (off hand shield too)
Ele – that started flooding around a lot – Arcane shield trait of skill bar
And us warriors – mace, shield and OH sword

I’m only in the mist, give it a try in wvw and tell me how it works out, gl

P.S
Why antitoxin over hoelbrak?
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8XjMdUGaXI+dwJagkgC9onBhw1Aom1tFA-TlDFwAPOIAoV/JwDKwumAzaE8rEEwBUgjGGBXAAkKJccEAsqcLvOgW7PQGgl1A-w

I have a good news for you
You can easily get an ascended celestial armor set FOR FREE from Fractals.
Any armor box from fractals will have wupwup (ascended celestial) in it.
And the droprate is not so low (but don t play 1-10 OR 50 those level are imho broke as droprate…best is 31-40).

Now i ll ask.
I just got my war to 80…and i happen to have a full ascended box set (healers/and similar but as said it has wupwup also) of celestial :

Would you suggest this build to a newbye warrior?
Its my first heavy i Always used elementalist and mesmer.
What is this build good for?
i mostly solo roaming, zerg and some guild www but never go in small groups roaming.

Don t plan to use it in pve at all.

Eiland.1405:

P.S
Why antitoxin over hoelbrak?

Dear Eiland.

I must say that when i made the build originally i was looking to hit very specific " magic numbers" ( 100ish bleeds, 1K+ per swordchop) and antitoxin was the new “melandru’s of condition damage”, so i just rolled with it. Your version with hoelbrak + crystal (instead of sharpstone) is actually pretty good, and archieves an equivalent stat mix, so honestly the differences comes down to inches.

Hoelbrak is great at boosting and prolonging might, while antitoxin also gives you bonus might in the fights with the poison/torment 5stacks boost. I would call both versions pretty much equivalent to each other, altho antitoxin is experiencing a firesale atm ( 15s versus hoelbrak costs) so it might be better suited for the budget conscious user ( at least until market conditions change).

Sorry for the long reply but i wanted to test it in spvp before i pronounced myself on it, and after the testing was done the “feel” of the build was exactly the same, and that’s a good thing.

As for signet of might versus signet of fury : using might to break thru kittened block-durations is pretty innovative but I still prefer signet of fury to have that adrenaline control for adren/regen/cleanse/spike management.

If going hybrid is so good. how about a video to prove it?

BandAid.9720:

If going hybrid is so good. how about a video to prove it?

A video proves nothing. Some players are so good they could make a video not wearing any armor and still produce clips of them winning fights. Would that make a believer out of you and inspire you to “try their build”?

It’s all relative to that particular player. I know for myself going from full Dire to almost full Rampager improved my winning % in WvW …and especially against Thieves. So for me, Hybrid works well. For someone else ? …..who knows

So people have been asking what’s the new kaga celes. I’ll put up the spvp version…

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AggCqAOYBfw~

With healsig, balanced stance, dolyaks signet, signet of fury, signet of rage
CELES AMU, rune of the mad king

bow with leech sigil + fire sigil
swd/axe with blood sigil + rage sigil

Signet precision gives enough prec to be in the 50-70% crithit range, using signet of rage )with madrunes) means that your whole adrenaline bar gets filled(because of madking 6 ravens) and furious gets maxed, allowing you to jump in ( crit) and fastspin because rage runes ( recharging adren) for flurry + final thrust & another bow rotation

In pvx i would use hoelbrak/antitoxin/melandru + leek and poultry ( natually) for the autocleanse and I would modify the arms grandmaster to dualweld ( since you can play better with equipment to get enough condipow).